Posts Tagged ‘social media’
5 Social Media ‘No Nos’
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on February 2nd, 2012
When social media is done right it can add tremendous value and voice to your clients’ marketing plan. Unfortunately, there are still so many businesses that are missing the mark and solely using it as an extension of their brochure or sales pitch.
Here are five big mistakes still being made when businesses do social:
1. Being generic
Your posts need personality and your engagement. This doesn’t mean you should air all your dirty laundry, be negative, or relay a play-by-play narrative of your day’s events. It’s more about being human, and not appearing to be an automated robot churning out posts.
It also means you should avoid sending the same content all the time over all your networks. Think about your audience and the networks they frequent and tailor your message to them. This demonstrates that when you reach out to people, the interaction is directed to them.
2. Not writing for your audience
It’s fun to share things that interest you, but keep in mind, that if you want to attract the attention of prospects and others, you need to share information and updates that you know will be of interest to them. This is one of the major misunderstandings of social media. It’s not about you!
3. Not interacting enough
It’s so important to maintain a good level of engagement with your connections, as well as responding to what people are saying, asking, and commenting on. Showing that you care will demonstrate to others that you take your connections seriously and strengthen your network as a result. So many still treat social media as a broadcast platform. Which brings us to number 4…
4. Using the space for advertising
You will destroy your network in a flash by constantly promoting your services and products. Social media is a platform for building, expanding and maintaining relationships, so directly selling to people will distance you from them. Keep any ‘selling’ to about 10% and the rest to 90%.
5. Not listening
Listening is vital to any relationship, and social media is just that. It is not a one-way system, so be aware of what people in your network and potential network are saying. Tune into their needs, feedback, and struggles. While many companies fear any negative comments about their business, it’s essential to monitor your social voice and address any concerns as they happen so you can circumvent any long-term affects.
What about you? What particularly irritates you about companies that don’t quite get social right? Let us know by commenting below or posting it on our Facebook page!
Is Facebook Affecting Our Happiness?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on January 17th, 2012
The Huffington Post published a thought-provoking article on th
e growing role Facebook is playing in our life and what the adverse effects or real-life consequences are.
You can read the entire post here. Here are our key takeaways from this post:
- Facebook’s explosive rate of growth and recent product releases focus on one goal: encouraging more sharing.
- Behind the liking, commenting, sharing and posting, there seem to be strong hints of jealousy, anxiety and even depression.
- Facebook is fundamentally altering our daily sense of well being in both our personal and work lives.
- It’s creating a den of comparison: users have a strong bias toward sharing positive milestones, and avoid mentioning the more humdrum, negative parts of their lives. This magnifies a culture of competition and comparison.
- Comparing ourselves to others is a key driver of unhappiness: as we judge the entirety of our own lives against the top 1 percent of our friends’ lives, we’re setting impossible standards for ourselves, making us more miserable than ever.
- Because of our fragmented time, hundreds of millions of people are less “present” where they are. Constant “tabbing” between real-life tasks and Facebook provides constant distractions that lead to late and poor-quality output.
- Perhaps the biggest: a decline of close, real-life relationships. As Facebook adds new features such as video chat, it is fast becoming a viable substitute for meetings, relationship-building, and even family get-togethers. People are missing opportunities to interact more deeply than Facebook could ever accommodate.
Do you feel sucked in by these negative impacts? How do you avoid these traps? Quit cold turkey? Limit your time with set schedules? Avoid gossip and online Negative Nancies? Let us know by sharing on OUR Facebook page, or if you’ve already quit, feel free to comment below 
Will Social Media Play a Role in the 2012 Election?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on January 12th, 2012
According to a recent study by Digitas, six in ten social media users expect candidates to have a social media presence. Facebook has definitely had influence: Barack Obama’s fan page has 23 million likes, the most liked politician on Facebook.
The same study also revealed that four in ten social media users think they will use it to help decide who to vote for in 2012. That’s 38 percent of American social media users.
John F. Kennedy is considered the first television President; next year’s victor could very well be determined by the impact of Facebook and Twitter.
Eighty-eight percent of adults who use social media are registered voters – no other medium can compete with those numbers. Candidates should take advantage of this reach by inviting them to join the conversation about who will be our nation’s next President.
Has Social Media swayed you in a popular, public opinion? Will you use it to gain insight in the upcoming campaigns? Do you think it’s a positive move or will it unnecessarily complicate things?
What Are Your Advertising Resolutions?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on January 5th, 2012
With the cusp of a New Year upon us, it’s common for us to start to plan resolutions in our personal life. Perhaps you want to lose weight, get in better shape, or stop smoking. But what about your advertising methods? Couldn’t they use a little resolution list as well?
Will you use video this year?
Video is a great way to reach customers, yet fear often stops people from utilizing it to its fullest potential.
With the latest changes to the YouTube homepage, the experience is more of a social feed now, which gives marketers a powerful opportunity to enhance their brand exposure.
Rich media, in conjunction with video, is now more effective than simple Flash. When considering rich media campaigns, also think about including video to increase intent.
Will you start to mix social media with your display advertising?
Making display ads social increases the conversation with your customers, which is the top goal for all new media.
Do you try making your social media pages a primary destination rather than the website? How about setting up banner ads for interaction rather than broadcast only?
Social sharing is now becoming the norm when it comes to ads, blog posts, and even websites.
Are you going mobile with your ads?
I know you’re afraid, but its inevitable – users are now moving more and more to a multi-screen experience via desktop, mobile, and display and marketers must create these experiences in order to keep up.
Most mobile advertising now includes location-based strategies automatically – learn to use them creatively.
Remember – there’s no one right mix for every customer or client. By constantly being aware of your social media presence, you can evaluate the right person, the right timing, and the right message for your business.
Social media is not going away any time soon, but it will keep refining itself. Are you doing the same with your message?
Why Isn’t My Facebook Community Growing?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on December 20th, 2011
Are you wondering why your Facebook Page’s community isn’t growing faster and why people aren’t engaging?
Growing a community is harder on a Facebook Page than on other forms of social media. The level of engagement and result of your efforts must be tied to a goal for you to fully understand how to leverage Facebook for your audience.
What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to generate traffic from your Facebook Page to your website? Are you using the Page as a hub for your online strategy? What do you want your fans (likers?) to get out of the experience? It’s important to know your objectives before you can really analyze what’s not going the way you pictured it.
Here are the top seven reasons your page may not be taking off:
1. Are You Promoting It?
Do you have like boxes on your blog and website? Do you display a Facebook badge on your site? Is it in your signature? Do you have any promotions or announcements in your other forms of advertising that mention your Facebook page?
2. Are You Updating Regularly?
Frequency builds momentum. This doesn’t mean 8-12 posts a day, but you should have a plan and stick to it. By starting with 2 to 3 posts each day, you can observe how people react and make adjustments along the way.
3. Is the Content You Post Engaging Enough?
If your audience isn’t encouraged to participate it won’t. You have to post questions and openly ask for opinions. Picture your page as a Q&A forum in which you share your knowledge and expertise in your field to solve problems. Posting links and “how to” updates are just a small piece of the puzzle. People will stop paying attention to broadcasts – they need something fun to make them think and get them juiced up.
4. Do You Use a Variety of Media?
Facebook makes it easy to post photos, videos, comic strips, notes, and more. Your audience needs variety to keep their interest. Mix it up a bit.
5. Do You Customize?
Do you have a landing page or welcome tab for first-time visitors? While Facebook doesn’t offer a great many ways to stand out from the crowd, this is one place where you can really shine.
You can have a welcome video, run a promotion, integrate a sign up form with your email list, or just make some really fun graphics to enhance your users’ experience and leave a great first impression!
6. Do You Answer Posts?
This may seem like a no-brainer, but once people comment you really need to be present to turn the comment into a live conversation. Even if you don’t agree with or know how to answer the comment, say something. Engage. Converse. It is key if you want to build loyalty in your present audience.
7. Do You Look at Your Analytics?
By paying attention to who is frequenting your page and what they click on the most, you’ll be able to make decisions and actually see how testing different approaches can impact the outcome. Facebook is not about you, it’s about delivering a better experience to your audience.
By putting in a little time and effort, you can understand who is engaging, what types of content drive the most conversation, what times and days are best for your posts, and more.
What about you? What actions make a difference on your Facebook page?
How to Get More Twitter Followers
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on December 13th, 2011
When it comes to Twitter, do you have tumbleweeds blowing around your account? You may be seduced by those ads you see for tools that promise 1,000 Twitter followers in one click… but let’s be realistic. Many of those will be spam followers, or even worse: your account will be marked spam for mass following so many people at once.
While I always say it is the quality of followers you want, not quantity, there are some surefire, tried and true ways to get yourself an audience.
It starts with your profile picture
There are two schools of thought here. People relate to people, and this is social media after all. It’s best if you have a real person as your profile picture. Perhaps it’s the CEO or President of your company. People absolutely adore the idea of being able to have a voice in front of a person that’s normally unreachable.
The other is using your brand. Your logo, if it is known in your market, will speak volumes and hopefully generate a feeling of trust before you even type your first tweet.
Either way, photos of a building, product, or a group of people typically do not do as well when it comes to interaction and rapport.
Tweet regularly but mix it up a little
There’s nothing that irritates me more on Twitter than someone who ONLY posts links. Worse yet, only links to their product or service! There is a balance; people want to see you as the expert you are, so tweeting helpful tips and SOME links to other people’s helpful articles are definitely a plus.
Questions are always a great way to encourage engagement. You can speak your opinion about something in your industry and ask your audience what they think.
Getting personal once in a while helps people remember that there is a human behind that tweeting dashboard. Especially if it is a time-sensitive personal comment. Sometimes my most retweeted updates are the ones where I temporarily bare my soul about a current event or family anecdote!
Play nice in the same sandbox
The times have changed. While we used to view everyone in our field as a competitor (or arch nemesis), we find today that collaborations are powerful and end up being a win-win for all parties. When I tweet about what a great article someone in my industry wrote with a link to it, I am now doing several things:
- Bringing an additional resource to my followers
- Gaining the trust and appreciation of the person who wrote the article
- Gaining exposure to their audience, who will most likely end up following me
- Setting the stage for them to do the same
- Opening the door to possibly even doing a joint project
Do you see how that works? Sharing resources no longer means you will lose a customer to your competitor; it means bringing the most value in a way that will be remembered, whether a sale happens that day, week, month, or not at all. It’s about forming relationships.
Don’t’ forget Follow Friday
This may be the quickest way to follow and get followers. Every Friday, be sure to recommend to your audience your favorite people that you follow. Believe me, it will be reciprocated.
How do you get more Twitter followers? Which method works best for you?
Are Retail Brands Easier to Like on Facebook?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on December 6th, 2011
According to a Crowd Science survey, branded Facebook pages had the lowest number of “likes” (9% of users). The most popular reasons for “liking” a page tied between showing support and finding the content valuable, both at 28%.
Online buyers showed they were more inclined to “like” a retail page based on the presence of coupons and promo codes—not a surprising response from users who shop online. More than half also considered the customer service aspect of a retail Facebook page to be important, showing that those who “like” brands also like sharing experiences, whether positive or negative.
Content is king, but remember Social Media users are not seeking friendship from brands or retailers. The best focus for retailers is being on social networks to answer questions, provide customer service support and broadcast promotions, which translate into fairly instant and measurable results.
Should this worry you if you are not a retail business? Not necessarily!
For brands and service-oriented businesses, the gains from Social Media appear in the form of trust, loyalty, and expertise. Companies may not see immediate sales of big ticket services but word of mouth, valuable content and consistent messages eventually turn “likers” and their communities into dream clients.
Social Media Glossary
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on November 30th, 2011
When Social Media comes up around the water cooler or in client meetings, do you cringe and try to fluff your way through the terminology? Here are some of today’s common terms when it comes to the Social Web so you don’t have to feel so lost:
Avatars – Graphic images representing people. An animated version of your online persona, it may or may not be an authentic representation of yourself.
Blogs – Websites designed in journal format, with most recent items at the top of a page, and written in a conversational, personal style, giving the author an authentic voice online.
Blogroll – A list of sites displayed in the sidebar of blog, showing what other blog sites the author reads regularly.
Bookmarking – Saving the address of a website article, either in your brower, or on a social bookmarking site like del.icio.us.
Community Building – Attracting and helping an audience to find shared interests and goals, use the technology, and develop useful conversations.
Content – Text, pictures, video and any other meaningful material that is on the Internet.
Crowdsourcing – Harnessing the skills and enthusiasm of those outside an organization who are willing to volunteer their time contributing content and solving problems.
Email Lists – Names and emails collected through sign up forms that are kept in one place so you can send mass emails to them in the form of a newsletter. It is best to use an email service provider for this rather than manage it on your own so you comply with spam laws.
Feeds – A way to read, view or listen to items from blogs and other RSS-enabled sites without visiting the site, by subscribing.
Links – Highlighted text that, when clicked, take you from one web page to another. Bloggers use links a lot when writing, to reference their own or other content. Linking is another aspect of sharing, by which you offer content that may be linked, and acknowledge the value of other’s people’s contributions by linking to them.
Podcast – audio or video content that can be downloaded automatically to a website so you can view or listen offline.
Post – a blog article or entry in a forum.
Profile – The information you provide about yourself when signing up for a social networking site. Usually contains a picture and basic information, your personal and business interests, a “blurb” about yourself, and tags to help people search for like-minded people.
RSS – Short for Really Simple Syndication. It allows you to subscribe to content on blogs and other social media and have it delivered to you through a feed.
Social Media – A term for the tools and platforms people use to publish, converse and share content online.
Social Networking Sites – Online places where users can create a profile for themselves and engage with others using a range of social media tools including blogs, video, images, tagging, lists of friends, forums and messaging.
Subscribing – Signing up to receive information regularly from a particular website by feed or newsletter.
Tags – Keywords attached to a blog post, bookmark, photo or other item of content so you and others can find them easily through searches. Remember tags are common terms that people would normally use in their searches.
Web 2.0 – A term coined in 2004 to describe blogs, wikis, social networking sites and other Internet-based services that emphasize collaboration and sharing, rather than less interactive publishing (Web 1.0).
Wiki – A web page – or set of pages – that can be edited collaboratively. The best known example is Wikipedia, an encyclopedia created by thousands of contributors across the world.
Are there any terms we forgot, or that you’re still confused about? Let us know by commenting below and we’ll help!
5 Ways to Derail Your Twitter Campaign
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on October 26th, 2011
Make it obvious that you’re not tweeting your own content. If you’ve hired a company to coordinate and manage your Social Media, remember that they are writing and tweeting in your company’s voice. The “tone” should be consistent with your business. The absolute WORST thing to do is to make it obvious that you are just a ghost writer and tweet in third party responses. People will not engage and connect with someone that’s not even with the company they’re following!
Don’t follow anyone back, or auto-follow with a canned message. We can’t say this enough: social media is supposed to be social. If you are attracting or mining mass followers but don’t have the courtesy to follow back you are missing the point. Worse yet, do you send an autoresponder to new followers and never even check to see who they are or reply to their questions? Tsk, tsk!
Tweet only about your accomplishments and what products/services you are selling. This is the fastest way to lose your audience. A well-rounded campaign should follow the 70/10/10 rule: 70% free, helpful content about your industry; 10% products or services you are offering; 10% personal comments and opinions so people know you’re not a tweet-bot!
Update your tweets sporadically. Twitter is fast moving! Sending out a tweet once a week, or a few times a month will not make a dent in your social media strategies. We know it’s extremely time consuming, but there are ways to schedule your main content ahead of time while still checking in and engaging with your audience.
Only broadcast, don’t engage. So many businesses have told us, “I don’t care about all the noise people are putting out there. I just send out my latest blog posts and promotions, but I don’t understand why I haven’t made any sales yet.” Again, if you’re not contributing to the conversation, offering helpful tips, and using good ‘twitterquette’ with your followers, Twitter really is a waste of time and resources for you.
Are you still confused about how to create an effective and seamless Social Media campaign? Let Idea Associates help so you can focus on what you do best – run your business!
What is a Lurker?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Social Media on December 28th, 2011
What are some reasons lurkers don’t participate?
Often they don’t think they know enough about the topic under discussion and don’t want to look foolish. They may also feel like an outsider if many of the other members know each other from a familiar place or common interest.
They may also enjoy reading your content but not feel inspired to take part in the conversation because it doesn’t really speak to them.
How do you bring lurkers out of their shell?
You can offer low-risk ways for them to participate – they won’t feel they need expertise to comment when you present polls, run contests and ask people to share their own experiences.
By tracking links and content most frequently opened you can gauge what lurkers are interested in and what is of value to them. You can even try using different styles and tones to find out what resonates with group members and inspires them to take part in conversations. Include video and photos to appeal to them visually (as long as you’re still being authentic and true to your unique voice).
How have you gotten lurkers to engage with you online? We’d love for you to share your ideas with us by commenting below or doing more than lurking on our Facebook page
Tags: Blog, comment, content, contests, contributor, forum, lurker, participation, polls, social media, Social network
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