There comes a time in life when you must acknowledge social media, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are all here to stay. Yes, the social network platforms may change. Facebook will eventually become the Myspace of yesterday. However, one thing is certain, social media, mobile phones, iPad evolution and technology in general is not going away.
There are some things in life and business that don’t need a long introduction or fancy brand story before cutting to the chase. This blog post is one of them. This week I received an email from a self proclaimed “social media expert.” I’ve been subscribed to her email list for quite some time. To [...]
With all this tech evolution it is important we not lose sight of why you are spending time on social in the first place!
As I wasted my night away in social slacker land with all my fellow slacker geeks I was amazed at how many people are simply losing their mind. I guess I am so close to all of it that I forget how many business leaders, entrepreneurs and consumers are still learning.
I saw everything from spammy Facebook, Pinterest & LinkedIn pages to a landing page that guaranteed me a first page Google ranking.
It is human nature to want to connect, feel needed, be acknowledged, be understood, appreciated for what we accomplish and contribute to our small circles and ecosystem as a whole. It’s no wonder that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have taken off as a force to be reckoned with.
What are the successful social networks doing better than other networks? Why do people gravitate to one social network over the other? What makes them stick around?
When was the last time a big national brand made you feel special via the social waves? Are we starting to lose the hope we once had in social media of humanizing brands? The hope of the brand coming out from behind the logo and showing they care and want to connect with real people? The possibility of them actually demonstrating their brand promise via social media versus just plaster the words on their Facebook page?
Are some brands falling prey to traditional mass marketing methods that are simply masked with a coat of new paint in red and marked with a K+ and called social media? Are some fooling themselves into thinking they are engaging by leveraging only automated tweets, retweets, and direct messages?
Social media is not a band-aid for a broken business. Focusing only on Twitter followers, Facebook likes and influence metrics is unlikely to help you meet your business goals.
Integrating social media within the DNA of your business is the only route to success. Does it take more time? Yes. Does it take more work? Yes. Is the end result better? Hopefully yes.
You have sent a few tweets but just don’t know what’s wrong. Something isn’t working. You don’t feel the confidence you wish you had. You know the tools enough to be dangerous. However, getting a retweet that leads to actual engagement or relationship building is a different story.
It’s Saturday morning. You wake up out of the fog. You manage to open one eye and reach for the iPhone. You push the little round button so you can say good morning to your friends. Since the rest of the family is still asleep you think “hmmm… I’ll just go into my office and send a few tweets, see what’s circlin’ on Google+ and upload the photos from the seminar this week to Facebook.
Well, that was at 7:00 am. It’s now 11:00 and you are still in your jammies with messy hair. Your significant other has made breakfast. The kids are watching cartoons & fighting and the house is a mess. The big plans of mowing the lawn, cleaning the garage and hittin’ the gym all before noon are history. You would much prefer to stay in the safety and quiet of your little tweet heaven just for one more hour.
Retweets, you have heard have them, you know what they are but you aren’t gettin’ them. For some reason you just can’t seem to get the engagement you are seeking, desiring and yearning for in social media and Twitter.
You may be new to Twitter and simply don’t know what the heck you are doing, how to get a retweet or why the retweets even matter.
Or are you a Twitter and social media veteran who just wants to boost your ego, increase your Klout score or simply show off for Grandpa this weekend how popular you are on the social waves?
Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t is my mantra of life. I am who I am take it or leave it.
There is not one way to tweet, Facebook, Link or circle. The only way to do social media is the way that works for you. Here is a summary of what works for me and my tweets.
Influence is in the eye & heart of the beholder.
Can influence truly be 100% measured via any tool? My belief and answer to this question is no. Some of the peeps who influence me the most are the ones who make me think.
Yes we can measure what action is taken on the web that may or may not be a result of being influenced by an individual. We can measure if someone inspired us to click, like, opt-in. However, we can’t measure if we truly read, understand, relate or think.
There is definitely no shortage of social data, metrics, measurement strategies, analytics, influence scores, listening platforms, reputation management approaches and experts ready to take your credit card to help you figure it all out.
I have received several tweets and messages recently asking me for tips to help people raise their Klout score.
If you are focused on trying to raise your Klout or other influence score I have only one answer for you… you are measuring the wrong metric!
So it’s Saturday night & you’re headed to your favorite restaurant. You know the one. The one that you spend too much money on, eat too much and come home feeling like you are going to pop. It has all the things that are good and bad for you. You leave fulfilled yet planning the next time you will visit again.
As social brand marketers, business owners and entrepreneurs how can we give our audiences, clients and partners the same excitement to engage with our brand? How can we leave them fulfilled each day but wanting more at the same time? How can we get them to over indulge in our communities, and love it?
We have all seen them. The twitter clueless. The tweeps who refuse to accept Twitter or social media for what it is and what it is not. I am not talking about the newbies who are still learning. I am referencing the folks who have been to the classes, read the blogs yet still refuse to accept Twitter is not a copycat of their hard copy corporate brochure from 1987 broke into fifty 140 character segments.
If you are wondering what Twitter is and is not, here are the top 26 things that Twitter is not.
Webtrends rocked our #GetRealChat on 7/26/11. Justin Kistner, Director of Social Products for Webtrends was our special guest of honor!
If you haven’t met Justin, you’re missing out. He is an amazing powerhouse of information, admitted geek and we even have photos to prove he once kept his pants up at a tradeshow with Cat-5 cable!
Justin chatted with us and shared an overview of Webtrends, including what they do & who they serve. He discussed the challenges facing social marketers and why Webtrends puts focus on Facebook. He even shared his thoughts on Google+.
I have a story to share with you about what one may consider a social media “tool” called Triberr. To me it is much more. It challenged me from day one to put my action where my mouth is in regard to helping others.
Wow, is it me or is it starting to be more and more steps to follow someone.
We round em’ up in circles. We click the Facebook like, send and share buttons. We accept or invite them to LinkedIn. And if they’re lucky we may even opt-in to their email list via their blog or website.
In the first post on this series I provided 10 reasons why social media is about he people. I talked about how important relationships are to success.
For the second post in this series I am going to focus on the planning and prioritization stages of social media.
Many organizations claim to “be social.” They claim they have social media integrated with sales, marketing, and even customer service. They may even tout that their customer service teams are using Twitter to communicate and help customers.
The real question is this… are they providing social lip service or social customer service?
You’ve heard the words… Tweet Chats, #TweetChats, Hashtags, or even hashbrowns as one of my clients first called them. You see the early notification tweets: “Peeps – I am going to be sending more tweets than usual the next hour, headed into a tweet chat.”
For those who aren’t engaged in the tweet chat or don’t understand them, a tweet chat may seem like a bunch of noise. You are half right and half almost right. Yes, there may be some associated “noisy tweeting.” However, tweet chats can offer great benefit for you and your business to build new relationships, increase blog readership, build community and even get new followers or Facebook fans!
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