Social Media
The Best Time to . . .
0Mashable has an article about the best times to post on Twitter and Facebook. The answer for Twitter: Monday between 1 and 3 p.m., east coast time. For Facebook: Any weekday between 1 and 4, but particularly on Wednesdays at 3.
Which is great, unless everyone does it at once. Then it’s pretty much the worst time, because you’ll just get lost in the noise. As Matt McGee points out, “there’s no magical time to publish.”
As he explains, you need to take a look at when your audience is online–what gets the greatest response? When did you post it, and when did people respond? Keep the quality of your content high, and be open to the unexpected. That makes a lot more sense than assuming that there’s one answer for everyone.
Besides, don’t those days and times sound like you’re James T. Kirk setting up a game of Fizbin?
Make the Most of Pinterest
0This infographic from Edelman Digital really sums things up nicely. Take a look–is there more you can do to increase your effectiveness?
Social Check-Up
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The Consumerist points out that 13 million people have left the default Facebook privacy settings in place. Don’t be one of them.
Karlyn Borysenko of HoneyB Social Media & Digital Communications writes about deciding if Pinterest is a good fit for your brand. She makes a point that I think a lot of people forget: it’s okay to try something and then stop if it doesn’t work. If your core audience isn’t on a particular channel, it’s okay to stop using it. But if they are, well, aren’t you glad you tried? Keep on keepin’ on.
Mashable reports that 49% of marketers have not made social media part of their larger strategies. Don’t be one of them, either.
Photo by jfcherry, via Flickr.
As Long As Your Money’s Green . . .
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. . . does it matter how many X chromosomes you have?
Pinterest is a hot topic, and one of the most newsworthy points is that 97 percent of Pinterest’s Facebook fans are women. So it’s easy for some people to dismiss it.
But Pinterest drives huge amounts of traffic to other sites, and that ultimately means sales. Who buys things? Women. In fact, girltalk points out that women make or influence 85 percent of all purchasing decisions, including over 50 percent of cars, home improvement items, electronics, and other “guy” products.
At the same time, girltalk reports, “91% of women say that advertisers don’t understand them.”
So if women make up just over half the population, and the majority of purchases, what does that say about how good a job advertisers are doing at reaching them?
My advice: Get to know us. Look at who women are, and what they want, and what they do. And don’t dismiss those things because “they’re women.” If you want money, you’re going to have to ask us. Nicely. Because we’re the ones who decide how it gets spent. And as Michael Brito points out, we know how to share information. Make sure we have good information to share about you.
Photo by 401k, via Flickr.
Facebook and Privacy: The Continuing Saga
0Facebook keeps making its social ads more social. Don’t want to be associated with that? Step through this Mashable slideshow for information about how to opt out of social ads on Facebook.
Looking for a new job? How would you react if your potential employer asked for your Facebook password? Right now that’s legal in all 50 states. How would you handle that request?
Zonealarm provides an infographic that sums up social media privacy habits, based on Pew research. Take a look–which parts reflect your practices?
What Does Your Audience Want?
0What does your audience care about? In “Lost & Found: The Next Generation of Alumni Donors,” Fran Zablocki looks specifically at alumni and why many of them don’t give. But his suggestion–focus on what interests them, not on what you think is important–hold true far beyond the world of alumni associations and university development.
Brian Solis talks about how “Social media is about social science not technology.” He points out that too many marketers don’t ask their audience about what they want, or how they benefit–which means that too many marketers are making decisions based on guesswork, not data.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that tablet ownership among college students has more than tripled, and that in a sharp reversal of last year’s results, they prefer electronic texts to print editions. So is this a new trend? And how if you’re in the business of producing materials for college students, what do you do about it?
And it’s not just college students. Encyclopaedia Britannica is no more–at least, in its traditional print format. People want instantly updated information at their fingertips, and there’s no way to provide that in print–plus, at more than $1,300 a set, it’s something of an aspirational item. The only problem is that fewer and fewer people are aspiring to it.
So what does your audience want? And are you sure?
To Boldly Post: George Takei and Social Media
0I once heard a marketing executive say, “I think of Twitter as something that 20-somethings do.”
Well, she clearly hasn’t been paying attention to George Takei. The 75-year-old actor and activist has become a social media heavyweight, with over 299,000 followers on Twitter and over 1.2 million likes on Facebook.
But it isn’t his numbers that are so incredible—there are plenty of brands, celebrities, and organizations that can boast more fans. What’s noteworthy about Takei is his level of engagement.
In her post “George Takei: Facebook Hero” on Commerce Kitchen, Natalie Winslow points out the share rates on Takei’s Facebook posts–in one case, more than 10,600 shares on a single photo, compared to 708 on a photo on Coca-Cola’s page. Obviously one post doesn’t make a case–but this is not an isolated incident. Takei’s recent photo posts have share rates ranging from some 3,000 shares to over 25,000.
Roni Weiss’s RW Social post “Whose brand is stronger: George Takei or Starbucks?” answers its own question–George Takei–by comparing “Who’s talking about this” numbers for each Facebook page. Can we expand on this? As I write this, I can find the following corresponding numbers for Facebook pages:
Starbucks: 339,272 (over 29,000,000 likes)
McDonald’s: 780,873 (over 17,000,000 likes)
Nike: 796,869 (over 8,000,000 likes)
George Takei: 584,907 (1,265,789 likes)
Want to compare him to other celebrities? Lady Gaga’s page has 650,076 people talking about it–and she’s got more than 49,000,000 likes–more than 40 times as many as Takei. Dwayne The Rock Johnson, who Mashable readers voted the “Must-Follow Actor or Actress on Social Media,” has 220,000 people talking about his page.
Forty-six percent of Takei’s fans are talking about him. The others don’t even come close.
So what’s the secret to his Facebook success? I see several:
Frequency
He’s very active, posting multiple times a day.
Authenticity
He posts about gay rights and the World War II internment of Japanese Americans–causes that matter deeply to him. The first thing I saw was this YouTube video he made in response to anti-gay remarks made by a school board member in Arkansas:
You can often find him posting on heartfelt topics like this on Facebook and Twitter–and also about his hatred of the “Twilight” franchise.
Humor
He’s not just about the causes. Takei has several posts a day that are flat-out funny.
User-Generated Content
Business Week quoted Takei as saying, “True to my base, I like to find fan-generated images that are in the world of science fiction, especially Star Trek or Star Wars—both are franchises that I have worked in.” Many of his posts originate with fans–and he indicates this. In fact, his current cover photo is the result of a fan caption contest.
Knowing His Audience
It’s the first rule of comedy, and it’s also true for communication. George Takei knows who his fans are, and he’s paid attention to what they like–which means he’s very good at delivering it.
And the results are clear. So, how can you go boldly?
Facebook Timeline and Your Brand
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Facebook Timeline will become the default for brands on March 30–between now and then, only you can see your page in the new format, so now’s the time to start working on it. You’ll want it to be ready for the public by then (and if you’re ready ahead of time, go ahead and make the switch by publishing your page).
Mashable has a post that identifies six things you should know going forward. I’d particularly like to point out #5, because it’s a reminder to look at all of the ways your brand uses Facebook, not just the Wall. Take a look at your current tabs and app, and figure out what you need to change to make them look current in the new format.
Patrick Powers writes about higher education, but his advice about Timeline is good regardless of your economic sector. Remember that you can now add events that took place before the dawn of Facebook–was your organization founded in 1919? Great–why not list that on your Timeline?
If there’s a post you particularly want to highlight, you can “pin” it to the top of the Timeline; this Techcrunch post shows what that will look like.
Are you ready to get started, but want some inspiration? Check out what how the U.S. military is using Timeline (see above for how the U.S. Army is using its cover photo)–or look at these 20 other examples provided by Mashable.
Guest Post by Adam Paul: Simple Is As Simple Does
0I’m delighted to introduce my first guest post, written by Adam Paul. Adam is the executive producer of The Steps, a web drama that has recently started its second season. (Disclosure: One of the creators, Dylan Kussman, is a close friend, and I am a contributor to the Kickstarter campaign that funded this season.)
In addition to creative work on the (very) small screen, The Steps has showcased innovative and integrated marketing through myriad social media channels, using a variety of tactics based on larger strategic goals, as Adam explains:
As an independent producer of web and television filmed content, I should be much more savvy about marketing via social media than I am. Working with lower budgets just to get the story told, never mind marketed to the public, you’d think I’d have a firm grip on the ins and outs of using Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about my product.
But I don’t. It seems I’m always learning about some new way to cleverly reach out to an audience. A contest or survey or targeted ad or email campaign. But I’ve come to accept recently that that’s the nature of the beast. If new content is the fuel on which the internet runs, then social networking is the Internet’s true combustion engine. And there will always be a myriad of ways to fill the engine’s tank.
My current series, ‘The Steps’, is now in its second season. During the first season, we gave away a Dell netbook via a Twitter hashtag campaign and premiered the series at a ‘Device Party’ which encouraged participants to bring their own connected platform – be it smartphone or laptop or tablet – to our party event, join the wifi network there and simultaneously view the first episode together. We took out Facebook ads, rigorously administered our pages and found multiple distribution partners to screen our series to the widest possible audience.
While our budget was raised entirely via Kickstarter.com’s brilliant site and a strong outreach to our production team’s networks, this year we’re utilizing far fewer event-based methods to actually promote the series. Aside from a weekly new episode release (Thursdays at www.WatchTheSteps.com), we’re letting the show gain traction through the simplest of marketing techniques: word of mouth.
Despite a compelling premise and world class production values, ‘The Steps’ is a unique animal in the world of web series –
- It’s a drama (a noir thriller, to be exact)
- It takes its time – far from boring, our series is a particular type of tale, with richly textured characters, strong imagery, and an overarching story that requires some investment from the viewer.
- Like life, it’s complicated – the story’s hero, Charlie Madison, is a private eye with a habit of getting into trouble. He gets in his own way. He may have even killed his last girlfriend. He’s a human being who’s made mistakes, can’t forgive himself, but trudges on and tries to do the right thing.
That’s a lot to pitch to a new audience in a blurb or even a press release.
And so, our most recent revelation in the world of social media marketing has been this:
That’s right. A badge. We’ve asked our followers on Facebook and Twitter to use it as their profile picture for a week. Then we’ll change it up with another image from the show each week as we roll episodes out.
Simple, no? But very effective. No one has to beg their friends to check it out. Those who like the show just change their profile picture. Yes, we seed our social network pages with behind the scenes stills and notes from the creator of the show during the week between episodes. We keep topping off the tank of that engine so it can run loud and strong. But this little badge has proven to be the best way to get our name in front of the maximum number of eyeballs. Our followers wear it with pride, their followers see the bold url, and hopefully, just hopefully, we’ve penetrated their subconscious with our three-word call to action.
Adam Paul is the founder of Giantleap Industries, a digital studio that develops multi-platform content to bridge the divide between television, the web and wherever else you’re watching. ‘The Steps’ is currently rolling out new episodes of its second season at www.WatchTheSteps.com, Youtube.com/TheStepsWebSeries, Koldcast.tv and Blip.tv
All images provided by Adam Paul.
Ask Better Questions to Accomplish Organizational Goals
0Tricks are easy. They’re also transient. Good work is hard, and requires serious thought and preparation to succeed. Take a look at these links to see some things you should be thinking about, and extrapolate.
Are you too focused on “likes”?
Social Business: Far Beyond The Like at Brass Tack Thinking.
Should you be on Pinterest? Well, what do you do?
The 10 Most-Followed Brands on Pinterest at Mashable.
Are you trying to sell when you should be listening?
Why Are Retailers Shutting Their Facebook Stores? at Mashable
So, what questions should you be asking? And are you asking them?
Photo by Rennett Stowe, via Flickr.