Tag Archives: social media

4 Social Media Mistakes Brands Make

Posted on by
Reply

Social media can enhance brands, but sometimes brands make social media errors that could potentially hurt its reputation. Let’s face it, not all brand are flawless when it comes to social media. Brands large and small have all made a mistake at one point or another, but you don’t want your brand to lose credibility due to social media mistakes.

Social media platforms should be a priority. After all, posts are there for everyone to see. Below are 4 common social media mistakes brands make.

fireflythegreat / Foter.com / CC BY

Don’t Make These Mistakes

  • Incorrect links. Nothing is worse than coming across an article with a link that leads to the wrong website or does not work. Always double check links!
  • Long links. The never ending link is hard on the eyes and it can appear spammy. Please use a link shortener.
  • Generic posts or irrelevant posts. Posting generic posts or completely irrelevant can make your followers stray. Be original and creative.
  • Little or no Engagement. Being a ghost on social media platforms may be the worst mistake a brand can make. Let other know you’re listening. Make a point to interact with your followers.

Those are just a few mistakes brands make. Which mistake makes you cringe the most?  Comment below.

Photo credit: fireflythegreat / Foter.com / CC BY

Refreshing Your Content This Fall

Posted on by
Reply

Autumn is the perfect time to evaluate your company’s social media performance. You can consider what has and hasn’t worked, and adjust accordingly to make the most of the holiday season. It’s also the ideal time to map out your content strategy for the following year based on this year’s analytics.

Below are five tips to help you refresh your content this fall.

Nature Pictures by ForestWander / Foter / CC BY-SA

5 tips to refresh your content this autumn 

  • Are you attending conferences and events this fall? Make the most of them by doing your research early. Ensure you have your booth numbers and appropriate hashtags.
  • Peruse each platform and see how you can make your content more visually appealing.
  • Check out the competition and see what  they’re posting. Are they sharing seasonal articles and specials?
  • Sift through your current content. See how you can make it more exciting and shareable.
  • Relate some of your content to the season. If you own a salon, consider creating fall specials, sharing the latest trendy fall looks, etc. Overall, be aware of fall holidays, awareness months and seasonal weather.

Do you have any tips to add? Do you review your content each season?

Photo credit: Nature Pictures by ForestWander / Foter / CC BY-SA

Marketing on the 9/11 Anniversary? Don’t

Posted on by
1

“When in doubt, leave it out.”

This was the sage advice of one of my first journalism professors in college. It served me well in everything from sussing out facts for news stories to drawing up guest lists for family parties. It’s also good advice for brands and organizations to consider as part of their social media policies, and their approach to anniversaries of remembrance like Sept. 11.

This week – 12 years from the attacks of Sept. 11 – we saw far too many businesses using social media to remember the fallen while also making sure you remember their products.

On The Crisis Show, which aired on the anniversary of 9/11, I joined Shel Holtz and host Rich Klein to discuss these efforts. We highlighted some of the more thoughtless attempts to newsjack the 9/11 anniversary, as well as the reactions those efforts engendered. It’s a cautionary tale of how even the best intentions on social media can fail without sound strategy, planning and a crisis response plan.

What we saw on social media on this anniversary was how tone deaf some brands can be, and how few plan for all potential outcomes. The list of offending brands – both exploitative in their efforts and those just trying to mark the day as best they could while failing in the attempt – is too long to include here.

The best advice I can share is beautifully summarized in a short online article in The Atlantic. The writer, Derek Thompson, took a page from my journalism professor’s book and offered one simple rule for advertising on 9/11: Don’t. This rule applies equally well to marketers, social media practitioners and PR pros.

The events of that day still haunt us as a nation. So brands should consider honoring the day with a moment of silence, time off for employees to participate in the National Day of Service Congress called for in 2009 or by making a charitable donation. But don’t market such efforts or your products and services. Those who mourn don’t need to hear from brands on this day.

Next year, when we mark the 13th anniversary of our national loss, I encourage brand managers everywhere to follow the prescient advice of my old professor: When in doubt, leave it out.

What’s one more social media platform?

Posted on by
Reply

There is such thing as being on too many social media platforms.

When new platforms are introduced, too often companies and brands feel the need to jump on the “exciting new platform” bandwagon. By the time agencies like ours are called in, we find important research, including audience and competitive analysis, wasn’t done. If you don’t have the advantage of working with a public relations agency to help establish or advance your social media strategy, at least ask the following questions before adding yet another new social platform to your list of things to manage.

webtreats / Foter / CC BY

Before you decide to jump on another platform, ask yourself these important questions:

  • Is my audience on the platform I’m thinking about joining?
  • Will my audience be receptive to the new platform I’m thinking about joining?
  • Does it make sense for me to join the new platform? (For example, if you’re thinking about setting up a Pinterest account, but you do not have any visual content to share, it probably does not make sense to join yet.)
  • Do I have relevant and interesting content to post? Will others view my content and will it be shareable?
  • Do I have the extra time and resources to devote to this new platform? Take into account how long it will take to set up, the cost of the graphics for the platform, daily monitoring, creating valuable content, etc.
  • If I create a new account will I be “present?” Sometimes companies create an account and then forget about it or they simply don’t have the time. Having an account where you’re invisible may not send the right message about your company.  Don’t be a robot. Be present.

You don’t need to be on every social media platform to succeed at social media. Sometimes less is more.

If you do not have the resources, time or your audience is not on a certain social outlet, it does not always make sense to be on that platform. It’s better to invest your time on a few social platforms that make sense for your business rather than being on several platforms where you’re not able to devote your the time.

Which platforms make the most sense for your business? Have you had more success on some platforms versus others?

Photo credit: webtreats / Foter / CC BY

When Was the Last Time You Reviewed Your Social Media Accounts?

Posted on by
Reply

If you manage social media accounts for clients and for your company, sometimes it’s easy to forget to take some time to review each social media account. We often forget that we can always make improvements, make additional connections, etc. With summer coming to a close in a few weeks, now is a good time to review your current social media platforms to see how you can make the most out of your accounts.

webtreats / Foter / CC BY

Here are a few suggestions when you review your accounts:

Follow/unfollow accounts on Twitter. Did you meet a few new faces at conferences over the summer? If so, connect with them. Are you attending any conferences this fall? Connect with relevant speakers in advance to make the most out of upcoming conferences.

Browse to make sure everything is accurate.You can never browse your accounts social media platforms enough! Make sure all information is accurate. Did your company just celebrate their 30th anniversary? Ensure you have the correct number of years on social media platforms. Are your hours of operation accurate on Facebook? Did your office just change locations? Make sure platforms state the new address.

Now that users have access to Graph Search, make sure your Facebook is easily recognizable and you’re easy to find. Do photos contain specific locations? Does your page have an address? Have hours been added? Have you added categories to your page?

Ask yourself what overall improvements can I make. Does my cover photo need a facelift? Could my biography on Twitter use some updating? Is my content stale on some of my platforms?

Those are just a few suggestions. When is the last time you reviewed your social media accounts?

Photo credit: webtreats / Foter / CC BY

When to Hop Off the Facebook Bandwagon

Posted on by
Reply
Jump Off

via Flickr user psmithy

In my internal life as a secret pundit, I hold strong, unpopular opinions on a wide range of topics. I’ll spare you my monologue on the proper storage of tomatoes, but let’s discuss my wildly unfashionable opinions on Facebook, which are probably more relevant to your interests.

Here’s a radical thought: Facebook doesn’t work that well for some brands, particularly small B2B service providers. Yes, that Facebook—the stuff of marketing mavens’ dreams. For many, it turns into a marketing nightmare; after devoting time and energy to creating and curating a brand page, a chorus of crickets greets you instead of legions of grateful fans.

Many self-proclaimed social media experts will suggest that you are doing it wrong. That is true in some cases, but not all. If Facebook isn’t working for you, I think there are a few reasons it is more than okay to stop using your brand page.

It’s cost prohibitive

Contrary to popular belief, using Facebook as a PR and marketing tool is far from free. It is time-intensive, no matter what strategies and tools you use. It’s cliche but true: at work, time is money.

To get the most out of a Facebook brand page, you should spend time and money not only perusing and posting, but also creating videos and custom visual content like infographics, memes and quality photos. Last time I checked, graphic designers don’t work for free. Plus, paid ads, contests and promoted posts are often the only way to get any semblance of a noticeable boost in fans and engagement. This could be time and money well-spent, but not if you don’t see results.

Your content never meets its mark    

When I say engagement, I’m not speaking in abstract jargon. What I mean is people seeing, liking, commenting beneath and clicking thru to your content. On Twitter, engagement defined this way is possible any time someone logs on and scrolls through their feed. On Facebook, what someone sees on their News Feed depends on a number of factors analyzed by the company’s EdgeRank algorithm, which you can read more about here.

From a personal user’s perspective, there are advantages to EdgeRank and otherwise being in control of your News Feed. For example, with a few clicks, you can hide future posts from your Facebook-addicted auntie and never again be subjected to her semi-literate rants on the tyranny of everyday objects.

However, the same tool may prevent a user from being exposed to your brand’s content, even if s/he would like to see it—which s/he presumably does, since s/he “likes” you. Users rarely return to a brand’s Facebook page after they have liked it, so they won’t see your pithy posts there. And if you don’t share a photo, it is unlikely that they will see a post in their News Feed. As many have lamented, EdgeRank prefers gimics over content that is relevant to your audience. If you provide B2B services, or something that is equally ill-matched to meme-ing or Harlem Shaking, you just may never stand out.

There are other options    

Should you want to stand out on Facebook? This question nags me. For companies that provide consumer products or entertainment, the Facebook News Feed is a natural fit. You want to be (and often are) an integral part of your customers’ personal lives, so you fit in snugly between a cousin’s baby pictures and political rants from college friends.

For most other kind of brand, the Facebook News Feed is an awkward fit, like trying to wear the clothes you thought were cool at age 15. No one thinks you look cool in those JNCOs, and no one wants to hear about some esoteric corporate service while they are perusing their iPad on the couch.

In the wide world of digital marketing and PR, there exist many more agreeable options. If you are struggling with Facebook and don’t even enjoy the medium, maybe it’s time to redirect your efforts elsewhere. Perhaps your time and energy could be better spent on Twitter, LinkedIn or a blog. Read case studies, ask around and give a new network a try.

I’m far from the first person to suggest Facebook isn’t the social media marketing magic bullet, but I don’t think many take action in response. Has anyone out there abandoned their Facebook strategy? Tell us about it in the comments.

Don’t leave your clients in the dark

Posted on by
Reply
brantleydavidson / Foter / CC BY

Changes to social media platforms occur frequently. Sometimes it’s difficult to stay up-to-speed with all the social platforms. It’s important to keep clients well-informed of what’s happening on their social media platforms.

Here are a few tips to keep clients informed:

  • Keep clients up-to-date on changes occurring on relevant platforms. If there’s a change to Pinterest, but they’re not on it the site, there’s probably no need to inform them of a particular change.
  • Only share major changes. Clients receive enough emails. Keep them informed if the change is significant to their account(s) and worth sharing. If there’s a new layout on a social media platform that will affect their page, it’s worth sharing.
  • Keep it short, but informative. Provide a sentence or two about the change. Always provide a link or attachment that explains in detail about the social media change in case they would like more information.
  • Give them a timeframe of when the change will take place (if possible). Sometimes it difficult to gauge exactly when a change will occur, but even giving them a ballpark estimate can be helpful.

Do you have any additional tips or suggestions to share? Comment below.

Photo credit: brantleydavidson / Foter / CC BY

Summer, sunshine and social media…

Posted on by
Reply
davedehetre / Water Photos / CC BY-NC

Summer is a popular time for beach trips, golf outings, trips with the family, etc. Many employees take advantage of the warm summer days by taking some time off from work, but if you manage the social media accounts for your company you must make sure all accounts still run smoothly. Below is some advice to ensure your social media accounts are properly taken care of while you’re out of the office.

5 pieces of advice to follow before and during your vacation:

  •  Let clients know in advance. Make sure clients are aware of when you’ll be out of the office ahead of time especially if there’s a special promo/contest running, an issue with an account, etc.
  • Schedule posts.  Review scheduled posts for any errors including the time of day in which they go out. It’s easy to select 12:00 a.m. instead of 12:00 p.m.
  • Make sure monitoring is taken care of. Ask a colleague to monitor and manage all social media activity while you’re out.
  • Make sure other employees are aware of what’s going on. If there’s a contest going on make sure employees are well informed about it, if there’s a sticky situation on one of the accounts, etc.
  • Ensure you have crisis plan in place. Who will handle a social media crisis should one occur while you’re out?

Those are just a few pieces of advice to put your mind at ease while on vacation. I’d love to hear from other social media managers. Do you have any additional tips to share?

Photo credit: davedehetre / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Gary on Insurance PR in Best’s Review

Posted on by
Reply

There’s a familiar face next to the “Top 5” insurance marketing column in April’s Best Review.

Gary shared his top-line insurance communications rules for the social media age, including best newsroom practices and the importance of a social media strategy.  Download the PDF of the column to read more — and let us know what you think.