Science of Social Media
Once of the best aspects of participating in social networks is that you meet some very interesting people and can learn a little something every day. Yesterday, I even participated in a Guinness World Record.
A few hours before the event, I received a reminder e-mail for a webinar on the Science of Social Media, sponsored by HubSpot. I follow HubSpot online and enjoy reading the e-mails which frequently land in my inbox. I’ve found them to be a good resource for news, tips and information about all sorts of online marketing and social network usage.
What made this one little webinar extraordinary was the level of participation. Over 30,000 people were online as students of this seminar. That’s the biggest webinar in the world to-date. Dan Zarrella, Social Scientist was the lecturer for the day. And on top of gaining bragging rights that I was a part of a historical event, I did end the hour with a few key takeaways.
Myths Debunked
1. MYTH – Ideas spread because they’re good.
The reality is that information spreads in an information void. Some bad ideas are spread across the web because there is simply nothing else out there of value or interest. Timing and luck have a bit to do with how wildly popular your message becomes.
2. MYTH – “Engaging in the Conversation” is the most important thing on social media.
“Publishing interesting content works,” says Zarrella. Simply conversing online doesn’t increase your value. Sharing pertinent information with critical timing (information void) does. This was followed by lots of data correlating tweets with links versus tweets without. Essentially, people who tweet lots of links have more followers, and therefore are perceived as more valuable.
While I can understand this argument, I do believe I believe that interesting content can be presented in a conversational tone and will land well with followers. Who wants to follow a news-only feed? I believe that building your personal brand online requires a personality. Engaging in conversation may not lend me more followers or be valuable to those who are already my friends, but it does show that I’m human and I play well with others.
3. MYTH – Don’t call yourself a guru.
The premise for this is that no one really wants to hear you exclaim that you are so wonderful and knowledgeable and fabulous. Where’s the humility? But research has shown that by including the words – official, founder, speaker, expert, guru, author – warrant above average followings. While that does not mean that I am going to list myself as a marketing maven in my bio anytime soon, it does encourage me to speak with authority. I do know what I’m doing, gosh darn it.
Understanding What Works and Why
A good chunk of the seminar discussed Zarrella’s upside down pyramid with the top-to-bottom listed words EXPOSURE, ATTENTION, MOTIVATION.
EXPOSURE refers to the amount of reach you have, your followers, likes , etc. Higher exposure is of course related to the likelihood that people will be exposed to your ideas and information. Increasing your exposure can be done by posting more interesting content. It can also be achieved by talking less about yourself. Data showed that the more you talk about yourself and the heavier the @ sign appeared in Tweets, the less followers one has. Again, content is king. And you, my dear, are not considered good content.
Gaining the ATTENTION of your followers is one of the more tricky aspects of social media. We have so much information coming at us on a daily basis, and have to quickly decipher what’s valuable and not. Research shows that those who update too frequently are tuned out by their audiences. Timing is everything, essentially. It would appear that people who update on a regular and consistent basis, like once per hour, are taken more seriously than those who tweet more than even five times in an hour, for example.
If you want to see what works best for your audience, then you have to play around a bit and document your best CTRs, most retweets, etc. Maybe your followers better receive information at 9:00pm when the kids have gone to bed. Perhaps frequent weekend updates will serve you better. You have to put in some effort to find what is best for your followers…that is who you want to reach, right?
Your performance and reputation have an effect on the MOTIVATION of your followers to share your content. How well you’ve grabbed their attention, the timing of your update, and how many others have already shared your information all play into how motivated your fan might be to share knowledge. While we cannot control who is the first to tweet that article or who clicks the first LIKE button, being the first is a motivation for some users to retweet and share links.
Increasing motivation is relative to HOW you speak to your followers. The KISS formula applies here. Keep it simple. Less adjective and adverbs and a healthy dose of nouns and verbs in your updates are better received, perceived as more valuable and help you look like an authority on the topic. Kindness counts too. Overly critical or mean-spirited comments will not fair well for you. We even discussed that the comment “Please Retweet” gains better results than “Please RT.” A polite call to action does work.
Takeaways
In addition to my notes above, it was clear to me that social media and the vast amount of online platforms are constantly evolving. It’s significant to check into these types of programs every so often so that we take time to listen to people who make a living by monitoring trends online. These notes will help me better plan my content, and has provided some great insight as to behavior and reaction online. I also managed to gain a few new Twitter followers in the process. I was thanking a few people for retweeting content I expressed during the seminar, which led to following each other. One reason I’m not willing to give up the conversational aspect of my stream.
You can follow Dan Zarrella on Twitter @DanZarrella
You can even watch the seminar and download the slides HERE if you’d like. Or you can go directly to the source, HUBSPOT.
If you do watch the seminar, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts and learn what takeaways you have from the program.
Twitter Trends
Mashable does a fantastic job up posting infographics, which makes it super simple to keep up with online trends and information. These infographics are also great to use in social media presentations. Here’s the latest on Twtter and what’s trending:
Facebook Deals a done deal?
On April 26th, I eagerly posted the announcement that Facebook Deals had come to San Diego. Facebook said at the time,
“A few months ago we launched Check-In Deals, to help you get special offers when you check in at local businesses from your mobile. Today we’re going a step further and testing a new feature to help you find fun experiences to share with your favorite people: Deals on Facebook.
Initially, Deals will be available to people in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco and we hope to expand this test to other cities in the future.”
I looked at the Deals page today and noticed there are a whopping six (6) deals posted for all of San Diego. There are 15 deals on offer in San Francisco, 12 in Austin, eight in Dallas and 12 in Atlanta. Considering these are all test cities, I wonder how such few participating retailers and restaurants can be considered a success?
A few problems I see with the Facebook Deals program is that the page is not easily found on the news feed. If you haven’t visited the section recently, you’ll have to actually click the “more” button to get the drop-down menu which also includes Pages, Notes and the like. People are lazy. Not many will actively seek the Deals page.
I also mentioned in my previous post that I was not eager to provide Facebook with more information about me, my hobbies, interests nor lifestyle habits. I understand that by clicking “LIKE” on any of the deals that that information is stored and will be used to present similar adverts in the right-hand column. (Although the FB algorithms must be off today because the suggested pages for liking are Skittles and Sponge Bob Square Pants.)
With so few deals available, I’m not tempted to participate. It makes me wonder how aggressively Facebook is courting local businesses to put something on offer? Glass blowing and night photography are two of the six discounts on offer. Not too sexy. If Facebook actually wants to compete with Groupon and Living Social, they need to get their booty in gear and provide some kind of encouragement for businesses to participate if they imagine the Facebook Deals to take over other daily deals programs.
I mentioned also in my previous post that Facebook Deals should prove successful because as a shopper, I can check my Facebook News Feed and look at the Deals all in one visit, versus traveling to other websites to take advantage of coupons. Facebook is really not playing up this aspect of convenience and have done very little advertising since the first initial splash in April. GIZMODO did a review of all the daily deals platforms recently, but it is hard to find an article which highlights Facebook’s success in this area versus a mere comparison against Google, Amazon, etc.
Facebook Live (http://on.fb.me/facebookhq) is geared up for an “exciting product announcement” tomorrow. I’m curious if it’s the replacement for Facebook Deals, as it seems this program has sunk before it even had a chance to swim.
What are your thoughts on the Facebook Deals launch? What would you do differently to ensure the success of this program? How can Facebook better compete with Groupon and Living Social? And finally, have you used any of the Facebook Deals? Eager to hear your answers in the comments. Cheers!
Quantifying Social Media Management
As a start-up company, I find I am hungry for information pertaining to my business. There is plenty out there, just waiting to be discovered. I’ve found articles on marketing, media and communications which range from the very informative to the totally bizarre. Everyone has a method, a tip, a trick and an opinion.
I was delighted to see an ad pop up on Facebook which promoted a free social media seminar. Goodness knows there is always room for more knowledge on this topic. And so I decided to sign up to see how the big boys make a presentation, what strategies they offer and also learn how they structure their services.
I was pleased that during a very rapid announcement of facts, figures and trends I followed right along and actually anticipated the direction of the presentation. I did learn a few helpful bits of advice which I am already implementing in a new client’s project.
At the end of the seminar, we were handed a folder including company information and price sheets. $4995 per month will buy you a very slick social media management program. But I had to stop with the outline of what you get in your package. Example:
30 Posts per month (Twitter and Facebook)
4 Blog Posts
4 re-tweets, re-posts, of industry relevant content
1 optimized press release per month
2 external posts per month
Twitter follow campaign
As soon as I read the list I thought, “How can you quantify social media services in this way?” Surely there is no possible cookie-cutter formula of what makes a successful campaign, so how can a large media firm whip up the perfect batch of posts, tweets and re-tweets? What if there is some major event in my industry that warrants more than 30 posts? What if I launch two products in the same month, do I still only get that one press release? And if the industry is posting lots of useful information I’d like to share with my clients, does one re-tweet a week cover it?
While some structure needs to be provided to a client who is outsourcing social media marketing, I just cannot see how following such guidelines lays a foundation for a successful campaign. Social media is anything but predictable and rigid, nor does it really play by any set of rules. So how is it that some companies feel they can wrangle a strategy down to a one-size fits all formula?
What are your thoughts on this type of packaged program?
Awesome all the times
02/04/2012 – UPDATE: Thought I would see if Cody Decker had changed his Twitter profile recently. Answer is yes. Slightly. No improvements, though!
Anti-Hero baseball player in the San Diego Padres Organization. Rarely wrong, often a jerk, always adorable… Burning bridges since 1987…….
Note to Cody: Anti-heroes and jerks are never adorable. Ever.
…….
10/30/2011 – UPDATE: I just saw a Cody Decker tweet and was pleased to see his bio had been changed. That turned to confusion though. Here’s the latest version:
Baseball player in the San Diego Padres Organization. Rarely wrong, often a jerk, always adorable… Burning bridges since 1987…….
Not quite the direction you should be going, dear Cody. Now you identify yourself as a Padre and tell your fans that you are a jerk. Good plan! I’m sure the Padres would be pleased. Oh how I would love to consult this guy on his social media strategy.
…….
Recently, a favorite Tweep recommended to all that we follow @Decker6. The Twitter handle belongs to Cody Decker, a Minor League Baseball player for the parent team, San Diego Padres. I looked at the account and read the profile:
I play baseball sometimes….. I’m awesome all the times…… Burning bridges since 1987
My initial reaction was to correct this young man’s grammar and so I tweeted, “I’m awesome all the TIMES?” He needs twitter coaching! RT @friarhood Make sure u r following #Padres hot prospect Cody Decker – @Decker6
I noticed though, as I looked more through his profile and scanned his tweets, that this up and coming athlete really could use social coaching. It is essential that any athlete, personality or celebrity have a polished approach to their social media strategies. Once you gain that notoriety, and especially when it’s through an organization like the Padres or the UCLA Bruins before that, there is a code of ethics and greater responsibility to be appropriate. With a manner like Cody Decker here, he’s more likely to turn potential fans away then gain any decent number of followers with his “I’m so cool and I don’t care what you think” approach (Time of post he’s at a whopping 243 followers). Who wants to follow someone who thinks they are soooo awesome and who admits to burning bridges his whole life? It sets the stage for lack of conversation, lack of engagement, a lack of the foundation that makes social media successful. One could never expect to have a meaningful exchange with @Decker6 because it’s all about him.
Not only is this approach to the Twitterverse bad for him, but it reflects poorly on the Padres that they would employ such a brazen young player who sports a seriously bad attitude. That’s what makes @Decker6 and other sports figures ripe for social coaching. I’d love to provide the Padres a social media seminar to help them understand how best to harness the power of social media for good causes, to raise awareness for their sport, their community and favorite charities. I’d love to teach them how to engage their fans, solidify their following and gain new loyal fans. Sure, personal posts can showcase an individual’s personality, but with a positive spin. I’m amazed that the Padres wouldn’t put a short leash on this guy and tell him to change his Twitter game.
Beaming Bohemian is happy to sit down with you one-on-one and provide social coaching to help you better understand how to maximize your social media accounts. There is more out there than just Twitter and Facebook, plenty of other platforms which are just as handy, mobile-friendly and gaining in popularity. Contact me to set up your social coaching session. In the meantime, I’m knocking on the Padres door to see if we can’t arrange a coaching session of a different kind!
Wow. Impressive numbers.
In the aftermath of the news last night that US Forces killed Osama Bin Laden, Facebook and Twitter nearly caught on fire. Here’s an article that sums it up:
A Twitter Record That Has Nothing to do with Justin Bieber
I watched in amazement as the Facebook page: Osama being Dead climbed to over 10,000 followers in less than an hour. At the time of this post, roughly 24 hours later, over 31,000 fans have liked the page. A humorous Twitter user created an account GhostOsama and just 93 tweets later, has well over 40,000 followers. The ghost happens to follow just three others. An interesting list in order of follow: Charlie Sheen, Bill Maher and Mike Tyson.
If you had any doubts before how may people are online, how many people are logged in to their favorite social media platform, monitoring news, tweeting, posting and sharing…this article and this news event should provide good proof just how integrated these mediums have become. Even the facts stated in the article amazed me – topping 5100 TPS! I thought the Royal Wedding numbers were impressive! Ha!
Facebook Deals
Today Facebook announced that San Diego was one of just five cities chosen to help launch the new DEALS ON FACEBOOK program.
Facebook says, “A few months ago we launched Check-In Deals, to help you get special offers when you check in at local businesses from your mobile. Today we’re going a step further and testing a new feature to help you find fun experiences to share with your favorite people: Deals on Facebook.
Initially, Deals will be available to people in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco and we hope to expand this test to other cities in the future.”
To acces deals, scroll down the left menu bar on your profile page. Clicking “Deals” will show you a page with all that’s on offer, including messages letting you know which friends have liked that deal.
Facebook is counting on the popularity of the LIKE button and word-of-mouth advertising to promote what deals available and for users to see what their friends are liking. I’ve already subscribed because I am interested to see what offers pop up and admire Facebook’s strategy. It’s convenient, too because I don’t have to go to another website like GroupOn or LivingSocial to see what offers are available in my community.
What I don’t like about the deals program on the Facebook platform is that it gives Facebook just that much more information about me. For small businesses hoping to gain better exposure and not go broke on traditional advertising methods, participating in the Facebook Deals should prove a huge advantage.
Have you subscribed yet? Will you use the deals offered or are you leery of FB knowing too much about you? Will you promote your small business through Facebook?
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