Twitter List Tutorial
Last week I promised you a view of the new Twitter Profile and a tutorial for how to make Twitter lists. Please be patient with me as this is my first attempt to record activity on my computer screen!
Twitter lists are one of the most effective way to organize your followers and to find content to share across all of your social channels. Twitter lists are incredibly easy to create, but will require a bit of time to sort out if you already have a healthy following. In this week’s video I show you how I’ve built my Twitter lists and how I use them to stay on top of my contacts and Twitter.
Twitter’s newly designed profiles are available to all users (see photo below). Look at those big, beautiful header images, which can be used to brand yourself or your organization. You’ll want to apply some of the same strategies as you do with your Facebook cover and use the image to celebrate holidays, events and other news which can be visually captured.
Another great feature on the new Twitter Profile is the “Pin to Top” feature, where you can choose one pin to remain at the top of your Twitter feed, much like the feature on Facebook’s Timeline. You can cleverly use this feature to place your favorite tweet, most retweeted, an event announcement, or even a video which describes your brand.
I’ll show you the new profile design in Twitter, in addition to the Twitter list tutorial, so take a moment and enjoy this week’s video!
JCPenny Missed the Train to the Super Bowl
These are four tweets that had everyone talking about JCPenny on Super Bowl Sunday, but for all the wrong reasons.
Here are the series of tweets in the order they were tweeted:
We're ready for the big game no matter the temp. Staying warm thanks to #TeamUSA mittens! http://t.co/xzB8FLljox pic.twitter.com/pqocEbkC9K
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 2, 2014
Who kkmew theis was ghiong tob e a baweball ghamle. #lowsscorinh 5_0
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 2, 2014
Toughdown Seadawks!! Is sSeattle going toa runaway wit h this???
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 3, 2014
Oops…Sorry for the typos. We were #TweetingWithMittens. Wasn't it supposed to be colder? Enjoy the game! #GoTeamUSA pic.twitter.com/e8GvnTiEGl
— JCPenney (@jcpenney) February 3, 2014
Apparently, the folks over at JCPenny thought it would be funny to tweet with mittens. It would have been funny if the weather had remained freezing and if their mittens had Broncos and Seahawks logos on them. But the mittens they used said “Go USA” and they used the hashtags #GoUSA and #GoTeamUSA. Not a mention of #Superbowl or #SB48 or even #brandbowl. It seemed they thought the “big game” was the Olympics? Hard to tell what they intended.
Apparently, Good Morning America was the only other brand who could find a clever way to respond, as that is the only retweet JCPenny made on the issue. The rest of us in the field of social media, branding and communication were talking about how far JCPenny missed the mark. Yes, thousands were retweeting and talking about JCPenny, but when most assume that the intern you’ve hired to do your social media posts is drunk because the tweets are so awful and off-topic, that is not attention you want.
Cutesy never works on Twitter, and ill-timed, irrelevant material works even less. I’m not sure why the JCPenny team didn’t have one more meeting before SuperBowl weekend to re-work their strategy, especially when the weather became a non-issue. Whatever their team is doing, they should read the negative sentiment as a major mis-fire and rethink the people on their strategy team. It just didn’t work. It is super clear that the marketing team doesn’t understand what does work during these types of events.
On a side note, Snickers took advantage of the situation and used the JCPenny missteps to boost their own brand, tweeting:
Eat a #SNICKERS, you’re not you when you're hungry RT @JCPenney Who kkmew theis was ghiong tob e a baweball ghamle. #lowsscorinh 5_0
— SNICKERS® (@SNICKERS) February 3, 2014
Now that’s how you do it. Timely. Clever. Funny. On point.
One of the other brand commercials who had their head in the game was H&M. Shortly after their first David Beckham commercial aired, they put up the “instant replay” on their Instagram Account. That was super smart. Want to see a lot of David Beckham again and again? Click here —> http://instagram.com/p/j7ycBBAUaN/ … It yielded high brand engagement for all the right reasons.
Finally, the Twitter feed for @Tide was on fire during the entire game. They found a way to integrate their brand with others. And yet they didn’t pay for a Super Bowl ad. For example, after the Cheerios ad, they tweeted a vine:
Adding a puppy to the family @Cheerios? Beware of puppy stains. @Tide #GetsItOut #SB48 https://t.co/hvKzXFm8q9
— Tide (@tide) February 3, 2014
And that was the opportunity they looked for in most of the big brand ads. From the Budweiser spots to some fun with John Stamos and the yogurt ad. Simply brilliant.
What was your favorite TV or social ad during the Super Bowl? Which ad was your least favorite? Leave a comment below and share with the rest of us. Unfortunately, I’m not sure any of the ads were strong enough to save us from the horror that was the Super Bowl! What a game!
Facebook Likes and Reputation Management
When I have the opportunity to speak with college students – student-athletes, Greeks or graduate students – I am always curious which point of the presentation will resonate most. Of course, college students believe they already know everything they need to know about social media and assume they are “doing it right.” So when I use examples from their own profiles, posts which are embarrassingly bad, they do tend to perk up and realize they have room to improve their communication skills.
This week, I was so pleased to speak with student-athletes at Cal State San Marcos. Athletic and Club Sport athletes joined me to learn how they can use social media and communication to achieve their goals.
During the presentation, I pointed out that one’s reputation also stands upon the types of posts and things you like and the people you associate yourself with online. Some of the students have liked more than 1000 Facebook Pages. I cannot even fathom what these Pages are, but with a quick glance over many profiles, they are not Pages which work to build a good reputation.
We also discussed the accounts they were retweeting. When Twitter handles like @ReallyStonedPanda and @WeedReport pop up in someone’s news feed, it’s a clear indication that they enjoy the content these accounts produce. Retweeting them is associating yourself with them and their content. And as you can gather from these two examples, this type of association does not work to build a good reputation.
Wouldn’t we love to believe that it’s just college students who do not take care with what they like and who they retweet? Many seasoned professionals have room to improve their skills, as well. So in this week’s video, I mention a few social networks and what you need to take care of to maintain a positive profile and manage your reputation.
A quick breakdown:
Facebook – Be mindful of the Pages you like and the posts you like, comment on, and share. Make sure your “friends” are people you actually know.
Twitter – Take care with who you follow AND who follows you. You are associated with both. Double check the Twitter handle and content of the accounts you retweet.
Pinterest – Follow people and businesses who have good content and who are reputable. Repinning pictures which are linked to “spammy” sites is not a good practice.
LinkedIn – Accept invitations from people you know, have done business with and who add value to your contact base. Remember my advice from my networking video – You want to be able to connect the people in your network. Help them in their business so they will help you with yours. (You can also check out the blog post on networking, too.)
YouTube and Blog Comments – Often overlooked, your comments on blogs and videos says a lot about you. What videos are you watching? What types of blogs do you interact with? If they are controversial on any level, your interaction with them paints you in a negative light. Your comments are discoverable online.
Finally, please remember that NOTHING online is private. It doesn’t take much to learn about a person with a simple Google search and a bit of browsing through social sites. When the recruiter or admissions officer, the media or your colleagues take a tour of your online profile, what will they find? And what will the things you like and the people you associate with say about you?
Tell me in the comments if you are a person who is diligent about managing your reputation. Do you already take care with what you like and who you follow? What other things do you do to protect your brand? Share your advice in the comments! Thank you!
The ‘It was hackers’ excuse
When a high-profile person posts something stupid on social media and then gets “caught,” it seems the only excuse on the table lately is, “It wasn’t me, it was hackers.” Yawn. Who actually believes this excuse? Who ever did?
The latest to offer up this all-to-common excuse is young NHL player, Tyler Seguin. He was just traded to the Dallas Stars. The tweet in question? “Only steers and queers in Texas.” You can read more about the what the 21-year-old tweeted HERE.
Of course, he deleted his tweet, and the team has “addressed” Seguin as well as issued the obligatory, “This, in no way, represents the organization, blah blah blah,” statement. In addition to the standard apology and clarification, the Stars also included, “…and we’ll continue to work on educating our players regarding the importance of their conduct on all forms of social media.” Work on educating? That’s a fancy way of saying, “try.”
An athletic organization that doesn’t take the time to educate – not attempt or try or wish to but actually really sits their athletes down for some hard core PR and communication training – deserves the heat of the spotlight when their players behave irresponsibly. Those organizations should not be allowed to issue the empty “it was hackers” or “we’ve addressed the issue” excuses if they are not going to invest the time and effort to protecting their brand by equipping their front-line ambassadors with proper tools to represent the organization professionally, blades on or off.
My favorite quote from Seguin, not only expresses what TRULY happens when he’s online, but likely what happens when a lot of athletes and others decide it is time to tweet. “…sometimes I forget that I’m on Twitter in front of a quarter-million people and not just talking to my friends. It’s just another learning experience.” That is the mentality we are dealing with. And that is a behavioral shift that can easily be changed with good old fashioned education.
Beaming Bohemian consults with university athletic departments to establish social media guidelines, educate staff, coaches and student-athletes, and implement strategic communication and content plans which work to achieve positive and purposeful goals.
It’s Also What You Like
Last night I spoke with another group of undergrads, this time at UCLA. I was, again, surprised with the small numbers of students who have LinkedIn accounts, especially students who are graduating. We have got to get these young adults up to speed on better use of social media!
When I conduct these seminars, I provide students with both the good and the bad of social media. It’s important to show them how easy it is to make a major mistake, but also give them some good examples to follow. They need inspiration as much as they do a wake up call.
One of the things that stuck with my group last night, was the lesson that it’s not just about what you say, but also what you like. Facebook’s search has become much more powerful with the release of Open Graph. You can search for things like “My friends who like dogs,” or “People who live in San Diego who go to SDSU and like surfing.” These searches will produce results with a list of profiles. At UCLA, I targeted the search for members of the group who like “partying”and “Drinking” and such.
Luckily enough, one of the audience members popped up in my search results. He was amazed, as well as all of his friends. But it is terrific when this happens in real time. This young man ‘Liked’ almost 300 pages on Facebook. He admitted that he could not remember everything he liked and had no idea that he could be found by non-friends via the search function.
As I’ve said many times, Beaming Bohemian exists to infuse communication with positivity and purpose. In the case of these students, I enjoy to helping them find their positive purpose and new approach for using social media. If they begin to see how the professional world is using tools like Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram to conduct business, market, communicate and recruit employees, they begin to look at how they can take advantage of these platforms, versus just socializing. Students easily pick up how they need to fix and build their image and manage their reputation.
Drug Deals, Twerking and Sorority Girls
What a week for news in San Diego! There were three news stories which affected teens and university students this week, where social media played a heavy hand in getting “caught.”
Don’t set up meetings on Facebook.
Students at Abraxas, Mission Hills, Poway and Ramona high schools, and were able to buy narcotics, according to sheriff’s officials. The variety of drugs purchased included heroin, cocaine, marijuana, oxycodone and hydrocodone. Wow. That’s some pretty serious stuff for high school! Are you wondering how the authorities track some of these sales? You guessed it. Social Media. The students arranged many of the drug deals over social media.
I now know what Twerking is!
Before I saw this new report, I had no idea what “twerking” was. I’m not sure what to do with this knowledge, but I now know what this suggestive butt-shaking is all about. And this twerking story also revolves around social media. Scripps Ranch High School students found themselves in very hot water after one student decided to share a student-produced twerking video on YouTube. A few problems with that? The video was made on campus and with school equipment.
I say many, many, many times in my social media sessions, “Nothing is private.” That speaks to things you choose to record or allow others to record (and even things you didn’t know are being recorded). It certainly applies to the things you post online.
A series of bad decisions led to this video getting made and posted to YouTube. This is not only a “think before you tweet” lesson, but a “think before you do.” What purpose does any of this serve? How will college admissions officers judge this video, and the decision to be in the video? This is another example of a misguided use of social media, and decisions which will only hurt these students in the long run.
Train students to use social media responsibly.
Even at the college level, students made a poor choice this week when it came to posting photos on Instagram. Members of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority at CSU San Marcos posted photos of themselves dressed like Latina gang members. Apparently the photos were taken during a retreat.
A few things are disturbing, in addition to the blatant cultural disrespect. A friend of one of the Alpha Chi Omega members said, “We can’t nit-pick every little thing, because there’s a lot more worse things that could happen.” This tells me that many students might think this is “no big deal.” The other problem is that the news report ends with,
“A spokesperson for CSU San Marcos told 10News no disciplinary action will be taken against the sorority, but that extra diversity training will soon be offered to all students, especially incoming freshmen.”
Where is the social media training? These students will continue to do “stupid stuff” on social media if they are not taught the impact their actions have online. Yes, they need to be more culturally sensitive, however, they need to be more responsible with their communication via social media. I’ve spoken with fraternities and sororities who made similar mistakes on social networks and were disciplined by the university. Part of their requirement to lift sanctions? Learn how to use social media more positively and for better purposes.
These three news reports differ drastically in what actions occurred, however, what they all have in common is that our San Diego high school and university students have a grave misunderstanding of how social media can work against you when you do not behave responsibly online. I’m sure all of these students thought that they wouldn’t get caught, either. And that’s a behavior that’s even more disturbing. Our young adults need to understand that what they do online is just as serious and just as REAL as what they do offline. Behaving badly online is not something you can get away with. Your actions in both realities will catch up to you. I’d like to see more of our students truly understand that.
Social Spring Cleaning
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