The “Trend”. More brands are turning to social media to reach more of their customers through trending, they are not realizing the impact 1 tiny misspell or mistake can make.
Already in 2013 we have seen many social media fails. While they bring in a good laugh for the public, for the brands or companies it can be hugely embarrassing and worse.
Some of the biggest mishaps of 2012 were awarded with a SUXORZ awards at the New York social media show. Yes, just like the Razzies which are awarded for the worst movies of the year, prizes are now awarded for #socialmediafails!
Here are just a few of the recipients…
Belvedere Vodka
Belvedere thought it would be great to throw their hat into the meme ring. But when your fans mistake your “meme” as a promotion for rape an apology just doesn’t cut it.
Credit: SUXORZ
Tip: Think it through. When attempting a comical ad piece, think about your audience and what your brand is trying to convey. Ask yourself what is the goal of this promotion and go from there.
Susan Boyle
They say any press is good press. For Susan Boyle, her trending hashtag was the talk of twitter (and won her an award). #Susanalbumparty was one of the top trending topics last year. If you can’t see why… look harder.
Tip: Pick more than 1 hashtag option. When thinking of trending a topic, pick a few options to find the perfect fit for your campaign or promotion. Proof read twice, then a third time, even five times. Then have a group of people review them to. Fresh eyes are always helpful. The goal is to choose a hash tag that is legible and easy to understand.
McDonald’s
Look before you leap should be the motto for all social media campaigns. McDonald’s attempted to engage their followers by asking for heartwarming stories with the trending hash tag #McDStories. The hashtag quickly trended with negative stories and backlash and the campaign was pulled after 2 hours.
Tip: Understand that people like to complain more than praise. Tread carefully when asking for feedback or any type of response on Facebook, Twitter or Google+. Word spreads quickly in the age of social media.
Know of any other social media snafus. Please share them here!
How many blogs have you read about how to create a successful social media campaign or what elements should go into a social media soup? There are hundreds of tips on how to create a successful social media strategy. But how do you do that and not risk of loosing focus for your brand.
Let’s face facts first: social media is here to stay. When you open up the gates to the wonderful world of social media, there are key ingredients that should be imbedded into your brain… forever. Like the golden rules of life, there are golden rules to social media. HOWEVER, these golden rules are always changing. The realm of social media is fluid and changing almost everyday. New and invigorating ideas comes out of the shadows to change social media. THAT is something to love about being a part of social media and marketing – if you can stay flexible!
Also, when someone tells you “I’m a social media expert”, don’t believe them. Why? As has been stated, social media is always changing. With change comes new knowledge and an expert is someone who knows and understands everything about that subject matter.
When you come to that point where you are ready to plan your social media calendar there are a few things that are small, but make a world of difference for your brand and followers. Take the time to evaluate your plan after you’ve read these 3 tips.
1. Understand what you know.
It’s simple. The best way to do this is to create a writer’s web (see image below). We use these to help build characters, story lines and just basic writing ideas. When you have a good grasp of your brand content, ideas will be coming out of your brain like a rocket.
Start in the middle. What is your brand, what do you do or provide? Next spread out to things your audience know about your brand and why they follow you. Continue to grow the web to content your audience would like to have that you might need a 3rd party come in to help with. This will give you some support and help you produce content.
2. Focus
There are many social media outlets out there and from my experience, focus is very important. You need to understand and see benefits only to those outlets you have researched that fit with your brand. By putting all you eggs in one basket you’re losing focus and often enough will get overwhelm. Let’s say you are a clothing retailer; Pinterest is a great place to tap into. Companies who post their products on Pinterest saw big growth on their online sales on top of their already prosperous sales. If you’re like us we blog; posting our blogs on twitter and following relevant companies and influential people is key to gaining growth. By knowing what social site you will benefit from will help pull focus and engagement to your fans.
3. Timing
Time is money. Do you know when the best time to post content is? Did you know that 4:00pm during the week is the best time to post on Twitter for RTs? It may be a small thing to keep in mind, but it can make a big different. To get you to wrap your head around this idea here is a great infographic to give you some timing ideas.
Monitor the engagement you get when posting, not all these times will work best for your brand. Depending on your audience you should tweak your post times accordingly.
Overall, understand what your goals are and why you’re using social media for your brand. Integrate these 3 tips and they will help you generate content and get the engagement you are [hopefully] looking for and open up new networks for your business.
Have any more tips for me? Let me know in the comments below!
There’s been a lot of changes in the last 25 years, not only in the agency business but in business in general. I will be predictable and say it has all come about because of the computer. That would be right to a certain extent. However, I believe it’s the way in which business and people have embraced the computer and its technology that is responsible for the majority of the business shifts.
Here’s my list of what has changed at 3H over the last 25 years:
The space a designer needs: It really seems like yesterday I was trying to fit one more large drafting table in the studio… let alone purchasing one more Art Director Marker set and art pads and sketch pads to bring in a new designer. Gone are those days!
Our inspiration tools: Gone are the days of flipping through Creative Source or Illustration Guild books to get inspired for the next big idea. At 3H, we use to have a library of creative and resource books… now we have half a shelf…and that’s going too! Image banks are the tools of inspirations nowadays and there’s nothing wrong with that… until those images become the concept!
How concepts are presented: With the advent of the computer and printers, now mock ups seem complete and already done. Clients have a difficult time in processing that what is in front of them is “conceptual”… not complete. That even if we could purchase the image on our mock ups, artwork has to be created, images have to be prepped, copy has to be finalized… etc… At times, I lament over marker renderings where it was obvious the person in an ad was a place holder for an image of a person that was yet to be casted, chosen and photographed!
Time to develop:If the speed of business is fast and faster… the agency business is at warp speed! There’s a belief by business in general that since everything is computer driven, it should take less time. That is very rarely the case, if ever. Computers in the creative world have provided creative types and agencies with the ability to expand on the possibilities and to show them in more concise ways. It still takes the time it takes to come up with an idea and to develop it!
The definition of a designer: What really is a designer? In my way of thinking, designers need to be conceptual thinkers in the visual medium. This is just my opinion… but find, many designers today know technology and yet have no conceptual vibe. They rely on image to create a concept rather than using the image as a resource too. More and more the designers out of school today think inside the screen and not inside their minds! Again… my opinion.
Relationship building: Time is at a premium. With the speed of business coupled with, restructuring, right-sizing, down-sizing or whatever hip term is currently out there… clients don’t have the time nor the inclination to go for lunch. But for those of us who do have a relationship with our business partners (yes, I mean clients!), the relationship is stronger… texting, emailing and yes even face timing. It has allowed us to reach out in snippets…by the sentence, being integrated in the day to day fabric.
Cold calling:Cold zinging you mean! Getting someone on the phone to talk to you when they don’t even know you is more difficult. How we get leads… and follow up on them is totally different. On line lead generation, web site lead generation and e-zines are now the “in” thing to do in cold calling. That means efforts can be more streamlined both in time and money. A warm lead is much better than a cold one…so rather than spend your efforts and money on cold and warm alike, you can double your efforts on the ones that have expressed an interest…or following.
Brand reaching capabilities: The ways in reach we reach our target markets… and how niche we can go is astounding and becoming more so each and everyday. Through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, tumblr, Youtube, Linkedin), online properties, blogs, blogging, traditional media the options available to local, small, big and global advertisers are numerous and very exciting! Some of these channels don’t require design, but all require time and know how…that hasn’t changed a bit!
3H launched in 1988 with its corporate logo in Purple and Mustard. We had become synonymous with Purple because of our Mustard accents… and then we changed our accent to Titanium to speak to the digital and technology…to change our clients’ perception of what it is we do… but still remaining in the Purple so to speak. I am not sure what the next 5 to 10 years will hold, but I have often been heard saying “Complacency in business means death”… and I believe it.
Over the last 25 years, the ability to change has changed. Businesses are constantly looking for the new opportunity and are more than ever, open to the next best thing… even though embracing it still takes a little time.
Is there going to be a shift in social media this year? Do you think that there will be a new competitor making its way to our computers this year?
Being the fore front of social media can be key to targeting and gaining more reach for your brand. We all strive for the newest and hottest change in social media and we want to be the brand with the most knowledge of it.
From all of the blogs I’ve read it seems like 2013 will be a big year for social media, like every year there is something new and I’ve taken the time to sort through many blogs about the potential 2013 social media trends and I’m bring them to you!
Here are the shifts in social media to watch for:
1. A picture IS worth a 1,000 words:
We saw a huge growth in picture story telling. From tumbler to Pinterest, users are being more interactive by posting their life via images. Pinterest will continue to soar because it allows users to collectively use images along with their links to depict their likes. Also a new app called SnapChat is making headway by allowing the user to snap a picture for a friend as a way to chat. You collect points for people taking screenshots and a timer can be set for the duration of the images showcase.
2. Mobile
This really is a given and won’t go away for a while. With the growth of mobile and as the need to be more efficient continues; having everything at our finger tips, expect 2013 to see the rise of mobile over the computer. Most are seeing huge number increases with accessing mobile webpages and apps over computers.
3. A better Facebook for your business
From an article on The Social Media Examiner one blogger is expecting to see premium version offered for Facebook Pages. With content creation and more analytics it will be strictly business focused.
4. Podcasting will make a comeback!
We might see a rise in podcasting this year as more and more businesses are trying to give back and be more interactive with their consumers. It’s all about knowledge and educating the consumer. We’ve become so fast pace that rather than reading about trends, the world, or even how-tos we can now listen. It’s on the go and can be downloaded right to your phones and ipods.
5. Augmented Reality
With the prospective launch of Google glasses this year we will see a huge rise in augmented reality, not that we haven’t already. Mostly games like Ghostbusters Paranormal Blast that launched this year and Google Skyview are taking advantage of this technology. Expect to see Social Media integrated more as A.R advances.
We all know social media isn’t going away anytime soon. It has a powerful voice and it allows our consumers to have a big voice. If you aren’t already taking advantage of these sites, you’re missing out. There are huge benefits to being in the social game and I advise you to take your brand on Facebook or Google+. Be aware of the new up and coming social media and don’t turn your nose up to the change. Understand the the World Wide Web evolves quicker than a Justin Bieber tweet and we need to stay in the loop all the time.
Here’s a great video to sum up the 2012/2013 social media evolution, enjoy!
Have you noticed you’ve been losing Twitter followers and you don’t know why? Did you work hard to gain your followers and find yourself struggling to keep them? Do you have numbers but a very small engagement ratio? If you’re losing followers, then there is a good chance you need to adjust some Twitter techniques to stop this from happening.
Let’s take a look at how to gain and keep more Twitter followers:
Retweet like you mean it-One way that you can build and keep more Twitter followers is to retweet posts from other people. But be deliberate about it- don’t just spam RTs down your feed. Instead, take time to spot good posts from your network and share it, retweet from the blogs that you read and other great content you find on the Web.
Send @ Replies-Retweeting and sending @ replies to people is another good way to get them to follow you back. You don’t have to be following someone to talk to them or to see their tweets (unless they have a protected feed) so a good way to get more followers and to keep the ones you have is to take time to talk with people. Comment on their tweets, something interesting you read in their profile or tweet their blog post and you will find more people following you back and those who do follow staying around longer.
Follow Friday-Although it’s been around forever and is sometimes abused, Follow Friday (#followfriday) is still a good way to gain more followers and to keep the ones you have. If a follower sees that you are recommending them to your feed, they are much more likely to continue following you.
Buy some Twitter followers- It’s not enough just to buy Twitter followers though. You need to engage with those targeted users to keep them around. Did you buy Twitter followers and then fail to do anything to boost engagement? Buying followers will only get you so far if you don’t provide something for them to interact with. Even targeted fans will grow bored if you’re not using your Twitter stream correctly.
Create a Twitter content plan-Finally, the best way to get more followers to your Twitter is to create a Twitter content plan. Sit down and think about your target audience and your goals for using Twitter. What do you hope to accomplish with your Twitter account? What will your target audience want to read about from you? What types of content can you produce and share that will be of most value to them? Spend some time researching and planning and then you will have a Twitter feed that’s full of regular followers.
Twitter is a fast-paced micro-blogging social platform. If you’re losing Twitter followers, there’s a good chance you’re just boring them. While it only takes a few minutes to type out 140-characters or less, it pays off in the long run to put some thought into what you’re sharing.
Do you have some tips of your own to add to the list?
Lisa Mason is a Twitter addict, content marketing specialist and lover of all things social. Drop by and say hi @writerlisamason.
