Tag Archives: Twitter

Path, Twitter Cards and Instagram, and Facebook apps

I am cramming three topics into this quick blog.  I wanted to write about all three but didn’t want to spam out three posts back to back.  And, as it goes in the social media world – If I waited a week to post one of these it might not be relevant any longer.

Thus, here is your jam-packed threesome of social media topics on my mind for this fine Sunday morning in early May.

Path users can no longer “find friends” using Facebook within the app

I saw this article this morning while doing my very early morning “what’s going on out there?” twitter surf.   I am not surprised by any means.  Facebook hates things that they deem spam, or anything that comes off unclean to their users.path  They probably felt a little taken advantage of that they allowed Path to have this functionality and then family and friends of Path users were bombarded with invites, thanks to Facebook giving the “OK.”  Or so it seemed.  Facebook likes blocking things (see: Vine).  The social media war continues to get weird.

Instagram’s lack of Twitter Cards really sucks

I find this so annoying as a constant user of both Twitter and Instagram, and as one who has used Instagram for several brands from a business angle as well.   Instagram is to get that very visual content out there as a beautiful, pleasing connection with your fans.  You don’t want to just put the same photos in there that you put on other social platforms.  instagram However, you utilize other social platforms to basically ‘promote’ your Instagram posts and presence.  Now, Facebook does own it, so it obviously fully integrates on there pretty seamlessly.  I understand that Instagram was hoping this would drive more visitation to their Instagram site itself.  I get why they’re doing it.  All it did was annoy me and cause me to take in less Instagram content.

Again, the social media war drags on.

But when I am scanning my Twitter feed and see an Instagram link now, I honestly don’t even want to look at it.  I don’t want to click out and go to another website/app to see your picture.  I want to see it right there, and quickly consume it, like we used to.  I previously got most of my Instagram content from Twitter.  That all being said, I find myself using Instagram less and less.  Brands as we move forward might need to find new ways to get that content out there and not just rely on Twitter, just in case there are other people out there that hate those two extra steps now to get to your photo.  From first hand experience, once Twitter Cards went away, the brands I had on Instagram saw less activity from putting an Instagram photo out there on Twitter.  So…

The other side of this argument is from the people that use Instagram a TON, even more than Twitter.  They couldn’t care less about any of this.  For those people, this is no big deal at all.  For the Twitter-first user like me, this is a nuisance.

Are Facebook apps dying?  Or are they already dead?

I am only speaking from first hand experience managing and creating several Facebook apps for a couple different brands over the last few years.  I am not going off any article or stats that might have ‘made my mind up for me.’  So, these are just my thoughts as I’ve seen them evolve over the last 2 years.

People are really straying away from clicking on Facebook apps.  Users barely ever go to a brand’s actual page/timeline.  They consume from the newsfeed.  So, a post here and there or a sponsored story or marketplace ad will see a spike in traffic to the app, but overall it will most likely be pretty stale.

The apps themselves are more or less web pages that live within Facebook, on your brand’s page.  That just doesn’t seem that cool anymore.  People want things right there in front of them, seamless.  Not a page within a page that sometimes (God forbid) are even like-gated just to get in and see what the hell it is. Facebook-like-gate Like-gating.  So I seriously have to “sign-up” to get your status updates just so I can see this one Facebook app, or enter to win this one thing?  Real cool.

The new timeline changes will be altering the way they’re displaying anyway.  So, Facebook might already be on to this.  There will no longer be big boxes to click on.   Waiting on the verdict on that one…

Apps just aren’t cool anymore.  I said it a few sentences ago.  They are sooo 2011.

Agree with me?  Think I’m nuts?  I love to hear it.  Holler.

Vine campaigns give Android users the finger

This is a quick rambling blog post, but just something I think is relevant right now; the fact that Vine campaigns give Android users the finger.

I love Vine.  I think it’s awesome, and the future of social visual content…at least until the next really cool, trendy thing comes along.   So, I want to make that clear:  I love Vine.

However, Android users don’t get to experience Vine.  They are missing out.  And, that’s totally fine.  Twitter and Apple can have their love fest.  That is totally their call and they are entitled to it.  Remember when Instagram was only available for Apple, for like, 50 years?  OK, it wasn’t that long, but as an Android user it felt that way.  All the cool kids were making Android users feel like they were last picked on the kickball team.   Bitter?  Of course.  Can you tell?

And that’s Android users’ fault for using Android.  I totally get the argument.  But that’s not what I’m really talking about here.  Most Android users that I know would rather chew glass than get an iPhone, and vice versa.   So, it is what it is.vine-twitter

There are a freaking ton of Android users out there.  Well, how many is a “freaking ton?”  I wish I knew.  I couldn’t find any hard data detailing numbers of users for Android vs. iO6, just a bunch of infographics that made me want to throw up.  I spent a whole 3 minutes looking.   So, the factual, data-driven argument is extremely weak.  I know.  But we all know there are a “freaking ton” of Android users out there.

Why does this matter to a Vine branded campaign?

If you are a brand and you are running a trendy new Vine campaign, maybe hashtag driven for example, you are catering only to Apple (iOS) users.  Literally.  And that might completely be your strategy, but just keep that in mind.  You are basically promoting a campaign on other social channels and giving Android users the finger.  You’re missing out on a potentially large chunk of your audience and community that might love to participate in something like the Vine campaign.   So just be cognizant of how and where you are promoting it.

Instagram branded campaigns did not hit the scene with a vengeance until Instagram was opened up to Android about  a year ago.  Just sayin…

So for those of you with brands out there that are looking in to running a Vine campaign, just think about your Android fan base.  What about them?  Maybe it doesn’t matter to you.  Maybe this campaign is just a test and learn, which is great.  Maybe you don’t care that Vines also cannot be embedded or shared to Facebook, where most of your fans probably are already surfing around just waiting for new content.

If you’re targeting Twitter users and Apple users, then a Vine campaign is perfect right now.

That’s all I’m saying.  Just think about what mobile crowds you might be alienating.

But I love Vine.  I really do.

Begging for Likes and Retweets: Don’t be sleezy

“LIKE our page!”

“RT this if you LIKE us!”

“Do you LIKE awesome photos?”

“If you RT us, we’ll RT you!”

“Help us get to 1,000 followers.  Please RT this!”

“We need to get to 5,000 likes by Saturday – share this with your friends and help us out!”

—————————————————————————————————————–

I just threw up a little bit out of sheer annoyance after typing all of those out.  Unfortunately, those are actual examples that I’ve pulled straight from a couple different brand Facebook pages and Twitter handles.   What’s even more crazy are the countless articles, blogs, and “best practices” floating about that claim this is a solid strategy for your social media presence and engagement success.

All I have to say is this – if your brand social strategy is centered around either a number goal of fans/followers or begging people to engage with your content…you’re doing it wrong.

In the current social sphere, people want to talk to real people, hear from real people, and interact with real people.  They don’t want to be talked at by a brand.  So, if you are acting as a brand, you might as well start by talking like a real person with an authentic voice.  Social media isn’t your old fashioned marketing strategy, so your voice and tactics shouldn’t pretend to be.  It just won’t work.

And even the huge focus on fans and followers is a thing of the past.  If you are a start-up that has 57 fans then sure, you might want to set a reasonable number goal to get off the ground.  That’s a different situation.  If you aren’t talking with anyone, then what’s the point?  However, if you are an established brand, why do you care so much about a number?  You can go buy that number and then what?  Have them unfollow you a month later or never engage with your content?  Most won’t even see your content in their newsfeed now.  Yeah, thanks for that, Facebook.

I still do think there are situations or strategies where promoting certain pieces of content or messages can serve a valid purpose.  You will most likely gain fans along with this promotion, but they’re joining you based on the content your promoted.   They were attracted and took an action.  That’s an effect of the promoted content, but fan growth wasn’t the goal.  My problem is with a straight-up fan gaining spend.  No content.  Just buying fans.  That just feels a bit dirty to me.

And yes, I have done the whole incorporating the word “Like” into a post thing to make it clear that I wanted likes on the piece of content.   I felt sleezy.   It just felt fake.  I did this roughly a year ago as a “let’s see how this works” trial.  Nothing wrong with trial and error.  That’s a HUGE part of social media.  But, if it just doesn’t feel right, and you would hate it if you were a fan seeing it from a brand, then it’s probably not the right way to go.  Go with your gut.  Don’t be sleezy.  Don’t beg.

If you are begging for engagement or numbers, you’re doing it wrong.  Let your content do that for you organically, naturally, from people that actually do enjoy what you’re putting out there.  That’s where your true engagement should come from.   And I know it’s easier said than done.  You don’t just have great content overnight.  It can take a while with a lot of planning, strategy, resources, and distribution.  But, when you do get there, that’s when you and your fan-base will click.

Seriously, that wasn’t a “click” pun.

a tweet chat with my CEO

Last week I got the very cool opportunity to host a tweet chat with Vail Resorts’ CEO, Rob Katz (@RickysRidge).  Not something you see every day – an open, public discussion with someone so highly ranked in such a big company.  It was a very cool experience.  Many other folks jumped in as well, adding questions to the conversation.  Rob answered every single one, and added in some jokes, too.

The main topic was social media.

Rob offered some great opinions and thoughts, and he did it all within the 140 character limit, including the chat hashtag (#VRSS12)!

This is just another testament to how important social media/business has become, and also how committed Vail Resorts is to being a leader in the socialsphere.  I want to give major props to Rob for being so willing to jump on a tweet chat.

I hope to see more of this from other companies and industries.  Social-savvy CEOs are the future.  Other leaders out there who haven’t quite taken a liking to social media, or haven’t quite jumped in yet; take the lead from Mr. Katz.  That’s how you do it.

 

 

my Twitter geek-out moment of the week

Every once in a while, we in social media have geek-out moments.  OK, actually probably much more than every once in a while.  This happens quite a bit.  Whether it is a new gadget, app or platform – we who “do” social media for a living are passionate about this stuff.

I had a geek-out moment last night.

I tweeted a photo that I took at the Denver Broncos training camp that day.  Simple enough, right?  I had already done some fancy editing to it in Instagram to make me think I’m a really good/cool photographer.  I wanted to share this image with the official @Denver_Broncos Twitter handle, since, you know, every once in a while big name Twitter handles spread the love.  I really thought the picture was pretty sweet.

I didn’t want to share my actual Instagram link with the Broncos community manager, as I figured that has much less chance of being re-shared to some extent.  That is more along the lines of self promoting my Instagram handle by way of my Twitter handle, and asking a big-name Twitter account to do that for me.  Too many steps and gateways.  They just want to a share a picture right there.  They have 165,000 followers and always appear to be pretty selective with what they RT and post.  Slim chance.

So, I just took the Instagram-edited photo from my phone’s memory card and shared that on Twitpic as a free-standing image.  No tie-in to Instagram.

Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, the Broncos official Twitter handle Re-Tweeted my original tweet to their large follower-base.  Granted, many of which did not see the post, but it’s still cool.   They replied to my tweet and kept my handle in their post.  This is when I geeked out.  About 10 minutes later the tweet had been RT by others 83 times and ‘favorited’ by another 34.  My Twitter handle was mentioned each time.  OMG!!!

I know, this really shouldn’t be that exciting.  Behind even the Broncos’ account is a community manager (who was totally on it after 9 PM by the way), or social manager of some kind.  A human.  Doing a similar job that I do.  However, for some reason it’s still exciting to see your Twitter handle out there mentioned by a “big deal.”  I geeked out.  I know, beat it nerd.

As of this afternoon the tweet has 126 RT, 49 Favorites, 9 other mentions and my Twitpic has been viewed over 1,200 times.

Without the Broncos boost, I guarantee I probably would have 1, maybe 2 RTs and potentially 100 views.

So with a few clicks and one post, boom.  Another quick example of the the power of social media.

And I’m a geek.

a vacation from social can be good for you

My family and I went on a vacation last week.  Not the tropical, I’m just going to lay on the beach and sip terribly fruity drinks I hate just because of the fact that I’m on a beach type of vacation… but rather the we’re going back home to the Midwest for a wedding and want to see old friends and family type of vacation.  Both have their pluses and minuses.

I shut myself completely out of social media for 5 days.   Well, almost completely.

I checked my own personal feeds a few times, and maybe posted 1 or 2 updates.  But, I did not look at the business accounts that I manage….once.  Seriously.  My fabulous team was covering for me and making sure nothing hit the fan.  It was not easy for me. I am so programmed to click on the brand pages I manage before even looking at my personal feeds – sometimes I don’t even look at my own for a day or two at a time.  I am so deep into the business accounts that they have become my own; in a way.  If you manage business accounts from the client side or an agency side, either one, you know what I’m talking about.

This was the first time in a year that I took more than 1 day off at a time.  So, not looking at social media as “work” for 5 days was ground breaking for me.  It was weird.  I was so curious.  I wanted to know.  But, I realized I didn’t HAVE to know.  I forced myself to stay away and it was…healthy.  When social media is your job, it is a much different beast than people using it for personal reasons.  I wasn’t going to look at my email for 5 days, so, why would I look at the Facebook page?

People who mow lawns for their job aren’t going to sneak in a few quick yards while on vacation.

In the time that I was away from the social business world, Mashable kindly posted around 100 articles of “social media news.”  I typically read several different online social news sources to keep up on what’s new, updates, changes, and beyond.  But, I usually check Mashable first.  Just because.  Not necessarily because it is the best.  Personally I think they blow stories out of proportion most of the time to qualify it as news, but that’s just me.  I still read it.

Why am I telling you this?

100ish social media articles.  Pile that on top of the many emails waiting for me in my inbox and you have an exploded head.  Keeping up with all that is constantly changing, growing, improving, sucking, disappearing, coming back, and working with social media is impossible.  Even if you sit and read articles ALL day you would still miss something.  You can take snippets of all of the “big” news and at least be aware, but to completely be on top of absolutely everything new in the social online world is just silly.  When I got back I skimmed a few of the articles, took away some key headlines and basically chalked up the time from June 6 – 11, 2012 as the week that I had no idea what was going on in social media.

And it feels good.

I like to stay on top of as much of it as I can, so, if I am unaware of something down the road I will just blame these 5 days and hope this “news” dropped while I was on a break.  That might work, right?

Now I am back at it.  But to those of you who also live in social media for your job – make sure to give yourself some breaks, even if just for a few days.  After the 2nd or 3rd day it gets easier.  Do it.  You’ll keep your sanity and want to dive back in that much more when you return.

some social brands doing it well, in my opinion

Social media as we know it is still very young.  And by “as we know it,” I am referring to the daily connections with our favorite brands, companies and organizations.  Personal use of the socialsphere is also still pretty young, hovering around a decade or so if you are looking at Friendster and Myspace.  And if there was anything “social” before 2002, I’m sorry, I missed it.  Social media as it now sits, has taken over our online worlds.  Sure you can still find out if your younger cousin Toby got his wisdom teeth out, but you can also communicate directly with your favorite beer, sports team, or celebrity.

You might not always get a response, which is unfortunate, but you can feel like you are part of their daily operations or lives.  And, believe it or not there is a human behind the brand’s voice.  (I know from first hand experience as I am one of those humans.)  Hopefully the company or brand you follow knows how to use that voice to their advantage and to connect with fans.  Even the ones that sound like a robot still have a human somewhere in the process, as hard as that  may be to believe.

But I digress.

I follow a ton of brands across the social web.  I want to point out some of my favorites (keeping this list to Facebook and Twitter).  In my mind, these brands are doing a great job of being human, reaching their fans, keeping the content interesting and fresh, and making you want more.  Here’s my current short list, in no particular order….

 

Skittles

  • (Facebook) Hilarious, ridiculous one-liners that you read and immediately just say “WTF?”  But then you laugh, sometimes out loud.  Their voice is consistent and doesn’t waiver much if at all.  Very witty and entertaining.  I love that the vast majority of their content has nothing to do with their product, proving the point that just selling, promoting, and marketing by way of social media is not a winning strategy.  Being interesting wins. (facebook.com/skittles)

 

ESPN

  • (Twitter) An extremely human voice that sounds like your friend you are watching the game with, smashing beers with.  It’s a very witty line-up of tweets that work sports into the heart of the content.  They don’t stray away from their lifeblood, but they do find a way to make that straightforward content interesting, different.  It doesn’t just sound like news. (twtter.com/espn)

 

Keystone Light

  • (Facebook) Keith Stone and his always smoothness has taken to Facebook and it’s fantastic.  This lower budget and/or college beer definitely knows who they are targeting and they do it well.  Their posts are geared towards dude who like to drink a ton of beer.  They’re witty, in the same voice as their TV commercials and on brand.  I love when brands know what they are and go for it. (facebook.com/keystonelight)

 

Foursquare

  • (Facebook) This one is interesting because it is another prominent social platform, with a presence on another prominent social platform.  That in itself isn’t that odd, but to do it well is another thing.  Foursquare doesn’t really go for humor but they talk about their new pins, locations, tips, specials, new partnerships and what not.  It’s interesting.  Lucky for them their business is interesting, so the content follows suit.  They do talk about themselves a lot but it doesn’t come off annoying.  At least not to me. (facebook.com/foursquare)

 

Red Bull

  • (Twitter) Not only is this one of the coolest brands around right now, and they have one of the best overall marketing campaigns in the country, but they are very human on Twitter.  They aren’t necessarily funny or overly interesting, but they are human.  Go look at their Twitter feed – they respond to pretty much everybody who tweets at them.  Not a big deal for a smaller company, but this is impressive for a brand presence like Red Bull who has over 600K followers on Twitter.  (twitter.com/redbull)

 

Cheerios

  • (Facebook) First and foremost, I’ve loved Cheerios since I have been alive.  My son loves Cheerios.  So, with a biased approach I loved this brand already.  But, their Facebook presence isn’t half bad.  They use fans’ photos as part of their cover image which immediately brings the brand to a human level, they have interesting tips for healthy living and speak directly to people like me that just plain love Cheerios.  (facebook.com/cheerios)

 

The Today Show

  • (Facebook) Making news reach beyond news is a strength of social media.  While this concept isn’t earth shattering, I think the Today Show does a good job with their Facebook timeline.  The stories we see every morning become interactive discussions, and they pull in trending topics from Twitter as newsworthy discussions on air.   I know that many other news entities do the same thing.  Fine.  This is my list.  (facebook.com/today)

 

Lowe’s

  • (Twitter) Doing a house project and need help?  Lowe’s on Twitter is there for you.  They even lead their profile description with “Got a complaint, compliment, or question?  Let us know!”  This is customer service done right using a social tool that is so perfect for it.  There responses are very human, and helpful.  A great way to connect with customers. (twitter.com/lowes)

 

Creative Recreation

  • (Facebook) I’ve been rockin’ a pair of hybrid boat shoes from CR for the last 8 years.  Yeah, they definitely don’t look like new, but I still love them.  This is a cool brand that has grown a ton in the last decade and has a cool social presence to go with it.  Good content is the key to any good social channel, and their vivid imagery, sweet products, and conversational posts seem to connect well with their fans.  (facebook.com/creativerecreation)

managing brand social media is a lot more than responding to tweets

Quite often I am asked what it’s like to be on Facebook all day.  Or Twitter.  Or whatever else social platform you want to enter in here ________________.  Anyway, I usually just laugh and say something like, “it’s work.”  The truth is, managing social media for a successful business is a beast of a job nowadays, especially if you are doing it right and growing, expanding, innovating…and staying on top of the community.  The funny thing is, to a person that really knows very little about social media, I am just playing on a website that their 14 year old kid sits on for hours a day with that smart phone they shouldn’t have yet.

In reality, managing a social presence across many different platforms and channels for a business, is like running a business in itself.  You need customers (fans and followers) and you need to provide a product or service (great content).   In return you get paid (engagement).  If you are really lucky you turn that into profit (actual revenue by web traffic to your site or sales direct from the platform).  Simple equation, right?

What a lot of people don’t understand is that it is MUCH more than just monitoring Facebook and Twitter.  If that was the case, then social manager jobs in big cities wouldn’t ask for 3-5 years experience managing a social presence for a business and brand(s).  At this point, not much beyond 5 years can really be required, since such a large number of businesses hadn’t even adopted social media yet in 2007.  Well, most of the platforms that we all know and love didn’t even exist yet.  We still don’t have “experts” in social media yet.  We are close, but not quite there yet.  Yet!

Believe it or not, but a lot of thought goes into individual posts, social campaigns, and content.  The most important is the latter.  Without great content you won’t have engagement.  Without engagement…why are you on social media?  Just to sit there and be a brand?  If you think you need a Facebook page or Twitter handle just to have one, because that’s what businesses do now, then you’re missing the point.  You need a plan.  You need goals.

This might seem like I’m complaining about people thinking that managing social media is easy or elementary, as I manage social media for a brand.  However, I am more so just defending other social media managers, and hoping to educate people a little bit more about what it is that we do.

I will expand on this sooner than later, as I’d love to pick some of my favorites from around the socialsphere from brands I like, campaigns that were awesome, etc.  Look for it.

Twitter…slowing down while trying to grow

No, I am not leaving Twitter. Yet.  I will at least wait this one out.  And that wait, in my opinion, is getting shorter and shorter.

Before I get into any kind of facts or numbers I’ll just throw out some observations, which are completely not based on any solid fact or number.  Imagine that?  Over the last several months it looks as though the Twitterverse is slowing down.  This is based on what feels like a huge decrease in activity from my own personal followers and friends and way less mentions.  I know that you are probably thinking, “Well, then don’t put out terrible content.”  Ha.  This could be true, but what I am saying about it slowing down could also be true.

I have 350 followers.  Not huge, but a solid number made up of personal friends, business colleagues, industry experts and of course some randoms.  This group in the past had consistently been interactive and engaging.  Not so much anymore. I also follow many of these people, many of which barely even tweet now.  Just here and there, random updates.  Nothing like 2009-2011.  The entertainment factor of Twitter has taken a huge hit, at least for me, that’s for sure.

Now on to some numbers and facts.

A recent article by TechCrunch had some big news- Pinterest has now passed Twitter on the referral traffic generating scale.  In other words, Pinterest is now simply moving people around the web more than Twitter.  Businesses should take note.

The use has definitely declined by the tweeps on Twitter.  Mashable’s visual history of Twitter infograph lays out exactly that point.  150 million of the 200 million registered users do not log in to Twitter by day, and half of its registered users only log in once a month.  Of every 100 accounts, 20 are completely inactive, dead accounts.  And spammers?  Yeah, the accounts where people are following no one and also have no followers, and they mention you in a tweet with a random link?  Yeah.  Those. Are. Sweet.

Twitter isn’t exactly the log in once a month kind of social platform.  If you’re doing that, you’re kind of missing the point.

As I was thinking about this subject for a blog, I saw a Lowe’s TV commercial.  I found this very interesting and right on par with what I’m saying…at the end they flashed their social platform icons: Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.  No Twitter.  They do still have it on their website, but what does that say that they’d scrap Twitter from their social priorities to their television audience?  I think it says a lot.

There is also a flip-side to this argument, and Twitter is doing everything they can to keep it strong.  They recently launched brand pages for some hand-picked lucky companies to test out.  To be honest, at this point it isn’t much to get excited about.  Check out Coca-cola’s brand Twitter page; not really many bells and whistles.  There is space for a larger image or expanded video links with a thumbnail, and then a banner at the top where you can feature a hashtag or tagline.  Exciting.  Sarcasm.

Some folks do believe Twitter is doing more and more to enhance the brand pages.  I guess it’s yet to be seen, but simply upping the monetization of Twitter advertising doesn’t really cut it, in my opinion.

We’ll see.

I have always been a huge fan of Twitter and have it used it consistently for the last several years.  I completely believe in the power and virality of Twitter and absolutely love it from a business perspective for putting out news and updates, but that’s so one-sided.  However, with the ever-increasing “dead” accounts and spammers, and the decrease in use by the actually active accounts, it just seems to be moving in the wrong direction.  I will leave you with this last thought: Twitter will slowing fade away for personal, active users and will grow for businesses and celebrities.  People will simply follow along and it will continue to move in the direction of one-sided broadcasts as opposed to interaction and engagement.  This is an area where Facebook will leave Twitter in the dust in the year to come.