- Sep 11
- 27
How To Increase Your Twitter Following The Right Way
- Posted by Greg Schumchenia
- Published in Advice and Tips, Social Media, Social Media Marketing
Between you and me, I think most people out there don’t understand Twitter. I think they’re confused by the RT #hashtag @mention mumbo jumbo. But truth be told, it can be an insanely powerful business tool and can help spread your brand’s message like a wildfire.
Think of it like this: on Twitter you can chat with someone without being their “friend”. You’ve never been able to do that on Facebook. I’m not hating on Facebook, it’s amazing for so many things, but Twitter is a completely open arena for two-way communication.
The problem with Twitter is that people who aren’t confused by it sometimes abuse it. This is mostly by companies or people trying to sell you something. Realtors are a great example. Do you follow any real estate agents on Twitter? Don’t bother. All they do is Tweet house and apartment listings. Isn’t that what you already do on your website, Facebook page and blog? Don’t show me the same listings on 3 or 4 different channels and expect that to get my click. Say “Hi” to me or link me to an article you wrote on how awesome a particular neighborhood is. Would you ever meet someone in person and just start shouting real estate listings at them without saying anything else or even listening to them? Then don’t do it online either.
5 Comments- Aug 11
- 11
Three Rules for Language in Social Media (The Elements of Fu*$ing Style, Indeed)
- Posted by Ed Gazarian
- Published in Advice and Tips, Social Media Marketing
I am, at heart, and uncomplicated dude. Though I went through a rather protracted term of amassing large amounts of stuff, those times spent living dangerously are long behind me. These days, I remain keen on being able to fit everything I own (excluding furniture) into my car. If I can’t move it myself, I don’t want it around. Aiding this not-always innocuous strategy are several things:
- I drive an SUV
- I do virtually all my reading on a Kindle
- I wear mostly jeans and t-shirts, with the occasional custom-tailored, black two-button suit (even us noveau minimalists have to retain some semblance of style)
Understand, this is not some deep-rooted philosophy of engagement with life. This isn’t some quest to rid myself of “things”. What this is, is a preference to keep things uncomplicated. Clutter makes me crazy. The less stuff I have complicating my life, the more streamlined that life becomes (or, at the very least, feels). I am infinitely more effective, creative, and agile when things are kept uncomplicated. Note – I didn’t say simple. Remaining sensitive to the fact that life, inherently, is complex, it behooves one to move through it in an uncomplicated manner. Path of least resistance, ftw.
4 Comments- Jul 11
- 26
6 Best Practices for Calculating Return on Social Media
- Posted by Greg Schumchenia
- Published in Advice and Tips, Social Media Marketing
People that claim it’s impossible to calculate ROI in the social space are really just saying that they can’t calculate ROI in the social space, or probably in any space. The truth is, calculating ROI for social media is just like figuring it out for any other media – print, TV, radio. I’m not saying it’s easy. ROI is difficult to calculate across any medium, especially on the “return” side of the things. For example, you know how much that magazine ad cost, but how much business did you see as a direct result of it? It sounds difficult, but I assure you, it can be done! The tips below will help you get a handle on social ROI:
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- Jan 11
- 25
Brand Voice is Out, Brand Voices are In!
- Posted by Matt Peters
- Published in Advice and Tips, Industry Commentary, Social Media, Social Media Marketing
Image by Beverly & Pack
If I had a nickel for every time someone brought up “brand voice” in a marketing meeting over the past year, I honestly think I’d be a millionaire. “Brand voice” is one of those concepts that’s easy to say, but hard to correctly put into practice. Over the past few months, however, it has occurred to me that a discussion about “brand voice” isn’t even the right discussion to have. We need to be talking about “brand voices”
Oh…that’s right…plural!
There has been (and still is) entirely too much emphasis on creating a massive, omnipresent Voice with which a brand communicates to all consumers at all times; as if consumers would rebel and lose faith in the absence of this Arch-Voice to guide them along the dark paths of the modern world. This is absurd, and its silliness has become even more apparent as conversational mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, Quora, YouTube, and blogs increase in importance in a brand’s communication plan.
6 Comments- Jan 11
- 10
Four Tips for Social Media Success in 2011
- Posted by Matt Peters
- Published in Advice and Tips, Social Media
The New Year is upon us. I, for one, felt like I had all sorts of time to plan and then all of the sudden it was January 3rd and I realized that execution must take the place of planning. It is very possible to plan too much and find yourself in Q2 having not yet actually done anything. Inaction is the death of any warrior on the battlefield of social media.
In honor of ushering in another year that is sure to be bursting with technological advancements, I want to humbly submit four tips that are important–nay crucial–to success in social media marketing. My mind is filled with that scene from Varsity Blues where Jon Voight repeatedly bangs his whistle against James Van Der Beek’s helmet, intoning, “Stick to the basics, stick to the basics, stick to the basics.”
And so, some basics. But do not for one second think that because these tips are “basic” that they are not important. That is a mistake too often made by the arrogant. Is breathing (certainly one of the most basic functions of our living bodies) not important? Are the basic impulses sent from your brain telling your heart to beat not, in some ways, among the most important functions of your body?
The tips commence.
2 Comments- Oct 10
- 4
ADR: The Secret to Social Media Marketing Success
- Posted by Matt Peters
- Published in Advice and Tips, Social Media Marketing
There are two major problems that brands face when entering the realm of social media marketing:
- They get caught up in that “new car smell” and they try everything with no planning
- They plan, but they bite off more than they can chew
Both of these issues lead to problems. At best, you find yourself with lackluster results. At worst, you fail miserably in your social media marketing endeavors.
We avoid this problem with a very simple solution: ADR. ADR stands for Awareness, Demand, and Revenue. Here’s a good ol’ fashioned Venn diagram to show you how it works.
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Stand Apart on Facebook – Don’t Pander
There’s a growing trend in online communications, and I – for one – am not too thrilled. With increased aggression and startling frequency, quotients of the brands on
Facebook are lowering their standards of communication. You know the type. They use words like ginormous and irregardless, both of which have become so pervasive in the American lexicon that they’ve been entered into the ranks of reverence on Dictionary.com (somewhere, another Wordsmith of some repute is rolling over in his grave, but doing it with a wink and a smile). These are the same folks that start every sentence with “Actually”, or “I feel like…” and in the spoken word utter every statement with a sickly sweet sense of mild, bland surprise, and a frequently falling intonation (“Oh, really? No kidding.) They have seemingly no regard for the fact that an exclamation point is meant to do just that – exclaim. If you can’t express the sentiment with language, then using !!!!! as a crutch is not an acceptable workaround.
These grammatical slights are not creative. They are examples of lazy, uncreative people expressing themselves in lazy, uncreative ways. Like telling an old joke over and over again to the same person, what once was impactful for its uniqueness has become ineffectual by way of ubiquity.
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