Social Media Mistakes

Everyone wants to avoid common mistakes so I was intrigued when I saw the article 5 Most Common Mistakes in Social Media. What I found interesting is that some of these could apply to all digital content in general.

Know what your metrics should be. Just like anything you track you need to know what you want to track so you know if your successful. In Social Media it’s not only quantity but quality. Your followers need to be talking about you. You need to be following what their saying and engaging with them. What do you want to monitor?

Beware of having too many handles. This may dilute your message and divide your followers. For large organizations this can be difficult to keep in check. Think about having one area responsible for keeping track of the organizations handles and providing some best practices and guidelines for them to follow.

Compelling content is something that crosses all digital mediums. To keep followers engaged you must be interested and interesting says the author. This requires that you know your target. Respond to comments and ask questions – be engaged.

Isolation of the social media function can limit it’s success. Many areas can benefit from participating. Plus isolation can lead to too many channels being created.

Lastly, have a plan. Create a road map that defines the purpose for each channel with an editorial calendar. Share the plans across your organization. Understand escalation paths and make sure you have the resources to handle it.

Happy Birthday WordPress

Can you believe WordPress is now 10 years old. It seems like it’s just exploded over the few couple years. WordPress now much more than just a great blogging platform it’s also a robust content management system. The article WordPress is 10 years old today: Here’s how it’s changed the Web on The Next Web opened my eyes to several things I hadn’t known about WordPress. Many high profile sites such as The Next Web, CNN, TechCrunch, GigaOm, Dow Jones, UPS, NBC Sports, TED use it as a platform. A statistic quoted in the article surprised me – “WordPress has 52 percent of the Top 100 blog market share on the Internet. This number dwarfs other platforms like Drupal, Gawker, BlogSmith, Movable Type, TypePad, Blogger, Joomla, and Tumblr”. In addition, WordPress says that it now powers more than 66 million sites! That’s pretty great for open source software. For me I’ve found it a great tool for creating sites and as a wire framing tool. Check out the article at least to watch WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg give the 2012 State of the Word address.

The Formula for Social Media Success

I recently read a great article on the Social Media Today website called “The 5 Pillars of New Media Strategy: There Is No Box”. I was struck by the obvious statement that “the formula for success in social media begins with first devising what success is and how it will be measured”. Seems pretty obvious but I come across many groups who have not set any goals for there social media endeavors. If you don’t set a goal how can you tell if it successful?

The author goes on to say that there is no formula for success. Each one is special depending on the audience you are trying to meet and the behavior you are trying to encourage. Actually, I think there is no one formula for success but many. Be sure to ask yourselves what is the engagement you want with may audience and how does that fit into my overall business objectives. I bet if you ask different 10 different colleagues how they engage with social media you’ll get 10 different answers. Some may be similar but each will have they’re own unique take.

The article offers the following 5 Pillars of Social Media Strategy to consider.

  1. Listen, Search, Walk a “Daily in the Life” of Your Customers.
  2. Rethink Your Vision, Mission, and Purpose.
  3. Define Your Brand Persona.
  4. Develop a Social Business Strategy.
  5. Build and Invest in Your Community.

The pillars speak for themselves but go to the article to read the details of each. The first and last spoke to me the most. Know your customers from their perspective and go beyond social media to invest in the entire customer journey. The author closes with saying “there is no box to think out of, only a blank slate and a series of unanswered questions”. Enjoy.

 

Write Off Google Plus?

Google Plus will not only prevail but have a staggering number of active users by the end of 2013. This is according to Dave Llorens in his article for Fast Company Plus-One This: Proof the Google Plus Will Prevail. The author states that expectations for Google Plus to be a Facebook killer were off. He even goes on to say that Google never intended to complete directly with Facebook. It’s an interesting premise and to back it up the author points to Google pulling the plug pretty quickly on failed concepts like Buzz and Wave. The real goal is for Google Plus to be the glue that connects all their products into a “big ball of awesome user experience”. Think of all the Google products you use on a regular basis: Search, YouTube, Gmail, Calendar, Maps, Drive, Play, Picasa and more. That means a lot of people are already participating in the Google Plus product. I for one agree – Google Plus is here to stay. Read the article and judge for yourself.

You need to do more than just ask people to “Like” you

With Facebook having over a billion users a month you can’t ignore it as a means to connect with people to promote your products or services. Undoubtedly you see “like us on Facebook” everywhere. But is that enough?

This article “Like Us On Facebook”: Why It Doesn’t Work on IncSlingers says you need to do more. The article talks about the importance of having someone with marketing skills to manage your social media.  “Marketing has and always will be about communication with people, technology hasn’t changed the”. My favorite line in the article is “a message that has no call to action will fail, always. Like Us On Facebook is not a call to action, it’s a plea”. So provide people with a reason to engage with you.