What makes a PR pro exceed in agency life? Five qualities. Read on
5 Lies About Social Media: Debunked
The social media conversation is an arena flooded with an innumerable amount of voices. These voices belong to marketing and public relations practitioners, self-proclaimed “gurus,” critics, analysts, business people, casual users and spectators.
Don’t get me wrong–I’m all for allowing other people to share their opinions. Unfortunately, however, where there are a lot of voices, there are a lot of misconceptions that arise.
Here are the top five social media lies I’ve heard lately that are just plain wrong:
1.) “Social media is dying.”
This is probably the most circulated lie I’ve heard in the recent year. Supporters of the “social media is dying” movement accredit their claims with three primary reasons: what they see to be a decrease in platform usage, growing citizen privacy concerns and an overall bitterness with irrelevant content/ads.
As I mentioned in an article addressing this topic in depth, I combat these points with the following:
- MySpace’s demise doesn’t determine the fate of the entire social media universe.
- Smartphones made social media powerful, and smartphones aren’t going anywhere.
- Social media has successfully integrated into our lives.
- Social media usage (according to many data sources) has only grown over the years.
- And finally, it’s no longer a question of, “Is social media dying,” it’s a question of, “How is it changing?”
2.) “Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… It’s all the same.”
Related Awesomeness:
The Secret to Marketing Success: Answering These 2 Questions
This misconception comes particularly from spectators of social media. They try to lump all social media platforms–and the way you should approach them–into a singular category.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are social media platforms. But the way you approach each one is different. In fact, your approach could be radically different depending on who your target audience is.
3.) “Everybody needs to be on social media.”
Another over generalization is that everyone–every business, individual and entity–should be in the social media realm.
That couldn’t be further from the truth either. Resources are too often spent on marketing communications assets that aren’t necessary. Businesses, individuals and entities should be evaluating their needs from an objective standpoint including a lot of factors.
This dispassionate analysis will reveal whether they need social media tactics included in their overall strategy or not.
4.) “We need to post as much as we possibly can–that will help us get the word out.”
Unfortunately posting more won’t help you get the word out there better, faster or stronger. It does quite the opposite.
The last thing your audience wants is to be flooded with a storm of updates on any platform. Much how we defined that each platform isn’t the same, the rate at which you post on each platform isn’t the same either. For instance, your Facebook strategy may include one post per day while your Twitter strategy may open up content sharing to three to four times a day because Twitter is a high-turnover platform.
5.) “Everyone in our organization should be able to post.”
Last, but certainly not least, is this little lie here.
Yes, in a perfect world–a world vacant of conflict and plentiful with beer, cocktails and siestas at every turn–everyone in your organization would be able to post. The problem is that we don’t live in a perfect world, and when the permission to engage is shared with everyone on your staff some serious issues emerge.
It may start with simple inconsistencies here and there, but it almost always ends up with a flood of irrelevant, inconsistent, random and poor content. It also opens the door to major bloopers that may harm your brand beyond repair.
The truth of the matter is that like every other area of marketing communications in your life, you need an overarching plan. Within that plan, you need a hierarchal structure–a team to get it done.
Here’s the team I usually recommend for small-to-midsize businesses:
- Content brainstormers (everyone can participate here)
- Content creators (designers, writers)
- Final editor and scheduler of content (one person who maintains consistency)
What lies about social media have you heard?
3 Facebook Contest Ideas to Shake It Up
Looking for some variety in your social media calendar? There’s no better way to shake up your Facebook content than with a contest. Read on
What “300” Can Teach You About Crisis Communications
Very loosely based on actual events, the movie “300” portrays the Battle of Thermopylae–where 300 Spartans faced 100,000 Persian solders in one of history’s most famous last stands–in gloriously gory fashion.
If you’re squeamish and not a fan of action flicks then “300” is not the film for you. But regardless of whether you’ve seen the movie or not, there are some great lessons you can learn about crisis communications.
You Have to Get Your Mind Ready
Crisis can fundamentally make or break your organization, so you’d better be ready to wrap your mind around it.
Spartans lived with the understanding that one day they may be required to enter battle. Your organization should think along similar lines.
The biggest mistake your team can make is to hope that crisis will never stare you in the face. Unfortunately, crisis is no longer a question of if but when. If you choose to run your operations without considering what could potentially occur then you will be destroyed when they finally do. [Read more…] about What “300” Can Teach You About Crisis Communications
2 Easy Marketing Tips to Immediately Improve Your Campaigns
The topic of marketing can be a long conversation.
I get a lot of questions from friends, family members and prospective clients about the subject at dinners and networking functions. Most often they ask me, “What are some immediate things I can do that will improve my marketing?”
Here are the two easy marketing tips that I tell them (that are just about universally applicable):
Tip 1: Stop Being So Darn Confusing
The most straightforward advice I can give you about making your marketing better is to be straightforward.
Just today I was driving to lunch and a billboard caught my eye for all of the wrong reasons (a.k.a something I realized I could use as an example to prove my point). It was an advertisement for a floor company’s high customer service rating. You’d think they would use a photo of satisfied customers or gorgeous floors, but no. They decided to showcase the text with a photo of a random dog. No relationship to the product, the company or the messaging.
It seems like common sense to make your marketing efforts extremely understandable. All too often, however, this concept gets lost in the brainstorming process. Either the message the business want to get across becomes to complicated or they think that they’re being clever by incorporating random images (the dog mentioned above).
The point is this–don’t be so darn confusing. Simple won’t make you look dumb or unsophisticated–it will make your message easily transferrable. [Read more…] about 2 Easy Marketing Tips to Immediately Improve Your Campaigns
The Social Media Custom Content Crisis
I’ll be the first one to tell you that social media marketing shouldn’t be your only strategy for building your business.
In my professional opinion, social media should be a finger on the hand of a larger marketing communications strategy. This doesn’t mean, however, that you can get away with a below-average presence on your social media platforms.
With an overabundance of professionals claiming to be social media marketing “gurus,” and organizations neglecting the importance of taking their digital presences to the next level, we’ve entered into the social media custom content crisis. Why? Because so few businesses are harnessing the power of custom content in their efforts.
Let’s explore what custom content actually is, why you need it and how you can use it:
Custom Content vs. Regurgitation
Imagine the difference between a delicious, chef-prepared-from-scratch meal and a TV dinner that’s been sitting in your freezer for a couple of weeks. That’s the difference between custom content and regurgitation.
It seems that most “social media marketing gurus” and businesses default to pulling out “TV dinners” when it comes time to scheduling content. This includes reusing graphics that were created by others and passing them off to their audiences as if they were the ones who birthed them. Trust me, your audience isn’t stupid–they know the difference.
Custom content is the love child of marketing research, photography/videography and graphic design. What do I mean by that? Check out the below graphic featured on the Coca-Cola Facebook Page. It demonstrates photography paired with graphic design elements (simple ones like typography).
I constantly refer to Coca-Cola in the social media custom content conversation because they nail it–and I mean nail it–each and every time. They’re constantly cultivating graphics, videos and photos that stand out and keep you coming back for more. [Read more…] about The Social Media Custom Content Crisis