Posts tagged Twitter
Does it pay to be honest on Twitter?
Nov 25th
Does it pay to be honest on Twitter? Increasingly, the answer may be “no.”
In the past, I’ve written a blog post about my life in social media each time I hit a milestone on Twitter. 10,000 followers, 20,000 followers, etc.
Last week I hit 50,000 followers so I thought I would reflect on one of the philosophical issues I’m dealing with. Maybe it will help and support you in your journey too.
I hit this milestone exactly one year after I hit 30,000 followers. If you do the math, that’s 400 new followers every single week. And actually, it has been a lot more than that because I still cull all the spammers out of my stream (with the help of my wife). So, to the best of my knowledge, all 50,000 of those folks in my Twitter audience are real people.
I’ve gone back and forth about whether it is worth the effort to evaluate every Twitter follower. In the long run, who cares if I let spammers in the door? So far, I have taken some pride and comfort in knowing that there is nothing fake about my Twitter audience. It is real, it is organic, and it is a very engaging and supportive group. So if I follow you, it means something. I am not “automated.”
But is worth it the time I put into it?
Why spammers help your business
This may sound counter-intuitive, but taking the time to cull spammers might actually be hurting my business and online reputation.
If I were not blocking spam Twitter accounts, I estimate I would be approaching 100,000 followers by now. I’m convinced that the social proof of numbers like “likes,” “followers,” and yes, even a Klout score matter in our online world. Few, if any, people are going to take the time to examine my career and accomplishments before deciding to follow me, read my blog, or even buy my books. But they may look at 100,000 Twitter followers and decide that I am an authority. It is just the way of the world.
I was recently introduced at a speech like this: ”I’d like to introduce our keynote speaker Mark Schaefer. He is the author of Return On Influence
Being honest. A fool’s errand?
So, in review, I am probably wasting resources by cleansing my Twitter account. Nobody really knows or cares about it, I’m probably the only blogger doing it, and it might even be hurting my business in some way.
But I’ve decided to keep doing it.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter what other people think or know. It matters what I think and know. I’ve come this far without “doping” my Twitter stream with fake accounts to inflate the numbers. I just can’t quit now. If somebody asks me how many Twitter followers I have, I don’t want a voice in the back of my head saying, “yeah, but most of them are not even real.”
In 2009 I wrote a little manifesto called “Why I Block on Twitter.” I still believe in this:
1) My Twitter Tribe matters. If I follow you, I choose to do so. No auto-follows, ever. Before I follow, I have read your bio, some of your tweets and probably clicked your link. I have a quality audience and it’s staying that way.
2) I want an audience to be proud of. This probably sounds old-fashioned but I don’t want to do anything in my life that I wouldn’t be proud to disclose to my children. And if they examined my Twitter audience, I would not want them to see a bunch of nymphs peddling their videos. Anybody can see who you’re following. What does your audience say about you?
3) I want to protect you. If I block the spamaholics I keep them from my tweets and I keep them, in a small way, from you. I see so many of these folks who copy “Follow Friday” lists trying to lure followers. No. Stay away from my friends dammit.
4) Because I just do not want to play that game. I’m not going to be passive and imply that what they’re doing is OK.
Blocking sends a message. If we ALL blocked them, they would have to go away, right?
What do you think? Would you spend the time to go through 400 new Twitter followers every week?
Learning From Big Social Media Blunders
Jan 18th
By Stanford Smith, Contributing {grow} Columnist
Advertising Age just published its Book of Ten’s issue. In it they chronicle this year’s Top 10 Social Media Blunders. The list is entertaining and disheartening. Entertaining because of the shenanigans and plain idiotic social media mistakes committed by some very smart people. Disheartening because nervous businesses considering social media may unduly focus on the blunders and ignore the benefits.
Today, I’ll take a moment to speculate “why” the blunders happened and how businesses can learn from their less fortunate brethren’s mistakes.
Dropping the “F” Bomb
The Blunder: New Media Strategies employee mistakenly skewers Detroit drivers from the @ChryslerAutos twitter account. Although the tweet was caught and deleted within minutes, the damage to a career and a high-prestige social media account was done. New Media Strategies fired the employee and Chrysler Fired New Media Strategies.
Why It Happened: The scuttlebutt is that this employee managed his personal and client accounts with the same Twitter management tool. A small lapse in attention easily took his personal tweet and broadcasted it to the world.
Suggestion:
Set a firm policy that personal tweeting should not happen from a company sponsored and administered tool like Hootsuite. Since a mis-tweet could be dire, companies should also consider restricting tweeting from company computers.
Kenneth Cole and the Arab Spring
The Blunder: Kenneth Cole jumped on the Arab Spring news story with a less than elegant tweet:
“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo, Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online”
Why It Happened: Creativity got in the way of common sense. Politics, religion, and um… revolution are incendiary topic that should be handled with care.
Suggestion:
The same conversation rules that work at the bar and family dinners should be applied here. Provocative advertising can get you attention but ultimately it can backfire. Since the risk is often disproportionate to the benefit, it’s better to dig a little deeper for a social play that has more legs and less risk.
Qantas and #QantasLuxury
The Blunder: Bad luck and horrible timing led to the launch of Twitter Contest that asked followers to detail their dream luxury in flight experience. The problem was that the day before union talks had broken down and customers were still upset about a fleet shutdown that disrupted travel plans for thousands.
Why It Happened:
Operations, Customer Service, Marketing, and Social Media weren’t talking. A open-eyed review of social sentiment and actual conversations would have given the social team a heads-up that they were poking a hornet’s nest.
Suggestion:
Invest in a social media monitoring tool that gives real-time and accurate reports on what your community is saying about your brand. Any major social initiative should have a go, no-go, checkoff that polls customer service and operation.
A Face Full of Tomato Sauce
The Blunder: The folks at Ragu stepped in it when they tried to joke about dads lack of kitchen expertise. Ragu’s mistake was creating a video with moms spouting off about their kitchen-illiterate husbands. Not-funny and the Dads blogged en-masse about Ragu’s faux-pas.
Why It Happened: The problem is that Ragu missed a growing movement of dads who are kitchen, diaper, laundry, and bed-time story ninjas. The social web is packed with these interest and lifestyle based interest groups. A simple search would have uncovered the CC Chapman’s of the world and averted the PR misstep.
Suggestion:
Use social networks to monitor the pulse of your customers. A simple poll on Facebook can offer clues to how a marketing campaign, new product launch or price change could be perceived. Which leads to…
Netflix and Qwikster
The Blunder: Netflix decided to raise its prices without talking to their customers first. Next they confused everyone by spinning off their DVD rental into another brand, Qwikster, but failed to secure the Twitter username @Qwikster. The Twitter handle was scooped up by a loser who had a talent for bashing Netflix. The cost of this particular blunder was 800,000 lost subscribers or $192 million in $20/month subscriber fees.
Why It Happened:
Netflix is a savvy online player. On this one they forgot that they had an open channel to poll their most fanatic subscribers. Simply asking them how they would react to the changes would have revealed the gaping holes in their strategy. Ignoring these people created a firestorm that couldn’t be contained.
Suggestion:
Remember that “dialogue” is a competitive weapon. Facebook, Twitter are free to use and incredibly valuable for gathering opinons and soliciting support for company initiatives. It’s a good idea to add “social focus groups” to the traditional customer research done before the roll-out of any new product or service.
5 More Examples
Advertising Age did a terrific job at compiling and profiling these blunders. Read 5 more here.
I’m curious about your perspective on what went wrong with Quantas, Ragu, Netflix, Kenneth Cole, and New Media Strategies. Talk to me in the comments below.
Contributing Columnist Stanford Smith obsesses about how to get passionate people’s blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social, except when he’s chasing large mouth bass!
The power shift on the social web: What does it mean to you?
May 4th
Remember when we used to say that “people” are the power behind the social web? Can we can honestly claim that any more? The social web has rapidly become just another a mass-marketing channel like TV or magazines, dominated by the mega-brands.
Think about the videos going viral these days. What was the biggest hit of the year? The Nike Tiger ad, a bizarre production certainly aimed at the viral potential of the Internet more than any paid TV opportunity. In fact eight of the top 10 most-viewed You Tube videos of 2009 were professionally-produced:
- Evian roller babies (see above to view)
- New Moon movie trailer
- Wedding entrance dance
- David after dentist
- Britain’s Got Talent – Susan Boyle
- through 10 – professional music videos
And all of the Top 10 Facebook pages belong to big names:
- Texas Hold ‘em Poker
- Mafia Wars
- Michael Jackson
- Barack Obama
- Vin Diesel (Vin Diesel???)
- Starbucks
- Lady Gaga
- Twilight
- Coca-Cola
- Skittles
Remember that just a few years ago, there were few, if any, corporate videos on YouTube and Facebook was a hang-out for college students. This commerical development is not surprising. If there is a way for money to be made, companies will find a way to exploit it. Capitalism at work. So what are the implications for small businesses trying to carve a niche? Is it too crowded? Is it too late?
No, I don’t think so. There are plenty of social media marketing opportunities for the savvy small business professional, even with the brand titans bringing their game:
Think local. All marketing is local. Can your small business still have an impact on the social web? Absolutely. I’m working with a marketing manager for a very successful regional chain of restaurants. One restaurant already has 5,000 Facebook fans. I think that’s pretty impressive. If you’re providing meaningful connections with your local crowd of customers, who cares if Evian babies rule the web?
Raising the bar. Not long ago, grainy home videos dominated YouTube. Just about anybody, at any time, had a chance of going viral. The novelty of the social web has passed and expectations for quality are increasing. If you hope to compete for attention on the national or international level, bring lots of money. But I believe that even on a local level the bar has been raised and there is an increasing expectation for quality … maybe not along the lines of the Evian babies, but an expectation for something entertaining nonetheless. To stand out, you’re going to have to provide remarkable content.
Importance of Twitter. Twitter isn’t flashy. It rewards real connection and conversation, something monolithic companies typically don’t do well. I have a small business but have more followers than Pringles (one of 2009′s Top 10 Facebook pages). I think there’s a message there. My hypothesis: Of the major platforms, Twitter may actually favor the local small business owner. How can you leverage this powerful tool on a local level?
Keeping it real. Unless you are going to simply “buy” fans with coupons and discounts, you need to let your personality shine through. Coca Cola, probably the best-known consumer product in the world, is doing a great job at this. They feature their Facebook personalities right on their front page and each tweet is attributed to an author. Of course Scott Monty is a recognizable social media personality for Ford Motor company. Still, these are exceptions among the big brands. Real people and small business owners can normally have an advantage connecting with their local clients.
Watch and learn. The big guys are spending millions to fine-tune their social web offerings. Learn from them. What are they doing to be successful and how can you capture that success on a local level? What methods are they using to engage and reward their customers? What channels do they employ and why? What devices like online games and contests could be used in your business?
While the future of mainstream social media ultimately belongs to the behemoths, I do believe there are opportunities for small business success. Do you agree?
A Tweet Fit for a Queen
Feb 26th
Today I’m privileged to feature a wonderful social web success story from my friend Imad Naffa. He recently told me about being re-tweeted by Queen Rania of Jordan and how he increased his business by 25 percent in six months through Twitter alone. I hope you enjoy learning from Imad as much as I have:
Imad, first tell us about your famous tweet and how it was picked up by the queen.
I left Jordan to come to the US in 1980. I headed straight to Fresno State in California, and enrolled in the Civil Engineering program. I was 17, so I was old enough to have a lot of memories of growing up in Amman (the capital of Jordan). During those years I met one of Amman’s cultural icons, the “Peanut Man” and I posted my experience on my Blog.
I knew Queen Rania of Jordan was active on social media and had numerous followers. I wrote her via Twitter to let her know of my blog post about the “Peanut Man.” Since the Jordan Times, a local Jordanian Newspaper, wrote about him, I figured the Queen would be interested in the post I added. Sure enough, she re-tweeted my post. In a follow up post, she noted that she met him, was sad of his passing away, and added a picture of her and the Peanut Man in downtown Amman. The picture appears in my blog post (and above).
You told me your tweet went crazy. How did you know it went viral?
Queen Rania has about 1.2 million Twitter followers. Once she re-tweeted my blog post, I noticed dozens of re-tweets of her post. Obviously, her followers picked up on the story and wanted to share with their followers. Most of the people that re-tweeted the Queen’s post were new visitors to my account.
Did the Queen follow you back?
Queen Rania is not following me at this time. We communicated via @messages. I post on technical topics, social media and world affairs. I’m afraid I post too much and will overwhelm the Queen’s account if she was to follow me. She only follows 56 people!
You have a large and loyal following, Imad. How did you build your Twitter audience?
The key for me was that I already had a passion for the Internet and providing resources for building code and construction topics. I’ve developed web sites and software over the last 20 years. Twitter allowed me to broadcast these offerings and I found there was a great need for such information globally.
But I learned that technical information would not do it alone. Once I branched out by posting on other topics I was interested in, there was a great increase in the followers. Once I started providing information on a myriad of topics like the economy, sustainable energy, culture, and social media, my number of followers increased dramatically and rapidly.
How do you use Twitter for your business and how do you assess its effectiveness?
Twitter has allowed me access international professionals in my field that I would not have met otherwise. Now I’m collaborating with engineers and architects in the UK, Africa and the Middle East on topics relating to their building codes and construction projects.
In addition, I am now able to broadcast to a large international audience the many technical offerings that I developed over the years and are a must-have tools for architects, engineers, developers and code enforcement officials. The number of subscribers to my web-based engineering offerings have increased by at least 25 percent in the last six months alone due to Twitter. I can track where the users are coming from, and that’s how I’m able to assess the increase in traffic to my web sites and online offerings.
Imad Naffa is Founder, President and Sr. Engineer, NAFFA International, Fresno, CA. Follow him at @imadnaffa.
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