Articles Tagged with Facebook

Dear Alan Weiss: You’re Wrong About Social Media!

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Vintage social media imageWhile holidaying in Spain I read two business books, recommended by @mackfogelson of Mack Web Solutions and @lstigerts of Marketing Gal during a recent #maximpact webinar: The Pumpkin Plan and Million Dollar Consulting, respectively.

(Please note: the above two Amazon links are affiliate links.)

I adored the former. The latter, Million Dollar Consulting, was interesting for a number of reasons. The author, Alan Weiss, makes some great points, and it’s clear that he is an expert when it comes to his profession and the world of consulting, but I had a few… bugbears about some of what he said. But this isn’t a book review. In fact, I’m only going to dig deeper into one area where I strongly disagreed: his thoughts on social media.

Before I continue, it’s important to point out that MDC was originally published in 1992, well before the world of social media (and even the Internet) became prominent as the behemoth that we know and love today. However, its 4th (and latest) edition was published in 2009 and has been updated to include “brand new material on blogging and social networking.” And while Mr Weiss praises the Internet (“The Internet and its accoutrements… have offered marvelous ways to improve our effectiveness and efficiency”) and recommends blogging (“Use a blog to regularly… promote your experience and ‘go to’ status”), it is clear that the man is not a fan of social networking.

While everyone is most certainly entitled to his or her opinion, just as Weiss is entitled to his own, the problem here is that his opinions are spoken in absolutes: it’s not “consider against using it” or “give it a try but be warned,” but more of a “don’t bother” and “don’t waste your time” attitude instead. Not only that, but when you’re dealing with an authority like Weiss, readers/fans will hang on every word and take every single suggestion on-board – I bet a fair few readers have said to themselves: “You’re right, Alan! Forget social media! Who needs it!”

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How To Market Your Live Music Bar Online

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Intro from Steve: After my first guest post publication, Mike – who I’ve known on Twitter for a while – asked if he could publish one as well. Given its subject matter, I couldn’t say no. I used to work at a live music bar a lifetime ago (The Musician Pub in Leicester, if you’re ever in the area), so this post struck a chord (oww, sorry!) with me. Enjoy!

Following the Live Music Act 2012 (which allowed venues with a capacity of less than 200 people to put on live music without a license*), it seems a growing number of bars are taking advantage and starting to book live bands. With the growing number of options for live music lovers, how do you stand out and persuade potential punters through your door?

The following tips will help you to stand out against your local competition and dominate the online arena.

*Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19783855

Get a Google Places Listing

For any local business, a Google Places for Business listing is essential – not only will your business show up in Google Maps enabling people to easily get directions to your premises, but it will also provide searchers with an ‘at-a-glance’ overview of your address, contact details and opening hours direct from the search results page.

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432 Mind-Blowing Article Titles You Won’t Believe Are By Cracked.com

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Mind blown imageFile this under: silly…

I’m a massive, massive fan of Cracked.com – I have been for years. As an online marketer, I’ve always been interested – with sites like these – about how they go about their digital strategy. Given the types of titles Cracked.com tend to use for their regular articles, it’s quite clear that for them it’s all about encouraging click-through rate (a.k.a. the clickbait), particularly from social media sites.

They’re a fan of lists, so they often start with a number. Over the last few years, I started to notice another trend… In just the last month alone we’ve seen:

…And…

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#SMsceptic: Companies, Stop Giving Away iPads!

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Facebook Meh imageA month or so ago, I was at Hollywood Bowl in Cardiff Bay with the BNI Quinnell guys (back when I was still a member of the group) for a social event outside of our weekly morning meetings.

In addition to the screens above the lanes that were playing all sorts of music videos, there were a few screens with the occasional marketing message: food offers, game offers, etc. At one point, they flashed up information regarding their Facebook Page, with the following statement:

“Like us on Facebook and you could win an iPad!”

Bowling balls imageAck! I remember moaning to one of the other BNI Quinnell guys – also a marketer – about how it’s always, always, always a bloody iPad! Poor guy just wanted to bowl but there I was, ranting away…!

My issue isn’t with the strategy being implemented, but with the prize being offered. It’s not because I have anything against Apple (hell, I own an iPad and I love it)! I just find it frustrating that so many companies lean on giving away an iPad because – in my opinion – it’s a completely wasted opportunity!

Why not give away something relevant to your business instead? Hollywood Bowl could’ve given away a custom bowling ball or custom team bowling shirts. In addition to being a bit more original than giving away a product that every other company is currently giving away, a relevant product would complement your own products/services. For example, if someone won a bowling ball or bowling shirts, they might decide to then use them at Hollywood Bowl, encouraging return visits and increasing custom. The winner(s) could even share the photos of them using the ball/shirts on HB’s Facebook Page.

Granted, it’s not easy with some industries. I can’t remember who it was now, but I remember a car insurer that was also giving away an iPad. Having worked at an insurance company, I know first-hand that it’s not easy giving away free insurance as a prize, due to the trickiness surrounding the pricing (after all, what if the person who wins is expensive to insure?) and it’s also probably against FSA guidelines anyway. But even so… what about a car? If that’s too expensive (although the PR involved could be worth it!), then what about something that could go towards car maintenance (e.g. a Halfords or Kwik-Fit voucher), or a personalised number plate, or even go kart racing vouchers?!

There’s so much opportunity! Be original. Be relevant. Be fun. And stop giving away bloody iPads…!

[Image credits – Facebook Meh button: Sam Michel; bowling balls: Markus Zavalla]

The #SMsceptic: The dangers of integrating and automating social media accounts

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Picture the scene…

You dabble in social media for your [blank] (replace with website(s)/affiliate project(s)/company/clients or whatever’s applicable), making use of the main and most popular social networking sites: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and possibly even the brand new Google+.

You’re a busy person. Maybe you’re in charge of all the offline marketing. Or maybe you do SEO and PPC as well. So fitting in the social media work – something that would ideally need to be monitored on an on-going basis – seems like a tedious and time-consuming task.

(…Or maybe you’re just unapologetically lazy, who knows…)

So when you find out that you can integrate all of the various accounts together and can automate them through just one of them, it sounds like a dream come true. Post a tweet and it also appears on Facebook and LinkedIn. Boom.

Of course, integrating and automating social media accounts in this way can be godsend and a lifesaver for the busy individual. But what do you lose by doing so? Are there any risks involved? Is it really just worth going to the effort of logging into each account and posting separately, which might take slightly longer but ultimately have a greater effect and impact?

I’ll admit that I’ve not experimented or played around with every single possibility and outcome (I do personally prefer to post separately on each account), but the most popular way seems to be automating one’s tweets, so that Twitter is the main account and its tweets automatically appear as Facebook and LinkedIn status updates. While this may seem good and harmless on the surface, there are some downsides to venturing down the integration/automation path…

Lost in tw-anslation

Here are the five biggest observations I’ve noticed so far, where social media integration and automation has not worked out so well:

1. Tweets on LinkedIn: personal posts on a professional page

Perhaps one of the biggest sins I see committed with social media integration is when all of an individual’s tweets – both professional and personal – also appear on their LinkedIn page, a social network which is particularly more formal and professional than Twitter and Facebook. LinkedIn is great for talking about work-related and industry goings-on, but not so much when it comes to your weekend plans, the subsequent hangover or your thoughts on reality TV shows…

There’s the option to pick and choose which tweets you want to show on LinkedIn, by tagging tweets with “#in” (note: make sure that your Twitter settings on LinkedIn are configured accordingly). That way, your personal tweets can stay Twitter-based, whilst your more professional tweets can feature on LinkedIn and be presented to your more professional acquaintances.

2. Tweets on LinkedIn & Facebook: lost potential for longer posts

With Twitter’s 140 character limit, tweets will feature on Facebook and LinkedIn at the same length. However, LinkedIn and Facebook allow more room in their status updates than Twitter, so in this case, it may be worthwhile updating separately on those sites.

Arguably, short may be sweet, but sometimes the message can be lost when trying to squeeze it into the tight confines of a tweet. In which case, it may be best to type a longer, more in-depth message when posting to Facebook and LinkedIn, especially if it means avoiding abbreviations, trimmed words or txt speak.

3. Tweets on LinkedIn & Facebook: lost potential with links

While we’re on the subject – due to Twitter’s character limit restrictions, the platform thrives and relies on URL shorteners such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com. While these are great on Twitter for fitting more into the message, with the shortened URL taking up less character space than perhaps the lengthy original, when a tweet appears on Facebook and LinkedIn, the link will not be “attached” to the status update.

What does this mean? When sharing a link on Facebook and LinkedIn, you have the option to “attach” a link, which will show its title, a snippet (as its description) and an associated image (which you can usually choose, based on the page’s content). Otherwise, the alternative is just the written text link, as you would see it on Twitter. Although not the end of the world (after all, the link will still work), the description and image might help to make it more noticeable amongst all the other updates showing up on someone’s News Feed. You will be able to write a lengthier description of your own to go with the link, too.

4. LinkedIn & Facebook status updates on Twitter: the message is cut

In point #2, the issue was with losing potential with short tweets. This time, it’s the opposite: updating on either Facebook or LinkedIn and integrating it so that it automatically tweets on your behalf could mean that the message is cut, if it’s longer than a particular length (probably about 120 characters – maximum tweet length with a shortened URL).

Having a message that stops partway through a tweet with a “…” and a shortened link to either LinkedIn or Facebook to read the rest is pretty tacky-looking, I’m sure you’ll agr…

5. When integrating accounts, check all profiles

Of course, one of the most important things to remember is to check to see how an automated tweet/update looks on the other platforms. Just because you only have to update one site, doesn’t mean you should completely ignore the rest of them. Be sure to check the others, in case you encounter any of the above problems or something else entirely, which could affect your marketing efforts, even if only slightly – after all, everything counts.

[Robot vs. laptop image credit: Ѕolo]