Creating a successful tweet can be difficult, especially considering the challenge of fitting everything you want to say into a measly 140 characters. There is so much to consider, so much to include, and sometimes it is hard to determine what to cut.
Each tweet, however, should start with a bigger social media plan, focused on using Twitter to achieve a business-related goal. It’s essential this is in place before you start tweeting away so you can make sure the message you’re getting out has purpose. Setting up a monthly calendar can help – marking major events or announcements you have going on to align messaging appropriately. This can give you a head start on tracking down important Twitter handles or hashtags that can help provide an extra push.
But, once this is in place, how do you get to that magic character limit while maximizing reach and engagement? MarketingThink blogger Gerry Moran recently published an infographic that I think provides a great framework for achieving the most effective tweet possible.
His proposal for formulating “The Perfect Tweet” helps writers leave room for essentials, like links and retweeting space. The formula suggests leaving 100 characters for the main message, 20 characters for a link and 20 additional characters for retweeters to add content. It also highlights tweeting essentials, like including hashtags and using a link shortening service to maximize space while still driving people to a full version of your message or other relevant supporting materials like videos or pictures.
There is, however, one suggestion on the blueprint I do not fully agree with, which is to not abbreviate anything other than numbers (i.e. 6 instead of six). I think its OK to abbreviate anything that the audience you are trying to reach would be completely familiar with, as long as it doesn’t significantly change or confuse the message in any way. For example, abbreviating technology to “tech” or government to “gov” is OK in my book, if it’s essential to free up some characters. I also think this is OK for common abbreviations for things like Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) or Department of Defense (DOD). Before using any abbreviation, however, simply be 100% sure your audience would understand it.
Check out the full blueprint below to help in your tweeting ventures. Also, if you’re looking for more help with social media, check out this list of upcoming social media conferences and events.
Big brands love memes – from Gangnam Style to the Harlem Shake, big business loves it some repurposed consumer behavior. But with MTV’s recent stunt on Twitter, we’re swiftly moving from the world of corporate shilling into some bizarre social dystopia.
It all started on February 18, when sometimes-hacktivist group Anonymous pried @BurgerKing out of corporate hands and began laying waste to the company’s carefully crafted Twitter landscape. Beyond changing the handle’s background to a McDonald’s image and announcing the sale of the brand to the King in Yellow and Red, Anonymous also began advertising the sale of prescription drugs and bath salts via the handle.
All told, it was a relative benign hack-and-grab, although disastrous to Burger King’s social interests (benign in the sense that no state records were leaked…for once). But soon after the hack, the crazy started flowing, as other brands, most notably MTV, decided hacking was the new “it” and they just had to get on board! After all, it’s what the kids are doing!
Forbes reported that MTV’s stunt, which involved changing the avatar to BET’s logo, was actually a publicity push for a new show called “What the Hack.” Oh the hilarity – hopefully it takes script-jacking to the heights of sexiness not seen since “Hackers” debuted.
For the record, it appears as though the Burger King hijacking (along with Jeep’s Twitter handle) were legitimate attacks. That is, they are unless the next Whopper is going to be laced with psychedelics and Jeep’s going to start pushing out trail-rated Caddies.
So what do you think? Is “fake hacking” going to be a thing or did MTV kill the trend before we even started hating it?
--John Terrill
Social media can have a large impact for small businesses, but only if they make the time to engage. Small business owners, marketers and other employees are often tasked with many things at once so social media engagement sometimes falls off the radar.
While putting social media on the backburner seems to be the norm, it is a trend that really should change even if the company can’t afford a full time social media person. A small amount of engagement in the right spots can go a long way.
The infographic below (from VerticalResponse) shows how small business are really using social media – how much time they are spending on it, who is engaging and what results they are seeing.
From the results it looks like CEOs are taking on a lot of the work themselves spending 1-5 hours per week on social sites – even though they’d like to spend less time on it. Most small businesses are upping their social game as compared to last year and Facebook is still their main platform.
What I find most interesting is that over half are blogging and making it look easy, spending only 1-3 hours per post.
Check it out and see how you compare.
As companies everywhere dive headfirst into their 2013 marketing plans, I’m sure a social program is included on everyone’s agenda. How do you get your message out effectively, via which social platforms and how do you get your audience engaged in conversation? What should you be tracking and what tools should you be using to make it a success? Whether you’re a beginner or a veteran, social platforms are developing so quickly it can be hard to keep up. Check out the events and conferences coming up in 2013 that could help with your social media endeavors, and feel free to comment with others that we may have missed. After all, it’s about being social, right?
Social Media Marketing World – April 7-9, San Diego, CA
Social Media Marketing World 2013 will combine high-quality 
sessions with an amazing social experience. You’ll rub shoulders with the biggest names and brands in social media, soak up countless tips and new strategies, and enjoy extensive networking opportunities in San Diego, California. Connect face-to-face with top social media marketing experts while breaking bread with like-minded peers from around the globe.
Event Twitter Handle: @smexaminer
Event Hashtag: #SMMW13
BlogWell – April 17, New York, NY
BlogWell features 8 great case studies on the best social media programs at large corporations. This year’s case study presentations will be given by:
- Verizon: Learn how Verizon uses social media to connect with their customers.
- Walgreens: Learn how Walgreens builds internal collaboration and employee relationships through social media.
- ComEd: Learn how ComEd used social media to turn one of the hottest summers ever into the “Coolest Summer Ever” in 2012.
- TD Bank: Learn how TD Bank is becoming a social business by engaging employees and connecting customers with experts.
- Wendy’s: Learn how Wendy’s uses social media listening to make business decisions.
- Corning: Learn how Corning is getting the attention of their fans using social media.
- Sanofi: Learn how the U.S. affiliate of this global pharmaceutical company engages diabetes patients through social media.
- Walmart: Learn how Walmart uses data to build better social media strategies.
Event Hashtag: #blogwell
The Social Media Strategies Summit – April 23-24, Chicago, IL
Social Media Strategies Summit has been designed to apply to a variety of industries. In an effort to meet attendees’ learning objectives, it is built in six tracks, each outlined to focus on a particular industry. Each track includes sessions focused on the following categories: corporate case studies; community engagement and customer service; measurements, including analytics, ROI and tools; sales approach; legal risks & strategies; and marketing strategies & tactics.
Event Twitter Handle: @GSMIonline
Event Hashtag: #smssummit
iStrategy Global Digital and Social Media Conference – April 23-24, Miami, FL
Join North America's most forward-thinking digital marketers, social media mavens and online experts as they converge on Miami in April 2013 to discuss the future of digital marketing and share strategies for improving customer engagement, driving conversions and developing campaigns that positively ring with authenticity, relevancy and significance. Speakers, panelists and workshops will be lead on the following topics:
- Social media
- Mobile marketing and applications
- Display advertising
- Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC)
- Email marketing, database marketing and customer relationship management (CRM)
- Web analytics
- E-commerce
- Content strategy including video, viral and blogs
Event Twitter Handle: @iStratBuzz
Event Hashtag: #iStrategy
The Social Media Strategies Summit June 12-13, New York, New York
Social Media Strategies Summit has been designed to apply to a variety of industries. In an effort to meet attendees’ learning objectives, it is built in six tracks, each outlined to focus on a particular industry. Each track includes sessions focused on the following categories: corporate case studies; community engagement and customer service; measurements, including analytics, ROI and tools; sales approach; legal risks & strategies; and marketing strategies & tactics.
Event Twitter Handle: @GMSIonline
Event Hashtag: #smssummit
Pivot Conference – October 15-16, New York, New York
Pivot is not a social media conference, or even a traditional conference at all. Pivot is as close to a true social community of powerful leaders as a physical gathering can be. In our incisive on-stage conversations, the speakers contribute to the audience, the audience contributes to the speakers and everyone contributes to one another. All Pivot’s participants are leaders of social initiatives from major brands and the organizations that serve them. The result is a singularity that defines the heart of social for the year ahead.
Event Twitter Handle: @pivotcon
Event Hashtag: #pivotcon
Responding to every tweet your company receives is typically a good social media policy…except when the responses are canned, automated tweets, making it clear you have not read the customer’s concerns or thoughts, nor do you care about them.
That is what happened to American Airlines this morning – and Business Insider called them out on it.
It started when @murphmarkd tweeted to American Airlines commenting, “Congrats to @americanair and @usairways on creating the largest, shittiest airline in the world.”
Rather than reading the negative tweet and determining an appropriate response, American Airlines instead tweeted back about an hour later, saying, “Thanks for your support! We look forward to a bright future as the “newAmerican.”
While American Airlines realized their faux pas soon after the fact and deleted the response, the damage had already been done and it appeared to anyone paying attention that they did not have a handle on their social strategy. They were lucky, though often, social media mistakes are not noticed until much later and after a significant amount of public outcry. When Progressive Insurance made a similar blunder a few months back by having the smiling face of spokesperson Flo repeatedly respond to an extremely sensitive issue via Twitter - the company’s reputation suffered immensely.
Automated tweets are not only a bad idea when it comes to disgruntled followers/customers but also when tweets are done in a “set it and forget it” manner. In today's world of a 24-hour news cycle, companies can receive serious backlash for pushing out tweets that seem insensitive, or worse, oblivious to the world around them.
While automated tweets save time, give you a constant presence and help your company plan a long-term strategy – the downfalls of not being ready to react on the fly seem to far outweigh the convenience. Additionally, taking the time to send out responses specific to your followers won’t go unnoticed by them – particularly if they are having an issue. In fact, in a report by Mediapost, 18% of customers who posted a negative review of a merchant and got a reply ended up becoming loyal customers. In my opinion, that's a high enough percentage to make it worth putting a little thought into generating a repsonse.
Have you had any issues with auto-tweets? Do the benefits outweigh the potential risks to keep your company's social media presence known?
Last week I wrote about how Oreo dominated social media during the Super Bowl blackout and touched a bit on how powerful social media can be when used correctly.
However, if you’re reading our blog most likely your company doesn’t fall into the packaged sweets category. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re saying “Well, that’s great for Oreo, but what about the federal government. They don’t use social media!”
To that I call shenanigans.
Just because you’re not selling your product to the general consumer doesn’t mean your audience isn’t using social media and that you should ignore it. It’s 2013, folks; everyone is using social media. That includes the government. Not only is the White House on Twitter – with more than 3.6 million followers – but almost every branch of the military has a presence there along with most federal departments and agencies. Many of these same federal departments and agencies are also represented on Facebook and LinkedIn.
So, now that I’ve shown you that the federal government does in fact use social media I’d like to push you to think beyond just the agency/department representation on these sites. It’s definitely worthwhile to know that government agencies uses social media but more important, in my opinion, is knowing that employees of those agencies – i.e., your customers - are there. After all, social media communities are not run and populated by robots. People, including members of your target audience, manage and congregate on these sites.
When selling to the government you aren’t selling to some great and powerful Oz who runs the agency from behind a magic curtain. You are selling to people. When your company’s sales team goes into an agency they aren’t going to the CIO, they are talking directly to the person who uses the equipment, the person who has the ability to make purchasing decisions. These are the people you want to be sure you are seeking out and reaching on social media, just as Oreo is seeking the consumer who is likely to purchase their cookies. You may not have Oreo’s advertising or public relations budget but that’s the beauty of social media – it’s free – and if used properly – priceless.
Interested in learning more about how to use social media to engage with the government? Download our tip sheet – The Blueprint – Social Media and Government.
--Jennifer Edgerly
Did you watch the Super Bowl last night? Did you care about the game or were you just there to see the commercials and watch Beyonce? It’s ok, I’m a huge football fan and the commercials and Beyonce were my main reason for tuning in this year since my beloved Packers were forced out by the 49ers. I give a resounding “eh” to both the commercials and Beyonce’s performance, for what it’s worth.
Every year there is so much hype about the commercials that are going to air during the Super Bowl and my colleague Kate will be along shortly to wrap it all up nicely for you but for now, I’m here to tell you that you probably missed some of the best ads of the night if you weren’t on Twitter.
Nobody will ever forget that this is the Super Bowl the lights went out on and it was clear that CBS did not have any commercials on reserve in case the game ran long or something caused a delay. And, it’s not like you can just quickly whip up a TV commercial when something unexpected, like a power outage, occurs. But, if you’re a smart brand and prepared for such a scenario, you can quick whip up some banter on Twitter and make a “print” ad out of nothing.
Oreo has by far received the most praise for their quick wit and quick thinking. Within minutes of the power going out at the Superdome, Oreo took to Twitter with the following tweet:
As of today, that tweet has been retweeted more than 14,886 times! So how did Oreo react so fast? According to Buzzfeed Oreo didn’t just place all their eggs in the “Cookie or Creme” commercial basket, they had a full team on standby, including agency reps and Oreo brand team members, ready to strike if the opportunity presented itself.
And Oreo wasn’t the only one to get in on the action. Tide was right behind them putting out this tweet, and ad, a mere three minutes later.
Even Walgreens had some fun with the situation:
While it’s fun to share these images and talk about the Super Bowl winners (personally, I’m still tearing up over the Budweiser Clydesdales commercial) and losers (anything GoDaddy does) the real point is the continued power of social media. Oreo was ready to strike and it paid off for them – big time. I know many people who still turn their noses up at social media and scoff at the idea of using it, but when timed correctly it can be incredibly effective. Oreo paid millions to have their commercial run during the Super Bowl but being quick to post that ad on Twitter is priceless. Not every company should try to replicate exactly what Oreo, Tide and Walgreens did but it does go to show that you should never put your social media on autopilot. Too often we push social media to the side, assign it to an intern to handle or worse, set it and forget it. Social media isn’t going away and brands like Oreo are already light years ahead in their mastery of how to use it effectively.
--Jennifer Edgerly
Since Seinfeld (the show about nothing) went off the air in 1998, the world has changed into a social and wired environment vastly different from the one the characters knew. Given that a cell phone alone could have alleviated many of the traumas Jerry and the gang faced in an average episode – many (myself included) were left wondering – would there still be epic plot lines if the show took place in today’s social world?
Luckily, fans need wonder no more. This week, the Twitter handle @modernseinfeld popped up to chronicle what life would be like for Jerry and company in a modern, technical world. Manned by BuzzFeed sports editor Jack Moore and his friend comedian, Josh Gondelman, the handle tweets 140 character plot lines that detail problems the gang would likely face if the show still was on the air today. The plot lines focus on the Internet and social media with Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer facing the likes of Instagram, Autocorrect, Google and more.
One of my favorite “episodes” being –
“Elaine yells at her co-workers for loving Pinterest. Kramer becomes an @Uber driver. George opens actual jerk store on Etsy.”
Since the account appeared on Sunday evening, it has grown to over 186,000 followers. The tweets still are primarily from Jack and Josh, however they have taken to retweeting a few scenarios created by followers of the handle.
If you were a fan of the show the tweets are definitely worth checking out for a laugh, and I don’t know about you, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a reunion special where we get to see a few of these plot lines play out. So what tech issues would you like to see the Jerry and gang face today?
I came across the infographic below the other day and thought it was kind of interesting but also kind of told us what we already know - Facebook is the king of social media.
As the infographic, courtesy of the Socially Aware Blog shows, people spend almost 7 hours a month on Facebook with other social media sites falling far, far behind. I certainly don't question the validity of these numbers but to me that data is more than a bit misleading. It comes from a comScore study that was released in February and does not include mobile visitors, which is a little baffling. For me the exclusion of mobile visitors makes the biggest difference with regards to Twitter, which they say people only spend 21 minutes on a month. However, in June of this year Twitter reported that 60 percent of their users access the platform via a mobile device so clearly that number would be much much higher if mobile users were taken into account.
The infographic also shows that 65 percent of tablet owners in the U.S. surf the web while watching TV which to me begs the question - how can you conduct a study on the amount of time people spend on different social networks and not include mobile users? Anyone who watches TV these days can't help but see that every TV show includes a hashtag for their viewers to use if they are tweeting while watching the show.
The other key point to me is that more and more people are accessing the web from tablets and mobile devices. For marketers this means if you haven't yet optimized your website for viewing on a mobile device, or if you're not using responsive design to ensure your website reacts appropriately to the device it's being accessed from, then you are late to the game and this should be a priority in 2013.
Take a look at the infographic and sound off below with any thoughts or observations you have!
--Jennifer Edgerly
The older I get, the more I come to realize that I know nothing about people.
I don't mean that in an endearing, self-deprecating sort of way.
I mean that my instincts about people are just awful. As are yours. As are everyone's.
The inner workings of the mind -- perception, emotion, empathy. These are unnavigable mazes of crossed wires and idiosyncrasies.
There are far too many variables, too much data. We'll never truly know ourselves. And if we can't know ourselves, how on Earth can we hope to know one another?
Fortunately, whenever scientists and philosophers present the world with unsolvable questions, marketing professionals are standing by with the easy answers.
"We have data on this," your marketing consultant will say. "Focus groups, buyer personas, Internet polling. You know, best practices!"
But there's a fly in the ointment: We're attempting to acquire intelligence from individuals who do not have it.
Think for a moment about your favorite song. Why is it your favorite? How many other songs has your brain processed and rejected over the course of your life? Could you explain in simple terms why you like this one best? Could you precisely convey the way it makes you feel?
Actually, maybe you could... if you could only get "you" out of the way.
This isn't revelatory. Researchers have long prized behavioral observation over self-reporting.
What's new is that our methods for behavioral observation are getting better -- so much better, in fact, that they're threatening the very existence of qualitative research.
A couple of footnotes on this:
The first comes from the Obama campaign team, by way of BusinessWeek.
We all know that those incessant Obama fundraising emails were excessive and idiotic (the marketing equivalent of blunt force trauma to the head).
But we're wrong.
In BusinessWeek, Joshua Green details how Obama's technologically savvy marketing team took behavioral marketing research to unthinkable new heights (think: A-B testing on steroids).
From the article:
"The appeals were the product of rigorous experimentation by a large team of analysts... The campaign would test multiple drafts and subject lines—often as many as 18 variations—before picking a winner to blast out to tens of millions of subscribers.
But wait. It gets better:
“'We were so bad at predicting what would win that it only reinforced the need to constantly keep testing,' says [Director of Digital Anaytics Amelia Showalter]. 'Every time something really ugly won, it would shock me: giant-size fonts for links, plain-text links vs. pretty ‘Donate’ buttons. Eventually we got to thinking, ‘How could we make things even less attractive?’ That’s how we arrived at the ugly yellow highlighting on the sections we wanted to draw people’s eye to.'
And the counterintuitive coup de grace:
"'[We learned that] most people have a nearly limitless capacity for e-mail and won’t unsubscribe no matter how many they’re sent.'"
Of course, people say they'll unsubscribe. They might even believe it. They'll scream and moan and curse the campaign -- but they'll never actually cut the cord.
And when an email hits, it hits -- regardless of how many thousands of misses preceded it.
So that's your first footnote: Removing humans from the equation equals a billion dollars in fundraising and a new (old) president.
Footnote two is a bit murkier.
In an excellent long-form piece in Wired UK, Adam Higgenbotham details how "affective computing" researcher Rosalind Picard brought facial expression recognition and machine learning of emotions to the world of market research. (Actually, she wanted to help kids with autism, but market researchers had the cash.)
Picard's resulting product (Affdex) measures the subconscious emotional reactions of individuals as they consume advertisements.
From the piece (my emphasis):
"Once, ad testing agencies relied upon focus groups to contemplate what they'd seen, and code their reactions using scores out of ten on a piece of paper. But this was an often unreliable process, as each individual's interpretation of their own feelings is subject to the vagaries of self-awareness, memory and self-censorship, or what El Kaliouby calls a "cognitive filter." Affdex circumvents that filter, so test subjects unconsciously reveal themselves before the merciless eye of the computer."
In fact, the practical applications for this technology go far beyond advertising. Think of how much better human/computer interactions could be if machines were inbued with emotional intelligence.
Case in point:
Picard's favourite example of computers' lack of emotional intelligence is Clippy, the relentlessly perky animated paperclip employed as an onscreen assistant in many iterations of Microsoft Office -- and infamously detested by users. Clippy materialised, unbidden, each time the software suspected you needed assistance -- with writing a letter or spelling a word -- bursting with cheerful suggestions, paying no regard to how busy or bad-tempered the user was, and even when repeatedly sent away insisted on doing a little dance before departing. "That is emotionally unintelligent behaviour," Picard says.
Based on these lessons, Samsung is reportedly developing an emotion-sensing smartphone that could "block you from posting tweets and status updates, depending on your emotional state. Alternatively, instead of blocking you, a little emotional state emoticon could appear next to your tweet so that your followers [could] better understand your drunk/sad/angry/sleepy tweet."
(And you thought R&D was a waste of time.)
Another one of my favorite examples of emotional intelligence is automated call center technology. Today, certain call systems have ways to detect stress in your voice -- which triggers a live operator connection.
There are also code words that trigger this response. Curse words, obviously. But also nonsensical words like "banana" -- words we would never have guessed could be effective at routing calls through a psychological triage system.
And that's footnote number two: It takes a quintessentially rational machine to understand the irrationality of humans.