Social Media Engagement

Engagement is one of the most important parts of any social media strategy but are you doing it right? Social media engagement is the interaction between people and brands on social networks. For example, on Facebook, engagement includes likes, comments and shares.

NM Incite’s “State of Social Customer Service Report” claims that 71% of consumers who experience a quick and effective brand response on social media are more likely to recommend that brand to others. That compares to just 19% of customers who do not receive a quick response.

Responding to your customers and consumers is key in creating sales. Turning customers into advocates for you brand is key to engagement and long-term sales and brand loyalty.

If you don’t have this following yet, it is VERY important to be aware of the media and look for sales opportunities. Social media monitoring or social media listening is a great way to do this. It is the act of monitoring what people are saying on social media about your business and the issues that affect it. This can be done by tracking hashtags, using management tools like Klout and Hootsuite and following people who are talking about the same thing as you.

Other users news articles, blog posts and tweets can all be opportunities to promote your brand and show how relevant it is. Tweet at them and share their content.

Take your time to reach out to people and they will reach back to you.

So Proud of Sasha Sweder for Learning and Using my tips!

Check out Sasha on @poshswederside for more skin care tips and information about Perfectly Posh

The best way to successfully sell on social media

1. Personalize messages: instead of spamming more than ten seconds into tweets and posts. In addition, work on personalizing pitches it to reporter and blogger you think will be interested in your product
2. Speak with human voice instead of the voice of mission statements brochures and marketing pitches
3. Don’t for get the relations in public relations. Make relations with other users on Twitter, Tumblr or whatever social media outlet
4. Regardless of age or fear keep up with technology because it is a job requirement!
5. Social media and PR are mutually exclusive. This means you are all PR reps for your business
6. Create two-way communication. Follow up with people who tweet at you. Tweet at people who you think would be interested in your product
7. BE ENGAGED in social media

Twitter Basics

Twitter:

• Tap into existing traffic
  • It’s good to get creative but also identify keywords and hastags that are relevant, or make up your industry or market
    • Hashtages are tags that act as a hyperlink to all recent tweets including that hashtag. Use hashtags intelligently-don’t over-# of your tweets
  • Create a great bio
  • Organize twitter lists
  • Listen before you tweet
  • Create and tweet great original content
  • Summarize and curate great content
  • Pair tweeting with blogging
  • The best content stories are those that:
    • Reads like my life experience
    • Relates to my life experience
    • Speaks to me in my language
    • Something that makes me want to share them with my friends

• How to share
  • The Re-tweet
    • Use the retweet button
    • Copy and paste into a new tweet
    • It’s a good practice to add your own thoughts
  • The modified tweet
    • MT @username (modify or cut down the original tweet)
  • Quote a tweet
    • Inserts “quotes” around the tweet, so you could add your own comment while attributing the original tweet to it’s author
  • Always attribute a tweet to it’s rightful author

• Engagement- We want high engagement
  • Create content based on your content
  • Networking
  • Engage in conversation and sharing with one another
  • Comments, number of mentions, imbedded content in your sight
• When to post
  • Tweet Saturdays and Sundays
    • 17% increase in engagement rate compared to weekdays
    • short and sweet but long tweets are OK because people may retweet the entire thing
    • hashtags are great but don’t use random ones. Search a hashtag first to see who is using it and for what.

Social Media Etiquette

First and Foremost:

• Be friendly
• Don’t be a showoff
• Don’t sell or pitch
• Don’t automate
• Don’t get angry
• Do care
• Give back

 

 

Let’s Talk About Twitter

Twitter is micro-blogging. It is what you would do on a blog but instead it is done in 140 characters.

Twitter has also had a major impact on businesses as brands find a new way to reach their fans- in social media and on their smartphones. Twitter has become a tool that businesses large and small can use to reach their target market, provide customer service and share their unique content and more.

Twitter embodies the idea of two-way communication between brands and their consumers. Twitter makes it easy for people to complain, compliment and ask questions about products, brands and services. Two-communication gives consumers power that they never had before; but how can we as a brand utilize this power that is not our own?

By being willing to listen and actively responding. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply. DO NOT DO THAT. Understand the concern with a product or service and respond accordingly. Always be transparent in your tweets. Do not delete anything, if you did something wrong admit it but do not delete. Users will be more likely to trust you. Engage with users, professionally. Be willing to ask followers questions and for feedback. You may get some negative backlash but if you handle it with grace you will always come out looking professional.

Be authentic. If you claim to be a skin care expert be that! Know your product and be willing to take criticism and concerns from users as an expert in your field would. However, do not use jargon and speak with a human voice. Do not sound automated when replying or tweeting. Especially be careful about this when scheduling tweets.

The more you tweet and the more time you spend online, the greater media presence you will have. However remember with great “power” comes great responsibility. The more of a presence you have on social media the more people will watch you.

In regards to content, do not just pitch or sell your product. Make it worthwhile to use your product and make it worthwhile to follow you. Create content that is informational and contributes to the overall conversation of skin care. Create content that reflects the overall mission of your brand.

The best content tells a personal story. What is your story with your brand? Why do you feel passionate about it? Why do you sell it? How has it changed your life or the life of the people you sell it to?

The best way to do that is to tap into a market that already exists. An example of this would be using common hashtags that are used in your conversation. Create a great twitter bio, make sure your twitter bio shows exactly who you are. Every word is sacred so do NOT have unnecessary words in the bio or in your tweets.

THINK BEFORE YOU TWEET…

• Do I really want my followers to read that?
• Will this increase my following?
• Am I providing something of value, whether it’s newsworthy or a joke
• Will it help my brand
• Can it hurt me? Damage my business or brand’s reputation
• Am I insulting someone or a group of people
• Does this belittle or make light of a serious situation
• Is this a rumor, lie or gossip
• Is this accurate? Are the facts from a credible source?
• Don’t be the individual or company ridiculed for spreading a myth

While it is always important to have your own content don’t be scared to share other users tweets, links and pictures. Don’t be scared of the re-tweet button. However if possible, it’s a good practice to add your own thoughts. This is called a modified tweet, MT @username (modify or cut down the original tweet). You can also quote a tweet by inserting “quotes” around the tweet, so you can add your own comment while attributing the original tweet to it’s author. ALWAYS ATTRIBUTE A TWEET TO ITS RIGHTFUL AUTHOR.

Twitter is one social media platform but is not the only platform you should be using. However, twitter is a great platform to curate all of your content. Tweet links to your YouTube video or the blog posts on tumblr. Pairing great tweeting with great blogging and you will be golden.

Why the Walking Dead Social Media is Very Much Alive

AMC’s the Walking Dead is one of the most watched shows on television. According to the New York Time’s, the Walking Dead averages a whooping 7.7 million viewers during their mid-season premier. These viewers are more than just watchers, they are engagers. The Walking Dead using many different social media tactics to get viewers and other people talking about their show.

Hashtags based around death, gore and zombies usually are not a key component to a successful social media campaign. However, for the Walking Dead it works. The Walking Dead has 2.43 million Twitter followers. They are successful in engaging with users because they use multiple hashtags. The traditional #TheWalkingDead and one that is centric to the episode. #TheWalkingDaughter,#visionaryleader and #OneLeggedHershal are just a few examples of their clever hastags. The use of episode centric hashtags allows for an ongoing social conversation during the episode, and after. In addition to hashtags, the Walking Dead’s Twitter engages with fans well by using retweets, giveaways and calls to action.

 

In additional to Twitter, the Walking Dead’s Facebook also garners a large audience. Their Facebook page has 26,730,378 likes. Their Facebook page post interviews, behind the scenes and artwork related to the show.While the content posted on Facebook is different than that of Twitter, the message is consistent.

AMC also created a Facebook game to go along with the show. AMC’s Walking Dead Social Game has 500,000 players. The game allows users to try and survive their own zombie apocalypse.

The age group for viewers of the Walking Dead range from 18-49. This is a huge demographic to try to engage with. That is why is important the Walking Dead has a social media presence on multiple platforms and in creative ways.

In addition to social media, the Walking Dead has a recap session after every episode called Talking Dead. AMC advertises the talk show during commercial breaks for the Walking Dead. AMC also tweets and asks users to tweet during the Talking Dead with the hashtag #TalkingDead.

The Walking Dead’s social media strategy perfects social television and sets the bar high for the rest of the television industry.

The Boss Button is Some Boss Marketing

If you are anything like me you do not care that for the next three weeks ESPN coverage will be saturated with the NCAA March Madness tournament. Yet somehow, today my TV changed from the usual Diner, Drive-Ins and Dives to full on tournament coverage. I wasn’t thrilled to say the least. So as a compromise I got to watch Chopped Champions on Food Network while my boyfriend live streamed the tournament on my laptop. It was there I found an ingenious marketing ploy.

The tournament itself is sponsored by AT&T, Capital One and Coke Zero but it doesn’t matter. On the NCAA live stream website, there is a button in the corner that reads “boss button.” Once pressed the button changes the page to a fake page that looks like something someone could pass off as work to a boss.

The button is sponsored by Buick and all the three “boss” options are about subtly basketball and cars. (As seen below)

This marketing tactic is a great way to get users of the live feed to think and talk about a brand without the brand being in your face or ruining the experience of the live feed. This tactic is very similar to Samsung’s response to the Oscar selfie. Organizations are moving toward marketing and messages that are innovative. In addition, these advertising technique isn’t forced and leaves the brand with a good reputation. The use of humor is excellent and well executed for the demographic.

Social Media and Crisis Communication

A crisis is any significant, disruptive event that features a rapid onset and can produce negative consequences for an organization’s financial health and reputation. These events can occur for a multitude of reasons: rumors, accidents or technical errors. The challenge in a crisis is how to respond.

The best way to respond to a crisis is to avoid it. Organizations can use social media to monitor and prepare for a potential crisis.  This requires organizations use social media measurement tools to see who is receiving messages and if the audience is doing so favorably. Accessing a threat requires being able to scan social media for negative outcomes, determine if the sender of the negative feedback is important or influential and finally determine if there is potential for a message to spread. In addition, organizations should develop a social media plan if information needs to be disseminated quickly and efficiently. This plan should include having a crisis management social media team ready to respond to any negative feedback and disseminate new information quickly.

If a crisis does occur, organizations need to be present on social media. Social media is very important through out a crisis but most important in later stages because it can offer new information quickly. In the case of national disasters of breaking stories, social media allows users to provide information to the organization through the effective use of hashtags and keywords. Using social media, individuals can contribute directly to the organization or the media by providing eyewitness perspectives through video, photos or texted accounts of an event.

During a crisis, tweets should be simple enough to be shared and have accurate information. Tweets/posts that include pictures or videos are more likely to be shared. It is important to balance tweets/posts between official and conversational updates. Conversational and narrative crisis messages are very effective. Social media can provide emotional support to an organization’s audience. This is one of the main reasons it is the first medium for communication during a crisis.

Overall it is important that organizations be seen during a crisis. Organizations need to be disseminating information beneficial to their audience and that helps keep a positive reputation. Organizations that do not engage with their audience during a crisis on social media are not seen favorably. Organizations should engage with their audience but avoid intimidation. It is important that organizations respond to negative comments thoughtfully (this is true of all the time not just in a crisis). It is important PR practitioners never “lose their cool” on social media. Remember that no matter what you can’t please everyone. Finally, be as transparent as possible. A good reputation is based on trust. Reputation is very important to an organization however, safety and accuracy should also come first in a crisis.

How ‘Ready to Graduate’ are my followers?

Monday, I posted a video of myself singing original lyrics to the tune of Disney Frozen’s “Do you Want to Build a Snowman.” The video was part of an experiment to see how much engagement it created.

I first posted my video on my personal Facebook. My 30 second rendition received eight likes and one share. On Monday I tweeted about my video three times. According to Social Bro, all of my tweet reached a potential 279 people. Of my three tweet from Monday, two got favorited. To try to increase the number of people seeing my tweet I used the hashtags ‘DisneyFrozen’ and ‘DisneySide.’ I also tagged Walt Disney World in one of my tweet and LSU in another. Today I tweeted the video this morning. It received one favorite and one retweet from the same user.

On my YouTube channel my video got nine views and one comment. My total average minutes watched is 3. Of my views, 67 percent were from a mobile device. I posted a 15 second version of the video on Instagram that received 6 likes. Overall, for only having posted the video for two days I think it has done pretty well.