Why Twitter Doesn’t Suck

What do you do when Twitter isn’t delivering the kind of numbers you are expecting? You may need a little (re)education about Marketing 101 + Social Media. This isn’t last year’s marketing. And Twitter isn’t last year’s marketing tool.

As more and more people clamor to Twitter to see what the fuss is about, there is more noise than ever. Does this mean Twitter is no longer effective as a marketing, branding and communications tool? Hardly. It only means that you have to think differently about Twitter now that there are more people like you trying to get noticed on it. And you have to rethink your expectations of what Twitter is good for and how to use it well.

Numbers Do Not Matter

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. On Twitter, it is not about the numbers. It is not about having a huge number of followers. And it absolutely is not about following a huge number of people. I don’t care how many clients are insisting that they need more followers. I stand by the same statement:

I would rather have 100 followers who listen, care, respond, interact and retweet than 1000 who ignore me.

The challenge is to truly engage with your Twitter followers – the ones that are your “right target audience,” if you will. You actually have to listen, care, respond, interact and retweet. And yes, it takes time each day and each week to manage this, and it takes time to cultivate the kind of rapport and trust that creates the tipping point to grow your Twitter following more exponentially.

But it is worth it. A truly engaged and responsive Twitter following is second only to an energized Facebook fan base. Twitter connections are that good.

Why Twitter is So Good

I’m not going to claim that Twitter will drive sales, although I know people are hiring and buying via Twitter. Social media in and of itself is not a direct sales tool. But Twitter can drive traffic. Traffic to your blog, traffic to your web site, traffic to your online catalog, and in many cases, traffic to an offline location or event.

Twitter drives traffic because as long as you include a link in your tweet, the content is compelling and people trust you, people will click on that link. Twitter is very much about sharing links and retweeting links.

What kind of traffic can Twitter drive? It depends on several factors:

1. How many engaged followers you have.

2. How many retweets you can get from those followers to their followers.

3. How compelling and retweetable your content really is in the first place.

4. How well you integrate Twitter into a multi-network social media marketing strategy.

Twitter can not exist in a vacuum and be your sole social media platform. Don’t make the mistake of putting all of your social media eggs into one basket. But Twitter is an excellent complement to a blog, a Facebook Page, and just about any other social network you decide to use because everyone is making sure their social networking tools are integrating with Twitter.

So Why Don’t Numbers Matter?

If you want to make Twitter work for you, build your Twitter following slowly, thoughtfully and over time you will begin to see interesting, valuable and measurable results. Some things you don’t want to do are:

1. Inflate your numbers by following people who are not your right audience. Even if they do follow you in return, they most likely will ignore what you tweet about.

2. Inflate your numbers by using a “Get Lots of Twitter Followers Quick” tool. Rip off. While you may get a lot of followers quickly this way, you can be guaranteed that 99% of them probably have their auto-follow feature set to on so truly do not care about you.

3. Inflate your numbers and follow more people than are following you back. Following too many people too quickly looks first and foremost like spam. It can also make you look like a desperate loser.

4. Inflate your numbers by automatically following everyone who follows you. Following too many of the wrong people will clog your Twitterstream and waste your time.

No, you don’t want to follow everybody who follows you back. While it is tempting to follow all followers – and it has been shown that people do think twice about unfollowing people who are following them back – not everyone who follows you is worth the connection. Some are spam bots. Others are using those auto-follow tools so are randomly following others, including you. Still others just aren’t the “right audience,” aren’t someone who will be interested in you, your company, your brand, your products or services.

Be selective about who you follow. This is not a race to get the most followers. This is a thoughtful process to make real connections with others. To pay attention. Why should someone else care about following and engaging with you on Twitter if you don’t actually care?

What are some of your thoughts about Twitter numbers? And how is Twitter working for you?

Exploring Enhanced Facebook Pages

Have you been implementing Enhanced Facebook Pages (EFPs) into your or your clients’ Facebook Pages?

I’m finding a dearth of discussion about the enhancements that are now possible within Facebook Pages such as:

• Custom Tabs
• Custom Pages
• Enhanced Wall Pages

But almost too quietly, companies are rolling out beautifully augmented Facebook Pages that thumb collective noses at the weak, poorly-branded default Page programming options.

Why have a company information page like this:

When you can have a branded, action-oriented, compelling and engaging landing page like this:

Am I missing something here?

I mean is there a reason why more people aren’t taking full advantage of EFPs and FBML to build out more clearly branded and interactive Pages to take a Facebook Page from a plain-vanilla, moderately interactive billboard into a visually-appealing, dynamic space? Even if we treat your Facebook Page as a gateway to your site, blog or other forum, shouldn’t we be leveraging the best creative options and features at our disposal to give a great first impression to our potential (and existing) customers and clients?

I’d argue that one reason for the slow and quiet rollout of these pages (Facebook did announce these capabilities in Q1 2009) is because it does take a certain degree of skill and understanding of FBML and Facebook Apps to develop these. But I think the real reason we aren’t hearing about these enhancements yet is because while there are awesome programmers out there with the capabilities, they may not be marketers. Seeing these EFPs warms the cockles of my marketer’s heart, and I sure other marketers – when shown the differences between default FB Pages and EFPs will be equally as giddy.

What we need to do is to get the awesome programmers together with the savvy social media marketers to best leverage these technical developments. Throw in a great designer in the mix, and we will no longer have to suffer through boring and confusing default Facebook Pages.

Pros of EFPs

Quick thoughts on the benefits of EFPs:

• Strong branding
• Enhanced visuals and multimedia placement
• More prominent calls to action
• More familiar – and less confusing – interfaces
• More positive emotional impact upon landing
• Ability to target an enhanced landing page to non-fans and the interactive Wall to existing fans

Cons of EFPs?

Here are some things I think naysayers might say about EFPs. Worth discussing.

• Could turn your Facebook Page into more of a destination which could split your audience away from your main destination so there might be an impact on traffic referrals from Facebook.
• Increases time of production and cost of Facebook Page development.
• Requires additional strategic planning, and design discussions to create truly effective EFPs.
• Just because something CAN be done might not mean that everyone SHOULD do it. You need a strategic reason to invest the extra time and money to execute.

So why am I talking about Enhanced Facebook Pages?

Shouldn’t I be hoarding the information within my own company to set us apart from other SMM firms? Of course not! We as an industry are better off as a whole by sharing knowledge and establishing a higher standard of best practices in social media marketing. As we all improve our services and offerings – and our understanding of the tools and tactics which constantly change – we create a bigger and more enticing pie as we prove that SMM is coming into it’s own and cannot be ignored.

Will you help me spread the word? Let’s talk about and compare EFPs – pros, cons, best practices, and the worst.

By the way, don’t look at our company FB Page – Cobbler’s Kids’ Shoes, know what I mean? But we’ll get there because we know we have to in order to remain competitive and to best leverage available technologies and tools.

Who do YOU think has a great EFP? Do YOU?

Getting Real With Social Media

I recently listened to some PR and marketing professionals discuss social media on a podcast geared toward a PR audience, and I was struck by the commentary about social media consultants. One comment was that too many social media consultants hype social media tools to their clients at the expense of good, solid strategy. I can agree with that statement. I cringe when I see people jumping on the bandwagon of social media marketing with little experience and nothing more than the ability to talk a good game, flash shiny objects in front of people and fail to be strategic. They are ruining it for the rest of us who have been in the trenches pioneering this stuff and thinking through the strategy for over a decade.

But the comments in the podcast that irked me were the ones where the PR and marketing professionals were saying that social media marketers are out of touch with what “real people” want or need and that they need to get back in touch with reality.

What?!? Let’s get REAL here.

Since when are PR people the holders and distributors of reality? Since when is PR and marketing based around what “real people” actually want? The entire premise of public relations, marketing and advertising isn’t “give people what they actually want and need” but rather “convince people that they want and need what we’re selling.” Public relations isn’t about “getting the truth to people” but instead is about “spinning the message to OUR truth so people buy it.”

The day public relations, advertising and marketing actually get REAL and are based in REALITY is when all those industries convert to journalism or what we all wish journalism would be – actually reporting on what is happening and giving voice to real people who are experiencing those things. As long as you are selling something, you are mostly inventing your own reality and repeating your message as often as you can in order to get others to believe in your reality to buy what you are selling.

So what the hell is social media marketing then?

Just using the term “marketing” at the tail end of social media creates a misnomer. Social media is about conversations, collaboration and community – it is the sets of tools and applications that facilitate conversations, collaboration and community. What we do isn’t really Social Media Marketing. It is Social Media Engagement. We’re not trying to push carefully crafted marketing messages and spin out to the public for their consumption. We are listening to what people are saying, and we’re seeding conversations to see what people have to say about issues. We take the best practices and smartest teachings from the old ways of doing things and apply them to an entirely new landscape.

Yes, we are listening to what people are saying on behalf of clients who have products or services to sell. And yes, we are seeding conversations to see what people have to say about issues that are somehow related to what our clients do. However, we aren’t convinced that the push, push, push PR/advertising/marketing methods of yesterday work anymore. The “dumb” consumer of the ’50s and ’60s is a skeptical grown up now and smarter than ever about the products they consume. The consumer of the 90s? They take all this social media stuff for granted – they were born with it. They’re even more skeptical than their parents.

This is not your mama’s marketing. Social media engagement is something entirely different. Social media is actually for, by and about the very people that PR folks, marketers and advertisers are trying to reach.

If you’re in PR, marketing or advertising, I know you’re getting nervous – maybe even scared – about the new way your audience is empowered and how the old way of communicating at them is not working anymore. But if you really want to GET social media, you’ll get out of your old comfortable worn-out box and stop deluding yourself that you are in touch with what “real people” want. Roll up your sleeves, get into the social media trenches, and actually find out what they. I think you’ll be surprised by what you find.

How are YOU getting real with your consumers? Or are you?

10 Golden Rules of Social Media

I’m always thinking about social media or more accurately about the Internet and how it affects our work and our lives. Recently, I composed a post for Web Worker Daily that I called the 10 Golden Rules of Social Media. I was quite self-conscious about publishing such a list, but at the same time, I knew these were things I’ve thought about, talked about and wrote about for over a decade. The post clearly struck a chord with people as comments are over 80 and still rising.

Here’s the list of just the rules. Explanation really shouldn’t be necessary, although if you want further definition, you can read the full post.

1. Respect the Spirit of the ‘Net.

2. Listen.

3. Add Value.

4. Respond.

5. Do Good Things.

6. Share the Wealth.

7. Give Kudos.

8. Don’t Spam.

9. Be Real.

10. Collaborate.

Social media tools are only that — tools. The real energy, spirit and power of social media is people. We are social media.

What would YOU add to this list?

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Dunbar gets networked

The Economist had a superb article (Feb. 28th) on the Dunbar number.

For those unfamiliar with Dunbar, it’s the theoretical maximum number of people that humans can have real relationships with. (See Wikipedia article.)

I’ve always postulated that the Dunbar number would increase with the help of a database to augment our cognitive skills and help us remember. For many years, the database that worked for me was ACT! While I was raising capital for my start-up in the last 90s, I would input memory triggers of conversations I had along with the dates and times that they took place. Most importantly, I would add my friend’s kids names since it is hard enough for me to remember their name, let alone their offspring.

Now, social networks are helping us all remember our relationships. So, does the Dunbar number increase?

According to research done by the The Economist, the answer is: not exactly.

The average number of friends on Facebook is 120 – slightly less than Dunbar, but appropriate since Facebook is not representative of 100% of the population. Where the research gets interesting is how we communicate. People with 120 friends generally respond to 7 of their friends’ postings (men) or 10 of them (women). But people with 500 or so friends respond to 17 (men) or 26 (women) of their friends’ postings.

The author’s conclusion?

The number of casual contacts goes up when using a database, but the number of core friends remains the same.

Read the full article.

How is social networking helping – or hindering – the way you manage your relationships with contacts and friends?

Say Yes To Pro-Bloggers

I was recently approached by someone who said “I hear that some companies pay people to blog for them.” Granted, this person was not in “the industry,” however, I was surprised to hear the question.

Yes, there are many companies and organizations paying people to blog for them – some as “ghost bloggers” and others are capitalizing on the name certain bloggers have built for themselves, hoping their business blog will glean some of their traffic.

Why Pro-Bloggers are Vital

A blog should really your social media hub, bringing all of your social media sites together so visitors can join you in the formats – or on the social networks – where they are most active. Your blog should be stimulated and managed with strategic attention and care. Pro-bloggers are an asset to any company or organization that just doesn’t have the capacity to regularly feed the hungry content beast that every blog can be.

Antibodies living on the Internet

Image via Wikipedia

When at networking events, I introduce myself as working for a social media marketing agency. That comment is typically followed by a look of confusion.

I then explain that I help organizations and brands market using technologies that allow people to socialize, like blogs, social networking sites, virtual worlds and more. More often than I would like, that explanation receives a disdainful, “well we don’t market where people are trashing our brand.”

That typically leads me to reply that people are talking about, even shaping your brand, whether you like it or not and you have a choice: to be part of the conversation, making corrections, if appropriate, or just ignoring it and letting them talk about you.

But tonight’s networking event was different because I met Kevin Singel of Accenture with his brilliant analogy.

Kevin said that people act like antibodies—the white blood cells that are protectors of truth and righteousness. He said that these antibodies will trash brands if the brands lie or act in an inauthentic manner.

The Antibody’s job is to counteract corporate marketing speak.

In that same conversation, Bruce McCoy from The Economist also made me realize that as a social media marketing agency we’re a lot more economically vulnerable than a PR agency or an advertising agency. Both of those types of agencies can obtain any kind of client and it won’t affect their reputation. [An exception to this is a PR consultant friend of mine who had a client that was a porn company and that DID affect his reputation.]

As a social media agency, we can only have clients that value authenticity, transparency, engagement with their audience and “doing the right thing.” That narrows down our playing field, and that’s kind of scary in a down turn!