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Category: Social Media

The Notorious IPO – Like The Future For Social Networking?

To paraphrase whomever The Notorious B.I.G. was paraphrasing in 1997, it would appear that the new financial expectations levied upon social media platforms are about to start making life much more complicated for users, advertisers and entrepreneurial site designers alike. You’re now looking at me almost as if there’s no rationally defensible way that Biggie could have been posthumously addressing the 21^st century plight of social media startups back in 1997, and to that I can only respond with two simple words: holograms, son.

All juiciness aside, some recent developments on the business end of social networking are sure to have a lasting impact on the way the average person uses these platforms. This flux goes hand-in-hand with the way advertisers and shareholders will have to go about making money off of the average person’s use of these platforms in the future. Unsurprisingly to anyone at least fleetingly familiar with the planet Earth in 2012, the central player in these developments are the perennial big poppa of social networks, Facebook.

As you’re probably aware, Facebook’s revolutionary IPO move several months ago arrived with financial expectations about as humbly understated as the dialogue in an Aaron Sorkin script. As you’re also probably aware, things didn’t actually end up going all that well. Regardless of whether or not this should have been that much of a surprise in retrospect, Facebook’s disappointing yield for shareholders will have a major impact on how other social media resources have to approach the development of their platforms in the future.

As The Atlantic‘s Derek Thompson points out, new pressures being placed on Tumblr to shift its focus from accommodating users to establishing and adhering to a strict and viable business plan marks the first step in what will likely be a sweeping change in the general philosophy governing social media:

The first few years of the social media revolution have been a golden age of tech utilitarianism, where maximizing users’ delight was considered, quite literally, the only currency that mattered. In Part II of the revolution, the desired currency is poised to change from attention to profit

It is not difficult to envision a pageview-centric future where quirky overnight Tumblr sensations like Dogshaming or McKayla Is Not Impressed are promptly equipped with chain pet store-sponsored submission forms or Kodak-provided stock photo templates of the moon landing and the Tiananmen Square protest for greater ease of Maroney-meme insertion. While such developments wouldn’t necessarily strip such silly internet curios of their fundamental entertainment value, instant monetization would definitely take a bit of the fun out of discovering such pages and watching them circulate and expand in popularity. Much of the appeal of these sorts of Tumblr pages — and all social media-generated sensations — involves the users’ ability to at least pretend that they or one of their “friends” were the first to discover a particular page or meme. Obviously, this illusion is immediately eliminated once sponsorship is pulled into play; it’s hard to envision any business model by which these sites could remain free to use without more deeply integrating corporate sponsorship into site content.

Meanwhile, corporate entities are starting to consider newly raised issues related to social media advertising on their end in the wake of a controversial decision by Australia’s Advertising Standards Bureau regarding Facebook user comments. Essentially, the Bureau ruled that (in Australia) a company must screen its page and posts to ensure the accuracy of all product-related information contained not only in its own officially posted content, but also in the content added via general user comments. The implications of such a decision could be outright devastating for the future efficiency of Facebook promotion, should such regulations be incorporated on any sort of broader international scale. I don’t think I’m going to shatter any advertisers’ utopian dreams by stating that the types of people who purchase and “like” your product aren’t necessarily the same people you’d want writing your advertising copy. And in the case of the Australian company in question, Smirnoff Vodka, they might well be the absolute last people you’d want having any impact on your legal standing.

This whole situation leaves companies in a quite precarious position. It seems like a magnificent waste of time and brainpower to constantly screen a boatload of throwaway Facebook user comments; however, disabling user interactions altogether would seem to fundamentally defeat the purpose of marketing on social media platforms. It’s not difficult to see how some companies could determine that it’s simply not worth the trouble.

What we have in place, then, is an interesting sort of standoff. I couldn’t possibly isolate any direct inspiration for this, but I like to envision the advertisers and investors as one grizzled old gunslinging action hero, with the anonymous multitudes of invisible social networkers seated at their computers represented, perhaps, simply by a single empty chair. Advertisers still salivate at social media platforms’ unprecedented access to consumers in age brackets and demographics they have been unable to effectively reach otherwise, but getting too close to these general users just might land them in legal trouble. Social media investors naturally dream of throwing their weight around to help shove these advertisers closer to these same consumers, since that’s the most logical way to enhance the financial prospects of their investment.

Of course, at stake is that essential feeling of “mine-ness” that drew users to social networking to begin with. Push advertising too hard on these users, and they could vacate the premises as quickly as that neon pink anime-style cat that wallpapered your big sister’s old MySpace page. General social media users, meanwhile, are facing a looming decision as to whether their enjoyment of the social networks they’ve become accustomed to using sufficiently outweighs the frustration of finding more and more of their personal lives either directly monetized or, at the very least, more strategically molded into streamlined business plans.

These problems are by no means new revelations, but the stakes are suddenly much higher. Facebook has proven that merely getting a ton of people on board and radically redefining the concept of “word-of-mouth” isn’t enough to make real, investor-friendly truckloads of cash. The Australian Advertising Standards Bureau has proven that the line between mingling and marketing is likely going to become a lot less blurry than it probably seemed for advertisers developing marketing strategies over the last few years.

If there’s one thing that’s fairly certain in all of this, it’s that a major shake-up is imminent. Sticking with the Facebook example, it’s unlikely that advertisers are going to coolly walk away from a massive, captive audience simply because it might be a bit of a hassle to adhere to ad copy standards thus far unenforced in most of the world. It’s equally unlikely that Facebook investors are going to calmly give Mark Zuckerberg back his old T-shirts, say “sorry it didn’t work out,” and shuffle home to listen to Morrissey records until they find another fish in the sea. Most unlikely of all, perhaps, is that Facebook users will coolly kick back and say, “hey guys, we’ll be here waiting for you no matter what. You just figure out what you think is best for us and let us know how it’s going to work from now on.”

Whatever happens, it feels like the optimal time for enterprising online marketers to start getting more familiar with alternate social networking platforms. Given the inherently fast-paced, fleeting nature of social media, the very fact that many of us might feel a sense of comfort or predictability with marketing on Facebook and Twitter should be some kind of indication that those bubbles are soon to burst.

Will the great user-friendly potential of Google+ finally be met with the corresponding cultural acceptance and ascribed relevance it has lacked to this point? Will users gravitate toward the conceptually alluring “private” approach to social networking, as demonstrated by the forever-in-progress Diaspora? Will users decide that they are serious enough about social media to begin paying to keep their online networking strictly social on a site like as many are starting to suggest? Perhaps in a few years, the very concept of unchecked social networking will have become a quaint little “two thousand-late” fad, just a laughably nostalgic relic of misguided youth like slap bracelets, Power Gloves and Britney Spea… oh. Right.

In any case, even if Facebook and Twitter users prove willing to endure a more thoroughly streamlined and business-friendly approach to their online interactions, this will likely lift many of the restrictions that currently define appropriate approaches to marketing on these platforms. If television audiences are still willing to revolve entire Sundays around roughly 11 minutes of football for every hour of commercials, it’s certainly possible that marketers can beef up their approach without driving away the very audience they’re courting.

I realize that this post has done more in the way of raising questions than providing answers, but that’s really the point. For businesses, marketers, shareholders and general internet users alike, the catch-all answer for everything has long been that “social networking is the future.” The recent travails of Facebook and the future implications of these troubles for other sites should be making everyone stop, take a deep breath and ask just what is the future for social networking. As a man much wiser than I once said, things done changed.

October 16, 2012
3 Reasons Your Company Should Be On Instagram

We all know by now that a social media presence is essential to your company’s marketing strategy. Whole new strategies on how to best use the various networks are being developed every day. Though it may seem like only yesterday your business’s Facebook account was the only one you needed to concern yourself with, there are plenty of other networks to worry about now. One of these, Instagram, has 80 million users and has just launched a business-focused blog aimed at helping you use their platform to benefit your company.

Here are 3 reasons why your company should be on Instagram. By creating a profile and engaging your community, you can:

• Use it as a feature of other social networks – If you are wary of getting involved in yet another social network, don’t think of it as separate, at least not at first. Think of it as adding more content to your current social media strategy. With Instagram, you can share your photos to Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, and Foursquare. Look at it as enhancing your presence on the networks you already use.

• Humanize yourself, your employees, your company – You can show pictures of your products, but don’t limit it to just that. Show your customers that not only are the people behind your company creative but they are also human. Share photos of your product being made, behind the scenes shots, the view from your office, and almost anything else. The possibilities are practically endless. One of the reasons Instagram is so popular is that it gives you the ability to make photos of even mundane things look more interesting. Use Instagram as a different sort of marketing by making your posts less formal than your posts on other social networking sites. Especially if you own a small business, include some photos of your personal life. Make yourself more human.

• Make yourself relevant and get people talking – Just like on Twitter, Instagram allows tagging. Find out how people are tagging their photos on Statigram to join the conversation. If you are at some industry event, find out if the promoters have created a hashtag for attendees to use. You can use this to connect with colleagues and possibly clients. You don’t just need to join conversations; you should be starting them. You should also be using the comment feature to engage your audience. Ask questions in your photo’s caption and reply to the comments followers leave. With hashtags, you can even get people to do your job for you. Encourage users to take photos of your product and use your company name to tag. Just like with Facebook, you can hold “Fan photo of the day” contests to motivate users.

Instagram’s blog suggests that once you decide you want to put your company on Instagram, you should start a personal account. This will allow you to do a little research. You’ll quickly learn what and how you like other users to post, and you can take that information into account when developing your company’s strategy. You will also figure out what types of photos people enjoy by paying attention to how many likes certain types of photos get. Also be sure to check out how other companies and organizations are using Instagram. To get started, you can have a look at this 5 for Friday from a few weeks back that links an example of how the US Olympic basketball team successfully put Instagram to use.

October 4, 2012
How To Use Facebook Timeline To Promote Your Business

While many users have opted to cling to the traditional Facebook design for as long as possible, all users are currently being forced to jump on the Timeline bandwagon — whether they like it or not. At this point in the game, though, the majority of users have been using the revamped page for some time anyway. The layout is familiar and users know what they’re looking for when they visit business Pages. But do you know what you should be doing to effectively reach your fans?

It’s no secret that you should be promoting your business on Facebook if you want to increase your social media presence. What you may not know, however, is that the way in which you go about it is pretty significant. If you fail to follow the rules outlined on Facebook’s Page Guidelines, you could find yourself suspended and unable to access your Page.

When Facebook’s Timeline feature was first introduced to Pages, the site was flooded with cover photos of promotional content. It makes sense that the cover photo would seem like the perfect place to tout your business’ latest promotion or encourage visitors to Like your Page. However, this kind of customization is actually against Facebook’s rules.

Pages cannot include price information whatsoever. That means that any special offers, like percentages off or coupons, cannot be referenced in your cover photo. Telling visitors to Like or Share your Page is also to be avoided.

It might seem like overkill, but you actually can’t even put your website URL, email, or address in your cover photo. Facebook wants you to utilize the About section of your Page for those purposes. Any calls to action (i.e. Buy Now!!!) also have to be excluded.

Previously, Page owners could customize their landing pages to include calls for action, special offers, and exclusive content in exchange for a Like — a process called like-gating. But, with the implementation of Timeline for Pages also came a discontinuation of the landing page. Now, your cover photo is what makes the first impression when people visit your Page.

So, how can you make the most of it?

Choose something eye-catching. Draw in your Page’s visitors with an image that reflects the heart of your business and/or engages your fanbase. Verizon Wireless’ Page, for example, features photos taken by fans using their products. It’s a smart way to involve users and encourage fan interaction.

Pick a profile image that compliments (and doesn’t clash with) your cover photo. This is a great spot to feature your logo or a good image of your product.

Optimize your About section. While you can’t include your website on your cover photo, you can display it here. The first 155 characters of this section are visible to your Page’s visitors, and they should be chosen wisely. Include a short, solid statement about your business, along with your URL.

Lastly, Like the Facebook Marketing Page for tips on how to improve other aspects of your Page. When fans search for or stumble upon your business on Facebook, you want them to stick around. If your Page is aesthetically pleasing, informative, and engaging, you’re more likely to capture those all-important Likes.

September 13, 2012
SI Social: How the iPhone 5 Could Change the Social Media Landscape

Oh, Apple. You and your sexy marketing campaigns. You know that we love all that sleekness, those stark white backgrounds. And do I need a new phone? Nope; my iPhone 4 still works just fine (albeit a little slower than it did when I bought it a year and a half ago). But now, with the launch of what we think might be the iPhone 5 right around the corner on September 12th, the internet is being flooded with videos and roundup posts about the new gadget, which is rumored to have a taller screen than its predecessor.

Of course, we don’t even know if it’s actually going to be called the 5, although Apple sure is teasing us with that image up above. According to TechCrunch, the 5 will simply be called “The New iPhone,” if this image is to be believed (looks pretty suspicious to me). They’re also telling us that the new screen will be larger, meaning we can cram an extra row of apps in there. Supposedly, the headphone jack is on the bottom now. Really, the actual name doesn’t matter, because appearance is only a small part of why we care about these phones. Sleek is great, but our dependency on them as a part of our modern lives is all about what they allow us to do.

What I need my phone to do, for example, is let me use it like a computer as much as possible. So instead of dying quickly because I’m running Twitter, Facebook, and Google Analytics simultaneously, I need it to last longer. Aside from that, I need it to offer me something that can allow me to further weave myself into the social media universe. What tools can it offer me? We know that no one buys the iPhone anymore because they need to make actual phone calls. As long as I could still send texts, I’d consider cutting off the actual phone service if I had the option. Yeah, it’s a little nuts, but the trend shows we all prefer data transmission in other ways (and make of that what you will).

What else could it do to be transformative in the ways we use social media? On-the-go communication is crucial, and Apple is almost certainly keeping an eye on the multi-variegated capabilities that more and more networks demand. Increased battery life helps, but it just lets us do more of what we’re already doing. What if if offered a way to update all social networks simultaneously (and pick and choose which ones the updates go on, if we like)? In my personal opinion, I didn’t get much out of Siri; although she’s a good idea, the functionality simply doesn’t meet my needs as a blogger and certified social media addict. While Siri aimed to make our lives easier by managing these aspects, she didn’t adapt much to allow us to use social media in a new or different way — and that’s what we, both as marketers and private users, need.

For instance, as a professional writer and blogger, one thing I feel my phone has always lacked is a way to write comfortably from my phone. Could the new iPhone’s increased keyboard space be a solution? Instagram addicts may ask for built-in photo sharing capabilities, or professional social media showrunners could drool at the thought of built-in feed automation. I’m sure every user has their own wishlist. Since people will buy the new phone regardless of whether its revolutionary or more of the same, perhaps these squabbles are minor at best. Or maybe it’s less about the phone itself and more about the apps available, although the phone has to have the power to run them in the first place. With the next generation’s increased processing speeds and functionality, an omnipresent mobile social media connection may not be too far away.

Do you think the new iPhone going to change the way we interact? Or is it just going to be more of the same?

September 5, 2012
Hurricane Isaac & Social Media: Not Just For Memes & Self Portraits

What were we to do? Hurricane Isaac is raging outside our doors, winds ripping down the street at 100 miles an hour, suddenly our power dies and our city goes dark. New Orleanians are trapped inside our homes without a way to connect to the outside world. At this point we hopefully aren’t wasting precious phone battery playing Tetris or Words with Friends, because this is when social media takes a greater importance than creeping on our friends from high school.

In New Orleans, hurricanes and tropical storms aren’t a new phenomenon. Locals have become accustomed to evacuation procedures and preparing for torrential rain and screaming winds. What becomes difficult is communication during and following the storm. While Hurricane Isaac swept through New Orleans and plunged forward further inland, residents from all corners of Louisiana found themselves without power. After weathering the storm itself, those of us who chose not to evacuate were left without power and working appliances — so it was to social media we turned to receive the most recent updates on Isaac.

Throughout the storm, the local news stations used Twitter and Facebook to answer questions from residents. Several times during the live broadcast, viewers would see news anchors scrolling through their social media accounts to acknowledge questions and retrieve answers from the on-camera meteorologist.

For me, this was my first hurricane in New Orleans and I wanted to know exactly what Isaac was doing at every second. I turned to the only thing left in my house with power: my cell phone. In a matter of minutes, I was able to pull up maps, tracking systems and up to date information on Isaac’s movement. Also, by following the local news channels, the Weather Channel, New Orleans Police Department and other authorities on Twitter and Facebook, I was able to stay informed of evacuations and road closures.

By Thursday, the worst of the storm was over. For the most part the people of New Orleans were safe and dry, but bored. Almost the entire city was left without power: no air conditioning, no Law and Order marathon on the TV, no radio to listen to. Everything in the freezer and refrigerator was spoiled. Computers were basically useless without the Internet to connect to. What did we do? Lucky for New Orleanians (who have a bit of practice at this kind of thing), the city is filled with outstanding restaurants and local watering holes that know how to deliver great service even in the midst of an outage. We were then left with the question, “How do we know what’s open?”

Many homes, mine included, were left without power stretching into Labor Day weekend. While this is not the first time many locals had been without power for an extended period of time, it never gets easier to be without air conditioning in 95-degree temperatures and 90 percent humidity. We needed reprieve from the heat in the form of a hot meal, a cold beverage and a little bit of entertainment. Again, social media comes to the rescue. From Hurricane Isaac, new trending hashtags came to life! #NOLAopen #NOLAgas and #NOLAfood quickly became an easy way for businesses and restaurants to tell the community that their generators were pumping cool air and their doors were open.

On Facebook, businesses were updating their fan base through status updates on when their doors would be open and the availability of their service. Many businesses in downtown New Orleans were able to open as early as Thursday night with limited menus, but air conditioning and cold drinks — just in time for the Saints game.

One of the most impressive factors of the social media phenomenon was how involved the community became. Normal residents worked together to highlight open businesses. Including hashtags and sharing amongst friends, they continued to spread the word and fuel the conversation throughout New Orleans. Local businesses have historically gained a lot of traction via direct outreach on Facebook and Twitter, and this situation was a perfect example: customers checking their Facebook feed or liked pages were able to quickly and conveniently get the information they were looking for directly from the horse’s mouth, and reward establishments who stayed visible and in touch with their business.

One local New Orleans blogger made it her mission to keep the city informed of operational businesses. Leslie J. Almeida focused her Twitter, Facebook and blog on an eight-page hand written list of businesses open during and directly after Isaac. Without power herself, she was left with her phone, paper and pencil. As she learned of each business she would add it to a hand written list, take a picture of the paper with her phone and upload it to social media.

Needless to say, social media and cell phones also proved extremely useful helping people to connect. Once Isaac hit, landlines went dead across the city. Friends and family were able to check on loved ones via cell service and texts. As I recently moved here from Arizona, a state that doesn’t have natural disasters like hurricanes, my friends and family expected the worst. With a limited phone battery, a quick status update for my whole Facebook circle was easier than several texts and phone calls.

All in all, a hurricane isn’t the most fun Labor Day weekend you can imagine. Even a category one storm like Isaac can leave a city in the dark — but social media and influential members of the community are able to use their platforms to keep New Orleans residents safe, dry and well fed.

September 4, 2012
Having Your Cake and Eating It Too: A Step-by-Step Guide To Scheduling Updates In Facebook

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how I had found the new Facebook scheduling tool improved EdgeRank for pages. The blog analyzed the significant gains we’ve seen in clients’ reach and interaction since we began using the tool rather than scheduling posts through HootSuite. It seems that fewer business owners and page managers were aware of the tool than I had imagined, so I created a comprehensive breakdown of how to schedule posts using a fictional cupcake shop.

Before doing anything else, you must set a “Founded” date for your business. This is a relatively easy step, but must be completed before Facebook will allow you to begin scheduling updates.

This is a great opportunity to write an enticing story about your company and post a high resolution image. This post will appear on your timeline and and is very visible when customers skim your page. It will always be the earliest post listed on the timeline, and will appear much larger than a typical status update or photo. Here’s the published result:

After setting the founding date, you can begin scheduling your updates for up to six months in the future. You will need to click the small clock icon in the bottom left corner of the update box. You will type your post as usual and select a date and time in which to publish.

This feature will allow you to post statuses in the future AND past. You can post as far back in time as your founding date, and as far into the future as six months. You can set the hour and minute that you want the post to appear on your wall in ten minute increments.

One of my favorite features of the Facebook scheduling tool is the ability to schedule photos and videos that look exactly the same as if they were posted in real time. The biggest issue I had with using third party scheduling tools was that video links often ended up broken and photos wouldn’t publish at their full size. This feature fixes that issue entirely. Here is an example of a photo posted through the Facebook scheduling tool:

You can use Facebook’s Activity Log feature to view all scheduled updates, videos, and photos in the order in which they are scheduled to post. This feature allows you to make sure there were no errors in the ordering or the timing of your posts. You can access this feature through the Admin Panel at the top of your page. You simply click the button that says “Edit Page” and then select “Use Activity Log” from the drop down menu that appears.

The Activity Log will open in a new page, with all of your scheduled posts appearing at the top. Below that will be a list of all of your page actions over time, including comments, likes, and updates, as well as posts by others on your page.

Once you’re within the Activity Log, you can also choose to change the publishing time of a scheduled post, publish it immediately, or cancel the post altogether by clicking an arrow that appears to the right of each individual post. Unfortunately there is no way to edit the text of a post after it has been scheduled, but hopefully that feature will be added to the Facebook scheduling tool eventually. Even without that feature, we’ve found the Facebook scheduling tool to be extremely useful for our clients’ pages.

August 28, 2012
Twitter Medium Launch: The Next Big Social Network?

Last Tuesday, Twitter founders, Evan Williams and Biz Stone of Obvious Co., unveiled a new web platform, Medium, a publishing tool where people can submit photos and text. But this ambitious new publishing tool is still a bit of mystery. Medium is still in its preview stage, and it’s unclear as to what will set it apart from all other web platforms.

The dynamic duo, Williams and Stone, collectively created Blogger in 1999 and then later the ever-popular Twitter in 2006. Social networks and the way people use them has evolved dramatically since the launch of the pair’s first web platform, Blogger. Williams and Stone have seen much room for improvement in the social networking/blogging world. Stone states in his blog, “We felt compelled to build a content network for the technology age we’re living in now, and we have a vision for what publishing should be.”

The two have used what they have learned over past 13 years in an attempt to create an “evolutionary leap” in the publishing world. Creating Medium “from scratch,” Obvious Corporation has taken on this ambitious project to better connect people to media as well as prompt people to become more creative with the content they are posting.

Now, what actually is Medium? What can it do?

This is where some of the mystery comes into play. Medium has been described as a cross between Pinterest and Reddit and even called a “Frankensteinish PinTumblReddit.” With Medium, people can share content under different categories that show up in visual grid much similar to Pinterest. Williams describes in his blog that Medium allows users to choose their level of involvement, publishing content to “collections;” people can click to indicate if they like something as well as give feedback. Over time, many users will add content to one collection creating an array of different people’s ideas and experiences.

Okay, so besides the way this new platform is organized, Medium sounds very similar to existing social networking sites. Is Medium really as innovative as Williams and Stone describe in their blog? It’s hard to say, because the platform is still in its beginning stages. Obvious Corp. has launched what they have built so far and seek to learn and make adjustments as they observe users, describing what was launched as only a “sliver of what it could be.” Currently, anyone with a Twitter account can log in and give feedback, but posting content is limited to a small number of people.

What are your thoughts on Medium? Have Williams and Stone successfully created the “evolutionary leap” they were attempting, or will this new publishing tool fall short of the founders’ expectations?

August 21, 2012
How To Set Up WordPress Social Metadata

We couldn’t be prouder to announce that our own Doug Thomas’s video has won the SEOMoz Youtube Contest! Social metadata, the hidden content that displays your content in a correct and attractive way on social media sites, is one of the most overlooked aspects of posting a blog or article, and this tutorial provides a concise and thorough explanation of how to utilize it. Metadata lets Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ know what title, description, and image to show in the preview on the site. To implement Facebook OpenGraph, Twitter Cards and Google+ Authorship, you now just need one <link> tag rather than the more complicated three-link monte from earlier. In this tutorial, we use built-in WordPress functions to edit the theme of your site to create a semi-automated, scalable way to correctly generate this metadata.

Which Would You Rather Your Sharers See?
When we set this up, we use two sections of WordPress to push the data to the blog post. For the Twitter Cards and Authorship, you use unused fields in your User Profile like AIM and URL to house the information. For OpenGraph, the data is either pulled from Custom Fields or the post itself. If you can’t see Custom Fields under your post, go to Screen Options at the top of the Edit Post screen and check Custom Fields. By using what’s already existing in WordPress instead of a plugin, you avoid bloat in your database, reduce the risk of plugin conflicts, and make your code portable to other WordPress sites without having to install anything new.

Here’s the video, which will show you the code to set this up and a cute ferret. Enjoy!

Can’t Read the Code?

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August 21, 2012
When Did The Chicken Cross The Road? Chick-Fil-A, Facebook Foul Ups and Web 2.0

It’s January 1st, 1999.

The Euro is established. A month later, the U.S. Senate acquits Bill Clinton of impeachment charges. Then Star Wars Episode I, Napster, Columbine. And in an article entitled “Fragmented Future,” Darcy DiNucci states that, “The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear…” That was thirteen years ago, and I don’t remember anything called Web 2.0. What I do remember are static web browsers, a screeching dial up modem, fights with my sister, and AIM chat rooms — certainly not the Post-Internet proposed by DiNucci.

So what was she seeing that I wasn’t? When she said “The web we know now… is only an embryo of the Web to come,” did anybody stop to ask her what she meant?

Is the Internet of today even knit from the same quilt as that of 1999? Perhaps. It takes benchmarks to notice the change. Here was my wakeup call: Chick-Fil-A.

Blasted by liberal groups for being opposed to gay marriage, the conservative corporation now finds itself in hot water for allegedly creating a fake Facebook profile (of a teenage girl), then using it to defend the company’s actions and promote blatant falsehoods. The non-existent girl, Abby Farle, even quotes the Bible, ending her post with “…John 3:16,” and “derrr,” which is appropriate because nobody says “derrr” anymore.

The wakeup call is not that corporations lie: it’s how saddeningly fickle this whole story is. More concerning than the fact that Chick-fil-A, a quick-service chicken restaurant, is opposed to gay marriage, is the fact that we care that a quick-service chicken restaurant is opposed to gay marriage.

What causes a billion dollar corporation to resort to such childish techniques? To actually embody a child to plead their case? Why can’t you just be you, chicken company? Do fake people defend better than real people?

Even the article “Did Chick-fil-A Pretend to Be a Teenage Girl on Facebook?” published by Gizmodo.com that “broke” the story seems strangely suspect. The story’s screenshot of Chick-fil-A’s Facebook page depicts the conversation, where would-be Chick-Fil-A savior Abby Farle is exposed for being non-existent just two hours after telling one of the belligerents, Chris, to “check his info…” Yet the odd part is that whoever took the screenshot only has one friend on chat. Who has only one friend, right?

If social media has come to serve as the hammer and anvil of democracy (see Wikileaks, Tahrir Square, Syria) and if our own voices are to be the liberalizing agent, what’s to be done when a conservative voice, like Chick-Fil-A CEO S. Truett Cathy, starts chirping “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit.”

To me, this is the high water mark of social media: when an asshole can’t be an asshole in peace.

When a four billion dollar (and growing) corporation cares about public opinion enough to create a fake consumer to defend the owner’s socio-religious beliefs, something is very, very wrong. It’s not Chick-Fil-A. It’s us.

Take 400 years of rabid capitalistic mentality, add a dash of recession-inspired fear, introduce social media and you’ve got the current “debacle.” If Web 1.0 took our bodies, 2.0 has edged toward our souls. Is this what Darcy DiNucci was talking about?

The unprecedented access and information Web 2.0 provides to marketers (via social media platforms) allows businesses endless opportunities, if they only knew how to take advantage. Don’t overestimate the importance of assenting voices on Facebook, as Chick-Fil-A has. It’s at least reassuring to know that in our world of expressive freedom, backfires do still exist; genuine goodwill is the strongest form of PR a company has (and it’s free, too!), and faking it just won’t cut it. Moreover, the astroturfing of social media platforms, when discovered, inevitably leads to enormous backlash.

So to the people who post pictures of all their meals on Facebook, I say, “Just eat it,” and to Chick-Fil-A, I say nothing.

(P.S. I just found out Gore Vidal is dead. Welcome to Web 2.0.)

August 14, 2012
Pin It To Win It: Increasing Your Fan Engagement With Contests and Giveaways

We’ve touched on how to put Pinterest to work for your brand in the past, but some businesses are now using the social media site in even more exciting ways. With the site’s unbelievable growth (it recently passed Twitter, Bing, and Stumbleupon in the rankings), if you aren’t using Pinterest to promote your business already, it’s very clear that you should be.

But, did you know that besides pinning your products and using the images to drive traffic to your site, you can also engage your target audience with contests and giveaways? It’s a practice that’s been coined “Pin It To Win It” and it’s taking Pinterest by storm. We’ve talked about using Facebook contests to promote fan engagement, but this is the first push towards competition-based community involvement we’ve seen on Pinterest so far.

Some contests simply require you to repin an image and include a hashtag. Others require Pinners to follow one or more of their business’ boards in exchange for a chance to win.

While this approach has been used on many a blog, it is also an effective strategy for Pinterest. Some companies, however, are getting especially creative with their fan engagement and taking it a step further. In addition to having Pinners follow them, they’re also having them create a board filled with their products.

Take World Market’s recent Pin It To Win It Contest. They begin by having entrants follow them on Pinterest. Then, they have Pinners create their own board with at least 10 items taken either directly from their site or from the company’s own Pinterest boards. (You can see my entry here!)

Genius.

Not only are they gaining followers, but also they’re increasing the number of pins on the site from users and capturing countless other views in the process. I’ll say it again – genius. Anyone can fill out a contest entry form, but World Market is engaging its audience in a way that’s fun and beneficial for both the company and the Pinners, and they’re not the only ones.

GAP recently held a similar promotion, as did Microsoft Windows. And as their popularity increases, we’re sure to be seeing more of these contests and more consumers engaging with brands on Pinterest.

So, what about you? Would you consider running a Pinterest promotion for your business?

August 9, 2012