Online Marketing Fail #32: Failing to Properly Optimize Social Media
We’ve all seen epic social media fails (and wins). From employees accidentally posting to a corporate Twitter account rather than their personal account, to companies not having a social media presence at all, social media is rife with fails of all kinds. As bad as accidental posts can be, the biggest fail of of all is not properly optimizing your social media presence. Take a look at our latest white paper, and learn what you can do to avoid making the biggest social media fail of all.
Online marketing is littered with fails; from the small business that fails to claim their Google+ Places page to the Enterprise level B2B that thinks social media isn’t worth the time, it’s easy to fail at social media marketing. Optimizing social media goes far beyond keyword research, search engine optimization and backlinks–rather, it encompasses all of those things and more. Join us for a lively webinar discussing common social media fails–and how you can avoid common social media optimization fails.
Online marketing is littered with fails; from the small business that fails to claim their Google+ Places page to the Enterprise level B2B that thinks social media isn’t worth the time, it’s easy to fail at social media marketing. Optimizing social media goes far beyond keyword research, search engine optimization and backlinks–rather, it encompasses all of those things and more. Join us for a lively webinar discussing common social media fails–and how you can avoid common social media optimization fails.
Online marketing is littered with fails; from the small business that fails to claim their Google+ Places page to the Enterprise level B2B that thinks social media isn’t worth the time, it’s easy to fail at social media marketing. Optimizing social media goes far beyond keyword research, search engine optimization and backlinks–rather, it encompasses all of those things and more. Join us for a lively webinar discussing common social media fails–and how you can avoid common social media optimization fails.
If you’re a local business owner who still has a relatively small customer base, you know the importance of word of mouth marketing. Your new business depends on what your customers have to say about you, and (as if that pressure isn’t enough) so does your local SEO. Off-page factors have an immense impact on your local SEO success; you need to claim as many local listings as possible, and more importantly, you need reviews—lots of them. The first part is relatively easy, but what about the latter? As business owners, it’s hard to control what other people say (if they say anything at all) about your product or offering. Here are ways you can encourage reviews:
1. The Obvious – Ask them directly
This can be very effective if you’ve just provided excellent customer service. People are more likely to remember you if you directly ask them for their feedback. My hair stylist pulled this trick on me and it was very successful. I felt inclined to help her out and leave a review because she took the time to ask me in person, and because she just gave me a great haircut. It’s simple; at the end of a customer transaction simply ask “Do you have a Yelp or Google+ account?” If they respond with yes, reply with “I would greatly appreciate it if you could leave your feedback.” If they reply with no, do not ask them to create an account. This will only inconvenience them and encourage them to write a negative review.
2. Create an Email Campaign
If your business collects emails and sends out regular newsletters, try dedicating an email campaign to existing customers for reviews. Make it as easy as possible. Thank them for their business and leave a link or two to your local listings. Ask them to please leave feedback about their experience, and make sure to emphasize that you value them as a customer.
3. Social Media
Don’t underestimate your social media fans. They already “like” and “follow” you, so they will most likely be inclined to leave a review—and a positive one at that. Create a Facebook post or send out a tweet asking them to leave a review. Include a link to the platform that you are focusing on (Yelp, Google local, etc) to make it easy for them.
4. Link to Your Listings from Your Website
Again, it’s all about making it as easy as possible for your customers. Make it so that returning customers can go to your website to find your local listings. Collect image logos for Yelp, Yellow Pages, Manta, Google Places, Bing or whichever platforms you prefer, and create image links out of these. When users click on these logos, they should be directed straight to your review page. Creating image links can be incredibly easy depending on which content management system you use, but here’s the html code that you can add to your site:
<a href=”domain.com”> <img src=”domain.com/image.jpg” alt=”Leave a Yelp Review” /> </a>
5. QR Codes
Quick response codes are perhaps the easiest way to direct your customers to your review pages (especially if your clientele is technologically savvy). If you’re unfamiliar with QR codes, they’re just like barcodes that retailers use to scan prices, except that these codes can hold thousands of alphanumeric characters. QR codes can link to content on the web so that when your customers scan the code they are taken directly to your review site. Customers with QR code scanner apps (such as i-nigma and barcode scanner) can easily scan the code and leave a review with their phone. To generate and customize your code, visit myQR.co. If you’d like more details on how to use QR codes for your business, read this article by Social Media Examiner.
6. Leave Messages on Receipts
The key to getting reviews is promptly asking your customers for them. Once a transaction is complete, your customers go on with their daily lives and aren’t likely to think of you again. Print a message on your receipts, invoices, or business cards that reminds your customers to leave a review. On their way out, you should verbally remind them to leave a review, and then reinforce that request with a textual reminder on the receipt. You can even leave QR codes on receipts to make it even easier!
7. Use Foursquare and Twitter to Monitor Check-ins
Foursquare alone is a great tool to keep your customers engaged and talking about your business, but used with Twitter, it can be a great way to see who checks in. Because Twitter and Facebook are integrated with Foursquare, users have the option of publically announcing their check-in on the platform of their choice. Then, set up “twilert” so that every time someone mentions your business name, a notification is sent to your inbox. Using this information, you can personally respond to these tweets and thank them for their business and request a review. Leave a shortened link to your review page in your response to make it easy for the user. Thanks to Search Engine Journal for the great idea!
I often tell people that if there’s one subject I love more than marketing, it’s politics. Considering we’re in an election year, the past few months have been nothing short of entertaining.
In 2004, the Howard Dean campaign really used social media for the first time, embracing the power of the internet and websites such as meetup.com. In 2008, the power of social media was really unleashed, and there’s no denying that the Obama campaign simply nailed social media four years ago. They used it to energize their young voting bloc, to spread the word and create that grassroots wildfire that led to his election. It was smart, it was innovative, and the McCain campaign couldn’t ever seem to get the hang of this whole Twitter thing.
Switch to 2012, and my oh my how things have changed. In 2008, social media success was clearly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with Democrats out performing Republicans. For whatever reason, Democratic candidates just got it. My guess is that younger voters tend to skew Democrat, and at the time the majority of social media users were still skewing younger (i.e. under age 25). It’s amazing how much has changed in four short years, and how the tables have seemingly turned.
Like I said, I love politics, and I’m fairly vocal on where I stand politically. I also follow a lot of candidates, congressmen, pundits and analysts on all of my social media networks, and I have to say that this election cycle, conservatives are nailing this Twitter thing. Seriously. I’ve lost count of the number of hashtags people such as Michelle Malkin, Dana Loesch, the Twitchy team and others have created and gotten to trend not just for minutes, but for hours at a time. As I’ve watched these hashtags trend (and even participated a few times), I’ve also tried to figure out what it is that makes them trend. Let’s face it, politics is nothing more than personal marketing, and even though politics is supposedly one of those “forbidden” subjects, I think marketers could all learn a little something from watching what trends and what doesn’t this political season.
So far as I’ve seen, the things that trend and keep trending for more than 30 minutes seem to be those that are funny, witty, extremely current and relevant. One of the first times I noticed this was right after the Romney campaign referenced an excerpt from Obama’s “Dreams of My Father,” in which President Obama admits that while visiting his father he ate dog meat. The Interwebs took this story and ran with it (as they should have–it’s a great opportunity for snarky jokes to abound, no matter which side of the fence you’re on), and along came a very tongue in cheek hashtag–#obamadogrecipes–that ended up inspiring several memes. While the Obama campaign was a bit up in arms about it, even MSNBC’s Joe Scarbrough had a good laugh over the whole deal. And even though this happened back in April, the hashtag is still being used.
When the Obama campaign released The Life of Julia, #julia quickly became a trending hashtag. If I recall correctly, it was started by Democrats as a way to promote Obama’s latest campaign piece, but then Republicans quickly took over because they were pretty insulted by the whole thing, not to mention the fact that just days before Twitter had been all abuzz over the “composite” girlfriend Obama talked about in his biography. Parody accounts were created, blogs were written, and several conservative websites created alternative lives for Julia. Again, the responses were mostly funny, but some were serious. The key, though, was that people got to talking.
There are many, many other examples, but the word count for this thing is already close to 600. The thing, though, that I’ve been thinking about the past few months is that marketers have a lot to learn from politics, or at least how political commentary goes viral. Some of us would give our left foot for a piece of content to go viral, and yet most of us never figure out what the formula is. Mostly, it seems a lot like luck combined with simply having GOOD content that engages Internet users. When looking at the viral nature of hashtags–especially in politics–it seems to me the ones that pick up the most steam and a life of their own are the ones that are funny. Yes, that humor leans more to the snarky side, but I think that’s part of what makes memes so popular in the first place. Some of them are just plain goofy, but a lot of them are just chock full of smart-assed wit (or maybe that’s just the memes I tend to look at?). Still, though, there’s a commonality between hashtags that trend and go viral, and that common thread seems to be humor and intelligence. Yes, while I was writing this a few days ago, #PennState was trending due to the Freeh Report being released that morning, but also trending? #WhatJoeBidenWillSayToNAACP. Both trended for quite some time that day, because both touch on different emotions. The Penn State scandal is despicable, which is something everyone can agree on and has had people talking for months. The Joe Biden one? Well, it’s safe to say that Biden just leaves himself wide open for jokes to be hurled his way. I mean, this is the man who once said, regarding Barack Obama, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” The jokes kind of write themselves, amirite?
So what do you think causes a hashtag to trend and go viral? And what can marketers learn from politics this election season in order to help our own campaigns go viral?
The word on everyone’s lips lately is “Pinterest.” Women love it, men are hesitant to use it, and most marketers are confused by it. The concept is easy enough. At its core it’s a social bookmarking site: a digital bulletin board where users can pin their favorite internet findings. But unlike Twitter, Facebook, or Digg, Pinterest is driven by visual imagery. Just visit Pinterest and your eyes will feast upon scores of aesthetically pleasing images: designer shoes, luxurious beach destinations, creative craft ideas, and a puppy or two. And while the aforementioned seems to indicate that Pinterest is a largely female driven site, word is spreading and gents are beginning to take interest. If your business is a male-focused brand, check out The Bro’s Guide to Pinterest by Ryan Sammy. It has some great ideas on how male brands can still build a brand presence on Pinterest.
Even if you’re not a wedding planner or home decorator, you can (and should) still utilize Pinterest’s growing user base. According to Hubspot.com, Pinterest has more than 10 million unique visitors, making it a great tool in your marketing arsenal. Many marketers are finding that Pinterest is driving more traffic to their site than most social sites, and consequentially converting more users into buyers.
It drives traffic, it converts, and (ask any Pinterest user and they will tell you) it’s addictive. It’s a fresh new way to organize and share your favorite things. I’m a user as of January 2012, and already I find it a great way to organize my favorite recipes and cool infographics.
Promote Your Brand through Pinterest
Alright, so we know it’s the hip new kid on the block, but, as marketers, how should we approach it? Here are just a few ways you can use Pinterest to build your followers and attract more customers.
1. Create Multiple Pin Boards
Your first step is to create pin boards where you can share your content. Give your pin boards unique and interesting titles that will grab users’ attention. Bergdorf Goodman created a board titled “I have a weakness for…” where they pin pictures of shoes, places, sweets and even celebrities, making it a diverse and appealing hub for sharing ideas. Use this approach to build your presence and extend your audience reach. Don’t simply crowd your boards with your own products. This will not only look like spam, it will deter Pinterest users from following you. Instead, use these pin boards as an opportunity to show users your brand’s personality. What kind of books do you like? Where have you travelled, or would like to travel? Middle Sister Wines does an excellent job of diversifying their boards to bring in more users. Not only do they have pin boards for both their white and red wine selections, but they have boards where they can share their favorite quotes, art, and recipes.
2. Post Fresh, Attractive Content
It’s important to note the word “attractive.” As opposed to Twitter or Digg, Pinterest is visually driven. When pinning a piece of content to a board, the image associated with that content is the lead. For example, if you decide to pin an article about the “Health Benefits of Peanut Butter” on your board, the article’s image will become the link to that article. Whereas Digg uses the article’s title to draw in users, Pinterest uses the image to reel them in. So if you hope to draw Pinterest users to your peanut butter article, you better have a delicious mouth watering photo of peanut butter to attract them. The key takeaway here is this: it isn’t enough to have interesting content. You must have an intriguing description coupled with a captivating image. If you don’t have a professional photographer or graphic designer, now is the time to invest in one.
3. Engage with Customers
Just like any social site, Pinterest can be a great way to engage with your customers and potential customers. Repinning is the key here. If you repin a user’s image, that user is more likely to visit your boards and see what you have to offer that they themselves can repin. Go beyond that by commenting on various pins that your brand is related to. Just like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest has the potential to become a great venue for customer interaction. Have a new product that could use customer feedback? Pin it and prompt your followers to leave their opinions.
Don’t forget to track it!
As online marketers, it’s not enough to set up Pinterest boards and expect them to work. Track how much traffic Pinterest is directing to your site by setting up an advanced segment in your Google Analytics. You might be surprised to learn just how much Pinterest influences your conversions!
Usually, I post pins from boards we’re following from our Apogee Results Pinterest account. In the past couple of weeks, though, I’ve personally started following a board that has made me pay attention, because quite frankly it’s an awesome use of social media.
First, some background.
I’ve been a fan of matchbox twenty (take note of how they’re using social media on their website) since 1996 when “push” was first released (back when they were known as matchbox20 *g*). Considering I cut my musical teeth on musicians such as Tom Petty, Heart, Fleetwood Mac, Bryan Adams, Foreigner and Bon Jovi with some Skynyrd and Nugent thrown in for good measure, it’s really no surprise that I fell in love with those five guys (they’re now down to four). Sixteen years later, they’re still my favorite band and “push” is still my favorite song. I follow them on Twitter and Facebook (Rob Thomas, too, FWIW), and back in college was a frequent poster on their fan club message boards. It’s safe to say I am totally a matchbox twenty fan girl. So again, it was no surprise that when they announced they had a Pinterest account I immediately started following them.
From a fan’s standpoint, I love the fact that they’re interacting and releasing a new album later this year. From a marketer’s standpoint, however, I am absolutely loving what they’re doing via social media, especially on Pinterest.
These guys (or whoever’s doing their marketing, I know Paul and Rob are very involved in the band’s social media interactions) know their audience. Anyone who’s ever been to one of their live shows would agree with me when I say that their fan base is at least 70% female. Yes, there are men who like them, but the overwhelming majority of their fans are female. Considering most of their fans seem to be around my age (late 20s to late 30s), Pinterest was a brilliant move on their part, since that’s where a lot of us 30-something year old women are.
So how are they using Pinterest? Their boards are clearly defined and have very definite purposes, from promotion of their latest single to fan interaction. For example:
1. She’s So Mean. Scheduled to be their first single off the new album, “She’s So Mean” will be released later this month. Their She’s So Mean board is an awesome example of fan interaction via Pinterest. Basically, people will pin photos with the hashtag #shessomean, provide a caption or reason for tagging it as such, and the band will repin it to their She’s So Mean board. One of the biggest problems marketers face on Pinterest is a lack of fan interaction. Yes, it’s great when fans repin your pins, but interaction beyond that has been hard to come by for a lot of marketers.
2. “Found Twenty” Fan Photos. This is a board that’s crossed over from Twitter and Facebook, which I love. The basic premise is that fans in the past have tweeted or posted to Facebook photos with things that feature the number 20, like interstate signs and such. Again, the band uses a hashtag–#foundtwenty–in order to increase and encourage fan participation. And again, I love that it’s one more way for fans to interact via Pinterest (and other social media outlets–it’s a great example of consistency across social media channels, which is also super important to marketers).
3. Official Music Videos. Incorporating video into your Pinterest account? Yes, please! They also posted some videos I didn’t know existed, which was pretty cool. Posting videos has also encouraged fans to comment on the pins, which is just one more form of fan interaction, plus every video goes back to their YouTube channel, giving them some extra link juice. Every video except for one has 30+ repins, with “If You’re Gone” leading the pack at 77. Not bad for a video that was pinned two weeks ago.
4. Lyrical Photos. matchbox twenty has always been a band that’s embraced its fans (at least, that’s how it’s always seemed to me). And goodness knows, fans can be a little, well, fanatical. Some are creative. Some are a bit, well, “emo” for lack of a better term. Right after I graduated from college, I went through this phase of creating LiveJournal user icons in Photoshop that were usually comprised of a faerie and super sad and depressing song lyrics (lots of “push,” along with “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon5, if I recall correctly). At 23 I was about as emo as they came. Basically, this board embraces the emo in their fans, not to mention the creativity and simple love of the band’s lyrics (which are admittedly awesome). I love that the band is giving a hat tip to their fans, and showcasing the fan rather than the band.
5. Live. This board is basically live shots from their various tours, aka “time to drool over Rob Thomas.” Fans appreciate that, too. From a marketing standpoint, the photos do a great job of capturing the essence of a matchbox twenty live show–energetic with a focus on the music rather than crazy pyrotechnics.
6. Matchbox Art. Again, the guys are allowing their fans’ creativity to shine through. The best form of marketing is word of mouth, we all know that. Showing fan love and appreciation is one of the best forms of word of mouth marketing out there for a band, IMO.
7. Webisodes. This is the band’s newest board, but the one I’m guessing fans will probably gravitate towards the most over the next few months, as this is where the band is posting sneak peeks at their new album and going behind the scenes and into the studio. I know I watched it as soon as it was posted.
This is the first band I’ve followed on Pinterest, and is the first band I know of that’s actively on Pinterest (I know some musicians have their own personal boards, but not one that’s dedicated specifically to marketing themselves and interacting with fans). Like I said before, matchbox twenty obviously knows their audience. The teenage girls and women in their early 20s who fell in love with them in the late 90s are now grown ups, and most likely are married with kids. Those are the women on Pinterest–the women looking for new recipes, summer activities and tips on braiding their daughters’ hair. Or they’re like me, and use it to post snarky memes and things to do with used wine bottles. The point is, though, their fan base has grown up, and so has the band. I’m so happy as a fan and a marketer to see that they’re going where their fans are, encouraging fan interaction and using Pinterest in a pretty cool way. As a marketer, I’ve definitely taken note. As a fan? Yeah, I’m totally squeeing with fan girl joy.
Thanks to the Memorial Day holiday, it’s been a little quiet around here. Well, that, and it’s just been quiet in general it seems. Yesterday, though, presented a couple of interesting things in the world of online marketing, mostly regarding Facebook (and no, I’m not talking about Facebook stock falling or the photos that surfaced of Zuckerberg’s honeymoon).
Apparently the social media giant has decided to roll out a couple of new features for pages, which opens up new possibilities for social media managers. The first is the introduction of Promoted Posts, which allow page managers to promote a post in order to extend that post’s reach. With a normal Facebook post by a brand on their brand page, your reach is limited and constrained by Facebook’s EdgeRank Algorithm, which somehow decides who gets to see your posts. A Promoted Post, however, will reach beyond the algorithm, but Facebook hasn’t said just how much further the post will reach. This is also a paid feature, which means marketers and social media managers will need to pick and choose carefully the posts they choose to promote (if any at all). Obviously, for those that have the budget, promoted posts could be a great way to extend the reach of posts that contain links to lead gen pages, Facebook offers, special fan only promotions, etc. The billing works much like the billing for Facebook ads does, in that you set your own price, and that price is good for the lifetime of the promoted post, which is three days. The screen shot below, courtesy and copyright Facebook, shows how to promote your post.
The other change Facebook made to its brand pages is the ability to set different permissions for different types of admins. Previously, everyone listed as an admin had the same rights, which could obviously cause some issues within organizations where multiple people have admin rights to their company’s Facebook page. The new admin levels are Manager, Content Creator, Moderator, Advertiser and Insights Analyst. As the primary admin for Apogee’s Facebook page, I like that I could give different people different permission levels if necessary, and I’m sure many other marketing managers and social media managers probably feel the same way. From the agency side, I can see how the Advertiser and Insights Analyst permissions could really apply to agencies who manage clients’ social media accounts, or at the very least their social paid media. Basically, an Advertiser can create ads and view insights, and an Insights Analyst can just view insights, allowing an agency to create ads and view the analytics without the manager having to hand over full admin rights. To me, that’s quite possibly a win-win. The other cool part about this change? Page managers can now also schedule posts ahead of time directly through Facebook rather than having to use a third party application such as Hootsuite.
In Google news, the search giant unveiled the “new” Google Places–which is now a part of Google+ and will be called Google+ Local. Earlier this year we had a blog talking about Google+ and how Google’s trying to swallow everything up and put certain things under the Google+ umbrella. Apparently Places wasn’t immune to that, and not surprisingly, the move is purely monetary. The other not surprising thing is that Google says this move was also motivated by an ever increasing amount of mobile searches. One cool thing about the move is the integration of Zagat reviews, which will replace Google’s five-star system. the not cool thing? Google’s obviously trying to herd all of us into the Google+ circle and force us to use a service that still hasn’t seen widespread adoption (170 million active users as compared to Facebook’s 845 million users).
And last but not least, in other search news, Yahoo!, once known as a search engine rather than a news aggregate, unveiled Yahoo! Axis, which is a desktop (or mobile) application that allows you to search the web through the app rather than a browser such as Firefox or IE. I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but if Axis catches on, it looks like SEOs might have one more thing to think about regarding search engine optimization and the way we search on the web.
We’ve all seen epic social media fails (and wins). From employees accidentally posting to a corporate Twitter account rather than their personal account, to companies not having a social media presence at all, social media is rife with fails of all kinds. As bad as accidental posts can be, the biggest fail of of all is not properly optimizing your social media presence. Take a look at our latest white paper, and learn what you can do to avoid making the biggest social media fail of all.
The key to getting reviews is promptly asking your customers for them. Once a transaction is complete, your customers go on with their daily lives and aren’t likely to think of you again. Print a message on your receipts, invoices, or business cards that reminds your customers to leave a review. On their way out, you should verbally remind them to leave a review, and then reinforce that request with a textual reminder on the receipt. You can even leave QR codes on receipts to make it even easier!
