However, sometimes we start to look at word of mouth as a science that we can program, as Patrick puts it. If we tweet the right amount about the right things on the right days, voilà you have quality engagement with your consumers. Whaaaaat are we thinking?
A few days ago, many people were surprised when their news feeds became inundated with what their friends were listening to on Spotify, a streaming music service. Spotify changed their login system to use Facebook and added the ability to have your music piped to your Facebook wall. Now unless you already had a Spotify account, you can only sign up for Spotify with your Facebook credentials. Meaning, no Facebook account, no Spotify. I find this interesting.
Frank Chimero argues that every form on the internet is a question asking for some kind of response. As in much of life, a good question begets a good response. A bad question begets a bad response. As brands and marketers looking to get our users talking, we need to learn how to ask good questions.
During Baltimore AdWeek this year, I got the pleasure of listening to Justin Kownacki speak on creating web content people will actually enjoy and share. I won’t divulge too much of what he said because, well, you snooze you lose! I will tell you one thing he said that got me thinking, “It’s not that hard to create media people relate to, we just talk ourselves out of it.”
The big talk right now is all about Twitter’s first promotional spot, which plays on the recent East Coast earthquake. It starts with one of Twitter’s software engineers sitting at a table with a cup of coffee. He gets a tweet that is presumably that the earthquake just happened and picks his coffee up off the table as everything starts to shake, continuing to read his book unfazed. Here’s our take on the Twitter spot.
Ah infographics, how we love the way you make facts fun. Today’s fun facts are statistics about how employers use social media as a recruitment tool. It’s no secret that social media can be a great tool for employers and employees alike, but these numbers are downright impressive. 89% of companies will use social media for recruiting in 2011. Also 80% of companies use LinkedIn to find talent. The scariest one, 1 in 3 rejected a candidate based on what they found about the recruit online.
Brands know they want interaction, but have no idea how to get it. Most brands, no matter how big they are, can’t just throw up a Facebook page and start having good interaction with their consumers. Brands have to start the conversation. This usually comes in the form of content. Links, deals, recipes, news, updates. Stuff for their followers to talk about. Here is where the biggest problem lies. Content is, by definition, cold. It describes what something is, but not how we relate to it or how we feel about it. Brands can post content to their page all day and no one may care. We have to give our followers a reason to care. Help them to relate to us and our brand. How do we do this? By telling a story.
What’s happening? This is what Twitter asks you every time you go to post a new update. Sometimes, what is happening is also happening to a number of other people around you. It’s becoming more and more obvious as Twitter’s ubiquity grows that there is content being created that is worth finding, archiving and organizing in to stories. Enter: Storify.
Big social media mistake: Forgetting that the tone you use in your posts as vitally important as what you’re saying. This is especially true with business accounts. Tone can make a legitimate post completely turn off your followers.
An app was recetly released for the iPhone called Dropp. The app lets you leave “dropps”, or small messages, anywhere in the world. When someone else with Dropp installed on their phone gets close enough to where you left your dropp, they get a message on their phone that says, “You unlocked a new Dropp!” You can then view the message or picture from your phone. The possibilities for word of mouth marketing are pretty obvious.
One of the fastest growing trends in the social world is photo sharing. With the proliferation of smart phones, apps that are dedicated to sharing photos across multiple networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr are becoming all the rage. Techcrunch just released information about a new photo sharing iPhone app in development. “Cool, throw it on the pile,” should have been my response. So what’s the catch on this one that is making me stop and write about it? It’s from Facebook.
What is blurry, noisy and shared on Twitter in the millions? Bad cell phone pictures! Photo sharing has almost single handedly helped propel Twitter it to 200 million users. That’s why it’s surprising that Twitter itself has never had that feature baked in, it’s always been provided by 3rd parties such as Twitpic and yFrog. On June 1st, Jack Dorsey announced that Twitter will be providing their own photo sharing service. It will start with the website and then propagate to their cell phone clients. Did you hear that sound? That was the sound of Twitpic and yFrog crying out in despair.
Just imagine you’re at your desk. I walk up to you, slap you on the back, ask you to read something and stick a piece of paper in your face. What are you thinking? It’s probably, “This better be good…” That scenario is what you’re doing every time you send something to your social media network. Whether it’s personal, professional or client-related, it interrupts your followers. They have to stop what they’re doing and read the words, visit the link, act on the call to action. They are giving you their time, which is a pretty slim commodity these days.
As WOM gets less trendy and more ubiquitous, it’s time for a refresher course. Every company now feels like they need some kind of WOM and social media, but simply diving in won’t suffice as a smart marketing move. You’ve got to ask yourself some questions first.
This morning at 8:56:28 EST the space shuttle Endeavor lifted off from Kennedy Space Center for the last time. I’m a self-professed space nerd, so this was essentially my Super Bowl. I did not, however, flip the television on to the news. Why not? Because this is 2011, why watch a bunch of jokers ramble about something they don’t understand? I’ll take my space news with a side of expertise please. Luckily, NASA also knows it’s 2011.
A new Fast Company article reports that the average revenue bump from location-based social media campaigns (Facebook Places, Foursquare) is about 2%.
“Aw drat, guess we should throw in the towel on all that nonsense and start stapling fliers to telephone poles!”
Well not so fast. Foursquare launched in March 2009 and Facebook Places launched in August 2010. These are new services being used by a niche audience. Should we be surprised that deals on Facebook Places aren’t bringing in epic 76% revenue bumps? It’s an unfamiliar form of advertising with a small audience. We should set our expectations accordingly and continue to learn while we still have room to make mistakes.
