Social media certainly isn't new anymore and neither is the concept of companies and brands using it. Back when I started, there was no such thing as a social media manager. I've been at this for awhile and the one thing I've learned... is that there is always more to learn.
That's why I wrote this article for iMedia.com... 8 ways to get the most out of your social media manager. It maybe should have been 9. Bringing her cookies helps too.
I was very excited to be included in this group of 25 Marketing Leaders You Need to Know from iMedia. There are other brands like Taco Bell, Coca Cola, Alex & Ani and Truffle PIg. I don't know what Truffle Pig is, but I will certainly be looking into it!
Recently Facebook changed the algorithm for seeing brand page posts in your newsfeed. Lots of brands and page managers were bothered by this.
Recently there have been a few articles (here and here) about how brands need to stop complaining the changes. I don't agree and here is why.
I CHOSE to follow Starbucks, smart USA and Martha Stewart pages on Facebook because I wanted to see their posts.
I rarely see posts from them now. Funny pictures from Smart, recipes from Martha, specials deals from Starbucks.
But because of the change of the newsfeed algorithm, brands have to buy ads to get seen by eyeballs on Facebook. And they are targeting ads to people that aren't following them.
So now my newsfeed is populated by ads from brands I HAVE NOT chosen to follow. Hello office dress yoga pants ad! Anyone else see that one?! I would rather see posts from brands that I like and choose to see rather than paid ads.
What do you think? Does this make sense? I wonder how this will pan out.
A post I would like to see from Martha... a delicious risotto recipe.
Oh and now you can leave a tip using the Starbucks app? I would like to learn about that in my Facebook newsfeed.
But no....
This is what I see... ridiculous!
MORE THOUGHTS:
Someone on Facebook said he didn't mind the changes because he clicks on the "Pages Feed" to see the pages he follows.
I doubt many people know about this however and even if they do, it's an extra step. We all know how people feel about taking an extra step. They don't.
I checked out the "Pages Feed" and it is very strange. It has an odd layout and was randomnly showing me items some of which were quite old. Not working for.
Additonally, I did not see this option on the mobile app which we all know a growing number of people are using to access Facebook.
A couple weeks ago, Instagram said they would make a big announcement. Everyone would tune in online and all the media would be covering it. There was a lot of speculation over what the new features (we assumed) would be. I didn't even try to guess, because there was only one thing I wanted it to be.
Better account switching.
This sounds like a small thing, but when you have a personal account and then manage other accounts... say for your job or your volunteer position, this is a huge deal.
Other social media platforms make it so easy to move from one account to another. Facebook, Twitter... a touch of a button and you can be in another account making posts.
But with Instagram, your only option is to "log out" and then sign back in as another user. It doesn't sound like that much work when I say it like that, but believe me, if you want to access another account a couple times a day and go back to your own account it gets old mighty fast.
I have tweeted Instagram pleading with them to make this an upgrade. Considering one of the accounts I manage is an animal shelter, I would go so far as to say lives are at stake. Seriously if it was easier to move back and forth more cats and dogs would be posted to instagram and maybe there would be more adoptions. Do you really want that on your conscience Instagram?
Turns out the big announcement was private photo messaging. Was that something I was dying for? Not really.
I've mostly been using it to share pictures of my nail polish with my nail peeps.
I have a love hate relationship with video. I love sharing and watching videos I have shot, edited and uploaded. But of all content creation, it takes the most time and work.
I also enjoy watching good videos. Cute animal videos like these puppies in pj's or sleepy bunnies. Funny videos like guilty dog or engineers and cats. Or amazing videos like octupus camouflage . But it has to be a really intriguing video to make me give up time to watch it. I get aggrivated when there is informaion I need, like how to fix something, and it seems "buried" in a video. Often times I just want to see a picture because I can look at it and be on my way with minimal time commitment. Video? I have to find my headhphones and plug them in! And if that video goes beyond 3 minutes... well. that is just too long.
When Vine came out in January, 2013 I sort of shrugged it off. Well, I signed up to get my username, but didn't use it. Video was so much work. And I didn't have time to watch it. Then one day, I think we were at a charity walk, and Tina shot one. It seemed pretty easy and quick so I did one. It WAS easy and quick. I was hooked. I was Vine-ing videos everyday. The pugs were the perfect subjects. I started using it for work too.
Then in June, Instagram rolled out video capability. I stopped using Vine. Intagram had a few nice different features, like being able to bring in video you already shot and adding filters. Here is a pretty good breakdown of those features. But that wasn't why I switched. Number one, I had more followers on Instagram. Number two... I didn't want to maintain a second app for video.
I felt badly for Vine. They came up with an easy to use, fun, successful app and someone came along and copped it. Luckily, Vine hasn't died off since Instagram started video, in fact they say they have gained 27 million users since then.
I haven't opened Vine in months. But I'm also not posting a lot of videos on Instagram. Did Vine force me to THINK video? What do you use?
I am a big Pinterest fan. I also like to think I was an early adopter... eagerly telling everyone how great Pinterest is.
Recently I thought of a funny word to describe something I often do on Pinterest. I see something cool and I pin it, not realizing I have already pinned it once or even multiple times. I'm a pinpeater!
When I came up with this word I thought - FINALLY! I have invented a social media slang word! It will join the ranks of "Fail Whale", "pintastrophe" and "Twitterati"!
Then I learned that Pinterest added a certain new feature back in May. If you have already pinned something it will let you know. Very cool. But there goes my catchy term - certain internet fame down the tubes. "Pinpeater" is dead before it even left the ground.
Another social media development that rolled out in July was the addition of hashtags in Facebook. There was a lot of talk about how it was going to take off like wildfire on Facebook. I had my doubts. There were some interesting campaigns from brands using hashtags on Facebook at first but there may be evidence that it's not really working.
Here is why I have suspicions. It's not the hashtags fault. I love hashtags on Twitter. It's a great way to zero in on a certain topic. When Spiderman was being filmed in downtown Rochester, I was able to keep track of what was happening from my office during the filming by following #spideyRoc on Twitter.
It's really handy at work too. I can follow what is being said about a particular product by following the hashtag. If we want to draw attention to a particular campaign, we use a hashtag to help call out the tweets.
But here is the difference between Twitter and Facebook. Facebook is much more private. If I want to learn something from the milions of people whose tweets I can see on Twitter, I search on the hashtag. If I want to learn something from the hundreds of people I'm friends with on Facebook... I just ask them.
The number of returns I would get on a search using #Roc from my private circle of friends on Facebook cannot compete with the wide swath sample I would get from a very public Twitter search.
And that is why I don't think hashtags are going reach the level of popularity that they have on Twitter. They are still fun to use in the usual mutter-under-your-breath, finger-quotation, kind of way though.
(I work with social media and I'm on it all day. I don't know why it took me so long, but I had the sudden idea that maybe I should blog about it once in awhile! The first few posts will be about "old news" but I have some thoughts to share anyhow)
Last winter Google announced they were retiring their RSS app, Google Reader. It was my tool of choice for reading blogs and I was surprised to see how many others were using it too. Despite lots of despair and exasperation from users, Google Reader was shut down at the beginning of July. Google said not enough people were using it. Some claimed it was because Google just didn't care about it anymore. Either way it was gone and people were looking for replacements.
I tried out three or four options and landed with Feedly. When you first open Feedly, it does seem overwhelming and the content comes at you willy nilly. I found if you make two changes to your preferences, you can have it operate somewhat like Google Reader.
The first thing to do is go under "Preferences" and set your "Start Page" to "Index".
The "Index" page shows all your categories and the blogs with unread posts listed under each one. Since I started Feedly before Google Reader closed, I was able to import all my categories with the blogs lists over to Feedly. I like this view because I can quickly see my favorite topics and which blogs have been updated in each one. I don't like the other view where it just keeps showing me blog post after blog post. There are some blogs that I want to read before others. Nothing against some of the blogs, I just have priorities... like blogs by people I know IRL and posts from people in Rochester.
I navigate by clicking on the blog title, reading all the posts, then using the browser button to go back to the "Index".
The next step is to change the "Default View" to "Full Articles".
That way when I click on a blog, I see the entire post. Not just a teaser. This helps me reduce how many times I have to click. Plus if there are five posts to catch up on I can just scroll down to read them all.
There are a few blogs that have their blogs set to only show a teaser, if they have a long post, in which case I have to click on the title and go over to the actual blog. I get why they do that but it drives me nuts. I follow a lot of blogs and I don't have time for that!
With these changes, I have found Feedly to be very usable and maybe even better because I seem to be reading blogs more than ever.
And what about the Pro Feedly version? I missed the $99 lifetime offer. Right now I don't see any features in the pro version that I feel like I need, so I'll be passing on that.
I saw this going around online and had to give it a try. It's so interesting to see this data about yourself.
After the office, I check into Wegmans the most.
My favorite restaurants appear to be coffee shops.
My most check-ins was on March 10, 2010... I wonder where I was?
I'm pleased that I have been in 21 states since I started with foursquare. I would like to hit the other 29 in the next few years.
Lately I have been noticing a lot of online about technology, social media and community.
Mashable posted 5 Ways Social Media Is Affecting Local Communities and I just found out about RocCity2.0 and TedxRochester.
My friend Aprille seems to be on to something with her Good grant contest entry. She is proposing a way to use stories to help bring together neighbors and neighborhoods.
Check it and vote! There are six days left!
Today Aprille and I went to BarCamp Rochester at RIT. BarCamp is a cool "unconference" for geeks, where anyone can speak. You just show up, write your topic down on a sheet of paper, then claim a spot in one of the room and time slots they have posted.
BarCamp is a great opportunity to speak on a topic you feel passionate about, get some speaking time under your belt and learn about some really interesting subjects others want to share.
Aprille gave a great presentation on Storytelling that heals - digital style.
I was planning on going to BarCamp Roc to support Aprille and lurk around at any talks that caught my eye. At the last minute however I decided to present on something that had been knocking around my brain for awhile. It was a "why not?" moment.
I give credit to Aprille for turning me on to the presentation tool Prezi. It's easy to use and creates a really engaging presentation that goes beyond the average slideshow. I spent a lot of time experimenting with my presentation and tweaking it.
I ended up creating a short prezi on Social Product Development. Innovation & Crowdsourcing briefly covers how handy social media is for listening to your customers to give them a product they want... but then asks the question... is that the best approach? Check it out and let me know what you think!
I did this visual.ly comparison of my twitter accounts @ljc vrs @kodakcb. It confirms my suspicious that work me is more interesting and popular than off hours. Me. I was concerned about the frequency of the word "pot" from ljc until someone pointed out how often I twet about Melting Pot and Crock Pots. That makes total sense. At least both of us use the word "hah" a lot. Hah!