Twitter

How to Be Compliant with Facebook and Twitter Promotions

September 7, 2012 by Kelsey

The way that giveaways are managed via social media versus other mediums, like paper entries, text to win campaigns, or other methods. There are several things that need to be taken into consideration, including legalities and the established guidelines that Twitter and Facebook have established for promotions held on their social platforms.

Facebook Guidelines

Legal wording is very important, especially with Facebook, which specifies how contests should be held on their platform.

This is the wording in Facebook’s Page Guidelines regarding all Promotions:

Promotions on Facebook must include the following:

a.    A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.

b.    Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

c.    Disclosure that the participant is providing information to [disclose recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook.

iii.    You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall.

iv.    You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.

v.    You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion.

As you can see from “v.”, you cannot use Likes as a voting mechanism for promotion. This is a rule that many businesses may violate. Making sure you are in compliance with all page regulations can prevent your page from getting penalized or deleted.

Twitter Guidelines and Suggestions for Promotions

Twitter’s guidelines and suggestions when it comes to contests are pretty clear and straight forward:

Discourage the creation of multiple accounts
Discourage publishing the same tweet repeatedly
1. Ask users to include an @reply to you in their update so you can see all the entries
2. Encourage the use of topics relevant to the contest
3. Follow the Twitter rules and regulations

It is important to pay attention to these guidelines, including reading them fully, so all your promotions are compliant and don’t experience any hiccups. It also protects your company or organization from promotion participants who could question contest procedures.

Oversharing vs. Undersharing in Social Media

August 31, 2012 by Kelsey

In the world of social media, it can often be difficult to find the baby bear of ratios. Some users share too much, outlining everything from breakfast, to an upset stomach, to theories to what made it that way, while others fall off the face of the earth for weeks at a time. Ideally, it’s best to shoot somewhere in the middle, working to find a balance that is just right.

On average, a “reasonable” amount of sharing is considered to be a few times per day – enough to bring exposure, but not too much to overwhelm an audience. But, unfortunately, the number of posts isn’t the only variable here … what is shared should also be taken into account. Social media is competitive, millions of users are constantly posting every single day; choosing the right words just could be the difference between a like and an unfollow.

What to Post

In general, social media posts should be lively, short, and attention grabbing – like they’re the movie trailers of one’s life. Who wants to click on a link when the teaser was boring and drawn out? To find the best content – the baby bears of social media – use a few simple steps that will help punch up any post.

oversharing on social media — cartoon courtesy of someecards.com

Ask questions. Users love to get involved and share stories of their own. If they can relate, chances are they’ll comment, re-post, or even re-share. Ask for feedback, or if any online followers can relate.
Add pictures. Colors and shapes are much flashier and can bring in attention. After all, how many would have read this post without an image to spice it up?
Explain links. Do not (ever) post random links without some sort of explanation. Facebook generally adds its own automated spin, while other outlets leave readers in the dark. Provide a sentence or two of intrigue before posting to ensure maximum click-ability.
Comment back. If users think an account holder isn’t interested, they may just move on to more committed pastures. Like responses, reply, and answer any questions that may arise. This is (arguably) the best possible way to interact with users in an interactive setting.

Social media can undoubtedly be a game of who’s-sharing-what-and-when in a time where real time rules. Be sure to monitor posts in both frequency and subject matter to help get the most out of any social media account.

5 Mistakes Bloggers are Making With Social Media

August 24, 2012 by Kelsey

Even though most people would regard bloggers as tech-savvy and the ones to whom they can bring their computer to when it no longer will save any more images to the desktop after the first 500. However, it is possible that bloggers are making the same mistakes many others do when it comes to social media.

Not Connecting at All

Not utilizing social media at all is most likely the worst thing a blogger can do when it comes to maintaining a presence online. Creating a social media account is free and fairly easy to do; what takes the most time and effort is keeping it maintained. Many bloggers may feel that social media takes up too much time– however, considering the missed potential when it comes to exposing their brand, it is worth the while to at least set it up.

Not Responding to Feedback

Once a social media profile is set up for a fairly active and/or highly trafficked blog, then it will mostly likely continue to grow at a fairly fast pace. This is when comments, questions, and responses to items posted as statuses on the page. Bloggers need to answer and respond to these on a timely basis, as nobody likes to be ignored, especially blog readers. Participating in the social media community for the blog can help increase loyalty and readership.

Not Sharing Their Content

One of the easiest things to automate via social media are blog post RSS feeds. Use a service like Twitterfeed.com to set this up, which allows for instant posting on someone’s Twitter or Facebook page. This can ensure that your posts are being shared automatically, without having to think about or remember it.

Not Allowing Others to Share Their Content

This is something that is a onetime set-up, but makes it easy to help blog readers share posts. For WordPress blogs, install social sharing plugins like Sharebar or Sociable. For other types of blogs that have HTML capabilities, install an embeddable widget like AddToAny to appear at the end of posts.

Not Considering it as a Benefit

This goes back to the first mistake– taking social media for granted. Because blogging is an online writing platform, social media should be something that is easy to integrate into the overall blogging process. Most bloggers have nothing to lose when it comes to social media and should in fact add it as part of their blogging and online marketing strategy.

How to Maintain Social Media Account Security

August 10, 2012 by Kelsey

After a story broke recently about Wired.com writer Mat Honan getting “epically hacked”, there has been an swell of articles reminding users to take precautions to stay safe online. The basic commandents are these:

Have very unique passwords that aren’t real words, or have random words jumbled together. Use a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters (like @, !, and #). Never use obvious things, like your name, family member names, or the word “password”.
Have automatic, secure backup on your computer. This is worth paying for! Top backup programs include Carbonite, Dropbox (for files only), and Mozy. Most of these are around $5-$8 per month. If you only want to back up files and documents, Google Cloud or Documents are also options.
Be careful who you give your passwords to or where you store them. Try to not use the same password for all accounts, especially email and social media.

So why do these tips matter to social media marketers? The fact remains that because social media accounts are so interconnected with the rest of our online lives (think of how many websites use your Facebook account login via the Facebook API) that is is crucial to keep them secure. This is especially true for companies and the individuals that manage the corporate accounts.

Two-Step Authentication

Facebook and Gmail offer two-step authentication for account users. Any time someone tries to log into your account from a new computer, a text message is automatically sent to your phone with an access code for logging in. Yes, it is an additional step, but think of what is at stake. In Mat Honan’s case, the hacker erased his entire email account and his iTunes account. To activate two-step authentication, go to the security settings in your account.

Password Variation

Each social media profile for your company or as an individual should have a separate password. It could follow a simple pattern, such as the first 4 letters of the company name plus 01, then the next 4 letters of the company name: “perf01orma”. Except, make sure the numbers are random or don’t follow a set pattern. It is important to be as random as possible so hackers won’t figure out the pattern, thus granting access to multiple accounts.

The main point when it comes to internet security is to just use common sense. Check URLs to make sure they are the correct site before inputting passwords and don’t get lazy about being proactive about staying secure.

How to Combine Your Public Relations and Social Media Strategies

May 31, 2012 by Kelsey

Social media and public relations have some of the similar duties– they both deal with community awareness as well as damage control (when it is needed). Because of this, it can be beneficial for companies to occasionally combine their public relations and social media messages to further increase a positive brand association and to address public reputation crises.

Brand Mentions

When a company’s service or product is mentioned by a well-known individual, website, magazine, or newspaper (either through social media, online, or in print), this can be a great PR opportunity. Publishing a “Mentioned On” page on the company’s website with quotes or proof of the mentions can be a great way to gain customer trust. Additionally, when a product or company receives an award or accolade, the company can both send out a press release and mention it via social media.

Service or Product Launches

When a company is launching a new service or product, the announcement of the launch is crucial and should be posted on social media profiles, the company’s website & blog, as well as through press releases. Utilizing all these different mediums can help further exposure and reach as many audiences in possible. In addition, new service or product launches are also a great area to also involve the advertising department to run traditional, online, and social media ads to announce the new products or services.

New Employees

When a new executive or employee joins the company, depending on the size, both public relations and social media can announce the new addition to the team. This is especially the case for executives such as a new president or CEO or an employee that will be heavily involved with the public, such as a community manager or publicist. Customers and users like to be involved in a company’s changes and events; it makes them feel closer and more tied to the company.

Other News

There are several other instances where other news is pertinent to be shared via public relations efforts and social media marketing. This could include a new website or blog, new mobile application, changes in pricing or routine, or even a new office.

When it comes down to it, any information that needs to be shared with both the media outlets and the target and current customer base should usually be something that is shared via social media and public relations efforts.

The Benefits and Downfalls of Using Social Media Advertising

May 3, 2012 by Kelsey

Social media advertising can be a great way to reach customers in a medium where a large majority are very active; logging on almost every day (and some for multiple times per day). It allows businesses and organizations to reach customers in a way they might not be able to otherwise. For instance, a user may not find a company’s blog or website, but could have a higher chance of being exposed to the brand and its products on a social media site. While there are a great deal of benefits that may come from social media advertising, there are still a few downfalls, which can make this type of brand exposure not so desirable. The pros and cons and their respective importance will most likely differ between each company.

Determining the Benefits

One of the main benefits of social media advertising is obviously the possible exposure it has. The right social media campaign can reach thousands or even millions of social media users each day, either for a long period of time or just for a single day. To get the type of exposure needed, it’s important to highly target any social media campaigns. Facebook does a great job of allowing advertisers a variety of targeting options, such as age range, interests, gender, and even relationship status. Twitter is relatively new to the advertising field (compared to Facebook), so their targeting options aren’t as plentiful.

Another benefit of social media advertising is the immediate results it can provide. Because of the immediacy of social media, companies and organizations can experience a large swell of website visitors, new customers, or Facebook fans all within a single day, depending on the effectiveness of their ads. This type of viral activity can be great for events and product launches.

Evaluating the Costs

Obviously, the biggest downfall of social media advertising is the cost. For some targeted campaigns, competition can be very high, leading to high rates for clicks on social media ads or sponsored tweet impressions (views). For certain industries, the cost to run a viral campaign of this magnitude can be significant, up to thousands of dollars per day.

Because of this, social media advertising on a large scale may not be a viable option to small businesses. While locally-targeted campaigns on Facebook can usually be quite affordable, a small business is less likely to purchase a nationwide sponsored tweet than a major brand like Pepsi or Amazon.com.

How to Use Plugins to Increase Social Media Engagement

April 5, 2012 by Kelsey

Plugins can be an easy way to increase Twitter Followers and likes on Facebook. They are fairly easy to add for webmasters or developers onto the backend coding of the site and usually begin working immediately. Additionally, plugins are available straight from the social media sites themselves, thus making them more likely to work accurately and not add on any additional code or bugs that aren’t necessary. There are some third party plugins and widgets that can connect to Twitter and Facebook using their API, but unless the original developer plugin isn’t working, these aren’t usually the best option.

All plugins may not be a direct call-to-action to follow or like the company, but any involvement via social media can increase a company’s brand awareness and overall social media success.

Twitter

There are several ways that webmasters can add Twitter plugins (called buttons on the Twitter website)to their websites to get their visitors involved with the company’s Twitter account. These include:

Share a Link: Allows a user to tweet a link to a certain blog post or web page on a website.
Follow: Takes the user to the company’s Twitter account to follow them
Hashtag: The user can tweet a company or custom hashtag that has to do with a company’s blog, current product campaign, or other type of imitative.
Mention: Lets the user write a tweet that @ mentions the company’s Twitter handle.

Twitter also has four different kinds of plugins for websites, which they call widgets. They include:

Profile Widget: displays the most recent company Twitter account updates
Search Widget: displays search results on Twitter in real time (which wouldn’t necessarily be beneficial in increasing Twitter followers, unless the search term was for the company’s twitter handle)
Faves Widget: highlights the Twitter account’s favorite tweets
List Widget: displays certain lists of Twitter followers that the profile had put together

Facebook

There are several difference Social Plugins on Facebook for website developers. These include actions to Like, Subscribe, Send Content via Facebook, and more.

Additionally, webmasters can also add a Facebook Like Box to the sidebar or static area of their site. You can add the Facebook Page stream or thumbnails of current Facebook profile likes.

Additionally, it is possible to only have the Company Page name and then the like button, with the number of likes.

Installation

Through the Twitter and Facebook plugin pages, developers can select their preferences to build the custom widget. Once all the preferences are selected, the page generates a code that is copy and pasted into the backend of the website as instructed.

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