I'll Take Quality over Quantity Anytime

Is it just me or does there seem to be an obsession on the various social media sites with how many friends, fans, followers or likes there are?  We are constantly bombarded with "share & like" Facebook promotions and contests (which, by the way violate Facebook rules on Fan page promotions - but that is a topic for another blog post); pleas to follow someone or some brand on Twitter; and endless Google + Hangout requests.

When is it going to end?  Does a brand or community Facebook page have to reach a preset number of followers until they are satisfied that they are making a difference or getting enough exposure?

I have come to the conclusion that if you are managing your social media presence properly the number of "LIKES" is inconsequential.  Up until recently, I was a Facebook page administrator where my only "job" was to share every status I could from local area businesses.  Sure, I did what I was asked to do by the owner of the page and increased the number of page likes from 46 to over 900 in less than 5 months.  At the time, the Facebook insight report was showing an average of 1,700 people were reached weekly.  I was led to believe I was doing a great job and felt I was letting many down when I had to step away for personal and professional reasons.

That feeling, however, has quickly faded.  Having the freedom to post my own original content when and how often I want on both my own community page (PattiLovesBing) and on twitter (@pattischwartz) has given me the ability to actually socialize with my followers. Releasing myself from the pressure of having to share everyone else's statuses on the other page, I now have the time to actually comment on and share the ones that I truly am impressed with.  Taking the time to truly bring the "social" back into my own social media presence through follower engagement has been validated by both the Facebook insight reports and the dramatic rise in Twitter mentions and retweets.  With less than 100 followers on the community page, the weekly reach is well above 1,700. Statistically much better than the page with 900 fans.

The above figures reflect my personal social media presence.  They do not take into consideration the one business page that I manage (287 followers with a weekly reach of 2,094) or the Facebook page dedicated to this blog (56 followers with a weekly reach of 197 - ***Note to self - I need to work on increasing these numbers ***).

It all comes down to how you engage with your fans and followers no matter how many or how few you have.  If you take the time to actually engage with them in a meaningful way, your brand or message will have a better chance of reaching a larger audience. The ultimate validation that you are doing it correctly is when you are stopped on the street by a total stranger who wants to engage in a conversation regarding something you posted.  

   

Can You Keep A Secret?

Can you keep a secret?  I am a social media addict.  I know it is hard to believe; it's taken me awhile to accept it.

My social media addiction started out innocently enough about 5 years ago.  As a concerned mother of teenage boys, I wanted a way to keep tabs on their Facebook activities.  The most logical way to go about it, at the time, was to create my own Facebook account and advise them that they needed to "friend" me in order to keep their access.  In a sense, you can say Mark Zuckerberg was my dealer.

The rest is, as they say, history.  As the years have passed, I slowly found myself craving more information on the social media and all it entailed.  To satisfy my cravings, I have run the gamut from FourSquare, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr; the list goes on and on.  I kept telling myself that I could quit anytime I wanted to.  That this was something to occupy my time until something better came along.

The big turning point came in April 2012.  I was so engrossed with the posts I was reading and how they were affecting my fellow Facebook and Twitter users that I had this insatiable urge to write about it.  By creating this blog, I knew I was a goner.  I officially became one of the millions who also suffer from SMA - Social Media Addiction.

I am sure there are different levels of SMA.  I can honestly say I probably suffer from one of the highest levels.  I find myself dreaming of my next blog post; visualizing in the shower the image to use on one of the seven Facebook pages I manage; and I spend more time tweeting from my phone than making phone calls.  

Do I need an intervention?  Probably.  Will it help?  Probably not.  The only known cure for SMA is to quit cold turkey.  Sufferers of SMA must want to quit.  In my case, I am not at that point.  I know deep down in my heart that there is just too much more to learn and to contribute.  However, if I ever get to the point of quitting; I will make sure to update my Facebook status, tweet it out to all my followers and to write a new blog post on it. 

Social Media Marketing: Back to Basics

After a week of endless one on one conversations defending social media as being more than just fluff and frivolity; the following post came across my news feed from a local area small business: 

 "I am tired of marketing. What ever happened to just guilting people into showing up? Or perhaps straight forward begging?" 

It is a very telling statement when it comes to local businesses and organizations trying to master social media marketing. Anyone involved with social media marketing must realize:

• not everything you post is going to work as you planned;
• it is not a quick fix but a slow deliberate process;
• you need to be able to find the perfect balance of being social and simply advertising.

All too often, people are quick to knock the benefits social media marketing can bring to their organization or business.  Unfortunately, it is more of a matter of not understanding the process involved.  

1. Once you have determined the idea, product or cause you want to promote, it may take several different attempts to get the response you were hoping for.  What may have looked good on paper, may not necessarily translate well on the various social media platforms.  

2. Social media marketing does not provide a quick fix.  There is a good deal of trial and error involved.  You need to be able to interpret the statistics provided by the different platforms regarding your posts.  For example, take time to analyze the Facebook page insight numbers.  A page manager will be able to determine what posts are working and what aren't.  You also need to be able to anticipate your followers' reactions and, of course, tolerance for continual posts by your social media manager.

3. Social media marketing has its roots in advertising; however, there needs to be a balance between the advertising and the social aspect.  Continuously posting promotional content without engaging with your followers is a recipe for disaster.  Many times you will see a brand or company posting 10-20 times a day without any engagement on their part.  Eventually, the follower numbers are going to drop as will the contact you end up having in the "real" world with these potential customers/supporters.

None of what I have said is new or innovative.  Mainly it is plain common sense.  For some odd reason, though, because it is social media marketing as opposed to traditional marketing; many are not able to make the connection.

Basically, mix it up; keep it fresh; and if it is works, don't try to fix it; and if it is not working, find out why.  One of the best way to do that is to ask your followers directly.  You would be surprised how astute many of them are; and it truly makes it a social experience.

Closing the Generational Divide in Social Media

Whether you are a creator of social media content or the intended audience, there appears to be a growing divide along generational lines.  I, myself, am guilty of perpetuating this simply from the original title of this blog.  When I created it, Social Media & the Middle Aged Woman was more of a personal expression of what I was encountering as the intended audience of social media marketing.  As I have learned and written over the past year, it has morphed into a more inclusive blog.  Changing the name without risking the loss of followers was a scary proposition; but as you can see I took the plunge.

As social media marketing has evolved, the content put out there definitely seems to have a more younger, hipper tone to it.  Marketers are being advised by the “social media gurus” to target their audiences.  All well and good, except for the fact that the generational lines have clearly blurred on the various social media sites. What may be relevant to a younger demographic can possible be totally offensive to those in, say, their 50’s and 60’s.  What social media marketers tend to forget is that the older demographic, being more technologically savvy, are not as willing to be left out of the loop.  They are as much a part of the general mainstream audience as ever. Social Media should know no boundaries. It has an influence on all our lives; old or young, male or female, rich or poor, liberal or conservative.

There are two major recommendations I would like to suggest to all Social Media Marketers:

1. While certain words and phrases may be commonplace in everyday conversations, they should not be used in your marketing campaigns.  The increased use of the “f-bomb” or “s-word” in marketing posts as an attempt to be hip and happening may actually backfire on you in the long run.  Sure, you will probably get the views you are looking for; but I doubt the share numbers will be to your liking.  Commonsense professionalism still needs to be considered when creating ad copy.  Just because it is being written for social media and not television or radio, should not give the marketer free license to forget the basics.
2. These same basic marketing principles hold true for the imagery presented. Be on the lookout for unintentional pigeonholing.  When marketing via social media, bear in mind that the potential demographic is no longer clear with regard to age (or any other classification, for that matter).  As your marketing posts are liked and shared across the various social media sites, the potential audience increases exponentially.  Marketing can no longer be classified as a "MTV post" vs. a "60 Minutes post" as television commercials of the past have been.  Social media knows no "time slots".

For the social media audience, do not be afraid to point out to a company, brand or organization anything that you may find offensive in their marketing. Simply scrolling past their posts does not help you or the marketer. We have a greater voice in how information is disseminated than ever before. In the past, if we disagreed with something, we would yell at the television screen or change the channel. Now, we have the unique opportunity to become a part of the process. The audience needs to be just as socially active in the process as the marketer; if not, it is no longer social.

Knowing When It's Time for a New Blog Name

One year ago, I published my first blog post with no blogging experience.  As all bloggers know, before you can post you need to actually come up with a compelling name for the blog.  Boy, was I naive.

"Social Media & the Middle Aged Woman" seemed so appropriate at the time.  My goal was to write about the effect social media was having on my daily life as the aforementioned "middle aged woman".  I have since come to realize that its effect had nothing to do with my age or my gender.  In fact, I strongly believe now that the title is probably more of a hindrance than a blessing.

I learned a lot in the past year.  Social media has a huge effect on our perceptions regarding people, brands, politics and social issues.  It is not stifled by gender, age or socioeconomic boundaries.  So, why should my blog title have the appearance of being targeted to only a select audience?

That being said, I have come to the conclusion that it is time to decide on a new blog name.  

The hard part is letting go and actually changing it.  I have learned that it has become a part of my persona; though a part I need to change.  Change is difficult for all of us; but it is something that must be done.

This will be my last post under this blog name.  I want to thank everyone who has followed this blog.  Since the URL will not be changing, I hope you will continue to do so.

When Marketers Lose Their Focus, They Lose Their Audience

When a company hires a social media manager, either internally or through an outside agency, they are entrusting them to promote their brand, image or service to a diverse audience across the wide spectrum of social media platforms.  The social media manager. many times, has carte blanche when it comes to the content that is posted.  However, are they keeping the best interests of their employers (or clients) in mind?

Recently, I ran across a Facebook page for a local business.  Since I was interested in the service they provided, I began to follow it.  Unfortunately, my initial interest was quickly displaced by what became constant posts about sports which had no bearing on the company or service whatsoever.

Now, don't get me wrong.  It's not like I hate sports or anything; but continually posting about them under a company's name does not want me to spend my money on their products or services.  It might cause me to buy season tickets; which, by the way, I don't think was the original intent of the company's social media marketing strategy.

This does not appear to be an isolated incident.  More and more, the personal preferences of social media managers seem to be permeating through the content that they post.  Targeting your content is one thing; but targeting it in a way that it does not benefit the company or brand that you represent is a big misstep.

Are you seeing irrelevant content popping up in the social media posts of the companies you follow?  If so, are they causing you to second guess why you followed them in the first place or is your brand loyalty strong enough for you to stick it out?

Social Media Guru? No Professional? No Lover? yes!

Image courtesy of SocialGrower.com

"If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time." - Billy Joel, American Pianist, Singer and Songwriter

How often in the course of conversations with our friends, family or coworkers do we hear these words, "It's a job, but it pays the bills"?  Even, more telling is the phrase, "They can take this job and shove it."  It doesn't take a mind reader to realize that they would rather be doing something else.

I have been reading a lot of blog posts lately on how to be a social media guru or professional.  One conclusion I have come to is that I am not a guru nor a professional.  I do not get paid for what I do; I do it because I love it.

My past work experiences have run the gamut from customer service, client relations, sales, marketing, finance, and most recently, advocacy.  These all have one recurring theme - engagement.  So it seems only fitting and natural that I would be so drawn to all that social media has to offer.

I may not be using so-called "best practices" to their fullest and I may not be making a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. These are not obstacles in stopping me from continuing to do what I love - promote causes, events and local area businesses via Facebook and Twitter and engage with followers.  I will continue to share links to articles from other bloggers and social media influencers as I learn more about Social Media.  Most importantly I will continue to love what I do.