Choosing Which Platform is Right for Your Brand

Jumping into social media can be a scary thought for any brand. There are so many options these days, from Facebook to Pinterest, where do you start? For example, you want to do some research like identifying where your customers are. This is not a new concept, just like in print advertising, you want to go where your target audience is. If you are selling custom NFL grill covers, it is probably not a good idea to advertise in People Magazine. Just like magazine readers, certain demographics gravitate to specific social media platforms. There are a lot of factors to consider before setting up your social media presence. Just because social media is mostly free, that doesn't mean you should take it lightly. After all, you would never start an expensive print ad campaign without doing extensive research first. Choosing that social media platform that is right for you is paramount, but how do you know which one is right? Here are a few questions you need to ask yourself:

• Who is my target demographic?
• What are my objectives? (Improve SEO, Increase site traffic, Increase brand exposre, etc)
• What platforms are my target demographic using?
• What skills do I have that I can leverage on social media? (Copywriting, Graphic design, Photography, etc)

Now that we have you thinking a little more in-depth about social media and how it can help your business, take a look at this infographic by Social Barrel. Take it step by step and figure out exactly what platforms you can leverage for the best results.  Don't waste your time and resources by investing in the wrong platforms, if you can successfully grow and cultivate your social presence, the results can be exponential.

-Mike

Top Social Platforms Among Teens

We recently brought you an article on a 13-year-old claiming that none of the kids her age used Facebook. It got us wondering: If teens don't use Facebook, what are they using? According to this chart by Statista, Facebook is still the top dog when it comes to teens, despite what our friendly 13-year-old said. People say that Facebook is losing its younger audience, but looking at numbers like this, that doesn't seem to be the case. The drop from #1 Facebook to #2 Twitter, is huge. Sure, this data is looking at 2011 to 2012, and the numbers from 2012 to 2013 may be slightly different, but Facebook has a long way to fall before we start talking about any other platforms taking over.

We do agree that many teens are converting to the latest and greatest platforms, like Instagram and Snapchat, but Facebook has such a lead over other competitors that something drastic will have to happen before we ever see a new #1. The ability for one platform to cater to teens and adults alike is no easy task. Teens will always try and distance themselves from their parents and social media is no different. We agree that teens seem to be trending away from Facebook, but we also believe Facebook is here to stay. Even though teen usage numbers may decrease, we don't think it will be by much or for very long. Ultimately, we would not be surprised to see them figure out a way to bring those teen users back, stronger than ever.

-Mike & Samantha

Facebook Releases New User Data

We had recently done a piece on how Facebook is getting ready to sell video advertisements on their platform. In order to create some hype among advertisers, Facebook released some recent user data for the U.S. and UK. Get ready for this:

More than 128 million people in the U.S. visit Facebook at least once a day. That's a third of the population! Also, in the UK, about 24 million people visit the social media website everyday.

Of course these numbers are pretty staggering on their own, but another important thing to take away from this announcement, is that this is one of the first times Facebook has released regional data. This is significant to TV advertisers, who rely heavily on those breakdowns. Facebook is trying to show all the advertisers out there just how many people they can reach on a daily basis.

At $66.3 billion estimated to go towards TV ads this year, or 39% of all advertising spent in the U.S., there is some serious money to be made by Facebook. Although these daily user number are no doubt impressive, advertising analysts would like to see more granularity before they can really put a value on Facebook's reach. For the first time ever, researchers say the average time spent on digital media will surpass TV viewing this year.

We can all see where  TV advertising is going and it is no surprise that Facebook is on the forefront. Sure there will be some backlash from user over having video ads in their newsfeed, but after seeing the potential revenues for Facebook in this new field, we expect to see them take TV advertising head-on.

-Mike & Samantha

Better Facebook Posts in 10 Easy Steps

One of the most common mistakes businesses make on Facebook, is underestimating they strategy needed for a successful post. In order to achieve a truly engaging post, a business needs to do a certain amount of research and understand the best practices involved for each post. The infographic below, created by Shortstack, highlights 10 simple, but effective, ways you can improve your Facebook status updates.

-Mike & Samantha

Facebook Introduces Embedded Posts

Big news out of Facebook, they will soon be offering embedded posts. This means that when you post something on Facebook, you will be able to generate a code, which will allow you to embed that content elsewhere on the web. Just about every other social media platform already offers this ability, from YouTube to Instagram. At the moment, this function is only available to a couple big brands like CNN and Huffington Post, but expect this ability to roll out to the public any day now. This new feature may not seem like a big deal, everyone else is doing it, right? However, when you think about what this action is truly saying about Facebook, the enormity of Mark Zuckerberg's decision can be seen. Abstaining from embeds was Facebook's way of saying they are THE source on the internet. All other content should, and will be, embedded onto Facebook, not the other way around. Now that Facebook has given in, and will start offering embedded posts, they are admitting that they need to be out on the world wide web, more than the world wide web needs to be on Facebook.

This new feature will make it easier for users to discover content outside of their Facebook circle. Since your newsfeed consists primarily of content delivered by people and pages you have selected to follow, stumbling across that bit of news you were completely unaware of is much less likely.  Now when you are surfing the web and come across an interesting article with and embedded Facebook post, you can like, follow and comment directly on the article, causing users to see more diverse material on their native newsfeed going forward.

Although Facebook is still the pinnacle of social media platforms with 699 million users logging in everyday, it has become fairly obvious that they have been losing some steam. Is this offering of embedded posts an attempt to reclaim some of the market share Facebook has recently lost, or is it just a desire to stay as relevant and user friendly as possible? We suppose only Mark knows the answer to that. 

-Mike & Samantha

Pinterest Too Girly?

According to a recent Pew study of social media users, 25% of woman use Pinterest, while only 5% of men. A common complaint of Pinterest has been that the content is heavily weighted for female interests. Sure if you dig around you can find some manlier topics, but hey, this is social media and everything should be quick and easy. Since the realization that Pinterest is better off left to our female counterparts, a few new manlier versions have surfaced. Dartitup

President of Dartitup, Brandon Harris, was driven to create a manlier pinboard site after failing to get as engaged in Pinterest as his fiancee. This platform seems to be very similar to how Pinterest works, just with manlier topics.

Gentlemint

Started in late 2011, this is another very similar pinboard site, geared for only things manly. From bacon, to power tool, to barbecuing, the manlier the better for Gentlemint. What makes this platform different than others, is its goal to stay safe-for-work. Gentlemint doesn't allow questionable content that may get you in trouble when the boss walks by. We feel this could be a huge selling point for all those guys with hours a day to kill at work.

Dudepins

While very similar to the previous 2 services we mentioned, Dudepins like to think of itself as a place to find "cool stuff". According to co-founder, Kamil Szybalski, people need a place to discover, share and buy manly things. We have always liked a website that can show you something new, and if Dudepins can live up to that claim, it seems like a very promising alternative.

Now these are not the only 3 "manly Pinterests" on the internet, but this is a good place to start. If you are sick of watching your girlfriend pin images of wedding dresses and cupcakes all day, get on one of these sites and start perusing golf clubs and cars to your hearts content.

-Mike

Turning Complaints into Opportunity

Everyone knows how important word-of-mouth can be to a business. According to Neilsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family above all else. Combine that number with these following stats, and it becomes very apparent how important it is to correctly handle customer complaints.

• It takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for 1 negative incident.
• The average "wronged customer" will tell 8-l6 people about it. Over 20% will tell more than 20.
• Happy customers who have their problems resolved will tell 4-6 people about their positive experience.
• Customer loyalty can be worth up to 10 times as much as a single purchase

Every brand in every industry is going to make mistakes, and these mistakes can often be magnified when they are out in the open for everyone to see on social media. There are a few brands out there who excel at turning these potential downfalls into customer service successes. Andy Sernovitz of SmartBlogs highlights 3 strategies used to win over upset customers:

• Make them laugh: There’s obviously a time and a place for jokes when it comes to fielding customer complaints, but a good sense of humor can be disarming and personal enough to defuse a negative comment while showing you’re human.
• Be vigilant: No matter what their concern, your customers will appreciate a fast response — even if you’re just acknowledging the issue and letting them know you’re on it. For example, when one cyclist was almost hit by a UPS truck, he tweeted about the incident — and when he got home, he was contacted within several minutes by their social media team. He later blogged about being blown away by the company’s careful attention on his blog.
• Make it personal: Dell allows their employees to answer customer service concerns with their real names and sometimes post unscripted videos of them working out problems. When your community managers can reply in their own voice, it reminds negative commenters there’s a real person behind your company’s social media page — it also let’s them know a real person cares.

At the end of the day, just showing the customer you care speaks volumes. Remember, the customer is always right.

-Mike