The Most Engaged Brands on Twitter

You have heard it before and you will hear it again, an engaged brand is a successful brand. Out of all the social media options out there, Twitter has become one of the go-to platforms for customer engagement. Twitter is a fantastic channel for brands to create a conversation with their fans. Of course, a large number of fans and an increased tweet frequency has a lot to do with the success of a brand, but as we can see from the infographic created by Nestivity below, it is not a direct correlation. Having 10 million followers sounds like an impressive number, and it is, but if that following isn't engaged, it doesn't really mean anything. A few of the more interesting facts we gathered from this infographic are:

• More followers did not correlate into a more engaged brand
• A higher tweet frequency also did not correlate into a more engaged brand
• Tweets sent between 2pm and 5pm generated the most engagement
• 76% of shared tweets contained a photo

Remember, engagement is king. Take notes from the top brands on this list and try implementing similar tactics into your own Twitter campaign.

-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

Instagram Vs. Vine

Instagram vs. Vine, Facebook vs. Twitter, it has been quite interesting watching the battle between the two social media behemoths for mini-video supremacy.  When Vine was released in Jan of 2013, it was heralded as the Instagram of video. 5 days after being introduced, Vine had more shares-per-day at 2.5 million, while Instagram was only generating 2.2. These are very impressive numbers for a service only 5 days old, it appeared Vine was coming in strong and here to stay.

Fast forward 6 months later to June 20th, the date Instagram added a video service to their app. Vine shares-per-day plummeted from 2.5 million on June 19th, to 1.5 million on June 20th. In the same month, Vine links on twitter also dropped by 70%, not a good sign for Vine.

Personally, when Instagram launched their video service, we at Sike immediately went and deleted our Vine apps. After all, why would we want to try and manage 2 separate video sharing apps? Since we already had an Instagram presence established, it was an easy choice to stick with Instagram, rather than start again from the ground up with Vine. If someone was to tell us that the fate of Vine is a slow death, you would not hear many objections, but maybe, just maybe, we have Vine all wrong.

The first thing we have to realize is the fundamental difference between Instagram and Vine. While Instagram's success was based on the huge number of users uploading and the volume of uploaded content, Vine should not be measured in the same way. This is because of the simple fact that pictures and videos are very different things. The complexities of creating a great video are going to inhibit the casual user from creating and uploading a video to Vine, after all, it is much easier to upload a cool sunset picture than create a 6 second video people will actually want to watch. This will, in turn, skew many of the Vine users into consumers, rather than creators. This is bad for Vine right? Not necessarily.

The best way to see the potential success of Vine is to view it as a mini YouTube. YouTube is a consumer-centric service, much like Vine. Chances are everyone you know has seen a video on YouTube before, but how many of those same people have actually uploaded content? Consumption far exceeds creation on YouTube. It is estimated that 30% of the videos uploaded to YouTube account for 90% of total views. This simply shows that people are consuming YouTube videos MUCH faster than creating them and we feel this is the direction Vine will be going.

We have already seen numerous big brands take advantage of Vine, creating brilliant 6 second advertisements. With the money and resources to create quality videos, we see Vine as a fantastic avenue for brands to get fresh, new content out to their fans.  We all know consumer attention spans are shrinking, and nowhere is this more prevalent than online. It is only natural to see the progression to shorter advertisements, and Vine is a perfect avenue for that content.

We are very interested to see where Vine ultimately goes. It is obvious that Instagram has a huge advantage over user-generated content and it would be a big mistake for Vine to try and go toe-to-toe with them. We would like to see Vine aggressively target advertising partnerships, bringing more creative and quality content to its platform. Give us a reason to re-download that Vine app on to our precious smartphones.

-Mike & Samantha

Twitter Pulls Away From Rivals in Social Curating

We are all aware of the major social media platforms out there, from Facebook to Twitter, a successful brand must utilize them all. Each platform has its place in a successful marketing campaign, but new research shows that businesses are favoring one platform over the other, Twitter. According to social software startup, Livefyre, 93% of business are curating real-time, social activity from Twitter, while only 89% are using Facebook. Continuing down the social media ladder, 50% of business reported generating content from YouTube, and 41% are using Instagram. 

Why are these numbers so important? One of the biggest challenges for brands today is creating great content. A company can post content over all the social platforms 24/7, but if that content is not relevant to their target market, it is just a big waste of time and resources. Utilizing platforms, like Twitter, allows a brand to see what people are already saying about them organically. Once these trends are identified, a successful brand can leverage them to market themselves in a very authentic and poignant way.

Data from Livefyre's research shows that:

• 82% of businesses have increased user engagement from curating social activity.
• 88% of the businesses leveraging real-time social applications, have increased user engagement.
• 41% reported an increase in site traffic as a direct result of making their websites more social friendly.

We all know how critical it is for a business to monitor social media in order get a true feel for the public sentiment on their brand. What may not be so obvious, is how important social curating is to content creation. It is so important for a successful online presence to have relevant, engaging, and consistent content going out to its target market. What better way to create this content than leverage what is already out there, supplied by the customers themselves.

-Mike & Samantha

Chipotle Plans Fake Twitter Hack

Last week, Chipotle became the latest big brand to have their Twitter account hacked -- or so everyone thought! Chipotle's Twitter handle, @ChipotleTweets, tweeted a handful of posts within an hour, all of which seemed incredibly random. Since then, Chipotle admitted that they did in fact fake an account hacking to tie with their 20th anniversary marketing campaign. Although Chipotle successfully received over 4,000 followers after the apparent "hacking" (compared to their typical 250 followers a day) and about 12,000 retweets (versus 75 RTs a day), there are many social skeptics who don't necessarily agree with this marketing 'tactic,' including us.

We get the original thought behind the faked hacking. Yes, it gets new eyes on the brand. Yes, it keeps Chipotle at the top of mind for many Twitter users. Having said this, many of these new followers only found interest in Chipotle because of the hack -- not necessarily because they are true fans of the brand. This means that the actual quality of the fan following may not be ideal, as many will not be necessarily interested in the content that Chipotle has to say in the future. Unless the 4,000 followers continue to increase Chipotle's conversations and fan engagement for the long term, we don't see the overall benefit.

Lastly, there's something to say about faking your own Twitter takeover. When Burger King and Jeep had their Twitter accounts hacked, their stories caught fire because it was organic, had never been done before and showed how vulnerable brand social media accounts can be.  Unfortunately with previous fake hackings, like MTV, BET and now Chipotle, these cries for attention feel forced and inauthentic.

Our advice? As a large brand within the social space, take the time to find a way to gain attention that feels genuine to your fans. Spend your resources to take the road less traveled in order to gain followers who will engage and be with you until the end.

What do you think of the latest faked 'hack?'

Here are the original tweets:

-- Samantha & Mike

Social Media Regret

With social media creeping into every aspect of our lives, it comes as no surprise that more and more people are beginning to fear that they may be turned down or fired from a job because of an inappropriate social media post. Legal information website, FindLaw.com, recently conducted a survey of 1,000 "demographically balanced" adults, asking them about their social media behavior. The overall result of this study showed that 1 in 4 adults fear that their social media behavior will come back to bite them.

When this figure is broken down a bit more for age, we see that in the group of adults age 18 to 34, 29% said that they have posted something on social media that they fear could be damaging to their professional careers. In order to help control some of the potential damage created by past posts, 74% of people in this age group have removed past activity, like a photo or post, to avoid the negative reaction from current or potential employers. As to be expected, this number is lower in the next age group, 35 to 64, at 36%.

Perhaps the most simple way to avoid making these social faux pas is using common sense. Three basic pointers to follow when using social media are:

• Think twice before you post anything
• Check your privacy settings and make sure they are set appropriately
• Do not make sensitive personal information available online

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is once you put something online, it stays online. It is almost impossible to completely delete something from the internet, so it is paramount that you take a little time to make sure what you are posting is, and will continue to be, appropriate. It is so easy to post, tweet or update these days that mistakes are all too easy to make. What may seem like an innocent expression of your feelings can very easily come back to haunt you. We have said it before and we will say it again -- think before you post!

- Mike & Samantha

Nordstrom Utilizes Pinterest to Increase Sales

Although initially reported last week, more details have emerged on Nordstrom's plan to leverage Pinterest in 13 of their retail locations across the country. Items being displayed, which for now will only consist of  dresses, shoes and handbags, will contain signage reading, "Top Pinned Items" and the Pinterest logo.

Along with these new merchandising displays, Nordstrom will also have iPad stations to showcase what is currently the most popular items on Pinterest. One can only imagine the logistical nightmare of such a huge store trying to tailor their displays to the ever changing whims of social media. To deal with this dilemma, Nordstrom is taking each store's inventory into consideration.  “We wanted to have alignment with what we show in that store and that department with what we have available to sell to the customer,” said Nordstrom spokesperson, Colin Johnson.

Not only will Nordstrom be pushing Pinterest in their brick and mortar locations, but they will also be adding  a "Top Pinned" link in the women's section on their website. With Pinterest accounting for Nordstrom's largest social following at 4.5 million followers as reported by Geekwire.com (2x the number of Facebook fans), it's great to see them giving their customers what they want.

Although the measuring stick for this new program will be Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale, which is scheduled to run from July 19 to August 4, it's clear that Pinterest is one social platform that's here to stay. We've seen companies take inspiration from the highly visual website over the past years through various marketing campaigns, contests and more, but a full translation into retail locations in an effort to draw attention to (and sell) the most 'popular' items is an innovative concept that many are trying to perfect.

We believe that this attempt to bring online behavior into the offline space is a natural next step in any integrated social media marketing strategy. Similar to written testimonials on many retail websites, Nordstrom is essentially adding a level of "social credibility" to their displays in hopes that customers who know and love Pinterest will be more attracted to the highlighted products and therefore, one step closer to purchase.

As the summer continues, we look forward to hearing the results of this marketing experiment and wonder if a simple reference to social media can truly alter a shopper's buying pattern.

Mike & Samantha