Entries Tagged 'social networking' ↓

Although a slight departure from the norm, this one does relate back to earlier posts such as “Why You Should Engage Your Brain at all Times“, “Social Media – Employers and Social Snooping” and “Getting into Hot Water with Social Media.“

The name Paris Brown has become well known, but for all the wrong reasons. For those that don’t know it (really?), she is (or rather was) Britain’s first youth police commissioner who resigned shortly after being appointed when certain violent, racist and anti-gay comments posted on her Twitter account came to light – ooops.

She said she was resigning because she had fallen into the “trap of behaving with bravado on social networking sites.”

But why do some people find it acceptable to say things on social media that they wouldn’t ordinarily say to people face to face?

According to an article in The Drum, a recent survey showed that 88% of respondents believed that people are less polite on social media than in person and 19% had reduced in-person contact with someone because of something they said online. It also found that the main culprits for having “emotionally charged” conversations online were the young rather than ‘baby boomers’.

So are social media platforms the problem?

It could be argued that they are because they allow instant channels to vent frustrations that would otherwise remain behind tight lips. With a flourish of fingers a comment can be made and sent out into the online social world without any thought about how it may affect other people. Whereas in a face to face situation people are likely to be more reserved and (if they do vent their frustrations) will do it privately, or at least without the likelihood of several hundred or thousand friends and followers witnessing it.

It would appear therefore that education is called for to make people stop and think before they post or tweet. The author of the report, Joseph Grenny, offers 5 tips for communicating both candidly and respectfully on social media.

1. Check your motives

Social media hasn’t only changed the way we communicate, it has also modified our motives.

Think about why you use social media – is it to get lots of ‘likes’, provoke controversy or are you looking to have healthy dialogues with people?

2. Replace hot words

If you want to make a point rather than score points, look at what you’ve written and replace “hot” words that may provoke offence with words that will help others understand your position. For example don’t use “this is idiotic” when you could simply say “I disagree because…”

3. Pause

Never post a comment or tweet in the heat of the moment. Emotionally charged writing will only end in tears. Give yourself time to calm down before writing anything.

4. Agree before disagreeing

We are all different so, at one time or another, are going to disagree with each other. Find your common ground first before wading into an argument. According to Grenny, arguers agree on 80% of the topic, but create a false sense of conflict when they spend all their time arguing over the other 20%.

5. Trust your gut

When you read a response to your post and you feel the conversation is getting too emotional for an online exchange – stop because you’re right. That’s the time to meet up and talk about it face to face.

Over to you

What are your thoughts on this?

Is social media to blame or do you think it’s youth culture?

Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.

Author: Sally Ormond, Copywriter, blogger, tweeter (@sallyormond)

Social media is a wonderful thing…in the right hands.

Those hands must be level headed (is that possible?), never react in anger and should always think before they type.

The immediacy of social platforms make sure knee-jerk reactions hang around to haunt you forever, or at least for a very long time.

Frequently, celebrities are caught up in Twitter spats or put out a not-particularly-well-thought-out tweet, prompting Cosmopolitan to list its top 10 celebrity Twitter blunders of 2012:

1. The infamous Tulisa vs Dappy spat
2. Diana Abbott’s ‘white people love paying divide and rule’ prompted by Bim Adewunmi tweet about the term ‘black community’
3. TOWIE’s Jessica Wright’s ill-judged ‘rest in peace’ tweet in response to the news of the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il
4. Kim Kardashian tweeting a photo of herself holding a cat by the scruff of its neck
5. Ashton Kutcher’s tweets of support for football coach Joe Paterno
6. Russell Bran tweeting a picture of hi ex-wife Katy Perry with no makeup on
7. Piers Morgan revealing Ryan Giggs as the high profile footballer having an affair
8. Charlie Sheen direct messaging his mobile number of Justin Bieber only for it to end up on his timeline
9. Chris Brown reacting to the critics when he picked up a Grammy
10. Rihanna for writing cryptic messages, soon after Chris Brown posted a picture of his new girlfriend, suggesting he was being less than faithful

But one of the more recent examples left Labour MP David Lammy apologising.

What did he do?

Well, following this tweet from BBC News:

David Lammy accused the BBC of being racist claiming the tweet from the BBC was “…crass and unnecessary. Do we really need silly innuendo about the race of the next Pope?”

After it was pointed out to him that black smoke appears from a Vatican chimney when no decision has been made and white smoke when a new Pope has been elected, he realised his mistake and was forced to make the following apology:

“Note to self: do not tweet from the Chamber with only one eye on what you’re reading. Sorry folks, my mistake.”

So there you go, some very good reasons why you should never Tweet in haste or anger.

Before you write your tweet always make sure:

• You have carefully read the tweet you’re responding to
• You’re not responding in anger and the heat of the moment
• Think carefully about what you write and how it will be take by others
• You’re careful about what you send in a direct message

If you’re going to use social media as part of your marketing strategy, you’ll need to know how your consumers are using it to make sure you’re getting the right type of information to the right people.

As more and more people start to dabble in the ‘social side’, the marketing landscape begins to change. People want to get their information in different ways, they want to connect with companies directly and quickly and how they access social media is also changing.

A recent report by Nielsen and McKinsey, called Social Media Report, looks at the survey results of consumers to discover how they use social networks.

Mobile time is increasing

With the rising number of smartphone users, it’s hardly surprising that the report found consumers are increasingly using their smartphones and tablets to access social media.

The main device used is still the PC, 43% of users said they used smartphones to access social media, with 16% using a tablet.

That would therefore suggest that as marketers, you should be investing in your mobile content. That means a mobile website, using social media and perhaps even getting your own app.

Pinterest rises

As a copywriter, Pinterest is something that I still haven’t really got to grips with.  But perhaps that should now change as the report showed that it had not only the highest increase in audience, but also the largest amount of time spent on any social network across all devices.

Of course, simply having an interesting display of great items on Pinterest isn’t going to do you any good unless you actually engage with other ‘pinners’.

Feel good feeling

One of the most surprising findings is that 76% of social media users said they experienced positive feelings after using it.  The felt informed, excited and connected.

Of course, you’re not going to please everyone all of the time.

Social TV and Twitter

Twitter was also discovered to be the most powerful driver of ‘social TV’ – that means that it’s the one platform people (usually adults aged between 35-44) use to share their views and opinions about what they’re watching (e.g. sports events, Elections etc.).

The report goes on to say that in June 2012, one third of active Twitter users tweeted about TV content, up from 26% from the beginning of the year.

Customer service through social media

The report showed that 1 in 3 social media users prefer is receive customer service through social media platforms as opposed to contacting the company by phone.

Of course, for marketers that means that consumers are used to receiving instant feedback and in fact expect it, so it’s important that your use of social media allows you to respond quickly.

The emergence of the social advert

What do you think about the social adverts you see on Facebook etc.? Well, apparently 33% find them annoying, but surprisingly 26% of those surveyed said they were more likely to pay attention to an advert posted by a friend.

Perhaps you should give some extra thought to your social advertising plan.

The social buying decision

The growing use of social media is changing the way people shop. Today, consumers use their social media channels to learn about other peoples’ experiences (70%) and information about a brand’s products or services (65%).

So, you really need to think about your brand image and how you come across as a company.

Over to you

How do you feel about using social media today?

Did any findings in the report surprise you?

Leave comment and tell us what you think.

When you first start using Twitter to market your business you’ll face quite a steep learning curve. You have to learn what to tweet, when to tweet, how to follow people, how to find people – the list is endless.

Then you’ll be faced with working out how best to engage with your followers.

Split testing is something that marketers use a lot. If you’re not familiar with the concept, it involves placing two messages (emails, subject lines, web pages etc.) out into your market place and measuring the performance of each. It is a process that can be repeated a number of times to refine your message to receive the optimum results.

So what does that have to do with Twitter?

Well, to improve your engagement on Twitter why not split test your tweets?

To give you a run down on how that can be achieved, check out this post on Social Media Examiner. In How to Split Test Your Twitter Marketing they take you through:

• Ways of creating your split test
• Analysing your results
• Expanding your testing

It’s well worth a read and could help turbo charge your Twitter activities for 2013.

We all love Twitter – go on admit it, even you’ve fallen in love with it.

It’s such a great way to meet new people, chat with customers, colleagues and friends and get your business name out there, recognised and loved. Engagement is the name of the game, but are you managing your Twitter relationships effectively, or are you letting them slide?

When you first set up  your account and only have a few followers, it’s relatively easy to keep on top of things. But as time marches on and your following increases, the time you have to spend monitoring your account reduces. This is especially true if you are a solopreneur or manage numerous Twitter accounts.

So how can you make sure you’re engaging with the right people?

Thankfully, help is at hand through a very interesting post I discovered on Social Media Examiner.

In it, they bring our attention to an application called Commun.it, which is designed to:

• Help you manage your Twitter relationships
• Focus on your top influencers supporters and potential leads
• Offer stress-free social productivity to help you focus on the right people

For an in depth look at how it works and how to get set up, pop over to Social Media Examiner and take a look.

And don’t forget to come back and let us know how you got on with it; we’d love to hear your reviews about it.