What Lurks Beyond the Keyboard - Social Media Automation

When tackling the task of social media strategy, you can't ignore automation as a solution to covering multiple channels, but do you really know what happens when it goes beyond your keyboard?

Whether it's Twitter, Facebook, digg, de.licio.us, whatever the outlet, if you're serious about creating, monitoring, and maintaining your online brand/presence, you probably have explored automating.

A recent e-mail came to me through my website that I want to share with you because it speaks exactly to the point that I want to make.

Vickie -

My question is about automatic uploading to twitter from other sites.

I see multiple tweets posted at the same time.

When I open my twitter page and see nothing but one person’s tweets I UNFOLLOW them.

You have four tweets from HootSuite all at once plus two or three others. That is fast closing in on my threshold to unfollow you.

Fact is I really love your tweets, but feel I have a live outside your tweets and don’t want to follow many links.

How do these sites work?

Can you control the number of posts from them?

What is the logic of having a lot of tweets? Is it effective? How is results measured?

I plan to try to tweet twice daily – maximum unless someone demonstrates that something else works better.

Thanks for the answers.

You can post this to the blog if you wish, or I can post an entry if you wish.

Thanks

Gordon Hughes

There's an in and there's an out, right? On this we can agree. But how it gets sent out, and how your viewer gets it are two VERY different things. Think of it like the mail truck running out of gas on the way, or maybe hitting a pothole. And that's the mail truck on MY end. What about the mail truck DELIVERING the content? Well, there's not much I can say to that end.

For my own strategy, I've found that for twitter, Hootsuite is well-suited to my needs, being able to schedule content and space it out. I certainly don't want overkill, but I do want to maintain my presence in the area of social media marketing. Therefore, I have to maintain a brand presence on a regular basis.

Now, if there is a follower who chooses to look at content at a particular time in the future, my tweets are obviously going to get backed up and it's going to look like maybe I'm publishing them all at once.

Or maybe, in fact, hootsuite had a hiccup and it didn't post them as I had scheduled.

And hmm, has twitter ever gone down? See, we just don't know what happens when it goes beyond our keyboard.

In the past, in doing e-mail marketing campaigns, I've learned to test the e-mail to myself first to make sure that the content is exactly what I want to appear when a recipient receives it. But do they ever? Or did I just end up in the junk folder?

Do you have any thoughts you'd like to share on the subject? Have you ever had an automation strategy gone haywire?

Optimize Your Social Media Content for the Long Haul - 10 Tips

People are more distracted than ever before, and we can thank technology for the help. People will tune you out at the slightest opportunity. I call it “competition for eyeballs.” How can you get their attention and KEEP it for the long haul, converting them to loyal users? Here are some tips on creating not only content, but keeping an eye on how people will be able to maneuver through it:

1. Keep your content consistent
Not only should your content maintain a consistent writing style, but the content should look and feel the same throughout. Just like McDonalds isn’t going to change their arches any time soon, keeping your content visually consistent will make a big difference in getting people to know what to expect when they come to your social media community. And if you don’t have a consistent style yet, or maybe you are still developing one, see what sticks and develop your own formula.
2. Keep it relevant
Just because you have a genius moment, and created this subjectively compelling article, who says it’s great? You? That might not necessarily fly with your audience. Unless there’s a particular keyword or some idea that you try to get across on a regular basis, it’s not enough to hold people interest over a longer time. And that’s what we’re looking for, right? Think of it like buying a brand you’re pretty loyal to - a favorite restaurant perhaps. If you ordered filet mignon and got tofu spinach salad, would you stick around? But I bet there’s an audience for both of those dishes!
3. Make it exciting - where’s the WOW?

Do you like what someone else in your industry, or maybe your competition, is doing? What is it that knocks your socks off? This also means headlines for grabbing people’s attention. For me, I love when major brands come into the social media space and come and speak to us all as peers. They really want to know what it is that people want, and then they have a better chance of creating it. The groundswell will prevail! (If you haven’t read Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s book and you’re interested in growing a social media audience, you are WAY missing the boat.

4. Make your platform easy to connect

The social media platform you’re using also lends itself to being able to get the message out to your audience. Not only does the content have a lot to do with people sticking around, but do you have links for people to be able to share your content, including social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Digg? If you do and they’re not sharing it, then there’s probably a reason that goes more deep than connectability.

5. Target the right audience

Blasting people to try to generate interest will only service a temporary fix. Ask yourself who is your relevant audience? Even better, why don’t you ask trusted colleagues who they think your relevant audience might be? If you’re in social media, just because you might maintain membership to multiple groups, posting seemingly irrelevant news items doesn’t mean that your message will become “magically delicious.” Who would be most interested in your tasty morsels?

6. Promote it through ALL channels

Not just interconnecting your social media outlets with links to it all. Think of social media as just one element of your marketing mix. You might have direct mail, TV, print, radio, e-mail…It’s the repetition and consistency that will drive traffic to your social media door step. When I was in radio advertising, I wouldn’t take on a new advertising client for just one or two spots. There’s no guarantee that reaching the right customer would happen in a matter of seconds. And this is for the long haul, right?

7. Be authentic

Social media users know that if something is off kilter, word will get out about it pretty fast. Would you believe it if Bill Gates posted positive comments on Microsoft videos? Probably not. Think of your own persona - do you identify with the content? Would you believe a blog author posting positive commentary about the content on the posts? If you’re perusing the social mediaverse, you probably want to post comments with a keyword that you’ve identified with, but even more so, keep true to yourself, and people will be more likely to believe what you say.

8. Make content easy to digest and user-friendly
Take a look at the visual elements of your campaign. Are you trying to keep your content “above the fold,” in other words, keeping people from having to scroll down to see what you are trying to say?
Do you have tips that are kind of hidden in a long paragraph? Think of it like this - would you send a resume to a recruiter in essay format? Nuff said.

9. Make the content format relevant
Do you have multimedia content spanning across different social media outlets? Or is it just stretched and doesn’t have to be?
Social media outlets are very unique, with unique audiences who have very different social technology habits (technographics). Yes, there is some crossover, but for the most part, Twitter users want quick headlines with juicy enough reason to want to click through a link. If you are trying to reach Youtube users, know that they are LOOKING for a “wow” with a visual impact - professionally produced videos, or even CGC (Consumer-Generated Content), with some intelligent thought into presentation. Then you can reap the rewards of people subscribing and posting comments and maybe even their own video comments.

10. Test! Test! Test!
I am lucky enough to have a network that is on top of the content that I send, so when I have a link that doesn’t work, or a typo (because I just hit “send” a little too quickly, and yes, I’m trying to get over that…), they let me know.
You could even hire a usability consultant, maybe hire a panel of experts to do testing, or you could do a focus group if it came down to it - point is...
No one can assume that their content is going to be the winning lottery ticket. Just as you’ve invested your time in growing your social media content, take the time to test it. Through different browsers, through different eyeballs, through the mountains white with snow.

The First Step in Developing Your Social Media Marketing Plan What is your GOAL?

via users.rsise.anu.edu.au

So, you get behind the wheel to go to the latest greatest social media conference in town! How are you going to get there? Don’t you have to know where you’re headed? Do you put an address into the GPS or are you a genius who has an incredible memory for landmarks? Even if it’s somewhere close by, you have to have a clue about where your destination is.

How can you set up a plan, or your step by step directions, if you don’t start with a clear goal in mind?

Some examples of social media goals are:
I want to build better relationships.
I want to increase website traffic.
I want to build your base.
I want to inspire people to action.
I want to create more loyal customers.

Now go a step further and quantify your goal, so you can know if you meet your mark:
I want to build 50 new relationships within a month.
I want to increase my website traffic by 50 direct hits per week.
I want to build my customer base by converting 10 customers per week via click throughs.
Yada, yada, you get the point.

Being able to know exactly where you’re going and how you will measure the success of your efforts is critical. But, let’s start at ONE. You will see a greater impact for your efforts if not only do you understand what you are trying to do, but your audience does, too!

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