The Best and Worst of Twitter Mass Unfollow Tools

If you're anything like me, sometimes you can get a little too trigger-happy with the "follow" button on Twitter. This can lead to a lot of crap in your newsfeed that you don't really like seeing, and following a lot of people who aren't active Twitter users.

Often, when you're trying to build a follower base, especially in the beginning, you follow a bunch of people in your niche (or at least you should be!) in hopes that they follow you back. Many do, but many don't. These tools are an easy way to rid your feed of the folks who aren't following you back and clear out your numbers a bit.

You've probably heard of some of the tools online that allow you to manage, review and mass-unfollow a bunch of users at one time. Each of these tools come with their own pro's and con's, and it's hard to remember their names to curate your list on the regular... so I'm here to help!

Facebook's New Pages To Watch Section

Have you seen this new section in the admin area of your Facebook Page yet?

Facebook has rolled out yet ANOTHER great new feature for Small to Large Businesses and Communities, and this one is going to be a hit!

This allows you to track (or watch) the progress of other pages and compare it with your own page's insights. 

What is a Twitter Party?

There has been a lot of action on social media lately about Twitter Parties. In fact, we're about to have one at my day-job to promote our brand! Yet, every day when the subject comes up I hear the same question over and over again: What is a Twitter Party? How does it work?

Well, take a seat and I'll explain it to you.

"500 Milllll-ionnnnn"

You see, wayyyyy back in 2006 a few enterprising guys thought that all that you needed to get your point across was 140 characters. They weren't exactly wrong (even though it can be annoying sometimes!) and their social networking site, Twitter, has been a big deal ever since.

A big deal to the tune of 500 MILLION followers worldwide and 200 MILLION active users every month.

So naturally, brands and businesses have found a way to capitalize on this ever-growing population of online users. Although many opt for the obvious choices, like promoted tweets and ads, some brands have taken a more organic approach.

Many bloggers and influencers have found great success with twitter, garnering followings upwards of 100-thousand people in a relatively short period of time. Leveraging these bloggers and any bloggers, really, to participate in brand activities and create relevant content that can be shared across social media, is what many brands have done.

Thus came... the Twitter Party!

If you're expecting balloons and pinatas, it's probably not going to happen. But here's what does happen at a twitter party:

1) A brand and a group of dedicated influencers (ex. Bloggers, Notable People) set a date and time where they will all convene to discuss a certain topic. Generally this is directed towards a product or brand launch.

2) A hashtag is selected, usually around the product, brand or topic. This is what creates the conversation that people can follow along with and participate in via Twitter.

3) The Twitter Party is officially launched & promoted. Most Twitter parties involve giveaways and/or prizes to participants to incentivize people to engage with the brand. Attendees are generally asked to RSVP ahead of time so they can be cross-referenced to win prizes.

4) The day of the twitter party arrives. If the party is successful then generally the twitter hashtag will become a trending topic. (Many tweets with a specific hashtag from a wide range of users in a short amount of time = trending topic)

5) Most Twitter Parties involve a Question & Answer format where the host(s) will ask questions in a Q1 / A1 format. As the questions are put out, attendees are asked to respond (including corresponding A# and hashtag for the party) and then winners are selected. Most are selected randomly and aren't reflective of the quality of the tweet.

6) Most parties generally last about 1 hour and have between 4 and 10 questions and/or prizes. Generally they will start with the smallest prize and work their way up to a Grand Prize. Some questions involve trivia and links to brand-specific landing pages where hints are available. Many questions are more subjective and are opinion-based. Usually there is a combination of both for a wide variety of responses.

Here's what you should know before you consider attending a Twitter Party: 

A) It's going to be brand-heavy. Be positive about the brand.

B) Yes you can win free stuff, but it's also about networking and creating a meaningful conversation.

C) If you don't win free stuff, that's okay. Hundred's of people attend twitter parties and only a handful win prizes. There's always a next time.


Here's what you should know before you consider throwing a Twitter Party: 

A) Although it's brand and product specific, Twitter Parties aren't created as a means to sell product. Most participants are in it for the free stuff and are NOT going to make a purchase based on activities around the product. As a brand or business your focus should be on building relationships and long-term brand visibility.

B) The best Twitter Parties are the ones that really inspire people to engage. (i.e. Asking generic/boring questions isn't entertaining and likely won't be that impactful.)

C) Your influencers = Your reach. Don't be afraid to pay for high-quality influencers, because they will make the difference in the overall success of your party.


Anyways... that's Twitter Parties in a nutshell. Got a question? Leave it in the comments below!

If You Don't, Someone Else Will

I was thinking today about what makes a social network so successful, like the Facebook's and Twitter's out there. There are only a handful of really useful, substantial networks out there. The ones that I discuss in my presentations and workshops. The ones that a brand "can't exist online without."

As a social media specialist, content creator and aggregator... as a person who measures collective interest in these sites and their product for a living, it's easy to see what makes each site individually appealing. How one site is used versus the other, and how each creates its own style of meaningful connection and ability to interact with other people -- customers, friends, companies; you name it. 

But how do you know when you've really got something special on your hand after you come up with an idea for a new network in your dorm room? Is it your first fifty-thousand early adopters? Your first million? Is it when the news begins reporting your impact? When companies can't "exist" without being part of your network? 

Nope. All close, but not close enough.

The real testament to a social network's rank? When other social networks use your network as a means to provide information to their users, developers and fans. 

You know your social networking site is working when other social networking sites have to create profiles on yours to brand themselves.
— Christella (@christellasays) September 11, 2013

After this moment of clarity (accurately depicted here in a tweet) I went searching. Here's what I found:

Pinterest on Twitter - 1.48 M Followers

Google on Twitter - 6.89 M Followers

A "Google on Twitter" list containing all of the offical google
twitter accounts -- on Twitter, by Google.
173 Official Accounts.

Some of the List Members of Offical Google Accounts of Google on Twitter, by Google... on Twitter.

A Twitter Page on Facebook. - 10 M Followers

A (slightly underloved) Google Plus page on Facebook. 

An Official (and verified!) Google page on Facebook.
14 Million likes.

Official Pinterest page on Facebook. 2.8 M likes.

An Official Twitter Account on Pinterest.
Not very many followers. 

It's actually quite humorous if you think of the moment a social network social media marketing team has to decide to officially launch a page on a new social network.

But, in reality... it shouldn't be that funny. Any business should be concerned with staking a claim in what is, for all intents and purposes, theirs. Right now it probably doesn't seem like a big deal to a small business if they have to secure their pages name on Facebook, make sure they're on top of their Google Plus page so they can tie in reviews, or launch a twitter page to connect with local users. In a little while, when they are finally at that step and need to confirm their pages they may have become popular and someone else has reserved those pages.

It has happened to me before. In a large corporate setting, I was the new social media marketing specialist and it was my job to put them on the map, so to speak. Well lo and behold a multi-million dollar company's name isn't available anymore. Of course not! Someone thought to take it for themselves, whether intentionally or not. 

The process in trying to attain any previously registered name for your business can be time consuming and often doesn't even yield results. Often times businesses just have to choose another name altogether, if they didn't agree to pay through the nose for the one they wanted originally.

My advice to you (and to emerging social networks out there!) is to stake a claim in whatever you can... now. When they're still a good chance what you want is available for the claiming. Develop your brand with these things in mind.

My other advice? You really don't need 173 different pages that all essentially do the same thing. Er... unless you're Google. ;)

Drunk Driver Video: My Gut Reaction

About twelve and a half minutes ago I saw a post go viral...   in my mind. Then, I checked it out online and saw it has (slightly, in the lightspeed pace we go today) already gone there. Over 1 million views of a video, uploaded just a few days ago.

I just saw this video.

Building a Digital Culture in Your Business

It’s safe to say that not everyone, perhaps even no one initially, is interested in using social media to promote a business. In fact, it can be terribly difficult at times to establish a digital culture in a place of business for some managers and owners. Often time’s customers and employees aren't inclined to participate because of a lack of awareness, or maybe it’s an aversion to technology. The only real way to achieve peak performance, both socially and digitally, is to have complete participation within the ranks. Creating this culture, however, isn't an easy feat. It takes training, encouragement and proven results to really get off of the ground.

In the dawn of social media and sharing many business owners were afraid to allow employees to use social sites at work. They were concerned for overall productivity and of course, sharing trade secrets or guarded information. Many government agencies and large companies, especially those with high security levels, still do not allow access to sites like Facebook or Twitter across the board. Occasionally employees are even required to lock their phones away before their shift to ensure that private information remains that way. There isn’t much you can do about that, when dealing with highly secure information, but for the small to midsize business, or businesses that don’t deal in protected data, the days of the security walls and social bans are long gone.

TRAINING & BEST PRACTICES

Many Fortune 500 companies now offer training to employees on best practices around social media and you’re hard pressed these days to come across a new employee manual that doesn't offer up some sort of regulations around social activity. Whether you’re trying to protect your brand’s image or your client’s information, having a best practices for employees surrounding social sharing is just… well… a best practice!

When it comes to encouraging employees to use social media in a business perspective, however, things can still be quite unclear. Most companies, especially smaller ones, do not monitor employee activity online. HR and Marketing Depts. rarely offer training on how employees can offer assistance in company growth online, and they most often don’t encourage it. This, in my opinion, is the first real mistake.

On one hand, you’re not observing employee activity and ensuring they’re standing up to the rules that have been set in place. An occasional Google of employee activity isn’t nearly effective enough in ensuring they’re meeting your standards. When a customer offers up a negative opinion on your business or services its bad enough, but when an employee does it? There could be no coming back from that!

NEGATIVE vs. POSITIVE EMPLOYEE SHARING

We see stories every day of employees posting photos and videos of themselves, or their place of employment, shining a light on poor working conditions or management. Often this activity results in the immediate termination of an employee, sometimes reasonably and sometimes not. Rarely do we see upper-level management using such an occurrence as an opportunity to review their own practices and determine why the employee would risk their job just to share something of that nature online. Either they are disgruntled over poor working conditions/treatment, or they’re inefficiently (if at all) trained on appropriate online behavior as an employee. Both of these fall under the management umbrella and without being addresses, could occur at any time in your business.

(source)

INCLUDE YOUR EMPLOYEES IN YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING EFFORTS

Beyond the obvious need to train employees on best-practices around workplace social sharing, it’s also increasingly important to include them in the digital marketing plans for your business.

Offering training, info sessions and employee events that can be utilized as a way to encourage positive employee sharing online is a great way to start!

Here are some ideas as to how you can begin to create a (positive) digital sharing culture in your workplace:

• Encourage employees to take photos with customers happily buying product. Offer up a hashtag that is company specific and show them where they can post them online (with customer approval, of course!)
  
• Create a Private Facebook Group for employees only, where you can include shareable content to be posted from your social sites onto others, as well as directives and questions/polls. This is a great way to gather information and see who is participating!
  
• Share your digital roadmap/objectives with employees! Give them an opportunity to join in on the work. Many hands make light work and many employees create a larger reach!
  
• Embrace newer social sharing sites like Instagram, Tumblr, Google + and encourage employees to help carve out a new audience there.
  
• Offer incentives to employees who achieve certain goals socially. Including: Getting likes on your facebook page from their friends, encouraging contest participation, getting X amount of views of a workplace-video online. Not all incentives need to be monetary; some can align with workplace rewards like events or product.
  
• Create online profiles for your employees on your website and ask them to participate in sharing their own personal pages. Utilize little-known facts, fun ideas and games to create high-content pages or blog posts about them. Encourage online sharing across all social media.
  
• Encourage check-ins online on sites like Foursquare and Facebook, especially if there is low customer participation.
  
• Hire a photographer to do employee portraits. What would an employee rather share than a particularly great photo of themselves? They’ll be grateful for an opportunity to have a professional photo taken at no cost to them and likely share them in an exceptionally positive light.
  
• Create events (online and offline) that especially encourage digital sharing. Ex. Offer to have a bi-weekly/monthly movie night IF employees share X amount of posts every week, and then get them to garner votes online for what movie should be presented.
  
• Ask employees to brainstorm ideas for marketing efforts, like blog posts, photo sessions and product displays. If they’re putting effort into the conceptualizing and execution, they’re far more likely to share the finished product online!

I hope that you’ll be able to effectively deploy some of these ideas in your own workplace! Please let me know your results!

The #Social Mom

What are your Fans worth to YOU?

As a brand and social media specialist, it is expected of me in some sense that when I like or support a brand I will share their posts, product and ideas across social media. When I see something that piques my interest it either ends up here on my blog, or elsewhere on Twitter and Facebook. I try to reward and encourage brand accounts, especially those belonging to small businesses to keep their momentum building in their social space.

But there are other people out there, not like me, who don't actively look for opportunities to share and engage with brands. A lot of business owners who've yet to embrace the social sphere write the idea off entirely because they feel that a fan liking their page on Facebook or re-tweeting a post on their Twitter feed has no bearing on sales. Well I'm sorry, business owner, but you're WRONG. You're so so so wrong.

On Facebook alone, the basic act of a fan "liking" your business page is valued at $174.17.