30. TAKEAWAYS
• Meet your audience where
they are
• Tell your story
• Keep it visual
• Think lifestyle
Editor's Notes
Instagram photo from Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure ~ Telling a story with a single image\n
Do you recognize the man on the left? What about the man on the right?\nThe Gettysburg Address only has 256 words (about 2 minutes) - & Lincoln wasn't the main speaker that day\nEdward Everett was - his speech lasted over 2 hours (but no one remembers him)\nSometimes it’s more difficult to write short copy - but it can be more powerful and play to people’s short attention spans\n
Let’s start with some stats: 7 out of 10 people worldwide use social media\nmost use 2 networks - and have no interest in branching out\n
The average consumer follow 8-15 brands online (passively)\nAnd is an interactive follower of 4-8 brands\nThe vast majority of what people post about brands is positive (90+%)\n\nSeptember 2012\nSource: http://www.theconversationmanager.com/2012/09/25/10-striking-conclusions-of-the-social-media-around-the-world-2012-study/\n
91% of marketers are using social media at some level\nover half spend 6 hours/week doing it\n& the more experienced someone is, the more time they are likely to spend on it\n\nSource: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/study-shows-time-pays-with-social-media-marketing/\n
Dr. Bakker - Head paleontologist at Houston Museum of Natural Scientist\nI took this photo, posted on Flickr, made the front page of wikipedia\n
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Microblogging has proliferated beyond just Twitter - we’ll talk about the big microblogging platforms like Wordpress, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram - and also some of the niche platforms that have popped up along the way\n
So let’s start by talking strategy - no matter what platform you choose\n
Strategy Example - Tell people how to talk about you\nPrince reduced his value to the company by changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol so they couldn’t plug him\n
You have to tell them how to talk about you - now more than ever\n
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Sarah Evans iReport\nChicago Earthquake at 4 am/ Connected with people tweeting/ posted on iReport\nresulting in New York Times & CNN coverage--all before 9 am\n
Keep in mind all of the elements of a good story in your content - whether you are creating content or curating\nImages are a powerful way to do this\n
Social objects are the reason two people are talking to each other\nhttp://gapingvoid.com/so/\n
because of mobile a “bad picture” in real time is more valuable than a “good picture” later i.e. at my friend’s recent wedding - I put down my DSLR to take a crappy Instagram picture to share in real time on Twitter because I wanted to share it in realtime\n
Now let’s talk about some of the specific tools and when they work best\n
There are hundreds of platform choices out there ~ we know that most people stick to about 2 platforms, so find where your audience is and meet them there\ni.e. Pinterest, Goodreads, Blogger skew toward women and Slashdot, Reddit, Quora skew toward men\n\n(August 2012) Source: http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/22/social-media-demographics-stats-2012/\n
56 million Wordpress sites >> Women are 17% more likely to have a blog (& read and comment on others)\n40 plugins & 82 themes on Wordpress.org specifically created for microblogging\nComments can turn into their own microblog i.e. The Bloggess’ recent post on skanky Halloween costumes\nFairly short post - generated 418 comments - tried to take a screenshot and it crashed my browser\n
Twitter is what most people think of when they think microblogging\nPeople discover and share news on Twitter more than any other social network\nStudy shows that users are 5x more likely to share an online news story on Twitter than any other social network \n\nSource (August 2012): http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/google-plus-ghost-town_b26573\n
Engagement Trends June 2012: Most brands post during the week, Engagement is highest on the weekend\n Tweets with links have 86% higher engagement, with images have double the engagement\n Tweets with hashtags double the engagement >> Only two or you see drop in engagement\n<100 characters - easier to engage, easier to retweet (17% higher engagement)\n\nSource: http://mashable.com/2012/06/26/marketers-failing-twitter-study/\n
Demographics: 20 Billion posts/ 50 million blogs/ International Audience\nCuration doesn&#x2019;t mean it is easy - must still stay on brand and speak to your community\nBig Brands on Tumblr: IBM, Publishing Brand (Huffington Post, Boston Globe, GQ, The Today Show), Fashion brands \nWorks well for Community Driven brands as well: 92nd Street Y in NYC\n\nSource: http://big.onvab.com/2011/11/tumblr-growth-statistics-trends-users.html\nSource: http://socialfresh.com/60-brands-using-tumblr/\n
Why visual is more powerful: Evokes emotion, tells a story, easier to process\nAverage person reads 200-300 words per minute, it takes 1/20th of a second to process an image\nWho uses: College educated women 25-44 yrs old (Adult women control 80% of US consumer purchasing)\nPinterest represents 17.4% of social media revenue for e-commerce sites (Q2 2012)\nPinterest drives more referral traffic to sites across the web than Google+/YouTube/LinkedIn Combined\n\nAverage Pinterest user:\n68% women\nHousehold income of $100k+\nSpends 15.8 minutes on the site daily\n50% have kids\n25-44\n\nSource http://mashable.com/2012/02/25/pinterest-user-demographics/\nSource: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gyro/2012/06/04/5-reasons-pinterest-is-a-must-for-business-marketers/\n
Pinterest works best when you&#x2019;re promoting a lifestyle (which is often aspirational)\nThere are brands you&#x2019;ve heard of on Pinterest: Paula Deen (116k), Mashable (1.2 mil), HGTV (173k)\nBut many of the top brands are niche brands you may have never heard of:\nJane Wang - The Perfect Palette (292k), Jennifer Chong - The Beauty Department (333k), Maia McDonald - Skinnytaste (182k)\n\nSource: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-brands-are-doing-right--and-wrong--on-pinterest-2012-7?op=1\n
Instagram allows you to visually share information, & cross post across multiple social media outlets\nAlmost completely mobile\nWho uses this platform: 12% of internet users, Split pretty evenly men/women, 18-29 years old, Annual household income $75k+, College educated\n\nSource: http://heidicohen.com/use-instagram-to-unlock-the-power-of-your-brands-image/\n
Photos are powerful because they: attract attention, serve as social objects, are easily consume-able and easily share-able\nThe New York Times & Johnny Walker Scotch feature rotating guest photographers on their Instagram accounts (examples at right)\nSource: http://www.psfk.com/2012/09/johnnie-walker-instagram-social-media-campaign.html\n
Niche networks focus on a specific community and are the authority on that community\nExamples: Foodspotting (2 million downloads!), Care2 - community of cause activists,\nUntappd - social beer drinking for beer connoisseurs, Goodreads - share books you&#x2019;re reading, want to read, reviews \n