Top five Social Media Gripes

I have witnessed some monumentally bad social media practice this week to the point of being fed up with social media altogether. I’ve seen so many self-professed “experts” making fundamental errors and it’s driving me up the wall.

So I thought I’d indulge in some catharsis by coming up with my top five gripes and then I can get back to loving it again:

1. Person or PR machine? We can all see through it, so please get real. Trying to counteract a complaint by simply farming out a positive news story is ignoring the issue and is a wasted opportunity to turn the negative feelings round. It’s a distraction technique: poor communications, poor customer service and an enormously patronising approach. Please engage with your customers and deal with the problem. Or you’ll lose them.
2. Delivering the party line rather than engaging in discussion. Earlier this week I witnessed a fascinating group discussion on Facebook as part of a membership-based organisation. It was developing nicely in an interesting, informative, helpful and supportive way – only to be immediately cut short by someone feeling that the organisation had to state its policy on the matter. The organisation contradicted the opinions of all the contributors and effectively said “I don’t care what you say; discussion closed”. Rather than thinking that the discussion raised some interesting points that could be brought up in the next committee meeting, the approach was not to listen, just to broadcast (my pet hate). In fact it looked very much like they didn’t read any of the preceding comments and simply responded to the original poster. It was very damaging to the relationship between the organisation and its members.
3. Misguided use of facts. A report is published showing how your organisation has made considerable progress in a certain area. Wonderful! And it is backed up by some delightful stats. Hooray! But that does not necessarily make it a good statistic to be broadcast publicly. Remember, if your customer complaints drop from 1000 to 900 in a year, you are still getting 900 complaints. Well done on the progress made, but it’s not going to impress your stakeholders or potential customers. Search for the things that will make people proud to be associated with you and watch the “likes” increase. If you’re looking to build engagement, consider keeping the less convincing stats for your internal newsletter and give your supporters something that won’t make them roll their eyes.
4. One size fits all. Yes it is great to have a social media management tool such as Hootsuite to make light work of social media comms, but each site you use has a different audience and therefore you should adopt different styles and use different content across the range of social media sites. I would not communicate the same way to my LinkedIn group (largely interested in professional development and networking) as I do with my Facebook or Twitter followers (keen on the good news stories, photos and nostalgia). Tailor your messages to get better levels of engagement.
5. Unloved blogs. *takes long hard look at self*. Yes I am the culprit here. I spend so much of my working day using and monitoring social media channels that, come the end of the day, I just want to switch my computer off and pretend social media doesn’t exist. Running four very different Twitter feeds and three Facebook pages (and more) takes a lot of work and imagination to keep things fresh. So blogging about my professional life during the evening would not sit well with my determination to strike a good work/life balance. To help overcome these empty spells, planning is the key. Look at the points in the year when you know certain topics will crop up (in alumni relations these include graduation, DLHE, NSS, annual events, telephone campaign etc.). I sketch these out in the calendar with a view to generating content around these themes so I am prepared when ideas dry up. I must now take this approach with my own blog. While I’ll still cover issues as they arise, I can always pencil ideas in for further down the line. I really must do better!

Social Media at work: tips for the (new) professional

I respect those that have distanced themselves from Social Media over the years. They’ve probably got more time for other interests, witness less vitriol in their daily lives and still have lots to catch up on when they meet up with their friends (yes *actual* friends).

Sadly for these Twinkedbook-sceptics, for various reasons many are being dragged along to the Social Media party. They’re late. And everyone here is already half-cut. Worse still, some are being expected to become “Social Media Professionals” with no experience whatsoever; told to run their company Twitter account because “there’s nobody else to do it”.

And then there are those whose personal Facebook or Twitter accounts are deemed a sufficient qualifications for being given the responsibility of running their organisation’s Social Media strategy. But the step from personal to professional posting is not that straightforward.

The world is full of people that claim to be experts in this field, but the truth is we are all learning, all the time. I have learned an awful lot in doing this as part of my job for over the last four years – although I certainly wouldn’t call myself an expert. So for those who are new to this Social Media world, and those who are now using it in a different way, I offer some tips that might just help for starters.

Respond

Consider your Social Media channels to be a virtual front desk. When people come in, acknowledge them, answer their questions, and do so in the same way you would if there was a queue of them that can overhear you. Don’t be afraid to have a personality, but remember you are representing your company. Strike a balance. If people complain, don’t ignore them – respond publicly so that people can see your exceptional customer service.

Encourage responses

Social Media is not a broadcasting tool. It is not a webpage for feeding customers with marketing messages. You have to try and get people to interact with you. Whether this is by liking your post, sharing it, retweeting or making a comment: get a response. Consider what your customers will like, ask questions, give them useful information, make them laugh, inspire them.

Facebook posts

Facebook is quite clever. Very few people visit actual Facebook pages once they’ve ‘liked’ them – they rely on the news feed. Different types of post will be given different priority in the news feed of your fans. If you post a video, it is more likely to appear on your customers’ news feeds than a line of text. In fact the pecking order here is: 1) video, 2) photo, 3) link, 4) short line of text, 5) lots of text. So aim for photos and videos where you can. You’re more likely to get seen and liked.

As the owner of a Facebook page, you are given very useful data, called Facebook Insights. On your page, click on the graph. It’ll bring up stats on how many people saw each post, how many clicked on it, shared it, liked it etc. You can keep an eye on the most effective posts.

LinkedIn groups

Again – not a broadcast mechanism, but a networking site. Your job is to facilitate online networking. Ask questions that people will be interested in answering. Stimulate discussions. Don’t just post the latest news from your organisation. Keep a list of potential discussion topics to use if/when the group goes quiet.

Twitter

Don’t post a series of tweets, one after the other, at the start of the day and then leave it. This is bulk posting. The same people will see your tweets each day, but if there are lots in a row, they’ll skim over them. And you’re missing a huge audience that might prefer to check Twitter on their lunch break or on the way home from work. Mix it up!

Timings

To maximise the number of people seeing your posts, choose the timing carefully. Take a look at this infographic for some useful tips: http://pinterest.com/pin/112941903127940036/ (via @katharinebeery).

Google+

This particular party is likely to get going later on. Set up a basic page for now and we’ll come back to this…

There are obviously other sites but I’ve focused on those that are most commonly used in my particular field at the moment.