Can We Get Rid of Stupid Social Posts?

I don’t mean to keep coming back to the Boston Marathon Bombings, but another article in Digiday this past week got me thinking about meaningless social posts such as “Happy Friday” or “Our prayers are with you.”

While I understand the purpose of racking up these posts, such as joining the conversation, getting fans engaged or to show the public you are aware of major stories going in, it truly provides no value to your fans and just clutters up the online space we call social media.

I have said it before and I will say it again, fans follow brands on Facebook to either get discounts or to find sharable content that will make themselves stand out in their group of friends. All of us in the business know the leaps and bounds we have to go through to break through the clutter of all those messages out there. Needless to say, pointless posts like those mentioned above do not go toward discounts and will have no fans sharing, commenting or probably liking. Where is the engagement in that?

Perhaps these posts were the norm when social media was still coming into form. Now, simple-minded tactics like these do not work like they once did. When it comes to holidays, national tragedies, or major events in our society, do not join the conversation unless you have something valuable to share. With Boston, you should have kept quiet unless you were truly affected by the tragedy, know someone who was, or was doing something to make a difference. Same goes other talkable events.

Come one people, let’s graduate to the net level of social media strategy.

We Are the News

Two weeks ago, as we saw the full aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombings, I started thinking about the way we gather our news and how the process has evolved over the years.

As I noted in an earlier post, as soon as the bombs went off, I headed to Facebook to see what was going on. Coming from a journalism major, that is a pretty big deal. After all, I wanted live action from the people truly affected and Facebook is a great way to get it.

The opinions are unbiased, sadly something that is not always common with traditional news outlets, but more importantly, you can feel the emotion when you gather news from your friends and family. I could watch CNN for exclusive interviews from those involved, but why not get the same from the people I actually know and trust? When you think about it, it's targeted news.

All the advances with iPhones, mobile and social media have allowed the public to become our own news source. It is truly one of the great benefits our society has seen from technology over the past ten years.

I no longer have to wait for the Sun-Times to report who won the Sox game. I no longer have to wait for a phone call to hear if the girl of his dreams said yes to the big question (which happened this weekend by the way). I can get the news as soon as they share it with the world. Once again, targeted news for me when I want it.

Who needs traditional news outlets when you have your friends and social media? 

What Recent Facebook Changes Mean to Marketers

This past week, many social media goers noticed some changes to their Facebook, on mobile and on the desktop that both challenge and aid a marketer’s job in driving engagement with their fans and attracting new ones.

On mobile, Facebook now allows users to segment their newsfeed based on friends, following companies, music, games and so on. Marketers need to realize that now, no matter what non-paid tactic they implement, users have the ability to turn them off instantly. To be perfectly honest, many users will do this.

Just think of it from your perspective. I only follow brands if I have a deep interest in them (like the White Sox), if they are a good company to know about (future job possibly) or if I think I could get a discount/coupon down the road. However, no matter what, I will always want to see what my friends are up to before any company or team. This will probably never change and I can bet many people feel the same way.

On the other end of the spectrum, Facebook recently updated my account to Open Graph. It is truly amazing that I can search restaurants my friends like, games my friends are obsessed with or photos I have liked. That is incredibly targeted. In addition, you can also locate people based on their city, job or interest. The best part about it is that you don’t have to be friends with these people. Not that people put much of their professional life on Facebook, but it’s like Facebook is on the way of replacing LinkedIn.

So as any marketer can see, some change is positive and some is negative. Needless to say, like any business, Facebook is encouraging brands to spend more money on ads to better connect with their fans. However, if you have been posting engaging photos and posts that encourage your fans to act on your page, even with the segmentation, you should hopefully see little change with your analytics.

What do you think of all the changes coming out? Good or bad for us?