Our Obsession with Cats Shows Facebook is Not Your Cash Cow

Facebook is not a platform to sell your services or products and this point could not have been made clearer than with a recent photo I decided to share on WOMMA’s Facebook page last week. In case you missed it, here it is.

One week later, this image has garnered 107 shares and 87 likes. Since I have been at the helm of WOMMA’s social media channel (One year), this one image has been by far the most viral and engaging post I have ever shared, paid or organic. With all these platforms giving preferential treatment to the big advertisers, that shows something.

In the end, this is why I tell everyone and their mother that the social media giant is not made for selling your product. Consumers share and interact on Facebook so they can either feel part of the crowd or because they want to show off to their friends. That is why this image generated over 100 shares. Those 107 people wanted to be the one person in their group who could say they found the next viral image. To put it likely, they wanted to show off.

And who could blame them? With the rise of Grumpy Cat (if you haven’t heard of him, just check out any SXSW recap and he will undoubtedly be mentioned) and numerous other cat videos, why not connect our obsession for being socially connected with this feline?

Compare this post to any other WOMMA post related to the blog, an event, or even thoughtful images that link back to the blog and the engagement doesn’t even compare.

People do not go on Facebook to see what brands they like are doing to make money. Consumers go on Facebook to see what their friends and family are doing. If they happen to see something posted by a brand that would resonate well with their group of friends, they will share it.

So the next time you decide to share a link to your event page, think again. 

Klout Announced for Businesses: So What?

Two weeks ago, Klout, the online influencer platform, announced that they are rolling out their services for brands. Despite the announcement, which to be honest, got the exact publicity it deserved, brands shouldn’t put much thought into the change.

For those of you unfamiliar with Klout, the platform gives users (and now brands), a Klout score from zero to 100 based on their ability to spread messages across social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and so on. Klout also identifies users as “influential” on certain topics like technology and marketing.

The idea for brands to start using Klout is to help then identify these influential users and hopefully encourage them to spread the brand’s news, essentially, creating an advocate. 

According to their website, “the science behind the score examines more than 400 variables on multiple networks beyond your number of followers and friends. It looks at who is engaging with our content and who they are sharing it with.”

I give Klout credit for at least mentioning that the score has much to do beyond the numbers of likes and followers. To be honest, if it didn’t have that one line, I am guessing half as many users would be on the network. However, to me that is just not enough.

Let’s say I am the word of mouth marketing master of the world, but maybe, I don’t like Twitter. I choose to only spread my voice offline or with news articles on LinkedIn. Given the fact that I don’t share everything online or with a few of the major networks on there, my Klout score might be lower than expected. See something wrong?

The other issue I have with Klout is the fact that our entire society feels the need to attach a numeric value to everything we do. It’s sad enough that CMOs and Presidents still like to concentrate on the number of likes, followers, and pins, but now, some want to just put an overall number on their social media marketing. In the real world of marketing, companies and marketers do not do this. Ask any real thought leader in the marketing arena and I guarantee they put little if any thought into one’s Klout score.

Brands looking to find influencers don’t need a system like Klout. They need only the same tactic that has worked for hundreds of years and will continue to do so in the future. Build relationships with your fans. Listen to your fans. Find out what they like to read and then guess what? Read the same and garner a relationship with those writers. Instead of looking at Klout, look at your advocates.

There is no need to research influencers on platforms like Klout. Just ask the people who really know your brand. 

Turning the Unsexy into Sexy

There are many brands out there who will just say “people don’t care about talking to our company and as long as our products work, we are fine.” In translation, they are saying “we don’t care about social media because our product is unsexy and why waste our time."

One brand that refuses to buy into this losing behavior is Tide. Yes, I said Tide, the laundry detergent. Despite being a staple in households around the world, Tide is taking the home care brands to cleaners (well, maybe not the cleaners) when it comes to social media engagement. As my friends at Unmetric noted last week here, Tide has increased their Twitter followers by 43.5% in the last two months. Second on the list was Purex at 29.7%.

However, as any semi-educated social media professional knows, those Like and Follower numbers mean very little if people are not interacting with your content. Well, Tide understands that. Over 50% of their tweets are replies to their fans. That, my friends, is a product not caring about selling, but pleasing their fans.

The next question that should fall off your tongue is how do they scale it? As a big brand like Tide, how long does it take to respond to their fans? Tide cleans it up.

Tide is able to respond to about 60% of their tweets within 15 minutes. When the shelf life of a tweet is four minutes, that response time moves up in significance. Widening the gap, they respond to 80% within one hour. Whether it’s a premium listening program or a massive social team, they make it happen.

So what does this all mean? Does any of this activity lead to additional sales?

To be honest, we outside of Tide headquarters will never know. But let’s ask an obvious question. If it wasn’t, would they keep investing so much time into it? My answer is a resounding NO.

Unsexy does not give brands the excuse to back off online engagement. Unsexy does not give brands the excuse to not look into new ways of encouraging fans to spread their message. Unsexy brands, just like unsexy clothes, have the ability to turn their reputation around. All you need is a little bit of creativity and devotion to get the job done.

And yes, I made that reference with laundry. You can tell it is not my strong suit.

Facebook’s Relaxes Cover Photo Rules

As my loyal fans read on Tuesday, Facebook has been busy changing things up on the biggest social network out there. But some of the changes that didn’t get the recognition it deserved were the changes made to the cover photo.

Up until this month, users had many restrictions when it came to the most dominant image on your page. Some of those restrictions included:

• Images with more than 20% text
• Price or purchase information, such as “40% off”
• Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section
• References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features
• Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

Now, all but one of these rules magically disappeared fromthe Facebook manifesto. The only restriction that remains is the first one; no cover photo may contain over 20% text.

Let’s ignore the fact that Facebook failed to announce these changes (rumors are they went into effect as early as March 6) and discuss what it means or does not mean for marketers.

Facebook is listening to the people who help drive up that stock price. Marketers know the ads platform is anything but perfect, yet many of us still spend the dough. Add in that fact that Facebook is almost always changing the Edgerank algorithm and you have some pretty pissed off consumers waiting to spend some cash.

Throwing us a bone, Facebook decided to give up the most dominant visual on every personal and professional Facebook page. This gives marketers more power and leeway to sell their brand. But should we use it?

I will say it now and say it again; Facebook is not a platform for selling, ANYTHING. It is a platform for cultivating and enhancing your relationships with your fans. Look at any brand page and the posts, images and videos that get the most action are the ones that have very little to do with the brand itself. The posts that get the most engagement are those involving actions that are encouraging and entertaining after sharing it with your friends. It’s the visual masterpieces that we all like to show off. It’s the videos that have people think “WTF was that person thinking.” It’s the poll questions we all can’t wait to shout at the top of the mountain. It’s the stuff brands don’t really care about, but do to show that they care about their Facebook fans.

Next week, I am going to prove this point even further as I look at one of the most popular organic Facebook posts in WOMMA history, but in the meantime, readers of this blog should realize that despite removing these restrictions on Facebook cover photos, marketers should change NOTHING. Do not sell to your Facebook fans. The most effective calls to actions are still useless if you are showing them to an uninterested audience. Chances are, your Facebook fans don’t really care about your product or service. They only follow you for the next deal or the next great Gangnam style video they can share.

Despite the removal of these Facebook cover photo rule, do not change your Facebook marketing strategy. 

Simplicity

I was browsing the internet last week and came across a video interview with Ken Segall, author of Insanely Simple: The Obsessions that Drive Apple’s Success. While simple in nature, Segall, who had numerous interviews with Steve Jobs, talks how it’s not just your products and services that have to be simple, but the idea must be ingrained in your employees as well.

Before I go further, take a glance at the video.

The reason I want to talk about this is because I think any business, whether in marketing, accounting, retail or whatever, can take valuable lessons from Segall.

Keep things simple. We all know we should do it, but chances are, many don’t. Just look at an IKEA manual some time and you will see my point. Apple, on the other hand, despite being involved in one of the most innovative industries out there, never makes a product complicated or difficult to use. This idea of simplicity went as high as Steve Jobs and as low as their igeniuses in stores across the world. If the product isn’t simple to them, how would it be simple for their consumers?

In the video above, Segall referenced an image that really demonstrates how Apple stands out from the rest.

Why add more options when you could simplify things with fewer buttons? Why make your consumers work harder to use your products? If you, the company, works harder at designing and integrating your products into everyday life, that means less work for your consumers. If the idea of simplicity is ingrained in the company culture, that mindset will spread from the workers onto the fans.

Make your products easy to understand and easy to use. Make sure complexity is never a word someone would use to describe your product. Make sure your employees understand that making your products and/or service as simple as possible is as relevant as selling the brand itself. Do this, and who knows? Maybe Apple could actually have some competition.

Video source:iStrategy

What the Facebook Changes Mean to Marketers

Zuckerberg and the Facebook team are at it again, making he lives of consumers and marketers more engaging, hectic and controversial all at the same time.

A couple of weeks ago, Facebook announced that they will be completely revamping the news feed. To no surprise, they will be making the biggest social media platform more visual. To all those people who say imagery isn’t important, it’s about time you get on the winning team.

Another change that proves imagery is gaining significance is that when a friend likes a page, the news feed story will be bigger, pulling in the page’s cover photo and profile photo. Essentially, the actions of friends now play a more prominent role in what users see and what they don’t.

 But perhaps the biggest change that will occur, and likely piss off marketers, is that users will be able to choose different feeds ranging from the entire news feed, all friends, most recent, music, photos, games, following and close friends. Right away, marketers should take notice that now instead of unfollowing your brand, consumers can just hide you and you would never know.

However, there are also rumors that Facebook may get rid of the “unlike” function, something brands should be happy about.

So what does this mean for us?

It means that marketers need to come to realization that your Facebook marketing needs to have a purpose and that purpose does not revolve around sales. As I said yesterday, consumers are getting smarter every day. Even without hiding you, the second they smell a sales pitch coming on, they ignore you. With these new changes, they may not only ignore you, but take you off their screen completely. See why the lives of marketers are about to get tougher?

Therefore, we advocacy seekers need to find new ways to break through the clutter of baby pictures or viral videos to connect with our fans. Sharing a link to your blog will not cut it. Sharing images that encourage your fans to share will take priority. Sharing poll questions and answers to relevant news they care about must be done. Research on your following just moved up the totem pole.

Most importantly, strategy must take a front row seat to your Facebook marketing. If it doesn’t, you might as well say good bye to your fans.

Image source: HubSpot

3 Marketing Lessons from the NCAA Tournament

Like many others, this is my favorite time of the year. Gambling, basketball, upsets, TV and sports take over our lives during the NCAA tournament. Whether it is a Cinderella story like George Mason or the thrilling endings like Duke and Butler, there is very little to dislike. Sounds to me marketers should want their consumers to think the same way.

Its unpredictability, excitement, passion and joy are all reasons why marketers should treat their companies like the NCAA tournament. Doing so would bring out those influential advocates we all desire and need to succeed.

Below are my three lesson marketers should take from the NCAA tournament:

1. Expect the Unexpected

Perhaps the greatest asset the NCAA tournament has going for them is that the unexpected is expected. Up until a few years ago, the four No. 1 seeds never made it to the Final Four in the same year. Teams like George Mason, Iowa State and Butler were never even considered to get by their first opponent, but ended up making it as far as the finals. This year is no exception as Florida Gulf Coast took out No. 2 seed Georgetown in the first round. This is what makes the NCAA tournament so exciting and brands need to take notice. Disrupt the schema. Give your fans something new here and there (the unexpected), but make sure they expect it. This will keep them on their toes and when it does happen, that means you have confirmed their expectations for your brand and will continue to follow you. Instead of sending an email, send a postcard. Instead of a thank you card, send a salsa band to their house. Make them expect the unexpected.

2. Demonstrate Your Passion

We all love seeing the players dive in the stands, the coaches going off on their players or the fans cover their faces after that miracle 3-pointer. These athletes, coaches and fans would die for their teams. They love their sport, their brand, their players or their teams. The passion is not hidden behind cameras or locker rooms. It is all right there on their shirts. Brands can do the same. If you truly believe in your company’s values and ideas, let everyone know it. My roommate is a perfect example. David works for Verizon and whenever he has the chance to talk cellphone providers, he takes it because he truly believes Verizon is the best out there. Even if he had the chance to move to AT&T for more money, he wouldn’t consider it because he feels it is an inferior product. If you believe this much in your brand, show it off. If you aren’t passionate about your brand, how do you expect others to be?

3. Don’t Sell Too Much

Consumers are getting smarter by the day. The second they sniff out a sales pitch coming on, they turn you off. That is one of the many reasons content marketing has come on these past two years. The NCAA (keep in mind, they make billions on this tournament) doesn’t feel the need to sell their fans on tickets, schools or promotion (well, not too much) because they know people don’t want to hear it. All brands need to sell at one point or another, but when your fans come to expect it, they turn you off. The NCAA knows tournament time is not the time to sell because it would ruin what is already one of the best experiences they produce. Brands need to follow suit. There is always a place and a time to bring out the sales team. Chances are, they need to take a seat on the bench more often than you think.