Good And Bad Social Media

Kit Kat – give us a break!

Makers of Kit Kat Nestlé together with agency JWT have launched an application that automates social networking updates to give people a break. Really?

The Social Break application takes over the updating of posts to social networks for a while to allow users to ‘reduce the pressure they feel of having to be so active on social media channels’.

It might give users of the app a break but what about the recipients of all updates? It goes against ‘putting your audience first’ which for me is the first rule of social media.

Clearly it’s a bit tongue in cheek and the aim is no doubt to maximise PR for Kit Kat but it’s an ill conceived idea that generates social media spam. So Kit Kat – please give us a break!

10 great examples of Facebook Timelines

Timeline for Facebook Pages has now been with us since the end of March and whilst plenty of businesses and brands have yet to tell the story of their brand and company, a good number have made the most of the new format. There’s plenty of US examples – just Google – but here are ten examples from companies, brands and organisations based in the UK:

1. Cadbury UK
2. Manchester United
3. Dove
4. The Spectator
5. Starbucks UK
6. Cath Kidston
7. Pret A Manger
8. Heinz Soup UK
9. HTC UK
10. National Trust

At my next Facebook Masterclass on Wednesday 13 June in Cheltenham you can learn how to set up the Timeline and tell the story of your business, brand or organisation. Bookings being taken now at £87 per person which includes lunch.

Great LinkedIn profile example

What better example to use for a LinkedIn profile than LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman’s? You can improve your own profile by following Reid’s example in a number of areas. Here are a few:

• His Headline of ‘Entrepreneur. Product Strategist. Investor.’ clearly displays what he is all about. Note that it’s not the same as any of his current job titles.
• He’s approaching 49 recommendations which provide a clear endorsement of his ability.
• He has a large network of over 500 connections.
• Three websites are displayed and he’s customised two of them providing a link to his charity plus details on LinkedIn vacancies. Perhaps he hasn’t customised ‘Company Website’ as it is of course LinkedIn.
• His Twitter account name is displayed which makes it easy for visitors to his profile to follow him.
• He’s customised his profile URL making it neater for use on business cards, email signature etc. You can view how to customise your URL in the #tweetthat video below:

Engaging and conversational G+ profile

A great example of how to use Google+ is artist Paul Stickland’s profile. Hat tip to @narjasinklings for spotting this one. G+ is great for showing off photos so it’s a great medium for Paul to demonstrate his artwork. In his ‘live album‘ he regularly showcases his work for comment and he gets lots of positive feedback.

Regular posts contain links to interesting artwork from not just himself and others too plus there’s links to websites and interesting photos. All presented in an informal and engaging style.

Twitter feeds dog

I’ve come across some innovative uses of Twitter such tweeting a London cab (now website and app only) and even watering a plant but this one flagged up by @anilog takes the biscuit….the dog biscuit. OK, so this isn’t business related but it does show what you can do with Twitter with a little imagination and creativity.

@natmorris has designed and built a device which enables his dog Toby to be fed via a tweet. If you tweet @feedtoby a clever device built by Nat releases food for his pooch.

Toby explains and gives a demo in the video below:

As well as being ingenious, this application demonstrates the flexibility of Twitter and will hopefully inspire others to come up with equally innovative ideas and inventions. In the context of business Twitter doesn’t have to be just about raising brand awareness and marketing. For example it can be used for internal communications and for customer services. If you are using Twitter in an innovative way for your business I’d love to hear about it.

Find out more about our Twitter marketing services and workshops.

Listening pays instant dividend

If you’ve attended one of my workshops or talks you would have heard me talk about the importance of listening, particularly when it comes to Twitter. Not in the audio sense but more in the ‘pay attention to what other people are tweeting’ sense. Perhaps monitoring could be used to describe this activity but it doesn’t seem quite the right term so ‘listening’ it is.

An example of how listening can achieve instant results comes from @adoptaword – this is the Twitter account for an ingenious campaign by Ican who help children with communication activities. The idea is that you purchase adopt a word which then belongs to you for 12 months.

In the example below it’s apparent that the charity are listening for the words ‘right words’ and they suggest that Hamish MacDonald adopts a word.

@hamishmacdonald Talking about having found the right words – why not adopting some on adoptaword.com. Try it, fun&charity at once!

— Adopt a Word (@adoptaword) April 4, 2012

Within an hour he does:

@hamishmacdonald WOW! Thx for adding a rather outstanding word to our worddiverse & even adopting it! Enjoy your further search for words… — Adopt a Word (@adoptaword) April 4, 2012

Pinterest site promotes blog and website

A great example of a Pinterest board integrating nicely with a blog and website is the www.bodieandfou.com Concept Store. Hat tip to @alex_kitch for flagging it up. The Pinterest board and blog are visual feasts with a whole range of great design, furniture, wallpaper, jewellery and print pics. The photos and scans are not just from their own blog and website but from other sites too, some of which could be considered competitors. The focus is very much on displaying beautiful content and engaging visitors rather than sales. As well as the photos, the Pinterest board re-inforces competitions on the blog with pins of the details. This encourages Pinterest visitors to visit the blog for more information and to enter.

In fact, out of numerous items on this board only one has a price displayed. Pro-tip: To display a price on Pinterest add the £ or $ sign in the description followed by the amount. The price will then be displayed on the top left of your pin.

I’m running workshops on Pinterest in May and June where I’ll demonstrate how to use Pinterest to promote your brand and products. Pinterest can provide huge benefits particularly if your product is visual eg furniture, cupcakes and fashion

Look at the Spectator’s use of Timeline

London based magazine The Spectator have taken full advantage of Facebook’s new Timeline and provide visitors and fans with an interesting and engaging experience. Thanks to @marcusinstroud for drawing it to my attention.

Here’s how they’ve used key elements of the new design:

Cover photo – has been used to display a great photo of recent issues of their product; the Spectator magazine. No added text is needed – the photo tells you all you need to know.

Profile picture – used to display the cover of the latest issue of the magazine.

Tabs – the tabs at the top beneath the cover photo have been used to display a review of Mad Men, a form for subscribing to the magazine and links to recent blog posts (although it’s s shame you have to install the Social RSS app to read them).

Tab icons – Appropriate icons have been added to each tab, the best example being the Free Issue icon which is in line with their brand and should encourage potential subscribers to click.

Timeline – The Spectator has really taken advantage of the Timeline feature itself to tell the story of the magazine. The Page admins have taken a lot of trouble to go back to the magazine’s launch and publish relevant posts and images covering the whole history of the magazine. From a scan of the original magazine in 1828 there are photos and posts relating to magazine covers, Editors and milestones over 184 years through to today.

The approach has paid off resulting in lots of interaction with 433 ‘talking about the page’ at the time of writing on 2 April 2012.

@comethelp Twitter account not so helpful

Perhaps this @comethelp Twitter profile is a fake but it’s been around for a while so if it’s not official it’s surprising it hasn’t been removed by now. The content, or rather lack of, suggests that it is a genuine account but one that’s been forgotten.

Whether an official Comet account or not it provides an good example of how a Twitter profile can create a bad impression. The main problem is lack of updates with only one tweet this year. Whilst the account it named @comethelp the lack of activity doesn’t suggest that Comet is particularly helpful.

Using Pinterest to promote products

A few UK brands are now using the exciting new social network Pinterest to promote their products. A good example is Slurp, the UK wine retailer who has pinned all its products onto 25 boards. This is helping to drive traffic to their www.slurp.co.uk website. One click on a photo or Pin enlarges it and displays sharing options then the second click takes you to their website.

I like the way that they’ve added value to the boards rather than just promote their products. For example, on the Cocktails Board as well as photos of the spirits they sell are cocktail recipes from other sites, which compliment their product perfectly.

I’m currently providing consultancy and in-house presentations on Pinterest. Please get in touch for more details.