Kicking the Social Media Habit (at least one of them)

It’s been a while since I did a blog post, lots of stuff going on, but Facebook is top of mind.  Or should I say ‘bottom of mind’.  I have had a love hate relationship with Facebook for the better part of the last two years.  I could write a novel about what it’s like to interact with Facebook as a marketer, but that’s not what this post is about.  This post is about my relationship with Facebook as a user.

As the world’s largest social network Facebook gets a lot of press.  There was a recent article in Business Insider that talked about how Facebook was being crushed under its own weight.  The basic premise is that Facebook wants more sharing and more connections but as more connections are made and more items are shared it becomes impossible for a user to consumer everything.  That’s where Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm comes in.  It takes your behavior on Facebook and predicts what it should show you.  The problem is that the algorithm sucks.  How do I know this?  My wife’s posts don’t show up in my feed.  I am mostly a lurker and a creater on Facebook, I don’t engage often.  And because I don’t engage, or post on my wife’s wall or any of the other things Edgerank wants me to do, I don’t see her posts.

Over the last couple of years I’ve waxed and waned on how frequently I use Facebook.  Do I friend everyone and comment on everything?  Do I limit to people I speak with on a frequent basis?  How do I decide whose friend requests I’ll accept?  Currently, I delete ‘friends’ anytime their birthday comes around and I don’t feel compelled to wish them a happy birthday.  After all, if I can’t be bothered to take the time out of my day to write ‘hbd’ on someone’s wall are they really my friend?

What about the conversations that take place on Facebook?  My brother would argue that social media gives a megaphone to the uneducated and uninformed in a way like never before seen.  If you are wondering what he’s talking about take a look at the comments section on any Yahoo! or CNN story, you’ll get it.  The counter-argument to this is that social media has allowed more sharing of informed and well educated opinion. The problem is the average person doesn’t know the difference and this can cause confusion and arguments.  People are more willing to say things on Facebook than they would in person.  I’ve lost friends over Facebook arguments, how stupid.

The time spent on social media is incredible and eats into real life.  I spend all day on social sites for my job and then I come home and check social and continue personal use.  This leads to a lot of ‘phone checking at the dinner table’ behavior that just isn’t good for living in the moment.  That’s why I decided to delete the Facebook app from my phone.  Facebook is addicting, no doubt about it.  I would check my Facebook app 10-15 times a night just to see that little red icon showing I had a new alert.  So I cut the cord (much like I did with cable, blog post on that coming soon) and the results have been astounding.  The first things I’ve noticed is that I don’t grab for my phone often anymore, it stays in my pocket.  Not only that but when I do open my computer and see Facebook I’ve noticed that I have so many notifications that I just don’t even check them.  I don’t really respond to people who write to me, I don’t care who liked my post.  Frankly, I’m free.

I may never be able to get rid of Facebook entirely because my job requires that I understand how it works, what the updates are and how people use it.  But for now, at least I can say that it doesn’t rule my life anymore.  And I can actually say I really don’t like Facebook, I didn’t like what it did to me, I don’t like how it allows people to behave, it’s uninteresting, uninformative, and a waste of my time.  Sure, I’ll be there, and I’ll chat with you and I’ll share foursquare check-ins, or Instagrams, or the occasional interesting article, but for the most part you can find me on Twitter…my next social media addiction.

Dollar Shave Club

I promised to do some quick reviews of the three ‘monthly box’ subscriptions I just signed up for.  To re-cap I am now a member of Five Four Men’s clothing, Birch Box Men’s and the Dollar Shave Club.

The Dollar shave club box came first.  It came in a very small package containing the Razor handle, my razors and a welcome note.

I was impressed with how quickly the package came.  It is the only membership I am a part of that is not on a shipping schedule.  What this means is that members get their items at all different times.  If I order mine on the 15th of a month I’ll always get the blades on the 20th.  Other clubs basically make you wait until the next round of shipments.  I understand the simplification of that method but I enjoy the customization that the Dollar Shave Club method imparts.

So, how were the blades?  I got the 4 blade razor set.  I noticed right away that the first shave was much easier on my face that the Fusion blades I had been using.  I had about 6 days worth of stuble on my face and the new razors took one quick swipe to get rid of all that hair, something that would have taken 2 or 3 swipes for the Fusion blade.  I also noticed that the blade cleaned easier.  A quick rinse in the water and the hairs were gone, unlike the Fusion blade that made me bang it on the sink a few times and rise a few times between swipes on my face. 

The other concern I had was how long the blades would last.  The big issue I have is that I am dependent on the moisture strip on my blades. My face, like most guys, is sensitive so when the moisture strip runs out it’s time to trash the blade.  So far I’ve gotten in two shaves and the blade still has the moisture strip fully in tact. 

All in all I think I’ll get about 2 or 3 weeks worth of great shaves out of these blades which means I’ll likely most to the ‘every other month’ plan which will cost me $36 a year.  That is a HUGE difference compared to the $100’s I was paying for the Fusion blades.  I’ve even got 3 friends to join the club based on my recommendations as well. I highly recommend giving it a try!

https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/ref/n1pg/9C40EBA3888BA7/s/tw/cx/1/

Apple’s Jony Ive Said To Be Bringing The Flat Design Fad To iOS 7 With Visual Overhaul

A welcome Change

The Monthly Subscription Box Thing

Monthly subscription boxes are definitely a thing…I think they have been for a while.  I’m not really sure if they are on the up-swing or if they are some declining fad, but whatever the case may be, I’ve decided to join the party.

Don’t know what I’m talking about?  The basic concept is this: You need to buy products but don’t like to go shopping, monthly subscription boxes can take that part out of the equation.  You can sign up to have beauty products sent to you monthly, clothes sent to you monthly even shaving razors sent to you monthly.  There’s a ton of options: http://5stylehigh.com/directory-of-stuff/subscription-box-directory/mens-subscription-boxes/

Long story short, I’ve decided to sign up for three of these services:Dollar Shave Club – http://www.dollarshaveclub.com , Five Four Club – http://www.fivefourclothing.com , and Birch Box Men – http://www.birchbox.com/men/

I’ll post updates as I start to receive my packages.  Hopefully this experiment will result in collecting some cool new gear I might not have otherwise purchased…

The GM/Facebook story proves that content is still king

It seems like Facebook’s IPO has been in the news more than the presidential election.  People are excited and therefore you get both sides of the aisle chiming in, the bears and the bulls.  The one story that is getting a lot of attention lately is GM’s “pulling” of their Facebook ads.  The story says that GM was not seeing the click through rate they were looking for so they dropped their spend.  That’s fine, if it doesn’t work for you then you are right to pull your ads.  The problem is that this has creating a Chicken Little scenario for Facebook advertisers and I don’t think it warranted.

The real problem with advertising on Facebook is that brands assume the ads are a magic bullet.  Facebook is the ‘big man on campus’ in social so brands think that if they put an ad in the right column of the page it will guarantee clicks or impressions or sales.  Let’s be clear, this is a social network and your ads need to be engaging to deserve clicks.  The point of Facebook and Twitter etc. is to connect with the consumer, engage with them, give them something interesting, new, and unique, not just stick a banner ad in their newsfeed.  I call this practice social bill-boarding and its bad marketing.  Take a look at Ford’s reaction:

The fact is I don’t know what GM’s Facebook ads looked like, I didn’t see them. I have no idea if they were engaging or how they defined success.  What I do know is that brands have been complaining that click through rates only average at .05%, which is much lower than Google etc.  What that tells me is that their ads are not being optimized well.  I’ve seen brands pulling closer to .3% click through rate so why is there such a disconnect?  It’s the content, content is king.  You need to use good copy, have a clear and actionable call to action, use good images and above all be engaging.

We’re all waiting to see what happens when the IPO does finally arrive.  Then we’ll see if all of this talk and complaining about the Facebook ad platform has any effect on the stock price.  Either way it’s likely most brands will continue to advertise with Facebook, but maybe, just maybe if enough brands drop their Facebook ads it will make things cheaper for the brands I work with.  And I’m OK with that.

Can we agree to market more responsibly on Twitter?

Twitter is a great tool.  You can share your thoughts with friends, peers, or colleagues.  You can follow inspirational figures, leaders, celebrities and hear their thoughts and ideas.  You can find great content, photos, videos, jokes, articles and more.  It breaks news, often times faster than traditional media can.  It’s no wonder that marketers have grown to love Twitter as a way to get their brand message out and connect with consumers.

Twitter loves that brands love Twitter…still with me on that?  They love brands so much that they let brands buy tweet placement.  You’ve undoubtedly have seen a promoted trend, or a promoted tweet.  If not you can recognize them by their promoted symbol.

The way that a promoted tweet works is that a company can bid on a keyword.  Lets say for example McDonalds wants to promoted a tweet about the McRib.  They will bid on the word McRib so that if someone searches McRib in Twitter their tweet is pinned to the top and gets the most exposure, even if it wasn’t a recent tweet.  Great concept right?

Marketers have decided that one of the best ways to gain exposure is to bid on keywords in the trending topics list.  After all, if a topic is trending it’s more likely to be clicked (and searched) and therefore your brand message can gain even more exposure.  It’s a great idea, but this means that brands have to watch for trends that make sense for their brand message.  If you don’t then you end up like Harpers Children who bid on the word ‘Facebook’:

But is that really a bad thing?  Sure some people searched for Facebook or clicked on the trend and got confused about why they saw that tweet, but all in all it’s pretty harmless.  But what about trends that may not seem so ‘brand friendly’?

Take this example from American Family Insurance who found themselves bidding on “Happy 420”:

Or State Farm who found themselves bidding for #gaypopstarproblems:

That’s the danger in automatically bidding on trending terms on Twitter, it’s not screened or censored.  This is the kind of thing that really bugs me as a marketer.  The beauty of social is that it’s real time and it’s personal and I don’t agree with brands that automate this kind of campaign, it leaves too much to chance.  Don’t get me wrong, maybe this has been very effective for these brands.  Maybe the benefits out-weigh the potential embarrassment.  All I know is that for me, it’s not the way I choose to buy media on Twitter.  I’ll just continue to enjoy and laugh at the examples like these that I stumble upon every day.

Your Twitter team lost you my buisness…or did they?

Customer service is a very important part of brand experience.  You go to the store, you browse some products, a person working at the store asks if they can help you and it goes on from there.  Since the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter, brand experience and also customer experience has started to unfold in the social space as well.  Brands ‘listen’ to their customers online and can reach out to them personally.

Listening to the consumer in the social space (most easily done via Twitter, in my humble opinion) can be very advantageous for a brand.  A consumer might have a bad experience that is not shared directly with the brand but instead with the consumer’s social graph.  That’s a great opportunity for brands to listen and correct those negative experiences.

I experienced this from the consumer side two weeks ago.  On Wednesday I called my current insurance provider, Geico, to add an insurance policy for a piece of jewelry.  I got the quote, was happy with it and was told I would need to fax in an appraisal for the item and wait for a call back. Here is the timeline of what happened:

Thursday – Faxed in appraisal, no call back

Friday through Sunday – no call back

Monday – Exchanged tweets with Geico

Tuesday – Gave Geico account info to help them resolve

On Tuesday afternoon, after still no word, I was upset enough to call another insurance company and switched all of my policies.  Sorry, Geico, but you let me down, and you were easily replaced.

This got me thinking.  Who is to blame for losing me as a customer?  Is it the person who talked to me on Wednesday and never called me back?  I could argue that I should never have had to complain about bad service in the first place, but that is rarely the reality.  Or is the person manning the Twitter handle that was entirely unhelpful to blame?  Maybe I share the blame for having an unrealistic expectation of how well Geico handles ‘social care’ and should have called or complained on the website or a more mainstream channel.  But that’s my point, I should be able to choose my point of entry.

The fact is customer service needs to be ubiquitous and good at everyone point of contact.  If a consumer wants to get serviced by your company in the store, on your website or on Twitter it shouldn’t matter.  We the consumer chooses the medium by which we want to do business; brands need to be ready for that reality.

And we’re off….

OK – I’m in, I’m going to blog.

I’ve always maintained a social presence both personally and for my employers but personal blogging has always been uncharted territory for me.   I can’t really explain why I haven’t jumped in yet, I’ve always sort of wanted to. I’ve maintained a list of blog post ideas but never actually written one, who does that?   Here’s my chance…

So, who the hell am I and what do I have to say?  First, check my bio, that should give you the 10k foot view of the present.  The long of it is that I’ve been in the Social Media business for over 2 years, always on the client side.  I’ve seen numerous tactics and strategies in the industry, some good, some great, some terrible.  I’ve worked with countless vendors and agency partners, again seeing great or terrible products and tools.  I’ve seen evolution of the social media craft, a lot of successes and a lot more failures.  I have opinions to share and although I think they are calculated I’m sure they will be challenged…but that’s sort of the point of blogging, right?

So there is my spiel.  I plan to talk about what I see.  Challenge me and I will challenge you, hopefully we will all benefit.