Archive for the ‘Twitter Advice’ Category

 

Performing Your Due Diligence on Social Media

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

In the digital age, many professionals conduct a portion of their due diligence on social media.

 +Companies research clients.

+Clients research companies.

+Employers look up employee candidates.

+Candidates read up on potential employers.

Here are a few tips to help determine which social media accounts and profiles have a genuine presence and following…and which do not.

Facebook Fakers

No company wants to have 13 straggling followers on their Facebook page, making their brand look unimpressive, limp and lifeless.

A simple fix? Buy ‘likes’!

Yes, many have chosen to simply purchase ‘likes’ to give the appearance of an actual following. In other words, they’re cheating.

The simple way to tell a cheating brand from a genuine one is to look at overall engagement and ask “is the engagement proportional to the size of the following?”

If no, there are two possible reasons: poor content that is not attractive and tailored to the brands following, or they have no actual following.

Twitter Cheaters

Much like Facebook, Twitter cheaters lack actual engagment.

I recall seeing a small ad executive’s pitch for services at a stuffy (and borning meeting). I sensed  the guy was full of hot air and checked out his company’s Twitter account. Over 25,000 followers and when I looked over the alleged followers, most of them had sent no tweets and still had the egg-head default profile picture Twitter automatically assigns.

Tip: If you’re checking out a company or individual, visit Status People, a site that analyses the percentage of genuine and fake Twitter followers on any given Twitter account.

Quick Disclaimer

Just be mindful that not all users with large followings are cheaters. From Mashable:

“People with large real Twitter followings, from celebrities to activists like Yoani Sanchez, are made to look guilty when they are in fact innocent. Fake followers created for sale to impostors like Santiago Swallow follow real users in an attempt to outwit Twitter’s generally very effective spam management systems. The more followers you have, the more likely it is that a fake follower will follow you. By trying to inflate themselves with the electronic equivalent of silicon implants, fakers make the system noisy for everyone.”

Social Media Techniques for Creative Types

Tuesday, November 13th, 2012

Social media shouldn’t be a drudgery–at its core, it’s communicating creatively. And that’s exactly what creative people do.

For artists of every medium, hue, and palatte, social media provides a challenge: shall I write/sculpt/sing/dance/teach/paint or should I hop on the computer and crank out some Facebook and Twitter posts?

Social media can certainly be quite overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.

Here’s the traditional approach to building your platform online:

Write blog posts.
Share blog posts on Twitter.
Share blog posts on Facebook.
Share blog posts on                             .
Reply to comments on your own blog.
Comment on other people’s blogs to build relationship.
Find and add more like-minded Twitter followers.
Find other content to share to build relationship.
Share that content.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to write/sculpt/sing/dance/teach/paint. As with any creative endeavor, we need a roadmap. We need social media management techniques for artists so we can do what we love to do: create and share our creative work.

Hootsuite

HootSuite takes the ‘crazy’ out of updating multiple social media accounts. One status update is typed and is easily shared with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn… you name it.  

As an added bonus, updates can be scheduled in advance.

What does this mean for you?

Take ten minutes in the morning, schedule your social media updates for the day, then go create.

HootSuite does the work for you.

In less than ten minutes, this simple how-to video walks you through setting up a HootSuite account, connecting your various social media accounts to your Hootsuite account, and beginning to use it.

Buffer

Buffer is a tool which allows you to schedule updates on various social media platforms at specific times. It’s simple and it’s free!

Here’s a video introduction to Buffer if you’d like to give it a go.

Google Reader

Found a blog you like? Want to visit that blog more regularly? Would your own readers and/or followers find the content helpful?

Set up a Google Reader account and add your favorite blogs to that reader.

On many blogs there’s a ‘subscribe’ button or an RSS icon.

By clicking on that icon on the blogs you like, you’ll open a window that will enable you to subscribe to that blog.

Think of Google Reader as a folder of your favorite blogs and content sites.

Then go to this ‘folder’ for…

+Creative inspiration from those you respect.
+Content to share with your readers (remember to share the content of others, not just your own content).
Social media sanity.

Google Reader keeps you organized so you can spend more time doing what you love: creating.

By using just one or two of the tips above you’ll streamline your social media efforts, enjoy more time doing the things you love, and share your creativity with others who can benefit from your work.