Likeable Social Media | Book Review

The author is the co-founder, along with his wife Carrie, of Likeable Media. Likeable Media is a social media marketing firm based in New York City. The book is an easy read. 256 pages broken down in 18 chapters. Each chapter title quickly states instructions of how to create likeable social media and further reading teaches how to produce successful social media strategies. This book also gives examples different companies took and the success and failures they experienced in social media.

Basically, the general theme of this book is to listen your fan base and customers, to get an idea of what their interests are and what they are looking for, and basically doing the things that will make you likable.

So far I’ve enjoyed reading this book. I’ve found it does a good job providing the basics that has helped me get a better understanding of social media. I also enjoy how the author talks about how to deal with negative comments. There is a whole section on handling negative comments instead of ignoring or deleting them as some other company’s do. The author does a good job allowing the reader to view social media through the eye of the consumer.

-- Scott Ingle

Found It

Who hates losing things? I know I do, especially where you are in a hurry trying to get out the door and you can’t seem to find your keys, and you know that they’re just within feet of you, but you just can’t seem to find them. You start wishing you had some sort of super-hero power and that you are able to see that they have fallen down between the pillows of the couch cushions. Well, Nick Evans and Mike Farley may have found a solution, and no, it’s not the ‘secretes’ for getting super-hero vision or knowledge, but they have come up a product that has a tag line of “the world’s largest lost and found”, they call it Tile™.   It is a very small device about the size of a silver dollar, but square. It can be attached to items that you might lose, and use the Tile™ iOS application to be found. Tile™ uses Bluetooth radio connection and the app discovers it, and use the service to update the location of that Tile™. So, if your laptop is misplaced, and it has a Tile™ attached to it, you open the iOS app and it will show where it is at. It tells you are getting warmer, and Tile™ even has a built in speaker to sound off a ring tone for an easier find. The disadvantage is that the Bluetooth only works in a range of 100 feet. BUT WAIT! There is a solution for that. As each person becomes a member of Tile™, they become part of the Tile™ community. Then whenever they are in range of a missing Tile™, it will send an anonymous update of that Tile’s location into the system, forwarding the information to the Tile’s owner. They call this the “Community Find” feature.  As the community grows and more people become members, the easier things will be to find.  Tile™ the world’s largest lost and found.

 http://www.theTile™   app.com/#this-is-Tile™    

by-Jason Kennedy

Don't 'poke' me

Social media is killing us. Just kidding. But it is completely changing the way we socially interact with others. Friends on Facebook are completely different from friends in real life. An article from Forbes talks about authenticity vs superficiality, and on Facebook, everything is superficial. This however is a trade off for speed and efficiency. With this in mind it bears the question “how does social media interaction really differ from conventional interaction?”

There is something about talking to someone online that just feels so impersonal. What it boils down to is simple: body language. According to the Forbes article “A whopping 93% (of interaction) is based on nonverbal body language .“ Sarcasm for example, doesn't translate very well onto the online forum. Emotions and attitudes in general are masked by online interaction. What we are left with is the illusion of whatever the writer wishes to be seen.

I have probably 80 to 100 friends on Facebook at any given moment. I consider a friend anyone you could spend time with, whether it be having a cup of coffee, eating a meal together, or just hanging out. In the social media realm, I rarely directly communicate with others. Online, I am mostly a spectator or 'lurker.' So out of those 80-ish friends, I will probably only see 5 or so on a regular basis. The rest could be considered acquaintances. Interacting with these people isn't even as complex as saying “hello” in passing. Now to get someones attention you simply have to “poke” them. Even birthdays have become saturated by social media. Facebook actually sends you a reminder of your friends birthdays and offers to send an e-card on your behalf. This kind of interaction really takes the human out of humanity.

Don't have time to call everyone on your friends list when throwing a party? No problem, on Facebook it's as easy as creating the event and selecting all of your friends. Done. But honestly, when I'm invited to anything on Facebook, I normally don't even read the invite. I feel like if the event was important enough, I'd get a phone call. Honestly, I'd be ok with a text message. Often times, I go for weeks without reading Facebook invites only to find out most of the events have already happened.

Walk into any public place where people have to wait for a few minutes. Most of them will be buried on their mobile devices. In these times, striking up a conversation with a stranger is just weird behavior to most younger people. I read a social experiment that a guy did about talking to strangers in public. He found most people would ignore his greetings and bury themselves deeper into their phones. Out of all of the people he spoke to, only the elderly and one lone gentleman would actually carry on a conversation with him.

To say social media hasn't changed the way we interact would be a lie. Most of the people who read this will remember the pre-internet days and know small talk with strangers happened everyday. Whether you were buying groceries, renting a movie, or waiting in line at the bank, it wasn't uncommon to speak to someone about their day. Now, thoughts have been relegated to 140 characters or less and personal interaction is dead.

-Josh Eldridge

6-10-14

Social media marketing for the first time

Are you an aspiring small business owner looking to expand your reach into the unknown realm of social media? Do you not know what social media is and how it can be applied to help your small business to bring in more revenue and build your customer base? These are some of the questions I hope to answer.

Most small business owners are not of the younger generations that the social media phenomenon started in. Most small business owners from my experiences are between the ages of 30 to 50 years of age and may not know anything about social media or at least enough about it to start becoming interactive in it. This is something that you should not be worried about, it should be something that you should be excited about. We will try to lay out a few of the major social media avenues that you can take and how to get started in them. Before we begin laying out how everything works, you need to understand that if you do decided to go down this avenue, do not get discouraged and quit. You will need to stay proactive and be interactive with your followers. We will be using Facebook as our example.

·         Getting started

o    The first steps you will need to take is to figure out which of the social media websites you will be working with. Facebook and Twitter are one the biggest social media websites around. They are easy to setup and get started with.

·         Setting up

o    Your next step will be to create an account in each one of these websites. After you get the initial account information set up, you will need to dive into your page and add content. This content will consist of getting your logo, company description and any other relevant information added to your page.

·         Getting customers to your page

o    After you have everything set up, what is next? Your next setup will be to draw people to you page. This can be down in quite a few different ways. Put your page on your business cards, advertisements and your webpage. In addition you can also offer customer discounts if they “like” your page. Offer your customers a 5% discount or something free, if they like your page. A 5% discount is nothing if you can attract more customers. Facebook is amazing in the sense that friends of friends will be able to see your page, if you make regular postings and keep on top of it.

·         Replying

o    Replying to everything is a good practice to get into. Regardless of positive or negative comments, you need to reply to it. A negative comment that is unanswered is worse than the negative comment itself. If you show to your customers that you recognized the problem and are trying to resolve it they will respect you more for it. When it comes to the positives comments, you also need to respond to these. With both negative and positive comments, thank the poster for submitting a post of your page.

·         Allocating time to your page

o    If you feel as the business owner you do not have time to keep on top of your social media page, you need to assign someone to it. This will ensure your page is getting regular updates, comments are being replied to and probably the most important thing being that your page will grow with regular updates.

·         It will take time

o    Your social media presence will take time. That is probably one of the most important things you need to understand. Your social media page will not be an overnight success, but with time and dedication it can be as big as you can imagine it to be.

·         Expanding

o    Once you become familiar with how social media works, look to expand. Do not only look at the most popular social media sites, but try to expand your reach to the lesser known social media sites. These lesser known sites might climb in popularity and you will be there when it does.

As a final thought, make sure to make customers aware of your social media presence. Give your customers incentives for joining your page through discounts or any other means you see fit. Reply to all sorts of feedback regardless of it being positive or negative. Stay on top of your page, do not let it go into the ground by not keeping up with it. Allocate time to your page by either maintaining it yourself, assigning some to maintain it or bringing in an outside source to keep it maintained. As a general note it is normally better to keep the maintenance of your social media pages in house so that you have full control over it. Your social media page will take time, be patient.

-Travis Sloneker

Video Marketing Going Viral

There is an ongoing, global obsession with recording and posting videos in this decade. The speeds at which a video can go viral are phenomenal. The trend of using YouTube and vines does not seem to be losing much momentum at all. Seizing this opportunity, with every trend the masses embrace, large companies embrace: to slide in some advertising and marketing. The same factors that compel individuals also compel the industry giants to utilize this medium. The possibility of overnight stardom, fame and wealth are motivation enough for anyone to post videos at will; including big companies.

I was recently on Twitter for part of a class project and I went to Coca Cola’s home page. I really was not expecting to see how heavy Coca Cola is involved in their social media marketing. One of the most surprising things to see was the Coca Cola vines. My initial response to seeing them was “really?”, but I have never been a huge vines fan, other than what Tosh.o covers.

Coca Cola is just one example of a company using the video marketing bandwagon to ultimately boost sales. My question remains; is video marketing success measurable? The answer maybe “sure it is!” if you ask the company that is marketing their product through that medium. The number of views, likes or comments doesn’t always mean those same people are buying the product. The appeal of a video that causes it to go viral may be difficult for most companies to successfully duplicate. This is due to the uniqueness of a video posted by an individual or amateur versus the TV commercial resemblance a big company may have in their attempt to go viral.

Advancements in the internet and technology have allowed the viewing public to wield one great power: the power to skip commercials. This works to the disadvantage of large companies, because, if people are skipping commercials on TV, what would make them search for one on YouTube? I suppose if a company has someone get kicked in the head by a train conductor while holding their product, well that may go viral. The point I’m trying to address is; if I wasn’t working on a class project, I would’ve never went to Cokes twitter page, let alone watch one of their vine videos. Viral videos and video marketing may have given fame for a few individuals; however, the commercial feel may be a limiting factor for large companies to indulge in the same success.

Christopher Moses

twitter: @cmoses15

Making your mark on the internet.

         With businesses sprinting onto the internet to claim their territory, it is becoming harder and harder for small businesses to make a name for themselves among the swarms of content that is flooding the internet. One of the main reasons for this is larger businesses throwing money at the internet to gain rankings and visibility, which in some cases allows them to be on top.

What are small businesses to do, in order to make a name for themselves and stand out from the crowd? This is a question a lot of small business owners ask themselves while thinking about making their small business visible on the internet. Below we will list a few necessary steps in order to create worthwhile content that will attract viewers and ultimately gain you customers for your small business.

·         Know your target

o    Knowing your target audience is one of the most important first steps. Not knowing who your target audience is like firing an artillery shell randomly trying to hit your mark.

·         Know your goals

o    Settings goals is the only way you have of judging your businesses performance on the internet. Aside from knowing your performance, goals allow you to keep track of what you are working on.

·         Branding

o    If you do not already have branding for your small business, you need to. Branding is one of those key features that allows customers to identify your business out from the rest of the crowd. If you look at any successful business they have their own brand. Your branding will consist of a name, logo, slogan and/or a theme for your small business to name a few.

·         Social Media

o    Social media is one of those services that is exploding with popularity all around the world and the best thing about it, is that it is FREE! Do yourself and your business a favor, sign up. Ensure that when you do sign up for these services that you stay active with it. Do not and I repeat, do not neglect it. This is extremely important, it shows your potential customers you’re engaged and dedicated to your business.

·         Website

o    Having a website is another one of those major assets to have when making a name for your business on the internet. This is the place that you ultimately want your target audience to flock to from your social media outlets. It is impossible to deliver all of your content on social media websites, which is where your website kicks in.

In conclusion, when trying to make your mark on the internet. Know your target, know your goals, have a brand, use social media and have a website. Probably the most important tip out of everything above, is staying active. If you neglect the internet, your potential customers may neglect to click on your website, Twitter and/or anything else your may have on the internet. The last piece of advice I can give is to just use the internet. It can be your best friend, if used properly. There are an endless number of resources available only a click away, start using them.

-Travis Sloneker

Linked accounts on Social Media is changing websites

More and more I see many business, especially those in the entertainment business moving to Social media to update customers and followers on schedule changes, sales, upcoming events and other fluid information.  These same businesses have gone from updated websites to using their websites to host content such as stadium maps, ticket contact information, rules on what can be brought into the concert/event and other legal/boring types of information. 

I liken websites usage to that of an encyclopedia - a bunch of information that is not likely to change anytime soon, but is not necessarily up to date.  Another example of this locally is the Shipwreck website has basic park hours, but for current information on any given day it is better to use their Facebook page which is updated with daily with park hours based on changing weather conditions. 

I wonder how long before we as consumers simply "follow" or "friend" the bars, parks, concert halls, sports teams, musicians, etc. instead of actually going to their websites for information.  I also wonder if other business venues will follow suit, maybe Kohl's will announce a new sale on twitter and you simply use your phone to show the tweetpon instead of logging into their site and downloading a pdf coupon pamphlet on all their sales this weekend.  Will car dealerships provide customer loyalty points and discounts to those that like them, friend them, and follow them? (yes I realize that some already do this)

As third party apps become more popular allowing users to link all their accounts in one simple interface and these interfaces become more user friendly allowing you to choose to send out updates to one social media site or all, or just some of the ones you use.  This ability will be yet another nail in the proverbial coffin of updated websites.  In the long run I think websites will become the static unchanging/seldom changing information while social media sites will be the latest and greatest information, though not in as much detail.

Just my thoughts - Mike von Keyserling