In the “good ole days” of Facebook, brands were welcomed into users’ News Feeds with the promise of deals, coupons and “exclusive, behind-the-scenes” content. Eventually, businesses grew intrusive as their content became largely promotional in nature. Savvy Facebookers soon discovered that you could hide a brand’s content without unfollowing them (genius!). But, due to Facebook’s funky EdgeRank algorithm, an unexpected piece of annoying/spammy content would always make its way back into a user’s News Feed.

Bam! There’s Starbucks again. Poppin’ in my News Feed like a photobomb.

In September, Facebook’s News Feed team finally did something to alleviate these pain points for consumers. The team made “enhancements” to its EdgeRank algorithm - but said enhancements, while beneficial to individual users, have since been giving digital marketers nothing but headaches. These updates were designed to improve engagement with a brand’s posts by serving content only to those Facebook users who were most likely to engage with that particular piece of content. In theory, this is a good idea and certainly has the best interests of the end user in mind; but many brands are complaining of substantial declines in the average reach of their posts (to the tune of 50-65%). Let’s consider some of the implications.

Declining reach has an impact on referring traffic to brand sites

Because a brand’s content is now only shown to users that actually want to engage with it, the average reach of any given piece of content is down across the board. It stands to reason that, if reach is down, then referring traffic to a brand’s web site will also suffer (I can speak from direct experience that this is the case for some Facebook properties that I manage). But don’t despair – it’s not all bad news here. What’s interesting is that, while the volume of referring traffic has waned, the quality of what referring traffic remains is better (e.g., one brand’s conversion rate has improved by over 200%).

In general, there is more intense competition in the News Feed

Publishing times traditionally thought of as optimal are now some of the worst times to post content. So many other brands are publishing against those cadences, vying for space in users’ News Feeds. Why compete for attention in those “optimal” windows? Head for open waters. Think blue ocean strategy.

Brands now have to “pay to play”

Marketers now have organic content competing directly with paid content right within the News Feed. The only way to ensure a certain reach threshold is to pay to have your content shown. Facebook has two tactics in particular that are designed to boost the exposure of your content. Promoted Posts leverage your content to expand reach into the News Feeds of people who may not see it organically. Offers make it easy to engage people and their friends on Facebook and help drive new likes to your Page (the major drawback to Offers is that you cannot use an Offers product UNLESS you back it with ad dollars). These are effective tools for large brands with copious budgets. However, the small business or not-for-profit organization may not have the resources to support this “buying eyeballs” approach.

There are certainly other metrics to consider when determining the success of your Facebook marketing. The entire story cannot (and should not) be told with reach as the primary driver of the plotline. That said – I recognize that, especially in a social network of 1 billion users, reach will always be an integral part of the conversation. And so, I leave you with a few tips.

What brands can do to improve their reach

1. Leverage Facebook’s scheduling feature to test publishing times and learn the NEW optimal day/time to achieve your highest reach
2. Target your posts based on gender, location, interests, etc. so that you are only serving up the most relevant content to users that care about it
3. Maintain a focus on creating and curating a balanced mix of content that is interesting and adds value to users’ News Feeds

Resources: Check your EdgeRank

The post This Week’s Social Headache: Facebook’s Recent News Feed Updates appeared first on Savvy Socialist.

In a herculean effort to revive the glory days of old Myspace, Specific Media provided a glimpse at a major overhaul of the music-centric online community on September 24. This new interface boasts a built-in music player, media-focused content stream and left-to-right timeline of posts, among other upgrades.

The new Myspace from Myspace on Vimeo.

I had a Myspace account back in the day. Hell, who didn’t? It was fun, filled with music and the epitome of early-2000′s social networking. And then Facebook opened up its digital doors to users beyond those with a .edu email address. Since then, what Facebook has been able to do that Myspace hasn’t is provide value and relevancy in connectivity – not just “snacking time” entertainment, music & gaming in a spammy fashion (yes, the recent partnership between DataLogix and Facebook has everyone in a tizzy about how all of their personal data will be shared – so this notion of value/relevancy is now being called into question… but that’s another entry for another day).

Even through several site redesigns, Myspace has been experiencing a slow bleed in its user base. Bands and artists – the lifeblood of Myspace’s community – began flocking to Facebook, using services such as iLike.

So, my question is: with this latest redesign effort, is it a turning point in Myspace’s attempted revival? Or is it too little too late?

I’m reminded of the cinematic classic, “Mean Girls.” Throughout the movie, Gretchen Weiners, sidekick and second fiddle to Queen Bee Regina George, continually tries to push the catch phrase “so fetch.” Eventually, Regina shuts her down with a declaration that fetch is “not going to happen.”

This month, the role of Gretchen Weiners will be played by Myspace.

Why the New Myspace is “So Fetch”

• Stunning design borrowing from Pinterest & Instagram’s best feature/functionality. The reason why Pinterest & Instagram are so obnoxiously popular is because their content streams maintain a focused emphasis on imagery (also why photo albums are the top-performing type of content on Facebook). We consume visually and in bite-sized experiences, and Myspace gets that.
• Support from Justin Timberlake. The best way to bring sexy back is to force its cool-factor from an industry expert. No, not a SoMe or UE/UI expert – a music expert. JT lends a lot of cred to Myspace in this regard.
• Tight integration with Facebook and Twitter. Leverage your opponents’ strengths against them – judo strategy at its finest. Not to mention, this provides a cooler, more seamless user experience. By connecting your Myspace account with Facebook, you don’t have to start from scratch – you bring your friends and interests over with you.

Why MySpace Needs to Stop Trying to Make “Fetch” Happen

• Spotify has become the online music community’s de facto. Spotify’s user base is growing rapidly, thanks to a boost from Facebook integration. Additionally, bands/artists are paid PER STREAM (I’m convinced that I alone am funding Carly Rae Jepsen’s vacay fund) and there are some pretty cool promotion and integration opportunities from their standpoint. With these hooks, can Myspace really make a comeback with musicians? Or, perhaps the more important question is: can Myspace help musicians monetize as effectively as Spotify can?
• Myspace only has 25 million users as of June 2012. This is peanuts when compared with Facebook (900M), Twitter (500M), and even the socially awkward second cousin of the SoMe communities, Google+ (400M). Then again, Instagram has about 30M users and SoMe darling Pinterest only has around 12M active users.
• The stigma is that Myspace is lame. It’s definitely not the “cool kid” of SoMe anymore. In addition to a redesign, Myspace essentially has an entire re-branding campaign ahead of it.
• ANOTHER social network to maintain? As if we’re not all busy/overloaded/bombarded enough. And what’s going to happen when brands start advertising on Myspace? More noise, more unwanted marketing messages to filter out. No thank you!

The fact is, much remains to be seen. What are your thoughts on the new look and feel – do you side with Gretchen or Regina in this battle of the fetch? Will you be requesting your invite anytime soon?

The post Why the New Myspace Design is Like Gretchen Weiners appeared first on Savvy Socialist.

Instagram is quickly becoming my favorite social network, and the de facto for how I wish all networks would function:

• Just a quick hit. I love that Instagram is built around a super-quick nugget of content that only takes me 3 seconds (if that) to consume. Unless I’m publishing a photo, I’m only ever in the app for a few moments during my “snacking time” between meetings & such. Every piece of content in Instagram is instantly digestible.
• Minimal alerts. No matter how many times I try to MacGuyver my Facebook settings, I still manage to get alerts when people interact with content after I have. Enough already! Thank goodness Instagram doesn’t tell me every time some turd with too much time on their hands makes another lame comment about your requisite food or cliche sunset pics.
• Seamless integration & control. As we all well know, Instagram connects with the social networks that matter and gives you complete control over what you push where. And you always know what your Instagram content will look like in these other channels.

Oh and, by the way, have you checked out Statigram yet? It’s a web-based viewer for any Instagram account, as well as a high-level reporting tool. It’s a pretty nice site to satiate my nerdy curiosity until Instagram develops a dashboard/insights console (if they do at all).

Anyway, in commemoration of my new favorite social media darling, I’ve compiled a list of 9 Instagrammers that I think are unusual and intriguing to follow.

@tonydetroit. Snappin’ pics of all things Detroit. They’re simply stunning.

@oscarprgirl. Behind-the-scenes at Oscar de la Renta. I love that we get a peek at this real girl behind a high-end brand.

@fatmumslim. Beautiful content. Organizer of the monthly #photoaday challenges. Which are totally addicting.

@refinery29. Get a glimpse behind-the-scenes at photo shoots & events. Plus, they run contests quite frequently. Bonus!

@foodporno. C’mon, who doesn’t love photos of food?! I get a lot of my cooking inspiration from this account.

@614magazine. Yes, I am completely biased since this is a Cbus-based pub, but they do an excellent job of showcasing & curating content that brings our city to life. I especially love the #AsSeenInColumbus campaign - great way to get the whole community behind a visual documentation of the city.

@newyorkcity. One of the best cities in the world + breathtaking pics = one of the most followed accounts on Instagram.

@metric_band. Life on the road with an indie band. Tres glamorous.

@charitywater. Follow this organization’s efforts to bring clean, safe drinking water to developing nations. Amazing stuff.

Who are some of your favorite Instagrammers?

The post 9 Users You Should Follow on Instagram appeared first on Savvy Socialist.

Hey readers. Seeing as how it’s been 6 weeks since I last blogged, I am throwing up the obligatory post. However, this one has a bit of a personal twist. Got your emo hats on? Let’s do this.

The last two months have been what I not-so-affectionately refer to as a clusterf**k. Among various other travesties, I found myself facing surgery of the C-word persuasion and, most recently, the death of a best friend’s mother. Specifics around my circumstances aside, the roller coaster that is my life has taught me several very important (read: impossibly thorny) lessons.

Because I work in social media, I am a chronic over-sharer. My networks are privy to the most trifling details of my everyday life: what I cooked for dinner, how many miles I ran today, what my dog looks like post-bath… and on and on. I’ve enjoyed sharing these things about myself. I love finding new people with similar interests. But…

We need to be present.

I think about how precious life is. How it could be eradicated in a mere moment. How our loved ones could be gone tomorrow. (Whoa, hello, Debbie Downer!) And I’m tired of wasting my life scouring Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest and who knows what shiny objects are to come.

I don’t want to miss one more smile, one more kiss, one more toast… over a tweet, a post, a check-in.

It’s so ironic that in such a digitally connected world, we have never been more emotionally disconnected from one another.

Now, as a social media marketer, of course I want my target demographic to “be engaged” with us digitally. But as a consumer, I want to experience my life and hold onto the memories of it… not be caught in a never ending compulsion to digitally document life. For example, this 4th of July, I was struck by how many people were viewing fireworks through the lens of their iPhone cameras, rather than live and unfiltered.

Yes, social media certainly serve wonderful purposes. There’s absolutely no denying that. But, my life’s purpose is bigger than that. And I cannot and will not let myself forget that.

The post Social Media: Not the Be-All, End-All (Gasp!) appeared first on Savvy Socialist.

Perhaps my favorite douchey social media catch phrase is “Content is King.”

Not because social marketing done well is about so much more than just content (it’s also about strategic channel selection, alignment to business objectives, the appropriate measurement plan, etc.)… And not because I take fundamental issue with the notion of “content marketing” (that’s another blog post for another day, my friends)…

I loathe that phrase because of this:

A business may accept that content is king. But said business has no strategic approach to creating, curating and disseminating relevant content across the digital landscape. Its content-related efforts are fragmented, unorganized and weak at best.

When I suggest maintaining a content calendar, I am often met with one of two responses: “What’s that/what good will that do?” -OR- “I don’t have time for that.”

*face palm*

News flash: social media marketing involves a serious amount of work and a substantial time investment. It’s not enough to stick an intern or your college-age nephew on your social marketing efforts and expect miraculous results.

Based on my experience in content-based social marketing, I can tell you several things with absolute certainty:

1. You need a framework to capture all planned content. I don’t care if this is a bulleted list in Word, to  start. You must record your plans and stick to a schedule. This is the only way to keep yourself on track and avoid the “chasing shiny objects” syndrome of randomized, knee-jerk social messaging. Now this is not to say that you can’t accommodate last-minute additions/changes for breaking news or other pertinent industry updates. But you need a foundational content roadmap.
2. You will spend just as much time planning for content as you will actually executing and measuring said content. There’s no way around this. It’s a shitload of work. Accept it and embrace it instead of whining about it and avoiding it.
3. You will likely update & tweak your planned content cadence on a daily basis. Hell, there are days when I make hourly updates, depending on changes in the business and our cross-functional messaging strategy. Accept that this is just the nature of the beast.
4. You cannot talk about the same things in the same way across every social channel in which you are active. Your Facebook audience will be vastly different from those that follow you on Instagram, for example. Work toward a thorough understanding of the nuances in channels and deliver content that is appropriate to each medium.
5. There will be times when you are at a complete loss for what to talk about. Good news: there are some sweet-ass tools out there to help you when you’re in a pinch. For example, ChatterJet provides you with daily content ideas, articles, and conversation starters customized to your business to get your fans and followers chatting with you online. Also, people like Amy over at Savvy Sexy Social have some awesome insights to share, such as “353+ Blog Post Ideas to Inspire You.” So be sure to take advantage of the resources at your digital fingertips!

However, the most important point I’d like to make is this:

If content is king, then give it a proper throne!

(Slash, get yourself a good working content calendar)

Here’s the “throne” that I use at work. It’s a basic Excel spreadsheet that tracks our content plan on a 90-day rolling schedule. It is shared with senior leadership weekly so that they can get a view into our key messages across channels and feel all warm and fuzzy that we are talking about the right priorities in the right places at the right times.

Yes, populating and managing this content calendar mandates a tremendous amount of effort and attention to detail. But I could not perform some of my job’s essential functions without this bad boy.

Give it a try. It’ll grow on you. I promise.

Anyone have other content calendar formats that work well? 

The post If Content is King… Then Give it a Proper Throne appeared first on Savvy Socialist.

Before there was social media, there was music.

Our waking hours form the text of our lives. Our dreams, the commentary.

The post My First Love appeared first on Savvy Socialist.

Oh Pinterest. I love to hate you, hate to love you.

This entry has been a long time coming. I’ve wanted to opine on Pinterest from the get-go, but also pressed myself to give careful thought to my feelings on the new social media darling (which, by the way, I adore from a consumer standpoint).

Here’s the conclusion I’ve come to: 99% of brands have no business building a presence on Pinterest.

“But, what about all the referring traffic?”

• Newsflash: All of that referring traffic was happening before you ever decided to get on Pinterest. Don’t flatter yourself into thinking that you can influence it just by throwing up a few boards of your own.

“But our target customers are there.”

• Newsflash: Yes, your customers may be there, and yes, they may be pinning the sh*t out of your products, but they don’t necessarily want their feed clogged up with your marketing campaign imagery. The root of Pinterest’s success lies in its organic, user-generated curation. Let them discover without having your marketing messages shoved down their throats. When left alone to play, you’ll find they work their way back to your site. And guess what? Pinterest users will actually buy the things they find.

“But we want to share what inspires us.”

• Newsflash: Show me the data that tells you that customers give two sh*ts about what inspires you. As with any social media tool, Pinterest is inherently a narcissistic medium. Users pin and share what matters to them, with little or no regard for what brands think is cool. If they’re pinning your stuff, it’s more than likely because they found it on their own. Not because you presented it to them in some beautifully pinned package on their home feed.

“But… but… if we don’t have a presence on Pinterest, how do we leverage it?”

Le sigh.

To leverage means to influence or exert power over something. Pinterest is a beast. A heaving, ballooning, craft-loving, wedding-planning, fashion-rocking, crockpot-cooking, kitten-adoring BEAST. And, sorry to say, there is nothing marketers can do to harness, control or influence it to their advantage.

Try throwing up some boards. You’ll find that the maintenance of constant pinning to stay relevant is beyond your resource capacities. And let’s not forget the potential legal backlash if some angsty photographer or blogger tries to come after you for using their images without authorization. Think you’re immune because “everyone’s doing it”? At some point, someone may be made an example of. And, the bigger the brand, the bigger the target… and the bigger the payoff to aforementioned angsty photographer.

Did I mention that you’re already reaping the referral traffic and brand-building benefits of Pinterest without having to manage yet another social property?! So, instead of “leveraging” Pinterest and creating gratuitous work for yourself, consider this…

Don’t do anything.

I take that back. You should do ONE thing.

Observe.

Pinterest is ripe with data if you just stop with the knee-jerk “what am I going to PIN?!” reactions and take note. You can learn vast amounts about:

• which products are popular with users,
• what other interests your customerbase has,
• how customers think and feel about products/life events/purchase-driving incidents,
• customers’ desires and how they prioritize and shop for the items they want,
• how customers feel about themselves & what values they hold,
• and on and on and on…

Herein lies the true value of Pinterest for brands: It’s not in pinning or using the site as just another push-marketing channel. It’s in gathering data about customer behaviors, desires, preferences, etc. 

Said anotherway, when it comes to brands:

Pinterest is not a marketing tool, it’s a customer research tool.

I know that this observation/information gathering process is quite manual right now since Pinterest doesn’t have a reporting dashboard. But it is worth the time investment. Check out PinReach or Pinerly (third-party reporting services) or even this high-level tracking overview on Mashable to help.

I’m interested in your thoughts on Pinterest for brands. Do you agree with me, or do you think brands should be pinning away?

Other great Pinterest reads:

Pinterest for Brands, Adam Schweigert

P-Tailing: Pinterest Tips for eTailers, John Hondroulis

Pinterest is NOT a Virtual Pinboard, Subprint

Is Pinterest Traffic Worthless?, Copyblogger.com

The post For the Love of God, Stop Pinning! appeared first on Savvy Socialist.

Who doesn’t love infographics? They’re pretty, they’re informative and they make a helluva Pinterest board.

It seems that I’m not the only geek with infographic fever. The online world has become a veritable breeding ground for them. Most are poorly done (either grossly overcrowded or disappointingly sparse – either way, you’re left with no fantastic takeaways)… but a few achieve the perfect marriage of informational and visual harmony.

Here are my five favorites, in no particular order:

1) Facebook EdgeRank: the most straightforward explanation I’ve seen yet.

2) Online Marketing = Brick-and-Mortar Success: stop treating the online and offline worlds as silos, people! Consumers see and use these channels as one fluid journey in their overall experience with your brand.

3) How is Social Data Valued: ah, the oft-debated topic of social currency.

4) Customers Embrace Mobile Couponing: if you haven’t gotten your brand on the mobile bandwagon, or the digital coupon bandwagon (or hell, at least have this SOMEWHERE on your radar), then you definitely need to take a look at this guy.

5) If Social Media Were a High School: ’cause it’s effing funny.

The post My 5 Favorite Infographics appeared first on Savvy Socialist.

Anymore, it seems that you cannot have a conversation about mobile marketing without discussing QR codes. While they’re (finally) beginning to gain some traction domestically, QR codes elicit an array of opinions from die-hard believers all the way down to intractable naysayers. Are QR codes here to stay? Are they useful for consumers? Are they beneficial for marketers?

I’m not going to opine on the overall sustainability of QR codes. What I do want to address is this: marketers have been thinking about QR codes all wrong. We’re completely effing them up.

When it comes to QR codes, everyone always asks, “How can we execute this in a creative way?”

And the answer tends to be something along the lines of, We’ll put the code on:

• Business cards
• T-shirts
• Vans/cars (ugh, seriously? You’re not giving users time to scan!)
• Billboards
• Magazine ads
• Direct mailers
• TV commercials (again with the not allowing for scan time!)
• (See FastCompany’s “13 Creative Ways to Use QR Codes for Marketing” for additional approaches)

And usually, the code is slapped onto these collateral without any acknowledgement, direction or integration with the rest of the piece – almost as if it’s an afterthought. And marketers wonder why QR codes aren’t working for them…

Tsk, tsk. We’re asking the right question. But giving the wrong answer.

Execution of a QR code extends beyond the manner in which you apply the QR code.

Where and how you place the code is just one piece of the entire customer experience. To deliver something truly unique and creative, you must also consider:

• CONTEXT. Not all users will know what the code is and what to do with it. You will need to provide some instructions to address this. Additionally, you should tell users what experience they can expect from scanning the code. Finally, consider including a bit.ly or SMS short code that users can also use to access your content. I recommend a prompt along the lines of: “Scan to get behind-the-scenes video! Don’t have a scanner? Download ‘QR Reader’ for iPhone or ‘QR Droid’ for Android & scan using the app. Don’t have a smartphone? Text VIDEO to 12345.”
• DESTINATION. This is arguably the most important component of the QR code experience. If I see one more code point me to a regular web site with no clear call-to-action, I will drop-kick a small animal. (Okay, not really, but you get the point) Your QR code should point users to a mobile-optimized page or site with a CTA and functionality specific to your campaign and tailored to your audience.
• INTERACTIVITY. THIS is where the real creativity comes into play – NOT in how/where you plaster your code. If a user takes the time to scan your QR code, then they likely have a healthy appetite for the interactive. Don’t disappoint by sending them to a form that will collect their info for email updates or something lame like that. The following themes tend to perform well in terms of engagement and ROI: exclusivity, rich media, downloads, social sharing, prizes/contests. I’d recommend steering clear of promotions, discounts & freebies – those are for a different type of user that you’re apt to deal with in this space. Both you and the user can extract value beyond discounting or giving away product.

The bottom line: it’s important to plan a holistic experience. Examine every touch point through a user’s lens and deliver an experience that surprises and delights, instead of one that confuses and frustrates.

Additional Reading, for my Bookworms

An example of QR codes working for television: HSN Tests On-screen QR Codes to Encourage Sales

Love this store display concept: Inside eBay’s Physical Push for Mobile Sales

Oh, and you may also want to pay attention to some of the common wrongs that brands commit when executing with QR codes. Avoid making these newbie mistakes.

The post QR Codes: Getting to the Right Answer, Right Experience appeared first on Savvy Socialist.

You wouldn’t know it from observing my extreme awkwardness and untamed clumsiness, but I was a ballet dancer for seven years.

My parents enrolled me in ballet at the tender age of four, and I danced until I was 11, when we moved to Dallas and gymnastics was all the rage.  Every year, the family would make it a point to go see The Nutcracker together. Not only was this a way for me and my sisters to enjoy another experience of ballet, but The Nutcracker was a timeless classic that everyone in the family could enjoy, regardless of age or interest! In fact, I had a fairly major part (for my class/level) in The Nutcracker when I was 10!

And, just as my ballet lessons ceased when we moved to Dallas, so did the annual attendances at The Nutcracker. Boo!

I haven’t seen The Nutcracker in 19 years. 19 YEARS, PEOPLE! That’s entirely too long, in my opinion. Thankfully, Columbus’ BalletMet is performing The Nutcracker this year (Dec. 9 – 24).

And I’m going!

This will be the perfect way to get in the holiday spirit and re-kindle my love for ballet. (It’s just a shame I’m not nearly as bendy as I was in my youth, otherwise I’d think about signing up for their adult dance classes!)

Guess what, readers?

You can go too!

The loverly folks at BalletMet are giving away a 4-pack of tickets to see The Nutcracker this month. You can enter for your chance to win right here on mah blog, ’cause I’m super cool like that.

How to enter:

1. Follow me on Twitter if you don’t already! @CarolynLKent
2. Leave your own Nutcracker story in the comments section below – either something memorable from your past, or why you are looking forward to seeing it this year
3. Get additional entries by RT’ing my contest tweets and by following @BalletMet on Twitter

Aaaaaaaand GO!

The post ‘Tis the Season… for #BMNutcracker! Win Tix to BalletMet’s “The Nutcracker” appeared first on Savvy Socialist.