Hi, I’m Emma Parsons and I’m a Community Exec here at 1000heads.
Last week I attended a couple of events during London’s Social Media Week, which, aside from learning that apparently it helps to have a beard and wear a blazer *cough*@whatleydude*cough* (– yeah, thanks Emma! *WD), the events I attended really brought it home to me that social media is not about the latest platform trends or how many followers you have, but about communicating, being approachable, honest and friendly and above all just using a little common sense!
So, without further adieu, here are my:
Social Media 101 Top 5 Tips for Success:
Add value to everything you do - -
This is a BIG one for me. You always need to ask yourself – why are people going to engage? On the tube today was an ad, let’s say for “rustic socks” and they encourage tube riders (rageful, tired tube riders) to share their guilty secrets with “rustic farmer Ben” on their Facebook page. My response to this ad was – Why would you? Who is going to make a note of the URL, wait until they’re off the tube because there isn’t any signal down there, and then share their most intimate secrets with a made-up character on a public Facebook page? Which all your friends could see? Good luck if your guilty secret is sleeping with your best mate’s girlfriend. This is a classic example of social media for schmedia’s sake. -
Showing up is not enough - -
This is a no-brainer. Start as you mean to go on, because if you start then can’t be bothered / don’t have the resource / freak out because you don’t know what you’re doing, then go back to the drawing board and quick smart. You’re doing your brand damage if the last tweet you wrote was in 1985 (not possible, I know but the ‘80’s always hit home that I’m referring to a long time ago). -
Help, support, guide, not sell, sell, sell – -
People will follow you because you’re insightful, helpful, interesting and add value to their Twitter stream. Selling your hoovers with a 50% discount every 5 minutes only adds supreme irritation. -
Measure success meaningfully - -
Not by how many followers you have, but how engaged and relevant your community is. The Twitter feed I run for my client is for the fashion and beauty blogging community; 80% of my followers are from that community, and tweet at me as they do anyone else in their community, every single day. I never offer discounts or trials or follow irrelevant people, yet my followers have increased at a steady and organic rate. When I tweet, the people listening are the exact audience I want listening. -
Being on Facebook is like being at (someone else’s) home - I love this, because it really captures just how personal Facebook is. You’re in people’s “living rooms” when you’re in their home streams so give people a reason to publicly declare they like you, reward them for wanting to have you in their living room. Don’t abuse it by updating every other minute, you’ll be like the dinner party guest that won’t shutup and you’ll swiftly be asked to leave.
There is a lot more where that came from so if you’ve got questions or want a full run-down of all that I absorbed then please, leave a comment or find me on twitter – I’d love to hear from you.
“It’s just not the same anymore. It wasn’t like this in my day, players were real people and you’d meet them in the pub after cheering them on from the stands”
Hey there, my name’s Joe Weston and I’m an account manager looking after all things sport-focused here at 1000heads. Recently, I’ve been thinking about how sport (football in this case) can really benefit from the use of social media.
If you’re a young(ish) football fan, you’ll have heard the above quote common complaint from the previous generation who followed football when it was played by real men; when tackling hard was allowed, diving was a completely different sport, and the closest thing you got to a neck warmer was a halftime whisky.
But, all clichés apart, the point that’s being made (and it’s a point which is made by a very large number of fans) is a valid one. Over the last 20 years in particular, the divide between the player and the fan has grown to an almost catastrophic size. Catastrophic in the sense that football is close to losing a whole generation of fans who have fallen out of love with the game (a generation it should be noted which have not only the disposable cash available for merchandise and match day tickets, but also the word of mouth influence to inspire the next generation of fans). If you want proof, just say the three words ‘Premier league footballer’ to anyone over 50 and see what their response is – trust me, it wont be positive!
But let’s take that first quote and look at in more depth – in particular “players were real people”. This clearly hasn’t changed; footballers still talk, sleep, fart, sneeze, cry, laugh and moan about the weather like we all do (even if they do get paid £200,000 per week). But why has this perception been allowed to happen when we have the tools to stop it?
This is where social media comes in.
Social media is about breaking down boundaries, providing a human face; it’s the personal touch, an insight into what’s going on behind the scenes, it’s everything that allows you to connect with people and brands on a personal level. Brands have grabbed this opportunity as a wave of savvy marketers have realised the opportunities available to them, but sports teams are lagging way behind.
At the Social Media Week ‘Sport and Social Media’ event I attended last week, I was struck by a number of things. The first thing was how such basic, almost rudimentary social media tactics and implementations can have the most unbelievable results. None of the presentations provided any ground-breaking, boundary pushing social strategies, and I certainly didn’t leave thinking that these are the social innovators of our time. But I did leave thinking, “Bloody hell those results are phenomenal!”
The audience is clearly there; over 4 million people like Chelsea FC on Facebook and it’s growing by the tens of thousands a day.
But the second thing I left with is that teams aren’t doing enough. Why aren’t there more footballers on twitter? There are a few notable examples – @rioferdy5,@cesc4official and @kevindaviesbwfc of course, but they are the exception to the rule. It’s also clear that these are players who have decided to do it off their own backs, but why aren’t more clubs demanding that their players are on Twitter?
Just look at the success of Rio Ferdinand [aforementioned @rioferdy5]; it’s simply phenomenal, at 529,000 followers and counting. OK, it may not be the same as having a pint with him down the pub after the game, but I do know that he is a big fan of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, I know what music he’s listening to (even if it is in his Bentley), I even know when he arrives at training.
In short, I get to feel like he’s a human again.
That is why there is so much more to be done in this field. One club (however much it pains me to say as an avid Man United fan) that does seem to have picked this up and run with it is Arsenal, who claim to have up to 20 professional players active on Twitter. They have clearly encouraged their players to get involved and get active, and this is reflected in the results that the club is having in the social media arena.
So, what would I like to see?
More clubs encouraging their players to embrace social media channels, that’s what. Focusing on the most popular first – Facebook and Twitter. Obviously they can’t just let them roam free on these channels as there are obviously dangers; clubs need to set out strict social media guidelines for their players to adhere to.
There have been a couple of high profile mistakes made by footballers (@ryanbabel got fined by the FA for posting a mocked up picture of top ref Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt after perceived bias in a match) so guidelines need to be in place.
But by setting out parameters, agreed topics and even providing social media training, football clubs can make a real difference to their fans and followers. Clubs always state that they want to bring their fans closer to the action and make the club have more of an impact with its own fans, giving them rewarding experiences; some simple social media steps can make a huge impact.
If any clubs out there want to get in contact and ask us any questions about setting out strategies for social media then do please get in touch – we’d be happy to hear from you.
On Wednesday afternoon, during the LikeMinds Social Media Week Social Commerce Immersive at which I was a panellist, there was a moment when moderator Andrew Gerrard mused “I wonder when the entire term ‘social media’ will become redundant. I wonder when it’ll just become ‘something that we do.’”
Amen.
Like me, many who read this will be coming to the end of a hugely busy and interesting Social Media Week. SMW is a strange time; I enjoy many of the awesome speakers – this year I found Mark Ellis, Ian Jindal and Iskandar Najmuddin particularly inspiring – but I also spend much of my time wishing (and often saying) that social media wasn’t treated as a coherent ‘discipline’, as the SMW concept implies. It seems I wasn’t alone.
Yes, it’s important to understand which online tools and platforms can form a useful part of a brand’s social arsenal. But ‘being social’ as a brand HAS to happen simultaneously on and offline. With – here we go again – 90% of WOM still occurring offline, a strategy that solely looks online socialising is frankly bizarre.
In that Social Commerce session, not one of the keynote speakers looked at how retailers can make shopping social offline and in store.
I’ve been doing Mobile Social Commerce for 15 odd years now – I just used to call it walking into different shops and buying stuff while talking to my mates.
I almost hope that one day Social Media Week will simply become Social Business Week. Firstly, this would imply that we need to look at social media in context with all the other ways a brand needs to be social. And secondly, it would remind us – as Tim did yesterday – that anyone can be social; the skill is how to make it bring real returns for companies.
Andrew Neil recently explored the incest in the corridors of power.
His show, Posh and Posher, highlighted what most of us knew already; that most MPs come from privileged backgrounds and attended the same academic institutions.
19 of our Prime Ministers attended Eton. Oxbridge is the training ground for many of Westminster’s elite.
Needless to say, whilst at these institutions our MPs connected; they were friends, rivals, and members of the same societies.
Neil unsurprisingly concluded that this isn’t healthy. The highly privileged are given an unfair advantage over others, irrespective of ability. And with so many MPs coming from similar backgrounds there isn’t diversity in thinking, or representation of the wider interests.
I believe the social media industry is in a similar predicament. And as social media week is in full flow I wanted to raise this.
First, the issue of recruitment.
Too often, I have heard agencies and clients basing their recruitment policies on candidates’ levels of activity within social media. So because someone has 1,000 Twitter followers, regularly checks-in on Foursquare, and likes to blog about shoes, the assumption is they will be great at the job.
What utter rubbish.
It has absolutely no relation to their ability to do the job effectively. It is like asking a PR manager how many times they have appeared in the in the paper or a plumber how many times he has had burst pipes.
Of course candidates have to understand social media, but the assumption that because they are big users of social media they will be good at the job, is alarming. That’s like saying a pre-requisite for getting a marketing job with Smirnoff is to down a bottle of vodka every day.
We speak from experience here, not that we down a bottle of Vodka a day, but that we have given undue sway in the past to recruits who are highly active in social media. But it has been all too evident that their skills sets ended at Twitter. They understood the tools, but not emotion and not strategy, and ultimately they weren’t up to scratch.
Our fingers have been burnt.
I am not saying there aren’t exceptions to this but I am concerned when I hear that clients are giving the role of managing social media projects to the only member of the team who is on Twitter. Or, when an agency ignores someone who has pedigree in executing campaign ideas across other media because someone else has worked in social media for longer. This is even more worrying if social, as we fervently believe it should, is no longer regarded as a silo activity but is fully integrated into wider marketing activity.
Second, the issue of perspective.
A recent example. Yes, exploiting the crisis in Egypt probably isn’t the most ethical way to market yourselves but judging by the reaction of the social media chattering classes you would think President Mubarak has acted like a saint in comparison to Kenneth Cole.
On the face of it, from an ethical and branding point of view, KC made a mistake. But, the social chatter and condemnation, plus the resulting PR coverage, has no doubt given a massive traffic boost to the Kenneth Cole website. Introduced the brand and its products to new audiences. Got people talking about them.
To someone who doesn’t use Twitter, an inappropriate tweet means so little that I don’t envisage people boycotting a brand over 140 characters on a platform they don’t understand or use. So overall, what is the impact on the business from the tweet and social media. My guess, actually is it has done wonders for awareness and visitor levels, with little or no long-term damage to the brand.
This misinterpretation by the chattering classes of the impact of social media is worrying. Too often, we have heard that agencies have run great campaigns, grown communities, increased volumes of conversation or created some truly great content. However, the client just ‘didn’t get’ social and they are no longer working together. I would suggest that all too often, the chattering classes just ‘don’t get’ the impact their activity should deliver for a business.
The people doing the best work are those that are acknowledging the importance of social media but who also want to see demonstrable long-term impact on the bottom line.
Covering off such areas as; where money can be made in social, the ethics of marketing in an online space, the new soon-to-be enforced ASA remit and also how to protect yourself legally when things go wrong – the panel was an informative and enlightening group that fielded questions from the chair, Justin Pearse, and the inquisitive audience in the room.
Molly will be back here later with her thoughts on this event (and a few others) but for now, here’s a two minute audioboo interview captured [by @thinmartian] with Miss Flatt, just after the panel came to an end…
Enjoy!
With two days of Social Media Week left to go, you can keep track of where our ‘heads are over the next couple of days with this handy blog post.
Our Social Media Surgery sessions closed their doors at around 3pm [with write ups to come from each doctor shortly; no fear, patient confidentiality will be maintained!], which left us plenty of time to throw our glad rags on, head on down to the opening party and surprise each and every one of the guests with their very own 1000heads-themed mini cupcake…
Some might say we have a thing for cupcakes here at 1000heads (and they may very well be right). However, when it puts smiles and happiness into the world like the snapshot below, can you really blame us?
Stay tuned to 1000heads.com [why not subscribe to our RSS feed?] for our Social Media Surgery write ups and, once more, have a great Social Media Week everybody!
We’ve been taking appointments over the past few weeks from those in need of some social care and attention and today, the patients arrive for their sesssions.
Keep an eye on the @1000heads twitter stream throughout today for a running commentary on who we’re talking to and about what and please, feel free to fire over any questions you may have.
If you didn’t manage to book yourself in the surgery today then no fear, you can still catch up with one of us ‘heads throughout the week at any of the many events that we’ll be attending -
The venues in bold indicate where we are panellists…
Fri Feb 10th -
SMW: Tuttle Club @ The Centre for Creative Collaboration
On top of that, a large number of our team can be found at various events around the world supporting Nokia’s random acts of kindness push… aka – ‘NokiaConnects‘
If you’re attending any Social Media Week event anywhere across the main participating cities across the globe, then please ensure to check in using the hashtag #NokiaConnects and you might just bump into one of them yourself…
“Social Media Week conferences take place simultaneously in multiple cities around the world. The aim of each event is to advance the use and understanding of social media in the corporate, public and non-profit sectors.”
From New York to Berlin, San Francisco to São Paulo and Toronto to London, across the globe people are coming together to ‘explore the profound impact that social media has on culture, business communications and society at large’.
There are a couple of other events going on Friday morning, including Reputation Online’s ‘Crisis Management‘ session as well as a special Social Media Week Tuttle Club. However, having seen how quickly the tickets for these events have been snapped up, we think there might be scope for one more thing..
So if you’re free and fancy joining us – you’ll be made to feel very welcome indeed.
The Social Media Week Digest does exactly what it says on the tin; by Friday morning at least some of you would have all had the chance to catchone of the aforementioned fantastic events and this end-of-the-week gathering is your opportunity to come together and share stories, anecdotes and generally catch up on some of the interesting things you’ve seen and done.
Come drink some coffee (on us) and have a chat about where we’re all headed next.
Tickets aren’t mandatory (get yours here), they just help us keep an eye on numbers etc…
See you Friday!
Thanks to ICA London for the super last minute providing of the venue, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of the place very soon.
Hi, I’m Emma Parsons and I’m a Community Exec here at 1000heads.
“It’s just not the same anymore. It wasn’t like this in my day, players were real people and you’d meet them in the pub after cheering them on from the stands”
