The Difference Between A Social Media Pro And A Celebrity

How do I have the time to respond to all mentions, retweets, comments and shares on social media? I make the time, because it is important!

I have written previously about social media being a parallel universe to the real world. In other words, whatever you would do in the real world, you must do in social media. Whatever you would never do in the real world, you better not do it here either. Sounds simple right? You’d think so…

I experience two things over and over in my daily social media activities. 1) People surprised I answer them on Twitter and the like AND 2) Stories they tell me of other “industry experts” and Brands that never do respond. If we are to believe that social media IS in fact properly used online as you might act in other social, business and life settings, why is this occurring so frequently?

Answer: The celebrity factor.

As Brands and Individuals obtain levels of social media celebrity, there are two things that occur:

1) They get big heads and decide that people connecting with them makes them awesome, so following back and/or responding to them is not necessary, because they are “cool”. You know, a celebrity. I call this arrogance, no matter how you try to defend it.

2) Due to their offline fame or newly discovered social media guru status, they have too many followers/fans and are far too busy to respond to people.

Both represent serious problems…

If you or your brand are too busy to respond to people, maybe you are in the wrong venue. Would you ignore one of your customers at the order window? Would you ignore a fan at a book signing? You either need to hire more help to ensure you are engaging the audience or be forced to continually recycle fans/followers with new ones that are willing to start the cycle over. Eventually, that cycle will stop though. So if you want more time to engage, you will eventually get it if you approach social media with the celebrity arrogance.

Recently I was pulled into a conversation my good friend Aaron Biebert of @AttentionEra was having with such a celebrity. This is someone Aaron respects and has met in person. As I watched the conversation unfold, my buddy Aaron was taking this individual to task for this same scenario we are discussing here. You see, he had met Aaron previously, yet often ignores his comments. I won’t mention the “celeb”, but let’s say I jumped into the conversation after reading excuse after excuse to throw my two cents in.

I really don’t care how many followers you or your brand has. I don’t care how many books you’ve sold or where you spoke on stage last. I don’t care how many people read your blog every day. The fact is, if what you are saying and telling others about social media isn’t represented by your own actions in your feeds, then you are now a celebrity, not a professional.

Social media is about people. It’s about building long term relationships with them, identically as we do in the real world. The main difference is that social media enables this process to be done far more quickly than in real life and at much higher volumes. You would think that most brands and celebrity types would understand this already, right? Guess again. Here is an article I shared several times this week that clearly shows they don’t – “Survey: 70% of social media complaints ignored“. A travesty no matter how you look at it.

So in short, the difference between a social media celebrity and someone or a brand that truly gets it, is that pro’s are being real, responding to everyone and focusing on the long term customer/prospect relationships that go deep, not just wide. Most celebrities come and go with the wind. Simple…

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

Pendaflex Changes With The Times Using Social Media

Many of us older folks know the brand @Pendaflex. The giant in file folders and everything organizational for the office. Some of the younger readers may not be aware of the brand, as the world has become more and more digital. The company is changing that by using social media in unique ways to reach the younger audience.

Pendaflex is diving deep into the social network space, boasting some 73,000 fanpage likes, an active Twitter account and YouTube channel. The company is taking that further today by launching a unique facebook app utility that will no doubt deliver some value and advantages to the younger market. Last week I was given early access to the application and some insight on its functionality and strategy.

Today, Pendaflex will be launching its app called Tag Tamer, that can be accessed from the company’s fanpage. The custom Facebook app enables you to easily locate all the photos on Facebook that you have been tagged in. You can search by person, month and year, or even ALL images with your tag. The application will display the images you are tagged in that match your search criteria and enable you to open the images and remove the tag, or just remove it from your timeline. Though I don’t, many younger folks that are seeking employment etc. have a few pics they were tagged in that they may not want a perspective employer or others to see. Tag Tamer makes it easy to find them before someone you don’t want to see them does.

I think Pendaflex is being incredibly smart here. The younger generations that are not as familiar with their brand and products are being provided a great utility that provides value and at the same time connects them with Pendaflex. Very smart and very innovative use of their fanpage.

Be sure that you or your clients brand knows their audience and what they would find valuable. Deliver value without pitching your products and they will be far more open to building a relationship and buying what you sell. Creativity and uniqueness goes a long way in social media marketing. Kudos to Pendaflex and their team for nailing a strategy and delivering value to their intended audience!

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

Another Helpful Hootsuite Feature You May Have Missed

Twitter is a really unique social network. It’s functions, pace and volumes are well beyond most other platforms. A high percentage of the people that are on Twitter also tend to be using several other social networks as well. This is important for a very specific reason. Deeper connections…

Have you ever been managing a social media account and got into discussions or built relationships with prospects and wished you could easily find and connect with them on other platforms? You know, expanding the relationship outside of Twitter to get to know them better? Happens a lot right?

Hootsuite has something called insight. The function of this feature is to provide additional information and connection points for a specific Twitter account. Though not always 100% accurate, it does provide publicly searchable information that’s found on various search engines about a specific users additional connection points in the social graph and beyond.

To use the feature in Hootsuite, follow these simple steps:

1) Open to view the persons Twitter bio, by clicking on their image or Twitter name from inside Hootsuite.

2) Click the last tab on the right called “Insight”.

3) View the known information provided for the contact and click the links you desire to open in a new tab.

A little caution here though… Just like with anything in social media marketing, it is not about just obtaining a bunch of followers or friends, it is about developing relationships. I do not suggest that you arbitrarily start pulling up Insights and friending everyone on Facebook. Take the time to establish a relationship that makes sense to take further on other platforms. Also, when considering friend requesting, look at a persons timeline/feed and review their content to learn more about them first in order to decide if a request on that particular platform is appropriate.

Strategy with respect to Insight is going to be important. Be sure you have one!

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post

3 Tips – Double Posting On Social Networks Is Missing Opportunity

With almost 37,000 followers on Twitter and more than a few friends on Facebook, I see a lot of different posting strategies and/or lack thereof updates. It is painfully obvious that a lot of folks don’t take the time to be conscious with intent related to their content sharing. It is my belief that strategy surrounding content, posting and scheduling of said content is a requirement. Haphazardly posting to and for multiple accounts you manage is like driving without knowing where you are trying to go.

*Disclaimer – As I have stated in my articles many times, there is only ONE rule of social media. Don’t spam. All else is preference and your decision. My intent here is not to bash, but to simply share my views and perspectives on posting from multiple social media accounts to the same social network.

Posting from multiple accounts at the same time to Facebook, Twitter or other networks using different accounts is missing opportunity! What do I mean? So let’s say you have a personal Twitter account, a business account and maybe even a secondary business account. In an effort to be efficient, you post to all three accounts the same content, at the same time, all on Twitter. This goes for RT’s as well…

In another scenario, let’s say you have a personal Facebook profile and a business fanpage. Again, you post to both at the same time, the very same update.

My suggestion to you is that you may need to examine whether you are being lazy and/or lacking a conscious strategy. More importantly, ask yourself if you are missing opportunities. Double, or triple posting the same content at the same time to the exact same social platform is not recommended.

Here are a few things to consider:

1) Diminishing Reach – When you post from more than a single account at the same time, you get one shot at who happens to be standing at the side of the freeway when your care flies by. Or in this case both of your cars fly by. Instead, consider posting the content to each account at different times, thereby expanding the reach of the content to a larger audience across the day.

2) Increased Ignore Factor – I have a few followers on Twitter, as well as a few friends on Facebook that often RT or post content this way. What seems to happen is that I tend to ignore their posts due to the duplication. I mean, since I am following their multiple Twitter accounts, I see 2-3+ posts at the exact same time that are identical and being human this does something to me. I find myself ignoring those posts and just moving to the next one. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot this way.

Additionally, since it is clear that the same person posted the content or Retweeted mine at the very same time, who am I supposed to engage with? Which account is THE account to respond to? All of them? I think not. It’s easier to just move on and ignore it altogether, or simply thank ONE of them for the RT.

3) The Dreaded Novice/Beginner Tag – The average social network user now days is pretty savvy. They have become pretty good at sniffing out beginners. Being tagged as such in your social media marketing presence is NOT a good thing.

If you are having trouble getting results or doing some of these things, I suggest hiring a social media consultant, strategist or better yet a professional social media agency to handle it for you. Again, I want to stress that the above is one man’s set of suggestions and not a stead fast rule, but designed to put a little more conscious effectiveness in your program.

Robert M. Caruso
@fondalo
Founder/CEO – Bundle Post