I stumbled upon this video today. Paddy Galloway does a great job in his analysis of Unbox Therapy, one of YouTube’s most popular tech channels. He gives some great insights for utilizing Youtube’s tools and algorithms to maximize your video’s presence.
Category: Social Media and the Web
Social media presents huge opportunities to engage with all your stakeholders: customers, owners, and the larger community.
Social Media Ads: Don’t Forget To Focus Geographically
Just saw an ad on Twitter for a service available in New York and San Francisco. Well, I’m in Seattle. I expect I’ll make my way to each of those cities in the next few years, but not in the near-term. It looked like a great food idea, but it’s not something I can do anything with right now.
What’s the problem, you might ask? Well, I expect they want their ads clicked on by likely customers. I’m not in that category, living a few thousand miles away. So, the few cents they paid for my click won’t turn into revenue, even if I love them.
Maybe, just maybe, these folks are looking at expanding to the Seattle area. But then you should have the ads go to a landing page for an expansion campaign.
Ads like these can be focused on geography. Pretty slick, giving you much more solid impact. And an essential tool to avoid wasting your online advertising budget.
A few years ago, one of my team-mates placed a Facebook ad but didn’t refine by geography. We had a great return on that if measured by phone calls. But most of those 100s of calls were from well outside our region. We would never be able to convert them to sales. So, a waste of money and time. It was easily fixed, but we spent a few hours of time answering gobs of out area phone calls.
Check out this new construction in Snohomish, built by my team
This project is one the first I’ve seen from concept to build. It’s of particular importance to me. I was at the site anyways, and thought it would be fun to share it with you. Check it the video below.
Yeah, I realize I shot all the clips in portrait. Ugh!
Anyway, this house is for sale. Have your agent put an offer on this one! Don’t have one? I can fix that for you.
We’re looking forward to getting someone in there. That’s the best part of this job.
Oh Dear God, More Autoplay Video Annoyances
Ok, gobs of us non-silicon types have vented on the internet about auto-play videos. But instead of listening to us, webdevs are now playing “here, hold my beer” in a case of outdoing each other in obnoxiousness. Just loaded a site that flooded my office with a cacophony of raucousness reminiscent of the Tower of Babble. About 1 second in, I no longer cared, much less remembered, what I opened the page to read. Closed it and moved on, as is my policy.
So, again my webdevy chums, I know you folks need to capitalize on your work. I get it. But don’t render your site useless in either blinding greed or desperation.
Seth Godin’s: The Toxic Antidote To Goodwill
I’ve long admired Seth Godin’s writings and blog posts. Today’s post got me thinking, since it covers situations I’ve needed to respond to, and on many different sides.
The toxic antidote to goodwill
Seth points out:
“Anyone who has done the math will tell you that word of mouth is the most efficient way to gain trust, spread the word and grow.
And yet…
It only takes a moment to destroy. Only a few sentences, a heartless broken promise, a lack of empathy, and it’s gone. Not only that, but the lost connection can easily lead to lawsuits.”
I’ve had team members act this way, seen my leaders act this way, and, most importantly, received this attitude many times: “It’s not my fault. I did a perfect job. Tough luck.”
It destroys connection. Word of mouth now will work against you. In today’s highly connected world, these sorts of slip-ups can go viral and bring you a great deal of negative attention. And, sorry, I don’t buy the “any attention is good attention”.
When I was at Starbucks, I was part of the Corporate Social Responsibility team. Environmental issues, business practices, and corporate charitable giving were key components of our work (though that’s not all inclusive). When asked once, what value we brought to the company, my reply was “being allowed to stay in business”. More and more people are expecting companies to live ethically (within a range of definitions of “ethical”, of course). Considering such things as communities protesting the building of Wal-Marts, it’s clear, to me, that companies are going to face expectations of behavior that they ignore at their existential peril. And expecting to wait 5 years before acting is probably the most fatal of all thoughts.
Over the years, I’ve had Milton Friedman’s statement “a business’ responsibility is to maximize shareholder value” presented to me many, many times. Though I my eyes roll at that (I’m firmly buy into the Triple Bottom Line engagement model), I find the response of “what time period are we talking about?” to be the best. “Maximized shareholder value” for today? This minute only? Should the future ability to operate be sacrificed for maximized profits for the next earnings report? How many times has Wall Street rewarded such short-term thinking? Massive layoffs create a super strong quarter? Exciting! Except now the company can’t scale, or, sometimes, can’t even meet their current business flow. Considering the long-term detriment for such short-term decisions needs to be rewarded.
One additional thought with all this: the power of the individual. Sure, I can post a nasty critique of <insert evil company> on <Twitter/Facebook/Instagram> and get thousands/millions of views, have the “contact us” section of your website crash, and your phones ringing incessantly for days. But there’s the other side of this. The power of the empowered employee who chooses to engage, and solve problems. Sadly, it won’t be as powerful. It would be great to see “Oh My God, <company x>, your <employee name here> did <awesome thing> and our lives are so much better” end up with 1.5 million likes and RTs. But that won’t happen without a significant cultural shift. But that pushes you in the right direction. And if you don’t have a huge global presence, that’s the gold. Might actually be the only gold. Which, once tarnished, is so terribly hard to get back. You might not be able to make that investment in time/money/energy to repair before your company fails.
Food for Thought: Anil Dash’s “The Year I Didn’t Retweet Men”
I’d forgotten about Anil’s post to Medium a “little ways back”, so I was able to look with fresh eyes.
“The Year I Didn’t Retweet Men”
I really appreciate his efforts to amplify responsibly. And have tried, over the years, to take the same idea to heart. I may not have Anil’s reach, but I have a significant online following. Significant enough that I feel a certain responsibility to use my platform justly.
I like how his efforts changed:
- the nature of his online interactions
- the flavor of his feed
- and how it changed his perceptions about the world
- made his experience on Twitter happier
Though not a fan of the whole “resolution” thing, and since it’s August, seems kinda silly anyway, I like the idea of making purposeful decisions.
I intend to be much more thoughtful about what I share. I have tried to avoid the meme-du-jour, and things everyone else is doing. I also have avoided any hate-retweeting. Our world has enough rage, including the things that drive me towards rage. I have been trying to focus on the positive, yet avoiding a Pollyannaish approach. Positive and effective efforts, change, thoughts: that’s what I try to amplify.
So, doubling down on this. Thanks, Anil, for the reminder and motivation.
Thinking about my place in the blogosphere
I’ve been exploring my work as a blogger. Remarkably unfocused, but I’ve had s lot of fun. For several years I was the blogger in residence for a real estate team. Otherwise, it’s been about fun.
Lately I’m hearing from folks who’ve managed to make their living blogging or vlogging. And that’s a vision that compels me.
I love writing my blogs. But my scattered interests have resulted in seceral poorly attended to projects and cluttered sites.
I know I need focus. Need refinement. So, that’s my work right now. Which elements to i want as my focus. Not sure it needs to be anything I’ve spent time with before. Poetry, though, has resonatined and performed well. My Seattle blog does reasonably well, too. Neither is really at a point regarding page views to help me even cover the expenses of the site, though. I’ve also written about business, real estate and technology. So many possibilities….
So, I’m building a business plan, figuring out my focus and will then launch my new initiative. It’s time for me to take blogging more seriously, and to the next level…whatever that means.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Please leave me a comment below!
Seattle Big Blog Meetup Reunion And Such
Several years ago Monica Guzman, then with the Seattle PI’s Big Blog, started hosting Big Blog meet ups. I stumbled upon one my posts from one, pinged the folks in the picture, and the discussion shifted to having a re-union.
So, we’ve launched the discussion. Part of the purpose for this post is to have the discussion in a single space, and not fill up our Twitter feeds.
Anyway, please comment below with ideas, suggestions, interests. Also, check back often. I’ll update this as it progresses.
Fan Engagement: Zoe Keating
I’ve been a fan of Zoe Keating for years. Besides enjoying her music greatly, I’ve also been very interested in the way she interacts with her fans. She’s used today’s social media landscape exceptionally well to build her brand, and a career as a musician within a very unique niche.
Her main tools for engagement are:
- Zoe’s Website
- Tumblr
- Email – a powerful and important tool that’s often forgotten about in today’s social media campaigns
- Bandcamp
What’s a bit more surprising to me are the tools she doesn’t use. Her YouTube channel is pretty spare, and not recently updated. Considering how much I’ve heard about video being “the” thing, looks like she’s experimented with it and has moved along. Now, if you search for her music there, you’ll find tons of videos, but that’s mostly uploads from fans, interviews and such. Also, her music has been uploaded to Vimeo, but, again, not by her. So, she’s present in the world of video, but not deeply so.
I’m also surprised she doesn’t have any campaigns on Patreon nor on Kickstarter. Now, her music is available on iTunes, Spotify, and many other online services. So she might not feel the need to have these income streams. Other musicians and artists in similar styles and viewpoints use them quite heavily, like Amanda Palmer.
Considering all that, it’s important to look at which of these avenues is the most profitable to her. As the chart below shows (created by the folks at Business Insider), most of her income comes from iTunes, Bandcamp and Amazon.
* Some thoughts on Fanbridge: I imagine it’s a great tool, and it is competitively priced. But it’s important to point out that Mailchimp is quite a bit cheaper, at least at the start. I also wonder if it interacts with any specialized CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools. That would certainly bump up the value of Fanbridge. Mailchimp plays well with several CRM tools. Also, some of the serious competitors, like Constant Contact or Salesforce have those tools fully baked in. With that, I’m unaware of Zoe using any CRM tools. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t, just don’t see anything.
Lastly, Ms. Keating speaks some to these point in the video below. Worth your while.
If you’ve liked what you read, please take a moment to let me know in the comments. And give it a share!
My Social Media Management Philosophy
I managed social media for several companies. My desire had always been organic growth. Most of my efforts are via thoughtful content and local engagement. My strategies do include the use of such tools as Google and Facebook ads, thatsbtgenlimit of paid reach. I never advise the buying of followers.
I’ve known several folks that have done so. Now, ostensibly it looks great. Having thousands of followers looks like it grants you significant authority, makes you look like an influencer. More sophisticated eyes will see through it. When most of your followers are bots, for instance, the validity of your authority becomes suspect.
With that, paid followers don’t provide meaningful engagement. We need to remember the why. Why did you start social media? Probably to gain customers. The likelihood any of those paid followers is going to turn into a client is pretty near zero.
Don’t get wrapped up in the numbers. It’s better to have a few subscribers or followers who are fully engaged with you, than tens of thousands who don’t. Influencing is far more about engagement than about follower counts.