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Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’
By now, I am really hoping you are a believer in the power of social media. But in case you aren’t, take a look at NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Games.
NBC has certainly had their hands full in the customer service department, as many of their broadcasting decisions have been roundly thumped in the public arena. “Meanwhile, the Twitter hashtag #NBCfail has become popular with thousands of unhappy American sports fans, who use the account to criticize NBC’s coverage of the Games,” notes a post from Boston.com. “Some have denounced NBC’s editing of the opening ceremony because the network omitted a tribute to the victims of the 2005 terrorist attacks in London, but most of the anger was roused by the decision not to show major events on live television because of the time difference between the United States and Great Britain.”
The Denver Post cites the “presence of Ryan Seacrest” as a point of major contention, and even said he “has become the poster child for NBC’s failures. Throughout the weekend, two of the hottest hash tags on Twitter were #nbcfails and #ryanseacrestucangonow.”
Perhaps more puzzling is NBC’s responses to these issues. Instead of looking to remedy the situation, it appears as though they are looking to pick a fight.
The Huffington Post highlights an exchange between a Time Magazine TV critic and an NBC exec.
“James Poniewozik, Time magazine TV critic, tweeted that ‘NBC tape delay coverage is like the airlines: its interest is in giving you the least satisfactory service you will still come back for.’
That drew a quick response from NBC’s Bell: ‘You do know that all sports events are being streamed live right?’
The same Boston.com article describes another head-scratching move by an NBC big-wig.
“…The network’s recently hired chief digital officer, Vivian Schiller, irked many Twitter users when she retweeted a message from CNN producer Jonathan Wald that seemed critical of those who complained about NBC’s coverage. ‘The medal for most Olympic whining goes to everyone complaining about what happens every 4 yrs., tape delay,’ the message said.
Schiller, who did not return a request for comment, later deleted the message from her
Twitter account, but not before it spawned a flood of angry responses.”
If a customer service rep at any other company heard consumer complaints and then proceeded to antagonize said customer, would you do business with them again?
NBC should be counting their blessings as a network that has lost money on the Olympics in the past. While early reports are indicating NBC will actually make a profit from this, they are not making any friends.
The network has had a serious image (and fiscal) dilemma in recent years, and their clear misunderstanding of social media only furthers them from the public acceptance they so desperately crave.
Follow Grow Socially on Twitter for more gold medal-winning social media news.
It’s Friday the 13th again, a day of misfortune, peculiar circumstance and the inexplicable.
Social media, as we have learned, is certainly not exempt from the surreal and unsettling. Back by popular request, here is the second installment of some of the unlucky social media efforts in recent memory.
#McDStories
This is a self-inflicted wound if I have ever seen one. McDonald’s launched a hashtag, #McDStories, with the intention that people would engage with it, sharing only their positive experiences such as “Just finished my workout, going to grab a Big Mac!” or “now THIS is what chicken should look like.”
Of course, the feedback was startlingly snarky, if not downright terrifying. Users commented on the low quality of food, poor work environment, even reports of fingernails in fries.
Celebrity Head Scratchers
Making social commentary is a dangerous game. Celebrities, for whatever reason, occasionally feel the need to chime in on some of the more pressing issues in the news. Ashton Kutcher learned a valuable lesson about social backlash when he tweeted about the firing of former Penn State coach Joe Paterno last November. “How do you fire Joe Pa?” he opined, also adding the hashtags, “#insult” and “#noclass.”
Only problem was, Kutcher was, somehow, not aware of the massive scandal surrounding Penn State and allegations towards Paterno that led to his dismissal. He later deleted the tweet and apologized.
Then, of course, there is Gilbert Godfried. The squinting, squawking comedian made wildly insensitive comments on his personal Twitter account about the tsunamis that struck Japan last spring.
It’s one thing to be a jerk when you’re only speaking for yourself. But as the voice of an iconic advertising mascot, Godfried was practically asking to get the boot. The voice of the revered “Aflac duck,” Godfried was very quickly removed by the company, which have a great deal of business in Japan.
High Fashion, Low Standards
This one still cracks me up. Last year, Egypt was in political and societal turmoil. There were riots and dire unrest. Fashion designed Kenneth Cole saw this and, like any concerned citizen of the world would do, used it to promote his new line of clothing.
Cole, of course, later apologized for the tweet, saying it was “absolutely inappropriate.”
For more social media fun, follow @growsocially on Twitter. We promise not to do anything that will land us in a blog like this one day.
The dog days of summer.
They become a seemingly never ending cycle, a string of hazy summer days and nights blending together to a point of no distinction. Incredibly, we find ourselves directly in the thick of it once again. With the Fourth of July behind us, it seems that there are few dates of note to break up the monotony of the seasonal heat.
However, there is one American tradition that has been a stalwart of our summers since 1985. Major League Baseball’s All Star game, the Midsummer Classic, has been a cultural event as well as a prestigious sporting accomplishment. Like most things steeped in baseball lore, the game has not been one for new trends.
The 2012 edition of the Classic will be seen through a very different lens. Last year, MLB allowed players to Tweet live during the Home Run Derby, the other component of the All Star break. This year, social media posting will be allowed and encouraged during the All Star Game itself.
Social media has already played a big role in this year’s festivities, as the last two roster spots, Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers and David Freese of the St. Louis Cardinals, were selected by fans via Twitter.
Follow the hashtag #ASG tonight to get involved with the action.
Who reigns supreme at their respective positions when it comes to Twitter? Here are the best of the best.
MLB Twitter All Star Team Starting Lineup
Catcher:
First Base:
(Okay so he isn’t in the league anymore. Doesn’t mean we aren’t still hanging on to 2004 here in Boston.)
Second Base:
Third Base:
Shortstop:
Left Field:
Center Field:
Right Field:
Designated Hitter:
Starting Pitcher:
If you have integrated your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to automate and share tweets with your LinkedIn audience, this news on Friday may have caught you off guard.
Twitter announced that they will no longer support the integration that allowed people to share Tweets on LinkedIn. The primary reason listed for making this change had to do with being able to deliver a more consistent experience for how tweets are presented and how people can interact with them.
If you had those two networks connected before, your initial reaction may be one of disappointment. There’s no doubt that the integration saved you time when it came to keeping your social networks updated.
Now, you will certainly need to spend more time on LinkedIn in order to share content with your connections there.
However, this change in process may actually be a good thing for you! Here are three ways that you can benefit from this change:
Start Using Different URLs to Track Which Network Works Best
One way to measure and analyze your social networking efforts is to use different short URLs for your posts. For example, let’s say you wanted to share an article about the Do’s and Don’ts of QR Codes. You may use the same headline and description to refer to the article — but you would create two unique short URLs. You would post one of the URLs on Twitter and the other on LinkedIn.
This type of approach may help you to start measuring if one social network is generating more clicks and attention on your content.
Get Up-to-Date with News That’s Only Being Shared on LinkedIn
If you’ve been in the habit of having Twitter update your LinkedIn status, then perhaps you have been neglecting the LinkedIn status updates that your connections are posting there. It goes beyond just status updates, of course. On LinkedIn, you are far more likely to learn about someone’s promotion, job status change, or perhaps even about how they are connecting with.
Sure, that data might be available on Twitter. But those types of updates are far more prevalent and easy to see on LinkedIn.
By paying more attention to those items, you may able to glean actionable information that could possibly create business opportunities for you.
Get More Involved in Sharing Content with Groups
While it’s important to update your status on LinkedIn frequently, it’s often been said that there’s major value to be found by contributing to Groups and also the Answers section.
Those items absolutely take time and energy to do. However, if there’s value in doing so, shouldn’t we want to spend time in those sections? Perhaps this Twitter/LinkedIn split will be the “push” we needed to start spending more time in those areas of LinkedIn.
I hope you find these ideas and tips helpful as you look for ways to succeed with social networking efforts!
We all know how expansive social media has become. But just how impressive is that reach?
Come late July, the most celebrated of all international events – sporting or otherwise- will serve as the backdrop for the most frenzied activity of one of our newest social institutions.
The 2012 Olympic Games in London, England are poised to be the setting of many record-breaking events. What remains to be seen is if those events actually happen during the athletic events.
One Associated Press article points out one of the main reasons we will see a massive jump in action. “At the last Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, Twitter had about 6 million users and Facebook 100 million. Today, the figure is 140 million for Twitter and 900 million for Facebook.”
London is also going to be the perfect storm of new media. “In Sydney (2000) there was hardly any fast Internet, in Athens (2004) there were hardly any smartphones, in Beijing hardly anyone had social networks,” Jackie-Brock Doyle, communications director of London organizing committee LOCOG, told Business Week. “That’s all changed. Here, everyone has all that and will be consuming the games in a different way.”
The Olympiad, with all of its grandeur and spectacle, is the perfect breeding ground for easily shared content. There are a few simple ground rules being laid by the International Olympic Committee restricting video showing and advertising, but otherwise these games will be overflowing with pictures, Tweets, posts and more.
Keep an eye on hashtags coming from corporate sponsors and the television broadcast. These giant companies are fully aware of the importance of social media engagement, and they are investing some serious resources into it.
We can’t be sure what event will be the one to shatter social media records. American swimming giants Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte going head to head in the pool? Sprinting stars Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay in a photo finish?
No matter what it is, it’ll be hard to miss.
Follow Grow Socially on Twitter!
As a frequent flyer, I understand the frustrations of flight complications.
So when I read this article on the Huffington Post about a nightmarish sequence of flights, I empathized. “There were maintenance problems, massive delays, wrong gates posted and flight times changed without proper notice,” laments the author of the article, Lauren DiMarco. “These are several of the reasons that people complain about flying the friendly skies.”
But American Airlines is a savvy company with a fantastic social media presence and strategy. Twitter, in particular, is a fantastic example of American Airlines’ customer interaction.
DiMarco actually prefers Tweeting with AA instead of calling their automated hotline. It got her the results she needed quickly and conveniently. And we’re talking about getting flights switched with special arrangements. If you’ve ever had to call an airline looking for a last minute adjustment, there is a good chance it didn’t go over well.
What is great about this article is that you can apply the lessons to your own company’s social media efforts. How can you become more engaging on social media? Here are three quick guidelines to help you get started.
1. Be Thorough
How fortunate for American Airlines to make the effort to help a customer who happened to be a travel writer for a major website. You never know the influence any of your customers have. But never underestimate the power of word of mouth. Respond to everyone. American Airlines was the cause of so much of DiMarco’s strife, but thoughtful responses on Twitter diffused the situation and established her loyalty towards the brand.
2. Be Sincere
No one wants to be treated poorly by a sprawling, faceless corporation. Using social media as a mechanism for response is a step up from anonymous hotlines. Keep in mind, however, that folks hold their social media accounts as items of legitimate personal importance. Your company has a chance to offer a thoughtful and carefully-crafted response to any and everyone who reaches out to your brand. Take advantage of this.
3. Be Speedy
There is a reason people will Tweet before they call you. They aren’t looking to spend their day on the phone, talking in circles and getting a healthy serving of red tape to chew through. If you get a Tweet or Facebook comment, don’t let it sit for too long. Be ready to respond in a timely manner.
Being reactive to your networks’ needs is a critical part of a healthy social media strategy. If your followers are taking the time to reach out to you, it is very important to extend your gratitude back to them. Being reactive leads to being proactive. And your audience will thank you for that.
Follow me on Twitter @JohnFoleyJr!
Welcome to the second installment of Meet the Team Friday. This week, we’ll be getting to know Kerri Stinson, a web developer here at Grow Socially and interlinkONE.
Every office needs a Kerri.
You know the type of person Kerri is. She is a quiet achiever, a hush-tone executor. She keeps operations moving forward and is always willing, if not downright eager, to help out her coworkers.
“Everyone at interlinkONE and Grow Socially is working towards a common goal,” said Kerri. “As a result, I enjoy doing my part any way I can. Whether that be training my co-workers on the ins and outs of WordPress or training our clients on how to edit their own websites, I love to help.”
Kerri, a 2011 graduate of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, majored in Communication and minored in Graphic Design. Her role with Grow Socially wasn’t one she anticipated, but certainly appreciates now.
“I started a year ago on a project for interlinkONE, there was not an open position for a web designer position at Grow Socially at that point,” said Kerri. “As time went on, I started picking up customer projects for Grow Socially and my job has evolved into what it is now.
In her spare time, Kerri is a devout Boston Bruins fan. But perhaps her most interesting nugget of trivia is her taste in music. Kerri, in all her reservation, is a huge fan of some hard core rock and roll.
“Yeah, most people don’t really expect me to listen to that type of music,” she quipped.
Kerri, right, and sister Meaghan
But above all, Kerri is a true family gal. And she is now a very proud older sister, as her younger sibling, Meaghan, became a member of the most recent graduating class of Wilmington High School. Meaghan will be attending Quinnipiac University in the Fall to be a Physician’s Assistant.
A dog lover, Kerri also has a pet mini-schnauzer named Shelby.
Kerri has proven to be an invaluable asset to the Grow Socially team. Her dedication to her craft and team-first mentality is something we are happy to have in the office day in and day out.
Kerri’s Fast Facts
Favorite Movie: 10 Things I Hate About You
Favorite TV Show: Big Bang Theory
Favorite iPhone App: Twitter
Favorite Food: Mexican
Favorite Vacation Spot: Florida
Connect with Kerri on Twitter!
And check out this blog about Kerri from one of our customers!
The perils and pitfalls of social media are fairly well documents at this stage in the game. We’ve all heard of the stories of people catching heat over ill-advised parental criticism, a beauty queen’s lack of judgement, and athletes continuing to embarrass themselves.
But we aren’t all celebrities. And odds are, we won’t be making any headlines for TMZ with our social media blunders. This doesn’t, however, get us off the hook from being professional on our social networks. This particularly applies to recent college graduates who are attempting to enter the workforce. Make no mistake: employers look at your Facebook profile, your Twitter and more. Having a LinkedIn doesn’t cover up for whatever imperfections that may lurk on other accounts.
Here are five tips that will get you ready for the job hunt.
1. Treat Yourself Like A Brand Name
Social media presents an opportunity for you to market yourself. Tweet about topics relevant to the industry you are looking to enter. Utilize Facebook’s new Timeline structure to highlight your talents in the banner picture. Share your content. Run your networks like a company would.
2. Multimedia Will Set You Apart
Consider a video résumé or informative YouTube video to include in your networks. Video is a far more engaging medium than text, and there is no better way to illuminate who you really are. Let potential employers see your face. Beyond video, consider using QR Codes on your printed résumé to direct potential employers to a mobile résumé. How do you make a mobile résumé you say? I am glad you asked.
3. Make A Mobile Résumé
Grow Socially allows you to create a Mobile Résumé that you can tailor to your needs. It generates a QR Code that you can place on any printed collateral that you would like. And your Mobile Résumé can contain video, links, text and more. Mobile recruitment is a quickly rising trend among employers. This service can help your name rise to the top of the pile.
4. Build Your Network
Back when I was in college (one month ago), I took a class on professional communication, which touched a great deal on social media. My professor often told me there is “strength in weak ties.” Creating great content is frivolous if no one can see it. Build the biggest network you possibly can, connecting with everyone you meet in person. You never know down the road when you may need to reach back and converse with someone from a previous job, school or experience.
5. Familiarize Yourself With Your Ideal Workplaces
An article on Forbes.com says that it is important to keep current with job postings, but also, “start looking for opportunities not disclosed yet. Follow your 5-6 ideal companies and read their updates on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. What are they saying? Where are they expanding? What new deals have they won? Do those have a need for a fine professional like you?”
If the day comes that one of these companies is looking to fill a position, don’t make them look very far.
Make sure to follow Grow Socially on Twitter for more on social media, and follow me too!
To succeed in marketing today, there is no doubt that it’s important for companies to have a multi-channel approach. However, that is often easier said than done. Marketers may fall in love with one specific channel for awhile — perhaps one that’s hot and new, or one that’s brought them some success in the past.
If you’ve ever fallen into that trap, I think you may find Twitter’s recent actions beneficial.
Yes, they are now using email as a way to make users aware of tweets that they may have missed on the social network.
Here’s a screenshot from one that I’ve received:
I think this is a smart move by Twitter.
As more and more tweets are created every day, it certainly has become a bit more difficult for users to get their content noticed. The same is true for nearly every marketing channel, really!
I think they will certainly see benefits by using multiple channels to promote the massive amount of content that is produced there every day.
The more interested and invested one becomes in Twitter, typically, the more followers one will accrue. And this normally means more people that one will be following.
But what happens when you start following thousands of users? You may start missing important Tweets from friends and colleagues. Or what if you can’t seem to get any followers? All of the relevant Tweets in the world just don’t seem to get you noticed.
These two common problems can be remedied by using Lists. Lists allow you to aggregate Twitter users any way you please. You can organize people into groupings, allowing you to cut through all that clutter coming through the timeline. Lists are very easy to use and navigate.
There are plenty of ideas for potential List members, including:
- Industry Leaders
- Thought Leaders
- Notable Companies
- Personal Connections
- Industry Publications
Lists have proven to be a highly effective tool in increasing followers. Get involved with Lists of users in your field. These are people or companies who share common interests and career goals who want to hear what you have to say. And you should be just as intent on listening to what they have to say. It is a great networking opportunity and a chance to be noticed.
Interact with people who compile effective Lists. Tweet at them, asking to be added. Being a part of an influential List will boost your followers and amount of meaningful connections you have.
For more Twitter tips, here is a post in the Grow Socially blog from @jasonpinto about never missing a Tweet again.
Make sure to follow Grow Socially on Twitter for new posts, and follow me too!
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