How I Use Social Media: A Love Story
Well, Not Really. LOL
Recently, there have been many discussions regarding how people use social media. (See @bradjward ’s post) He’s not the only one. Many of us have been rethinking how we use the different tools in our social media arsenal. (See also, @robin2go ’s post)
With the recent addition of Twitter to Linkedin updates, it brings up the point again: why do you use social media? Do these audiences blend? Why do you use each platform? Take a sec. Think about it.
I realized recently that my Twitter use was more immediate and constant: I knew people would always be there for a quick catch up, a funny quip, to take part in a strange moment in my day or to ask a question. Because of this these people are actually closer to me than those who follow other social networks or in real life. Yes, there is some cross over, but for the most part, they are more cued in to me and my daily life. I only feed my professional blog to Twitter, and manually post my dating blog there. In my daily life, I only encounter 1 other person who is active on Twitter. (@peteypumpkin shout out!) And, this is a person I see at work. In my personal life, none of my close friends IRL Tweet.
Facebook is more a repository for photos, family, non-tech friends, and close friends. I would never cross stream my Twitter feed to Facebook because Facebook for me is more personal – not more close – but the audience is not primarily work or technology focused. I tend to post more information about hobbies in Facebook, more running/rowing/krav info and event information. I do occassionally cross promote but rarely post informational links to my personal Facebook within Twitter. For the most part, they are separate. At one point I did feed a few items to Facebook: Freindfeed, Last.fm, etc. I’ve since ceased. It only gummed up the works and made Facebook less social and more ‘look at what I’m doing on the internet’. Who needs to see that? My professional blog is the only feed I have currently into Facebook. I manually post my dating blog there as well.
Linkedin is a very Rolodex process for me. If I meet professionals I add them there if they have an account. If I talk with them on Twitter, met them in real life and had a few drinks/think they’re a cool person, I’ll add them to Facebook as well. Linkedin to me is my online resume: it shows my work experience, my blog, Twitter, and who I connect with professionally and groups that interest me. I manually post once a week to the status something work related, but overall I find the status option useless. I cannot see a real use for Linkedin socially as it is too segregated – why would I do the things in there I can do in Twitter and have them be searchable?
Why do you use social media? Do you feel feeding status’ is useful to your ‘audience’?
Facebook: New Media Teacher
It happened again: Facebook updating its home feed look and added other functionality. As you can imagine, this sparked yet another rebellion by hundreds of thousands of angry users. But, given the outcome of past rebellions against its updated look and feel, does it pay to even rally? Yes, the TOS rebellion went the users way (at least a little bit), but that has nothing to do with the ease of use of the site.
Here’s something to consider: perhaps Facebook is doing us (and themselves) a favor. They force us to change the way we use the medium. They try out new ways of viewing content on us and we adapt. Maybe instead of feeling jilted at the loss of the status quo, we should be thankful for exercising our media use savviness.
Since it seems the majority of social network users spend the most of our time in Facebook, it makes sense that it becomes a familiar freind. Something we take for granted until it is changed. But wouldnt it make sense for us to embrace these changes, enhancements, as a learning experience? Since some of people use only Facebook, the changes being made could aid in being media savvy, and help when they do venture out into other networks. Not only will they be mentally agile, they’ll also be able to have the expereince of different streams of information and functionalities.
Forget PR, Its Marketing Thats Dead…
For some reason, PR has been attacked lately. I put it out of my mind until yesterday, when, while sitting in a meeting, I realized that PR being dead is old news. Its marketing’s death thats the new(er) scoop. With that I backtracked and read PR is Dead: Was I Supposed to Care on Todd Defren’s blog. In it, he references Hubspot’s Marketing Blog Post ‘Is PR Dead?’.
I can say it: back in the day (circa 2004) I thought I was built for PR. I quickly learned that, being that I detest cold calling and seemingly dirty reciprocal relationships I, in fact, was not. But now, does PR matter – no, we all know that. PR is as relevant as the paper its printed on, those which we no longer read. True, stories pitched may end up online, but with the social web, spun webs are very easily cut. Such brand recognition can be built via real people and experiences, which are just – if no more so – powerful than print in big media.
In steps the next on the way to slaughter: marketing. Marketing: ‘the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service’ is seemingly dead too. On its own. No longer can any tactic: PR/Advertising/Marketing, be utilized in a vacuum. Integrated communication, which was once seen as ‘huh?’ by my colleauges is now, whether defined as such or not, the way ‘marketing/pr/advertising’ is living.
Marketing is an old hat. It thrived on one way communication and being all about what the company wanted to say to get what they needed. Now, integrated marketing communication and social networking strategies are opening what used to be a dirty business into a hopeful and honest give and take. Companies can (well, should) learn from what is said about them and their products and make changes. No longer is this novel or a ‘cool thing’ to do. Its commonplace and expected. To not have such makes a company seem outdated or uptight, possibly hiding something.
And who can be loyal to that?
Music: Its Alive!
Indeed: my feed reader is, in fact, blowin’ up. The past 24 hours have been intense. The one thing I personally didnt see coming was the proliferation of music: buying, gifting, searching. Its all over the place.
Today, MySpace unveiled enhancements meant to appeal to consumers and content providers alike. Funny since we’ve all been reading articles that announce the continued sickly state of the MySpace platform.
Also announced yesterday, Facebook has launched a music gifting service which allows users to purchase and gift music to other users.
On top of all this, Google is rumored to have a music service of their own, allowing searches to yield downloadable purchased tracks. Tuesday, Apple began Tweeting about iTunes.
Although the music industry has been deemed dead for a very long time, it appears that by adding social and searchable attributes, music is now becoming integrated into everyday digital interactions a bit more easily. But, what does this mean for the industry itself? Will this help struggling companies or will it open up a whole new mess of problems between artists, rights owners and labels?
Blogging: Dont Make It A Big Deal
Blogging and I have a long and sullied relationship. At first, like most newbs, I was very enamored with the thought of blogging often. I had a lot to say, right? Slowly, blogging became more of a burden than a hobby. After that, its a hop, skip and a jump to empty thoughts, pressure and a hatred of the medium. Feeling guilty is a sure way to build procrastination. Here’s three ways to make it ‘not a big deal’.
Start with Other Content Most of us read several RSS feeds, have events to promote or may have stumbled upon a fun new site or toy. Using the momentum of your thoughts on external content is a major blogging spring board. Not everything has to be new and fresh topically: whats fresh is the perspective you bring to it. Even if others have already touched on the subject, bring your own experiences and research to the table. Help others and be useful.
Short is Sweet Every post wont be your greatest life’s work. This is my biggest downfall: thinking that every post needs to be new, novel, best and biggest. If you never start, you’ll never gain momentum. Think of your blog as your space for brainstorming. Your place to take notes. Use the community to build on the post. Not everything needs to come from you: sometimes the best parts of a short blog post are the comments from readers who bring the idea to full tilt.
Respond Maybe you really were rocked by something someone said in Twitter. Perhaps another’s blog post really got you thinking. Why not craft your own lengthy response? Blogs are a place for individual commentary and creating and honing your thinking skills. Typing up your thoughts and posting them online provides you with an ongoing record of what topics interest you while helping you iron out your thoughts with feedback.
No matter what, keep going and dont feel bad for long absences. Think creatively and allow that instant interest in something to grow into a relevant post for your subject matter. Draw a little outside the lines and bring your personality to it. A good read is one that allows us to see into the blogger – not just the content.
Millennials and Virgos: Excluding the Underserved and Unpopular
Here’s where my work in College Access and parental involvement kicks in. I just finished reading ‘Millennial Muddle: How Stereotyping Students Became an Industry’. I couldn’t help but feel a little vindicated. The following quote really resonated with me:
“Over the last decade, commentators have tended to slap the Millennial label on white, affluent teenagers who accomplish great things as they grow up in the suburbs, who confront anxiety when applying into super-selective colleges, and who multitask with ease as their helicopter parents hover reassuringly above them. The label tends not to appear in renderings of teenagers who happen to be minorities, or poor, or who have never won a spelling bee. Nor does the term often refer to students from big cities and small towns that are nothing like Fairfax County, Va {Where ‘Millennial’ research was conducted}. Or who lack technological know-how. Or who struggle to complete high school. Or who never even consider college. Or who commit crimes. Or who suffer from too little parent support. Or who drop out of college. Aren’t they Millennials, too?’
Seriously. Marketing to a Millennial is like marketing to a Virgo. How many students – strike that – how many of YOUR students fit this profile? Should any more effort be applied to a stereotype than to an individual? What ever happened to just communicating with the best possible content for your audience in the best way for that audience? Personally, I feel lumping a generation into one name sake is the opposite of good marketing – do your research. Find out about your target audience. Specifically. I’m all for segmentation, and the few insights into ‘kids today’ but not all of these attributes apply to all – or most – of ‘our’ students.
What about yours?
I’m Not Not Working, I’m Integrated…
Ever feel like co-workers or bosses think you’re avoiding work or ‘playing online’? Maybe you’ve even felt a little guilty for your time on Twitter/Facebook or Google Reader? I say: stop it. Feeling that way, that is.
My thought on this is that you are only as prepared as you are informed. Sure you have tasks to do, but being aware of up to the minute happenings makes you more valuable. Being connected to other professional minds as well as new ideas/hypotheses helps you do your job better than if you waited till you had free time (whats that?) to read your feeds, catch up on Twitter, or blog your thoughts on a topic you’re working on and receive feedback: your connectivity is your biggest asset.
Just like the nature of the web and lifestreaming, all things flow together in our daily digital lives. You research a topic, you find a gem, you Tweet it, you share it on Facebook or bookmark it on Delicious, email it to staff and IM discuss it. All things flow together. Even if you did just RT that clip from Glee last night.
If you take yourself out of the stream of information, you risk being out of the loop, reading old news, and missing out on your own professional development that makes you such a valued asset to your company – and career - in the first place.
To do so, you might as well interoffice mail your resignation. 
Facebook: The Band-Aid for Your Website
Its become painfully obvious: Facebook has become a work around for static web sites. Whether theres no date in site for a much needed redesign or your current functionality has been outpaced by reality, creating a place to put content in Facebook has made it the great new world. Here’s five quick reasons why:
1. Dynamic Content Social media – especially Facebook – is known for its moving parts. It becomes a living entity, not just static content on a web page. If your web site doesnt currently offer this, you may feel compelled to move into the Facebook sphere to engage your audience as a quick fix.
2. Interactivity Comments, posts, links, pictures, video. You name it, you can probably add it to Facebook in some fashion. Allowing your fans to interact with you and each other in this way may be something that you’ll never see your corporate web site do, and maybe, thats a good thing. Or maybe, its not. Either way, Facebook becomes the repository for interactivity in many companies. Probably, because consumers are already there, and Facebook does it best.
3. RSS Functionality If your site doesnt have any plans to add RSS functions, Facebook takes care of this. You can feed news from any underutilized RSS feed (off site blogs, campus portal feeds, etc.) into Facebook. Any activity you take becomes a part of the fan’s ‘home’ feed. Care must be taken to not inundate the user, but can effectively become the active web presence on behalf of your company.
4. Quick Updates Maybe homepage real estate doesnt allow for quick updates or announcements. Facebook becomes the stand in, allowing companies, departments and other groups to publish quick, timely information directly to users.
5. Claiming Ignorance In many universities, there is no formal social media policy. This leaves everything open to interpretation and usually ignorance is bliss for the administration. Since Facebook is a third party, this alleviates any misconduct on behalf of the university – to a point. It seems to be an easy work around from the web site for this very reason: it takes very little start up energy, is popular, and does not require a committee or ITS hand holding.
Although Facebook is good for many things, a web site replacement it is not. It is a great lead generator, as is all social media, in taking users directly to key information without having to search through a clunky web site. But, at the end of the day, social media should be integrated into your informative and easily navigable web presence instead of just an inbound link creator.
The web is no longer push and company web sites need to become interactive to stay relevant.
Knowing Your Audience: Social Media Behaviors
Sure social media is now a given in most higher ed campaigns. But, how many of us are doing real research? Paid research? Personal research?
In just my every day dealings with students and social media I’m finding two things: #1 they mostly text to Twitter/Facebook and #2 they use ‘Class of’ groups mainly to meet each other.
In texting Twitter and Facebook updates, this leaves out the interactivity that a mobile app would provide. Does this mean our students are not using mobile apps? Do they prefer to pass along information about themselves and only subscribe to a few friends updates? This could mean big things if a lot of time is spent updating these sites to keep students aware as they are in and around campus, yet they dont get these events in as timely a manner as we assume.
For the ‘Class of’ groups: originally we assumed that students would feel an affinity for the class year and eventually this could be handed off to alumni affairs, after passing through many other hands on campus. Yet, we are actually seeing a decline in members, even as more content is posted, events are added, and messages are sent in an unobtrusive way. Does this mean students do not align themselves with their class year, but rather a major or school? Perhaps they find the University FB page more helpful and timely?
Whatever the reason, time and follow up research will tell which way students use these key social media outlets. We need to be diligent in making sure others understand the importance of adding social media in their follow up survey’s and questionnaires. How do you research your audience’s social media behaviors? How do you segment this research and apply it to your tactics?
Google Reader Shared Items
- Twitter COO: We’ll Have An Advertising Business Soon. And You’re Going To Love It. November 20, 2009 Jason Kincaid
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- Twitter's geotagging API goes live November 20, 2009 (author unknown)
- Twitter Launches in French November 20, 2009 Jennifer Van Grove
- With Chrome OS, Google Intends to Destroy the Desktop and Microsoft November 20, 2009 Ben Parr
- Now That's Mobile Ad Targeting [Advertising] November 19, 2009 Peter A. Prestipino
- Threadless Shirts Become iPhone Cases [T-shirts] November 19, 2009 Mark Wilson
- Verizon App Offers All-In-One Easy Access to Social Nets, Twitter November 19, 2009 Mark Walsh
- Facebook Now #3 Video Site Behind YouTube and Hulu November 18, 2009 Barb Dybwad
- New Flip Video Cameras to Have Wi-Fi November 19, 2009 Ben Parr
