Do Brands Talk With You on Social Networks?

I can't stand when a brand, no matter what the size, simply posts on a social network and walks away.

I try to explain to my clients how social networking is like a cocktail party.  It's going on 24x7 and you can enter it at any time.  People are always there.   You can't simply walk in to the party and broadcast something about yourself (the brand), turn around and leave the party... and then do it again the next time and the next time and the next time.  Everyone will groan and roll their eyes at you, when you do that.  You'll be THAT person everyone dreads at a party.  They'll ignore you.  This is when brands decide social isn't working them.  

You don't go to a party and just talk about yourself. You have to ask people about themselves first.  Get to know them.  Then you earn the right to say what you do when a party goer asks, "so tell me about yourself".

Here's a great example of a very large brand engaging with a fan.  The beautiful part is, the fan made this unsolicited tweet on their own, better yet, included the brand's Twitter address so they would be easily "heard".   They were.

See how easy this is.  Twitter is  my favorite listening tool ... listen and respond.  It makes being a community manager so much more fun.  Everyone wins.  Everyone. 

Get into the mix daily and dagnabit, be a great guest at the party!

~Alexis Ceule

Social Media Mamapreneur

A NEW Facebook Feature You'll Like

While social networking for a client, I saw this nifty new "reply" feature in regards to comments left on a status update for fan pages.  

In this case, it was visible on the Lawrence Public Library but I couldn't find it on any of the other Facebook pages I administer or ones I checked from my personal account. I think it's a good idea for a feature so you can directly respond to a specific comment to a post. It will most certainly help organize the thread visually.  

Have you seen this option yet?

The Busiest Time on Pinterest Is...

Did you know the busiest day and time for pinning, repinning and perusing Pinterest is... Saturday morning?  Yeppers.

Happy Pinning.

Keep Calm and We Don't Have Enough of These

3 Guys Walk Into a Hot Tub...

I spent some time in Keystone, Colorado this last week.  One late afternoon, I'm soaking my sore shins, from skiing, in the outdoor hot tub at The Timbers.  3 Nice looking guys got in too.  They look about their mid 40's, well built, carrying cans of beer (and a few back ups) and are very chatty.  It's easy to start up a conversation in a hot tub, so we did.

Turns out, they all 3 have been serving several years in Afghanistan as engineers, either with the military or as a contractor. Funny thing was, they didn't know the other was there until they found each other on FACEBOOK  These 3 guys grew up within a few blocks of each other and hadn't seen the others since the summer after high school graduation.

They asked the military for some time off, went back to Alabama, met up with their families and took them all skiing.  They were clearly happy to be together and their conversations were filled with loud laughter (the kind you throw your head back and slap your knee about)  and big smiles.  My kind of guys.

I thanked them for their service and then they wormed their way further into my heart with the following toast:  "We love Facebook!"

Cheers to that!