Tags
#HP, #McDStories, Blogs, Dos and Donts, e-blasts, McDonalds, Newsletters, Tips, Zaarly
First and foremost, your social media presence should be your own. You can choose to copy similar websites or businesses, but your audience is most likely not identical to theirs. Even if it was, what they might be doing might not be the “right” thing to do.
While I firmly believe that your social media presence should be unique to you, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t things we can learn from other companies. I am going to do a 3 part series of some quick and easy lessons that you can learn from other companies. If you pay attention to what’s going on around you, it can help you shape your own online personality. The most important thing is to be true to yourself and your company.
Do utilize e-mail blasts in an engaging way to lead them to your website or blog. Out of every newsletter I have ever signed up for, I have probably only consistently opened up the Zaarly newsletters. I read (or glance) at most newsletters, but Zaarly knows how to rock it out.
Among all of the fun blog topics, Zaarly utilizes the core of their existence – their community. By writing about fun and interesting stories of the people who use the tool, it brings in a level of realism. The stories are all so unique and fun that the teaser in the e-blast just cannot go un-clicked – at least by me.
Don’t use your newsletter and blogs as advertisements only. While I think it’s great to spread the news of new products or changes in the company – if every single blast to my email is just another ad, I’m going to unsubscribe. I could give examples, but that wouldn’t be very nice. I can forgive the newsletters, but when it’s a blog, that’s when I get grouchy. Unless you have a product that I cannot live without, I will not be adding your blog to my RSS feeds.
Do utilize hashtags, and if you’ve got the cash you can try promoted tags. Companies like HP always seem to have either a promoted tag or tweet going on. Even if they don’t have anything promoted, you can always count on a search for #hp to come up with significant results – especially if there is a new product out.
Don’t forget that there is a very strong voice on Twitter. McDonald’s very recently made the mistake of forgetting that there are a lot of people who either don’t like the company – or just enjoy making fun of fast food. In case you somehow missed the insanity, here’s a glimpse at how their attempt at#McDStories went horribly wrong.
Cute concept, except everyone under the sun has probably had a very bad story to share – goodness knows I could have jumped in on the hate bandwagon. Not only that, directly after the very public embarrassment they jumped in with another tag #littlethings that happened to be the same tag a hotel was using the same day. If you’re going to tag, do your research, and consider how it can be turned negative.