4 Social Mistakes Easily Prevented by Common Sense

Not everyone has common sense when it comes to social media. Some people are still new to the game and trying to figure out exactly how all this ‘nonsense’ works. Many of these people own businesses. I’ve found 4 horrible (yet sometimes hilarious) mistakes to bring to attention only in hopes that nobody else will make these mistakes. So, here are four social media mistakes that could’ve easily been prevented by common sense –

1. Making it all about you

A common fallacy that people really believe is that all they have to do for their brand is set up a Facebook fan page or Twitter feed and get instant success! If only it were that easy, many of us would be out of jobs. Walgreens seems to get it and has been actively posting fun links and relevant information to their Facebook page, and occasionally responding to their fans. Competing drugstore CVS takes the opposite approach – only posting advertisements and in-store specials and never responding to anyone that posts.

Luckily, many brands are starting to understand that consumers no longer want an email newsletter to be the extent of communication they receive, especially local brands. Indianapolis’s own Yats (Disclaimer: a Firebelly client) has built a legacy around social media and the internet, for example. Facebook and Twitter are arguably the top ways right now to establish customer trust and loyalty.

Further reading: 5 Ideas for Building Customer Trust and Loyalty Via Facebook and Twitter via @volusion

2. Offending your fans

What you’re saying may SEEM harmless, but not everyone agrees with you and your way of thinking. Yes, it’s okay to let your human side show even when it’s through a Facebook or Twitter account that you use for business. But if you’re going to complain, make crude jokes or just be off-color, then don’t be surprised when people get offended.

Baked goods company @Entenmanns faced backlash on Twitter a few weeks ago by capitalizing on the #notguilty hashtag made popular by the Casey Anthony trial. A Twitter uproar started, as Twitter uproars often do, and Entenmann’s was very quick to apologize, admitting they didn’t know what the hashtag referenced.

Even worse is when @KennethCole made light of the uprising then-happening in Egypt with the tweet “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is available online…”

But even topping that is GoDaddy’s CEO @DrBobParsons’ video of hunting down an elephant (Warning: Graphic video autoplays) that he posted to his official Twitter account and Facebook page. While claiming that the elephant was harming the crops of a village, and the African villagers sport GoDaddy apparel while celebrating the dead animal, PETA wasn’t amused. They launched a campaign against the company within days.

But hey, they say no publicity is bad publicity, right?

Further reading: Managing Your Company’s Social Media Risk

3. Directing people the wrong way

Common Sense 101, right? Wrong, apparently, and the popular hangover destination Denny’s learned this the hard way. Last year on the printed menus, the restaurant directed people to tweet @Dennys about their experience. People started to realize that the poor guy on the other end, Dennys Hsieh, didn’t really care about how amazing your Grand Slam was.

Double-check your work before getting it printed, especially if your social media is outsourced and you’re not strongly familiar with how “Facespace” and “The Tweeter” work. It’s easy to direct people to the wrong place by simply putting a letter or a dash in the wrong place.

4. Failing to analyze and build upon your reach

After a while in the social media game, you should be building a strong reputation. At least, if you’re doing things right. So how do you know if you’re doing well. Can you give someone statistics when you’re explaining to them how well social media has helped you?

Analytics can help a brand figure out what’s come right and what’s gone horribly wrong. You’ll start to realize that people like it when you post a relevant news article, but don’t really care when you brag about how great the Mojito you’re sipping on tastes. Or vice versa, depending on the audience.

Further reading: Top 10 Analytics Tools for Social Media via @imediatweet

Living, Breathing Brand Marks & Logos

Let’s chat about branding, specifically one trend I’ve been watching lately. “Consistent” and “logo” are often words applied together in branding, as in a logo should never deviate from the set colors and shapes that it was designed around. After all, many of the reasons a logo is designed is to bring recognizable consistency to a brand. This works for a lot of companies and a lot of brands. However, the conception is not the rule. When done well, a “living” logo can further establish a brand and communicate everything the brand covers.

A living logo still sticks to some set boundaries, but can easily change depending on where and when it’s used. For example, when the City of Melbourne, Australia, was seeking to refresh its image, they wanted a mark as vibrant and diverse as the city itself. The wildly popular City of Melbourne logo was born. The beauty of the giant M is that the only thing that stays the same in each use is the recognizable shape. This isn’t just a simple Helvetica M, it’s a bold, blocky, in-your-face M.

What’s the benefit? What’s the point of putting the time in to a morphing logo? Using the Melbourne example, the innards of the shape are filled with different shape and colors that keep the design fresh and new regardless of how often you see it. You know what the logo stands for as soon as you see the shape, but everything within that shape is still completely new to the eye, and draws you in.

Using another example, Voices of Youth launched a new identity in April, and it’s grown to be one of my favorites. Another simple letter-mark, this time substituting half of the V for a perfectly placed speech bubble. Voices of Youth was launched by UNICEF in 1995 “to offer all children and adolescents … a safe and supportive global cyberspace within which they can explore, discuss and partner on issues related to human rights and social change.” Until recently, they’ve functioned with a highly generic Arial-based font treatment, but focused on developing a logo that can encompass every topic they cover.

The beauty is in the speech bubble. The shape will morph to include a symbol representing the current topic, also allowing the rest of the mark to change colors.

Since the organization covers many hard-hitting topics, such as AIDS prevention and world conflict, this morphing logo allows each topic to be brought to the foreground when necessary. The symbols that accompany each topic are prominent on the website, usually scattered in the backdrop creating a stage for the main content.

The idea, like most great things, should still only be used in moderation. Avoid being like Sears and using three different logos for no clear reason, or even changing your logo much from it’s basic recognizable shape. The key is that the consumer can identify the brand without being bored.

Thanks to @ucllc and Brand New for the images and ideas. What do you think? Can more companies benefit from a morphing logo, or could it just lead to confusion?

6 Annoying Ways You’re Using WordPress

I’ve never made any attempt to hide it, I have an ongoing love affair with WordPress. The website management system flat-out beats all other blogging and even web development platforms I’ve worked with… when used correctly. Often times, WordPress I’ve found WordPress used poorly. Handy features go unused, the website looks boring, and issues plague the website. These are some of the most common issues I’ve personally encountered in my adventures on the internet.

It’s obvious that a pre-made theme is used.

I’ll be the first to preach that it’s pointless to start from scratch if you don’t need to. Sometimes you or your client just need a website finished that “gets the job done.” There are some people that can usually name a WordPress template just be looking at it, so it’s normal for myself and other web developers to spot purchased designs. It becomes a greater issue when regular, non-seasoned visitors realize that your site looks just like the other generic website they were looking at.

Purchased themes aren’t bad, even this website is based on one. What’s terrible is when nobody puts any effort in to customizing the theme to the look and feel of your brand. No premium (or free) theme will fit your website perfectly. Many premium themes offer built-in color changing options, and some get even more advance while still offering an easy-to-use interface. There’s no excuses to have your theme look completely generic.

Don’t even get me started on professional websites that are still using the bundled “Twenty Eleven” theme.

The posts & pages are just plain.

I want to read blog posts or articles, not essays. When your page is formatted the same way a high school term paper would look, it gets boring. Headlines, Bold, Italics, Pictures, Colors, Tables, Blockquotes, Pull-quotes… all of these and more can and should be used on every post or page you do. Not only does it looks many times better, but it allows for much easier readability.

For example, just take a look at this post, and how it could look with no formatting.

WordPress is being used for everything.

WordPress offers a simple and clean interface to edit pages. There are many things it can do, from webcomics to social networks, it’s much more than just blogging software. But sometimes it’s still just not enough. Other times it can be too much.

Yes, you CAN set up WordPress for your one-page landing website, but why? Opening up an HTML editor and Photoshop could be quicker, especially if you’re not looking to expand on the website any time in the near future. Yes, you CAN find a way to make WordPress work as an e-classifieds website, but why should you? It’s comparable to using a newspaper as a hat – it gets the job done, but requires more work and probably doesn’t provide the same quality. Dry out y0ur hair and realize that WordPress may not always be the best option for what you want.

You should weigh several content management options before deciding on WordPress. A good web developer should be comfortable using a number of systems, a better developer won’t be afraid of being uncomfortable.

No social media integration.

I’ve been to many a blog that made me think “I like this article, I’ll post it to Twitter,” only to realize there was no convenient Tweet button. Most agree that sharing goes up once buttons are introduced, and it makes things much easier for the reader. However…

Too much social media integration.

…there’s a limit. Providing a button for the top two is great… even introducing Google+ and others in to the mix can be a good idea. But how necessary is StumbleUpon? Reddit? Delicious? Fark? Digg? AOL? MySpace? Chances are these buttons will never be used while taking up valuable space and looking tacky on any web page. Do some testing and look at what sharing buttons are right for your website.

No tracking Or analytics.

Many times I’ve had to work with sites that have absolutely no sort of analytics set up. The demographics of your users and where they’re going are important pieces of information and missing out on those can break you. StatPress only takes a few minutes to set up, and Google Analytics doesn’t take much more effort. Install and pay attention to these. Knowing where your visitors are going can be crucial for business.

Overall, WordPress doesn’t kill websites. People kill websites. I love WordPress, but it’s become clear that once a product hits the masses, everyone becomes an expert and starts to think they can create a good product with it. To create a truly good quality website, it means so much more than installing WordPress, finding a theme, and downloading a plugin or two. The site should be built around you. You shouldn’t build around the website.

Social Influence? In High School It Was Called Popularity

This may just be me, but I cringe every time I hear “social influence.” Social influence has become a buzzword (or buzz-phrase) in the social media world. Various tools are coming out to measure the influence that social networking users have over the other people in their network. Typically, this is generated by looking at the number of followers, tweets, retweets, likes, comments, and any other social metrics that can be used. Using fancy and usually unexplained algorithms, these tools always generate a score.

Klout, the prime example, is becoming a part of daily life to some people. Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy, have some coffee, check your Klout score. Mine is 61 today. Last week it was 52. I’m sure it’ll be in the 40′s next week. Why does it matter? The whole point of social networking is connecting with similar-minded people, right? But human nature is to turn everything in to a popularity contest, and that’s exactly what a score of “social influence” is. Those that are concerned about being influential are usually seeking one thing: popularity.

Don’t get me wrong, there are many advantages to being popular: more people know who you are, any link you post will get more clicks, and more people will see your lovely face in your profile picture. But is that truly being influential? Not at all. “Social influence” is a term that dates back to many decades. It occurs when someone is persuaded to do something, or think in some way, based on the opinions or actions of others. In a more negative light, this can also be called peer pressure or conformity. Popularity is being well-known, usually well-liked. Popularity can lead to influence, but popularity is not influence in itself.

So what is Klout measuring? What are any of these tools measuring? Can they judge how often someone is making a purchasing decision based off of your review? Can they determine how often anyone considers your actions is what they do?

Social influence isn’t truly measurable, these are just popularity scores. The hidden algorithms make it feel like there’s more to it, but there really isn’t. Yet, our curious nature drives us to see if we’re more popular than everyone else, which is why people (including myself) get so addicted to checking our score. But it’s still simply a number, usually inaccurate, and it doesn’t make any one person better than another.

@JasonKeath adds even more to the discourse and raises a lot of good points. Check out his article here.

What do you think? Are social influence and popularity truly two different ideas? Or are they actually one in the same when it comes to social media? There’s a lot of opinions out there.

Beautiful Day & Night Shot

I love this for the nostalgia factor. Who wants realism in a mascot? Only nitpick is the way the beak seems to merge haphazardly with the orange outline, and the thick border of the rim of the cap. The illustration definitely could've been cleaned up. (via Baltimore Orioles - Brand New)

Jooze… not sure how I feel about the name…

Jooze… not sure how I feel about the name…