2011 - The Social Penguin Blog

Holiday Shut Down

December 23, 2011 By Mike McGrail Leave a Comment

Just to let all you lovely readers know, that it may be a little quiet here over the holiday/Christmas period. Mike is looking forward to a Christmas with family, while Dave the Social Penguin is heading off to see his chilly Penguin pals!

Fear not, we will be back with some seriously superb content in 2012!

Love, Mike and Dave

Filed Under: News

How to Manage Your Business or Brand’s Social Media Team

December 22, 2011 By GuestBlogger Leave a Comment

Collaboration on social media promotions used to be an enormous hassle, but it’s getting easier. When businesses and marketers first started using Twitter and Facebook to communicate with consumers, clients, and customers, there simply weren’t any good tools for keeping track of who was doing what.

You can make the process a lot easier now both by using techniques that the best marketers and managers have developed over the past few years, and by using social media management applications that include powerful tools for managing and coordinating teams.

Here are a few of those techniques and tools, including our own, Sprout Social. We hope they help!

Stay in Touch By Chatting

The most common problem with managing a team responsible for social media promotions is coordinating who’s publishing what — and when. Sometimes team members will publish on top of each other, and sometimes important updates will go unpublished because someone thought someone else was responsible for making it happen.

The most basic way to avoid these kinds of miscommunications is to talk. Obviously, this is easiest if you’re in an office together, but even if you’re not, you can still prevent these problems by keeping a chat window open at all times. If the entire team is in a chat room, they can announce their plans to send out new tweets before they happen, and everyone can be in the know (and have a chat log record) of what’s transpired.

If your operation is on a tight budget, just use Skype‘s group chat feature, but consider 37signals’ web-based chat and collaboration app Campfire if you have $50 per month to spare. It stores the chat logs in a centralized place, works on every platform, and has other advantages that make it worth the money.

Formally Divide Up the Work

It seems obvious to say, “divide up the work,” but many teams don’t do it. Social media is often handled haphazardly by whoever’s available at any given moment because many companies are still new to the idea and haven’t developed a process.

Assign responsibility for certain types of tweets to individual team members. For example, if you’re company has a blog, one team member should always be responsible for tweeting links to the blog posts. Another person can be responsible for product updates, and another person can be responsible to responding to @ mentions from followers, and so on.

Make sure everyone on your team knows who’s responsible for what by sharing a document with assignments on Google Docs or a similar web-based collaborative tool.

Use a Social Media Management Tool Designed for Teams

Many organizations can get by using the tips above, but those that want to get really serious about managing online marketing teams and a company’s social media presence should consider powerful social media management tools that offer collaboration features.

Our social media management tool is called Sprout Social, and we just released a new version called S2. Sprout Social S2 offers complex account structures and permissions, as well as task assignment. You can organize individuals into teams large or small, giving some teams or individuals access to some social media accounts, but not to others.

You can also monitor all your incoming contact from customers and followers, then assign individual tweets or other tasks to people in your organization, such as replies to certain customers. You can even do this with our new mobile application.

Sprout Social Web & Mobile Interface

We’ve done our best to make Sprout Social comprehensive, so you don’t need other tools to manage your team, but we still recommend Google Docs for sharing best practices with your team and Campfire for collaborating in real-time, particularly if you have a very high volume of tweets, Facebook updates, and other social media activities to track and produce.

Do you have any ideas for managing social media teams? Be sure and share them in the comments!

Samuel Axon is Editorial Director at Sprout Social, a company that provides social media tools for businesses. He’s the editor of social Web business guide Sprout Insights, and has worked as a writer and editor for Mashable, CNN, Forbes, USA Today, Yahoo!, and Engadget.

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Filed Under: Social Media Marketing Tagged With: social media management, team management

Friday Freak Out – Facebook Update Overkill by Businesses

December 16, 2011 By Mike McGrail 9 Comments

So, I visited a little coffee place not far from my house. The food was great, the coffee strong and fortifying and the service delectable. I see that they are displaying the Facebook logo on their menu, so later that day I ‘Like’ them…

Fast forward three days and they’ve updated their page 34 times. Are they offering 34 pieces of fantastic content that make me deliriously happy that I decided to show my commitment? Nope. 29 of the 34 updates were in relation to the weather, what their staff had chosen to wear that day, and a story about their delivery driver being late. Now, these types of updates can go a long way to adding some personality to a business, but they need to be well thought out and balanced with content that provides true value.

It’s my life…

I use Facebook to keep up to date with my friends and family. I don’t have any business associates on there and I certainly don’t have anyone that I would cross the street to avoid. When I make the decision to allow a brand to enter that space, it’s because I feel a strong enough affinity with it and want to receive a valuable experience. All businesses should be aware that when a person allows you in to their Facebook life (and it is a big chunk of life for many), you better be ready to make it worthwhile. I’d even go as far as to say it is a matter of respect. Something that is incredibly disrespectful to your audience is regularly updating your page, but not taking the time to respond when a question is asked or a complaint grumbled. If you have the time to push messages their way, you better have to time to help them when they ask you to.

Make a plan…

Sit back, take stock of the things you believe your fans (hell you could even ask them) may want to hear about and work it in to a plan. Try to make every update valuable, but take care no to overdo it, ever! Spend some time in Facebook Insights and work out what is really resonating with your fans and focus on that. I would stick to a rule of thumb – no more than 10 updates in a week. The latest round of Facebook changes means that your updates will live or die by the response from your fans. Spend some think time and you will work it out!

Do you struggle to know when and what to update on a Facebook page? Is a brand driving you nuts with too many updates? Do tell!

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Filed Under: Friday Freak Outs Tagged With: facebook, facebook frequncy, Facebook Marketing, Mike McGrail

Offerpop Enables Non-Profits to Fundraise via Facebook

December 14, 2011 By GuestBlogger Leave a Comment

This is a guest post by Melissa Crossman

As you may know, Facebook allows users to install various custom apps on the platform, with wide ranging uses. One such application is Offerpop, a marketing platform that allows Facebook account holders to engage their followers and even raise money for a good cause.

Launched in 2010, Offerpop offers a subset of applications guaranteed to reach a variety of users on Facebook or Twitter, including the self-explanatory Fundraise. In the case of Fundraise, a group in need can raise money for items they might not otherwise be able to afford, such as a daycare that requires new toys or books. The daycare could establish a presence on Facebook and launch its campaign, perhaps using Fundraise to encourage site visitors to donate.

Does it work?

One example of a successful Offerpop campaign was organized by the Cesar Millan Foundation, a nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates abandoned dogs. Led by Millan, a canine behavioral specialist and television personality, the “Top Dog” fundraiser aimed to raise $10,000 over a six-week period and brought in more than twice that amount. The campaign was successful in part because the foundation updated contest entrants on Facebook, the foundation’s website, and by sending emails to contacts in their database, but also because the viral campaign brought in nearly half its donations overnight. “Top Dog” was buoyed by a “cutest dog” photo contest, which brought worldwide attention to Millan’s work and foundation.

Benefits of using Offerpop include:

• A campaign can be launched in mere minutes
• Groups can “fan-gate” their campaigns, which means site visitors must ‘like’ an organization’s page before entering a contest or claiming deals
• Campaigns can easily go viral, given the ease of using Facebook, Twitter, and email for promotional efforts
• Donations are handled through PayPal, a well-known and easy-to-use service
• Scores of people are already on Facebook for social networking purposes, making it easier to reach them with marketing efforts
• Users can change the Offerpop template according to their specifications, making the campaign as individualized and personal as possible
• Once a campaign is launched, reports are automatically generated so that users can keep track of their campaigns

Using Offerpop to fundraise or promote a product is a great way to rally fans around a cause, find out where support is greatest, or even how popular an organization and its products are. In the case of “Top Dog,” donations trickled in on the foundation’s Facebook page but skyrocketed when the Fundraise effort was moved to Cesar Millan’s personal page. The success of the campaign let organizers know that Millan is a household name with great influence.

Melissa is a writer who blogs on behalf of Sears and other prestigious brands. In her free time she enjoys volunteering at her local animal shelter and reading up on the latest news for non-profits.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: facebook, fundraising, offerpop

10 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Pinterest For Marketing

December 12, 2011 By GuestBlogger Leave a Comment

Pinterest. Possibly the prettiest of social media platforms. But perhaps not just a pretty face? I believe it could also prove to be of brilliant benefit to many a business.

A simple but effective concept, Pinterest proclaims to be a ‘virtual pin board’. A visual platform on which you can organise and share images from anywhere across the web. The images that you share are called ‘pins’ and organised into ‘boards’ which can be created on any topic. Make as many boards as you want, and pin away! You can also follow other people’s boards, like and repin their pins and link your account up to your Facebook and Twitter. Anyway, here are ten reasons why Pinterest could be the next big thing in online marketing:

(1) Pinterest is a visual platform. Marketing campaigns often focus on visuals to grab a potential customer’s attention. Put these two together and you are on to a winner, receiving great exposure for your products and services.

(2) Pinterest has lots of visitors a month. And by lots I mean LOTS! According to site analytics at compete.com, it has over 3.2 million unique users every month. That’s a lot of potential customers

(3) You can add prices to your pins. Simply put the price in your comment (i.e. £30/ $30) and it will come up in a banner across the corner of your pin. Brilliant for promoting products by creating a sort of online catalogue as you can arrange different products into different boards by category.

A Typical Pinterest Post

(4) This site gives you links! Pinterest links every pin back to its original source, and they are followed links at that. Not only will you be getting link juice left right and center from any pins from your site, you could seriously increase your traffic!

(5) What is your target customer base? A quick look at the user base shows it is mainly women at the current time that are making use of Pinterest. A brilliant way to target female clientele.

(6) Looking at the boards that people create, Pinterest is home to lots of inspiration and ideas. Desired holiday spots to the planning of a wedding are all commonly discussed and inspiration pinned on the site. These types of projects are often where people make their biggest purchases so if you can get your products out to these people it could definitely increase sales.

(7) Are you a smaller retail company without the budget to compete with the big boys? The beauty of Pinterest is the scope to discover new and exciting products and websites, a brilliant way to showcase your merchandise without having to spend a penny.

(8) Pinterest has a real community feel to it. You have to request an invite or be invited by a current member to start pinning, although you can browse freely without being a member. For a business looking to showcase their products and engage with their customers this is a perfect platform.

(9) The Pin It bookmarklet from Pinterest is a great little tool. On any site, if you spot an image you like you can pin it quickly and easily. If your site has some interesting and pretty visuals then someone may very well pop it on their boards. And easy link and promotion for your company with very little work on your part. You can also get a button to include on your site to encourage people to pin.

(10) Pins are often repinned, the most I have seen is over 4000 times! Every time a pin is repinned you get an extra link to your site and your product will be all over the pages of anyone that follows those boards.

So, as you can see there are some brilliant benefits to be found for your business from using Pinterest. They discourage too much self promotion so ensure your pins are in keeping with the feel of the site and engage, follow and repin other users. I am very excited about the marketing opportunities that Pinterest presents so enjoy…. and get pinning!

This post is by Lianne Froggatt, Digital Marketing Manager at IdeasByNet, a UK promotional gifts distributor. Interested everything online marketing, and especially social media. She would love any feedback or comments you might have so find her at lianne.froggatt@ideasbynet.com or tweet her @Lianne_Froggatt.

Filed Under: Social Media Marketing Tagged With: lianne froggatt, pinterest marketing, Social Media Marketing

Friday Freak Out – The Overuse of Twitter Hashtags

December 8, 2011 By Mike McGrail 8 Comments

#Hashtags #can #be #useful, #unless #they #are #present #in #ridiculously #large #numbers.

That sentence was pretty tough and more than a little frustrating to read right? No bloomin’ wonder! I’m seeing more and more tweets loaded with hashtags. Why? Well, people want their tweets to show up in more searches. I can understand that, but surely the majority of people will look at your tweet and think ‘what a chump’ and immediately devalue it. A well composed tweet with one appropriate hashtag is the way forward. I’m starting to doubt how many people actually use the tags as a search function? They work really well as a real-time function, for example, during a live event , TV show or unprecedented Scottish weather epic (see #hurricanebawbag) but as a long term organisational tool? I’m not so sure. Don’t ruin what could be valuable tweets with too many tags. If you do, I hope you stand on a plug with no shoes on. (continued)

Credit - http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/

Hashtags in Twitter bios…

‘#socialmedia #guru in #London with the #answer to #everything #digital’

I’m seeing it more and more folks, people ramming hashtags in to their Twitter bios. In the name of sweet maple syrup please stop! This is on a par with loading your LinkedIn job title with keywords. For me, these practices just make you look like a clueless tube.

#rantover.

Are you a hashtag addict? Do you use them for searching? Do share…

(post-writing of this, Twitter have pulled ‘Discovery’ out of the bag, which appears to put more emphasis on hashtags. No, that still doesn’t mean that overuse is acceptable!)

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Filed Under: Friday Freak Outs Tagged With: hashtags, Mike McGrail, Twitter

2011 – The Year of The Social Media ‘Meh’

December 7, 2011 By Mike McGrail 6 Comments

The year 2011 is drawing to a close, a cold, wet and windy close. As I sit by the fire contemplating the past year, I can’t help but think it has been a bit ‘meh’ in a social media sense. Why? Let me break it down for you.

Hype came, and hype went…

At the turn of the year, Quora was all the rage. The next Twitter! The sum of all knowledge! Well really I think everyone was just looking for a bone to chew on during the bleak month of January. Yeah, it does what it does pretty well, but I’m not sure it has really cracked the mainstream. The past year has seen many things getting the tech community whipped up into a real frenzy, Path came along and was a ‘real threat to Facebook’. It re-emerged in the past couple of weeks after a ‘pivot’ (buzz word of the year anyone?) and again has every blog up and down the land writing it up as the next social network monster in a bid to secure hits and links. What social presence or app has really cracked it this year? Instagram has built a strong user base and only on one mobile platform. Really one to watch grow in 2012.

Blogging standards slipped…

The quality of social media and digital marketing blogging took a real nose-dive in the past year. I have rarely been blown away by anything I have read. I’ve been less inclined to comment on posts, which is a strong barometer in my book. For me, too many blogs are just outlets for the same news, regurgitated and spat out across the web. Facebook makes a tiny change and blogs across the globe report it as is if we just found life on Mars. Original content and the thoughts and opinions that go along with it has dwindled. Come on people, find the voice again and start using blogging as the powerful tool we know it all can be.

Social media and cats. Meh.

Facebook continued to smash it…

It gets bigger and bigger, and no-one can stop it. Google+ landed and every man and his dog started to put it up against Facebook. I’m not even sure the guys at Google want it to be the next Facebook, surely there are other things to aim for in life? Let Facebook be Facebook and hope that G+ (or something else) can offer a viable alternative for those who wish to share and converse without having to sift through a bunch of chumps whinging about their jobs, their wives and how hungry they are. The fact is that Facebook is a behemoth, it is present in our lives at every corner. As the ‘Open Graph‘ continues to develop and the world gets their Timelines (a bit like waiting for hoverboards?), the Facebook dominance will only grow. Nothing out there is going to stop it.

Location didn’t really take off…

Location based marketing. The next frontier of digital marketing. Really? Well it just kind of skittered along like wet fart in 2011. Yes, Foursquare has 15 million users, but you can hardly call that huge in this day and age. The majority of deals that get sent your way via the various apps suck. No real pull for the user equals no real potential for growth. When Facebook started pushing its Places offering (now defunct), the world started checking in everywhere they went, making life seem really, really mundane. Zuckerburg and co have now bought check-in minion Gowalla and appear to want to shut it down in January 2012. Will 2012 see location really push things forward? I’m not so sure, it may take Facebook to re-ignite it.

People still have social media tunnel vision…

IT’S JUST ANOTHER DIGITAL MARKETING CHANNEL! STOP USING IT FOR THE SAKE OF USING IT OR MONUMENTAL AMOUNTS OF FLUFFY BABY BUNNIES ARE GOING TO BE CAUGHT UP IN A BURNING HOT TREACLE INCIDENT.

Social media muppets continued to hide behind the ‘you can’t prove ROI’ excuse…

The use of social media can absolutely, well and truly be measured and if anyone tells you differently, you need to look elsewhere for guidance. That said, if you are not setting up your campaigns and strategies correctly, it can be hard to prove. Take the time to learn how to do it and things will work out a whole lot better. Don’t be a phantom.

On a positive note…

Social media has amplified the voice of many long suffering people in the past year and that is a real thing of beauty. Social really is a great facilitator of change.

Baa humbug?

I am being a real miser? Was it an incredible year for the social media world? What got your juices flowing? Do share and do argue.

Follow @mike_mcgrail

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Filed Under: Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Mike McGrail, social media, Social Media Marketing, social media meh, social media review, social media review 2011

Holiday Shut Down

Friday Freak Out – Facebook Update Overkill by Businesses

Offerpop Enables Non-Profits to Fundraise via Facebook

Friday Freak Out – The Overuse of Twitter Hashtags

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