February 9, 2015
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4 Social Media Lessons from The Walking Dead

AMC’s The Walking Dead has trained an entire fan base on how to prepare for the possibility of the zombie apocalypse. First, keep calm and call Daryl. 🙂 But seriously, those same survival tactics can help you survive a possible social media-pocalypse. Preparedness is key.

1. Be a part of a group. There’s protection in numbers when the zombies come a’ chompin’. Social media can be a cruel, cruel world, too, and you’re going to need support. Surrounding yourself with strong social media folks/friends can go a long way to surviving out there.

One of the best ways to find your people is through Twitter chats. There are several social media Twitter chats I can recommend, but the ones I try to block my calendar for are #BufferChat on Wednesdays at Noon EST and #CmgrChat on Wednesdays at 2 p.m. EST.

There are other ways to group yourself with smart social folks. LinkedIn groups can offer a great way to get involved, as can Google+ groups. For example, I just joined a G+ group for Pinterest, and already have 2 new tips to try!

2. You’re going to need good tools/weapons. Without a good sword/knife/arrow you don’t stand a chance against the Walkers. The same goes for social — you can’t make a dent out there in the social media sphere if you don’t have the right tools. Just as each character on the show has their weapon of choice, social media tools are a personal decision, but there are a couple I can recommend.

Canva – While it’s in Beta and can still be glitchy, it’s a life-saver when it comes to creating social-friendly and professional images for your posts on the fly. Maybe you don’t have a designer, or you need something, like, NOW! Canva is key, and makes it easy for those of us with little to no design ability.
TweetDeck – I couldn’t keep my Twitter feed organized on my laptop without it. Web-based and easy to use, it allows me to set up columns based on follower lists, hashtags, @mentions, whatever. It’s like having an organized closet, you can see everything at a quick glance. They really need a mobile version, but there are some mobile apps that do the same thing. Sadly, none make me as Tweet happy as TweetDeck.

3. Have a plan, but be ready to act fast. In case of the zombie apocalypse, it’s important to have a plan. Where will you run? Who will you find first? Every social media person should also have a crisis plan. What happens when something like the Boston Marathon bombings go down, and you have a paid Tweet targeting Boston? Knowing what do to in an emergency in social can save you time and a lot of bad PR.

More than that, it’s important to have a daily social media plan. A calendar if you will. Know what you’re posting, when you’re posting it, and how you plan to post. This helps keep you organized in case of those emergencies, but it also allows you to see above the day to day into the overall strategy.
That’s not to say, however, that you shouldn’t be flexible. When the zombies start groaning in the direction of your escape route, you may need to change your plan. Some of the best social media opportunities (Oreo’s Superbowl “You can still dunk in the dark” Tweet, for example) happen when you’re paying attention and adjusting on the fly. Having a bigger plan in place can help you take advantage of those opportunities.

4. Stupid stuff gets you killed. Just when you think you’ve got the zombies figured out, you get complacent, and forget to check and make sure someone sufficiently stabbed a dead in the head, and BOOM! you get bit. Social media world is the same. You can never be complacent, you can never rest on your laurels. It’s a dog-eat-dog social media world out there, and things are always changing. Algorithms change, tools change, new platforms emerge.

Here are just a few examples of stupid stuff that gets you killed in social.

Not thinking through your hashtags. Possibly the most famous fail was Susan Boyle’s album launch party. Hashtag # Susanalbumparty. (Caps in hashtags are allowed, folks.)
Forgetting that you don’t own your social message, your fans do. Think you can pay for social recommendations and get away with it? Think you can talk about your product amidst a scandal and not address it?
Letting interns manage your social account just because they’re GenY. Social media marketing is a skill, just like coding or engineering. It’s just that people think that having a Twitter handle makes you an expert. Yeah, no.

Personally, I know I’m no match for the zombie apocalypse, and no matter how much Walking Dead you watch, you’re probably in the same boat. But these social media tips can get you through the day-to-day struggle in social.

February 2, 2015
by admin
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A period (.@) Can Make or Break Your Tweet

If you are using Twitter to amplify a brand, either a professional or a personal one, it’s important to understand how the platform works before you start using it if you want to be successful.

I’ve seen this mistake too many times in the past few weeks to let it go any longer. I’m certainly not the first to try to help erase the practice (nod to Gary Vaynerchuk) but if writing my own post about it will help change the Twitterverse in some small way (and eliminate my own *headslaps* in the process) I’ll do it.

Gary V’s Slideshare is a fun way, in 44 slides, to talk about the problem. I’m going to boil it down for you into one sentence.

If you want all of Twitter to see what you post, for the love of all that is holy, do not start your Tweet with an @ symbol. (Click to Tweet)

Example:

@UVAMensHoops I really want to win a national championship this year. #GoHoos

In this example, only the people who follow both my account (@CShirkeyCollins) and @UVAMensHoops will see this post. Out of my 1300+ followers, that probably equals 15 people. Maybe 16.

I, however, am a rabid UVA fan, having matriculated there as the Class of 1994. Aside from a short time during my attendance, where our football team was ranked number 1 in the country for a mere three weeks, I’ve never witnessed a UVA football or basketball team get national recognition. Sure, we have a great soccer team with many championships, but we’re Americans. That would mean a lot to our European students, but we care about football and basketball. (We’re so shallow.)

That means I want THE WORLD to know that @UVAMensHoops needs to bring it home for me this year.

In that case, I am going to make sure I don’t start my Tweet with an @ symbol. I am going to add a simple piece of punctuation, a period (.), in front of my Tweet so the entire Twitter universe will know of my obsession.

Example:
.@UVAMensHoops Please oh please oh please keep your stellar season going and win one for the #Hoos!

Now, anyone can see my fandom! It’s a Twitter miracle!

Now you know! 🙂

May 13, 2014
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The one thing you should NOT forget when designing your new Twitter header

Sometimes, I think Twitter and Facebook change their design specs every few months just to mess with us social media types. However, constant changes in optimal image sizes, header designs and algorithms are what keeps us on our toes, and makes social media fun. (These also, occasionally, want to make us poke our eyes out with a fork.)

I’ve noticed quite a few articles recently that give praise to the brands that have beautiful new header designs. (Not to toot any horns, but the page that my team and our designers painstakingly created even made a list from Hubspot.)

Here’s the kicker. I think a lot of folks, even the ones who are praising these great designs, have forgotten to consider one thing. It’s a big thing, actually. It’s the one thing you should NOT do with your new Twitter header design (or any social media design.)

FORGET MOBILE.

It’s baffling to me, why Twitter would put out statistics on their blog about how many people access the social network on mobile (60% at last reading,) but redesign their platform and say it’s a desktop redesign.

And therefore, a lot of these brands have designed for a great desktop experience. But here’s the thing. There’s not another mobile experience. They are the same graphic.

When we set out to design the graphics for the Twitter channels that my team manages, we quickly found out how constrained we were, if we wanted the graphics to be responsive. Here’s what we learned:

1. Text on the graphics was really hard to pull off: If it looked good on mobile, it looked weird on desktop. If it looked great on desktop, it was cut off on mobile.

2. Busy images were a pain to work with: When there’s a busy image, the header text on mobile gets harder to read. Think about why Web pages are generally white backgrounds with black text. You want people to be able to read and understand what your page is all about.

3. Clever images were tricky: Good luck. I’ve seen a few that have pulled it off, but they must have some serious time on their hands. If you’re strapped for time, simple is better.

So when you are working on your new Twitter header graphics, or any social media graphics, make sure you don’t make the mistake of FORGETTING MOBILE.

October 8, 2012
by admin
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What makes a video viral? Excecute the awesome.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked, as a social media butterfly, how to make a viral video.

I want to roll my eyes and smack my forehead when asked, but I try to maintain my professionalism and composure, and say with a smile.

You can’t make a viral video. You can make a great video and hope it goes viral, but you can never know when you’re making a video if it will be the next great shared post on Facebook or show up on the Today Show.

However, there are things you can consider when making a video that you want to be seen by millions, and talked about by millions more. A shining example is this video of the Ohio State Marching Band (And I think they’ve earned their “Best Band in the Land” Moniker with this one.) Watch, then let’s have a talk, below.

So the first consideration is this. You’ve got to do something AWESOME! Awesome means different things to different people. So now proceed to consideration number two.

You’ve got to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE! What would your audience think was awesome?

Let’s talk in the context of this video.

The Ohio State Marching Band consistently does great band. What they did here was capture their target audience – college students and young adults of the social generation that grew up with video games. That’s a topic that strikes a chord with “my generation.” It pulls a heartstring – an emotion. Ah, the days of old, where Super Mario and Pacman ruled the roost. They knew their audience!

And then the executed the awesome. They didn’t just do a formation of Pacman – nope! They animated it for the audience. They didn’t just do a horse formation – they made the damn thing RUN! It was different. It was unique. It was compelling. It was awesome.

I don’t think the band woke up one morning last week and said “Let’s make a viral video!” Heck, this video isn’t even an official Ohio State video. It was shot by a fan. An impressed fan. Who shared it with his friends, and it became an Internet sensation. Ohio State’s band probably did wake up one day last week and say to themselves “let’s do something awesome!” And then they thought about what their audience on game day might really appreciate. And BINGO! A viral video was born.

So when you create your next company video, ask yourself if you are doing something awesome, in a unique and creative way that would really speak to your audience. Just because you think your new feature is awesome, or your corporate video is awesome, doesn’t mean your audience will think so. Take that video and present it in a way no one else has. Then, sit back and watch it take hold (or not – the Internet is a fickle place!)