Mobile wins hands down (vs. desktop) as the platform of choice for social media activity—and shows no sign of letting up.“There are almost as many cell-phone subscriptions (6.8 billion) as there are people on earth (7 billion),” says Danny Olson (@mrdolson), director of digital at Weber Shandwick. “In 2013, there were some 96 cell-phone service subscriptions for every 100 people in the world. That’s more people than own a toothbrush.”
“You no longer decide how your story spreads. Your audience does,” says Joie Healy (@JoieHealy), senior manager of social media communications at Cisco. “Publicity is what is happening in real time–everything is discussed and lampooned.”
“Social media is NOT free,” says Kathryn Sheaffer (@KathrynGail), senior associate brand manager, Ritz, Mondelēz International. Five percent of Ritz’s total budget spend is on digital content development and social media.
“Think about your employees as influencers—they’re closest to the source,”recommends Susan Emerick (@sfemerick), manager of enterprise social strategy & programs at IBM. She’s been building a global system of employee social media enablement (i.e., rules of the social media road) on behalf of the brand. Employees interested in engaging can self-nominate themselves in a category of “Forward Thinkers.” Subject-matter experts are designated “IBM Select” and tasked to provide “white glove,” “one-on-one” social media interaction. Hey, who better to advocate on behalf of your company than someone whose livelihood depends on it?
Never post video in the morning, says Kevin Dando (@kdando), senior director, digital marketing & communications at PBS. People won’t take the time to watch it. Think about what your audience wants to see first thing on their morning newsfeed. “Daypart your posts”—schedule your various messages to run at the time of day when your users will be most receptive to them. Case in point, Serena Ehrlich (@serena), director of social & evolving media at Business Wire, reports the best time for Google+ is 9 – 11 a.m. EST; for Reddit, 7 – 8 a.m. EST, 7 p.m. EST (Mon) and Monday and Tuesday. Timing matters.
Google changes its analytics as many as 500 to 600 times a year, according to Emily Yu (@DCxChange), VP, marketing & partnerships for The Case Foundation. Social media requires a constant cycle of monitoring: Listen to your audience (think: radian6, Survey Monkey, Sysomos); engage your audience (think: Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, YouTube, Twitter, forums, widgets); and measure your audience (think: embeds, shares, views, mentions, comments, trials, user-generated content, licenses). Then do it all again.
Stock up on crisis-ready tweets and hashtags for every possible—horrible—scenario, pre-scripted and pre-approved, advises Los Angeles World Airport’s PR lead, who was responsible for handling all communications surrounding the “LAX Terminal 3 Active Shooter,” November 1, 2013. Serious crisis communication scenarios require deliberate planning. Mary Grady (@MGradyPIO), managing director, media and public relations, recommends setting up Wireless Emergency Alerts—automated emergency messages—that will be sent out in the event of a crisis, as well as connecting with your local enforcement to train on its Joint Information Center and Incident Command System (Google it). “Social media is only one tool in the communication tool belt,” she warns. Other tools include the news media, your company website, press conferences, email lists and other forms of “redundant communication.”
“People don’t want to read anymore; they want to look,” reminds Katie Creaser (@ksafrey), VP, Affect. Less than 100 characters gets a 17% higher response rate on Twitter. #enoughsaid
“Serialize your tweets around the same content to extend the conversation,”says Paul Dickard (@pauldickard), VP, corporate/external communications for AECOM. Then tell more platform-specific stories on your other channels—Google+, Slideshare, Flickr.
Seventy-seven percent of college students use Snapchat, which now has a 24-hour option to post a “story” throughout the day. “This is a great way to cover a live event, like CES,” says Jeff Petriello (@thebeff), producer/creative at Mashable, which has held Valentine’s Day doodle contests and a 15-hour epic adventure through New York City to coincide with The Hobbit release on DVD and Blu-ray. Snapchat tools to know: SnapRoll (enables you to use your photos and videos on your camera roll), Puku (the portable charger) and ProCreate (to get your finger-drawing skills up to speed). Despite all this, Snapchat is labor intensive for brands as communication is one on one.
“The democratization of influence is unstoppable,” says Ian Greenleigh (@be3d), author of The Social Media Side Door: How to Bypass the Gatekeepers to Gain Greater Access and Influence.
That means everyone and everybody can be influential today. The only question, how will you?