Facebook Reactions are here... What does it mean?

Wednesday, February 24th 2016... The way we express ourselves on Facebook changed forever today (again.) As I was scrolling through my timeline, I noticed a subtle difference in the Like button.  It was now a Thumbs up in a circle.  That's cool, I thought - they've updated the image.  But then I started to notice some other graphics.  So the reports were true, and Facebook has finally rolled out the ability to do more than Like | Comment | Share a post.

Now you have the ability to Like, Love, Laugh, Surprise, Cry, or be Angry at a post.  I suppose this fills the need to express some negative emotions like for example someone loses a job or passes away.  I believe that this means an increase in engagement on Facebook because now you can truly express a more appropriate emotion.  I might not "Like" that someone lost their job, and maybe I wouldn't take the time to actually comment, but now I might be "Sad" or "Angry" about it.  For Brands trying to engage with customers using social I think this helps drive engagement where a different emotion becomes relevant.

Where social media has changed the world is the rise of Negativity.  Where you might be polite enough to someone in a face to face setting we see scores of negative comments on a post.  How will that angry face affect post engagement?

Social Dig #24: Putting your best foot forward on Instagram with Eddie Flaherty, LLBean

Eddie Flaherty, Senior Bootmobile Marketing Specialist from LLBean joined us to talk about how the company utilizes the Bootmobile in social media, especially Instagram. Eddie was kind enough to size up the entire Bootmobile program and offer some insight as to how it helps drive goodwill in LLBean’s retail markets around the United States.  You might have guessed there are also a few “foot” puns during this episode.

Take a minute and Follow the Bootmobile on Twitter and Instagram, and while you’re at it, check out LLBean (Facebook | Twitter | Instagram).

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Social Dig #23 - On the Hot Seat with Ryan Hanley

In this huge episode of the Social Dig, Ryan Hanley joins us to talk about his new podcast The Hot Seat with Marcus Sheridan, along with his journey from Insurance salesman to author, blogger, podcast host, and speaker.  This episode runs a little longer than our usual shows, but it’s worth it!

For more about Ryan, simply Google him.  Make sure to listen to the Hot Seat podcast.

Thanks for listening!

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The Power of ONE comment

We talk a lot about how to measure success of social media posts.  Is it likes, shares, comments, or even post views? In my opinion a mix of these metrics truly tells the story of a post’s success, but at the very base of the question – How many eyeballs potentially saw this?  If you’re being paid to promote something on Facebook, then the basic eyeball statistic could potentially be a big one for you to show your vendor.

In the restaurant business it’s no secret that companies “pay to play.”  Restaurants are offered marketing support from a vendor in exchange for menu logo placement.  It all boils down to frequency, right?  If you see an ad for Pepsi on TV, then see something on Social Media, then you sit down on a restaurant and see that same logo then you have familiarity with that product.

Back to the power of a comment.  Here are two separate posts promoting Lipton Iced Tea.  These are  As a social media marketer, I want to keep the message in our branded voice, but also deliver some value back to my vendor.  If a picture is posted and no one sees it, then neither Governor’s or Lipton wins.  But if I can design the post to get some fan feedback, then both companies win.

This first post is bland with a simple picture and description, but the second post fits our brand voice and features a couple jokes about Iced Tea and the time of year it is. It’s funny enough to grab a few likes and a comment, but look at the difference in post views from the first one.  The number of page views more than quadruples from the first post to the second one. It’s definitely worth the extra effort to make it funny to deliver more value to our vendor.

The power of ONE comment makes all the difference.  Getting people to engage your posts can be difficult sometimes but it can make all the difference in the world.  

I'd love to hear some feedback. Tweet to me @jasonpclay or leave a comment and let me know what you think about Facebook marketing.

I still love you, Twitter

Twitter has been set a-blaze by the news that the company might scrap the traditional reverse chronological timeline and replace it with tweets served up based on an algorithm, similar to how Facebook shows Top Stories in the form of relevant posts.  To learn more about the Twitter freakout go read this article on Mashable and then come back here for me to tell you how Twitter can make this a win.

I will start right off by saying how much I HATE the Facebook algorithm method of serving up stories.  I automatically change the delivery method to Most Recent posts.  I want to see whats going on right now, not what happened 16 hours ago.  So I guess I'm hesitant to see Twitter make a move like this.  However, there is a major difference between Twitter and Facebook.  On Facebook, I have slightly more than 300 friends that might post an average of once per day, and I can get a pretty quick synopsis of whats going on by scrolling through the most recent posts.  On Twitter, I follow over 1000 accounts, tweeting an average of 5-10 times per day.  I need a better system of seeing whats happening than having to scroll through hundreds or even thousands of tweets.

Here's how Twitter can do this successfully.  First, make it EASY to get to the most recent tweets. Don't make it so I have to click three different links to get to the setting.  Put a nice big button right on the top of the app.

Second, make that algorithm serve up posts that are really relevant to me. I want to know whats popular among my followers, but not really from yesterday.  Twitter for me is about what's happening now. And I don't mind seeing some ads in there either.

Finally Twitter, make it easier to build Lists.  I feel like making a twitter list (or a Facebook list even) is too difficult. Give me suggested lists based on my followers and the subjects they tweet about.  Then serve me up the best related tweets in those lists with a few relevant ads sprinkled in.  Replace the stupid Moments tab with this feature.  Honestly, have you clicked on Twitter Moments other than the one time you did it by accident?

I love you Twitter, and I know that you have to change or die. So if you're going to change, use this opportunity to create a superior user experience than other social platforms that are out there.

Follow me on Twitter @jasonpclay and let me know how YOU want Twitter move forward.

Getting in front of a new audience on Facebook

How do you get your business/organization in front of a totally different Facebook audience? Well, if you have a product that you can give away you can do something nice.  Here’s how I was able to get exposure on a Facebook page with more than three times the number of likes that mine has just by doing something nice.

The Bangor Maine Police Department has one of the best public service Facebook pages in the country, and has some of the best engagement in the state of Maine for all pages.  So when I saw a post talking about how the page was soon to pass 100,000 followers which is a really big deal for an organization in our area I got a great idea - why not congratulate the department by dropping off some of our signature dessert treats?  At the very least I would be able to thank the hard working men and women of the BPD for their service, and if this pays off, it could be mentioned on their feed, exposing Governor’s Restaurant to thousands of people who aren’t our Facebook fans.

Social Dig 22 1/2: What’s Goin’ On?

In Episode 22 1/2 We talk about some events and social content creation that Jason & Pat have been up to in the last week or so.

We also announced our upcoming Social Dig Mailbag podcast.  We want questions from the audience no matter how big or small to talk about!  You can leave us a question one of three ways:

1) Go to our iTunes page and leave a question as a review of the Social Dig Podcast

2) Post on our Facebook Page or send us a message

3) Send us a tweet @SocialDigCast

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