Sparkwood & 21

More is Not Better (Where to Put That Thumb's Up)

"Do you just have a big, numbered list on your desk that says, '1) Get Followers, 2) Get Likes, 3) Money Shoots Out Of Computer Hole'?"

This, my friends. This. This is succinct and hilarious and so dead-on that I'm pissed I didn't write it myself. This is a huge part of why I decided to do this.

Here's more from Jon "@fart" Hendren:

Stop caring about essentially made-up KPIs and terrible metrics that measure nothing but how well your brand games a system that nobody else on earth cares about. The amount of followers, likes, and retweets your brand gets is practically meaningless. Nobody's surfing Facebook to see which major appliance manufacturer has the most likes before selecting a microwave, and No-Fucking-Body is going to go pick your brand of toilet bowl cleaner over anyone else's because you 'engaged the community' by asking if everybody was scrubbing the can for their March Madness party. That's bullshit, and you are a hack. Measure success by whether people are interacting with you or talking about your company in meaningful ways, such as by Real Feedback (the kind you didn't force into the funnel).

Is it important to have a presence on social media platforms so that you can hear your customers? Yes, it certainly is. But pouring excessive energy into measuring social media engagement is wasted time, since most of these numbers are not only enormously inaccurate, they are, as @fart says, wholly useless.

More is not better. Not on Facebook. Not on Twitter. Not on Instagram. More sales are almost always better and more ratings are almost always better and more foot traffic is almost always better, but not so online. If you want meaningful and rich experiences on social media platforms then MORE MORE MORE (often at the cost of being tacky with ridiculous and gimmicky contests that reek of desperation like some overly pleading OK Cupid profile--"please, for the love of God, pick me!") is not the answer.

More followers and more likes and higher engagement numbers cranked out by Facebook's self-serving Insights analysis. Then what? What's next? How does this help?

More might be better, but there need to be ongoing discussions about what is the goal when interacting as a company online about why. Otherwise those tasked with running social media initiatives for organizations will have to make promises they can't keep, and these organizations will continue to bleed money chasing a high that yields nothing substantial.

Some of the other stuff in this article is overly harsh, but the guy's handle is @fart, so. But the gist of this piece is spot-fucking-on, and I think a good number of companies need a good gut check, a come to Jesus kind of sit-down with themselves about what they really want out of these "social media ventures."

Where Should We Put Our Stuff, Internet?

You might like this conversation between a bunch of internet "fogies" (see also: innovators) discussing the evolution (or devolution) of blogs and social media and the owning or renting of platforms and whether or not we are all just writing a bunch of crap.

The Best Tweet I'll Write All Day

On Branded Journalists and Social Media

I haz a quote:

NPR’s media correspondent David Folkenflik has a thriving social media presence. He suggested that organizations need to allow journalists to have an authentic voice on social media, but that individual journalists also need to take responsibility for what they say publicly, whether or not their organization has a clear social media policy in place.

“You give up the notion of being a completely private person,” Folkenflik told me in a phone conversation last month. “I don’t feel as though NPR is perched on my shoulder while I’m tweeting,” Folkenflik said, but added that he follows the same guidelines that he would follow if he were on television or speaking at a public event; he has a personality but is not dogmatic. “People often confuse ‘ideological’ with ‘having a voice,’ ” Folkenflik said.

Brittney Gilbert, Social Media Editor for NBC Bay Area, echoed this sentiment, citing the fact that audiences prefer to connect with personalities on Twitter, not brands.

“People would much rather interact with NBC Bay Area’s meteorologist or sports reporter than a faceless entity such as NBC,” Gilbert told me via email. Gilbert said that a productive and healthy social media policy is one that encourages staffers to use social media while at work because doing so, “will only further familiarize team members to the platform they are using.”

But in order to reach a point at which journalists and others are familiarizing themselves with social media or even maintaining brands they’ve already built, employers and employees need to work together to craft social media policy in order to ensure that everyone understands the goals.

Read the rest.

Google+, I am About to be Up in You

Due to work and the postings of people I really enjoy, I'm diving into Google+.

Yeah, I know what I said before. This crow is delicious.

Want Authenticity in your Brand? Take a Tiny Risk.

"Use social media to be authentic. Use social media to show you are human. Use social media to show a little personality."

These are mantras, orders, directions, suggestions, broken records heard in corporate environments 'round the world, but bosses, managers, directors, head honchos are unsure exactly how to do that. What does one mean by "be authentic"? Hasn't his hard work day in and day out been authentic? He thinks it has. He isn't wrong.

Show I am human?, she muses. I am an on-air host for a TV station. I move and talk and walk and investigate in front of cameras. How could I be any more human than I am already? It's not a stupid question. And personality? Her title is television personality. 

I think what they mean is this.

You see, The Today Show has a Tumblr. That's already a smart move. This Tumblr blog links to, among other things, videos on The Today Show website with short little quips or still images added, making it more micro-bloggy. These posts flow into Tumblr users' dashboards and Today Show videos these users would have never seen otherwise get watched. Why is that?

Because someone updating The Today Show Tumblr took a tiny risk.

Not only did the author of this Today Show Tumblr post take a tiny risk by expressing opinion about a guest's appearance, he or she also tagged the post with the term "delish." 

That's funny. It's also brave for a morning news show. But they know that Tumblr users are not their traditional audience and by being familiar with the ways that people use that medium (by employing tags like "delish", etc.), they were able to endear themselves to an entirely different group of individuals than those who normally watch The Today Show.

The reaction was glee, lots of reblogs and plenty of heart clicking. When a Tumblr blogger jokingly asked, "OMG TODAY SHOW WHAT ARE YOU DOING," the Today Show Tumblr author didn't freak out and delete the post or apologize and backpedal. He or she responded with, "We’re just doing what you’re already thinking."

Which is honest and playful and further endearing these users to The Today Show brand, all because this author did something unexpected, a little brave and stuck by the post.

Newsweek even chimed in with "Media Tumblrs: WE ARE PEOPLE TOO!"

Which is true. Tumblr users know how Tumblrs get made. Even the ones for major television programs where the stars make many, many millions of dollars. It's one or two people, maybe a small team--maybe--deciding what to publish and how to do it and how often and how come. To pretend that the author of that Today Show Tumblr post doesn't have an opinion or a sense of humor or a mind of their own is dishonest. This is what they mean by "be authentic." It kinda just comes down to "don't lie." 

We know that is an attractive actor. They know that is an attractive actor. Saying it aloud in the right forum--one where the audience can recognize and appreciate your tiny risk--is not a danger to your company's bottom line. It just isn't. 

To the first set of mantras and orders listed at the head of this post I'd add, "Take reasoned, tiny risks." It's what people do. It's what people have to do as humans. In this way your company can be more like the people it aims to reach. And the payoff can be tremendous.