Happy 10th, Twitter

Twitter celebrated its 10th birthday on March 21. Happy 10th, Twitter! That’s 10 years of hashtags, re-tweets and favoriting. The platform’s come a long way over the past decade, evolving from a simple text-message based application into an integral part of the wider communications landscape; its real-time stream is now a part of breaking news stories around the world, and it plays an important role in the way we connect and communicate.

Many industries have come to rely on Twitter for real-time data newsfeeds and lively story ideas. As newspaper and magazine circulation has fallen and staffs have been cut back, journalists believe they’d no longer be able to function without social media, and Twitter is the most popular platform. Anyone who follows sports knows that athletes these days are all on social media. These are guys with big egos, and they love to tweet, so our favorite sportscasters have followed them onto this platform. It’s fodder for endless stories about their outrageous antics and opinions.

International incidents meet critical mass

It’s been just a few days since the horror of the Brussels terrorist bombing, a few months since 130 people died in a similar atrocity in Paris. Images and videos quickly went viral, sharing the horror of yet more innocent people dying at the hands of ISIS. Twitter has become a powerful medium with the ability to quickly disseminate these stories of terrorism around the world.

Understanding the power of Twitter

The numbers are impressive.

• When Caitlyn Jennings used Twitter to announce her transformation, it took just over 4 hours to reach 1M people.
• During the World Cup Final, there were nearly 620K Tweets every single minute.
• Sadly, Justin Bieber is the most mentioned person, at 943M Tweets
• More than 27M Tweets were sent about the Boston Marathon bombing
• Nelson Mandela’s death: 95K Tweets/minute

Yet Twitter has its detractors, including me

I’m a writer. I have a masters degree and have spent years honing a skill. This platform has devalued the art of communication into 140-character sound bites. For those who were already bad writers, Twitter celebrates mediocrity. While many people are using Twitter creatively and well for their businesses, the majority of what hits my inbox is drivel—some nearly impossible to decipher with their combinations of hashtags, symbols and abbreviations.

I just checked my Twitter account

I’ve been posting to Twitter for a few years now, not really paying much attention—I’m interested in it its SEO value. I have 644 Tweets, 875 followers, and I’m following nearly 1,300 people. Amazing. I never do anything to get more followers—people follow me or Re-Tweet my Tweets, which is nice, thank you. Sometimes I look at these people and they’re from Germany, the UK or Asia. Sometimes they respond in languages that I can’t identify. Their responses can be “father, coffee drinker, social media fan”. So what? A lot of these people call themselves writers/authors. Generally in some dark genre of self-publishing hell. These people are just so silly that I can’t ever take this medium seriously.

I understand the power of Twitter . . .

Intellectually, I understand the power of Twitter, but I don’t really consider it a serious medium for me. As a solopreneur who advises many other solopreneurs and small businesses about their marketing, it’s necessary to make choices about how we spend our marketing dollars—and that includes our time. To make social media really work for us, it takes a concerted effort and considerable time. It’s like a 12-step program—it works if you work it. I believe there are better ways to be spending your valuable resources than focusing on Twitter.

Are you struggling with your content marketing program? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts.

Facebook Frames Create New Marketing Opportunities

When the Supreme Court ruled in June that same-sex couples would have the right to marry in all US states, Facebook users showed their support for all of their gay community, friends, family members and colleagues by activating an option add a rainbow overlay to their profile images.

Support for Charlie Hebdo

We saw this same kind of support in January in Paris. Armed with assault rifles and other weapons, terrorists forced their way into the offices of the satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, killing 11 people and injured 11 others. As if this wasn’t enough carnage, they murdered four Jewish hostages a few days later. These terrorist actions stunned the world. Facebook supporters who deplored the violence added the colors of the French flag, red, white and blue to their profiles.

Now Facebook is rolling out Frames on a broader scale because these screens represent important opportunities to generate revenue from marketing dollars.

How do Facebook’s screens work?

Key in facebook.com/profilepicframes. You’ll go to a webpage that has your Facebook profile picture on it—a great opportunity to swap out your photo if you’ve been thinking about this. There’s a dropdown with a list of what seems to be mostly European sports teams—remember that social media isn’t just an American obsession; we’re part of a global community that loves to be connected, and the rest of the world is crazy about soccer. There are line items for movies, Canadian Football League and Major League Baseball. Causes include World Wildlife Federation, Make a Wish, Girl Scouts and Australian Marriage Equality. There’s another feature on this page, another dropdown that lets you create an end date, identifying how long you want your Frame to run before it reverts back to your original unadulterated Facebook profile picture—1 hour, 1 week, 1 month or never.

Don’t like these choices? Wait a while . . .

If you don’t like or aren’t familiar with any of these choices, don’t select them. There will soon be more that will be added to these lists. Given the breadth of options available, it’s pretty easy to envision the monetization potential of these screens. Big brands will love the ability to reach Facebook’s 1.591B active monthly users. For the entertainment sector, this is a great way to promote a new movie and build a connection with their audience. People are passionate about their sports teams—let’s get some of our own American teams into the mix. Causes are endless. Politics? Of course! Don’t be afraid to have opinions. It’s endless. I can’t wait to see how Facebook’s Frames evolves.

Are you struggling with social media as part of your content marketing program? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts.

HOPING YOUR POST WILL GO VIRAL? NOT SO FAST

Admit it. When you post a blog or social media post, you try to sex it up with a snappy subject line and a terrific image, hoping your post will go viral, reach a gazillion people and quickly bring you new fans. Everybody wants attention, more Likes, more comments and more page views.

But viral is temporal, there has to be some kind of shock value or it’s not going to achieve its goal. It’s a one-time thrill and it’s not sustainable. You can’t continue to produce at this level, so it really becomes meaningless. I’m thinking back to a few examples of posts that went viral.

• Snake in the toilet. One that got my attention a while back was the San Diego woman who flushed the toilet, looked back and found a 5-ft. boa constrictor emerging from the bowl. Anyone who’s afraid of snakes remembers this for the sheer horror of being alone in the bathroom with a deadly snake.
• Son shoots mother in the back. Yesterday a post that probably deserved to go viral was one about a Florida gun-rights activist whose 4-year old son shot her in the back with a loaded pistol. I suspect that the NRA, one of the strongest lobbies in Washington, won’t even bat an eye. We’ll forget this atrocity just as we forget the mass shootings in schools—until the next one.
• Puppy Monkey Baby. Remember the Puppy Monkey Baby ad from SuperBowl 50? Few even recall the product (Mountain Dew) it was promoting, but this amalgamated creature was just plain disturbing. Yet there have been more than 22 million views of the Puppy Monkey Baby commercial on Mountain Dew’s YouTube channel, most of the user comments are negative and the sentiment isn’t positive. Mountain Dew likely doesn’t care—they’re banking on “any news is good news”.

Going viral isn’t a content strategy

Going viral shouldn’t be something you plan for, nor is it something that’s easily replicated for long-term success. Most viral content has a very short shelf life. It’s the darling of the internet for a few days, a week, maybe two, then it’s gone. Our audience, with painfully short memories, quickly moves on to the next shocking thing.

Instead of viral marketing, focus on quality content

A better approach: Creating long-lasting content strategies that help your audience connect with your products/services. Focus on creating great content that people will enjoy reading and find helpful. Be smart, funny, share a story, highlight a new product or person. If you create useful content that your readers/fans/followers want to read, you’ll have achieved content marketing success.

Are you struggling with your content marketing program? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts. 

Is Your Subject Line Important? It’s Everything!

I was helping a client develop messaging for a workshop last week. We focused on the pain, identifying the problems and solutions that he would address in his daylong event. We had identified our market and collaborated to create a crisp, efficient message. We talked about the workshop title—this was really important because he didn’t want to do just a workshop, but a series of workshops, so it needed to be sustainable. We talked very briefly about subject lines, then moved on.

The next day, I was surprised to see his email blast hit my inbox with a very anemic subject line. He had gotten in three keywords, but had failed to create any buzz or excitement around them. Not surprisingly, the response to his blast was tepid. I once asked a client about the subject line and her answer, “I don’t know, is it important?” My answer: “Are you kidding? It’s everything.” Your subject line is a seduction. It determines whether or not someone’s going to take the time to open your email and see what you have to say.

It’s gotten harder to create compelling subject lines

With the surge of mobile users, we now have just 50 characters to entice our readers to click on our emails. And then there are the spam triggers: words like free, reminder, guarantee and offer. You also need to avoid exclamation points and inner punctuation. This is a useful list that breaks down the trouble words that are likely to route your email blast directly to spam folders.

Below are 9 approaches to effective subject lines

1. Whatever happened to simple and direct?

The direct headline gets right to the point. It works particularly well with strong offers, recognized brand names, and product or service types with which the reader is familiar. No cleverness. No jokes. No wordplay. Sometimes I think this is a lost art.

2. The big benefit.

Translate your major benefit into a headline. Your number one selling point should always be frontloaded, right? It stands the best chance of selecting the right audience and preparing them to respond. Plus, if they read nothing else, they’ve gotten your message. If you have trouble writing this kind of headline, it’s a sure sign you need to think a bit more about your product or service.

3. Announce exciting news.

People read newspapers and magazines because they love news—remember that the product or service doesn’t necessarily have to be newly created to qualify as news. It can be new to your reader.

4. Educate. Appeal to the How-To instinct.

The how-to headline appeals to the need most of us have to improve ourselves or learn something new, a better way of doing something. The how-to must follow through and highlight the benefit or final result--not the process itself. It’s the benefit that will seduce your audience.

5. Pose a provocative question.

Asking a question is a great way to draw your reader in. The question must relate directly and clearly to the product’s major benefit. This should elicit an answer of “yes” or at least “I’m not sure, but I want to know more.”

6. A command.

Be direct, provide a benefit, and take a commanding posture simultaneously. It’s not conversational, it’s dictatorial — but in an acceptable way that readers have come to expect in clear writing. Be a better writer in 1 month!

7. Offer useful information.

Secrets, tips, hints, laws, rules and systems that promise to help us gain control, understand or create order. For this one, you’re often promising information that will help people do something or achieve certain results.

8. A testimonial

A testimonial headline is an endorsement and we all know how powerful these can be. Use a brief, attention-getting testimonial in the subject line, then expand on this and provide the source in the body of your email.

Are you struggling with your newsletter as part of your content marketing program? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and content marketing experts.

Ready to take Google's Mobile-Friendly Test?

If you’re still in denial about the importance of mobile devices, it’s time to drag yourself out of Sleepy Hollow. It’s been nearly a year since Mobilegeddon, Google’s fateful algorithm change that punishes websites that are not optimized for mobile devices. If you’re a desktop user who blissfully sits in front of your computer all day, you are becoming the minority. There is a growing population, an estimated 60+%, that accesses nearly everything from their phones.

Google’s test site for mobile friendliness

Google developers have created a Mobile-Friendly Test Site where you can paste your url into a field to test its mobile readiness. It will show you what it looks like on a smartphone, and you’ll get a report that says, “Awesome. This page is mobile-friendly” or one that says “Not mobile-friendly.” If you’re not mobile friendly, it will show that:

• Text is too small to read
• Links are too close together
• Mobile viewport is notset

 Time to ask yourself some hard questions

If you passed the test, congratulations. If not, here are some things to consider:

• Technology. You will want to think about when your site was created, in what platform it was built.
• Accessibility. Can you access it yourself or do you have to rely on someone else for updates? New technologies such as WordPress make it easy to add pages, swap out content and upload images.
• What about the overall design and navigation? Are they still appropriate and efficient or dated and cumbersome?
• Content. This is the tough one. Is this even relevant anymore? Has your company grown, added products, services and people who aren’t represented on the site?

To update or create a brand new site?

In some cases, you can update your site to make it mobile-friendly. But in general, if your site is more than a few years old, it was probably built in a dated technology that’s difficult to manage, and it’s more cost-effective to create a new one. If you have to wait around for your web person to surface in order to make small edits, it’s time to change the model. You could make the changes yourself while you’re detailing your instructions to him/her and save yourself time and money.

While a new website can seem like a huge undertaking, it’s an excellent opportunity to create a site that’s representative of your business as it is today. For many small businesses, their websites represent their single biggest marketing spend, yet they’re not generating any ROI, so this is a chance to change the model. Your website says a lot about you. Well-written content, thoughtful navigation and good design go a long way towards validating you as an industry expert.

Did you fail Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test? Let’s talk about a new website @ Top of Mind Marketing. We’re writers and digital media experts.