Chris Syme
Montana
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Communications and new media consultant.Social media curator and sports nut.Follow me for links on social media know-how.Catch my blog at www.cksyme.org
Thanks for empowering all of us with your story. Letting yourself be happier is very underrated.
As one who has been there, done that, I have some additional advice: every negative comment does not need a response. When a swarm shows up from Reddit because you screwed up, you have to let them hate. Apologize and correct the mistake, if you can, but do it in one post pinned to the top and then let them go. Leave an email in the post where people can engage you offline, but do not converse in the public space. If you must, use Facebook's filter function to filter profane and graphic language, but don't delete and just wait out the storm. It will pass and you can get on with the task of rebuilding.
@ginidietrich Wow--what a great visual. I do something similar when working with student-athletes. Their reaction always amazes me. It's like the State Farm commercial--you know the one--the woman who finds the "French model"on the internet. People's understanding of internet reality is skewed.
It's sad that there is no real way to prevent, or even stop this. As long as someone needs only an email address to set up a Facebook account, there will always be fraud. This is the dark side of social media. People have issues, and can be totally anonymous online. It's the perfect breeding ground for crime. Thanks for drawing attention to this. Your list of action steps is great. We need to keep encouraging people to watch over their privacy carefully. I really don't think the social platforms are as concerned about privacy as they are about getting our data, IMO. It's up to us to be proactive.
Good piece. Reddit can be troublesome, but it was designed to be so. One suggestion I would make (from experience). You don't have to delete comments on Facebook to filter them. I coach clients to set their filters on Facebook to line up with their posting policies (no hate speech, no profanity, etc.) That way, clients can put words into the filter that flag those offensive comments and warn people in their posting policy that they are doing so. It makes people mad, but that way you can leave the civil negative comments that produce respectful discourse, even when people are angry.
Hi John- I use brand keywords (love Sprout Social). Can you tell me where the applications is pulling data from? How much of the internet is included and what is missing? Should I be using Google Alerts to supplement? I'm always concerned that the data I get isn't as conclusive as I need.
@schneiderb I concur. Also, I am wondering if there is some benefit to experimenting with the text-reach theory for posts where reach is a higher priority than engagement. Sometimes, you just want to make an announcement that everyone will (hopefully) see.
In the "10 Must-Haves for 2013 Marketing" post, what do you think about #1? In light of recent data showing photos have less reach but more engagement than text, what advice would you give people?
Jennifer-Pinterest is soaring, no doubt. But, I have a little problem with the dots you connected here. Pinfluencer says that people who ran contest increased followers and pins dramatically. Then somehow that turned into "In turn, that generates a lot of attention, clickthroughs, and sales..." Where is the data on that? Calculating that an increase in followers and fans equates to sales is flawed measurement logic--we've been fighting this misnomer in social media marketing forever. You're missing a measurement that shows that. Until then, Pinterest is a great channel to increase awareness and reach. Sales? Never assume w/o data.
Great list. I agree @ Brogan's Sunday morning letter. I've been inspired many a time there. I also think your new Facebook group has some great potential. Hope people get involved. I like the discussions. Happy Thanksgiving!
@joshchandler I guess it's not specific to them. What I meant was everyone's bottom line is money, so they design their site the way it works for them. Their own agenda doesn't mean anything dark or political, just that they're not some altruistic site where people go to get great unbiased information. All reviews are biased. When they make the subjective decision as to what is bogus, that is an agenda in my book.
My experience with Yelp (as an agency that handles online crisis) has been totally frustrating. It's commendable (as you say) to flag clearly bogus reviews. However, how about putting that same warning up when businesses are besieged by an angry online swarm in a crisis? Yeah, they have a filtering mechanism, etc. But, I've approached them with evidence that "real" reviews were bogus and they didn't respond. They have their own agenda. I would like to see a warning that says, "This business has recently experienced an negative online event and some of these reviews may not be genuine. We can't validate everything." That would help people understand that online haters can slip through the cracks and they can do their own research. The new "system" is clearly one-sided. Their template approach to filtering reviews is flawed.
Great stuff here--I get asked this all the time and it's good to be able to recommend a resource with some solid step-by-step advice that isn't written in nerd lingo or is so vague it offers no help. Thanks.
I agree. Twitter is a vital source for information for education marketing. However, I just wanted to mention that Google has recently downgraded Twitter in its search results and even though a profile is searchable, it is highly unlikely that individual tweets will ever show up unless they are quoted somewhere else. See this URL for more info: http://socialmediatoday.com/marketmesuite/426797/google-launches-social-search-twitter-pissed. Regardless of whether Twitter and Google get along, Twitter is still a must have for real-time communications.
@JayBaer I agree. My problem is that Klout and other influence measures encourage the wrong perception you alluded to in the post. When I hear of people getting jobs because of their Klout score, I am a little skeptical of how the tool is being used.
Right on, as usual. I always love it when someone stamps the truth on influence measures like Klout. It takes more work to mine the nugget of advocacy. Klout is a great crutch/shortcut/whatever. Do the real work, get the real reward. Thanks again.
I agree the university did the right thing quickly. Good thoughts and actions from the So. Miss folks. Just one caveat here about these kinds of incidents: beware of thinking that a group of negative comments on social media clustered together about an incident constitutes a disaster. Continued negative buzz about an incident after an apology doesn't mean additional steps need to be taken. You have to continue to conduct a sentiment analysis of negative vs positive and keep an eye on your community influencers. Sometimes, they can dampen the crisis for you. Passionate band students yelling an ethnic slur is not a disaster, it's an unfortunate and embarrassing event. It shouldn't turn into anything more unless the university does not apologize. If an institution draws attention to a situation by taking unnecessary actions after apologizing, the mainstream media could pick up an otherwise dull event and run with it. Often those closest to a situation think it's worse than it is. Nobody likes getting raked in social media--make sure your responses are based on analysis and traige, and not panic over a few comments. I don't think So. Miss. made any of those mistakes, but this event reminds me that overreacting to an event can pour gas on the fire.
Awesome book. Read it, love it, recommend it. Good call. Better late than never, brother.
Love them all--read them all. Good choices. I would add Social Media Explorer with Jason Falls who wrote No Bullshit Social Media. http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/
Thanks, Melissa. It's my hope that educators and communicators can see the link between good planning and better mitigation. There's a reason the Boy Scouts' motto is "be prepared." We need to spread the word.