Five Terrible Social Media Mistakes To Avoid This Christmas.

It’s Christmas again; the mood has really set in and the feeling plus the need to be a bit random, lazy, laid back is with us and party endlessly. When it comes to what we are sharing on social media with our communities that too has been affected by this mood. When it comes to social media, you need to be consistent as you have been throughout the year; if you are a business then you need to stick to your maintenance schedule as per the content plan you have in place. However due to several reasons, this might become a challenge due to the festivities. Here are five social media mistakes you should avoid this Xmas period to the New Year holidays. Do enjoy!

1. Doing it casually-Be careful with frequency!

Just because it’s Xmas doesn’t mean you should joke around, share stuff that is almost useless or if you are a business you post ‘irrelevant’ content that isn’t related to your business, industry or brand touch points. Don’t over-post …but don’t under-post either.  For facebook I would recommend a maximum of four posts and 10-15 tweets a day! You don’t want your posts to be so frequent that they become irrelevant to your audience.  If you have to post several times in a day just like I do please vary your content. Don’t use too much slang or your mother tongue as you may end up losing the hard earned followers you had acquired! Managing social media corporate accounts can be overwhelming as it is a 24/7/365 days job! It’s not something an organization should take a break from (not even this Xmas), you need to be consistent so please ensure you have your social media team well set for this period. Sorry if you will be working however don’t be dull-be happy and spread that Xmas cheer to your community on social media!

2.      Being Absent and Inaccessible!

Your friends want to be heard so is your community if you are a business. And the only way you can prove you are human on social media is by listening and responding. Make it part of your strategy this holiday to address inquiries, complaints and compliments ASAP if not in real time. A simple click on the LIKE or RT or FAV button shows at least there’s someone on the other end!  As you do these please ensure you don’t post tweets or updates full of errors to ensure you portray the right impression out there; so please take your time to proof read. There’s also a certain tendency to ignore certain inquiries, could be overlooked erroneously or otherwise. This sends a signal out there that the brand is unfriendly, busy to handle my inquiry or uncaring! If you use your social media channels for customer service please don’t take a break this Xmas, this also includes players in the tourism sector such as hotels, lodges, airlines and tour companies as people will be seeking information, help and making inquiries so please be present and accessible- read and respond! As you do this, please give timelines and work hard to deliver on your promise! The response you give to complaints in the public domain may set a precedent so kindly ensure that you don’t create a loophole that people may take advantage of as you seek to delight people this Xmas!

3.       Being a Billboard!

Social media can be extremely beneficial to you and your business; whist sharing your own content online (marketing) ensure you do not over promote yourself, your business or that Xmas offer or promo you are running as a brand. Those who only share their own content are transparent and audiences online look at that as purely selfish and switch off quickly so don’t talk about yourself and what you are doing all the time! Social media is about the people, please avoid the “Me Me Me” kind of posts and give your community something more beneficial & entertaining! If you are running a promo consider including give aways, coupons or gift hampers to spark initiative and make the campaign less of spam or annoying.

• A good ratio of sharing to promoting your own content is 4:1 as a minimum (the more you share about other valuable content i.e. less marketing messages, the more you get in return).

Take time to listen, share entertaining content (people want to be happy/ we are celebrating).  Be sure you only share content that adds value to your community – content which they’ll find useful. This means that you should understand the demographics of your friends or fans. If it’s a mixed up case scenario share content that benefits people across the board. Providing different types of content has been proven to engage audiences more effectively. And please DON’T forget to wish your friends/fans/followers and LinkedIn connections a MERRY XMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR! I know everyone will be doing that so why don’t you also do it too, come up with something creative, local and cool that stands out, something that people can share and feel deeply appreciated by your business or brand!

4.Keep private things private.

Facebook and Twitter is very much in the public domain (yet it’s often perceived as private at the same time), there are numerous examples of how private (often extremely personal) information has ended up in the public domain. If you say the wrong things, it could damage your professional reputation.  Don’t post too much information on your private life (its okay to let people know you travelled up country or to the coast but not post everything you ate from breakfast to dinner, photos of your extended family and the dirt in your private life). It’s just an update; don’t share info on your recent breakups (If you’ve got problems FACE them do not FACEBOOK them!), social places you frequent regularly for security reasons, don’t post vital information on people’s walls too. That includes photos of you in the beach with bikinis and girlfriends or your family (Keep that to yourself too). Don’t put anything on the internet- read Social media that you don’t want your future boss, current client or potential clients to read. This is so basic and will help you a lot this Xmas.

5.      Posting ‘Drunk Tweets’!

Never post or tweet when you’re overly-tired, jet lagged, intoxicated, angry or upset. This is so important yet most people will ignore it over these holidays. Please avoid tweeting too much when you are drunk so that you don’t wake up to ‘stupid’ tweets that will leave people worried and asking whether your account was hacked into! When people are drunk they also tend to say where they are, with who and doing what which tends to divulge too much of private information. If you are out of town, such info could aid a burglary in your house (That includes checking into 4Sq every time) and if the person managing your business accounts starts tweeting over a beer then that could mess you up seriously! Just ensure you have people working on shifts to help with official corporate channels and if possible ensure you give that job to the right person/s just in case the workload is huge!

Have a merry Xmas and a happy new year!

Muthuri Kinyamu is a Social Media Strategist at Social Edge Africa the company behind @SocialPROclubs and you can follow him on Twitter @KenyanMarketer 

 

A Beginners Guide To Being an Influential Tweep in Kenya- Tweet like a PRO!

Ten Basic Social Media Tips for Beginner #KoT

Of late in my pitches (am a freelance social media strategist and consultant) I realized that most Kenyans have this weird phobia and ignorance for Twitter. Most do not seem to understand ‘how to join the conversation’ and be part of it whereas others lack the basic understanding of the powerful micro-blogging site. For most business owners and managers feel that Twitter could do more harm than good to their brands and business and have rather unrealistic objectives and targets. Well, just in case you are among the lost in this Twitter-sphere and I want to share with you a few tips to help you navigate your way in the Twitter streets and gain followers and most important the influence! Just before we go on, kindly note that Twitter is nothing much of a technology but a conversation that continues with or without you and the beauty of it all is you choose which conversation, tribe or community to join & belong to!

Read on, become a #SocialPRO; a Twitter power user in this case.

1. Have a bio.

Your Twitter bio is a great place to show how interesting and cool you are. Make a list of the things you love, your passion, stuff you like doing and what you do as well as your goals in life, career and business. Explain what you did in the past, what you are doing now and what you want to do in the future. (Remember you only have 140 characters)Whatever it is, share it. Do not have an empty bio. You also need to have a profile picture and the headline cover; if you are creative enough do something on your Twitter background.  You can use your name as the @username or have @funnyname as long it defines your aspirations!(Choose one that suits you) but above all ensure your bio says something about your background, forte and interests. You can check mine @KenyanMarketer for tips by the way!

2.  Start Networking.

Do you love sports? Search for people who have interacted with that topic in the recent past and engage them. You may follow 100 tweeps using a trick called “Catch and Release” where you follow targeted followers in your field and clean up those who do not follow back! (Using Tweepi you can clean up the unfollowers). Are you a developer, a techie or a creative or want to be one? Start networking with other tweeps doing what you love or what you want to be in future. Attend Tweetups and use hashtags in your industry to share your opinions or thoughts on certain topics and events. You also need to attend events in your areas of interest so check around for things happening around what you do and join the convo! When you attend a conference tweet like a madman (or like @RobertAlai when he’s paid to tweet at a launch! This will make you the go-to person who seems to know what’s going on and you’ll pick up some followers, RT’s, Favs and countless replies. Check out tweeps using the same hashtag and engage them as that’s how you build genuine followers who stick by you! Birds of the same feather flock together!

3.  Share Remarkable Content.

The best thing to show you have depth in what you do and your industry you need to share content you’ve read and found useful. The other way of doing this is to follow bloggers in your field and leave great replies or mention them on your tweets. You can also mention a high profile Twitter user in your tweet – For example, tweet, “Hey, @KenyanMarketer, I loved your post on @CIOEastAfrica on why companies need a social media manager. Interesting read that makes business sense!” and I will RT it, engage you further and follow you back! Remember not to overdo this so you don’t become a ‘nuisance’ to these tweeps! Just leave insightful replies once in a while. You may also try tweet something humorous as over 84% of retweets tend to be something funny! Still on this, to gain more RT’s use around 70-100 words so that you leave space for @Username and a comment just in case tweeps wants to add a comment and RT it!

4.  Be Bold, Current and Suave.

Don’t be afraid to share your thoughts, opinions, ideas and your life on Twitter. I don’t recommend sharing everything that comes to your mind. Follow the right people to ensure you get reliable info first hand as well as great content which you can share to your followers. To show you are ‘smart’ you may differ with their opinions to spark a discussion around the link you’ve shared! Alternatively why not participate in an industry chat like #ChaseDebate if you are in the banking and financial sector? Seen the #HBRchat? Can you leave an insightful and well thought reply that sparks a discussion? What’s your opinion on KE politics, alliances and the CORDs? Can you tweet something that’s not tribal and well thought analysis that holds water? As you strive to be bold remember to either be a ‘rebel or play the hero’.

5. Be a Content Creator.

I should have started with this; I’ve had great success picking up followers simply by writing content for other blogs as my guests posts are published across the internet. Depending on the size of the blog and traffic, you can get from 10 to 100 new followers from one post. Just make sure in your author bio you include a link to your Twitter profile. Popularity isn’t influence on Twitter; you don’t become influential simply because you tweet but because you are a consistent good content creator. I contribute articles to leading blogs such as CIO East Africa, SocialPROclubs, Humanipo, iHub.co.ke, Under30 CEO’s, Career Point Kenya and still getting requests to write for more! You could also create your own blog and publish content around your hobby, passion, career or profession. Don’t be idle as Caroline Mutoko bluntly puts it!

6.  Start Bottom Going up

Have you seen ‘unknown people’ who always say hi to @Bobcollymore, @MartinOduorO, @AlykhanSatchu and other CEO’s on Twitter every morning? Well these ‘big’ tweeps are ruthless and will treat you as an intruder. Mentioning @RobertAlai on every PRO Raila tweet to earn a RT may not yield much!  So here’s what you do, start with people you know, you could ask your friends on Facebook to follow you on Twitter. Start engaging the ‘kawaida’ tweeps as you work your way up! I know this sounds mean but everyone had 0, 10, 20, 50, 100 followers at one point so work your way up dutifully! You can engage thought leaders on certain topics in your field as well as use #tags like, and popular ones like #FF or use #TwitterBigStick for your –ve customer experience and Sunny will give you a RT among others.  (Be smart here)

7.      Don’t be an idiot!

Avoid sharing content that your followers will not find interesting, relevant or useful…and avoid sharing content that is too popular or has been shared multiple times in other places. Show your followers that you are on the cutting edge. Avoid copy and pasting people’s tweets especially on TT’s as people have read them elsewhere! Posting alarming tweets, content that’s boring, not true and plain stupid will chase away the 50 followers you had gained. So sound a bit clever…use Twitter to track news so that you don’t tweet stuff that happened 8 hours ago as #BREAKING! Ooh, if you are a joker and want to establish yourself as one, then you can get yourself a community of idiots too!

8.    Be consistent but Post Less

You don’t tweet endlessly one day and never wake up to it next day! You need some consistency and a balanced tweeting schedule! You need to schedule social media time; maybe you tweet in the morning, at lunch, during breaks and in the evenings. You may also share content across platforms – thus drawing people from Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram to Twitter and split time between these social sites. Remember you still have friends on facebook, connections on LinkedIn and followers on Pinterest so share content on these platforms too as you try to draw these communities to ‘join the convo’ by following you on Twitter. Being consistent doesn’t mean tweeting endlessly; so post less, listen more and participate in convos!

9.      Use tools!

The good news is you can automate part of your presence on Twitter by using certain tools. Use Buffer  to have a more balanced tweeting schedule throughout the day, Use Tweriod  to see when your friends tweet then with Plugin time your tweets and publish them when your community is online for maximum engagement. This is good when you are travelling, as all you need is to load you Buffer app and it will tweet your stuff away! There’s Twitter for SMS too so you can tweet via text just in case the urge to tweet becomes irresistible! (can be addictive by the way)

10.  Do all the above!

Thank you for reading this post to point number 9, so my point 10 is to remind you to practice the above nine tips dutifully and follow my advice keenly! Cool? But since you are still here with me I want to give you one extra tip, a bonus! You need to get the above tips RIGHT as it is pointless to be using Twitter because everybody else tells you it’s cool!  Sounds rude? Hope not and if it is, I have no apologies!

Well I hoped you liked the post so please follow me @KenyanMarketer & share this post with your friends! The process of becoming the next KE Twitter power user starts NOW!