Hashtags were once the sole domain of Twitter. Over the years, other social properties began incorporating them as well. Google Plus and Instagram recognize them. Earlier this year, LinkedIn started using them. And soon, they’ll become part of Facebook as well.

Hashtag Bombs Are Simply Bad Marketing

As the use of hashtags expands, specialized ecosystems have evolved around them, including Twitter chats. I co-host one such Twitter chat. #SocialChat is a live interview and conversation with marketing experts and other participants running each Monday night at 9:00 pm Eastern, which frequently generates a potential reach of over 500,000 people.

We knew #SocialChat had become very popular when various people started leveraging the #SocialChat hashtag to reach our audience with regular tweets and not just during our weekly chat. This initially caught us by surprise; but, we quickly realized it was a good thing.

Next came sponsored tweets on the #SocialChat hashtag. While a bit annoying to our chat regulars, we took this as a another good sign — you know that your Twitter chat has made it when brands begin targeting your audience. Naturally, we wish we could get a small percentage of the fee Twitter charges these companies for the content we generate; but then again, we’re not paying Twitter for the platform.

On Monday, April 29, 2013, all was going well with #SocialChat. If anything, we had a few more unique participants than normal, and the amount of tweets using our hashtag reached over 40 tweets per minute at peak times. The result was the pleasant reality that #SocialChat was starting to trend on Twitter.

This made my co-host, Michelle Stinson-Ross, and me happy. But then something happened that we had never anticipated: hashtag bombing.

As the #SocialChat hashtag started trending, various people began blindly tweeting our hashtag (often using multiple hashtags, including other trending ones) to promote something completely unrelated to the #SocialChat topic of the night.

And there were more:

That last tweet took you to a questionable picture of an Instagram screen grab that was posted on Twitter. Not exactly pornographic, but leaving you wondering why would someone want to share it, let alone why anyone would want to see it. Michelle and I both reported this one to Twitter as spam.

It was a good thing for the spammers that their tweets went out toward the end of the chat. If they had occurred during the middle, our collective participants likely would have reported them. With that many reports, odds are that Twitter would have suspended their accounts nearly immediately, thus rendering them useless for future marketing efforts.

That risk is something to consider if you plan on jumping on a trending hashtag without researching what that tag is all about and who is using it. Your so-called “clever” social marketing plan might just get you or your client kicked off Twitter (or any other social media platform where hashtags are used).

The Importance Of Due Diligence When Leveraging Hashtags

If you’re smart and want to take advantage of a trending hashtag, you’ll do your homework. This entails researching the tag (follow the discussion trail), understanding the audience using it and then crafting an appropriate post that is relevant to that audience. Here’s an example of a well-researched and well-crafted tweet that attempted to extract value from our trending hashtag:

The link in this tweet connected to content which was not only appropriate for the #SocialChat audience but  beneficial as well. Despite this person having never participated in #SocialChat, he did provide something of value and interest to the community, easily avoiding being called out as a Twitter spammer.

The lesson here for marketing to online social communities is the same as for face-to-face communities: engage and don’t enrage an audience. In the physical world, you don’t interrupt the conversation at a party with irrelevant and non-related information. If you do, people will think you’re a fool (or, at the very least, impolite). You’ll be shunned by party guests that you could influence, and you’ll be excluded from future events.

There is nothing wrong with leveraging popular hashtags for marketing purposes. The key to success is to do your homework first. Failure to do your homework means more than a failed marketing effort, it could get your account kicked-off that social media forever, hurting both yourself and the brand your represent for a long time.

I hadn’t seen my old high school pal in about 20 years. As we sat at a bar overlooking Grand Central Station in New York, he told me that he, too, was in social media — something involving sentiment analysis.

“Oh, sure,” I said, “many social media tools use sentiment analysis — and it’s always a big topic at digital marketing conferences.”

“No,” he said, “we analyze Twitter for changes in sentiment that might affect stock price. Then computer trading can kick in for transactions that might only be fractions of a penny per share.”

Twitter As An Economic Predictor

It hit me then that it’s not only marketers that have been paying attention to social media. What my friend and his fellow programmers were doing behind locked doors in Manhattan could be incredibly significant — in a real dollars and cents way. Somehow, the sentiment analysis work of marketing seemed like small stuff by comparison.

We saw those computer trading models in action last month when the Associated Press Twitter account got hacked, and tweets went out that an explosion at the White House had injured President Obama. For all of a few minutes, the market plummeted 130 Billion dollars in value!

Twitter’s vulnerabilities and security have been criticized, and if nothing else, the incident has shone a spotlight on the need for Twitter to button up.  Given the clear economic consequences of Twitter activity in today’s world, large brands would do well to provide periodic training to anyone who has access to your Twitter credentials — particularly on the dangers of pfishing — and to ensure that passwords have complexity (a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols).

Also, it might be a good idea to preclude employees from being logged into the organization’s account on their smart phones — objects that are too easily left behind at a restaurant or bar.

Twitter As An Entertainment Empire

Twitter #music was announced last month, which the company describes as “a new service that will change the way people find music, based on Twitter.”

Of course, Twitter isn’t the first social media platform in which its engineers are playing out the notion that the stuff you expose in your social stream could indicate your tastes, allowing for content to be served up that meshes with your innermost desires.

No matter how many mentions I made of Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, or Charlie Parker, though, the service still gave me the latest in trendy pop music. Seeing that the service is brand new, it isn’t difficult to see how users could benefit from social media-induced suggestions. Still, I’ll patiently await a richer experience. Give it a spin for yourself.

In other news, Twitter announced that it’s in talks with NBC and Viacom regarding potential partnerships to distribute online TV.

Twitter As The New Borscht Belt

In yet another interesting play, Comedy Central hosted its first ever all-Twitter comedy festival, using the hashtag #comedyFest. As Jason Zinoman of the New York Times recently wrote, “Twitter is a relatively new medium, but its popularity among comedians has inspired a return to an old style: economical one-liners. Think of Twitter as the new borscht belt.”

I heard a similar sentiment from Chris Brogan on a recent #tmmTV SoMe Awards Google Plus hangout: “I’m watching some great comedy on Vine.” He then chided the world of marketing, suggesting that they aren’t as up-to-speed as comedians. “[The marketers] have Vines of their dogs taking a poop.”

Zinoman wrote, “… if the popularity of tweeting is any indication, comedians will take the lead in exploring the limits of Vine as artistic expression.”

So, if you catch me in my office watching some comedy clips, please remember: it’s homework for the job. And, I will not be sharing any videos of dogs.

Economics, Music, Television & Comedy — What Does It All Mean?

Is the pattern apparent? Twitter has clearly grown into a force to be reckoned with, not merely as a way for individuals to connect with one another, but as a means for economists to predict stock movements, companies to expose users to new music and movies, and comedians to express themselves in creative new ways. With each of these news items that come across our desk, we might very well ask ourselves, “What’s the importance of this in regard to marketing?”

Combined with the preponderance of Super Bowl 2013 ads using hashtags, all signs point toward a growing adoption of Twitter by both users and the mainstream media.

Buried within all of social media are design patterns, each lending themselves to different behaviors. As seen in how Twitter is the place where news breaks, Twitter is the epitome of real time media. Where else in social media can you break news — and then comment on it — with the efficacy of Twitter?

I’m not sure that the small group of people that gathered around the whiteboard to invent Twitter necessarily understood that they were designing real time media. The forced brevity along with the way people can make connections outside of their immediate networks is perhaps accidental magic. But, it’s still magic.

Social media has developed to the point that it is now more than putting a message out online and hoping for the best. Because the users are smarter and have made social media a part of their lives, it is up to companies to make the most out of every post and update they publish.

Social media management is a constant and ongoing process due to the nature of the instant, online world in which social networks live. When it comes to developing a content strategy for social media channels, it often works best for passionate, dedicated people to collaborate across departments, rather than handing the task off to the marketing department. By getting input from a variety of sectors within a company, a social media content strategy can really succeed.

Brainstorming

Using employees in different departments can be a great benefit to your company’s social media strategy.

For instance, the project development coordinator will have the best information on new products, which can be translated into photos and discussion questions via sites like Instagram, Vine, and Facebook. The human resources recruiter will know about job openings, and the marketing content writer can give some great copy that ties in to current company branding campaigns or seasonal promotions.

Brainstorming sessions that include engaged employees in a variety of different areas can help begin to craft the subject matter and types of content that are going to be shared via social media.

Go With What Works

Besides getting a good overall view of what the company can share via social networks, it’s also important to go with what works, which means sharing the type of content that gets the highest engagement.

It has been shown that photos and videos can draw more engagement than text-only updates, so this needs to be taken into consideration. Using a photo linkbait website like Quotes Cover can make it easy to share text through a visual format.

For instance, this quote would go over great on a music artist’s Pinterest account or a streaming music service’s Facebook page. In addition, capturing a video of the company’s CEO giving his most recent talk at a conference will most likely be more popular than sharing a written recap of the speech.

Users also appreciate variety. Share links and give written updates, but also share videos, interact with user posts, and post photos and graphics regularly. A social media account with variety goes a long way.

For social accounts that focus on one medium, like Vine or Instagram, it’s just important to vary the type of content that is being shown. An employee lunch one day and showcasing a new product the next can give variety while using the same medium.

Choose How To Share

Once the content itself has been ironed out, it’s time to create a social media publishing calendar. Cloud-sourced documents are a great way to keep everyone instantly up-to-date on the social media content strategy for the week or month. There are a variety of tools available, including Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Evernote.

Some social media publishing platforms also allow multiple users to access the same company account, so it’s easy for many users to simultaneously view upcoming posts and account data. The team should experiment to see what works best for them.

Besides creating a calendar, keep a running Google Doc or online file (on a site like WorkFlowy or Evernote) with ideas for future social media content posts like quotes, links, videos, and more. This helps with writer’s block and provides inspiration.

Utilize Metrics & Reporting

Social media content teams should take advantage of data and metrics to better optimize what they are posting. Facebook provides Link shorteners that can provide click and sharing metrics, while Google Analytics’ social media reports (located under Traffic Sources) can give goal-oriented data to see how many social media referrals completed conversions and the most popular content that was accessed. These reports should be reviewed on a recurring basis.

Yes, social media content strategy is more than posting content online and hoping for the best. By implementing a clear, concise strategy, companies will find better engagement and brand recognition than others who don’t have a plan in place.

Spokespeople for The Coca-Cola Company announced last year their ambitious goal of doubling the company’s overall revenues by the year 2020 (YouTube video).  How are they to achieve this monumental task, comparable to the doubling of a small country’s GNP? Their answer was storytelling in all of its many forms.

In his latest book, What’s The Future of Business?, author and Altimeter Group principal Brian Solis has taken the theme of storytelling and the hero’s journey, and has woven it into a narrative prescription for businesses awash in the modern morass of communications. And while he’s writing about the hero’s journey, Solis takes us on our own hero’s journey, in which we take our own customers on their journeys!

The book’s subtitle is Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences. Throughout the book, Solis looks at those experiences through multiple lenses: that customers themselves have undergone great change, and certainly, the way that they interact with brands is no longer the way it used to be.

The book begins with a quote from entertainer, Oscar Levant, “Happiness is not something you experience: it’s something you remember.” This image sets the stage for discussion of the customer’s journey with a business.

Of course, with social media, the pas de deux of customer and brand has undergone remarkable transformation in this era. Too often, though, we’re focused on how that change has come about through technology; whereas, Solis reminds us that the story isn’t about technology, but experience.

Most books on social media fall within two categories: the evangelical book that is meant to show you the light as to why you should be fully embracing social, and the tactical book, written to address specific uses of social. For marketers, the former type of book is usually “preaching to the choir,” while the latter is often out of date by the time you find it at the local B&N.

There’s a third category that I call the deep think book, which is the category I’d place WTFB. Solis provides the reader with many mental and visual models that could be of immense value to the marketer. Even if you are a total convert to the digital revolution, it’s always helpful to acquire tools in both your own work and in communicating within the organization. After all, a big part of the marketer’s job is bringing the organization into the new paradigm.

In addition to the text of the book, there is another reason why I think this book should be on every marketer’s shelf, and that is the presentation. Solis collaborated with creative agencies Mekanism and Social Object Factory to create a book that flows smoothly, pulling the reader through its challenging thinking. Words and phrases are highlighted or blown-up to fill pages interspersed with blocks of text and graphics. I liked it so much that I shared the book with my own team so that we may bring some of this approach to our own reports and proposals.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book during a book launch event, but I was not financially compensated in any way. The opinions expressed are my own and are based on my observations while reading this book.

PHOTOiD is a new mash-up Nike has created that allows you to use an Instagram photo to inspire a pair of personalised Nike iD trainers. It’s built in HTML5, is lovely to look at, is intrinsically linked to social platforms, and produces great user-inspired content for people to share. And, most importantly, its hero is the product.

What Nike has done, in this case, is brilliantly understood a number of the key trends driving audience behaviours, such as the creative self-promotion that the likes of Twitter and Instagram encourage and celebrate, and turned those into what is, at heart, an ad. The key is that that it adds value as much as it advertises.

In hindsight, we can see that Nike has been doing this for years. In many ways; PHOTOiD is an evolution of the original Nike iD iPhone app, which allowed people to take photos and use them as the inspiration for their shoes.

Meanwhile, Nike+ creates content out of people’s activities, then turns that content into something that acts as social currency. Their commercials have long been short movies rather than simple TV ads; for instance, the track recorded by Kanye West in honour of the 25th anniversary of Air Force One is undoubtedly one of the coolest-ever pieces of marketing.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As someone who has worked on Nike (disclosure: they’re a client), I know that some people dismiss such praise because, “Well, they’re Nike.” And whilst they are certainly “lucky” in that trainers are inherently more interesting than washing liquid or other household goods, that doesn’t negate the fact that the way they approach their marketing can provide lessons for us all.

What Nike does brilliantly is understand the trends and cultural shifts that are influencing people and determine how they can build those into their products and marketing. And, with the rise of the likes of Nike+, they’re creating products that are marketing.

Whilst most brands may not get to work with the likes of Michael Jordan or Wayne Rooney, we can all think about how the stories our brands tell might be of interest or even of use to our customers.

Disclosure: Nike is a client of Mindshare.

Then there are tactics that aren’t inherently bad, but you may not want to use them every day. Like pop-up ads, advertising jingles or re-targeting campaigns, these tactics can be just shy of annoying if used incorrectly, but often get the kind of results that make them irresistible to try.

Let’s call these “yellow light” social media tactics.

When you come to a yellow light in traffic, you probably want to keep going. But if you miscalculate, you could inconvenience other drivers or even cause an accident. So, you use the data you have – how fast you’re going and how far you are from the light — to decide whether to speed through or put on the brakes.

The same is true for yellow light social media. You have to gauge your audience’s wants and needs, your relationship with them, and your social media goals before moving forward. Miscalculating could annoy your potential customers and advocates — but the risk just might be worth the reward.

Proceed with caution when using the following yellow light social media tactics.

Listening In On Conversations

Most social media managers are familiar with social media monitoring for basic brand terms. You may also have identified key terms that indicate a conversation relevant to your product or brand.

For example, a health food store may monitor terms like [vegan], [vegetarian], or [gluten-free]. When you see conversations happening around those terms, your instinct may be to jump in and talk about the great solutions your brand provides.

Why It Works:

This approach shows you’re listening and paying attention to the problems and issues of potential customers, which is proactive. And hey, your brand could be exactly what customers are looking for.

Why It’s Caution-Worthy:

Unfortunately, this approach can also look a little creepy and invasive. A recent study showed that although most consumers know brands are listening to them via social media, a majority believe that “companies should only respond to online comments made directly to them.”

How to Proceed:

Given what we know about social media users, your first priority should always be responding to all comments made directly to you. After that’s under control, you can evaluate other conversations based on user intent, rather than what you want. If you do step in, make sure it is to be genuinely useful and not overly “sales-y.”

Asking For Shares

On Twitter, it’s, “please RT.” On Facebook, it’s, “Share if you…” and other variations. But basically, we’re talking about any social media call-to-action that specifically asks users to share content. See this example from Subway:

Why it Works:

People are busy. And distracted. And forgetful. If you want your audience to share your posts, sometimes it helps to offer a gentle reminder.

Why It’s Caution-Worthy:

Using this approach too often can make your brand look desperate or bossy. Your fans want to feel appreciated, not like mules constantly being prodded to smuggle your content across the border.

How to Proceed:

If your social media goal is engagement, use this tactic sparingly for your best, most naturally engaging content – stuff that’s on-topic and that you’ve actually spent time on. Measure your shares over time to determine whether they’re bringing you diminishing returns, and watch your unfollow/unlike numbers on days that you post these.

Cross-Posting

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus – whenever you push the same posts to more than one network, that’s known as cross-posting.

Why It Works:

Because there are a lot of social media networks out there, and because most of us are too busy to notice duplicate posts from one to the other.

Why It’s Caution-Worthy:

Basically, this could amount to a punishment for your biggest fans — those who have chosen to follow you on more than one network — because you’re failing to provide them with additional value for following you on multiple networks. And that’s not to mention that different social networks have different user bases, etiquette and customs.

How to Proceed:

If you must cross-post because of the number of accounts you’re handling, make sure to use scheduling tools to appropriately space out your updates, and try to alter the language slightly for different social networks.

Off-Topic Posting

Maybe you have a “boring” brand for which it is hard to create engaging content. Maybe you don’t have the budget to create the kind of photos, videos and blog posts you want to share on social media. Whatever the reason, this tactic involves sharing content that has little or nothing to do with your brand or product.

Courtesy MemeGenerator

Why It Works:

The occasional off-topic post on a holiday or just-for-fun meme share on a slow news day can be forgiven and can even make sense – after all, social media is about putting a real personality to a brand.

Why It’s Caution-Worthy:

Too many off-topic posts can make it look like you’re simply pandering to random users to garner empty likes and shares rather than focusing on meaningful engagement.

How to Proceed:

Do the work of finding the aspects of your brand that customers really care about. (If you can’t find those, maybe social media isn’t the solution for your brand.) Make those aspects the guiding principle of your content creation — and if you have to fall back on cat pictures once in a while, it’ll be fine.

Emailing to Google + Circles

If you’re active on Google+, you’ve seen this one: someone sends you an email notification about their new post because you’re in their Google Plus circles.

Why It Works:

Social media is about making connections, and this feature can be a great way get the right information to specific, like-minded friends.

Why It’s Caution-Worthy:

It’s easy to exploit this feature, making it nothing more than an efficient way to annoy a lot of people at once. Sure, they can go change their settings — but now you’ve ruined it for the rest of us.

How to Proceed:

If there’s someone with whom you have an existing relationship — someone you know will love your new post — then feel free to share it with them via email notification. If you’ve never used this option before, can boast a stellar track record of being a good Google+ citizen, and now have a super-important post that you want to make sure certain groups see, then go ahead and send an email notification. Otherwise, think twice. This tactic should be the exception, not the rule.

Inviting to Pinterest Boards

Public Pinterest boards can be community boards where one user can invite other people to pin items.

Why It Works:

Community Pinterest boards can be a great way to get your fans involved, create community around a common interest, and share resources on a specific topic.

Why It’s Caution-Worthy:

Sending out blanket invitations to people and pages entirely unrelated to your industry or boards is a good way to look spammy and lose followers.

How to Proceed:

Use common sense with community boards — evaluate potential invitees based on your existing connection to them or what you have in common before inviting them to connect.

This concludes my review of yellow light social media tactics and how to proceed when using them. Before signing off, let me ask:

What yellow light social media tactics have you encountered? Did I miss the mark on any of these? Let me know in the comments.

Photo credit: caribb via photopin creative commons

My dad was proud of his new “Internet-smart” TV and wanted to show it off to me on St. Patrick’s Day weekend last month. He showed me how he could log onto Facebook and view photos, update his status, etc.

As he was showing me, all I could think was, “Would anyone really use this?” Judging by the time it took him to navigate to my profile, I concluded that surfing social media sites through a TV isn’t ideal. But, he was excited because he could log into Facebook from his TV — not because he necessarily wanted to.

This got me thinking: does social media need to be everywhere? Perhaps there should be some parameters for integrating social media into products and services.

Just like with social media account creation, companies are adding social media integration to everything just because. Social media should only be implemented when it is part of a well-thought-out plan that ties into what a user is already doing (e.g., maybe my dad would like it if he could share that he’s currently watching The Mentalist on Facebook so he and his friends could talk about it). Without this desire or call-to-action, social media integration is not only useless, but potentially overwhelming to users.

Social Media Has To Be Easy

Typing from your remote is tedious, much like T9 texting from an old-fashioned cell phone. To implement social media or another type of available communication service, technology needs to make it as easy as possible. Maybe my dad’s new TV should have come with a keyboard and mouse. Or, it could have had voice recognition to automatically create status updates or tweets.

Today’s connected generation has a fleeting attention span, and making things as easy as possible will guarantee regular use.

Social Media Has To Be On Their Terms

Nobody likes to be forced to connect their social media accounts with a service, or to only be eligible for an exclusive discount or page access if they tweet about a company on Twitter.

The sole purpose of social media is for users to share what they are doing and what they care about most, and it will backfire if a company believes in forcing users to add or use their social media accounts in order to complete an action.

Social Media Has To Serve A Purpose

The question, “Why does a TV need to tweet?” really has no useful answer; so, the way the TV, Internet and social media profiles work together needs to change. Maybe a user can participate in unique Twitter chats about shows they are watching. Or, they can tweet from their TV for exclusive giveaways. Maybe the TV could update a user’s Twitter account every time they watch an entire TV program. Did the user share on Facebook that they like The Walking Dead? The TV can auto-record the show or remind them when it’s about to come on.

The possibilities for uniting television and social media are endless; but, it will only work if a user feels that it adds to their experience and ability to connect with their social network.

GetGlue is a good example of an app that connects incentives, social media and television. What if my dad’s TV could automatically check him into every show he watched, or let him know when there was an exclusive GetGlue chat about one of the shows he checks into regularly?

Screenshot from: http://getglue.com/guide

Social Media Has To Be Collaborative, Not Promotional

No matter the technology or the methods of implementing a user’s social media profile, companies should never try to promote its products and usage without user consent. Instead, companies should focus on offering the best platform possible in order give users a way to share what they want to share, instead of being backed into a corner by gadgets asking them to tweet where they are or what they are doing next.

The most recent and impressive example of this was the decision by Yahoo! to pay a rumoured $30 million to buy Summly, an app with less than a million downloads and its team of five — led by its photogenic founder, 17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio.

Whilst this will undoubtedly inspire any number of teenagers to develop their own app, it also highlights other trends around how content is being created and consumed, which will have important consequences for brands.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Social Reading Apps Impact News Consumption

Summly is like a cooler, more intelligent Flipboard. It aggregates content that you’re likely to be interested in, and also summarises the content to make it easier to decide whether or not you want to read, watch or look at it.

It’s not the first social reading app to be bought this year. CNN recently snapped up Zite, whilst LinkedIn is rumoured to be buying Pulse.

What all of this represents is a sea-change from the days when news companies, such as the New York Times (whose motto I’ve re-imagined for this post), would decide exactly what was important for people to read or watch. Now, decisions that used to be made by human editors are made by computer algorithms.

Brand PR Strategies

What this means for brands is that PR strategies are going to have to adapt, as they no longer need to create content or events that will get them published, but rather make things that will get them shared.

Whilst PR has always been about creating talkability, this is an important change, as it is likely to impact the types of things that generate this. So, events where you invite all the top journalists are likely to be less shared than interesting infographics that appeal to a particular audience.

Consumer Reading Habits

At the same time, as these reader apps change the way that we read articles and posts. Changes to the business models of the traditional news companies are also likely to have a similar impact.

Many news businesses have followed The New York Times to models that ask some people to pay for access, therefore changing the balance between advertising and subscription revenue. Therefore, these businesses will become less concerned with simply generating as many page impressions as possible and more concerned with creating truly engaging content that people would want to pay for. This example of a truly absorbing story about an avalanche highlights this perfectly.

Screenshot by Ciaran Norris

What all this means is the sort of churnalism that has created an awful lot of news content over the last decade should become less prevalent, at least on quality sites. Instead of just spamming press releases to journalists desperate to hit copy deadlines, brands will need to think about how they can create stories of real interest and depth.

As I explained last month, one way to do this is to make use of existing media budgets so the news companies themselves generate and promote that content for you.

Brands Need Social-PR Strategy

In summary, brands need to reconsider what constitutes PR, but also what constitutes social. Whilst many brands have spent huge amounts of time trying to find ways to talk to customers, and to get customers to talk to them (which is to be applauded), the rise of the readers highlights the fact that it’s equally relevant to think of ways to get customers to talk about you, or to enable existing conversations with truly share-able content.

Real people don’t necessarily want to talk about the products that brands make; however, thinking about what they might want to talk about and getting professionals to create it might mean people end up talking about you, anyway. And, as this fantastic presentation from Martin Weigel (Head of Planning at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam) highlights, remembering exactly this is the best way of ensuring that your brand doesn’t end up failing.

The concept of search dates back to the days of cavemen searching for food. So does social interaction and the exchange of information, which inevitably impacts how people search. It’s time to add an additional meaning to the Three Letter Acronym of SEO and start teaching this to all the people with C-Level titles (COO, CMO, CTO, CFP & CEOs) in the world.

The Influence Of Social On Search

Over the past few years, the influence of social properties (Facebook, G+, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) on where people search, how they search (i.e., crowd source), and even how the search engines rank content in their search results, have dramatically increased. The influence of social on search will continue to evolve and become more critical over the next few years.

In the late 1990′s, organizations and their respective C-level management were slow to embrace the Web, and in the early 2000′s, they were slow to embrace strategic search engine optimization.

Today, the C-level management team is slow to embrace the structure and strategic use of social properties (Social Media) to enhance their findability when a potential customer seeks the products and services the organization offers.

Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

What’s puzzling is this is old school marketing and something that was taught in business and marketing classes for the longest time. It’s called “word-of-mouth marketing.”

Yet, the latest generation of marketers don’t seem to know about it and professes that it’s something else. Something new and shiny that must be tried out and tested. Meanwhile, the perplexed senior executives in their organizations learned about word-of-mouth marketing when they took their business classes back in the 70′s & 80′s.

The key to old-school, word-of-mouth marketing is simple. If someone asks you to recommend a vendor for something, you give them the name of someone that you were happy with or warn them of someone who you were unhappy with.

This is what search engines started replacing (word-of-mouth marketing) in the late 90′s. Two decades later, search engines are being replaced and influenced by online social engagement, which is basically electronic word-of-mouth marketing. We’ve come full circle and any organization that doesn’t realize it is failing to compete with more nimble businesses and likely destined for the scrap heap.

Social Engagement Optimization

To effectively and strategically implement a Social Engagement Optimization strategy, the C-suite can simply let their organizations hire a recent graduate who completed a social media college course and set them loose with the corporate social media strategy.

This may be less expensive than someone who has years of traditional marketing experience, possessing the expertise and ability to relate historical successes and failures to the new social technologies for doing old-fashioned marketing. Yet, the reward for using experience to create measurable benchmarks and milestones based on historical and traditional concepts, is that your organization will succeed in the new environment of online social media marketing.

Corporations and their executive teams need to think about how they are going to use social properties to engage with both current and potential customers and then how to optimize their experience to maximize sales and profits. In essence, they need to relearn how to do something that businesses have done since the dawn of commerce and to educate their marketing teams that SEO must now also include Social Engagement Optimization.

These days, that applies to Facebook marketing, too. We’ve seen a preview of what Facebook’s Graph Search and new newsfeed will bring. Now, all that’s left to do is wait.

But, while we’re speculating, pontificating and – well, waiting – here are 20 mostly painless, definitely necessary things all brands can do to get a jump start on whatever is on the way. No matter how you feel about Facebook, it’s time to get ready.

1. Get On The List

First and foremost, get a jump on the crowd by signing up for the early access list. You can enlist yourself for both Graph Search in “very limited” beta and the new newsfeed.

2. Audit Your “About” Page

Now’s a good time to revisit all the information listed in your brand’s “About” section – any of this data could become a Graph Search element. Are your categories correct? Is your address up-to-date? Are you focusing on the right keywords? Do your name and username match what users will plug into Graph Search to find you?

3. Lock Down Your Likes

Graph Search makes “likes” public, so it’s easy for anyone to discover such unsavory information as which politicians like big butts and which companies have employees who “like” racism.

Can you say reputation management nightmare? Educate your company and its employees about privacy settings – the Washington Post has a great primer and infographic.

4. Fine-Tune Your Visual Content Strategy

With every scrap of info Facebook is giving us about the new newsfeed, the importance of visual content is reinforced.

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. Get Meta

Articles you share will soon feature a larger image, a more prominent title, and a longer article summary. So, make the most of all editable fields for every link.

The link’s title, meta excerpt and associated photo can all be edited and optimized. A few small tweaks could draw more users to your site, so don’t sleep on this easy fix.

6. Blog With Bigger Photos

Since larger images will be created automatically from the links you post, it’s important to upload large, high-quality links to the blog or site you’ll be sharing from. Facebook recommends a width of at least 552 pixels.

7. Encourage Check-ins

Storefront business? Begin thinking of ways to encourage check-ins, whether it’s a sign, discount or contest. Check-ins will be featured more prominently with a map in the new newsfeed, and they’ll be a big factor in Graph Search, too.

8. Get To Know The New Feed Options

One of the most notable changes coming to Facebook is the ability for users to filter content into different feeds. In addition to the default mix of updates from friends and brands we’re used to now, users will also be able to choose from other “subfeeds” like:

• Most Recent: All posts, in chronological order
• All Friends: All posts from all friends
• Photos: All the photos posted by friends and brands a user follows
• Following: All posts from the brands and public figures a user follows

9. Prepare For A Reach Drop

Let’s be realistic. For the first time, users have the choice of totally tuning out messages from brands by looking at their “All Friends” feed. They’ll probably take advantage of it. Prepare bosses, clients and any other stakeholders that there could be an adjustment period ahead.

10. Get Trending

One way Facebook’s new newsfeed will reduce clutter is by grouping together stories on the same topic in a mini-carousel of headlines. Brands that study up on trending topics and prepare themselves for successful newsjacking a la Oreo’s Super Bowl moment could be rewarded with more eyeballs.

11. Make Sharing Your Goal

With users now given the option to totally filter out brands, share-worthy content is more crucial than ever. If the “All Friends” feed becomes the norm, that’ll be the main avenue to get your content seen.

12. Optimize Your Post Times

At least some of the optional subfeeds will be shown in chronological order (including “Following,” the one that shows primarily brand content). In these feeds, content will move fast – if your fans follow lots of other brands, your content could disappear in a matter of minutes. It’s important to consider your fans’ Facebook habits and experiment with post times to find the frequency that works for your brand.

13. Prep High-Quality Images For FB

What does it tell you when Facebook makes photos bigger and creates a photos-only feed? It’s time to invest in high-quality, high-resolution images. Take advantage of Facebook’s rich display opportunities. Even if it’s just converting a pullquote into an image, photos are your best bet for engagement.

14. Make Your Cover Count

Haven’t looked at your cover photo in a while? Revisit it now. When someone likes or interacts with your Page in the future, the cover photo could come along with that activity – right into the News Feed.

This update is designed to provide more context about your Page, so make sure your cover photo tells your brand’s story and makes users curious to learn more.

15. Think Multimedia

It’s not just photos, although those are the most important element to optimize. Videos will be getting more and bigger play in the new newsfeed, and there’s even a chance music apps like Spotify could add in brands to create unique new marketing opportunities.

Share different types of media, and get pumped about the possibilities. Multimedia is critical to your Facebook success.

16. Mine Graph Search For Intel

Once you get access to Graph Search, max it out to gather new intelligence about your fans. What kind of music, books, TV shows and movies do your fans like most? What other brands do they like? Use all the information available to paint a fuller picture of your fan base so you can create more compelling content for them.

Then move on to analyzing industry competitors or even mining for media sources you can begin to build a relationship with.

17. Organize Your Photos

Have you looked at your photos and albums lately? It’s time to organize them. Here’s what to focus on:

• Shorten the captions – From the examples Facebook has provided, the new newsfeed will display photo captions overlaid on the actual photo. Too much copy could distract users.
• Categorize photos – When Facebook gets a refresh, users tend to explore a lot more, so be ready. Move miscellaneous wall photos into appropriate albums for easy browsing.
• Tag your photos – Photos of people and places are searchable in Graph Search, so be sure to tag where applicable. Encourage others to tag themselves in your photos, too.

18. Focus On Useful Or Funny Content

In Facebook’s new world, great content will get a wider audience, and poor content will get lost in the clutter. So, before that new world gets here, focus on producing quality content that’s unique, solves a problem, provokes awe or makes people laugh. That’s the stuff that’s most likely to spread.

19. Remember Why They’re There

In the midst of trying to make sense of the kind of changes that marketers are most likely to notice, it’s important to remember why people come to Facebook in the first place. It’s not to be sold to. It’s to keep up with friends, see what’s new and newsworthy and maybe alleviate boredom. How can your posts stay on topic and also fulfill those needs?

20. Diversify Your Social Media

Still feeling anxious? Just remember, Facebook isn’t the only place you can go to promote your brand. Investing some time in other social media networks or even giving your own blog a refresh could provide the perspective you need.