Social Media: A Diary of Our Lives

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I’m amazed by how differently we each use social media. There is no true right or wrong about it; yes, there are certain courtesies involved, however that’s not what this post is about. I wanted to focus in on how we project and share our personal lives.

Did you keep a diary when you were a kid? I didn’t. I did have an autograph book though and a lot of my junior high friends wrote in it. Still have it (see photo).

Whether you like it or not, if you’re sharing on a social network with a personal account, you’re keeping a diary. Facebook even encourages you to keep a “timeline” of your life’s events: Once in awhile I see friends posting past events; “backfilling” if you will. And that’s wonderful (as long as Facebook is still with us!).

Some folks lean towards sharing life’s little celebrations; maybe a photo of themselves enjoying their 21st birthday party or an outing with their kids. 

Others, it’s a place to let off steam about frustrations and annoyances; haven’t we all had those sort of days when we just have to get our thoughts out and release something that’s absurd, ludicrous, perplexing, stupid or baffling to us?

And others may need caring, friendly support from time to time and they reach out to us. Perhaps you have a friend battling an illness that needs your help to stay positive while they fight the battle. 

Are we going to look back at some time and review those memories? That’s something to think about. It’s a legacy of sorts; a documentation of our time spent here both in word and visually.

Hmmm…it’s great information to pull from when that bio is ready to be written! Oh…too bad it’s only for the last couple of years; imagine in the future for kids growing up now! They are going to have their entire lives documented on social media; first by their parents (as they see it) and then they themselves will be telling the story when they’re old enough to do so. And from their parent's memories they’ll immediately learn about all those events they were too young to have remembered.

Wow…pretty mind blowing, huh?

Bread sang their song "Diary" (see below) in the 1970’s long before social media became a major platform of communication for us all. If you’d like to improve communication for your business, visit our website, or stop by on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.    

   

Okay, I’ve got a Facebook Page…What now?

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Congrats! You’ve made a big step in the world of social media. But, oh dear. Don’t tell me you’ve started a Facebook Page without having a strategy. If that’s the case, do yourself a favor and delete it now. Harsh? Yes. But I’ve seen so many businesses wallowing out there, posting lots of spammy looking stuff and subsequently doing a great job of making themselves look BAD. Why would you do that? Perhaps some of these reasons sound like your rationale for starting a page:

•    Everyone else has a Facebook page so I have to have one too.
•    I’ll make sales. All I have to do is post my product or service.
•    I heard that other media forms are dying, like newspaper ads and direct mail.
•    It’s keeping up with the times.
•    It’s free.
•    I can get all my friends to like it, and I’ll have hundreds of people on there!

First of all, a Facebook page isn’t for everyone. It depends on a combination of factors, including what your industry is, if you’re B to C or B to B, where your audience is (or isn't) and how successful you’ve been with other media. For example, if you are a service provider and clients are coming in from your newspaper ad, and you’re turning people away, that may be enough, for now. But do revisit the thought down the road. Your clientele may be newspaper readers, and not Facebook frequenters.

Facebook pages are not about spamming the public with advertising by constantly posting hard selling come-ons on your page. If that’s your mindset, you will fail. This is social media, not hard hitting in the face, advertising. And yes, while some methods of reaching people are dying out, such as newspapers, it doesn’t mean they don’t work today for your target audience.

Myth: Facebook pages are free. That’s just not true! They require a lot of time. You can do it yourself, however, if you’re offering a service that bills at $200 an hour, is it worth taking the time to do those posts? Do you place ads in newspapers yourself? Probably not beyond making a phone call and writing a check. If you do go ahead with a Facebook page think about outsourcing so you can concentrate on your business at hand. And ramping up by growing fans rapidly via a Facebook ad will set you back a pretty penny. If you are a one person show and posting all day, what does that say about the amount of work you really do?

A Facebook business page is not about your friends; many of your friends, while interested in you, will not have much interest in the services or the products you offer. On a positive note, they may like your page, and, while they never participate there they may pass along your page to people they know that will have an interest. But do get yourself set up for rejection, and do not be offended when your friends “like” your page, then “unlike” it a couple of days later.

All the wrong reasons are posted above. Now, I don’t want to give away all my trade secrets, but I highly recommend conversing with someone who can help you determine the reasons why YOU should have a Facebook page, what the expectations are, the best way for you to go about it, content, how to handle conflict and negativity, how to project the essence of your brand, and I could go on.

Wish I didn’t have to say this: It’s not that simple. Strategy and Planning is the key. Winging it is not a substitute. Best to you!

How do I LOVE something on Facebook? An idea.

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“I don’t just like it, I LOVE it!!!” In addition to clicking “like”, someone posted comment this on one of my Facebook pages the other day. Got me thinking; wouldn’t it be nice to have degrees of like on Facebook? Hmmm…now there’s a true blend of Market Research and Social Media.

Imagine this. There’s one of your favorite songs of all time. You eagerly click on the little arrow and play it. And play it again. And again. And all you can do is “like” it. Why not have the opportunity to rate it a 10 (based on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being you absolutely heart heart heart it and 1 being I wouldn’t listen to it if it was the only song available to me on a desert island). What would having a “like” rating scale tell us?

On a Facebook page it would give a better indication of how truly passionate people are (or not so passionate) about the sort of posts you’re putting out there. And, it would be instant feedback. So, if something’s going right, you’ll know. On the other hand, if you’re bombing miserably, you’ll know that too. That’s actually a good thing, because then you tweak your strategy right away and try something else.

A rating scale would provide more meaningful quantitative information (as opposed to a count of likes) in additional to the qualitative comments. Granted, sample size could be small but at the very least could be viewed as directional. Sometimes, I received over 30 likes for any given post (out of just over 1,800 “likers” currently) on one of my Facebook pages. Not bad. And there could be up to 10 comments in addition to those likes. Let’s me know right away that this post is a success. I may tuck that information away and use that very same post again or something similar in the near future.

But it’s about more than one post; several post likes can be viewed collectively too. Posting a number of items that are related and getting a positive reaction to each (let’s say five posts with over 100 likes) could tell us that we’ve struck a positive chord. Do keep in mind that there are likely to be multiple likes among those posts, indicating that the overall subject matter is resonating.

Degrees of like would tell us if a post is a runaway success with many 9’s and 10’s or merely an “eh, it’s okay” with a multitude of 5’s and 6’s.

This methodology could be telling for personal profiles too. If you’re constantly telling your friends that you’re dining at McDonalds this evening, maybe you’ll learn that your friends are rather lukewarm to this information. But when you post really cute photos of your dog or kids, it’s hitting your friends on all 8 cylinders with the good old emotional tug. How do you know this? All your relatives rated it a 10, and most of your childhood friends were in the 8 to 10 range. Meanwhile, those 15 comments brought the story on home.

So, how ‘bout it Facebook? Can you do a little enhancement for those of us who get excited by numbers?