Social Media A-Z: A Glossary for 2013

With the 2012 marketing season soon to wind down, we are all gearing up for 2013. Here are some questions that should be on every good marketer’s mind: What are new strategies? How can we execute? What is our budget? To help you find the answers, take a look at the social media glossary below – think of it as a concise guide to refer to when you are planning out your 2013 social media marketing plan.

Attention – always pay attention to everyone in your online community. Remember, those fans and followers are real people.

Blog – no matter what field you are in, you should have a blog that reflects your brand or organization; this will build readership among other thought leaders in your field.

Community – this is what social media is all about. Social networks are simply online communities. Engagement, discussion and respect are top priority within these communities.

Delete – don’t do it! Unless there is graphic content that must be removed, do not delete what your community is saying. It negates transparency. If you host a community where profanity or hateful comments abound, then post a “house rules” disclaimer stating you will remove certain kinds of comments. This will protect you from angered fans.

Engagement – do it! Always. By actively engaging with their communities, brands build zealots and open lines of communications – this leads to great word of mouth. We all like the good chatter. It’s a great way to thank those who support your brand.

Facebook – Once the mothership, but with many other platforms such as Twitter and Pinterest gaining traction, it is not seen as the head of social networks anymore.

Google+ – I firmly believe that Google+ is essential in today’s social media marketing plan for brands. Three words, S-E-O!

Help – always be willing to lend a helping hand as a brand. Fans and followers use social to get answers, be there for them.

Instagram – one of the most popular social networks. Why? Multimedia always wins, especially filtered multimedia. Visual content is key and Instagram is an easy way to make your photos even better.  Great visuals +  branding = a social win.

Jabber – don’t unintelligibly ramble on. It’s a turn off and will make people want to leave your community. Keep it short and to the point.

Klout – Albeit a little faulted in many experts’ opinions, it still helps identify who is influential with-in defined categories. Don’t invest too much in the actual numbers though.

Listen – one of the most important practices in social media. Listen first, speak later. No one likes the person who only talks about themselves at the party, and you can gain key insights to your fan base.

Myspace – oh snap! I said it. It’s coming back. Don’t believe me? See here.

Network – what it’s all about.

Optimize – stay on top. Make sure all of your channels, sites and marketing plans are up to date and as functional as possible. Cross promote your properties as well. Make it easy for fans to find you.

Pinterest – the new business pages are here. Get crackin!

Quiet – don’t go quiet. When a brand goes away so does all of the word-of-mouth (well, at least the good kind…). Your once dedicated fans will not be happy campers. If you have gone silent then start posting again as soon as possible, no excuses, just do it!

Reach – strive to have a big reach with your brand message, but don’t sacrifice community engagement for bigger reach.

Statistics – always always always measure your data. You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t where you’ve been. We recommend spending a little here to get the full picture. There are lots of affordable tools out there. Invest in social and you will get more out of your efforts.

Twitter – many call it the most important social network. Twitter is essential. Think of it as the salsa dance of social media.

Unfollow – go through and unfollow people you do not interact with on Twitter, as well as inactive users, spammers and egg-heads. Value conversation and connections over your ‘followers’ count.

Visuals – multimedia is king. Try and include still visuals and motion picture in your content strategy. Be wary though, a video that is too long is dangerous.

Websites- where you probably invested a lot of money at one time. Although the party is no longer on your website, you should make sure it is functional, attractive and has links to all of your social platforms.

XXX – don’t incorporate inappropriate content. Graphic images and/or language is the number one way to make your community go rotten.

YouTube – can’t leave this out. Gotta have my ‘GangnamStyle‘ network!

Zealots – what every brand strives for. Your community should be filled with zealots who are passionate about your brand. Where do you think all the good word-of-mouth comes from?

Bonus:

Transparency – be transparent and open with your fans and followers. Allow them to be part of the brand. This builds dedication, something that helps everyone.

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Where Businesses Meet Social Media – Predictions for 2013

It’s that time of year again – when analysts and pundits and authors all begin to roll out their list o’ predictions for the coming year. And as we march towards 2013, I felt it would be pertinent to see how social media and the world of business will continue to interact with one another next year. 2012 was definitely a year of growth with 66% of small businesses surveyed by Vertical Response saying they spend more time on social media now than they did a year ago. Usage on the sites will undoubtedly continue to grow – there is no point in, once again, detailing how important social media is to interacting with customers – but how will companies actually use social tools next year? My crystal ball foresees a few things happening:

A Slightly More Personal Touch

Hopefully business owners are learning that they can’t use social media as another medium for advertising. There is no magic, mechanical formula to using social channels. You simply have to approach them as a tool for two-way communication. With that in mind, I definitely see more CEOs and owners making personal accounts to interact with their business’s customers. Marissa Mayer has been at it since taking the lead job over at Yahoo, using her personal account to plug articles and events for Yahoo, along with updating followers about aspects of her life that have made it into the news. She is forging a personal connection between her followers, herself, and her company. And that is exactly what she should be doing with that account. I expect more and more CEOs will soon begin to follow suit, though how much of themselves they will be willing to put online remains to be seen.

A Blurring of the Borders between Business Websites and Social Media

Currently, there isn’t much of a connection between business websites and social media. Sure, there may be a blog with a couple of sharing buttons attached to it, but beyond that websites are typically there to offer a way to gather information and buy a product or service. However, as social media use continues to grow, I would expect a lot of businesses will begin trying to blend their social media presence and their website. This could mean giving customers the option to post what they just bought on Twitter and Facebook, à la Amazon, or it could just mean that websites are going to be a bit more intuitive and streamlined so jumping from a business’s Facebook account to its website is not such a shock. Either way, how the majority of consumers use the internet, and what they expect from it, will shape how companies present themselves online.

Higher Expectations for Employees to Play Along

This prediction may not be as positive, depending on how you feel about a company meddling in their employee’s social networks. The human element I mentioned earlier is important to a company’s social media presence, and one way that this element can be established is by asking employees to both promote and interact with the company online. Now most companies will probably just e-mail their employees and ask for their support, but there is always the chance that some business might take it a step too far and start hassling employees that do not play ball. Some businesses already monitor their employees’ social media accounts, and there have been reports of people being fired for badmouthing their employer online. Hopefully any increase in employer meddling will be negligible, but there is an expectation held by many business owners and CEOs that employees will be team players when it comes to supporting the business they work for.

No matter what, 2013 is going to be an interesting year for social media and business. As the amount of time that internet users spend on social networks continues to grow, businesses are going to have to get pretty creative if they ever hope to grab the attention of possible customers. 

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