Social Media Archives - Page 3 of 15

How Twitter IPO Changes Its Focus

11/18/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Few people understand what happens when a company goes public. We watched how Facebook maneuvered an ever increasingly heated spotlight, and now Twitter is undergoing the same.

In this piece Nov. 11, 2013 in Advertising Age, “Twitter’s task: Getting new users to understand it,” it seems the biggest issue Twitter has with new users is its complexity.

To follow this line of thinking, go back to the very first tweet you posted. Perhaps you need to go back to the very first time you logged in and saw a blank screen with some stranger popping up to say hi. Were you as nervous as I and almost backed out?

There are still people who don’t engage on Twitter because they believe the common misnomer that it’s a bunch of people talking about what they eat and where they go to the movies. We in the know, know better, right?

Because Twitter is now publicly traded (NYSE: TWTR) with a valuation of more than $20 billion and a 73 percent “stock pop” (says Ad Age) on day one of trading, it has to think differently about how to behave:

Attract more of the masses (a major hurdle)
Onboarding new users and making them feel comfy out of the gate
Reduce consumer churn – the rate that new users drop off in a short period of time
Increase advertising dollars for marketers who want proof the users are there to click through and make a buy

Take a look at Twitter’s number of users in the U.S., says Advertising Age:

Q1 2013 – 48 million monthly active users

Q2 2013 – 49 million monthly active users

Q3 2013 – 53 million monthly active users

Facebook has three times the scale. At the end of Q2 2013, it boasted 179 million monthly active users

It’s like comparing apples to oranges, however, because look at the skill and understanding a Twitter peep has to communicate. When you read tweets from accounts trying to sell, they’re awkward. Engagement and relationship building are the keys to earning followers; Facebook is about existing relationships among friends you already know. Not so Twitter.

It’s because of Twitter that I have a new network of true and real friends I’ve met IRL, spoken with on the phone, engaged with on Skype, and hired into my business. Not so Facebook.

There are so many ways Twitter can be used to enhance knowledge of the world.

When there is a natural disaster like the ones in New Orleans, Haiti, the Philippines, New Zealand, and elsewhere, Twitter comes alive with tweets around the world providing updates about the crises and how peeps can help. Not so Facebook.

The hashtag is finally coming into its own as a way to follow conversations; its now in use by Facebook AND Google+. We owe that to Twitter as the first channel to adopt hashtags; I think I first began hashtagging #RockHot in August 2010, and all the threads of tweets featuring that phrase I created are documented. Pretty cool.

I digress…

What I’m hoping doesn’t happen with Twitter as it has with Facebook is the social channel’s intense need to put advertisers first and revenue above service. We who have been around since the early days know quite well the quirky and secretive nature of Twitter with a tribe mentality.

It’s too bad Twitter will change itself to appeal to the masses who don’t and won’t get it (although I’ve heard from a lot of moms that the kids are hitting Twitter in droves and foregoing Facebook). Groups of young boys (about freshmen age in high school) are forming Twitter accounts and buying followers to gain immediate traction.

Perhaps Twitter needs to look within among users who already prefer the channel over the others instead of trying at this late juncture to appeal to those who won’t get it to also thus appeal to marketers sinking advertising dollars into the channel.

Time will tell…

Thank You Louisville Plus Savvier Social Media SlideShare

09/11/2013 By Jayme Soulati

The hospitality of the Louisville IABC chapter and the Louisville Digital Association knows no bounds.

At its 5th Marketing Summit, where I presented, the day was packed with a breadth of topics and the widest array of speakers I’ve seen at a day conference.

Jason Falls, Mr. Social Media Explorer and Café Press, was emcee and earns credit for pulling in presenters the likes of:

Gini Dietrich speaking on Marketing in the Round from Chicago
Heather Whaling, Geben Communication, sharing PR on the bleeding edge and she’s rockin’ it from Columbus, Ohio
David Knox, CMO of Rock Fish and with the Brandery, Cincinnati, Ohio
Jayme Soulati, on Savvier Social Media Across the Marketing Blend, from Dayton, Ohio
David Coomer who shared his campaign called Beardvertising (pretty funny)

And others from the region who spoke from public utilities, about retargeting campaigns and more.

Savvier Social Media

Although I whined for four weeks that Jason assigned me the toughest topic – how social media integrates across all the marketing disciplines, the presentation rocked, and it was probably due to the fact that I had a row of hecklers (ahem, Gini Dietrich, Heather Whaling and Deborah) in the front row (not to mention my new laser pointer which reached all the way to the back of the room and spotlighted people who were too engrossed in their devices).

Thanks to Fashionbi, the Milan startup covering global fashion brands, for #RockHot analytics for my deck.

Thanks for Trackur for agreeing to “sponsor” my presentation with the first-ever advertisement in a PowerPoint deck.

Thanks to J. Crew for being the crux of the presentation with a case study on its very savvy social media, although they didn’t know it.

Thanks to the audience for letting me entertain while provoking the main goal – think differently about social media.

Find My Deck On SlideShare

This is my first official upload of a SlideShare deck. I’ve always shied away from sharing my prezzies.

To my surprise and utter delight, there are already 128 views in less than 24 hours. #RockHot!

What’s interesting is that a deck can have the best pictures, but it’s truly all in the delivery.

Serendipity And The Social Web

09/05/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Spoiler alert: the secret to making people like you on social media is to stop trying to make them like you on social media. Letting go of that desire can cause some amazing things to happen. I was reminded of this principle recently.

One morning I started my day doing two things I do not do enough.

The first was to look through my Twitter stream. Usually I see links to the same articles I find on Triberr, my RSS feed and other content discovery sources. This time was different.

Immediately I spotted a tweet from Jayme with a link to a new post: “Thoughts On Love In Business.” It’s a topic I have blogged about, and I was thinking about it again for another post.

Clicks And Comments

I clicked the link that led to this blog. That’s when I did the second thing I do not do enough.

I left a comment. Just a quick response to the question posed and a “thank you” for opening the discussion. Those two things, a Twitter discovery and a comment, triggered a series of unexpected events that amazed me.

First, Jayme replied to my comment asking me to leave links to the articles I’ve written. Then a chain reaction:

• She read my posts and liked them. A lot.
• She left comments.
• She shared them on Twitter and Facebook.
• We connected on LinkedIn and Facebook.
• She encouraged her community to visit my blog.
• Some community members left comments and subscribed.
• We had an awesome phone conversation the next day.

All of that happened within 24 hours of my leaving that comment. Jayme asked if I’d be interested in writing a guest post about this experience. And so here we are.

Social Media Serendipity

Some would describe this chain of events as the law of attraction at work. Some would call it good Karma. Others would use the word “grace.” Whatever your orientation, the common idea is serendipity.

Serendipity is most commonly defined as luck or good fortune and the aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. But when I looked it up, I found a new wrinkle to its meaning.

The word originates from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip whose heroes had a gift for making accidental discoveries of things they were not in a quest for.

Which brings me back to the beginning.

What I learned from this experience is that ‘happy accidents’ can happen on social media when you are not trying too hard to make them happen. When I started the day, I wasn’t on a quest to make power connections or drive traffic to my blog. I didn’t even leave a link in my comment until being asked.

You could argue that is not savvy marketing. But in that moment I was not in a self-promote mindset. I was just following a discovery I stumbled into by accident.

And wow. At the end of the day I got a wonderful lesson on the power of a tweet and a comment to open up serendipitous opportunities on social media.

Thank you Jayme and community.

About The Author

John Gregory Olson is a B2B marketing consultant and freelance copywriter. He writes about marketing strategy and leadership on his blog. Follow him on Twitter @John_G_Olson .

Use List.ly For Gifts And Curation

08/15/2013 By Jayme Soulati

This is my first share of a list via List.ly. And, the most absolutely astonishingly amazing thing is that I did not do it myself.

I was gifted of this list by none other than Jackson Middleton, who tweets and is of, and claims he’s “wearing a kilt right now” with coffee mug in hand. And another thing? I’ve never tweeted or engaged this wonderful man who came bearing gifts in the night.

Or, perhaps he didn’t and this was all part of some secret research I’m not privy to. Mr. Middleton was not available for tweets this early in the day, so my assumption is that this here below is a GIFT!

About Jackson Middleton

He writes a blog My favorite blog headline of all is his,

He is doing the best-ever mortgage, real estate and broker blog in all of Canada and perhaps in the U.S. Take a look at

I thought Nick Kellet was doing my content audit for his recent project for and I was cringing for those results. Nick, are you? Is Jackson your secret team member on your project? When I went up to List.ly and saw this list of 25 of my most recent blog posts on a list, my jaw dropped.

Sad, that I cannot seem to embed the list here, so I’ll suffice with an image and a link.

View more from

Using List.ly

This tool offers so many #RockHot opportunities.

You can gift someone as Jackson the Kilt Wearer did for me.
You can curate topics and people on a list to lure folks to participate.
You can do a personal branding list, which I did and it actually garnered traffic to my blog.
You can participate on others’ lists and add your favorites. Heck, you can be sure your own blog is added, too!

I don’t even have this tool mastered one iota (so glad I could use that word), but the sky is the limit.

What can you share here about your List.ly experiences? Obviously, you can learn from a Ninja — Mr. Jackson Middleton!

Social Media, Girls And Corporate America

07/17/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Look out corporate America, the girls are coming to a social media channel near you. Little girls, some as young as 9-years-old, have taken to activism with online petitions by Change.org against multi-national corporations the likes of McDonalds, PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Hasbro, Jamba Juice, and other unsuspecting entities.

This Crain’s Chicago Business story June 17, 2013, Girl Power; Big Business Faces A Formidable New Force: They’re under 18 and All Over Social Media, provides the scoop:

Pre-teens and teens with evolving female emotions (high-touch/high-care) about right and wrong, healthy eating, food toxicity, the Earth, animals, and more are taking issues to heart and attacking corporations via social media channels, online petitions, at corporate events, and in tandem with activist groups.

And, the floodgates are nearly breached. This generation (what label does it have as they are younger than Millennials?), was born with social media engagement. They watch their parents take snapshots on Instagram, tweet, Facebook, and basically live and breathe every social media channel.

When something goes awry in customer service, what’s the first thing an adult does? Complains on social media and takes images of the entire experience. Where are the kiddies? Watching, clicking buttons, hitting send, and reacting to their parents’ social media zeal.

Look at some of these young people and what they’ve done under 10 and 20 years of age:

Hannah, 9, of British Columbia attacked McDonalds in Oak Brook, Ill. In May 2013 at its annual meeting. She accused CEO in person of “trying to trick kids into wanting to eat your food all the time.” Hannah was backed by Boston activists Corporate Accountability International.
Sarah Kavanagh, 16, Hattiesburg, Miss. used Facebook and Twitter to get brominated vegetable oil out of Gatorade and Powerade sports beverages. (Hey, Pepsi and Coca Cola, she’s now of age; hire her!)
McKenna Pope, 13, Garfield, NJ lobbied Hasbro to make a gender neutral Easy-Bake Oven.

Yesterday’s Kids v. Today’s Kids

As said, the floodgates are nearly breached. How many pre-teens and teens are there watching people use social media to get what they want? Back in the day, my brother and his friends used to hit McDonalds, order cheeseburgers, eat half, take it the counter and tell them they found a hair or it was overcooked. They’d get another one and then turn around and ask for fresh fries because the ones they bought were dried out.

No more.

Teens are smarter than adults in the online world, and schools are teaching students to think differently, use online tools and take action sooner.

Corporate America is what the kids target; it is ripe for the pickins’.

What’s A Company To Do

Corporations need to listen!
Never attack a kid anywhere – in writing, in person, or via a third party.
Don’t use corporate speak, but don’t treat these kids as if they were adolescent.
Make the girls into ambassadors; invite them to company functions, ask opinions, hire them, give then a scholarship, recognize their maturity – especially the kids acting alone without help from the activist organizations.
Respond on social channels…graciously.
Social media teams who answer posts must be trained to be fully aware that children may be responding. There’s no way to determine age of a consumer especially if the avatar is an animal or shape.

No one said it was easy being on the frontline as a multi-national corporation. Smaller companies need to sit up and take notice from example, too.

One Chicago girl took on the municipality of Grayslake to ban single-use plastic bags. She is 13-years-old.

When any company believes they can ignore social media; think again. When you don’t engage, you cannot respond. When a pre-teen girl gets a brick wall in answer to a smart social media attack, look out…you’ll be on the defensive for years from not just one girl but all her friends across every single social channel.

That train? It left four years ago. If you are not taking social media seriously by now, then hop into your horse and cart and enjoy the ride.