6 Social Media and Content Tips from #smlondon

I’ve been following the folks over at Social Media London, from my old home town, for a while now enjoying their content, tweetchats and following their events via their hashtag #smlondon.

When they recently held their second #smlondon LIVE event, I followed closely and have curated some of the most important and interesting points:

 

1. Content Overload!

I read a ton of content and the experts agree that we are currently being bombarded with content, so much so that most of it goes un-shared.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/664370343390388224

 

2. What type of content works?

So, bearing that in mind, what type of content does grab our attention?

a. Long form content:

b. List posts 

 

3. Email is still awesome

Marketers can sometimes forget that aside from social media, email marketing can be at least as, if not more, effective. And the stats back it up!

 

 

4. Pizza rules Instagram

On Instagram, pizza is king:

 

 

5. Brands can sometimes do ‘real-time marketing’ wrong – and admit it

When Pizza Express tweeted about calling the Royal Baby ‘Pizza’ they were called out for it. But they sound like they have learnt their lesson – a valuable one for all brands…

 

6. You don’t need all the resources in the world to be awesome at social media

The most surprising fact of all.

Everyone knows that Innocent have a great social media team (I often think of this gem from the iPhone 6 announcement), but how many people work on their social? I would have guessed 5? Maybe more…

Here’s the shocking answer:

They even sent me this great reply to that tweet:

 

Proof that you don’t need to have endless resources to be awesome at social media!

 

You can read more insights and see the slides from the event here.

Kudos to the #smlondon & LinkHumans team on a great event!!

 

If you have any comments, tweet me @danielcohen82 or fill in the box below!

How Buffer’s Community Management Is Awesome

A couple of months ago, Buffer‘s amazing community manager Nicole Miller posted a blog post about how they send company swag and how much it costs them, which I tweeted.

Having already received their (hand-written) card and stickers, I was already a fan of their swag. Then, my friend Mordecai Holtz tweeted (half-jokingly, I think) that he also got them but would have liked a t-shirt:

Nicole took us both seriously and sent us both a t-shirt in the mail. When mine arrived at my local post office, I was shocked that they asked me to pay a $10 release fee! I protested to them strongly about this fee, telling them it was just a gift of a t-shirt, but to no avail. I was resigned to paying the fee, or letting the shirt go back to Buffer.

I told Nicole what was going on, and she responded in the most amazing way!

IMG_5950

IMG_5951

She was REALLY trying to make it right. Problem was, as nice and kind as the offers were, they weren’t useful for us. At this point, she could have just said “I’m really sorry we can’t make it work this time.”

But, no. She persevered – and asked me what we would find useful.

So, I told her, and was totally shocked by her response:

IMG_5952

IMG_5953

Yes, you read that correctly.

They sent me 10 POUNDS – equivalent to about $15! So more than I paid for releasing the t-shirt at the post office!

I was speechless. Nicole’s behaviour is totally in sync with Buffer’s values:

buffer culture

Nicole did what I believe every good community manager should do – ensure those in the community remain happy, and if possible, convert them into fans.

I already loved Buffer – great product, great team, great content, great philosophy.

Now they have a fan for life.

IMG_6010

 

If you have any comments, tweet me @danielcohen82 or fill in the box below!

6 Social Media Quotes and Stats from Engage 2015

I love Socialbakers’ Engage events. Having watched Engage 2013 and 2014 with interest, this year’s version based in Prague was equally exciting for me, and didn’t disappoint.

There was lots to take in, and loads of amazing takeaways, but I’ve managed to narrow it down to 6 of my top quotes and stats all to do with social media:

1 YouTube video view = 1.7 Facebook video views

Yup, according to Socialbakers’ CEO, Jan Rezab, for every video view on YouTube, there are 1.7 video views on Facebook. Astounding even more so, as I just read that last summer’s Ice Bucket Challenge produced 1 billion YouTube views, and an astounding 10 billion Facebook video views! (See here for the details)

Facebook is 10x larger than the biggest TV channel on the planet

Another gem from Jan Rezab, showing how the number of Facebook users dwarfs even the biggest of TV channels, ESPN. For those who doubt the power of social v TV, just show them this:

Get your message across without advertising it

Disney’s Shira Feuer was describing how they use social to spread their messages and products, and said this great quote, which many people who use social just don’t get – it’s social media, not a sales platform!

In 2014, KLM’s 150 Social Media Customer Service Agents Generated $25m

What’s the ROI of social media? Social can’t make you any money!

KLM are one of the most socially aware brands in the world. I lauded them in 2013 and 2014 when they appeared at Engage, and this time was no different.

Can you make money from social? Of course you can, as long as it is done the RIGHT way:

KLM Can’t Really Be THAT Awesome At Social!

Um, yes they can:

Outstanding.

People don’t buy the drill. They buy the hole it makes in the wall.

This great one, quoted by Adidas’ Thomas van Schaik, is so powerful when you think about it. Often, marketers get lost in trying to work out how to sell their product, when really the consumer cares about what the product does, not what it is.

Already looking forward to the next Engage – but Jan, how about bringing it to Silicon Wadi next time? 😉

 

If you have any comments, tweet me @danielcohen82 or fill in the box below!

How to Change the Name of a Facebook Page With More Than 200 Likes

I encountered this issue a few months ago, when I wanted to change the name of a Facebook Page I manage. I had some issues:

1. The Page had more than 200 likes (with less than 200, it is relatively simple)

2. The Page had previously been through a name change

3. I am NOT US-based

When you follow Facebook’s own instructions, if you have the same parameters as I did, you will see this:

fb page name

As you can see, there is no option to edit the page name – it is just not possible.

So, what do you do?!

1. Log in as an admin

Ensure you are logged in to Facebook as a person who is an admin of the Page you wish to change. Otherwise, this will not work.

2. Contact Facebook

Click on the following link to contact Facebook to request the name change: https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/221445081367260

You should see this:

fb name change

Follow the instructions, which are relatively straightforward:

fb name change 1

Enter your Page’s new name…
fb name change 2Select the reason why you are changing the Page name:

fb name change 3

And then, wait…

It took me all of 3 minutes.

Yes, you read that correctly. 3 MINUTES!

fb name change 4

Admittedly, I was probably lucky. My request was only to slightly change the name – and I was never asked for any supporting documentation, though I could have provided some if they requested.

“That link didn’t work!”

Some people say that link above didn’t work for them. If so, go to https://www.facebook.com/business/contact-us, then click “My Page”, then “Changing my Page’s name”:

fb name change 5

That should take you to the same place.

“That still doesn’t work for me”

Some claimed that this was still not working, perhaps because this only works for those US-based, as I mentioned at the start. If that is the case, try using a VPN and see if making Facebook think you are in the US helps.

I hope this was useful! Let me know how you got on!

If you have any comments, tweet me @danielcohen82 or fill in the box below!

The Worst Social Media Marketing Prediction for 2015

Having endured tens of “My Social Media/Marketing/Tech Predictions for 2015” blog posts over the last few weeks, one thing that cropped up several times truly drove me crazy. Something that I don’t believe should feature as a prediction for 2015 at all. Something that is so darn obvious to me, and to everyone who has any connection with tech or marketing today.

Here are a couple of examples of what I’m talking about:

mobile first 3

mobile first 1

Yes, I’m talking about “mobile-first”.

Are you seriously trying to tell me that only now, at the start of 2015, marketers should be thinking mobile-first?!

Credit: Benedict Evans, a16z, Mobile is Eating the World

Credit: Benedict Evans, a16z, Mobile is Eating the World

Already in 2013, more time was being spent on mobile than on desktop – and the signs were clear at least a year or so before that.

More than that, I heard a year or so ago that certain parts of Facebook HQ were banned from using the product on desktop and were ordered to use it via mobile only. I struggled to find a source for this despite asking several times on social. Then I found this:

“To be honest, a couple of weeks ago, myself and a number of other product managers had access to our website internally shut off,” admitted Facebook product manager Josh Williams, during the recently concluded SXSW. “Basically it forced us to use only mobile devices for a week … It forced us to say, ‘Hey, we have these features that exist in one place but not in another, and we have to remedy.’”

This is very cool – when was it written though?

fb mobile

Yup. Read it and weep. 2013!!

We have been in the age of “mobile-first” for at least 2-3 years. If you haven’t realised that already, I worry for you!

If you have any comments, tweet me @danielcohen82 or fill in the box below!

32 for 32

On my 32nd birthday, I have decided to mark the occasion by listing 32 things I am thankful for (not in order of importance). Some of these are more mundane than the others, but they are all part of me:

  1. My beautiful wife
  2. My 4 cute kids 
  3. My parents
  4. My in-laws
  5. My grandmas
  6. My extended families on both sides (siblings, aunties, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins etc etc)
  7. My community
  8. All my good friends, from those I was in kindergarten with to those I only met recently
  9. London – was my home for 25 years and was very good to me
  10. Israel – my home
  11. My jobs – both old and current (and future?) -> my LinkedIn profile
  12. Good health
  13. My religion
  14. My other religion (football, in particular LFC) 
  15. Technology
  16. Having a car
  17. Whisky! (One of my favourites -> Edradour)
  18. Our house
  19. Our garden (it looks amazing; and the view…)
  20. Air travel (we take it for granted but to be a few hours away from close family is a huge deal)
  21. Shabbat – 25 hours of family time – Every. Single. Week!
  22. Books (Don’t have enough time – see number 2 – but love to read)
  23. Monty Python et al (nudge, nudge, wink, wink – source of many a good joke)
  24. Chicken soup (nuff said)
  25. Good TV shows
  26. Good movies (preferably ones I don’t fall asleep in – those are hard to come by these days!)
  27. Inspirational quotes (this blog features a few), or videos (I love this amazing TED Talk by Simon Sinek)
  28. Getting older while getting wiser (I hope!)
  29. Random good deeds
  30. Especially when those good deeds come out of social media interactions, which leads me to…
  31. Those connections, some incredible, I have made through social media in general and Twitter in particular (love Twitter!)
  32. 32 amazing and challenging years – here’s to year number 33, and many more!

If you have any comments, tweet me @danielcohen82 or fill in the box below!

Great quote #11

 

“Before you launch a product you design for the behavior you expect. After you launch you design for the behavior you get.”

Des Traynor