Author Archives: Todd Hyten

04.02.10
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Who Do You Believe in Social Media Marketing?

From eMarketer comes this perhaps not-too surprising story that the sources that Internet users trust when it comes to marketing messages on social media are 1.) A consumer of the product mentioned and … 2) The “Brand” itself. The research, eMarketer reports today, came from InSites Consulting and featured a survey group of more than 2,000 respondents.

The breakdown was, specifically: “most credible source of information about a brand” — 38% of respondents said consumers, and 32% said the brand itself. Everyone else (journalists, marketers) ranked in single digits.

Not so surprising … but it shows that credibility with a brand itself is naturally strong due to the 1-to-1 experience of social media. Chalk another one in the plus column, but don’t be so quick to think “everyone” trusts you just because you are on Twitter. That’s another story …

03.30.10
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Facebook Getting Ready To Ditch “Fan” Nomenclature

News of an important language change on Facebook’s business-oriented “Pages” made the rounds yesterday and I have to say I still don’t know if this is good or bad news for businesses on Facebook. Facebook plans to change the language of interaction with these pages (“joining” or “following” them) from “Become a fan” to some version of “Like.”

Here’s the story from Mashable, and the Mashable reporter Adam Ostrow made the key point that I was wondering about yesterday:

“… in fact, people click “Like” almost two times more than they click “Become a Fan” everyday.The latter part is important – it means that the change could make it easier for brand advertisers to accumulate fans quickly. But it also means that users might not totally understand what they’re opting in to.”

That really is the nub of the issue, but there’s one other thing. I like the shortness of the word “Fan” … and Facebook in their FAQ says maybe businesses should switch to the term “people who like us on Facebook.”

To which I reply: You’re kidding, right?

03.29.10
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Three Ways To Get Me (And My Clients) To Unfollow You

Part of my daily job is to watch my clients’ Twitter accounts/activity and peruse activity on the lists I’ve created. I’m watching lists of my clients’ competitors/market cohorts, and it’s funny some of the things I see a few small business users do on Twitter.

Here’s a tip: If you’re a small business, don’t do things that make you look like you are trying to “game” your follower count. I’m looking for legitimate people/businesses to add to my clients’ Twitter follow list — people and businesses who might be honestly interested in my clients’ message/services/blog. People and businesses who want to be social, share knowledge. And even just fun people who I know are local, and might look at my clients’ service one day.

Here’s a short list of a few things that will make me unfollow an account because it doesn’t look like they are serious, they could potentially be spam-like, or it’s obvious they are just “doing Twitter” because they heard it brings magical fairies out of the interwebs who then shower millions of dollars on their business.

Top Things To Make Me And My Clients Unfollow You:

1. Make a habit of posting a link without any text. I’ve seen “legitimate” small businesses do this. It looks like a cynical trick.

2. Fill up my Twitter stream with more than 10 of your posts via an API. All in a row. Think you got my attention? Well, you did, but not in a good way!

3. Make endless tweets about who you are following, have nothing else to say for a long time, and it’s not Friday. OK, everybody gives a shout out to friends and followers. But I see a bunch of these from one source, repeatedly and it’s NOT Follow Friday, and you never seem to have much to say, adios amigo.

Here’s the underlying rule: If you are trying something that looks like a follow “trick,” think again.