Social Magazine Volume 3

THE LEADING MAGAZINE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS, SOCIAL ANALYTICS AND ONLINE MARKETING

CREATED BY THE HIBU ONLINE PRESENCE TEAM

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Is Facebook Still King?We’ve all heard the complaints. We’ve likely voiced them ourselves.

Yes, it might seem the world’s love affair with its original social media darling has lost some of its luster. But has it really? In a September 2014 study, the Pew Research Center found that Facebook still easily dominates all its competitors in raw number of user accounts.

While it’s true Facebook’s growth has slowed, when measuring the percentage of adults who use different social platforms, Facebook’s 71% was most closely rivaled by Pinterest and LinkedIn, coming in at only 28% (Pew).

This hardly seems compatible with seemingly any casual conversation with the average

user. So which is it? Is Facebook the giant we can’t live without? Or are the cracks in the dam starting to appear?

The best answer seems to be “we’ll see.”

Facebook detractors point to the fact that the platform saw little to no change in its user population from 2013 to 2014, hinting that it’s ceiling – albeit an incredibly high one – has been found. They also note that the growth of usage on other social platforms among adults signals a collective discontent with Facebook’s evolution.

But Facebook junkies can counter with the fact that engagement levels and frequency with which people use Facebook continue to increase, while competitor platforms show little growth in that desirable metric.

70% of Facebook users engage daily, 45% more than once, both of which continue the platform’s annual uptick in these trends. Instagram (49%), Pinterest (17%), Twitter (36%), and LinkedIn (13%) all pale in comparison and showed either

stagnant or negative change from 2013 to 2014 (Pew).

New challengers to Facebook’s dominance continue to answer the bell, though. Ello, an invite-only network that is in its public-beta phase, seems to build its hype on being the anti-Facebook. Its main pillars are reported to be its lack of ads and its discernable, reliable privacy policy – two of the major complaints with Facebook.

2015 into 2016 could be a telling year for the storied leader of the social media age. Is Facebook the immovable king that all other social media platforms will continue to be measured against? Or has it grown too big and bloated for its own good? One thing is certain – there is no shortage of suitors to take its place. Follow our blog this year to see.

Social Magazine | March 2015 3

“I can’t believe anyone is still on Facebook.”

“I don’t even know why I have it anymore.”

“Facebook is dead.”

WRITTEN BY: Matt Pappalardo DESIGN/LAYOUT BY: Will Crines

A Tale of Two Approaches: Dealing with a Crisis on Social Media

On November 3rd, 2014 at about noon EST, Bank of America experienced an online banking outage impacting its 31 million online banking customers and 16 million mobile banking users. The outage lasted almost three hours. During this period the company issued a single statement via Twitter, almost two hours into the event.

This means bank customers spent hours unable to access their money or even find out when the system would be restored. Months later and Bank of America has yet to issue any statement to customers on why the system went down. This is a textbook example of how not to handle a crisis on social media.

Social media and ubiquitous mobile connectivity have changed the expectations that customers have for what constitutes a timely response to their comments or questions. Customers now expect companies to engage with them directly and swiftly, – in minutes, not days or hours. In a 2012 study by Nielsen, Twitter users were found to expect a response from companies they had tweeted a question to within 2 hours. If there’s a crisis, this time gets even shorter. This means that when a crisis hits, companies need to be ready to

engage with customers, where those customers already are and on their time.

No matter the business, bad things will eventually happen. They might miss a deadline, mess up a shipment, or find their business or social accounts hacked. No matter what kind of negative news comes up, it must be addressed directly on social media in order for any trust to be maintained. Instead of trying to cover up an incident, or making excuses for why things happened the way they did, direct acknowledgement about the root causes of the incident, and honest clarification of any details about the situation are the best courses of action.

In 2013, Buffer, the online social media scheduling site was hacked. Buffer became aware of the problem very rapidly and took immediate action to handle the problem. They were quick to inform their customers of the problem and explain what they were doing to fix it before most of their customers were even aware there’d been an attack. Because their response was timely and appropriate, they were able to turn a potential disaster into an image boosting event. Social media has the power to fan the flames of crisis or douse them on the spot; it all depends on the approach a company takes.

Learn more about social media and managing your online presence on our blog at socialbu.tumblr.com

WRITTEN BY: Chadwick David DESIGN/LAYOUT BY: Kelly Hagan

“Social Media has the power to fan the f lames of crisis or douse

them on the spot”

Social Magazine | March 2015 5

Short and sweet is the best way to communicate in social media. Twitter has built an entire online culture based on this concept, of course. But it turns out that even the platform’s spartan 140 characters might be overdoing it a bit. Research has shown that the ideal length of a tweet is about 100 characters. Tweets of this length get the most engagement because they are easily digestible and leave enough room for retweeters to put their own two cents in.

If you think 100 characters is short, consider that the ideal length of a post on Facebook is just 40 characters. Facebook sets its character count pretty high—it’s around 55,000 characters-although a “Read More” link will sometimes kick in at around 256 characters and abbreviate longer posts so they don’t take up too much room on other news feeds. (This feature seems to vary post by post.) But none of these limits should matter because according to blogger Jeff Bullas, the ideal Facebook post is just 40 characters followed by an engaging image. Posts with 40 characters or less received 86% more engagement and posts of 80 characters or less received 66% more engagement, according to Bullas’s study.

The same advice goes for headlines on Google+. As many people use Google+ to share articles and blog posts, the boldfaced headline is what really grabs readers’ attention. Limiting the head-line to 60 characters or less will keep it all on one line and get your message across to others quickly.

Keep Your Content above the Fold: Content Length Guidelines for Social

Keep Your Content above the Fold: Content Length Guidelines for SocialKeep it short and sweet, and you’ll do well on social media. The best example, Twitter, has built an entire online culture based on this concept. But it turns out that even the platform’s spartan 140 characters might be overdoing it. Research has shown that the ideal length of a tweet is about 100 characters. Tweets of this length get the most engagement because they are easily digestible and leave enough room for retweeters to put their own two cents in.

If you think 100 characters is short, consider that the ideal length of a post on Facebook is just 40 characters. Facebook sets its character count pretty high—it’s around 55,000 characters—although a “Read More” link will sometimes kick in at around 256 characters and abbreviate longer posts so they don’t take up too much room on other news feeds. (This feature seems to vary post by post.) But none of these limits should matter because according to blogger Jeff Bullas, the ideal Facebook post is just 40 characters followed by an engaging image. Posts with 40 characters or less received 86% more engagement and posts of 80 characters or less received 66% more engagement, according to Bullas’s study.

The same advice goes for headlines on Google+. As many people use Google+ to share articles and blog posts, the boldfaced headline is what really grabs readers’ attention. Limiting the headline to 60 characters or less will keep it all on one line and get your message across to others quickly.

For more social media tips and news, visit us online at http://socialbu.tumblr.com.

WRITTEN BY: Jon Stubbs DESIGN/LAYOUT BY: Seth Massmann

Social Magazine | March 2015 7

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Social Magazine | March 2015 9

DESIGN/LAYOUT BY: David Cimorelli

Beyond the Screen The Convergence of Digital & Experiential

Social remains a perfect avenue for connecting

brands directly with their consumers, but just

talking about a product isn’t enough. Customers

are craving experiences that they can share

socially. “In other words, find a brand’s place to

allow consumers to experience things they never

dreamed of, and allow them to show their friends

they did it.” That’s how Brent Choi, chief creative

and integration officer of JWT Canada summarizes

the best marketing strategy going into 2015.

One of the ways Choi’s firm did this was through

the 2014 Mazda3 campaign. Using the talents of

game developers CineplexTimePlay a cinematic

game was created for the event that turned each

participant’s smart phone into a controller. Scores

and positions were shared in real-time on the big

screen and the smart phone integration made it

even easier for users to share the experience with

their friends via social.

Don’t have a huge marketing budget? One simpler

way companies can implement an experiential

online strategy is through voting. The clothing

brand, Buy Me Brunch, regularly asks their social

audience to vote on specific designs. If enough

interest is generated, the company will put

the design into production. The audience then

participates through purchasing the shirts they had

a say in making and all of it is shared socially.

Social is no longer a secondary form of marketing, a separate marketing budget, or a separate entity. As 2015 continues we will see it as an essential integration into marketing campaigns at all levels. For more examples of brands that are killing it with convergent social marketing strategies see our blog. http://socialbu.tumblr.com

Digital Experiential Social

Online Storefront

Users choose designs through an online vote

Voting on social platforms where users can share favorites

Digital Experiential Social

Cinematic Commercial

Smartphones turned into game controllers

Play and compare game scores with friends

Digital Experiential Social

Digital Autograph Session

Get a giant version of personal tweet signed and mailed back

Twitter as a platform for a social autograph experience

Digital Experiential Social

Online Storefront

Users choose designs through an online vote

Voting on social platforms where users can share favorites

Digital Experiential Social

Cinematic Commercial

Smartphones turned into game controllers

Play and compare game scores with friends

Digital Experiential Social

Digital Autograph Session

Get a giant version of personal tweet signed and mailed back

Twitter as a platform for a social autograph experience

Social Magazine | March 2015 11

WRITTEN BY: Rebekah Roberson DESIGN/LAYOUT BY: Emmanuel Sofolawe

Digital Experiential Social

Online Storefront

Users choose designs through an online vote

Voting on social platforms where users can share favorites

Digital Experiential Social

Cinematic Commercial

Smartphones turned into game controllers

Play and compare game scores with friends

Digital Experiential Social

Digital Autograph Session

Get a giant version of personal tweet signed and mailed back

Twitter as a platform for a social autograph experience

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Phone calls that never get picked up. Messages that never get returned. Emails with no reply. This isn’t about interactions with your ex; we’re talking about your latest customer service experience.

If you’re part of the 82% of jilted customers who have severed ties with a service provider or retailer because of their absentee customer service skills then you know what we mean.

Whether it’s a small business or a large corporation, social media is a free and ultimately necessary way to interact with clients. According to Dan Newman, CEO of Broadsuite, over a billion people use social media every single day. The fact that up to 70% of customer-service complaints on Twitter go unanswered, points to a huge gap in potential client retention.

What can a business do to ensure that they keep customers engaged and happy on social media? Newman offers some suggestions:

Talk to Them The point here isn’t to bombard clients with constant spam blasts of useless information. Social media channels offer a way to start the conversation about events, business updates, and special contests and allows clients to choose their level of comfortable interaction and engagement with the business.

Answer Them Phone queues are long and people are moving online. 32% of people are looking for a response to their online post within 30 minutes of posting. Online chat through social media or text is the way to provide that quick response.

Let them WatchCall it voyeuristic, but there are many customers that just want to watch how their favorite companies act online. A social presence with an engaged customer service team allows future customers to gauge what it would be like to interact with said business.

Think that finding new customers is easy? It typically costs a company 6 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain a current one. Getting online to connect with customers and their service experience isn’t just smart, it’s great business.

Read the latest on the Social Insights Tumblr.

WRITTEN BY: Jen Stercula

DESIGN/LAYOUT BY: Tiayrra Bradley

Let’s StayTogether How businesses keep customers through social media

Social Magazine | March 2015 13

What You Should(and Shouldn’t) DoTo Maximize the Benef its of Your Google+ Page

Google+ may not be the most popular social media outlet, but it is essential for small businesses. While many think that it’s just another social network, (and one that nobody uses), the truth is that there are over a billion enabled Google+ accounts, and over 350 million monthly active users. According to this source, having a completed Google+ profile doesn’t just boost online presence – it is the ultimate resource to maximize visibility on Google search pages.

What You Should(and Shouldn’t) DoTo Maximize the Benef its of Your Google+ Page

Social Magazine | March 2015 15

Do: Don’t:Forget to claim your profile.

Create a new page when one is already set up and verified. (Do this instead.)

Ignore your page once it’s set up. (You should post frequently, including videos and photos as much as possible.)

Wait for customers to come to you. (Instead, tag people in your posts!)

Spam users or communities.

Check and make sure that you have a page set up. You can search here.

Claim and verify your page. (If it is already claimed and verified and you’re not sure how that happened, you aren’t alone. Take a look at this for some tips on how to get out of this sticky situation.)

Have all of your networks (YouTube and Google+ Local or Business) in the same Google account to increase trust.

Complete your profile, including a great cover photo design.

Encourage reviews from customers.

Interact with others on Google+ (join Circles, create Communities, etc.)

Make sure to connect your page with your website. (Here are some tips on how to verify your website.)

Put a Google +1 button on your website.

As with any social network, there are ways to use (and ways not to use) Google+. Make sure that you are making the most of your page with these tips:

Find some other great Google+ tips here.

Also, be sure to check out our previous issue to learn about the dark side of Google Maps and the importance of claiming your listing on the Google My Business platform.

Did you know?Google+ content can actually rank in searches even when your website doesn’t.

Google owns YouTube, so if you create a channel, you will automatically get a Google+ account.

Unlike Facebook, Google+ allows you to upload animated GIFs! (If your audience is into that, go for it!)WRITTEN BY: Melissa McDermott

DESIGN/LAYOUT BY: Ryan Giovinco

COVER DESIGN: MARK TOSTIREAD MORE: SOCIALBU.TUMBLR.COM