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How to Avoid Becoming the MOST Annoying Person on Twitter

Twitter_bird_logoThink of the most annoying person you know. Give them access to the Internet and a Twitter handle and undoubtedly their ability to bother you will multiple by 100. Whether it’s your mom posting embarrassing baby pictures of you and your sister on #tbt (or Throw Back Thursday) (sorry mom) or your former college roommate jabbering on and on about politics—we all have that one person we wished never joined Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+… the list goes on.

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Kitchen Nightmares Restaurant’s Colossal Meltdown – How NOT to Do Social

Everything you shouldn’t do when executing your social media strategy can be exemplified in one not-so-pretty package: Amy’s Baking Company.

Capture9In case you missed it, Amy’s Baking Company made quite the impression on viewers when the restaurant appeared on Gordon Ramsay’s reality TV show Kitchen Nightmares. The husband- wife duo, Samy and Amy tell Ramsay—no more than five minutes after arriving—that “There are a lot of online bullies and haters and bloggers. We stand up to them and I think we are the only ones that ever have as restaurant owners. They come and try to attack us and say horrible things that are not true because they are used to eating processed wood chips.” A baffled Ramsey later learns there is much more to the story. This was the first restaurant he has given up on before the “rehabilitation” phase which includes suggestions on how to improve the restaurant’s food, wait staff and bottom line.

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Don’t Be the Pushy Salesman

You’ve experienced it a hundred times before – you walk into a store and are immediately bombarded by a slew of salespeople asking questions about what you’re looking for and directing you to their current promotion. Like most people, I want to immediately walk out.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you’ve probably experienced helpful sales staff. They let you take a minute to look around and settle in before approaching you and answer your questions not because they’re looking for a sale, but because they genuinely want to educate you about a product. I don’t know about you, but those are the brands I recommend to others and return to again and again.

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A Win for Oreo’s Great Gatsby Tweet

Oreo nailed it with its Great Gatsby inspired tweet that it posted on the film’s booming opening day last Friday.

While the tweet never specifically mentioned The Great Gatsby by name, it alluded to some of the story’s main points including the iconic and symbolic Doctor T.J. Eckleburg billboard—promoting an optometrist’s practice but also serving as a reminder of the growing commercialism of America and the emergence of the American dream—and J. Gatsby’s affinity for calling everybody “old sport.”  Perfectly tying it into the Oreo brand, the company shared a tweet that read “A Great story calls for a great cookie.”

Oreo   tjeckleburg

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Facebook vs. Twitter: Who Can Deliver the Content Marketing Punch?

Rivalries…we all love them. Coke vs. Pepsi, Leno vs. Letterman, Droid vs. iPhone, Eagles vs. Giants; we all have our favorites. Personally, I’m a coke guzzling-Letterman/ iPhone/Giants-kind-of-girl, but we won’t get into that. Oftentimes, rivalries make for some extra funny family dinners or corporate atmospheres (March Madness anyone?).

But friendly enemies aren’t just made on the field or on late night TV. In fact, a battle has ensued in the social media world and there is no shortage of opinions on whose packing the biggest punch. In corner one coming in at 1 billion users we have Facebook. And in corner two coming in at 500 million users we have Twitter.  

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Why Animal Memes are Marketing Gold

The concept of an animal meme is simple: take a photo of a cute or silly looking animal, add a witty caption, and then share it on the Internet. It’s been around for years, it’s over played, but yet you still read every one you come across. Let’s break down why memes work. Highly consumable and easily sharable content (an image in this case)… check. Short, easy to read text… check. A dash of humor… check. We have ourselves a winner.

funny-cat-meme-i-dont-always-meow-as-loud-as-i-can

Online users are gravitating more and more towards rich content. We see this through the explosion of networks such as Pinterest and Instagram, which are made up almost entirely of images and very light on text. Blogs that contain images typically resonate better with readers than those without. Social media posts which contain an image or video see high engagement rates.

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Martha Stewart Joins Match.com – And How It Can Help Your Business

After plugging her new book, Living the Good Long Life last week, Martha Stewart revealed to NBC’s Matt Lauer that she was looking for love on Match.com.  “I’ve always been a big believer that technology, if used well, can enhance one’s life. So here I am, looking to enhance my dating life,” she writes in her online profile.

MarthaStewart

Rumors have swirled that the domestic diva is not actually looking to find her match, but rather seeking publicity to sell more copies of her newly penned book. After all, her Match.com username also happens to also be “thegoodlonglife.” Whether or not the rumors are true, she has been successful in creating a buzz.

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What Happens When Marketers Rebuff Social Media…

I love when I am in the presence of a business executive who scoffs at the notion of incorporating social media into his/her corporate strategy.

“Social media is for teenagers,” they often say, convinced that the social networking world is full of narcissistic Generation Y-ers and Z-ers tweeting, Facebooking, pinning and Instagramming every inane sentiment, picture and fad.

You can imagine how their jaws drop when we at Content Boost inform these social media naysayers that in 2012, the average Facebook user was 41 years old, up from 38 years old in 2010. Moreover, in 2012, more than 65 percent of Facebook users were 35 plus years old.

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Everyone is a Journalist with Social Media

The recent tragedy in Boston has stirred up a lot of conversation over the past few weeks. As I was driving home last week, NPR brought up an interesting topic on its radio show, “All Things Considered.” The discussion was based around the fact that we now use Twitter as a breaking news source, which got me thinking…

Twitter was jammed with minute to minute updates, from snippets of conversation about the driving reasons for the unthinkable attack to information that Bob heard from Mary in the office. Twitter users were certainly staying informed, but were they receiving accurate information?

That part is debatable. If I was a betting kind of gal, I’d say that most tweets that went out that day and in the days following weren’t fact checked or confirmed; they were sent out as quickly as the information was received, leading to a lot of misinformation.

More and more users are turning to social media as a breaking news source. How do we know that the information we receive through Twitter or Facebook is correct? We don’t. How do we know that information received through traditional media is correct? We don’t. However, we can safely assume they will try to be as accurate as possible to maintain their credibility. Social media has, in the past few years, allowed everyone to act as a journalist to report on the latest breaking news. As for me, I think I’ll leave it to the professionals.