Book Review: Likeable Social Media

I finishing reading this book over weekend after it was sitting in my Amazon Wish List for the longest time. Likeable Social Media (I read the new, revised edition) is a book by Dave Kerpen, who works with Likeable Media and Likeable Local to help companies of all kinds maximize word-of-mouth marketing as well as inbound marketing via social media (as the title would imply). Kerpen covers an array of tips and stories on this broad topic, and the end result is a pretty easy read with some great actionable ideas.

I read another one of Kerpen's books, Likeable Leadership, which was a collection of his personal and professional blog posts. I liked that book, which turned me onto this other work of his. Some of the stories are the same but their helpful impact was only furthered through their inclusion here where they are put into a more thoughtful context. The body of the book focuses on 18 tips to help utilize social media in a "likeable" fashion. Kerpen includes advice on how to use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and more. The advice can be summed up as being authentic, friendly, responsive, and relevant to your audience. Provide content they enjoy, can get value from, and want to share. This will help them have a positive impression of your business and want to be a paying customer. A lot of this stuff was familiar to me from the education I've gotten recently about inbound marketing from places like Hubspot.

I'd recommend this book to anyone looking to brush up on some baseline tips for social media use. Whether you're a nonprofit, small business, or higher ed institution; you can find something useful here. While to me, it started to get redundant at the end, it served to further emphasize the solid points made earlier.

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Organic VS Promoted Content: Which Reigns Supreme?

* This post is edited from the original, which was featured on Socialnomics.

So I am personally all about all-natural, organic, and sustainable stuff. Whether it is the toothpaste I use, the food I eat, or how I buy pretty much anything in my life, having something feel real and not artificial is important to me. This combines with my respect for authenticity and transparency in relationships. My overall preference for the "real deal" even comes into social media with the curious question I’ve stumbled upon when it comes to social media marketing; should one pay to promote or not?

Within the past year, both Facebook and Twitter launched the capacity for users to pay to promote their posts and tweets respectively. Facebook already had their “Ads” that would show up on the side of users’ timelines, but these two new functions put your promoted content right in the personal feeds of your customers. It comes, understandably, from the need to monetize these popular sites, but the real question comes in as to what is the best use of an organization’s money when it comes to engaging your audience; are you really getting what you pay for? Obviously, ideally your content will make it’s way out into the world on it’s own but usually, customers aren’t just following you, they’re following all sorts of different pages, even your competitors for business.

So it seems logical, you want the edge so you pay for promotion and you squash out the competition. Right? Well, the jury is still out on that. Not to say that promoted posts are not useful, but they also aren’t shown to be the way to go for every business and for every post. Social media is about engagement, and using paid promotion for posts can come across as spammy and inauthentic. Facebook paid promotions can be useful to get the word out about a new offer you have for your business or for an upcoming event since they only go out to those who “like” your page, as opposed to Facebook ads that go out to anyone and everyone. The same goes for Twitter. Think about what you’re posting and what is worth it to pay to get out to everyone and sort of muscle your way into their feed.

Another consideration to make is where you are putting this content. Are your customers even on Facebook or are they on Pinterest? Does your content make sense for the social media site you are promoting on? Facebook is different from Twitter which is different from LinkedIn which is different from Instagram (which also now supports ads). It is important to be intentional about the core what, where, when and why of posts in order to get the greatest results. From my perspective, the general logic here should focus on a few points: moderation (as with all things), organic engagement & paid promotion, and lastly, cater to the medium. For this last bit, whether that means you cover your basis on every social networking site or hone in on one, you can save a lot of money and time by knowing where your audience is and creating content for that particular venue. Doing all this will create an authentic aura that avoids the negative connotations of spam ads and allows for you to get the word out on all the great things your organization is up to.

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What I'm Geeking Out About This Week - 11/21/14

Welcome to another week in geek!

This week's I have some random stuff that I'm into lately. Enjoy!

• 22 Jump Street

I rented this movie earlier this week and just sat to watch it the other day. I also recently saw 21 Jump Street for the first time and loved both! They're self-aware, buddy cop action comedies that don't take themselves too seriously. Both of the films have been breakaway hits and they even joke in the movie about indefinite sequels (one of my favorite parts of the already hilarious film). There are great cameos, a solid ensemble, and just hilarious commitment to the bits by stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. I definitely recommend checking it out, it's well worth your time and absolutely worth a night's rental.

• Facebook Groups App

Facebook just released their latest standalone app for mobile devices, which like Messenger & Pages, allows for a better experience using some of Facebook's best features while on your smartphone. Groups is a fantastic aspect of Facebook, allowing for more contoured discussions and close-knit circles to come together versus the hundreds of friends and pages cluttering up the news feed. The app also helps you find new groups and just is a solid tool to have especially if you manage groups yourself or just have a lot that you're a part of.

• Lost

I haven't talked a lot about this show on here, but this is one of my favorite series of all time. The show ran on ABC from 2004-2010, and has some of the best character explorations I've ever seen. The mysteries keep you engaged and the story is a powerful one once it is all said and done. I'm currently getting my partner into the show and we're chugging along the first season. She's been enjoying it and it's neat to be with someone seeing it all for the first time. I rewatch the show often and it holds up to repeated viewings. I even see new things I missed the first time around, such as narrative seeds they plant earlier than I realized or just how appreciating story elements now at a different point in my own life. The series is readily available on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon

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