5 Things You Can Learn from Obama’s Social Media Strategy
President Barack Obama has over 26 million likes on Facebook. Some say that he won his election off the back of social media. He revolutionized fundraising through the power of the internet and recently hosted the very first Whitehouse Google+ hangout. Both as a presidential candidate and as President of the United States, Barack Obama has powerfully leveraged social media to raise funds, get elected and push his policies.
There’s a lot that corporate CEOs can learn from Barack Obama. After all, Obama is really the CEO of the largest corporation on the planet – The United States government. Here are five social media lessons to take home from Barack Obama.
#1 – Hire Social Media Savvy Staff
Did you know that Obama hired senior staff from the popular social media site Reddit to help run both his campaign and his White House?
If you plan on using social media, make sure you hire people who understand social media. Social media involves understanding quite a different mindset than traditional branding-based marketing.
While it’s possible to train someone from the ground up, it usually makes more sense to just hire people who have the skills already.
#2 – Use Social Media to Influence Perception
Barack Obama understands the power of painting pictures. He also understands the power of social media for putting spin on things.
For example, when Osama Bin Laden was captured, Barack Obama deliberately released photos from within the situation room. The images showed Obama and his staff carefully deliberating the situation. They were victorious, but not boastful. For a lot of people, this image helped reinforce a sense of trust in the president’s decision making.
Another example was how President Obama used the White House Correspondent’s dinner as a viral springboard. The dinner, which usually few pay attention to, got millions of views on YouTube. As a result of this video, President Obama’s image of being overly calm and collected was somewhat dispersed by his sense of humor.
Social media has enormous power to change image.
#3 – Leverage the Power to Spread a Message
Obama really understands how social media can be used to spread a message.
When the opposition launched a campaign to extend a payroll tax, President Obama and his White House used various social media platforms to spread the message.
They used infographics that showed exactly how the payroll tax would affect the average person. They created a lot of buzz on various social media platforms. They raised a lot of awareness of the issue through the power of social media.
In the past, an advocate had to go out of their way to create signs or make phone calls to support a cause. Today, all they have to do is click “share.” This is a game changer and President Obama knows it.
If you have a message, try to get people on board and on your side using social media.
5 Ways to Build a Stronger Connection With Your Facebook Followers
The more engaged your users are, the more likely they are to comment, share or like your content. Low engagement means your users may not even be seeing your content. It could also mean your posts are missing the mark with your users. On the other hand, high engagement means you have a healthy Facebook page. In order to use Facebook as an effective marketing tool, you should regularly check your engagement metrics and work to improve your user engagement.
That said, here are five different ways you can improve your readers’ engagement.
#1 – Ask for Feedback
Customers are going to give feedback whether you like it or not. The only difference is, if you ask for it, they’ll express it to you rather than (or in addition to) their social network.
If your customers have a complaint, you want to hear about it directly. You don’t want them posting it to their walls. If your customers love your social media strategy, you want to hear about that as well so you can continue doing whatever it was that they loved.
#2 – Post When You’ll Get Read 
Post your content during times of day when you’ll likely be read by your target audience.
The best times of day are as follows. In the morning, between 10am and 11am is when people have a bit of downtime at work. People rarely check Facebook before work, since they’re in a rush to get ready. However, once they’ve settled down on their computer and gotten any urgent communications out of the way, they’ll often check Facebook.
Next you have 4pm to 5pm, when people get off work. Finally, you have 10pm to 11pm, when people do their late night Facebook checks. These times have come up time and again as the best times to post updates.
Make sure you’re posting during these times, in whatever time zones the majority of your audience is in.
#3 – Establish Alerts & Monitors
Setup systems that’ll alert you whenever your brand’s name is mentioned on Twitter, the blogosphere or public Facebook pages. This will allow you to catch any potentially bad PR early on, rather than once it goes viral.
People want to know that you’re listening to their concerns. If a customer posts something to their Twitter and receives a response directly from your company quickly, it’ll diffuse any potential tension. Furthermore, you’ve increased engagement and opened a new channel of communication.
How to Leverage Social Media for SEO
By now, you’ve probably heard that social media is important for SEO. Yet most advice around social and SEO seems rather vague. How, exactly, does social media impact SEO? What can you do about it? How can you use social media to improve your own SERPs?
This question can actually be broken down into two parts: Part one is getting your social media profiles, like your Twitter feed and your Facebook page, to rank. The second part is how to use the power of social media to get your primary site ranked higher.
Let’s explore both of these avenues.
How to Boost Your Social Media Profile SERPs
Imagine owning the top three spots for your primary search term: Your main site ranks, as well as your Twitter feed and your Facebook page. You’ll effectively destroy any other site(s) trying to rank for that position.
Of course, this is a dream scenario that rarely happens. However, getting your social media profiles to rank is certainly a worthwhile goal to shoot for. So how is it done?
The first and most important thing to do is to link to your social media profiles from your home page. This lets the search engines know that your social media profile is linked to you. This is actually perhaps the most important thing you could do to boost your social media profile rankings.
Next, build backlinks to your social media profiles. After all, they’re also webpages and need to be ranked just like any other page.
Get as many likes or follows as possible. The more likes or follows you have, the higher the perceived authority.
Use your product’s names and your brand’s names in your tweet. This will increase the relevance of the page to the keywords you want to rank for.
Finally, make sure you have your brand name and/or your keywords in your profile’s shortcode or URL. Having the keyword there will help with the rankings, help Google identify the “official” page and help users find your page.
If you follow all these steps, your social media page has a very strong chance of ranking.
Reduce Time and Stress Spent on Managing Social Media
Most business owners and entrepreneurs have extremely packed schedules. If your calendar is already full to the brim, where can you find time for social media? How can you manage your Twitter account, your Facebook page and your blog without over booking yourself and stressing yourself out? The answer: To add social media to your lifestyle. Instead of viewing it as another task, integrate it into how you live your life.
Here’s how to do it.
Tweet or Facebook on Your Smartphone
You’re going to have downtime during the day. Perhaps it’s while you’re on the bus. Perhaps it’s while you’re eating lunch. Perhaps it’s when you’re in the bathroom.
Wherever it is, there are going to be times in the day where you’re simply not doing anything else. Instead of wasting this time, use your smartphone or your iPad and turn it into social media time.
Use this time to write 140 character Tweets. Use this time to update your Facebook page. Use this time to come up with new blog ideas or to write the outline for your next blog post.
Replace Newspaper With Tweeting 
For most people, the first thing they do in the morning is grab a cup of coffee and read the newspaper.
But the reality is, reading the newspaper isn’t going to do all that much for your business and professional life. Instead, what if you made tweeting with coffee your daily habit?
This would allow you to reach out to your audience while you’re just going through your everyday routines. You won’t ever miss a day of tweeting, because it’s part of your daily schedule.
Why Facebook is not Taking Action Against Trading Fans and Likes
No doubt, Facebook is the trendiest thing these days and everyone – individuals and brands alike are trying to promote their profiles using this medium. But building a brand page and getting thousands of people to like your page is not an easy task. Thus, like any other technology, people are trying to find shortcuts. There are hundreds of ‘providers‘ selling facebook fans, facebook likes, facebook shares and made it a more like a commodity, beating the very meaning of the word ‘social media’. Here’s a snapshot of Google search result if you search for “buy facebook fans” –
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Also take a look at the demand side of it – number of searches being performed for it.
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So, it is clear that there’s a huge demand for it and there are many suppliers catering to it. Agree, these may not be automated likes, and they are real human beings. But 95% the fans purchased have fake profiles and are not real users. You will realize that once you start exploring the other side of it, ie, try joining any of these sites as a user (fan willing to sell your likes), then you will know who your ‘purchased fans’ are and what their motive is!
Now let’s take a look at the possible advantages and disadvantages of buying fans or likes.
|
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| A higher number of fans indicates how popular a brand is
|
Very often these are fake profiles, not genuine users |
| Adds social value to your web site
|
They may ever engage on your page or take part in discussions and other activities |
| A higher number would prompt more real fans to like the page | You may get negative interaction on you wall between two ‘purchased fans’ |
| They may not stay for ever |
Also take a look at FB’s terms and conditions.
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Terms and conditions #4.2 says no individual is allowed to create more than 1 profile. Facebook’s page admin analytics shows the sources of the likes of each page which means they can easily track any suspicious fan growth. But why are they not acting?
- Because they want to show a huge userbase?
- Because they want business pages to spend more time and resources on facebook using their advertising platform.
- The process of finding out and taking corrective actions are complex and expensive?
Whatever may be the reason, is it good in the long term for brands and for facebook itself? Is the cost of technology to maintain these fake profiles worth for Facebook?
What are your thoughts? Please share them below.
The 4 Most Important Factors to Having a Great Twitter Profile
Your customers are the most haphazard brand managers in the world. While your internal brand managers might spend days figuring out the perfect message to put out, your customers are just going out there and sharing whatever comes to their mind. They do it without filters, to hundreds, thousands, even millions of people.
Twitter is the second largest social media in the world. It’s also the most conversational social media network. Getting your Twitter setup done well will make it easier and more likely for people to talk about you and to you on this vast and fast paced social network.
Here are the four most important things for optimizing your Twitter account.
#1 – Informative Username That Sounds Great
Your username should have a snap to it. People should hear the username and immediately understand what your business is about. It should ideally also either be identical to or be related to your business or brand’s name.
Ask other people what they think about your Twitter name before you commit to it. Ideally, the name you choose for Twitter account is also the name you use on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks.
#2 – A Background and Profile Photo That Stand Out 
The second thing you need is a background that really stands out and a profile photo that goes along with it.
Your background is your opportunity to demonstrate how much you care about your Twitter page. People who really care about Twitter put a lot of effort into their backgrounds. They look absolutely stunning.
Your background should be well designed. It should look like a lot of effort went into it; or it should look like it was done by a professional designer. If you don’t know how to make a world class design, consider hiring someone to do it for you.
Your Twitter profile photo should match and compliment this background.
6 Tips to Guard Against Social Media & PR Crises
Every once in a while, your brand reputation will come under a major attack. It might happen once every few months, or it might happen only once every few years. Whatever the case is, you need to have a fast, immediate response.
If you respond to the assault quickly, you’ll be able to walk away with your brand, business and reputation in tact. On the other hand, fail to respond and you’ll quickly find your customers fleeing to your competitors.
Here are six steps to protecting your brand and your reputation.
Step 1: Acknowledge the Crisis Immediately 
The worst thing you could do is try to pretend as if nothing is happening.
On the social web, companies that take responsibility for their mistakes and quickly respond to social media firestorms can put out the fires quickly with a good response. However, fail to respond and the firestorm will spread and spread and spread.
Step 2: Don’t Say Anything Until You Have Something to Say
Until you have a meaningful response, don’t say anything. If you go into the public spotlight and say something that’s essentially an empty apology, you could exacerbate the problem.
BP’s CEO did this spectacularly after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill through statements like “nobody wants this over more than me, I’d like my life back.”
Until you have a solid response, hold off on going public.
Step 3: Learn to Make U-Turns
Know when you’re wrong and when you have to make U-Turns. If you think one thing but your customers adamantly shout something else, listen to your customers.
Apple made a great U-Turn with the iPhone 4 launch. When people started complaining about the iPhone 4 antennae issue, Steve Jobs wasn’t worried. He simply said “just don’t hold it that way.”
Then the issue grew and grew and grew until it was on every tech blog and on the front page of several national newspapers. That’s when Apple realized: They were wrong.
So they made a U-Turn. They issued free bumpers to everyone who bought an iPhone 4. An expensive reversal, but it may very well have saved the brand and the product launch.
The 80/20 Rule of Spending Time on Social Media
How much time should you put into social media? Some people believe just a few minutes a week is enough, while others believe it should comprise of the majority of your time. The reality is somewhere in between.
Social media today is an integral part of any successful business. Almost everyone is on these networks, from your partners to your readers to your vendors to your clients. That said, there’s still only so much you can do every day on social media.
Approach social media with an 80/20 mindset. Of course it’s possible to spend 8 hours a day on social media. But chances are, in about an hour you’ll have connected with the most important contacts and said everything you have to say.
After the first hour, you’re more or less just spending time doing things that may or may not have much of an impact on your bottom line. Instead of doing this, it’s best to just commit to spending one hour a day on social media.
This consistent attention will allow you to make connections with all the most important people, while spending the rest of your time on the rest of your business.
Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy is About Cultivating Relationships
Don’t think of social media like TV advertising. With TV advertising, your goal is to “touch” as many people as you can. Each person might not know much about you or your brand, but you’re okay with that. You just want to make a small impression on them. 
Social media Marketing is different. Think of social media like a business mingler. There are a lot of people there and you might shake hands with a large number of people.
At the end of the day however, you have to pick and choose just a few people to get to know better. These people could turn out to be customers, they could turn out to be joint venture partners, they could turn out to be mentors.
On social media, it’s simply unrealistic to get to know everyone who’s following you. However, you can and should pick a few high impact people to develop connections with. Exchanging a message or two a day is quick and easy, but can result in powerful business connections down the line.
Schedule it in – It’s Not Optional
A lot of people treat social media for business as an optional activity. After all, browsing Facebook and Twitter can seem like a trivial activity on the surface.
It’s not. It’s a crucial business networking tactic that simply cannot be ignored. And unlike other marketing tactics, you can’t makeup for it by stuffing in more time later.
Spending 7 hours one day on social media is not the same thing as spending 1 hour a day on social media. You can’t have conversations in a day, you can’t develop relationships in bulk and you can’t stay in touch all at once.
Instead, it’s something that has to be done every day. So schedule it into your daily schedule, just as you would any other important business task. Social media marketing isn’t something that can be neglected. If something comes up, move it to another time, but never skip it.
5 Tips to Make Your Facebook Page Jump Out of the Crowd
Social media today is crowded. Incredibly crowded. In order for you to stand out, you need to create something truly unique. Something that people will look at and think “wow, that’s special.”
How do you make your Facebook page stand out? How do you make it look different than all the other Facebook pages out there? Here are the five top ways.
1. Claim Your Facebook URL 
Having a custom Facebook URL makes your brand look more professional. It’s better for search engine listings, it looks better on marketing materials and it’s easier for people to pass along.
If you have a custom Facebook URL, you’re much more likely to get referenced to on internet forums and blogs as well.
Claiming a Facebook URL takes less than 15 minutes and should be the first step of any Facebook page you’re serious about.
2. High Quality, Custom Page Photograph
Your page profile photo has a huge impact on your page’s first impression. It’s one of the most prominent graphical areas of the profile page.
Your photo should be crisp, it should stand out and it should appear highly professional. It should be related to your brand in some way, but ideally should be more than just your logo.
If you’re not a professional graphic designer, try to talk to one and have them work up something that’ll really shine.
3. Create a Strong Landing Page
Facebook has what’s called a “Welcome tab,” a page that first time visitors see when they come to your page. This page should be carefully designed to craft a powerful user experience.
Your welcome tab page should clearly communicate what your page or your brand has to offer. It should have a compelling headline that catches attention while the rest of the body copy should try and get them to “Like” the page.
The welcome page needs to serve two functions: Presenting a strong brand image for your company, and getting people to like your page.
Social Media Can Build Trust: Just Follow These 10 Tips
In the social sphere, if you don’t have trust, you don’t have anything. You can have all your logos in the right place, all your design elements aligned and all your social media “techniques” in place and you still won’t get the kind of following and sharing that you really need to promote your brand.
To succeed in the social sphere, you need to get people to trust you. Trust is what makes people feel safe about giving you their credit cards. It’s what makes people feel safe referring their friends to you.
So how do you establish social media trust? Here are 10 tips to help.
1. Use Graphical Trust Builders
Use a few select graphics that help build your social media trustworthiness.
Some of the best graphics are media appearances, like radio or TV logos. If you’ve been on ABC news for example, put an “As Seen On ABC News” logo on your page.
Other examples of graphical trust factors include before and after photos, as well as testimonials with a person’s picture next to it.
2. Increase Social Proof 
Social proof is the idea that people are more likely to do business with you if they know others are also doing the same. They’re more likely to like you if a lot of other people have already liked you.
You can boost your social proof by getting as many likes as possible, as many comments as possible and as much user visible engagement as possible.
3. Build Strong Real Life Relationships
Real life relationships are the lifeblood of your social media. It might seem counter intuitive that your online contacts are dependent on your offline contacts. But it’s true.
Even among a follower base of 100,000, you’ll have a core group of just a few hundred people who are true cheerleaders and champions for your brand. Among those people you’ll find that many of them are people you know in real life, or are people who know people you know in real life.
Strong in person relationships build the backbone of any online community. Don’t neglect them just because you went “Web 2.0.”
4. Be Consistent With Your Online & Offline Message 
Don’t use the internet as an excuse to veer from your message, your values or your business practices.
Your social message should match your offline message. Your branding should be the same and the way you treat your customers should be the same. Otherwise you’re sending mixed signals and endangering your brand.
5. Be What You Preach
If you’re an SEO expert, you should be highly ranked. If you’re a graphic designer, you should have a well designed website and Facebook page.
You should be what you preach, both online and offline. Social media users are very wary of people who say one thing then do another. Make sure your image is consistent with what you advocate and want to be known for.
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