Why You Shouldn't Stereotype in Social Media

Once upon a time I accepted a job at an agency that focused only on senior and baby boomer
products. I previously only worked with millennials on social media, and the company hired me to find out how seniors and baby boomers utilized social. I was over the moon with the challenge, but also thought I would only have a job for a couple of months because, afterall, baby boomers and seniors hated computers and weren't on social.

Let me tell you, I had a major wake-up call within a couple hours of that sparkly new job. Not only are baby boomers and seniors all over social, but they are the fastest growing demographic on some of the major networks. Mindblown.

I immediately began working on a strategy for this highly populated audience of seniors and baby boomers on social media. I crafted multiple campaigns tailored to the 50+ age range and made sure hip, 50+ models were included in all of our social images.

As I was approaching the peak to being pretty pleased with myself in creating an effective, baby boomer/senior laced campaign for this agency, I came across an article that absolutely stopped me in my tracks. To this day, I remember the exact moment the lightbulb turned on while reading this simple, yet enlightening, post. It was literally a baby boomer telling off multiple brands for marketing to baby boomers with cliche images of baby boomers. He kindly reminded these brands that everyone actually sees themselves quite a few years younger, and baby boomers actually wanted to see young, attractive people, too, when being marketed to! They actually felt targeted and overly marketed to if marketing materials included older models, instead of the norm. WTF?!

This opened my mind up to segmenting, in general. I was a millennial with limited disposable income, however, I was drawn more to the ads from luxury brands with older models in them that I could dream of becoming someday.  From that point on, I tweaked the social strategy for the agency and clients, calling out younger models and younger ideals, as well as the baby boomer and senior stereotypes. Our engagement  boomed (no pun intended).

I owe a lot to the author of that blog post that day. (I wish I could remember his name, or find the post, so I could give him credit here!) His outrage at stereotypes in marketing messages opened up an entirely new world for me. From that point on, I thought less about the target audience, and more about the fact that different people respond to different messages, and it's important to sprinkle messages that apply to a vast range of demographics within your targeted audience messages so you can make sure you are reaching absolutely everyone you want to.

I'm not saying disregard segmenting altogether, but I am saying to test out a few out-of-your-segemented-audience posts and see how your social community responds to them. You might find out that they, too, view themselves at a different age than you do...and quite possibly have different interests then the stereotype you were linking them to!

- Marji J. Sherman

Social Media --> 5 Examples of "That's Not How It Works Anymore"

I have to say, I love the new esurance commercials against Geico. While I don't agree with brands pitting themselves against each other, I do like the message the commercials send that, frankly, things don't work the way that they used to work. Now, anytime I see something completely ridiculous on social media, I say to myself, "That's not how it works". For those of you living under a rock, here's an example of what I'm talking about:

The hilarious part of these commercials is that they are so real. There really are people out there that don't understand social media, or it's uses. So, in honor of this lovely esurance campaign, here's a list of things that I've come across lately where I've said to myself, "That's not how it works".

• A private DM on Twitter that literally said, "Hi Marji, thanks for the follow! Please can you retweet one of our messages." That's it. Nothing else.
• Anyone who follows my blog knows that I am absolutely against automated DMs on Twitter, but this takes it to another level. If you want someone to RT you, give them a reason to. Provide valuable advice they'd want to share with their followers, or give them another incentive. Don't just tell them to.
• The Backstreet Boys asking fans to follow and RT and they promise to follow them back. (Confession: Since Millenium by The Backstreet Boys was my first CD, I definitely fell victim to this one, and they DID NOT follow me back as promised.)
• The days of using cheap tricks like this to gain followers are over. Plus- you're THE BACKSTREET BOYS- do you really need to sink to this level to gain followers?! It's the same with asking for a RT-- give fans an incentive to follow you by providing valuable information or behind-the-scenes extras.
• Hosting contests that you can only enter via one social media network.
• If you want people to participate on social media, you have to make it excruciatingly EASY for them to participate. Allowing them only to enter a contest on FB, or only through Twitter, is not making it easy for them. Suck it up, and pay the extra bucks or put in the extra work, to make it as easy as possible for ALL of your social community to enter your contests.
• A cookie-cutter customer service response that is not tailored AT ALL to what my request was.
• Fans are on social media to have a more intimate conversation with your brand-- not to get the exact same response they would get if they filled out your contact form on your website. Reference their specific issue in your response. It takes little time, and will make a world of difference in developing a closer relationship with your fans.
• A 9-5 social presence.
• I actually did not know this was even an option until I started working the corporate world, and saw all of these other corporations with a disclosure on all of their social networks that they are only available 9-5 M-F. WTF?! Boy, did I miss the ideal job, then. I find it incredibly hard to believe that anyone can have an effective social media presence and turn off on weeknights and weekends. I touched on this in my last post (Should Social Media Take The Weekends Off?), and do think that service-type businesses can get away with this better, but I absolutely believe that any product oriented brand needs to be ONLINE constantly.

What are some things you've noticed on social media that has you thinking, "That's not how it works!"?! Comment below.

- Marji J. Sherman

Should Social Media Take Weekends Off?

The bonfire I eventually made it to, on an empty stomach. 

I never eat fast food-- I wasn't allowed to as a child, and fortunately that made me never crave it as an adult (unless it's Taco John's which started in my hometown, and I am literally obsessed with their potato oles). However, I was starving as I waited to attend my first (yes, first) bonfire this past Saturday, and, being in Wisconsin, Culver's was the only quick bite in sight.

I ordered some soup (healthy compared to a butter burger, right?!) and had the nicest high school boy deliver it to our car when it was ready. Starving, I opened the soup to find a big old cup of...broth. Yes --> only broth.Seeing as how we were already on the road again by the time I opened my soup, I refused to make my family turn back around.

Now, a funny thing has happened in my family. They have suddenly gone from hardly acknowledging the fact I work in social media, to now bossing me around about it. Case in point? My mother immediately interrupted my whining with the most surprising phrase ever to come out of her mouth --> "Tweet about it!"

Oh, mother...literally. So, of course, I took a photo of my noodle-less, chicken-less bowl of chicken noodle soup and Tweeted Culver's. Being the social media pro I am, I kept checking my Twitter every two seconds, waiting for them to Tweet back. "Marji, they probably aren't going to answer it. It's the weekend," was the next surprising sentence out of my mom's mouth.

This warranted a pretty harsh glare, as this was the same woman who always wonders why I have to be on my phone all weekend checking brands' social media accounts. I answered like a teenager --> "Mom, I have to be checking our Twitter accounts ALL WEEKEND, so they can too. Are you kidding me?"

This quite passionate respond about social media monitoring on the weekends forced me to think about it for a bit. Should a brand be monitoring on the weekends? Or, is it okay to take off a couple of days and revisit everything on Monday?

IMHO, if your consumers are engaging with your brand on the weekends, then you need to be monitoring on the weekends. One of the best social wins for a brand I work on came from a Tweet that was sent at 10pm on a Saturday night. Granted, most of the other teams weren't available to decide a course of action until Monday morning, but I was able to keep the conversation going long enough to turn the 10pm Tweet into a huge, successful social media opportunity for the brand.

On top of that, you don't want pissed off consumers come Monday morning who had one of your products break over the weekend and didn't hear from you until you got through all of the social posts on Monday afternoon. One could argue --> what's the point of your brand's social media channels if they get the same love a consumer would get anyways from calling customer service?! You should always push to give the consumer a little extra on social then they would get from a typical interaction with your brand. After all, they found you on social media for a social, more intimate, conversation.

Examples of when you don't necessarily need to be monitoring on the weekends? --> If you're a publishing brand, a lawyer's office, a doctor's office. If your place of business is a service, not a product, and you are not open on the weekends, then feel free to take a break. However, no one's going to complain if you want to go the extra mile and give your consumers something on the weekends, as well.

As for Culver's --> I did receive a generic Tweet a few hours later directing me to their comment card on their website that I could have just found myself. In the perfect social world of Marji, I would have preferred something a little more personal. A tailored response to my issue would have been ideal. Also, a response from the comment card I did end up filling out online would have been ideal.

When a brand treats social like any other one of its channels, it makes fans less likely to make the effort to engage with them on their social networks. After all, why would I ever Tweet Culver's again when I know they will only send a generic Tweet linking me to their website?

What are your thoughts? Do you think brands need to monitor on the weekends, as well?

- Marji J. Sherman

Get Your Sh*t Together, Social Media --> The Unethical Reporting on Robin Williams' Suicide

After swearing not to get involved with the Robin Williams/suicide trend yesterday, I caved when I saw a Tweet that just rubbed me the wrong way. Granted, I am one person among millions, and at the end of the day, most people probably took the Tweet the way The Academy harmlessly meant it ---> but I happen to be one person who had a best friend commit suicide when I was 15, three weeks after another student at my high school did, and a sister who committed suicide when I was 23. So -- sending the message that suicide means freedom from tribulations just does not sit well with me.

I am prepared for some discontent with this post from you. I understand I have no clue what it's like to actually be the person in the 'contemplating suicide' hot seat, and I do believe that depression is not something that someone chooses. I have no idea what it's like to feel that much pain, and believe it's not my job to judge the situation.

With that said, there are two things that I think need to be addressed with the provocative Genie Tweet --> When/When not to be clever on social media, and adhering to an ethical standard when reporting on suicide on social media. 

Now, a NUMBER ONE rule that any social media manager should know coming out the gate is: DO NOT use tragic real-time moments to be clever --> Keep it simple, and to the point, if you respond at all. Yes, some community manager was incredibly cute and relevant in tying one of Robin Williams roles to his death, but is that what a community manager should be thinking about when someone has died? Shouldn't the focus be more on respecting the privacy the family asked for, and sending out a simple, heartfelt message of sympathy, rather than a statement on freedom that you hope gets a lot of engagement? (Disclaimer: I am totally making an assumption here, but it's obvious that whoever wrote the Tweet was not taking in the entire situation, and the sensitivity surrounding it.)

There seems to be some cocky belief out there that social media does not have to abide by the same societal, ethical rules traditional media adheres to. This is mostly due to the fast speed of social media, and that anyone and everyone becomes a reporter on social networks. Instead of trained journalists who had to pass numerous ethics classes in college reporting, we have amateurs telling us the news. The scariest part of this, is that the more these amateurs break ethical rules on social media, the more traditional media feels it can break those rules as well. Then, we start seeing Fox and CNN announcers reporting as if they are talking to their family about their opinions on the news. Wtf. I strongly believe this is an unstoppable epidemic, and, if anyone has any idea on how to at least slow it down, I'd be happy to listen. I believe when it gets to a point that mental health professionals have to beg the media to edit the messages they are sending out, we have a serious problem. (Case in point --> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/08/12/suicide-contagion-and-social-media-the-dangers-of-sharing-genie-youre-free/ )

On a personal note, it was horrific reliving my sister and friend's own suicides yesterday as I was on social media. I'm a social media strategist, so I obviously could not avoid social networks. I got a pit in my stomach every time a new article appeared on my newsfeed, taking a stand on suicide when it's not even written by someone who's ever been touched by it, and is not a mental health professional. The errors and stupidity in reporting was astounding.

Lessons here --> Take responsibility of your own social networks and reporting (if you're a blogger/journalist), and make sure you are ETHICALLY reporting facts. Also, leave the clever Tweets for clever moments. Read the situation, your audience and the environment before you enter it with a message that could be taken a wrong a thousand different ways. At the end of the day, you are responsible for the messages you are sending out there, and you better make sure they are ones that are saving people.

- Marji J. Sherman

The Power of Words --> Promote What You Love, Instead of Bashing What You Hate

I heard an incredible sermon recently about the tongue having the power of life or death and the impact of words in social media. It's so important for us to use our posts to empower rather than destroy. Social media is so influential and you never know how the messages you put out on it are strongly influencing others. Rather than using it to tear down people, why not use it to point out the absolutely amazing things in life and to encourage others? While this may seem like advice for personal social media accounts, I think there's something here that applies to brands, as well.

Think about it.

There is a pressure in the social media industry to just push things out as quickly as possible -->  You're running a million miles an hour, trying to get three different posts up on different platforms before your 9AM meeting with your team that you're responsible for running, you still have messages to check on your phone, you have a few RTs to get in before they completely leave your Twitter feed, and someone Tweets you that they need help with something about your brand. Do you respond as quickly as possible so you can still make your 9AM, or do you take the time to add some personality and 'niceness' to your reply?

It's okay if you answered 'quickly as possible'. It's more common then you think. However, when you actually take the time to think about the other person who took time out of their hectic morning to Tweet your brand, sitting on the other side of their phone/computer waiting for you to respond, wouldn't you much rather send them a personalized, friendly respond instead of bare bones?

That's just one example of when words have a powerful impact in social media. One emoticon, or 'thank you', or 'hope your morning is going well' can completely make a difference in someone's day --> especially when a brand is taking the time to do something besides sell...and that's what we're on social media for, aren't we? To actually socialize and not just sell?

Another example is a lot more fundamental, and possibly not in your control in your position with your company ---> It's making sure the messages you are sending out as brand on social media are inspiring, rather than degrading. Now, this might seem like common sense, and you might want to stop reading at this point because I just seem to be stretching this too far....but, hold on a minute. I'm not saying brands are out there bashing the public (there are a few examples, but we'll save that for another post). I'm saying that even a little swipe at one of your competitors is degrading, and it's important to take the high road and produce words and content that backs your brand, rather then point out where other brands are lacking. As one of my favorite quotes says --> Promote what you love, instead of bashing what you hate. Make sure your content strategy focuses on building the reputation of your brand, not tearing down the reputation of other brands just to make yours look better. In the transparent world of social media, that positive 'building up' instead of 'tearing down' will go A LOT further. 

Promoting what you love, instead of bashing what you hate carries into our personal lives as well. Would you rather read a bunch of social posts about how much life and other people suck?! Or, would you rather be inspired and motivated when you're on social by the accomplishments and kindness of others? (I know, easier said than done, but something to think about).

I challenge you to think through your posts (professionally and personally) this week, and really, really think about whether they are words that are going to build someone up, or tear someone down. Take that extra five seconds to add personality and humanity to your responses on your social channels, and play around with sending out positive messages on your networks. You'd be surprised at how far a personalized response goes on social. Try it. I dare you.

- Marji J. Sherman

Empower Your Employees with Social Media

I remember when I first started in social media, I was always getting in trouble for being on Facebook at work ALL OF THE TIME. WTF. I had to go around and around about how social media is what they hired me to do, which meant that I had to be on Facebook --> duh. Once, I even got in trouble for being on my cell phone during work hours when I was on Instagram. Mind you, this was when Instagram was first released and was only available on the phone! When I explained this to my boss, she asked me to find some other way to access it through the computer because there was a no cell phone policy in the office. 

Fortunately, at least when it comes to being the social media strategist, companies now understand that it requires massive amounts of time on social media. However, some companies are still in the vast debate about whether other employees are allowed to access social media during office hours.

I've worked for businesses on every side of this spectrum:

One company would let employees on social if they only participated in conversations about the brand during work hours. Employees were not allowed to engage with any other content, such as their friends' posts, during office hours. If they were caught liking a friend's post that had nothing to do with the brand, their social media privileges were revoked.This bred a fear in the employees that they were being constantly spied on by upper management, so some stayed off altogether, while others kept getting caught for not being able to resist liking friends' posts while online to participate in brand conversations.

Another company blocked social media altogether. Employees could not even get to Facebook even if they wanted to. Only select employees had access, such as those on the digital and social teams. This tended to just piss employees off more than anything, or at least made them feel untrustworthy to their management.

Two companies actually included teaching social media in my job description, so I held workshops and classes where I would actually teach employees how to use all of the social networks. I also coached employees on what forums they should get involved in, and what LinkedIn groups would be best for them. This, of course, made for the happiest employees.

However, which companies do you think had the best social media community in general?! ---> The ones that empowered employees to use their own social networks, even during work hours. Your employees are a valuable resource to your social ecosystem. They help cultivate conversations around your brand, and give an authentic insider's view to the company that consumers love. It's nothing new --> employees are your best brand advocates. They are trusted by social communities because they have this inside view of the company and let people know that all is well within the brand.

I highly recommend tapping into your social media strategist's expertise, and allowing them to hold classes within your company for your employees. Let them teach your employees how to use their own social networks to be brand advocates. And, if they happen to like a friend's post during work hours, so what? Their ten seconds of liking a post not related to work is well worth the advocacy and trust that will come from letting them use social media.

What are your thoughts? Does your brand allow employees to be on social during work hours?

- Marji J. Sherman

Social Media ---> Wear Out or Rust Out

I read an interesting quote today about wearing out rather than rusting out that reminded me of a sweet little '72 Stingray Corvette that is parked in a garage in Wyoming right now. It's gorgeous, mint condition, with a spotless, sparkly cherry red exterior. And it's mine.

Even now that I am a perfectly capable adult, far from the barely-driving sixteen year old version of me it was gifted to, my dad and I still have disagreements about when and where I can drive it when I visit home.  My perspective --> Why not drive it while we're young and alive?! My dad's perspective --> Driving it will decrease it's value, or I will wreck it, or scratch it in some accident. See, I'd rather wear it out, while my dad would rather it not wear out and only rust where it absolutely has to.

Point?! ---> Rumors are circling around that social media influencers are phasing out because they are non-practitioners that sit on their soap box and try to sell something that has no real ROI.

That's fine, but I'm going to wear the shit out of social media where it is a valuable tool for business. I'm not going to let it just sit, and rust, because there are naysayers. The thing is, the real social influencers aren't just sitting around, preaching to others how pretty social media is, while they let it rust because they never use it themselves. The true social media influencers use it everyday, and consistently find new things to say about it because it is, to an extent, still a frontier that has a lot to explore.

I don't want social media to be some pretty, alluring, unattainable thing that I flaunt to clients. I want to understand it in and out, wear it out until I know absolutely every single pro and con to it when it comes to social business. If there ever comes a time for social media to die, I want to know that I explored every way I could to use it and its benefits.

If we all just talk on our soap boxes about how great social media is, then, yes --> it has a high chance of dying out. However, if we actually practice what we preach and find new and innovative ways to use it as a valuable business tool, then we are in control of if and when it dies out. It's our job to find the value in it. It's our job to prove the ROI, and open up the C-suite's mind the value in brand awareness and loyalty as an ROI.

So ---> are you going to wear out, or rust out?!

- Marji J. Sherman