Storytailer

STORYTAILER LLC
CHAPEL HILL

Archives for September 2012

Proven: Buying Facebook Likes Is Wasted Money

By

As reported today by Mashable, Facebook has started weeding out and deleting “bogus Likes caused by compromised accounts, deceived users, malware or purchased bulk Likes..”

I’ve written countless times about why buying Likes is not only useless but bad practice. There are companies whose entire social media strategy is a numbers game. The more Likes you have, the more likelihood that you’ll reach people who could do business with you. Well, that house of cards just crumbled.

I wrote an article in July 2010, an article in June 2011, and an article in June 2012 (must be a summer thing. Go figure.) detailing why I think this is bad practice and why social media companies that utilize this strategy offer nothing of value to their clients.

Just like buying fake reviews, buying Likes is bad practice. The only way to have effective, lasting, meaningful social media marketing that will engage your clients and bring you business is to build your social media networks organically. It may be slower, but you shouldn’t ever have to worry about it vanishing into thin air.

Rarely is the easiest way the right one.

[Disclaimer: As many readers know, I work for a company that offers a managed social media solution and work in a position in which I craft social media strategies for our clients. All my posts are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my company.)

iPhone 5 and iOS 6: My Thoughts

By

I’ve had the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 for 5 days now so I thought I’d write a mini-review of my thoughts on both. This is certainly NOT a comprehensive review. Many of those exist already. These are just my personal impressions.

It’s light. – The iPhone 5 is certainly lighter than any previous iPhone. I like this feature as I typically carry my phone in my pocket. It’s hard to feel and sometimes I can’t even remember which pocket it’s in. That being said, I don’t get the impression that it’s less durable. In fact, one of the biggest complaints about it, according to Gizmodo who analysed the chatter about it, is the fact that it is too light.

It’s fast. – I can tell the difference in speed between the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S. I also had a Samsung Galaxy S III and it is certainly on par with that. This is in line with Mashable’s recent article comparing the speed of the two.

LTE rocks. – The one thing I LOVED about the Samsung Galaxy S III was the LTE ability. The iPhone 4S still used 3G and it was very slow. Sometimes painfully so. The new LTE integration rocks. Seeing as I recently moved to Chapel Hill, NC (which has great LTE coverage presumably due to UNC and it’s student body), I have excellent LTE coverage. Being that I did not where I lived in California, I love this.

It’s unlocked out of the box. – Not that I ever want to do business with or have a phone with service on AT&T but, according to the Huffington Post, the Verizon version of the iPhone 5 comes unlocked straight from the factory. It’s nice to know but I doubt I will ever need it. However, that being said, when the iPhone 6 (or 5S) comes out, I have double the market of people to sell it to, which is nice. Personally, if I were going to pay full price for the phone and I had AT&T service, I would buy the Verizon version and use it on AT&T since it comes unlocked whereas the AT&T version does not.

Facebook Integration. – Being a social media guy, this was a huge deal for me. The iPhone Facebook app sucks. Really sucks. It’s painfully slow. The ability to post to Facebook straight from my phone is great. It’s easy and painless. You can also use Siri to do it just like you can with tweets. I don’t really use Siri but it’s nice to know that I could if I wanted to. Another benefit to the Facebook integration is authorizing apps. In previous versions of the OS, when you wanted to authorize an app to access your Facebook account, it would flip open a Safari page and you had to type in your e-mail address and password to complete the authorization. In iOS 6, it still flips open a Safari page but because your Facebook account information is on your phone, it authorizes it and returns to the app, similar to what happens with logging into a website or connecting a website to Facebook while logged in to Facebook on your computer.

Do Not Disturb – I love this! It’s very nice to be able to set DND for specific times and not get an e-mail received alert at 2am (since the early morning hours are typically when retailers seem to think is the best time to send e-mails). If you add people to your favorites, it will allow those calls to come through (like your wife, kids, or whomever else you like) and block the rest.

Maps. – Suck. Yes, they do. Very much so. I attempted to get directions to a place that was about 5 miles away or less. It gave me directions to a place in Texas. Yeah, big fail. No matter how hard, or how specific, I got. Texas came up every time. Apparently, Apple is a Texas fan. Maybe it is because everything’s bigger there or they didn’t want to mess with Texas.

App Store – I like the new presentation of the iTunes/app store. It’s easier to navigate and you get more information without jumping back and forth between the search results list and actual information about an app. You just flip through the search results similar to how you would in the Music app on the phone with the information right on every result.

EarPods – I have yet to open or try these but they look cool and come with a storage case. It’s hard to want to use them in lieu of my Beats by Dre Studio headphones. Just saying.

New connector – Personally, I don’t have any issues with it. Yes, I know it is inconvenient and forces you to pay $29 for the adapter (assuming you want to use your old accessories with your new iPhone). I like that you can insert it into the iPhone 5 any way (ie. there’s no “right way” as there is with the old connector. My guess is that Apple got sick of replacing damaged iPhones from people attempting to force the 30-pin connector upside down. Of course, it could also be about money. Or both.

Cases (or lack thereof) – I’m not a fan of cases so I don’t really care. If you’re a case fan, I’m sure there will  be plenty of cases available for you soon. Personally, I think the iPhone 5 is very well designed and nice looking as is. By adding a case, you increase the phone’s weight and that is one of the features I like the most. If you tend to drop your phones or are just a paranoid person, buy the insurance from your phone carrier (typically $8-$10/mo) OR and even better (and cheaper) way to insure your phone is to add it to your homeowner’s policy as a rider. In the past, I have added my previous iPhones to my State Farm policy with a zero deductible, replacement value policy for $24 PER YEAR. Beat that.

Screen – It is longer. The best benefit of this is that you can have 5 rows of apps on a page versus 4 from before. For those who have a lot of apps or have a lot that they use often, it is nice to be able to stick those extra apps on the home screen. As for “brighter” and “more vibrant” – well, I can’t really see much of a difference. It’s still a nice screen like the iPhone 4S, however, and it seems a little more responsive since the touch functionality is integrated into the screen now rather than being a separate layer.

iCloud – I had this on my 4S. I paid the $25. It’s nice that it backs everything up and, when I got my iPhone 5, I was able to immediately restore all my apps and settings via iCloud over wi-fi so I didn’t have to wait until I got home to sync my phone. One of the features that I don’t like (and never have) is the inability to actually sync your music and physically have it on your phone without having to stream it and/or download every freakin’ song straight to my phone from iCloud. It would be much faster and more convenient to just be able to put it on my phone, as you could in the past, and not be dependent on having a wi-fi connection or eating up allocated data over LTE.

Anyways, those are my initial impressions. It ended up being longer than I anticipated, and there are plenty of features I didn’t cover, but that’s mainly because I have never used them – like AirPlay and AirPrint, etc.

Should you upgrade from your iPhone 4S? That’s up to you. It’s very similar to the decision you may, or may not, have had to made when the “New iPad” came out and you owned an iPad 2. I, personally, chose to keep my iPad 2 and NOT upgrade it. In this case, however, I chose to upgrade (obviously). Partially because I use my phone WAY more than I use my iPad and partially because I like having the newest technology (I am an early adopter. Very much so.). The choice is up to you but there are TWO features that made my decision quite easy: lighter and LTE. That was enough for me.

 

Social Media and OEMs: the Flaw in the Machine

By

I remember a few years back when OEMs started pressuring their dealers to develop a social media presence. “You have to have a Facebook page.”, and “You need a Twitter account.” They sent their contracted digital marketing consultants to their dealers and beat them senseless until they complied. They started grading their dealers’ online presence and critiquing it’s absence.

On the flip side, manufacturers were developing and building healthy and thriving online presences. I get that. Their job is branding and promoting. That’s awesome. Some manufacturers were better at it than others. Some took their time joining the game. Some were ahead.

As most of you reading this know, one of the goals of social media is exposure outside your networks. That’s difficult to achieve for most dealers, especially dealers not paying attention and putting forth just enough effort to say they are “doing it”. Some are effective and others aren’t.

The thing that puzzles me is that, for the most part, many manufacturers have large audiences – some in the millions. Their public face is all about reassuring customers and branding. You hear phrases and messages that say things akin to we value you as a customer. Wait a minute now. Who, exactly, is a manufacturer’s customer? I don’t know any manufacturer’s that sell cars direct to consumers. The only people that buy cars from manufacturers are car dealers. In my opinion, that makes car dealers the manufacturer’s customer but that’s beside the point.

Many manufacturers spend a lot of time watching, learning and responding to consumers on various social media channels – which is awesome. That being said, if you are social media savvy at all, you understand the value of a retweet or mention from a “person” with a large following – whether that be on Facebook, Twitter or wherever. While I’m sure it’s probably happened at some point in time, I have yet to see any car manufacturer put any concerted organized effort into identifying tweets from their TRUE customers – the car dealers – and using their considerable online presence to retweet and mention those dealers. You’d think they’d want to support a dealer’s social media effort.

If a dealer is putting out great content and saying positive things, why wouldn’t a manufacturer want to spend meganbarto@gmail.com or skeetle@me.com and effort into assisting the dealer gain exposure and increase their networks to the relevant people within their audience? I mean, THEY are the ones that pushed dealers into the social media world.

If your customer – the dealer – is doing a great job, reward them by interacting with THEM as well as with the end buyer. It would be a great way to support your franchises, reward them for their efforts, which, for the most part, are also going to be promoting the brand itself, which is completely in line with your goals anyways. YOU want engagement. YOU want to be retweeted. Why is it unreasonable for to assume that your dealers do as well?

I challenge a manufacturer to devote as much effort into integrating social media support for their franchises into their operations as they do supporting themselves. There are less franchises than consumers so it wouldn’t take a lot to accomplish. A retweet here and there would be easy, appreciated, rewarding, and relevant.

Oh, and don’t try the whole “we don’t want to play favorites” excuse – even if you truly believe it might be interpreted that way by your franchises. If your dealers have an online social media presence, support it. Maybe that would encourage your dealers who do not to jump on the bandwagon.

Practice what you preach and support the hand that feeds you.

 

Stat of the Week & In the News: Compliation August 2012

By

August 2, 2012 “In the News” – [LINK]

Bing Deepens Facebook Integration
Allows Users to Tag Friends within Search and Share Instantly to Facebook

Bing announced earlier this week that they’ve further enhanced their integration with Facebook, enabling users to tag Facebook friends directly within search results and share queries instantly on Facebook. Using this functionality, users will now be able to more readily involve friends in decision-making by soliciting their advice while searching online.

There are obvious implications for digital marketers and online vendors—and for automotive dealers in particular. Imagine a car shopper searching “Toyota dealer” on Bing, receiving results, and then instantly asking specific friends on Facebook if they’ve had any experience with a given dealer. This deepened integration with Facebook further illustrates the importance search engines are placing on social media in order to deliver relevant search results to consumers.

The subtraction of a step in the sharing process will not only make it easier for people to share search-related content on Facebook, but also to tag friends, which will then cause those results to on those friends’ timelines, thus exposing the question to their social networks. Typically, the easier you make an action, the more people will use it. Think of the ease of the “like” and “+1” sharing buttons that millions of websites have adopted. This makes it even more important than ever to ensure that your Bing presence is optimized, reviewed regularly, and filled with positive customer testimonials.

If you want to see more about how it works, check out Bing’s video by clicking here.

August 3, 2012 “Stat of the Week” – [LINK]

One million users in 6 hours.

That’s how many people signed up for Microsoft’s re-vamped Hotmail email service, which they relaunched as Outlook.com this past Wednesday, August 1. Many reviewers, such as Gizmodo, are declaring Outlook email the “biggest victory since Gmail.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that it’s Microsoft’s attempt to capture more enterprise customers by integrating themselves into workers’ personal lives. This news should interest online vendors and digital marketers alike. That’s because many consumers favor the use of anonymous-type email addresses (Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, etc) when shopping online or communicating with vendors–including car dealers–because they offer less personal information up front. Chances are good that you will start seeing Outlook email addresses showing up in leads. You need to ensure that your CRM isn’t going to view the new outlook.com email addresses as spam.

On another note, if you were part of the land grab of e-mail addresses on Wednesday, you might have been able to get some really sweet e-mail addresses–maybe even using just your first name. The momentum of sign-ups is sure to plateau, but as long as desirable and easy e-mail addresses are available, we believe many people would make the switch rather than have a long, hard-to-remember Yahoo or Gmail address because of the lack of availability. Would you rather havejohndoe@outlook.com or johndoe34872@yahoo.com? The choice seems easy.

August 10 “Stat of the Week” – [LINK]

What drives up to four times as much retail traffic as Facebook and is #4 out of the top 7 web-traffic-driving social networks in the world? Pinterest.

We came across this article on socialmediatoday and were shocked to learn that Pinterest is responsible for so much traffic to websites. We were also surprised to learn that StumbleUpon is the #2 social media site in terms of driving traffic, but the steep downward trajectory that it’s on means it will most likely be overtaken in the near future.

Pinterest interests us so much because it is driving almost as much traffic YouTube and, although YouTube certainly isn’t something to disregard, Pinterest definitely has the momentum right now, with major brands adopting the platform for marketing purposes. YouTube will always be relevant (well, as “always” as anything can be in the fast-paced world of the internet), but we don’t see their traffic spiking anytime soon. In fact, it could very well decline now that YouTube’s license with Apple has expired and the company’s will no longer be available to iPhones.

Not only that, but Pinterest currently appeals largely to women, making the site both a unique challenge and an especially tempting nut to crack for businesses like automobile dealers. Have you experimented with Pinterest for your business yet?  If so, tell us what your experiences have been!

August 14 “In the News” – [LINK]

Recently, two major automotive manufacturers released innovative apps designed to enhance consumers’ buying experiences by making the process more interactive using technology developed for mobile and tablet devices.

This past spring, at the Geneva Auto Show,Volvo unveiled an iPad/iPhone app that “reads” markers placed around Volvo vehicles, allowing users to walk around the cars and experience an x-ray-like view of the vehicle’s skeleton and inner workings, complete with callouts featuring patented Volvo innovations.

Then, this past Monday, Ford released an iPad app designed to assist consumers at the dealership by allowing them to virtually build vehicles equipped to their specifications, then use that information to locate vehicles in the dealers’ inventory that most closely match their desired specifications.

These apps are likely just the beginning when it comes to vehicle manufacturers adopting mobile and tablet technologies in ways that allow salespeople at the dealership level to integrate the latest tech into the sales funnel and make the buying process more informative and interactive for customers. Auto dealers: what’s your take? How do you think car shoppers will respond to these apps and others like them?  How would you incorporate them into you showroom experience? And what app would you design for use in your showroom if you ruled the world?

August 17, 2012 “Stat of the Week” – [LINK]

148 million negative impressions.

Whether or not you liked how NBC handled their coverage of the Olympics, as this articleillustrates, the network ultimately fumbled a golden opportunity (McKayla would so not be impressed)—and damaged its reputation in the process.

As you may know, NBC made live-streaming of the Olympic Games available only to those users with an eligible cable provider account. Needless to say, this tactic left many frustrated, would-be viewers—many of whom rely exclusively on the internet rather than cable to get their TV fix—fuming. So much so that they took to Twitter and decided they were going to talk about the Olympics anyways, namely by creating the hashtag #NBCFail.

During the month of the Olympics, netscore counted 93,000 tweets utilizing that hashtag, which accounted for a whopping 148 million negative impressions. This number is made all the more damaging when you consider that NBC itself reported that only 157 million people actually watched the live streams.

Imagine if NBC had made the live streams easy to access, available to everyone, and free (by which we mean, ad-supported). Those 93,000 negative tweets probably would have been replaced by positive, patriotic tweets that included NBC mentions and hashtags. Instead, they chose monetize the content in a different way—one that earned them 157 million short-term internet viewers whose attention shifted elsewhere when the Olympics ended and almost 100,000 negative comments that will live on the Internet forever.

August 27, 2012 “In the News” [LINK]

During the 2008 presidential elections, Barack Obama made waves (and ultimately won the presidency) by enlisting the grassroots support of voters. What made it all the more remarkable at the time was that much of the campaign’s grassroots action took place online, in the context of social media.

So it comes as no surprise that the 2012 presidential elections would continue the trend. According to Fox News, political parties are increasingly recognizing the importance of social media within their campaigns.  Both Republicans and Democrats have opened up their conventions and debates to be live-streamed on the internet, hired full-time bloggers and teams of people whose only jobs are to engage with voters via social media channels.

To put some perspective on how much social media channels have grown in importance since the last presidential elections, consider this: according to Twitter, the number of tweets sent on Election Day 2008 was “equal to about six minutes worth of tweets today.” Like businesses, politicians stand to reap huge rewards from social media—that is, if they manage to keep a handle on the conversation. With the help of social media, politicians (like businesses) are able to reach more people and, in circumventing traditional media, they are able to do so without compromising their messages. But social media is a live wire, and if businesses and politicians aren’t on their game, they also stand to get burned (a la #McDStories).

It remains to be seen which party manages to finesse social media to greater advantage, but either way, new media will play a role in deciding the next president of the United States. The good news for businesses is that, no matter how much political activity is taking place on social media channels, businesses won’t be priced out of social media they way they will with traditional media. Traditional media is finite, while digital media is unlimited. [TL/AT]

Contact Me