Classy Social Media #FAIL Recoveries that Dr. Phil Should Learn From
As in all things in life, mistakes happen on social media. What really matters is how you respond when something you post isn't received as you planned. Here's two celebrities that Dr. Phil could learn from on how to talk to outraged fans.
As in all things in life, mistakes happen on social media. What really matters is how you respond when something you post isn't received as you planned. Here's two celebrities that Dr. Phil could learn from on how to talk to outraged fans.
Regina Spektor's Fans Tell Her To Shut Up And Sing
Regina shows a lot of class and thoughtfulness in responding to her (mostly white and southern) fans who disagree with her the George Zimmerman verdict.
I understand that the Trayvon Martin trial is a hot button issue but this is a Facebook page- it's for writing. If you think I should shut up and sing (by definition an impossible act:-) then perhaps you should just not upset yourself, spare your blood pressure, and unlike this page. Also feel free to only listen to music by people you agree with. It's all good! There's room enough for everyone in this world and moments like these are a great opportunity for people to find some new places to like or unlike.
Her original post....
Reactions to her post were generally positive but attracted many critical comments, many directly attacking her...
Regina's excellent social media recovery...
George Takei's Staff Goes Too Far
You're likely to offend some of your fans at some point. Check out the original post and excellent apology from George Takei over using a controversial topic to talk about parenting.
And here's his (or his staff's) well thought out response. Notice it gets twice as many likes as the original post it is responding too. Your fans understand mistakes will be made, your job is to listen and respond with candor.
Dr. Phil Fails to Respond to his Twitter #FAIL
The Twitterverse went crazy over a tweet that Dr. Phil's twitter staff rapidly took down. Their mistake was not apologizing publicly, which instigated a Change.org petition to start circulating.Here's the original tweet:
A sampling of the viral lashing he received for it:
We'll see if Dr. Phil takes the hint and apologizes to his fans. In case you're reading this "social media intern who just got fired," here's some hints on how to respond in the future.
A Few Hints On Responding to Social Media Fails
- Platform: Typically you're going to want to use the same platform that the original fail occurred on to respond. However, it can be stronger to record a short video or write a longer blog post and link out to that apology to get the audience back on your "home turf" so to speak. If you're considering doing so on your own blog, you might want to turn off comments or monitor them closely.
- Timing: You need to be thoughtful but you also need to do this quick! The internet doesn't forget easily.
- Candor: If you've screwed up be honest about it. Tell your fans what you're going to do to make sure this doesn't happen in the future. Thank your fans for teaching you something. Apologize for making an honest mistake and most of your fans will believe you.
- Don't Give Up: Just because a mistake has been made, doesn't mean social media isn't worth your time. Social media is about conversations and you've just started a big one!
3 Types of Facebook Like Bait
hese examples from the top pages on Facebook show three ways they are winning likes easily to get later messages out for free.
As you know, from my post on Facebook's Edgerank algorithm, how often your updates are shown to your fans (for free) depend on factors including how often they like or comment on your posts. These examples from the top pages on Facebook show three ways they are winning likes easily to get later messages out for free.
Seasonal: Celebrate What's Now
This Happy Easter post from Barack Obama's page received over 380,000 likes.
Recognition: New Text On An Old Meme
This repost by George Takei got over 70,000 likes. Mr. Takei's page has nearly 4 million followers. I would guess he has a professional social media expert helping him or he's just the the most "with it" celebrity I've encountered of his generation.
Guilt: You're a Bad person If you Don't Agree
This example from Hit Like If You Agree had over 59,000 shares. What mom on Facebook wouldn't share this.
Bonus: Recovering When You Go Too Far
You're likely to offend some of your fans at some point. Check out the original post and excellent apology from George Takei over using a controversial topic to talk about parenting.And here's his (or his staff's) well thought out response. Notice it gets twice as many likes as the original post it is responding too. Your fans understand mistakes will be made, your job is to listen and respond with candor.
How to Save Money Advertising on Facebook by Using Facebook's EdgeRank
Did you know that only a small percentage of your Facebook posts to your fans are actually shown? Now that Facebook is making it easier to pay them to promote your own posts, many page owners are suddenly asking how they can get their posts seen more often for free.
What is Facebook's EdgeRank
Similar in the way Google uses PageRank to determine which websites are at the top of their search results, Facebook had to create an algorithm to filter status updates. EdgeRank is a algorithm that determines how many people see your status updates on their wall.[box]Input x EdgeRank = Output[/box]
What Affects EdgeRank Positively
An increase in the number of fans liking and commenting on your content will incase how many people are reached by each post.[box]EdgeRank = (Comments + Likes) / Fans at the time of the post[/box]
What Are The Most Engaging Content Types?
Overall these rules hold true for the different content types, but there are some specific differences for different types of pages below too.
- Photos: Quick and easy to consume, plus major comment fodder. Had twice the engagement rates of other types of posts.
- Status: Fast to read and doesn't require the user to click through. Users are actually more engaged with updates longer than 140 characters. So it's NOT a best practice to run the same update to Twitter and Facebook because you should run slightly longer copy on Facebook.
- Video: Videos need text summaries posted with some context for the reader. Videos with no description had the worst engagement of all types of post.
- Link: Links require users to click out of Facebook
For An Artist, Band or Public Figure
- Behind-the-scenes photos and candid photos
- New song you're composing
For Brands & Products
- Photos were 7x more engaging than status updates. So work with your graphic designer to come up with photo versions of promotions.
- All other content types averaged less than 1% engagement.
For Causes and Communities
- Photos were the most engaging
- Videos were a close a second because these communities were very responsive to videos about their group and viral videos
For a Company, Organization, Institution
- Photos most popular
- Video second most popular
- Links are less engaging because users are less likely to want to share or comment on commercial messages with their friends and family watching
- Polarizing content (taking a controversial position) will create more engagement
For Local Businesses
- Photos were 3x more engaging than links.
- Photos are closely followed by videos - Videos don't have to be fancy, content as simple as a personable/community/local message gets high engagement. One of the most popular local videos was an iPhone video of the snow fall outside a store.
For Entertainment (Sports teams, Movies, Games)
- Status updates are the most engaging because you have very loyal fans that are more likely to comment on any update
- Photos were the second most engaging
- Videos were third
So Should I Only Post Photos?
EdgeRank is Like A Credit Score...It Follows You
Quick Tricks
- At the end of the post, tell readers to "click like" if they agree to drive tons of engagement.
- Ask users to add their opinion in a comment. "Vanilla ice cream is the best flavor. What's your favorite flavor?"
- Make sure to always pair a written description with photos, links, and videos. You should add context with this written description.
- Make your updates timely and related to real-world events/holidays/etc.
- Post cute things (dogs, cats, babies, etc.) but they have to be related to your brand! See the Chef Boyardee message here.
- Post a photo and ask your fans to caption it.
6 Ways You Haven't Used Social Media To Improve Your Blog
No matter how long you've been doing social media for, there are new tricks and tips coming out every day. Tip #1 and #5 were well worth the price of admission for my organization. Here are my notes from Austin Gunter's (Brand Ambassador, WPEngine) presentation on "Developing Digital Marketing (Social Media) In Your WordPress" at WordPress Camp NYC.
1. No One Cares About What You Just Said On TwitterThink about your site from the perspective of a first-time visitor, they're looking for a reason to trust you. Stop using the standard Twitter widget to show the last few tweets you've sent (which could be awesome or random rants). Instead reconfigure your Twitter widget to display your account's favorites. Favorite great tweets about your organization and re-label your widget something like "140 Character Testimonials".2. It's Time To Make Sharing Your Content AwesomeUsing the standard Facebook & Twitter share links are LAME. It's time to do some custom development for elegant sharing solutions. Instead of a tiny Pinterest button above every post, Wedding Chicks does an elegant job of encouraging pins. Every image you mouse over has a "Pin It" badge appear in the lower right.
3. You Can't Fight On TwitterThere are going to be customer support issues and people are going to complain. You need to take it off Twitter. Generate a support ticket for the customer and email them or reach out another way. 140 characters is not enough to be logical and really help.5. Facebook is for Developing Your Existing Fans, Not First-Time CustomersYour customers aren't going to follow you on Facebook until they've already experienced your brand. Liking a brand on Facebook is akin to putting that brand's bumper sticker on your car. Use Facebook to develop deeper conversations with your biggest fans, not sell to first time customers. Austin likes integrating Facebook with his blog post comments so the comments on his site spread to Facebook too (and vice-a-versa).
5. The One Thing To Use Google+ ForGoogle is now using Google+ profiles to determine who is writing what online for SEO with rel="author". People who have been writing quality content for years will benefit from this move (which fights SEO cheating). To do this, follow these instructions to update your Google+ profile with what sites you write for (or guest post on). This will allow your headshot to appear next to your content on search results (which may increase your click throughs) as well as possibly raise your general rankings.6. Turning Twitter Conversations Into Real StoriesYou can use Storify to collect tweets around a topic or conversation. It allows you to comment and expand on what was said. We've seen great summary posts on conference, news events, and locations.Bonus: Check out Buffer for a super easy way to share what you've read online into scheduled posts that are even faster to use than HootSuite.