Social Media Bandwagoning

Over the past couple of weeks my attention's been grabbed by two Facebook marketing virals - Bodyform and Thomas Cook. What's specifically got my attention  is the similarity/timing and technique involved. This lead me to send a Tweet last week labelled 'social media bandwagoning' - a Tweet that gained some positive comments and support. 

Both campaigns stem from a 'normal' Facebook user posting something amusing and provoking directly on the brands wall, in the case of Bodyform about their TV advertising and for Thomas Cook a man who has the same name. I use inverted commas when referring to a  'normal' Facebook user as the jury it still out as to whether these were set up by agencies who then pushed as a PR piece - the Bodyform video response was made by agency Rubber Republic.

Both virals came out within a short space of time and hinge on the idea of a public post and a brands response (call and response). Both have also proved their ROI by creating great PR and viral buzz.

However, does this also spotlight a lack of creative for Facebook marketing? And this brings me back to my opening point that both are similar and having happened within a short time frame come across as 'social media bandwagoning'  - jumping on a good, effective and proven piece of marketing.

I am all for great PR/social media innovativeness and thought the Bodyform viral to be one of the best to date. But, has this now opened the gates for Joe Public to post on brands walls in the hope they can get something for nothing (e.g. Thomas Cook/Low Cost Holidays)? And has Bodyform created the viral response to end them all?

This post was originally posted on the Honey Digital blog.

Social Media Hangout

As owner of a digital agency, I'm lucky enough to meet a good number of business owners and industry people who have varying and insightful views on social media for business. Through informal conversations we get to talking about views on social media, how it's working or not-working for them, and some great lessons learned.

I thought these conversations offered some good insight and learnings that could also benefit other business owners and social media users. So I decided to create the 'Honey Digital Social Media Hangout' - a series of informal interviews that capture these opinions, insights and thoughts about social media for business from those using it and advising on it.

Originally posted on the Honey Digital blog, I also wanted to share this new podcast with Plain Social readers. In this first episode I talk to William Straker about his new business W Straker Office Solutions and how he both uses and engages on social media.

Going forward, these hangouts will be broadcast live on the Honey Digital Google+ page and available for viewing afterwards on the You Tube channel and by free, downloadable podcast (iTunes coming soon).

Download this episode as an MP3 podcast from our Soundcloud channel now. 

Are you a business owner who'd like to take part in one of our recorded hangouts? Then please email us at hello@honey-digital.com to have a chat. 

One rule for writing a good tweet

Daniel asked me to put together a post about how to write a good tweet. So naturally I thought about it with a copywriter’s head on. Is it about style? The art of précis? Readability?

I took a look at what other people thought. Unsurprisingly there are gigabytes of how-to lists for writing tweets out there. This one is good. So is this. And this one has a useful list of all the how-to lists.

I read ‘em all, and a few more too. And like anyone in the Twitterverse I’ve read a whole load of tweets.

Then I came to a simple conclusion.

There’s just one rule for writing a good tweet:

Be interesting.

That's it.

Just one rule.

Because if you're being interesting, you're almost certainly doing everything else right. Think about it. What's interesting? It's stuff that's new. Informative. Relevant to you. Useful. Maybe controversial. Mind-expanding. Commercially helpful. Entertaining. And easy to grasp.

What matters, then, is not how to write a good tweet, but how to be interesting. This, incidentally, is something that’s right at the heart of all business copywriting. So we’ll follow up this post with a few more about being interesting: writing things your target audience will want to read, being helpful, pitching controversy at the right level.

What do you think? Is there more to Twitter than just being interesting?

Is #followfriday dead?

It's Friday. My Twitter feed should be full of posts by users recommending I #followfriday, or #ff, other Twitter users they admire. But so far I've not seen one #ff and this Friday is nothing new. Is this once key Friday ritual redundant? Or have the rumours of its death been grossly exaggerated?

I've followed and recommended people for Follow Friday and believed it to be an excellent way to make new Twitter friends, as did many people when #ff and #followfriday used to top the Trends list. But a quick look today shows it's not even in the top 10. As with most trends, there's a shelf life. This one feels like it has lived past its expiry date.

One reason I believe the trend has lost traction with users is because it's become too spammy and robotic. Too many users and brands have jumped on the hashtag and inserted spam URLs, enough to put off any member of the Twitterati. One could argue that people have also switched off. Who wants to look at a stream that's just full of #ff and #followfriday? Where's the interesting content? Where's the added value?

I've been sending out #ff Tweets for the past month and have not noticed any benefit for doing so. The only interaction I've had  is from people I've recommended. This is not a bad thing, just not the result #ff was intended to create.

Now, I'm not knocking Follow Friday and for some it has its place. My argument is there needs to be a change in the way people post their #ff, for example a good intro one-liner about the person that gives me a reason to follow.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you use the #ff or #followfriday hashtag? Has it led to quality interactions? Drop us a comment below.