Entries Tagged as 'twitter'

i have never been more “liked” – a heartwarming social media story

The following story has a Buffalo, NY connection to someone I do not know – because that’s how social media works 🙂

In social media terms, the more “liked” your post or comment, the better it reflects on your posts, awareness and (I guess) status as a human being.

Well I am not sure about that last part but the rest of it summarizes an otherwise long, blow-hard explanation of what the audience’s interaction with your social media posts mean (be it blogs, vlogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), LinkedIn and on).

So here’s the deal…on my Instagram, I came across an artist – who I later found is from Buffalo (Western New York) – who paints tiny outdoor art that she color matches. The art amazing and wonderfully color matched and she’s very talented. Her name is Lisa Cornwell. She has over 109,000 followers and growing, I’m sure.

instagram logoWell on a recent day, she was color matching a Ferris Wheel (that was not moving) and she was not sure the painting was coming together (but she WAS wearing her Buffalo Bills hat!). Well of course the tiny painting was terrific!

I think I was one of the first people to comment on it and I wanted to squelch her negative about her art (which is so great) so I said:

“Nice job. Don’t be so critical – it looks great as always.”

My message was for the Lisa (who I don’t know) but I forgot about her 109K followers like me. A lot of them agreed with me – as of this writing 1,349 people have liked my comment.

This doesn’t make me happy for me or for ego etc. This makes me happy because me and almost 1,400 of my closest internet friends want Lisa to know that the work she’s doing is great, it makes us happy to watch her and she should not be so hard on herself.

Also, it occurs to me that the internet and social media is NOT well know for POSITIVE comments – let’s all try and buck that trend. Join me in promoting the positive comments trend (which I too sometimes forget to do).

 

now 400 facebook business page likes

Peter K. O'Connell Facebook Business Page Likes 400Not for a moment do I claim to truly understand the analytics of any social media platform. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter et al with their likes and followers are about as deep as I get into it. Whether it’s a science or a sham, I don’t understand most of it, I don’t pretend to nor do I lose sleep over it.

Yet again this morning, however, I was putzing around my Facebook business page in another futile attempt to figure out if I was passing or failing my on-going social media exams. I do this occassionally as some sort of weird self-torture.

When what did my wonder eyes did I see but the number 400 next to ‘business page likes’ (or followers or zombies or something), none of that matters. What matters is that there were 400 of…something interested in what I was saying on my Facebook business page, Peter K. O’Connell – Male Voiceover Talent.

I assume (without any real research, of course) that there are voiceover talents who also have Facebook Business Pages who may have 10 times as many page likes as my 400 that they may have obtained organically or via purchase — and good on them.

Just from a personal stand point, 400 likes seems like A LOT. Call it egotistical or even naive, but it seemed like a nice number and I was weirdly pleased with it.

Alleged Facebook Logos Past and Future

I know enough about social media analytics to understand that likes and followers don’t tell much of the social media effectiveness story unless these followers are ” actively engaged” in the content they are following and that there is indeed quality content to actually follow.

But since starting my  Facebook Business Page back in 841 B.C., I’ve evidently said enough stuff that 400 people enjoyed it enough to like the page. That to me is stunning. It is also worthy of a very humble thank you if you liked my Facebook business page or followed my Twitter page.

Thanks.

twitter screws with your branding again

Peter K. O'Connell Twitter Graphic CHange

You probably didn’t get the memo.

Or if you’re like me (and God help you if you are), you kinda noticed something different on your Twitter profile but ignored it and moved on…until you DID notice it.

Twitter changed the layout of your profile, not a ton but juuuust enough to screw with your branding.

The little profile picture on your Twitter profile, you know, the one the shows up next to every tweet? The size of that got changed last week.

It used to be a square and now it’s a circle.

Big deal, you say? Who cares, you say?

Well maybe it’s not Armageddon, but depending on the size of your profile picture, the image may have gotten cut off, leaving your branding looking a bit sloppier than you may prefer. Prospects look at social media accounts and judge you on your branding. Just like you judge others on their branding.

Now is it a bigger deal for you?

The fix is easy enough (just more unnecessary work). Take your original picture and make it a bit smaller so the rounded edges of the new circle don’t cut off your image.

Then re-upload the pic to Twitter, resize if necessary and save.

Then wait for some body else at Twitter to unnecessarily change something else without letting you know.

Hope this helps.

3 Steps to Fix Your Twitter (maybe 4)

Fixing Twitter For Voiceover TalentsMaybe Twitter is working just fine for your voiceover business.

More likely, though, you don’t really have a focused business purpose for Twitter.

Twitter is designed to be very customized so even if two voice talents compared their Twitter feeds, likely it would be different…please don’t worry that you are doing it wrong. You’re not.

But you may be able to do Twitter more efficiently.

If you’re just looking at Twitter for fun, you don’t need a plan. But it’s also, in my opinion, kind of a waste of your business day if you spend any time there.

Should you want to use Twitter for a myriad of voiceover business objectives, putting some thought into it will help you make sense of Twitter and make it work for you.

‘But Peter,’ you whine, ‘this sounds like work.’

Yes there’s some work involved. We are talking about Twitter as business tool, you tool!

Relax, though, as I’m going to chart a course for you to help you think all this through.

I’ll also give some examples of what I do so you can either copy some of what I do on Twitter or run fast in the opposite direction…but at least you’ll have a plan!!

Peter K. O'Connell Twitter

  1. Decide what you need Twitter to do for you?

The assumption here is that you want to do more with Twitter than just play. You likely want to have some kind of objective, like:

  • I want to network
    • It could be with prospects, clients or your fellow voice pros
  • I want to be educated
    • I want to learn about industry trends (mine or the business categories I work with most); new technologies, or even social media trends from people smarter than you or me
  • I want to stalk
    • In a business way, not a creepy way – most likely involving prospects or current clients (maybe also your peers) as a way to learn about what topics, trends or observations are important to them — you DO already follow all your clients on social media, right?!

You may want to do one, some or all of these things and that’s OK. You may even want to execute something totally different. But as you look at your current and future Twitter connections, I would advise that you identify and follow your custom objectives with a specific agenda in mind because I think it will help you moving forward

  1. Identify your top Twitter targets

You want to network? OK, but with whom and to what end?

You want to be educated? OK, but what about and with whom do you want to achieve that knowledge?

You want to stalk? Which prospects do you want to follow and what do you want to achieve (awareness, new business, a referral)? Are they specific people or a category of folks?

Just following someone on Twitter is simple. And not likely to move the business or educational needle terribly far.

It would also be wonderful if these folks you followed on Twitter would follow you back, but that’s not a given. They might not initially be interested in you, as people don’t immediately follow back on Twitter like they used to do. Or they might not pay a ton of attention to Twitter. Everybody and company uses social media in different ways.

The point being you should have a kind of mental strategy about what you want to achieve with Twitter targets.

Twitter listsIf you can’t fathom a strategy quite yet, that does NOT mean you should not move forward with Twitter. You can at least get your ‘followers’ list organized and Twitter has a great internal tool for that.

It’s called Twitter Lists. Twitter Lists allow you to create your own lists within your entire list of the people you are following. You can also subscribe to lists created by others.

How is that helpful to you?

Viewing a timeline of just people from a specific list will show you a stream of Tweets only from the Twitter accounts on that list. While there can be some benefit to subscribing to other people’s lists, I personally just focus on lists I have created – occasionally checking other lists to see if I’ve missed somebody in a category.

For example, voice talents are always looking to get on voice talent rosters of audio production companies. How many audio production companies are you already following? How many are following you? (If you’re not sure, check out follow tools like http://unfollowerstats.com/).

My recommendation is that you create a Twitter List of Audio Production Companies and tag all your current connections to that list (a list as big or small a list as you want).

Then figure out what other lists you’d like to curate on your Twitter account (you can have one Twitter connection on more than one list if you like, it’s your list!). Again, this is valuable because with this list, you can see only the Tweets of those on the list. This is a big time saver, a great way to see customized conversations and trends — and all of it leading to the next big fix.

  1. Tweet thoughtfully

For some folks, the idea of Tweeting is truly butt clenching, for fear of not knowing what to say. For some folks, they just type what ever is on their minds (often proving they have nothing to say).

If you have focused on what you want to get out of Twitter (step #1) and from which audience you want to interact with (step #2), step 3 shouldn’t be as challenging and you won’t come off a s a moron (see above folks with “nothing to say”).

Rule #1 on Tweeting thoughtfully is to remember to treat each tweet like you’re speaking to a person…don’t be intimidated by 140 characters…just be you, for lack of a better term. Don’t “act” like an expert, your content will prove your expertise.

Rule #2 is tweet like you would like to be spoke to. For example: what do you like hear?

  • You like to be sincerely complimented
    • You can simply “like” a Tweet by somebody on one of your list (they’ll likely be notified of your like and may check out your Twitter profile – make sure that your profile page is updated and looks nice)
    • You can send someone on your list a compliment on their Tweet – throw something personal in there, more than “nice Tweet” or “thanks”
    • You can share the Tweet with your audience (people whose Tweets get shared usually get notified about that and it may help you get followed back)
  • You like to learn new things
    • If someone on your list has shared something that you really like, say thanks but tell them why it was helpful
    • You might try doing this via “direct message” on Twitter, and a conversation might ensue
  • You like to share things that are interesting to you and that you think others also my find interesting
    • So share what you like – if they don’t like it or aren’t interested, it’s no crime, people will move on and not think worse of you

The bottom line is you MUST offer content (i.e. Tweet) for people to begin to notice you but it’s best not to just Tweet for Tweeting sake – offer a thoughtful content that reflects who you are either professionally or even personally if you’re comfortable doing that

Make Friends First AudioconnellRule #3 would be don’t sell. This is more my rule than anything else but I have not seen one example of someone actually selling via a Tweet and people buying, at least not in voiceover.

At the very least, be indirect. For example: “I’m really excited that my new commercial #voiceover demo is done. If you like, check it out at www.audioconnell.com

When it comes to tone on Twitter (or Social Media or Life) my rule is to at least attempt to talk with people, not at them.

SO now what? What’s the follow up after I do all this?

Well, what you’ve done by creating these lists is you’ve got the start of a database. People you can learn from; connect with and possibly get some business done. So craft a plan to do something with all this information. Like what?

For example, from the aforementioned list of audio production companies, why not go to their Twitter account, click on their web site link and gather some contact data to put in your company database. Then send them a letter, introducing yourself and your information- maybe request to be added to their voiceover roster. Then a few days later, follow up by phone.

Did Twitter just become a lead generation tool for your business? That’s for YOU to decide.

Hope this helps.

dress nicely if you go out in public

So back in June my friend and fellow voice talent Doug Turkel pinged me about Twitter’s new logo. It’s nice, simple and, I thought to myself given all the different feed services and mobile devices we all use now, maybe a tad irrelevant.

Think about it.

With no scientific data to back this up (because that requires work and this is Sunday etc.) I’ll offer my “expert” (ha!) opinion: I feel with services like HootSuite and others, most of us don’t directly and visually interact with Twitter alot. So I don’t know that we’ll see the new logo too terribly much.

That got me to thinking about MY Twitter home page. As you may or may not know, Twitter allows you to customize your home page with some branding. (Here’s a link to a video if you want to see how it’s done otherwise your graphic designer can probably help you too).

Does my (or yours or anyone’s) home page on Twitter matter any more in our world of feeds or aggregators? Well, I kinda think it does for two reasons…again my “expert” (ha!) opinion.

1. When you’re a business, people expect a certain professionalism to your work. Your design not only conveys what your business does but also it’s attitude and personality. Should someone come across your Twitter page, an impression will be formed. Do you want to risk a bad impression? Probably not but if you really don’t care, I’d also ask why you’d really want a business presence on any Social Media channel.

2. It’s a free, colorful and fun way to convey your business message. It’s so simple that even if only 10 people see it a year, to me it’s money well spent.

Oh, and just in case you are completely clueless (it will be our secret) one of Twitter’s default backgrounds on your Twitter home page is the fastest way ever to publicly communicate that in your personal life you also wear plaid shirts with checked pants.

Dress nicely if you go out in public. 😉

I would love to know your thoughts on the matter.

seeking your marketing advice for twitter

Being that I bruised my toe pretty well Sunday (enough to get it x-rayed to make sure I didn’t break it) I had a little extra time in my Da chair with my laptop, foot iced and elevated. I was perfectly content.

One of the things I did was look at my Twitter page…not a Hoot Suite feed but the actual page.

My question for YOU involves reviewing my Twitter quote. If you can’t read it on the graphic, it reads:

Peter K. O’Connell
@audioconnell
Your friendly, neighborhood voice over talent since 1982. For a free quote, check an encyclopedia. For a quote involving you paying me cash, call 716-572-1800.

Not surprisingly, I find that quote incredibly funny, witty, sexy and tall…much like its author.

However, I know sometimes others don’t get my humor. Those are people who are usually not incredibly funny, witty or sexy. So sad.

Yet these people also have checkbooks that I want to access (i.e. them writing me checks) – therefore maybe I need to appease them. Or maybe I don’t…hence the advice from you.

So here’s the vote:

Should I:

a. Keep the quote as is because it is SO funny, witty, sexy and tall

b. Change the quote to appease those who are not so funny, witty, sexy and tall

BUT if you vote “B”, you need to make a suggestion as to what the new quote should be.