Social media marketing | Liz Hover's Diary of a Web Gal

I would have posted this yesterday had I not been so pissed off about my key snapping off in my bike lock and having to walk home in +30°C … and melting.

You may well have read about the Social Media ProBook (a free ebook) by now – I’ve read at least five posts today from high profile bloggers endorsing this resource.

Thanks – as always – to the ever-insightful Adam Singer of The Future Buzz for bringing this to my attention.

Adam is also one of the people featured in the book.

In fact, Adam took the words right out of my mouth when he wrote: ‘Eloqua [creators of this free ebook] … solicited insightful content on social media with something useful for all digital professionals. Reading through the contributions (including Jeremiah Owyang, Steve Rubel, Sarah Evans, among others) it’s clear this is a must-read.’

Oh yes.

I download a lot of free ebooks and most of them are – to use the technical term – crap.

The Social Media ProBook actually has substance. And contributions from very cool people. And stuff worth reading.

For my Canadian readers: you have the day off work tomorrow. This would make perfect reading in your air-conditioned home/office.

Please read Adam Singer’s blog post which has an excellent digital marketing Q&A and links to the ebook.

I have a personal gripe.

I keep seeing Facebook and Twitter icons on TV – usually on ads – and it’s driving me mad.

Why bother? If I care that much about your show/product then I’ll find your social accounts using this little tool I know called Google.

Putting those tiny icons on the screen doesn’t help me one bit.

It’s like putting a globe symbol in place of a website address.

Either put the whole URL to your Twitter and Facebook accounts or don’t bother at all.

It doesn’t make you social media cool just because you’ve got little pictures on the TV screen. It just makes me think you’re stupid.

* I wish Twitter told me why someone is following me and how they found me.

* I wish real-estate agents, builders and other ad hoc businesses would realise that having a Twitter/Facebook account isn’t enough of a reason to make me follow them or pay attention to anything they say or do.

* I wish more people/businesses realised that relationship building, conversations and actual engagement with individuals is what helps create an effective social media strategy.

* I wish there was a better word for ‘strategy.’

* I wish I could detect, in-person, anyone connected to me on Facebook or Twitter. There are too many people I have never met in person. And sometimes I’m shy.

* I wish Facebook made it mandatory to include a personal message anytime you friend someone forcing you to say how you know them.

* I wish Twitter limited Follow Friday to one recommendation only and a proper reason had to be included for why we should follow another Twitter user.

* I wish I could choose exactly who shows up in my news feed on Facebook. I don’t want to build friend lists, I don’t want ‘recent news.’ I want to choose who appears there.

* I wish Facebook had never introduced ‘poking.’

* I wish everyone knew how to take great photos, use Photoshop and name their files correctly.

* I wish I could help the zillions of bloggers who have really bad blogs, can’t spell and have no idea how to make their YouTube video embeds the correct size. Which leads to …

* I wish there were many more hours in the day giving me enough time to do this and sleep.

I was reading about a new tool the other day called Buffer which lets you load up your tweets for the day and automate when they appear.

‘This looks cool. I should check it out,’ I thought to myself.

Somehow I never did because I reminded myself that social media tools aren’t about automation and scheduling – sure plenty of people do it but it feels kind of inauthentic to me.

Just like slot machines, people are always trying to outwit the game – tweet between these times; always make it look like you’re on Twitter; tweet at least three times a day; don’t tweet at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

Yawn!

Tweet when you damn well want and if you don’t have anything to say for a week, then don’t use Twitter.

I get super irritated by all this scheduling, planning and strategizing. Things really aren’t that difficult. If you have something to say then go online and say it. If you don’t then, read a book.

Absolutely: monitor your social media accounts and respond to folks who are talking to you but I honestly don’t believe in ‘faking’ your online presence. Oh, I’m sure there are folks I follow who do it and I have no idea but it’s not something I would recommend.

The same thing applies to having someone else do your tweeting. It happens but I don’t agree with it.

Use social media tools when you do have the time. Don’t get caught up in the idea that you have to have a 24/7 perfect presence online. Just be normal. Just be human. Please.

Just watch it. It’s funny.

I’m having a bit of a Polyphonic Spree renaissance today. At the same time I heard something more than a good song.

(The Polyphonic Spree is the last concert I saw in July 2003 before arriving in Canada.)

When it comes to social media marketing we’re expected to be available all the time.

I honestly believe this has to come from a genuine place – YOU have to be online alot. Not your intern. YOU.

And so, during my Polyphonic Spree extravaganza tonight, I was reminded about how thinly we need to spread ourselves today.

Don’t complain. It just IS.