Earlier this month, Aaron Hahn wrote about Apple finally adding two-factor authentication. With tech giants like ‘The Fruit’ & Google implementing the added security measures, it was just a matter of time until social media got involved on a larger level.
Just last week, Twitter officially announced their own two-factor authentication. So who would be next?
That answer came earlier today as LinkedIn announced their two-step verification.
So, of course, the question becomes… who’s next?
Just about all of us nowadays use some form of social media, and most who do have accounts on multiple platforms. Being that I’m one of those multiple-platform people, I figured I would share some thoughts on some of the “not-so-good” trends I’ve noticed – in hopes of making the Social Media Universe a better place.
Do you know social media users who engage in the following?
#1) Connecting Twitter To LinkedIn
This may seems obvious to some, but I still know some very smart people who do it. The Social Media Universe will be a much happier place once people realize what each social media platform is for. For instance, LinkedIn is more for career-related items at a slower pace while Twitter has more of a current, micro-blog feel to it. Therefore, connecting your high-frequency Twitter account to your LinkedIn feed is not a good thing, as it is a sure-fire way to annoy many of your professional connections.
#2) Posting “Old News” On Facebook
It always cracks me up when someone posts a “breaking news” item to Facebook as if they’e the first to report it, when in fact the story is hours or even over a day old. Chances are, if you see something on the internet, you’re not going to be the first to break the story to all of your friends 
On the other hand, if you post a link to a story AND share a comment on it at the same time, then that’s a much better way to engage your friends in discussion – which is one of the purposes of social media!
#3) Posting What Songs You’re Listening To
I love music. I love all different types of music. I love discovering new music. However, I do not want to know about every time you listen to music. Sharing a new song with friends every now and then is a wonderful use of social – but tweeting or creating a Facebook post every three minutes as you go through music on Spotify is just reason for your friends to delete you from their Twitter stream or newsfeed.
#4) Posting What Articles You’re Reading
When it comes to social media, sharing should mean caring. Unfortunately, some users engage in over-sharing, which few people enjoy. If there is a great new song out there that you want others to listen to…by all means, share it! The same goes for a great article that you’ve read. But…as with music, when you share every single item you come across, it becomes tiresome. Therefore, I encourage you to check your sharing settings before you start getting removed from Facebook newsfeeds or Twitter streams for sharing countless articles you’ve read about Snooki.
#5) Harassing or “Trolling” on Twitter
I understand that Twitter can be great for one-liners and sarcasm. Heck, my friends and I do it all the time and some of the material is quite humorous. However, there is a line, a “Trolling Line” if you will, that some end up crossing. When you begin to single out a particular person and tweet them nothing but angry, pointless garbage, chances are that you’ll get unfollowed or blocked. That’s kind of NOT the point of social media, eh?
#6) “Going Political” On Facebook
One of the most polarizing things you can do in this day and age is to try to convince how dumb others are for not believing in your political views. “Polarizing” and “social” don’t mix, right? So, unless you’re ready to raise the blood pressure of your friends, be careful of what you post.
Yes, I get it, it’s a free country. But if you go the platform route as opposed to a discussion route, it usually doesn’t end pretty when it comes to social interaction. Believe me, I’ve seen plenty of cases. If you’re really into politics, then Twitter will probably be a better medium for you.
However, if you insist on using Facebook for talking politics, I encourage you to keep it short and sweet. That way, It is at least much more tolerable and less polarizing than if you launch into some long-winded commentary on how you disagree with so-and-so. That’s what blogs are for, eh?
#7) Checking In On Foursquare to “Fake” Locations
Although this one cracks me up initially, it gets old rather quickly. Foursquare is for sharing cool, fun places out in the world where your friends may be – whether it be a restaurant, shopping center, stadium, etc. What I don’t get are those people who check in to places like their college or home. Is that really worth sharing?
I guess Foursquare is partly to blame, as users can become the “Mayor” of the locations they check-in at the most, but still. In the words of ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown… “C’mon, man!”.
Well, that’s it’s until next time. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed. If you have any other “Social Media Sins” that annoy you that were not mentioned here, please share them in the comments section below!
For many marketing teams, finding the “next great pitch” or creating the “next great ad” can be quite the time-consuming process. Sometimes, however, there are days when things just fall into your lap. That’s what Proctor & Gamble, maker of Tide detergent, found out a week ago at the Daytona 500.
After NASCAR driver Juan Montoya lost control of his car under caution and slammed into one of the jet dryer trucks, hundreds of gallons of jet fuel spilled onto the track and eventually ignited. The race had to be halted and the red flag was displayed. Once the fire was put out, there were worries as to whether or not the track would be in good enough condition to finish “The Great American Race”.
The first mission was to rid the track of the residue left from the chemicals that helped extinguish and clean up the giant fire. Darrell Waltrip, member of the FOX broadcasting team and NASCAR Hall of Fame driver, mentioned that they used to use Tide detergent to try to tackle these types of on-track “stains” back in the day. Just to prove how strong driver-sponsor loyalty is in NASCAR, Tide just so happens to be one of Waltrip’s former sponsors.
Just a short while later, the FOX cameras zoomed in on the crash site and found a truckload of jumbo-sized Tide boxes being used by NASCAR track officials. The officials ended up spreading the detergent all over the crash site, followed by washing it away with a pressurized hose. Talk about product placement…
Due to the Daytona 500 being moved to a Monday night race and the unique situation at hand, social media chatter exploded about the event. Too add even more fuel to the fire (pun intended), driver Brad Keselowski posted a picture of the mess to Twitter from inside his car. This took chatter about the race to a whole new level, as no one was expecting a driver to carry an iPhone in his race car. The act just also happened to net Brad 100,000 new followers that night. Amazing.
So, not only was there a bizarre situation at hand with millions of television viewers, but now chatter in the social media world went nuts. In this age of marketing in which social media has such an influence, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Sure enough, P&G capitalized on the moment. Less than a week later during FOX’s telecast of the Subway Fresh Fit 500 in Phoenix, Tide aired the following 15 second spot:
Since the ad was basically done for them already, not only did P&G accomplish a quick turnaround, but they did it at a relatively low cost. They even created their own hashtag at the end of the spot: #tidepower. You just can’t ask for much more than that in today’s world of advertising.
In the end, the team at Proctor & Gamble was presented with a perfect chance to capitalize on a golden opportunity, and they nailed it. Congrats to them.
What’s that old saying, “if at first you don’t succeed”…
Try as they did, McDonald’s latest Twitter campaign turned out to be another epic disaster. Unfortunately for the fast food giant, this most recent ad campaign – similar to ones before this one – was hijacked by sarcastic internet users who ended up morphing the feel-good, Promoted Tweets into a McDonald’s slam-session.
Last week, Mickey D’s used two hashtags in Twitter’s “Promoted Tweets”. The first, #MeetTheFarmers, worked well as it flew under the radar and introduced Twitter users to various farmers who grow some of the ingredients found in McDonald’s burgers. The idea was off to a good start… but that’s about as good as it got.
McDonald’s then got the bright idea to move on to the second hashtag, #McDStories. Now before I proceed, just take another look at the hashtag and tell me the first thing that pops into your head. Is it… going to McDonald’s as a kid and having chicken McNuggets with sweet and sour sauce while you enjoy the company of your family? Or… if you’re like many other people in the world today, are you immediately trying to think of a great food-joke? A sample of the more popular answer can be found below…
The question then becomes, who in the hell is in charge of McDonald’s social media that didn’t see this coming? The answer… a man named Rick Wion, McDonald’s social media director.
When asked about this latest debacle, Mr. Wion explained that he and his team carefully chose the words that went into both of these hashtags carefully.
Are you sure about that, Rick?
One of the biggest questions I ask myself when doing social media marketing for clients is “What are potential scenarios for this becoming a disaster?”. If I have a hard time coming up with answers, or the few I can come up with are relatively tame, then it’s most likely safe to proceed.
But to totally miss this #McDStories hashtag? One would have to have at least some degree of brainlessness.
Look, I get it… working with social media isn’t the easiest thing. That’s why companies pay people good money to do it. There’s a lot that goes into a successful campaign and there’s plenty of risk when opening yourself up to the internet. It’s far better to think of everything for a campaign before it’s launched rather than having to scramble afterwards.
What ended up being the result of this campaign for McDonald’s? The hashtag was pulled within hours – but not before the story went viral. The #McDStories hashtag still lives on, providing tons of material for those who love sarcasm, laughter, or a combination of the two – and McDonald’s is back at the social media drawing board.
Like countless others in the social media universe, I’ve been using Twitter for years. When I first started using Twitter, my primary goal was to find the best client out there that fit the best with my needs. For me, I found that client to be TweetDeck. I have used it for years and have recommended it to plenty of people. Then… Twitter bought-out TweetDeck, and that is when the dark times began.
In late 2011, Twitter rolled out its new version of TweetDeck for Mac and PC – which came on the same day that Twitter released a new Web UI and a new app for iOS. One good thing about the new Tweetdeck is that it is native (meaning it’s a regular app like Skype or any other software you download to your computer). Until late 2011, TweetDeck was an Adobe Air application, which was buggy at times to say the least. So, yeah, that’s about all the good I can come up with.
When starting up the new TweetDeck, differences from the old app became immediately noticeable. The interface was different, customization abilities went missing and options had disappeared. The app had immediately fallen below the satisfaction level of the original – and now, shockingly, its competitors. There is nothing more frustrating as a technology user than when a developer takes a great piece of software and royally screws it up for no reason.
Welcome to TweetDeck.
In addition to my gripes above, there is much more that’s not to love about the new TweetDeck. Old school Retweets are gone, as the automatically generated “RT” and the person’s name before their tweet has disappeared. You would think that a company like Twitter would realize why certain apps were successes, right? Not the case. Instead, they’ve taken away a classic feature to the dismay of thousands and thousands of users.
Moving on to more bad changes, we get to the lack of screen real estate. I am not a “Twitter hog” by any means, as I only usually use about three to four columns, but there are those out there who use many more. Twitter, via the new TweetDeck, has now made it a nuisance for these people. There is now a max of four columns on your screen with the fifth column displaying a huge arrow to scroll right and see the rest of your columns. Yes… an arrow. Really?
Another thing that made the old TweetDeck so cool was its ease of use. Not many clicks and boom, you got what you wanted. This changed as well. As previously mentioned, just to RT someone has now become a multi-click process. And how about easily adding or removing tweeps from lists? Forget about it.
For those social media “crossovers”, the lack of Facebook, Foursquare, and LinkedIn support in the new TweetDeck is a major issue. Personally, for the most part, I’m very selective about posting to multiple platforms (as I have a future piece that talks about this a little more) – but you get my frustration.
As for where things stand now, I used the new TweetDeck for a few minutes and then went right back to the old version. I’m holding off as long as I can until I’m forced to move on, as I really did love old school TweetDeck. The constant reminder on my screen to upgrade and download TweetDeck (and subsequently ruin my current, older version) is starting to get tiresome. I am now looking at apps like Hootsuite for where I can call my new Twitter home and I’m sure I’ll have to move on sometime in 2012. Way to go, Twitter….