This post was inspired by Oprah Winfrey’s (@oprah) lack of tweets on Twitter in the last few days. Oprah joined Twitter during the big race to million followers between Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) and CNN’s Breaking News (@cnnbrk). Oprah tweeted for few days and suddenly stopped. Perhaps she doesn’t need Twitter to stay in touch with millions of fans or is too busy to post updates. Those are just speculations. However, to expand on this thought I decided to compile a list of reasons why people leave a social network soon after joining.
Poor User Experience. When new members have unsatisfactory user experience upon joining a social network this reason alone can make anyone leave. Making it difficult to navigate the site, poor layout, sub-standard graphic design, tedious sign up process are some of the factors that contribute to poor experience.
Not Contacts. One of the main reasons why anyone joins a social network is to connect with people they know or want to get to know. But if there are not enough contacts that new members would like to connect with, they will leave.
No Value. Users expect to receive value from their social network. It will depend from user to user on what they value in a social network. It could be anything from connecting with childhood friends to using the network to find a job or generate business leads.
Existing Memberships. When new users are already members of other social networks they now have to divide their time. New social network would have to fight for new members’ share of activity and attention. If a new network cannot keep new users engaged and active, these members will revert to their existing memberships or devote less time to the new network.
Bait-and-Switch. One of the biggest turn offs is when a new network appears promising all kinds of things from a pipe dream; but when it attracts a big enough membership base it completely switches gears. The social network site operator may alter the terms of agreement, spam the users, push sales of unrelated items or services or sell your data, just to name a few.
Lack of Transparency. When a social network fails to disclose what it intends to do with user data and keeps everything else a mystery raises flags among users. Consequently, users acquisition and retention drops.
Lack of Privacy Controls. Lack of these controls also raises suspicions as much as lack of transperancy. Users want the ability to control who gets to see their profiles. Social networks that do not implement these are doomed to fail.
Hype is Over. Like Oprah, some users join a network due to hype on impulse. Then they disengage from the social network as soon as the hype is over. Social network needs to find a way to live up to the hype and find ways to retain members and their level of engagement.
Technical Difficulties. A nightmare for any social network operator, are the technical difficulties. When a social network is plagued with downtime and errors user will move onto something else. In a real world, if a product doesn’t work a customer will return it for a refund. In an online world, if a social network service doesn’t work, users will leave.
Lack of Engagement. A social network must provide the tools necessary to facilitate engagement among users. Building a site where users just list their bios and favorite movies for example can’t be called a social network. Give them tools to interact with one another such ability to share pictures, post notes, create groups, and so on.
With an upcoming release of the 4th installment of Terminator movie franchise, Terminator Salvation is stepping up its online viral campaign. Terminator Salvation infiltrates a number of online properties and deploys various web marketing tactics to spread the word, promote and generate buzz about the upcoming movie which lands in theatres starting May 22, 2009.
Official Warner Bros. Terminator Salvation Website has information about the film, latest trailers, desktop wallpapers, photo galleries and more. Tribute.ca has also created its own version of Warner Bros. site. Official Sony Pictures Terminator Salvation Website contains similar content and links as Warner Bros. site, except Sony site looks and feel much different. Terminator fans can also play Terminator Salvation Game online against other human fans. Choose a side (Resistence or Skynet) and eliminate your opponents.
Skynet Research is a viral marketing website. The ‘official’ website of fictional company that originally developed robotics technology to improve the lives of humans but in the future it becomes self-aware and wages war on humans with its army of Terminators. The goal of this site is to engage Terminator fans by way of user generated content. Fans can submit their robot designs and videos. Skynet Research also has a Facebook Fan page. Another component of the viral campaign is anti-skynet movement located at resistorbeterminated.com Fans can join the resistence here, engage in community forums and learn tactics.
Terminateyourself.com is another viral marketing website. On this site users can submit pictures (mug shots) of themselves; then images can be altered to look like damaged Terminators. Users can share the results with friends or use the picture as a profile image on social networks.
Terminator Salvation is also present on popular social networks. On Flickr, Skynet Research account showcases user generated robot designs submitted to Skynet. Youtube also showcases user generated videos submitted to Skynet Research. Show your love for the movie by becoming an official fan on Facebook Terminator Salvation page. And finally, fans can follow Terminator Salvation on Twitter.
My mom used to say, ‘if you don’t have anything positive to say, then don’t say anything.’ I bet your mom used to tell you same thing. Even if you were born and raised in a different country and culture, the proverb rings true across the globe. A social media equivalent is, ‘if you don’t have anything genuine to say, don’t participate.’ However, some marketers have forgotten mother’s wise words. In a span of just two weeks two companies have been caught running unethical marketing practices. The guilty parties are Belkin, a company rep got caught paying users to submit positive product reviews; and the other is Cummins Nitro and their fake Tourism Queensland video application for the best job in the world.
There was absolutely no point for Belkin to falsify customer testimonials because Belkin actually does make great products. What were they trying to achieve? It was actually to get higher ratings for one of their routers, Belkin F5U301. The right thing to do would have been to go to their customers, and find how to improve the product. With a power of social media this feat can be easily accomplished. Not only would they get support and trust, but also engage their customer base in a genuine conversation. As for the fake video for Tourism Queensland, the job offer was awesome enough to cut through the online media clutter. Although, an example video application is a great idea, but the PR firm and Tourism Queensland should have been more transparent. I don’t think that making a fake video actually boosted publicity for Tourism Queensland. The only thing that both firms gained was public mistrust and scrutiny.
Let this be a lesson to anyone who wishes to engage in social media conversations. You must be genuine and actually contribute to the conversation, if you cannot do that then do not participate.
Seems like everyone these days is a Social Media Guru, Maven, Ninja or [insert new age hipster type of descriptive term here]. I am not intending to single out anyone but I am sure many of you have come across someone who claimed to be a Social Networking or Social Marketing or a Social Media expert, but later to learn that they’re complete fakes. Just because someone joins every single social network under the sun does not make them an instant expert in the space. Experts understand their clients’ goals. Experts are able to execute the strategy. Experts deliver measurable results. Having a deep knowledge, enrolment and familiarity with various social networks only puts you at par with everyone else. It is how you use your knowledge and experience that will put you ahead of the pack.
Not so long ago I made a couple of posts about Twitter and its lack relevance to me. I initially thought that only slackers and internet addicts would use it to tweet randomly about what they’re doing that exact minute. However, I am beginning to warm up to the service. I actually like it. The member base has grown significantly in the last few months and there are enough people who actually tweet relevant content that I can use instantly or explore it at a later time. Being a marketer and having high interest in digital space and emerging media, AND a trendwatching junkie I am starting to see a real value in Twitter. I am slowly but steadily building my own community and following people who share similar interests with me, are active, and have something to contribute.
The first part of the series Leveraging Twitter, I acknowledged that I lacked experience with Twitter. However, I am quite familiar with the service since I’ve been following the developments of it for some time. After writing part one, I immediately signed up for the service for more research to see if there’s something there that I already didn’t know about. To my disappointment, I didn’t find anything all that fun and exciting. I still don’t see myself Twitting anytime soon.
As mentioned in part one, Twitter would benefit most to those who are looking to build a fan base or a following. Musicians and bands can greatly benefit from this micro-blogging service. It allows the acts to build a sense of an exclusive community and develop close and almost personal relationships with their fans. Being a music fan, I constantly visit my favorite bands web sites for updates on tour dates, album releasing, special appearances, etc. Taking it a step further, bands can use Twitter to instantly send updates to their followers/fans about:
- Recent site updates
- Tour dates
- Band related news
- New releases
- Recording progress
- Special appearances
- Announce secret shows
… and to make it more personal bands should keep their fans updated with the life on the road, the books they’re reading, current sources of inspiration and so on.
These days every entertainment outlet is competing for our limited attention spans and our limited disposable incomes. Thus, musicians and bands need to synergistically utilize every tool available to them to gain an edge in developing and maintaining solid fan bases to keep their own careers alive.
I was inspired to write an opinion piece on Twitter by a friend, who asked what I thought of Twitter. I’d be the first to admit that I have not used Twitter. However, I am keen to point out that I am very familiar with the service. I’ve been following Twitter’s development, launch and mass adoption since its inception. Twitter came to my attention in early of 2007, (the source of Twitter discovery escapes my memory) but I never gave much thought to it. In the recent months it’s been gaining a great deal of momentum. Almost on daily basis there is an article about Twitter; covering every topic from how twitter can be monetized to server and services issues.
I was more interested in reading about Twitter than using it. There are reasons why I have not used it, or saw the need to. Using Twitter is like being in a band… you need to build a fan base before Twitter has any value to you.
To build a fan-base, or in Twitter terms, the followers, you need to:
- Twit frequently
- Have something meaningful to say
- Get your friends to start following you before the masses do
The reason why I don’t use Twitter is for the same reasons above and more:
- I would not have enough time and lack dedication to Twit frequently enough
- The things I do would probably not be interesting enough for other people to know about, which leads me to the next point
- My followers would probably get annoyed if I post about the color of my socks today
- I do enjoy a certain sense of privacy
Although I am not about to start using Twitter, but I think Twitter would benefit public figures most. Bands, artists, celebrities, politicians, brands, and so on. Twitter can be monetized (an often discussed topic on blogs) by leveraging public figures, who rely on fan base and audiences to be successful.
In Part 2 I will discuss how public figures can leverage Twitter.
