Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Is social media ruining our grammar?

Everything Else | Posted by Katie
Dec 09 2011

OK I feel another rant coming on….  I have ranted before about spelling and how it portrays your business poorly if you make glaring mistakes, but now I am starting to get completely riled by the shortening of words on social media posts.

Thanks to the 140 character width on Twitter I appreciate that you sometimes have to be a bit canny with the way you word things, but using sum instead of some just is not right and I am here to stand up for the English language!  I can almost (and I mean almost) put up with numbers being used instead of words i.e. 4-for or 2-to/too and 2B-to be or my personal favourite (not) m8-mate but to change words completely so that their meaning makes no sense just makes me shake my head in shame like a grown up adult – who’d have thought it?

So, what has driven me to a blog post like this today, well normally I wouldn’t name and shame, however, as the company in question this morning is a large well known and well respected company I thought I would actually say GLASGOW AIRPORT why oh why are you letting someone write public notices (Twitter posts) for you who clearly has a tenuous grip on the English language?  They are promoting your business and regardless of the fact that this is social media, this doesn’t mean that you can use teenage slang does it m8?  Oh and by the way Glasgow airport – the link to your Twitter profile from the home page of your website doesn’t work – just kind of makes everything even worse!

Text messages are predominantly personal, but a Twitter stream or Facebook page especially for large companies is out there in the public domain and I find it incomprehensible that work is not vetted prior to being published online?  Perhaps I just need to shut up and realise that this is the way things are going, but I hope not.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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People say ‘I don’t get Twitter’ – I don’t blame you!

Business News, Everything Else | Posted by Katie
Jul 11 2011

As far as we at ABS towers are concerned Twitter is a wonderful thing, yes it can be time consuming, frustrating, comical and down right ridiculous sometimes but, from a keeping up with what everyone’s doing point of view it is invaluable.  Oh and yes we have got business from it.  All good reasons in our eyes why being on Twitter is a must for our business.

However, the same can not be said about many people we meet.  Don’t get me wrong, many have embraced Twitter along with Facebook and actively get involved, but you know, after the last week’s worth of tweets from ‘some’ people we have been following, it really is no wonder people don’t get Twitter.

Scenario….. as most of you are aware we live in beautiful Scotland and for the past week or so have been living in a golfers paradise thanks to the golf up at Castle Stuart, which, let me be clear whilst it’s not a million miles away it most definitely is not on our immediate door step and as a neighbour showed us yesterday in order to be there for the golf he had to leave here at 6.30am on a Sunday morning!  However, if you had been watching our Twitter stream you would be excused from thinking we live and work next door to Castle Stuart and actually its not the golf that people have been here for it has been for the wonderful shopping, accommodation, lunches and dinners that they can have #castlestuart #golfopen #golfspecial !

Before I go off into rant mode, I personally don’t have an issue with hanging onto the marketing coat tales of a big event.  What I do have an issue with is blatant advertising made to look like it is a public service, somehow it just seems wrong to me.  In our eyes ramming sales messages down our twitter stream throat is a sure way to make us unfollow.  It also makes us more aware of why people don’t get Twitter.

So we’re asking please…. remember the old example : would you stand in a room full of people you don’t know and without any prompting start shouting out a sales message?  The answer hopefully is no!

Popularity: 10% [?]

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Is Facebook going to the dogs?

Business News, SEO Scotland | Posted by Katie
Jun 21 2011

There has been a lot in the news recently about whether Facebook is on the decline.  The main number being bandied about is that 100,000 users closed their accounts in May 2011 in the UK.  Well in my opinion, these numbers need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Having read an article in This is London – and can I just say thanks to Robin Dalton for pointing me in the direction of this article – in my view there are a lot of people who would just love for Facebook to fail.  However, I dont think FB is going anywhere.  I agree it is going to have to change to keep up with some of the feedback they have been receiving recently, however, in the grand scheme of the FB world is 100,000 user profiles really going to make much difference?  As one person commented on the article, the actual number of users will never be a true figure will it?  Think of all the forgotten profiles, the duplicate profiles, the people ‘still’ using profiles instead of business pages.

Marc Hindley from Canary Dwarf (@canary_dwarf) tweeted recently that he can’t believe that Twitter doesn’t use a 6 month innactive user profile will be deleted policy – I think this is quite right, and in fact more businesses would have more realistic user profile figures if this policy was rolled out across the majority of social platforms.

Ultimately, we will all vote with our feet, or in the case of social media we will vote with our profile deletions… but to all of those people who scream and shout that FB is using their information, is putting in place face recognition software, is changing the way their profiles look, you must remember that you signed up to them and you probably didnt read all the small print – do any of us?

Popularity: 11% [?]

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Personalised Internet, or just letting us see what ‘they’ want us to see?

Business News, Client News, SEO Scotland, Technology | Posted by Gavin
Jun 20 2011

During the course of my daily SEO work I spend a lot of time analysing organic search results, links, search engine results page (SERP’s) extensions etc.  As many people know search engines (Google for example) now display many different types of results within the SERP’s e.g. map/business results, products, images etc. along with paid ads and indented site links – all is getting rather complicated to explain to clients and armchair ‘quizzers’ alike!

Many of my clients query why the search results that they see do not match the results that I am sending them data on or discussing with them on the phone.  It has been mooted for a long time now that the likes of the search giant Google and social media behemoth Facebook display different search results for different people based on the history, topic, frequency, location (and much more) of their search queries – basically these sites that have become part of our everyday online lives are now filtering the results that we see based on information that we are feeding them on a daily basis.

Catching up on some reading, I came across an article that explains this scenario, the current and future state of the Internet with regards to a’personalised Internet’ much better than I ever can … thought provoking stuff.

Should we be scared of the made-to-measure internet? http://bit.ly/lMsMoh

(c) 2011 Guardian Newspapers Limited.

Popularity: 15% [?]

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I need more content! – how to help your customers overcome social media block

Business News, Client News | Posted by Katie
Aug 17 2010

I am sure I am not the only person who has real trouble receiving content to use from customers am I?

You know when you first meet with someone and you explain that all you need is a steady flow of interesting articles or anecdotes or photos etc etc and they are all enthusiastic and raring to go…. well we all know that this flow soon stops and if you are like me you end up sending out emails pleading for content to work with.

Ok, so I don’t have all the answers but I have found a trick that works – simple, effective and helps the social media shy customer or the ‘but everything is boring here’ comments.  I ask the customer once a week minimum to send me an email as if they were writing to a friend and to include such content as:

  • What happened last week
  • Any great guests or customers
  • Any strange requests from guests or customers
  • If they are a restaurant what is their recipe of the week
  • Anything funny happen with you or your staff
  • Is anyone within your company doing anything exciting or for charity
  • What is going on in your local area in the next week

The list could go and on, but as social media is heralded as the ‘friendly’ face of a business a chatty piece of content is great to work with – well that’s what I am finding anyway – for example Boath House – a luxury Scottish hotel.  Don Matheson one of the owners can wax lyrical in a fun way about the pitfalls and joys of running a hotel – if you would like to have a look then go to their Facebook page – oh and become a fan, as it all helps!  If anyone has any other suggestions I would be interested to hear them – always looking for help in this area!

Popularity: 11% [?]

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