Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

Follow Friday #FF is driving me crazy

Everything Else | Posted by Katie
Apr 13 2012

Is it just me or is the #FF becoming a bit of a joke?  Actually I know its not just me because I have read other people’s blogs about it but today kind of felt like the last straw when allllll day and I mean all day our Twitter stream has been full of random #FF tweets.

I don’t have a problem with a genuine #FF where it states a good reason why I should go and start following this new person, I do have a massive problem when there are reams of tweets #FFing the world and cramming as many Twitter accounts into the one tweet as possible.

Oh and just to continue on with my rant there really is nothing worse that someone RTing the tweet that they were #FF’d in!  And now I sound like an ffing lunatic!

I suppose that one of the reasons I get so angry about it all, apart from the fact it is useless drivel filling up the Twitter stream, is that I probably miss a lot of genuine Follow Fridays because of all this rubbish.  So on one of the blog posts I read recently, whilst over a year old, they did mention trying to start a #RealFF and I would be interested to hear if anyone has used it, been impressed by it and has found new business or contacts through it?

I have to say until this madness calms down I will not be partaking in the #FF love-in, just not my scene and just adds to the nonsense in my opinion that Twitter is kind of leaning towards, you know the thing I’m talking about, where people RT something just because it’s got their name in it – come on, that’s like showing newspaper clippings to random people in the street just because there happened to be a photo of you in it!

So, is it confirmed that I am definitely a grumpy old woman or is anyone else feeling my pain?  Answers on a genuine lack of #FF tagged up tweet please :)

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So you have your social media in place – what now?

Business News | Posted by Katie
Feb 09 2012

So, you’ve got your Twitter account, your regularly posting on Facebook, you’ve uploaded all your photos to Flickr – what now?

Well there is nothing more frustrating for us going to see a customer we have been working with who doesn’t let their customer know that they are on all of these social media platforms.  As we all know, we are now living in an instant gratification world these days thanks to the nearly immediate actions you can take online, so for example if I am sitting in your hotel room with my smart phone and I am loving the tea and coffee making facilities, I may be tempted to talk about you on Facebook with my friends….. now what was your hotel called again?  I put the search in my Facebook on the phone and it gives me 10 different options based on your hotel name and I have no idea which one you are…. right, won’t bother then.  The same applies to Foursquare and to Twitter.

We know that you don’t want to cheapen your look by being on a constant sales drive, but we also know that customers rarely open bedroom folders, or look on the back of menus, or look at your company brochure for this type of information.  You need a simple, cost effective way of getting that kind of information across.  So our ideas are as follows:

  • Tent cards with small icons and your profile name next to them on every table in your business
  • A proper email signature that goes out on absolutely every email you send that includes the icons and your profile name
  • Business cards with all of your contact details, social media icons and profile names rather than a picture of your business logo, scattered about the place or put in an envelope with every mailout you send
  • Anything that electronically leaves your business, i.e your newsletter – make sure you always include the social media icon with your profile name

We used to find ourselves saying all the time, what is the point of having a lovely website if no one finds you on Google?  These days we find ourselves saying, what is the point in setting up all of this social media and making sure you use it if no one knows you are on it?

If you want to find us you can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, view screenshots of our work on Flickr, view our website, and we don’t have a YouTube chanel because us talking about SEO will send you to sleep!

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do you have a moderation switch?

SEO Scotland | Posted by Katie
Feb 07 2012

Listening to Radio5 this morning the call in of the day was entitled something like ‘the Internet ruined by life’… actually what they were focusing on was social media and how people have lost jobs because the photos of the big night out were posted on their profile the day that they called in sick, or pictures on their profiles including pictures of items stolen from the work place – well quite honestly these people are stupid and should know better.  There were of course the extreme examples of lives really ruined by social media and the practices of some horrid people targeting and using social media to bully, however, the upshot of the phone in was basically – think about what you post on the Internet.

We have all read the stories and heard the horrors of privacy on Facebook and of stalking on Twitter but as ever I would like to take a balanced view of social media.  Without social media we would struggle to do our job, businesses would lose that direct contact with customers and on a personal level I would miss being in touch with friends and family across the globe.   However, I would also like to think I have a ‘moderation switch’.

So what is my switch moto ‘if I walked into a room with friends, acquaintances and a smattering of people I don’t know, would I say out loud my status update’?  And as far as privacy and people finding out about you and your personal information, bear in mind – its not just Facebook and Twitter where you are actively sharing your information, think about Google – they know your shopping preferences, your health scares, your celebrity stalking tendencies and don’t forget Tesco and that clubcard you use, oh and your bank account with linked debit and credit cards…. you know that argument of identity cards or not – they already know all that information and it is all accessible for the right price.

In my opinion, and it is just my opinion, use social media with some basic moderation rules and you should be just fine… and if things get out of control or you are being bullied report the people that are doing the bullying, there are so many in built tools especially on Facebook and Twitter so use them!  And my last comment on the subject, if you don’t want people to know anything about you then don’t use the Internet and work on a cash only basis.

Comments gratefully received on our business Facebook page :)

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Is spelling important any more?

SEO Scotland | Posted by Katie
Jul 27 2011

Growing up in the 70s / 80s and the constant words on my school reports were ‘bad spelling, poor concentration’…. luckily the introduction of spell checker solved one issue, the poor concentration I would like to think has improved with age!

So, what is my moan about today?  Well it’s about the lack of care people/businesses take to spelling these days.  I received a request today asking if we would be interested in linking to a blog – I am all for link building where appropriate but to be honest the subject of this blog probably wouldn’t have been appropriate for our website, however, the thing that put me off was that there were 6, yes I said 6, spelling mistakes within the first paragraph of the most recent blog post! (since writing this post I have contacted Skippy the blog writer and he has very graciously allowed me to link to his blog – I am sure the mistakes will be corrected by now though!)

I am aware that we all shorten words on Twitter, Facebook and other similar forms of quick communication – to see texts from my 60+ dad that don’t include any vowels is a joy in itself – but surely if you are creating web copy or blog posts then you have the freedom to revert back to normality and structure sentences properly and use correct spelling.  Or am I alone in this thinking?

Now before you trawl through our web copy or previous blog posts to find a glaring error, I am not for a minute saying we are perfect in any way, but I do use spell check and I do proof read things and I would suggest that the likelihood of finding 6 spelling mistakes within 2 sentences is minimal but I am, as ever, curious to hear people’s opinions on this because I would hate to think I have become old fashioned in my views!

Comments in the Queen’s English gladly received…… that’s i before e except after c, just in case you were wondering!

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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!

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