My Social Media Gift to You
We all have our vices. For some people it is the lure of the casino they cannot resist where others struggle to pull themselves away from the pub. I am no exception to this rule and today I want to come forward and publicly announce that I am addicted to….. Reddit.
Yes, I know. I need to drag myself away from the rage comics, away from the adorable puppies and back towards the real world. I need to take myself outside, enjoy the sunshine and interact with real people. I understand and accept this as true but sometimes taking your own advice is the hardest thing to do.
For those of you that don’t know, Reddit.com is a social news site where users submit links (or questions, stories, interesting information) and other users will vote for the submissions that they like the most. The most popular stories will then rise to the top of the site thus giving us a socially curated news website featuring everything from serious world politics to pictures of cats playing the piano.
And once you’re in… there tends to be no escape.
Reddit provides me with a constant stream of fascinating news stories, political insight, funny links and thought provoking discussion. If I had to choose between Google or Reddit, I’d choose Reddit everyday.
As a social marketer you’d think that I would want to use Reddit to help my clients’ content get found. You’d think that I would want to to play the system, encourage influential users to vote up my submissions and get more hits. Well, actually, I don’t. I like Reddit. I like the community on there and I like how the site works as it is. Trying to game the system results in bad content getting found and I believe if you create good content, people will naturally share it.
Therein lies the key to getting found online. You need to create good content that people will actually benefit your readers. Therefore, my goal in this particular blog entry, is to encourage you to use Reddit by sharing some of my personal Reddit highlights below. Enjoy! I hope to see you on there some time.
Reddit: Five of the best
Outsmarting kids the old-fashioned way
Little known websites that everyone should know about
The whole Google+ subreddit
IAmAn Astronaut. Ask me anything (Q&A with an astronaut)
and for those of you who don’t know… The Reddit 101
Written by Martin Broadhurst
Read MoreTesting out Visual.ly
We tested out the new site for creating infographics today. We compared Mark vs Martin and this is the outcome…
Six ways to spot a fraudulent “social media expert”.
I was talking to a British businessman recently. He’d hired a Florida-based company to manage his social media for him. I asked him how much business he’d got out of it. Nothing, he replied. He had nearly 4000 followers on Twitter and 400 likes on Facebook but no custom at all?
I went through his Twitter followers – his services were aimed at UK businesspeople yet his followers were mostly US based. His insights on his Facebook page told a similar story – half his ‘likes’ had come from the States. He had a Facebook interest group with more than 800 fans – no use to him at all.
It was distressing to hear his story – nobody likes to hear of someone being ripped off – but I don’t imagine he’s alone. It’s easy for self-proclaimed “social media experts” to promise big numbers on businesses’ social media –only for them to deliver nothing. Or social media seminars where the participants get little practical advice despite spending hundreds of pounds to do the course.
So how do you know if a social media trainer or manager really does know what they’re talking about? Here are my six signs to look out for:
1) Do they practise what they preach?
Would you ask someone to fix your car if they’d never done it before? Or get on a bus driven by someone who hadn’t passed their driving test? No. So why trust someone with your social media who has no social media pedigree. Check out how the “expert” uses their social media. 
Are they active on Facebook? Not, do they have a lot of friends, but do they engage with them? Do they have a Facebook business page (and not a group)? Do they tweet several times a day and interact with their followers? Do they have an up-to-date LinkedIn profile? Are they an active member of LinkedIn groups and do they have plenty of recommendations? Do they write a blog?
2) Do they go for quantity over quality?
Just because a “social media expert” has lots of friends/likes/followers/connections, it doesn’t mean they are good at their job. Many “experts” promise they will deliver ‘likes’ but are they actually the ones you want? There’s no point having hundreds of people following your social media presence if they’re never going to buy from you. Ask the “expert” how they are going to encourage people to follow you and tell the “expert” exactly who your target market is.
3) Do their figures stack up?
There are lots of programmes on the internet to help you get followers on Twitter. Or devices that follow people from your account – only to unfollow them if they don’t reciprocate within seven days. You can easily spot these sort of accounts by their follower/following ratio. They are nearly always very high figures – usually in the thousands – and the follower/following figures are pretty similar.
Ask yourself, if the “expert” is telling you social media is about building relationships, how are they managing to build relationships with 3000 people? It’s impossible. Getting followers for the sake of it is just an exercise in ego-boosting. And if their Twitter profile says “I follow back”, ask them why.
4) Do they teach theory over practice?
When you pay hundreds of pounds to attend a workshop on social media, the last thing you want is an hour on theory before you even get going. One “expert” boasted to me it was easy to fill out a day on LinkedIn if you start it with theory first. If you are tempted by such a seminar, ask the “expert” for a list of the day’s contents. Are they relevant to you and your business? Are they using terms you understand? If not, why not? Social media marketing is not full of mystery – it has straightforward methods and techniques which are easily followed.
5) Does it ring true?
Social media marketing is a trendy area to go into. People think there’s lots of money to be had out of it. As a result, lots of companies have added social media marketing onto their services. Online marketing firms, sales and marketing businesses, telesales companies – suddenly, they are “social media experts” as well.
Is that really possible? Can you really be an expert in five areas, all very different, all at the same time? Perhaps they’ve taken on a new member of staff just to look after social media – but if they haven’t, serious questions need to be asked.
6) Are they up-to-date?
Have they got a Google+ account? Have they tried out Facebook video calling? Do they understand SCVNGR? How are they keeping up with all the latest social media changes? Social media is constantly evolving and “social media experts” who don’t read the latest blogs and keep up with the social media news are not doing their job properly. Where is their credibility? Do you really want them helping you with your social media marketing?
So check, check and check again. Don’t be swept along by someone who promises the world in return for lots of your hard-earned cash. And if someone does impress you, ask people who have used their services and check again. Have they really helped make social media work? Don’t become the next victim of the “social media expert”.
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