People Behaving Badly on Social Media

Hate speech. We see these words flash by in news headlines a lot these days. Far from the maddening crowds chanting these words as a form of protest or as reactionary behavior, we see hateful words play out as status updates and comments to news articles on social media.  What happened to civilized discourse?  When did we as an American people decide that it is more important to sway someone to our way of thinking vs. being champions for freedom of thought?  What happened to respectfully disagreeing with someone vs. bullying them to a digital pulp?

Many commentators portray themselves in a negative light with their biting words and adversely affect public opinion of their personal brand.  Either they are incredibly naïve with regard to how social media works or they simply don’t care. I suppose that some would suggest a third option: that they are just plain stupid.

I really can’t imagine that in-person social discourse would lead to the hate speech and bullying comments that I see posted online.  A screen gives people the power to say things that they normally wouldn’t say in public:  a type of virtual courage.  These statements are attached to identifiable data: a name, a face, a location, and any other public information that is shared on individual profiles and gives the reader the ability to find out more about this vocal commentator.

We hear you.

We see you.

We know who you are.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we could leave the vitriol behind, stop trying to convert everyone to our way of thinking, and follow the simple golden rule of treating others the way we would want to be treated?

What do you think? I really want to know.

Communicating With Your College Student in the Digital Age

Once upon a time fully-loaded family station wagons deposited fresh-faced first year students on the steps of their new college home.  After a quick hug, maybe a photo on their 35mm camera, and a couple of tears, mom and dad drove off into the quickening sunset.  Except for the occasional pay-phone or in-room call, communication ceased until the first big holiday break.  Junior went on to acclimate to his new surroundings and make life-changing decisions on his own (Do I drop Calc I?  Should I sign up for alternative spring break?). Parents went on to adjust to being empty nesters or devote more attention to the ones still left in the nest.

Today’s social-media infused world leaves contemporary parents with a completely different set of circumstances.  No longer do we have huge absences in quality communication, but we can speak with our kids easily at any time and watch their lives unfold in real time on Instagram and Twitter.

I personally traveled 500 miles away to attend a Jesuit university in the Midwest.  It was a rare occasion for me to have any direct communication with my family.  The ability to call was always there, but the need was not a pressing one.  My peer group was of the belief that we were independently taking care of business for ourselves.  Today, the 18 year old who told me at the close of Family Orientation that she would not be calling us, has maintained a pretty strong connection via iPhone calls,  DMs on Twitter, Facebook comments, and Instagram tags.  I guess you would say we have a pretty close connection if she actually tags me on Instagram.  We have learned of her test grades as she is walking back from the professor’s office; found out about her selection as a student ambassador for the school via FaceTime, and have seen super-magnified slide photos of the fruit fly brain research she was working on via text.

While social media has maintained a window into her world, it is has been purely just that: a window.  We have let her initiate communication with us and celebrate her successes while keeping the conversation/Face-Time, Texting, etc. short.  Where social media broke through the looking glass of voyeurism and transformed into a crucial assist was when she was stranded in the airport of one of largest cities in the U.S.

She had her cell phone, and despite existing on low battery, was able to plug into one of the powering stations in the terminal. She called to let me know her situation, and I immediately left my business lunch to get in front of a screen larger than my cell phone to figure out how to get her from point A to point B in the midst of a major storm.  I could easily check websites for airlines, trains, busses and taxis as well as be in communication with her school, all while keeping her on the line.  In the end we figured it out.  She took the first cab ride of her life on a 2+hr trip with a driver who spoke very little English.  I crossed my fingers and hoped she would arrive in the right place.  She did.

Photo of FaceTime session

Times have surely changed in terms of parent-college student communications and I for one think that could be a good thing.  I guess we can say that the closing of the SUV hatch does not signify the end of the relationship.

Speaking from the sociological side of social media- Cheers to you!

Michelle

People Behaving Badly

Monday, April 6, 2015
The photo is shot from the Great American Tower at Queen City Square.
The Enquirer/ Liz Dufour

Like it or not, we live in an era where our private and public conversations can become instant fodder for the media monsters. Our thoughts, whether consciously or unconsciously spoken, are ingested and churned out into a multitude of managed social media platforms and carried along by the viral river of instant sharing.

Two recent examples of people who “went off” in public with the cameras rolling are Cincinnati Reds Manager, Bryan Price and Nancy Gordeuk,  the Principal of TNT Academy in Lilburn, Georgia.  I would imagine that both are very familiar with the media and the repercussions that could occur if their words were to become ‘the shot heard round the internet’. Despite this awareness, their innate behavior reared its head and plunged them forward.

Reds Manager, Bryan Price erupted in a series of F-bombs as he shared his frustration with media leaks about his team.  Ms. Gordeuk  lost her cool and reverted to racist speech, “Look who’s leaving … all the black people”, after forgetting the Valedictory address and dealing with families who did not want to remain after the graduation ceremony was completed to hear the speech. In the school situation, I get the impression that the principal is inherently racist and losing her cool allowed those private thoughts to bubble up into public words and actions.  You can watch the video and judge for yourself.

No matter whether these were personality aberrations or part of Mr. Price and Ms. Gordeuk’s  regular behavior patterns, their words were captured for all to hear and make judgment upon their personal brands. Everyone should follow good reputation management principles to monitor their brand and be aware of how they will be perceived. With apps like Periscope, tweeting live streaming video and sound recording devices like Kapture, memorializing our words in bite-size segments, one just might go viral without a marketing plan. Better make sure the product is a good one or you may end up stating “the devil made me do it” on national media.

You can find more information on social media here.

Mea Culpa & Sociological Side of Social Media

My sincerest apologies for letting this blog lay shuttered and gathering dust for such a long time.  As many business owners know (especially service providers), the first order of operations is to serve your clients. Unfortunately, I have been extremely busy at C3. Creating Connections Consulting, LLC assisting some amazing businesses in tightening up their social media marketing strategy; creating new training materials for our workshop series,  staying on top of the latest in the digital industry; and doing the occasional speaking gig. Throw in life and I had very little time for writing.

I have to be honest, this truly pained me. I am a writer at a heart and have been at the practice since I could hold one of those large yellow pencils and put words to lined paper as a kid. I have been published in several magazines and news stories and am a co-author of a social media book.  Once upon a time I was writing for four different blogs and working on a suspense novel.

I’m carving out time into my schedule to return to this practice that I have loved so much. I hope to continue to share my personal perspective on all things digital here in this space. If you are looking for more hard-hitting posts on social media best practices, you can find them on my C3 Blog here.  This space is for me to examine digital through my eyes and to view the world through the sociological side of social media that we are all living through.

I’m so glad to be back!

Where did all the Facebook Page Fans go?

84% of your Facebook Fans Won’t See Your Page Posts

Facebook made a major move to increase revenue recently with Promoted Posts (not the same as a Facebook ad).  If you have a Facebook Page for your business, you may have noticed that your Page stats (number of new fans, reach and frequency, etc) have been edging southward.  For example, a typical Page post might have garnered a couple of hundred views on a fan base of 800 with a moderately engaged audience and above-average content several months ago.  That same Page is seeing reach numbers in the double digits (i.e. 63 views).

I just completed a Facebook Page Promoted Posts test in which I updated the same post about an upcoming C3 LinkedIn Training class as a regular post and as a Promoted post. I found a major difference in organic and viral reach with the paid post (much higher!).  In fact, the Promoted Post (a mere $5 outlay) brought in 851% more total views than the non-promoted post with identical content.  I had zero viral reach for the non-promoted post, only organic (original) Page fans, while the Promoted post had several hundred viral viewers.  (Check this out for information on the difference between organic, viral and paid reach.)  Post analytics will also point out how many of the views were paid views.  It’s interesting that my organic views (original fans) were much higher than the non-promoted organic views for the post, emphasizing the point that Facebook adjusted the Edgerank algorithm to allow more of my current fan base to see the post in their news feed as when the post was not promoted.

It’s really too bad that Page owners won’t be able to use Edgerank to drive frequency and reach with engaging content as they could prior to FB’s current quest to drive monetization.

I think this will have a huge effect on small businesses. Every business, regardless of size, will need to set aside part of their marketing budget to allocate to Facebook advertising or risk having only 16% of their user base see posts shared by the Page.

If this sounds like Farsi to you, then perhaps a Facebook Page Marketing consult should be in your future.  We are happy to get your business/organization up to speed on the recent changes to Facebook Page Marketing.  Just contact us here.

Yours in social,

Michelle Beckham-Corbin

President of C3. Creating Connections Consulting, LLC

C3 Facebook Page

www.CreatingConnectionsConsulting.com

TEDxXavierUniversity 2012

TEDxXavierUniversity

MC Intro for today’s TEDxXavier University Event:

I’m very excited to be here this afternoon for a number of reasons. First, I truly believe in today’s theme of touching the hearts and minds of others through innovation, service and leadership and passionately making a difference in the world. Secondly, it is my sincere privilege to be back on campus as a double Xavier alum and passionate supporter of the University. It was here as a pre-med and psychology undergrad that I first learned the Jesuit ideals of leadership, the pursuit of excellence and commitment to service that would later define my career at Procter & Gamble, my work with community organizations and my path to entrepreneurship with the founding of a local social media marketing consulting firm.

Take a moment to look around at the people sitting to your left and right. You all have the ability to inspire change. We organized this event because we know that YOU are the key to positive change and making a difference. This event is about all of you seated here. You have the ability to touch the hearts and minds of others. We are inspired by you and what WE can collectively accomplish as a result of this event.

 To help share the learning and exchange of ideas today, please use the hashtag #TEDxXavierU while tweeting and for tagging photos on Flickr or video uploads to YouTube. Part of the fun with TED is sharing your ideas in real time and we encourage you to tweet from your smart phones and iPads during the talks.

1 Day

9 Speakers

400 Seeds for Change Planted

LET’S GET THE PARTY STARTED!

*****************************************

Radio interview of me speaking with WNKU reporter Cheri Lawson about the event, which is the first TEDx Event ever to be 100% student-initiated and student-led. Listen to Interview.

I have been so impressed with the leadership team of Lyden Foust, Michael Farwell, Nick Turon and Sean Kallmeyer.  They have bright futures ahead!

Student Leadership Team for TEDxXavierUniversity- 2012. Photo via Nick Turon on TEDxXavierUniversity Facebook age

Social Networking: What is Your Privacy Worth? One Cincinnati Facebook Father Finds Out

Slide from C3 Online Safety Seminar Cincinnati

I am appalled at the recent attacks on our privacy rights. From the Cincinnati divorced dad who spoke out against his wife’s actions on Facebook in “Friends” mode with the ex blocked from seeing any of his Facebook actions and was later court-ordered to publicly apologize for a month on his Wall or go to jail to the recent reports of companies who are requiring recruits to hand over their social network logins and passwords.  As many know, I am a huge proponent for reputation management and teaching social networking users that anything they put out there may become fodder for the world despite iron clad privacy settings. Despite having squeaky clean content, I believe that NO ONE has the right to demand or seize access to my content without my permission.

A company doesn’t have the right to look at the portions of my Facebook profile that are not accessible via public view.  They should not have access to photos of my children, family relationships, statements on my Wall made by  friends or family members or my “private” thoughts.  I listened to Mark Byron, who will probably go down in history as  “The Facebook Dad”, being interviewed on WLW radio yesterday as he shared the full story of what transpired in his case.  You can read his story here.  Mark concludes the interview by stating that in his estimation, the issue is that the magistrate handling the case lacked an understanding of just how Facebook works.

My company, C3. Creating Connections Consulting, LLC  provides social media training for area businesses and organizations, and I intimately know the inner workings of social networking sites like Facebook.  It is because of this professional knowledge, that I have created reputation management and social networking safety programs for area colleges, high schools and parenting groups.  What I have found over the years, is that many people do not have a full understanding of how these platforms work, how to adjust privacy settings or even that some of the applications that they integrate into their social networking site (i.e Farmville, Zynga games, contests, etc.) retain access to their private information regardless of their privacy settings.

Slide from C3 Online Safety/Reputation Management Seminar Cincinnati

Facebook changes constantly and at times seemingly on a whim.  This makes it very difficult for the passive user or even the non-user who has responsibility for those who do (parents, teachers, etc.) to keep up with potential changes that might open up personal profile information to the public.  We are not living in a world where once something has been downloaded, installed, or added to our devices we can sit back and assume that it will remain the same.  We need to check for changes on a regular basis (I suggest monthly) and read the TOS (Terms of Service) agreement like we are studying for our driver’s exam.

Both of these cases/stories have huge implications for privacy protection and freedom of speech in the United States.

What do you think?

 

Explaining Pinterest to the Uninitiated: by Mackenzie Corbin, Guest Blogger

Guest Blog:

What is Pinterest?

Mackenzie's Pinterest

Pinterest is an online pinboard that allows people to organize collections of pictures by their respective categories. The three main concepts on Pinterest are repinning, liking, and commenting.  When you repin a picture from another user’s pictures, it goes onto your own boards. The point of Pinterest is to have many different boards in all different categories, for example one might have a board for all fashion and clothes pictures, or a board of beautifully photographed flowers. Then, when you click on a picture on the dashboard of Pinterest it allows you to repin it. Simply click on the board you would like the pin to go onto! You can also name each of your categorized boards, for example a wedding planner might have multiple boards all under the category of wedding, but one would be for dresses, one for food, and one for décor.

To actually obtain these pictures to repin you must follow other users of Pinterest. When you create an account (after being sent an invite by a previous user or being on the waiting list from the company) Pinterest automatically connects your account with your Facebook friends who use Pinterest or with other famous users who have boards that mirror your interests. This easy set up allows you to start pinning right away! Another way of posting pictures is by downloading the pinterest toolbar button which installs on your internet browser. It allows a user to click on the button when they see a picture of anything they like on any website and capture the image and upload it on their boards. Finally, to post original work users can simply upload their own pictures from their desktops.

Example of a Public Pinterest Board

Who uses it?

People from high school-aged to those in the work force use Pinterest in different ways. Teenagers can use the online bulletin boards to have collections of perhaps possible furniture to put in their college dorms to maximize space, or a board of inspirational quotes to start out their day, or a board of yummy recipes to try out. People in the business world can use Pinterest to actually sell their products! This is an efficient way to make their brand known because the more repins on their pictures, the more “SEO (search engine optimization) juice” they get on Pinterest which allows more people to see their product. Repins always link back to the original person who uploaded the picture. Interior designers can use Pinterest to see how different color schemes work in different rooms with furniture, or architectures can lay out all their floor plans.

Pinterest is a great way to visually promote businesses as well as being a fun and unique way of blogging for those interested in photography.

Feel free to check out my Pinterest here!

By Mackenzie Corbin

Mackenzie is a Sophomore Honors student at St. Ursula Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio. She enjoys writing, theater, volunteering for social justice causes and plays Field Hockey and Lacrosse for the St. Ursula Bulldogs.  She plans on majoring in Bio-Medical Engineering in college.

Mackenzie Corbin

Managing Online Communities

Community- image credit: Michelle Beckham

Connecting with people is my passion and always has been (hence the name of my company) and it always amazes me when businesses are apprehensive about connecting with their online communities.  I see this many times through the Facebook Page Marketing workshops that I teach in the Cincinnati area. Page administrators are a bit nervous to engage in conversations for fear that something may come up that they can’t handle.

A business owner in my most recent workshop asked if he should immediately delete negative comments posted to the wall of his retail company page.  My immediate answer was NO! One needs to step back and think about how they would handle the situation if the patron was at their place of business. The disgruntled customer would not be ignored or dismissed; instead, store personnel would ignite customer service 101 principles and handle the situation appropriately. This is the same thing with Facebook. A negative comment is a chance to put customer service into effect and to handle the situation publicly so that others can see how you operate.  Chances are the comment will have hit news feeds and the cloud before you can delete it anyway, and then you are left with a negative image that you will have to deal with later.

The exception to dealing with these types of comments in a professional and customer service oriented way is if the comments are clearly put out there by “trolls” . A troll is defined by Wikipedia as:

“..someone who posts inflammatory,^[2]extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response^[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.”

Troll comments should be deleted and the Page admin can still make some statements to the community to explain why the action was taken. Might even be a great time to set up some community Page rules and post them in the Notes Tab in order to stay static or if your budget allows, create a custom Tab where your rules will be prominently seen under your Page Profile Pic or Banner. Coca Cola does a great job of posting their “House Rules” as a custom Tab. Take a look here. C3 makes custom tabs at reasonable prices. Check our website for more information.

The goal to having an online presence should be connecting with your customers and potential customers by creating signature experiences and opportunities for needed content that only you can provide. There certainly is a lot that goes into managing a Facebook Page and its corresponding online community, but once an administrator receives training on how to  effectively market the Page and build a following, then a little advice from community managers who are rocking it out online would certainly be helpful.

I happened to stumble upon this great FREE eBook on Google+ (thanks Mike Alber for posting). It shares 60 tips from community managers across the globe that can help you to be effective with your online engagement. The eBook was created by Blaise Grimes-Viort and appeared in this blog post.  Blaise states:

“If you enjoy it, please feel free to share it with someone else you think would benefit from the pearls of Community Management wisdom found within.”

So in the spirit of sharing great work, here it is (click on image or link below):

eBook created by Blaise Grimes-Viort- photo credit: Blaise Grimes-Viort

60 Insights From Experienced Community Managers

Enjoy!

Michelle Beckham-Corbin

Social Media Strategist

World of Mouth Begins With Personal Circles

Small business owners do a worthy job in connecting with clients and potential customers through their marketing efforts, but where they can fall short is when their personal networks are neglected. Many people find it uncomfortable to keep their friends and family in the loop of what is occurring with their business.  There is a sense that if you are already in my inner circle, you must certainly know what it is that my company does or what my role is. Unfortunately osmosis and transfer of information does not occur and very few people have clairvoyant capabilities.

Recently I have had several encounters with friends and professional colleagues, who while knowing what I do in general, really were rather clueless in terms of the full services that my company provides and the depth of my experience and background. I preach to clients constantly that we are living in a “World of Mouth” universe; it only makes sense that I practice what I preach by updating my personal network on my company capabilities. To do anything less, would be counter to what I believe and that is that peer recommendations from trusted sources are key influencers to purchase behavior.

In the spirit of sharing, please find the latest C3 Newsletter below. It contains an article that talks about the heart of C3 and our social media marketing services.  I plan to have monthly Open House sessions on Google+ Hangouts for people to stop by and chat about burning social media and business questions. Stay tuned for more information!

C3 Services- Click on image for full newsletter.

Until we meet again, stay happy & healthy!

Michelle

Chief Social Media Strategist and Founder of C3: Creating Connections Consulting, LLC
Procter & Gamble Sales & Marketing Veteran (15 yrs)
Xavier University, MBA