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Five facts about social media…

A while ago, I gave a TEDx talk about social media. Well, more specifically about how social media can connect rural communities and how it’s a force for good. I know, quite a wordy title. Part of my talk was social media stats. I felt this was an important if not essential part. Why? Well, I hear so many people say that Facebook is ‘dead’, or that no one uses social media anymore. Argh. It’s rubbish. We know this, but when you throw a few current stats at it, you realise how rubbish it is. So I thought I would share five facts about social media that I think are kind of mind-blowing… and the reason I think they’re incredible too. I have this thing that numbers are great, but adding a visual element is better. You’ll see what I mean…

Five facts about social media that you’ll want to remember…

Facebook is INCREDIBLE. Over 2.8 billion people are monthly active users of Facebook and 1.84 billion people use it each day – according to Facebook’s own stats. When you consider that there are around 7.6 billion people on the planet, this makes it even more incredible… don’t you think?

Twitter is seen as a much smaller platform- because it is (let’s be honest), with an ‘advertising audience’ of around 356 million, it is. That number, however, is still pretty huge. And it’s also very funny that, whenever Facebook or Instagram have a wobble, everyone heads to Twitter to see if it’s ‘just them’ or if, indeed, the platforms are down!

Heard of the six degrees of separation? No? Well don’t worry too much… it’s a lot smaller now! According to Facebook’s own research, there’s not just 3.57 degrees of separation connecting everyone who uses Facebook. This was in 2016 for Friends Day, so the chances are it’s even smaller now!

Instagram has one billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active users. 500 million. Each day. On a platform that started in October 2010.

…and you know Instagram Stories? Some 500 million people use Stories EACH DAY too. 

So yes, I make no secret of the fact that I am a huge fan of social media. I find it incredible how many people we can connect to through it and the features it has. I mean, it’s amazing. I know it gets a bashing from time to time, but just look. Look at the potential it has. The potential for good. The potential for business. To me, that’s something that is very, very exciting and worth talking about. You can find a LOT more mind blowing stats about social media online… this just just a snapshot…

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Why I love… Twitter

Why I love TwitterYes, today it’s a big one – why I love Twitter… and why you might love it too… even if this love for Twitter has eluded you before!

What’s Twitter? And why should you care?

Well, I am sure you know what it is, but just to recap, it’s a micro-blogging social media platform. There are a few things that make Twitter different. The first is the length of the posts or updates. They’re limited. And limited to 280 characters (although it used to be 140). You might think you can’t say anything in that many characters, but you’d be surprised. It teaches you to be concise. Anyway, there are other differences too. The Twitter algorithm is different to Facebook, although it isn’t quite what it used to be. Historically, your timeline was a very very fast moving feed that was more chronological than anything else. This was great in some ways, but there was the possibility of missing tweets from your favourite people, and that’s what the Twitter algorithm aims to avoid. This shouldn’t happen as much now. Which has got to be good. Well, I think it is. Personally, I have noticed the changes on Twitter, but I haven’t felt it’s hindered my user experience. But maybe that’s just me?

I should say that, quite off piste, that I do have a bit of a thing about when social media networks announce changes in the algorithm. You know everyone goes into a panic, creates really naff blog posts and content about how Facebook is screwing us over, or Instagram has turned into the devil? Yeah. I like to wait and see. And even then I know it’s a borrowed platform, by which I mean I don’t own it. So I can’t control it. I just need to work with what I have. But that’s a whole different blog…

Why do I like Twitter?

I like Twitter. Yep. I said it. I recently asked my followers on Facebook and Instagram whether they preferred Twitter or Facebook. And Facebook won hands down. But the people who came forward and said they preferred Twitter did really love it. I like it because I enjoy the chatter and the fast moving pace, and I really like the conversation. Unlike Facebook, I think Twitter is ALL about the chat. The tooing and froing. The chatter. With Facebook you make a statement and then address comments (in general), but with Twitter, you can say something and that can lead to more of a chat. I also like the hashtag function. You want to see what’s going on in the Great British Bake Off (I know it’s finished!), you type in the hashtag and you can see and join in the conversation. In some ways it’s higher maintenance than Facebook or Instagram, but it’s a lot more interactive and a lot more friendly. I also think that, as I’ve been on Twitter for so long, I kind of love it. Like a jumper I’ve had forever.

From a business point of view, I have made really good connections through it, responded to the #journorequest hashtag and been featured on various websites, and I have also got clients and work through Twitter. But these things don’t happen overnight. they take time.

Why should you like Twitter?

To be honest, you don’t have to, and that’s fine. At this stage, Snapchat isn’t my favourite platform. And that doesn’t bother me, it’s just the truth. I’m not saying it’s a bad platform but it’s not my favourite. I understand it and I’m on it, but others have a bigger space in my social media heart. You might feel the same way about Twitter. And that’s fine. However, if you fancy giving it a go, then you might just love it. Here are a few tips…

  • Get yourself an account – it’s free
  • If you have a business, do your best to make sure your Twitter name is the same (or as close to the same) as your other social media profiles
  • Follow some people you’re interested in. These might be celebs, websites, magazines, friends, etc. And it’ll help you find some people you might like to follow too.
  • Get involved. Respond to people’s comments, put your own tweets out there, share some pics.
  • Give it time. If you’re serious about Twitter, give it time. It gets more interesting as your following grows, you get the hang of it, and the more really interesting people you follow.
  • Search by hashtags. This will help you find content that might be of interest to you. #horsebloggers is a great one for equestrians, as is #247equestrian, but events and shows also have their own hashtags you can follow and participate in.

And, if you’d like to get more involved and are looking to follow some people, then you can find my Twitter profile here. 

 

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Does context matter on your social media content?

Does context matter on social media?Does context matter when it comes to your social media content? It’s something that I am constantly aware of, but a post I saw on Instagram last week prompted me to blog.

So, what do I mean? Context?

In this blog, I’m looking at the platforms and the way they work – so we’re thinking about Twitter’s 140 character limit – the ‘stuff’ that makes a platform the platform. Now, any social media user will know that all the platforms have their own style and their own limits. We have the retweet on Twitter, for example, that allows you to share other people’s content with your followers, but you can’t retweet on Facebook, you share. And you can’t share on Instagram, you repost. See what I mean?

Does context matter then?

Yes. The example I saw that inspired me to write this blog (and made me revisit the importance of this) was a competition on Instagram. Instagram is a highly visual platform, as we all know, and this competition graphic was, well, underwhelming. White background, common font, pixelated. Ugh. That annoyed me for starters. But you know what annoyed me more? The word share. Like and share. Now, this annoyed me on a number of different levels…

  1. The graphic had clearly been used on Facebook as that’s where ‘sharing’ works
  2. The graphic was rubbish and shouldn’t have generated much interest on Facebook either
  3. The competition was using liking and sharing as an entry mechanism. And having sharing as an entry mechanism breaks Facebook rules.

The last one is a REAL bug bear or mine, but let’s get back to the actual theme of the blog…

The graphic asked people to like and share to enter. How on earth can you do that on Instagram? You can’t. Saying this shows a lack of understanding for the platform and a lack of care. Context matters. It’s frustrating when someone posts competitions and even content that doesn’t fit a platform’s parameters. And there’s no need for it. If you’re doing it to ‘save time’, just don’t. Some content can be shared across platforms, I get that, but if it doesn’t look native, just don’t. It’s better not to bother. Please. Context matters. You could have killer content, but if they context is out, it just doesn’t work.

What do you think? Does context matter to you?

What do you think? Have you see requests for a share on Instagram? A repost on Facebook? How did it make you feel?

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What’s a hashtag (and should you care?)

What's a hashtag?Hashtags are a big deal on social media and they’re something that you should be prepared to embrace if you want to be found. But what exactly are they and can you use them everywhere? Here’s a starter guide to hashtags. Well, #hereswhatithink

What is a hashtag?

A hashtag is a word or phrase that begins with a #. It’s just a normal word (or a few words), but that’s in front of it. There’s no witchcraft or wizardry about it. Honest.

Why are they used?

Hashtags are used, mainly, as a search mechanism, to help content be discovered on Twitter and Instagram predominantly, although some people do also use them on Facebook too (although there’s a lot of articles suggesting that on Facebook the search doesn’t really work with hashtags and it can actually lower engagement, but that’s a blog for another day!). The main platforms and the ones I’m focussing on here when it comes to the good old hashtag are Twitter and Instagram. Both work slightly differently.

Hashtags on Twitter

I believe that Twitter was the first platform to embrace the hashtag fully but, with only 140 characters to play with, use of the hashtag on Twitter has always been fairly limited. And that’s fine because that’s how the platform works. It’s generally accepted that one or two hashtags is the limit – too many and it turns people off. And you don’t want that. If you’ve gone to the effort to use a hashtag so your content is more discoverable, you don’t want people to find your tweet and move on, do you?

Hashtags on Instagram

Instagram is different to Twitter in that you can have up to 30 hashtags, and many people use them all. Using all your hashtags mean that you have more chances of your content being found, but by separating your copy with a few dashes to create space between your caption and your hashtags, or putting your hashtags as the first comment, you’re not overwhelming people.

Tips for using hashtags

  • Always keep them relevant – don’t say your content is about #chocolate if it’s about #spacetravel
  • Check them – sometimes when you combine words together to make a hashtag, the message isn’t quite the one you wanted. There was a brilliant example of this with a hashtag connected to Susan Boyle. Not good.
  • Don’t just use them for the sake of it. Yes, you can use 30 hashtags on Instagram, but you don’t HAVE to use 30 with each post. Make them count!
  • Do some research and see what people talking about similar topics are using for their hashtags. On Instagram when you start to enter your hashtags it tells you how popular (or not!) that hashtag is
  • If you want to follow or get involved with an event on social media, research the official hashtag and tweet, post or search using that. The official content should have this hashtag and content from other people wanting to follow or get involved should have this too.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the #hashtag or wish it would go away and leave you alone? I’d love to hear your comments.

 

 

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