The One Twitter Lesson I Want to Teach the World
Last night was SF Fashion Tech’s best event yet, FashTech Insight, entirely centered around data. Innovative businesses like Everlane, Polyvore, Sugar Inc., and Sneakpeeq make themselves more than just flash-in-the-pan-Facebook trendy. They’re equipped to be long-lasting because they built rich data tracking into their business and know how to utilize those numbers. The conversation was enlightening, inciting waves of emphatic nods at key points during each presentation.
Keeping up with Insight’s insights became challenging during live tweeting, but thanks to that handy dandy #fashtech hashtag, most notable quotes and numbers were chronicled by the night’s fellow attendees. The audience was as analytical as the presenters on stage, and they caught the best notes on Twitter.
Except, sometimes they forgot how to get their favorite messages out there. Numerous times, tweets came up in the #fashtech feed that were meant to be mentions, but were mechanically structured as replies. It’s easily forgotten while tweeting from a mobile device, but any time a tweet starts with a @handle, it will only be seen by people who follow both the sender and the intended @handle. This leads to a lost opportunity where you could be telling your audience a game-changing insight, but in the end it only ends up being seen by the social media manager of the company you’re talking about.
Watching great almost-perfect tweets come up in the #fashtech feed time and time again reminded me of a conversation I had with former Glamour editor Suze Yalof Schwartz. I gave her some basic tips on Twitter over lunch, and one stuck with her so much she asked for it in lesson form for her popular interior decorating blog, Dwellers without Decorators.
Of course I obliged. If I had to pick one goal in my social media work, it’d be that I’d like to teach the world to tweet in perfect harmony. Here’s a recap of what I shared with Suze’s Dwellers crowd. The gist: Replies and mentions are not created equal.
The One Twitter Lesson I Want to Teach the World
@mentions vs. @replies
Not all Tweets are the same! The subtle structural difference between mentions and replies trips up even the biggest brands.
Mentions are when you include a fellow @twitterer in your Tweet:
Everyone who follows me on Twitter will see this Tweet, and @suzeyalof will see it in her Interactions when she logs into Twitter.
Like before, everyone who follows me will see this and it will show up in the activity feed of each Twitterer I included. Plus, anyone who searches for #followfriday on Twitter will see who I mentioned.
Replies are when you write a Tweet to someone, and you’re keeping it public. Similar to a mention, replies include the person’s Twitter @handle, but unlike simple mentions, replies always start with someone’s Twitter @handle:
Reactions No Comments
Posted inTwitter
Pinterest and The Five-Year Engagement
Pinterest is perfect for anyone planning a wedding. Five months into my own planning with five months to go, every single one of my vendors has asked for a link to my wedding Pinterest page. Brides and grooms-to-be have pages, vendors have pages, former brides have pages of their own photos — and now a smartly marketed page from the fictional couple featured in the upcoming film The Five Year Engagement has its own page.
“Tom and Violet’s” profile page contains boards aimed to chronicle their wedding planning throughout the years of their engagement. So far, boards for 2008, 2009, and 2010 depict dresses, food, photos, and other activities, just like a “real” bride would plan her own wedding:
There are several smart things about this. One, using a red-hot social platform to tie into a movie’s plot is a great use case of the service and also a way for potential moviegoers to build relationships with the characters before they even set foot in the theater.
Secondly, there is little production involved: create a Pinterest account, choose images, and curate them onto your Pinboard.
Read more…
Reactions No Comments
Posted inMarketing
Doing Social Right: Grilled Cheese Room Service
Real wins on social media occur when organic content surfaces after being shared by people who care. The hospitality industry has long thrived on making and keeping guests happy, and Twitter’s public and immediate nature makes it the perfect way to keep tabs on interested guests.
One tasty example: Last month I stayed in LA’s Beverly Wilshire Hotel with a friend. I spent the day working from the hotel, and around 3 pm, all I wanted was a grilled cheese sandwich. Nothing fancy, nothing from a fancy Beverly Hills restaurant down the street, nothing from the pricey room service menu. Prone to tweeting cravings as a way to alleviate them, I mentioned that I was loving my stay at the Beverly Wilshire, but what I really wanted was a no-frills grilled cheese.
The voice behind the Beverly Wilshire’s Twitter account took notice and responded.
Thirty minutes later, a room service waiter knocked on my door and presented me with a heaping tray of perfectly simple grilled cheese sandwiches. I immediately took a photo and thanked them via Twitter.
Reactions No Comments
Posted inTwitter
Real Food with a Real Top Chef
This Saturday, I’m heading to Santa Barbara’s Bacara Resort and Spa for a very special event: the first-ever screening of Chef Bradley Ogden’s new show, Real Food with Bradley Ogden! Red Magnet Media is incredibly excited to work with him in launching this series because each of us LOVES food (CAPS appropriate). We are especially grateful for the opportunity to work with a James Beard Award winner and bona fide top chef (since before the days of celeb chefs).
Real Food with Bradley Ogden is a father-son cooking program that features Chef Ogden preparing a full menu – from market to table – alongside his son Bryan, an accomplished chef in his own right. Check out the first episode’s teaser video, and let us know what you think.
Reactions No Comments
Posted inGeneral
Bravo Talks Top Chef Transmedia at SXSWi
For anyone in the business of content creation, from chefs to crafters to writers, extending yourself and your brand across multiple platforms is essential to staying relevant, but also an excellent way to encourage more fan interaction in different ways.
At SXSW Interactive, one of the best panels we attended was “Top Chef: How Transmedia is Changing TV,” a discussion conducted by Bravo executives and talent focused on what they’re doing to increase engagement while the shows are airing, but also to keep fans’ eyes and interests focused on the content when the shows aren’t on TV, or when fans are away from their sets. They call it “transmedia” and define it as the extension of a show’s narrative across multiple platforms, including social media and the Internet.
Bravo’s first official foray into transmedia started with the latest season of “Top Chef,” which was, appropriately, filmed in Austin. Instead of posting just outtakes or other supplementary content online, Bravo created “Last Chance Kitchen,” a web-only series that invited eliminated chefs to compete against one another to win a chance for another shot in the main competition. Bravo heavily promoted the content on-air, encouraging viewers to watch on mobile devices — an opportunity to reach them at a time when they aren’t in front of a television. And the nature of “Top Chef” — fans root for their favorite to win — ensures that the more content viewers consume, the stronger they’ll feel to their favorite chef-testants. “Last Chance Kitchen” ended as a great success. Execs were hoping for one million streams of the series and ended the season with eight million. Twenty-six percent of people who watched “Top Chef” watched the online series. That’s a lot of dedicated fans. Read more…
Reactions No Comments
Posted inMarketing
Accelerating Style and Tech in the Bay
An elite crowd turned out Wednesday night for Keiretsu Forum and Naxuri Capital’s Ahead of the Fashion event, held at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco. Such an esteemed event with entrepreneurial veterans seems long overdue in the Bay. Though San Francisco isn’t counted among the most fashionable cities of the world, it is undeniably the homebase for the technologists who are empowering and innovating in all the fashion channels of retail, design, and sourcing.
Ahead of the Fashion is an accelerator program for those technologies, and with keynotes from the likes of Kenneth “Hap” Klopp (15 years as CEO of North Face) and SF Mayor Edwin Lee, it is an event that is particularly up to snuff. Panelists including Fluid CEO Kent Deverell and Gymboree and Yoga Studios Founder Joan Barnes gave invaluable feedback to pitching companies like Boutine and pitch winner Boditecture.
Here are some highlights from SF Indie Fashion and AF Accelerator (and my favorite Ed Lee quote):
Image via SF Indie Fashion
Reactions No Comments
Posted inGeneral
Mayka puts her pin on Pinterest.
Yesterday Senior Strategist Mayka Mei sat down with ABC7′s Jonathan Bloom to discuss the “new craze” that is Pinterest. We’ve all been tinkering with Pinterest for a while now, but seeing big brands like Newsweek and Whole Foods utilize pinboards has gotten the attention of the mainstream media. Click here to view the full segment.
In her talk with Jonathan, Mayka described Pinterest as a sure win for “an audience that’s hyperconnected and doesn’t read anything anymore.” She meant the last bit mostly in jest, but we also know from conversations with Mayka that she has strong opinions on why Pinterest is the poster child for the spirit of tomorrow’s most successful apps.
“Pinterest does two things,” she says. “It’s a curation service, which is basically all the rage right now because it puts the feeling of being an editor into the average consumer’s hands. Second, it fulfills a sense of validation. Either they are feeling heard through their pinboards being seen, or they feel good when someone repins or likes what they add.”
Pinterest: Not just for women
No doubt Mayka’s background in fashion marketing and daily Web window shopping (She says it’s a good, quick break, and assures us she’s just browsing.) make her the prime-targeted Pinterest user, but that’s not to say that Pinterest is only for the fashion set. In fact, new Red Magnet Media client Chef Bradley Ogden has started playing with Pinterest, too. Follow chefbradleyo on Pinterest to see beautiful food and beautiful restaurant interiors. Read more…
Reactions 1 Comment
Posted inSocial Media
This Weekend: Red Magnet Media at midem
I’m really excited, not just for the French riviera, but also for my discussion topic. Taking place on Sunday, “How to Find, Manage and Motivate Your Superfans” is all about mobilizing your most devoted fans. In my opinion, it’s the most authentic form of word of mouth marketing available, and also one of the best ways to cultivate a culture around your own brand.
How to Find, Manage and Motivate Your Superfans
midem academy, Level 01
Sunday January 29, 2012
11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
If you’re planning on attending midem, please send me a note! I’m happy to start collecting questions on superfans now, and since this is my first midem, I’m also happy to hear your tips on the conference: @mayka or mayka@redmagnetmedia.com.
Au revoir!
This Weekend: Duran Duran and Red Magnet Media do DLD
Meet Kristen Hawley, Our Digital Strategy Consultant
What did you do before arriving at Red Magnet Media?
I started as an editorial assistant at a glossy magazine in New York when print was still king and switched to digital editorial a few years later. After nine years in New York City, I flew west to California for the food, sun and opportunities in the tech industry. After a stint on the PR team at Twitter, I decided to return to my creative roots in a new capacity. My stock answer to the question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” is: “I want to be doing something that doesn’t exist today.” I love the adventure!
What led you to working in social media?
I have a background and training in traditional journalism, but learned very quickly that adapting to a changing industry was the key to success. Facebook wasn’t around when I was in college, but it’s indispensable now. I’ll always love magazines and traditional practices, and I love applying those values to a new challenge. And I’ll always be a grammar nerd wielding an AP Stylebook, but I love watching brands adapt creatively to a changing climate.
What do you love most about social media?
Everyone has a voice — celebrity or not. Quality content will get you noticed. And I love that social media has a way of surfacing quality content on its own. It’s a nod to my editorial roots — content will always be king.
What’s the best part about being surrounded by the tech industry in San Francisco?
Before moving to the Bay Area and working in tech, I didn’t understand the industry’s creativity. From product conception to design and even engineering, it’s a creative process. Being surrounded by even the most analytical tech-minded friends and colleagues is inspiring on a creative level.
What’s the best part about San Francisco?
I live in a walkable city, but can drive to the best wine-growing region on the continent, amazing skiing and some of the best ocean views in the world. Plus, my fiance lives here. He’s alright.
Tweet Kristen a hello at @kh.
Reactions No Comments
Posted inCompany
