Tag: facebook

Basic Editing: It’s not that difficult.

Published on by Paige Dolton4 Comments

Before I get into this relevant and most necessary post, I would like to start off by welcoming both my fellow Comm. Studies major Emily Tumlin and my fabulous roommate Lauren Reddeck to the wonderful world of Wordpress! I am so glad to have convinced you both to join in on the fun.

Now on to the good stuff.

Y’ALL. As someone so passionate about writing, marketing, and social media, I feel the need to shed light on something that has been driving me up the wall. I have been absolutely dumbfounded and, to put it more eloquently, perturbed, at some of the not only public but promoted material being pushed out by brands on various social media outlets. For the most part, companies and brands are pretty good about making sure that their content is error-free. It has to be, right? I mean, this is how brands are connecting with their customers. Their social media handles are a direct extension and representation of the company. This stuff is kind of important. And I understand that mistakes happen, but come on. It is not that difficult to proofread something before publishing it directly to the newsfeeds of thousands of customers/potential customers.

The following are four examples that I have found solely through my own personal presence on social media. I did not go searching for these mistakes, I simply came across them on my various feeds. And they are not even the biggest or most obvious mistakes, but nonetheless, they exist. Also, I am 100% aware of the fact that I sound like the world’s ultimate social media nerd. I am okay with that.

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This first gem was posted on the ABC Family hit television show Pretty Little Liars‘ Facebook page, and it is probably the least harmful of the four examples. Let me just also say that 9,924,729 people are Facebook fans of PLL. Yes, this post was sent out to almost 10 million people. I will give them some credit, however. They’re using bit.ly, which, for those of you that don’t know, is a URL shortening and bookmarking service that tracks data from whoever clicks on the URL. And if you check out their Facebook page, they actually have a really strong and successful social media plan.Their interaction level with their fans is off the charts, and is evidenced by their close to 10 million fans. But let’s be serious; if one more person would have looked at this post, this tiny little error could have been prevented. I’m not letting you off the hook that easy. -A

samsungTaking it up a notch on the stupidity scale of mistakes is this specific action via twitter by Samsung Mobile US. A little background on Samsung’s presence on twitter: they have 4,313,729 followers, are verified, and have over 24,000 tweets, which is evidence of the fact that not only do they use twitter to promote their brand, but to create conversations by responding to their followers. But this….this tweet is just unacceptable. First of all, from a marketing perspective, it’s really never a good idea to actually ask users to ‘RT’ or ‘like’ something. If your content is actually good, people should do that stuff anyway. Second of all, it’s not just one letter that is off. Whoever wrote this used an entirely incorrect word (even if it is only two letters long). And third of all, and most importantly, SAMSUNG PAID TO PROMOTE THIS. Seriously? Samsung spent actual real dollars to have this tweet come up in every twitter users’ timeline. This is what my nightmares are made of.

outbackBranching out to a primarily mobile platform for social media mishaps is Outback Steakhouse with this lovely error on their Foursquare page. If you are not familiar with Foursquare, it is a mobile social networking app where users can check into the various places they visit and collect points, leave tips and recommendations, and see what kinds of places their friends are visiting, as well. It’s a pretty handy little app for both chain stores and local businesses because not only can they see who is visiting and what they are saying about their visit, but they can also offer users specials and discounts.

This error particularly got my teeth grinding for a variety of reasons. First of all, as a Clemson fan and student, I am not particularly proud of the fact that I cashed in on South Carolina’s win over Michigan at the Outback Bowl. All I have to say is that no matter the circumstance, if there is a free Bloomin’ Onion involved, you can count me in. However, I was going out on a limb by publicly stating that I was reaping the benefits of a USC win and Outback really let me down. I genuinely do not even know what they were trying to say. “…thanks the a USC win yesterday.” I mean, seriously? If your company is going to take the time to implement a social marketing campaign, you have got to at least make sure that it makes sense. I will admit, though, that  Outback was very quick to respond to me via twitter when I publicly called them out on their mistake. Just tryin’ to help a brotha out.

And last, but most definitely not least, is, in my case, the editing (or lack thereof) mistake that broke the camel’s back. Should we discuss the time that the website for the White House (you know, the home of the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, the ruler of our government and country?) posted this on their live video feed? Should we talk about it? Or should we just try to move on with our lives and pretend that this never happened?  Because at this point, my blood is boiling and I might hurt someone.

white house

In essence, just get it together people. Think before you post. Especially if you’re a nation-wide restaurant chain, or, you know, the President of the United States. You can do it. I have faith in you.

The Shopping Site that Didn’t Know How to Make Money

Published on by Paige DoltonLeave a comment

Ladies, let’s face it: we do the majority of our online shopping, even if it’s just ‘window shopping’ or browsing, via Pinterest. We discover new clothes we might not have come across if we were simply looking at the store’s website, and more importantly, we discover new online shops and boutiques that we definitely would have never found by simply browsing – come on, we all know how hard it is to find a new shop online.

Okay, so we use Pinterest to shop. And, well, most of us use Pinterest everyday. So how does the social media site generate any profit? Think about it: it’s not like we’re pinning or buying products created by Pinterest. The things we pin all come either from an individual user or, in most cases, from an external site (like the aforementioned little boutique or shop). Apparently, shortly after the site’s inception, Pinterest claimed that “they weren’t sure about how they make money” but that they wold eventually get to it. Hmm… does this sound extremely fishy to anyone else?

So, in typical Paige fashion, I did a little digging.

According to Forbes, the social media site is valued at a staggering $7.7 billion. Let’s compare that to the other social media juggernauts for a second, shall we? Facebook is valued at $1.26 billion, Twitter claims it is worth $8 billion, and, as the recent news of Facebook purchasing Instagram tells us, Facebook values Instagram at $1 billion.

But, seriously, how is this possible?

From a marketing perspective, it actually might be easy to see how Pinterest is valued at so much and how it generates a profit. Essentially, Pinterest is a gigantic hub for product advertising without pinners really realizing it. Well, that is, as long as its users pin your company’s products. So, one way that Pinterest potentially generates profit is through partnerships with other companies trying to advertise their product. In doing this, Pinterest would then promote the pins of said company to initially get the ball rolling and get the company’s pin travelling through the site at warped speed. Once the first pin is promoted, then users re-pin the product and promote it to their friends, who then, in turn, promote it to their friends, and the beat goes on…

Another way Pinterest could potentially generate profit through partnerships with companies is through promoting a company’s pins in the category sections on the site. This way, the first thing users would see when they click on a specific category would be the promoted pin (without them realizing that it is being promoted, of course).

Additionally, I did some more research and found out that Pinterest generating profit by modifying user-submitted pins by altering the links. I find this extremely interesting because this is something, that, if I would have never researched, I would have had absolutely no clue was being done. Who am I to care that Pinterest is generating money from what I pin from my favorite online boutique? It’s not affecting me in any way, so, personally, it doesn’t really matter to me (in terms of my usability with the site). But, as the article also states, it is a little fishy now that I know about it.

So, there you have it. Even though you probably never thought about it, Pinterest must be generating some sort of profit in order to be running at the high capacity that it does. Even though it technically doesn’t really affect us all that much, it’s still something to think about.

My Top 5 Ways To Procrastinate

Published on by Paige DoltonLeave a comment

Congratulations, friend! You are already succeeding at procrastinating– you are reading this right now! Whatever it is that you are putting off, yes, you are right; it can definitely wait until later! Why do the things we don’t want to do when there are so many alternative ways to spend your time? As someone who excels in procrastinating, I know how perfectly enjoyable and miserable it is, so I empathize with you. I wouldn’t call myself a slacker, and I even wouldn’t say that I don’t have time management skills, I just choose to manage my time specifically so that I leave everything I need to do for the last minute. Hey, I’ve gotten this far, right? Well, if you find yourself reading this, then that probably means you are currently procrastinating so without further ado, here are the top five ways I put off doing things that I probably should be doing.

5. Writing Blog Posts Like This One
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but if you look at my track record, I either blog when I have either too much time on my hands or when I am utter and complete crunch-mode. In this instance, it’s most definitely the latter. If writing isn’t your thing, however, perusing through blogs is another great form of procrastination. If you’re female, then you probably already have at least two or three blogs that you tend to check out from time to time. If you’re male, then I sincerely hope the only time you look at blogs is to try and understand why your girlfriend is looking at blogs all the time. In fact, I should just say right now that all of my procrastination techniques are female-oriented. Men, by all means continue reading, but just know this.

4. Pinterest
One of the classic procrastination tools, Pinterest is where you should turn when you just can’t bear to look at your ten page essay any longer and need to be visually stimulated by something, ANYTHING. You can always do the classic Pinterest exploration and just scroll endlessly through recipes, DIYs and clothes that all of your friends have pinned throughout the day, or you can take my advice and click one of those category tabs at the top that you for some reason have never clicked. Trust me when I say that you will find some actually interesting pins that are more worth your time than that “Secret 5-Minute Flat Abs Exercise” all of your friends are re-pinning. When procrastinating, make sure to stay on Pinterest for a maximum amount of ten minutes at a time. Since it’s something that requires very little brain activity, ten minutes is the perfect amount of time for a study break, but if you are in the long haul of procrastination mode, it’s most definitely not embarassing to be caught on Pinterest for two+ hours…right?

3. Facebook
Think about it. There is actually very little to do on Facebook. Of course you check your Newsfeed and scroll until you physically cannot scroll anymore, and then you go through your tagged photos to make sure that you still look as good as you thought you did when you looked at them earlier, and then you go stalk your usual list of Facebook friends whose lives for some reason you are so entranced with, and then…well, that’s about it. That’s why this is the perfect procrastination tool. Similar to Pinterest, this requires very little brain activity, so Facebook breaks should last no more than ten minutes each, or else you know you’re getting a little too out of hand. Another way to use Facebook as a procrastination tool is when you find yourself just staring at your computer screen and not even thinking about what you are doing. Oh, you’re on photo #579 of your ex-boyfriend’s little brother’s best friend? Totally normal.

2. Call a Friend From High School
You heard me; STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER SCREEN. A much more productive way to procrastinate when you have many other things that need to get done is to pick up your phone and make a call. Since most of your friends at school probably have the same crazy workload that you’re putting off as you do, they will be less likely to want to chit-chat. How about one of your best friends you haven’t really talked to (texting doesn’t count) for about two months? Give her a ring and she’ll probably be so excited to see your name light up on her phone. In my experience, these procrastination/study break phone calls tend to last anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes in length, but they are the best for giving your head that clean slate you might need in order to get your work done. Chances are, she’ll be procrastinating, too, so you two can go on and on about all of the things you should be doing instead of talking to eachother.

1. BuzzFeed
And here we have it. My #1 source for procrastination. BuzzFeed is without a doubt the best site to go to when you don’t feel like doing anything productive whatsoever. With endless ‘articles’ filled with photos, videos and GIFS, you can find yourself entertained for days. BuzzFeed is the new StumbleUpon. As soon as you’re done looking at the 26 things you miss about 90’s television shows, five more suggested posts appear as if from out of thin air, and your noggin is once again entertained. WARNING: do not go to BuzzFeed unless you are serious about procrastinating, because you WILL be sucked in and, trust me, it is very hard to get yourself to click the X on the BuzzFeed tab at the top of your screen. Proceed to this website with caution, and good luck in all of your procrastination endeavors, my friends.