"As You Like It": Getting Liked on Social Media

How do we get someone to like what we are doing on social media? Is it the same in person as it is on social media or is there something else going on?

We all want to be liked, unless, of course, you are the Grinch or Kevin O’Leary on Shark Tank! But even they, or so we’d like to believe, use their abrasive and unlovable characters as a shield to the liking and approval that they really crave. The ‘like’ has become an important element of social media and it has evolved to signify, not just approval, but the fact that someone is viewing and engaging with our content, whether shared or authored. More importantly, it is a reasonable indicator that it is being read, whether fully or in part, and so it is also a useful metric as to whether your social media content is hitting the right audience.

Thumbs up

It is interesting that the iconography of liking is the ‘thumbs up’ symbol. It comes from the gladiatorial arena, where the thumbs down was considered to be the signal that the victor was being given the assent to dispatch the losing combatant. Some controversy surrounds the idea that the thumbs up, by default, meant that the loser was being granted life, but popular cinema has embraced that idea and so has wider society and particularly the world of social media. In some non-Western societies, however, the thumbs up varies from being offensive to positively vulgar. Nevertheless, the thumbs up seems here to stay and represents the fact that I virtually like what you have done or shared, regardless of its real origin or meaning.

What does the giver get out of it?

The giver, for want of a better term, is expressing their approval for the content that you produced or for something that you shared. It is also seems to be some form of agreement, because the giver is more likely to hit that ‘like’ button, if you have provided something that accords with their own pre-existing viewpoint or that they agreed with having read it. My evidence is anecdotal, albeit based upon my own experience, but posts and articles that are somewhat controversial seem to get lots of views and generate plenty of comments, but encourage fewer likes. Slightly more upbeat and positive messages seem to be more likely to encourage the reader to hit ‘like’.

The passive act of liking

Beyond just viewing the post on LinkedIn, liking is the most passive act in terms of responding to a post. Nevertheless, it does flag up on your timeline, and that of your connections and followers, and so it is a form of recommendation and in practice it plays a similar role to actually sharing the article. It is evident, however, that some followers will like your content without venturing further than the headline and the brief segment that appears on the timeline. It would seem that the motivation of the latter is in generating attention to their own content and profile, which is another strategy all together.

What does the receiver get?

Perhaps, to get slightly psychoanalytical for a moment - on the premise that ‘you are what you share’ on social media - we also take it as personal validation and acceptance of who we are. Getting liked makes us feel good about ourselves and our place in this virtual world of social media amongst a global audience of connections and followers, the vast majority of whom we will never meet in person. But I think I am getting too deep here and this is a post for another day.

"Likes bring attention to what we are sharing"

Likes bring attention to what we are sharing. The author sees their viewings increase and this leads to an upward spiral of likes and comments, which on LinkedIn will flag your content as interesting and relevant and should then see it picked up by the algorithms, from where we see it promoted more widely on Pulse. This leads onto a virtuous upward spiral of likes, comments and shares, until that post, which was originally read by a few of your regular followers, has now circled the globe to a worldwide audience.

How do I get more likes?

Mathematically it would be interesting to see what the correlation is between the number of views and the corresponding number of likes: logically the more views you get, the more likes! But that doesn’t help us. These are my recommendations for getting more likes:

1. Stay away from controversy – write about things that make people feel good about themselves or that help them to achieve their goals. Controversial subjects may make for interesting reading and if it is comments you are after, you will probably generate more of these, rather than likes.
2. Give the reader a call to action – ask them a question and invite their views on what you have been talking about. Engagement spans the passive to the active and so the more they are encouraged to respond, the more they will probably give you a thumbs up.
3. Post regularly – if you develop a regular readership of followers, they will develop a predisposition to like and approve of your writing and your viewpoint. These fans will provide the early likes that will propel you up the virtuous cycle of likes, comments and shares.
4. Share-ability - does the content have currency in terms of addressing a topic that is currently hot and worthy of sharing with your fellow connections. Is it something that you might share with your followers if you chanced upon it in your timeline?
5. Tap into personal experience or expertise - followers like to feel that you are sharing something that has come from your personal experience or expertise, so if you can relate the points that you are making to anecdotes and stories, then the more your readers may relate to what you are saying and like the message.

If you've liked what I have written, well, you know what to do! Otherwise, what is it that makes you like something that you have seen or read on LinkedIn?

Written by Will Trevor, Founder and Training Consultant for Windsor Training: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Picture Credit: By Mark McArdle from Canada (Fernando Alonso) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0) or CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

STOP: Do NOT read this article!

5 Ways to Write Arresting Article Headlines

On the assumption that some people like to do the exact opposite of what they are told to do, I wanted to conduct a quick experiment to see how much a title that asks you not to read something - coupled with a picture of an authority figure - might compel you to take a quick peek instead. It obviously worked, in your case ... congratulations, you are clearly a contrarian, who doesn't like being told what to do and I am now ordering you not to read any further or even 'like' this post (don't you dare).

An Arresting Title ...

But on a serious note, and assuming that you are still reading, I wanted to explore how much the title influences the decision to stop and read the content and come up with 5 ways to write an 'arresting' headline (if you'll excuse the pun). Some might say that being drawn to an article because of an arresting title and picture, might be the virtual equivalent of 'judging a book by its cover', but in a world where we are inundated with information from multiple media, what other options do we have to cut through all that 'noise'? The title becomes an important tool in ensuring which content is read and which becomes part of the detritus of internet data and confined to cyber obscurity.

Getting Liked

There is no doubt that having a headline that is powerful and has impact will then attract viewers, which then encourages 'likes', which ensures, on LinkedIn at least, that the algorithms pick it up as relevant content, leading to further promotion and a snowball effect in terms of further likes and readers. This is a process that can happen very quickly, so if you are a little-known scribbler, then that arresting title becomes all-important. I am not saying that the title is the only way to get attention, because you can promote your article through social media as well, but it is increasingly a powerful first step in getting noticed.

5 Ways To Get Noticed

Having made a few posts, both on LinkedIn and elsewhere, it became apparent that some posts get read more than others and the title clearly plays a part in that, so here are my 5 points for writing a headline that gets noticed:

1. Intriguing - You might have gathered that I was playing this particular card, so time will tell if the headline was intriguing enough. Ultimately, you want something that poses a question, suggests a new way of looking at things, or hints at offering more in a way that tantalises and grasps the attention.
2. Brevity - the shorter the headline then the more that the reader's attention seems to be drawn to it, particularly if they are scanning their timeline and their brain only devotes a fraction of a second to each title as it whizzes past. The briefer it is, then the more I am likely to process it and then stop and actually read it.
3. Encouraging action - if you can create a title that encourages your reader to take some action, or suggest that they will be able to do something better, faster, or more effectively, after reading your post, then they may be more likely to see the potential value in what you have written and stop and read it.
4. Clarity - I have probably broken my own rule with this title - because it intrigues more than it is clear - but you can use subheadings to give greater clarity to what is contained within the body of the post. Remember that part of the first few lines is picked up by LinkedIn and posted, along with the title and photo, so you can use this to give further clarity to what your title is saying.
5. Keyword-conscious - be conscious of what the keywords are for the body of the content, whether that is in the main heading or by clarifying further in the subheading. Whilst I am probably breaking this particular rule, it becomes more important in terms of posts that are found by search engines.

I will be very interested to know your thoughts on this topic: did my headline work for you? What headlines have you seen recently that grabbed your attention? What was it about them that made you stop and read the content?

Will Trevor is the Founder and Training Consultant for Windsor Training and also an occasional blogger.

Picture credit: "British Policeman" by Southbanksteve from London, UK - My name is Will or Policeman as (arresting) model. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Policeman.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Britis

5 Marketing Lessons of the Ice Bucket Challenge

Few could have predicted how swiftly the ALS Ice Bucket challenge would go viral. The way that it spread must have been beyond the wildest imaginings of the ALS marketing team. If you have checked your Twitter feed or your Facebook timeline over the summer, then you cannot fail to have noticed that many of your connections will have been sitting in their gardens, backyards, or workplaces and then having buckets of iced water unceremoniously tipped over their heads, as if some kind of mass mania had gripped the planet. The act was then shared via social media and some further unwitting friends are then nominated to pick up the baton.

A Marketing Phenomenon

For those of you who may have missed it, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has seen celebrities – from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg - and individuals pouring buckets of ice over their heads for the sake of the ALS charity and then nominating others to take on the feat. analysed how the Challenge went viral and they calculated that between June 1 and August 17, over 28 million people joined the conversation and 2.4 million videos were shared on the social networking site alone related to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Within a matter of days, the phenomenon had gone global, with challenges witnessed in many countries other countries.

A Textbook Case

The campaign was intended to raise awareness of Amyothrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is otherwise known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” – a little-known disease that causes the deterioration of nerve cells, leading to paralysis and death. “Little-known”, that is, until now. Marketing textbooks are probably now being written, or even re-written, with the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge as a case study in the successful use of cause-related social media marketing campaign, but why has it been so successful and what can we learn from it?

"Emotion, challenge and social currency"

Wharton University's Professor of Marketing, Jonah Berger, has suggested that, “[w]ith its combination of emotion, challenge and social currency, the campaign has become something of a marketing phenomenon.” Berger is an expert on social media and he has written extensively on why things go viral and the effects of word-of-mouth. Berger also described the Challenge as a form of social contagion, “[p]eople don’t want to be left out. Anytime you’re at a cocktail party and someone is talking about something, whether it’s a brand or a new band, … you don’t want to be the only person in the group who has no idea what they’re talking about.” This taps into a basic human emotion and need for belonging. Berger also believes that it succeeded because it is representing a worthy cause, so there is little that people can object to in terms of its message and call to action.

5 Social Media Marketing Lessons from the Ice Bucket Challenge

What are the five lessons that we can take from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?

1. Timing – it came during the summer months, meaning that people had time to participate and lighter evenings enabled people to take part, whereas the nature of the challenge would have precluded participation during the cold winter months. Thus the planning and execution of the campaign was vital to ensure that the timetable allowed it to spread virally from early spring into summer.
2. Simple – there was no requirement for complicated equipment, instead it could be attempted by nothing more than someone with a bucket, some cold water, and a smartphone and friend in order to record the event for posting on social media.
3. Social – the challenge passed amongst friends and relatives in a genuinely word-of-mouth style, precisely because it was so personal. We associated with the people doing it and we also connected with their often personal reasons for doing it, both serious and frivolous. This is the 'social currency' that Berger is talking about.
4. Celebrity – the challenge has also passed amongst a number of high-profile celebrities, such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, and this always helps to give a social media campaign velocity, particularly when they start spreading the challenge socially themselves, as was the case here.
5. Challenge – the Challenge tapped into the desire to have credibility in the eyes of your peers, but also the need to avoid shame, if you were not seen to take up the baton and take part when you had been nominated. People embraced the sense of challenge inherent in it.

Written by Will Trevor, Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training

Email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net

Picture Credit: By Rauglothgor (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Search Engine Optimisation: impact and visibility (Part 1)

Search Engine Optimization: impact and visibility (Part 1)

Best practice in SEO as part of a search engine marketing strategy

By Koushikchakraborty13 (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process and practice of ensuring that the listing and link to your website is placed in the optimum position within search engine rankings, such that it appears at the top, or near to the top, when a search is made using a specific set of words or key search phrases in Google or Bing, for example.  This is often referred to as ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ search - because it does not require any direct payment to the search engine company in order achieve the ranking - to distinguish it from ‘paid search’,  which is usually classified as any search for which a payment has been made. Examples of paid search include: sponsored links, search engine advertisements, pay per click (PPC), cost per impression (CPM).  The focus of this article is on the principles of successful and legitimate SEO, an approach that is often referred to as ‘white hat’ techniques. That is, techniques that ensure that the main focus of SEO activity is on ensuring that the customer is able to search for what they require and receive search results that provide them with exactly the listings that they need, rather than an approach that seeks to manipulate those results to maximise the possibility that the search engines will rank the page highly, regardless of the relevance of the content to the customer.  The best way to think about this is in terms of a cowboy movie: the good guys usually sport the typical white Stetson, whereas the bad guys are usually in the black ones. Needless to say, in order to achieve the right results, the Stetson on your head should be white!

The basic premise behind SEO is that the more highly a website is ranked in the natural search listings, then the greater the amount of web traffic it receives and the higher the number of visitors accessing the site. In an age where Internet use is ubiquitous and business needs to ensure that it is accessible to its customers online, this obviously has significant consequences for the visibility of an organisation and the corresponding level of business and profit that it is likely to achieve.  Not surprisingly, with such high stakes, a number of websites sought to improve their rankings, not by making the content more relevant to the user, but through the adoption of various techniques that enhanced the sites rankings in the face of the algorithms, or programmes, by which the search engines ranked and listed websites.  These so-called ‘black hat’ techniques included such practices as ‘keyword stuffing’: placing so many key words within sentence, such that they render the words completely unintelligible, but manipulate the search engine into believing that the website is of greater relevance than it really is.

In the first paragraph, I mentioned that SEO is a process, by that I mean that you will not enjoy the benefits of an optimized site if you merely engage in optimization when you first develop the site.  Instead, it should be something that you engage with on a regular and incremental way, with the accumulated impact of a large number of changes delivering an improved user experience to your customers and a payoff in terms of higher rankings within those organic or natural search rankings. By adopting the best 'white hat' techniques, you will be able to develop SEO practices, which will ensure that your website benefits your users and customers.

The common mistake that most people make when they first approach SEO is to believe that the primary target of their activities is in satisfying the rapacious needs of an impersonal and electronic brain called a search engine: this is something that I term the ‘black hat fallacy’. Some of the leading search engines, and particularly Google, have taken pains to reinforce the message that the primary focus needs to be the consumer, or the user of your site, rather than viewing the search engine s the target of your activities. So let us get this straight from the very outset, you are optimising your website for the benefit of your users and not the search engine itself.

SEO may form part of your broader search engine marketing (SEM) strategy, which may itself be an element of your overall marketing strategy.  Whilst you will remember that we are not intending to treat the search engine as the customer of our optimization activities, we do need to have some understanding of how they work and also how people use them to facilitate their searches.  From our market research, we should have a good idea of who the target audience for our product or service is and so we can then develop a clearer picture of the type of search keywords or key-phrases that they are using to find products or services such as ours.  Think for a moment about how you search for something using a search engine, such as Google. How often do you input just a single word (keywords) or how often do you string together a number of words into a set of keyphrases? The next time you search for something, think about what it is that you are looking for and then consider why you selected those specific words. This will help us in the next article when we consider further the practices of SEO.

Written by Will Trevor, Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training
Email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net