Social media marketing | Liz Hover's Diary of a Web Gal

I wouldn’t usually share stuff I find on Mashable because so many people read their news but this was too cool to pass up.

According to Mashable, this infographic, created by JESS3, examines engagement statistics with the world’s most popular social network: Facebook.

I was surprised at how few people ‘Like’ updates (26%). I’m a serial ‘Liker.’ And also how few people send private messages (10%). I would have expected these numbers to be higher because of my own use and I’m not even on Facebook that much.

Apparently only 15% of folks update their status everyday. Again, something I was surprised to read.

I’d be interested to know where these stats come from (I don’t doubt them). Mashable don’t say and I can’t find the infographic on JESS3′s website.

Anyway, enjoy this lovely infographic.

I manage two blogs: this one and my dog’s blog.

This means I regularly receive emails on the following things from people I don’t know:

- Request to write a guest post

- Request for a link exchange

- Request to write about a particular product

- Request to mention an article in my next blog post

- Request to review a product

Usually – not always – these are poorly directed requests. In many cases the person contacting me has clearly never read either of my blogs or is so horribly misguided it pains me.

So, this week I was excited to read two great posts about the very topic of approaching bloggers. If you’re in PR or in the habit of cold-emailing bloggers I’m certain you’ll learn a great deal from reading them. And if you practice the advice, you’ll also be a lot more effective when you contact folks like me.

First up is a post by Jay Dolan, author of my most favourite blog The Anti-Social Media.

Jay doesn’t mince words in 6 ways to avoid blogger outreach failure.

His six points are:

1. Get off Yahoo and Gmail
2. Don’t ask to write a guest post
3. Stop trying to get me to promote your content
4. Don’t waste my time
5. Don’t assume
6. Say my name

Please read his post to fully understand Jay’s woes.

Second up is Monica Hamburg writing over at One Degree.

In Avoiding the Supermarket Approach When Pitching Bloggers, Monica provides some excellent, practical advice for anyone approaching a blogger.

If everyone read and followed the advice in these posts, the blog world would be a happier place.

Thanks so much to Jay and Monica for putting into words what many of us feel.

PS – on a related note, check out this post from cc. chapman giving advice to Ragu who, he believed, had failed in the way they approached bloggers for a recent campaign.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll know that Facebook has recently introduced some sweeping changes (with more game-changing things on their way).

I’ve seen a number of my friends post this – a meme, I guess.

I’m struggling with the idea that people are that paranoid about their comments.

Facebook is a social network. Therefore it’s social and, well, a network. Both words indicate you might be meeting people and talking to them. Why would you want to hide your comments?

Honestly the first place my head goes is: what are you ashamed of? What are you hiding?

I can tell you that the friends of mine who’ve posted this to Facebook have nothing to be ashamed of. Which leads me to believe this is a comfort issue – I get asked a lot about privacy when I do speaking presentations so I’m not surprised.

Again, for me, it comes back to the idea that if you aren’t comfortable with people seeing your online activity you shouldn’t be online.

Or you need to get over it.

Nothing you do or say in a social network like Facebook can every truly be concealed.

If you really have a problem with friends of friends seeing your comments and likes ask yourself these things:

1) Am I being offensive?

2) Why do I have social network account(s)?

3) What could be the worse thing to happen to me?

If you’re posting anything which you really think might be offensive or controversial, take it to a Facebook message if you’re unsure. Don’t respond in the comment thread.

I understand that my friends don’t want to feel that Facebook has deceived them in some way by making their comments and likes more public than they thought they would be but there’s no reason for the paranoia.

This is the age of the internet where data is transferred in the blink of an eye.

I think it’s a bit late for for this kind of paranoia.

Nielsen recently issued a report called State of the Media: The Social Media Report detailing the current social media landscape and audiences in the U.S. and other major markets.

Get a copy of the report here.

The key findings from the report are:

- Social networks and blogs continue to dominate Americans’ time online, now accounting for nearly a quarter of total time spent on the internet.

- Social media has grown rapidly – today nearly 4 in 5 active internet users visit social networks and blogs.

- Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other U.S. website.

- Close to 40% of social media users access social media content from their mobile phone.

- Social networking apps are the third most-used among U.S. smartphone owners.

- Internet users over the age of 55 are driving the growth of social networking through the mobile internet.

- Although a larger number of women view online video on social networks and blogs, men are the heaviest online video users overall streaming more videos and watching them longer.

- 70% of active online adult social networkers shop online, 12% more likely than the average adult internet user.

- 53% of active adult social networkers follow a brand, while 32% follow a celebrity.

- Across a snapshot of 10 major global markets, social networks and blogs reach over three-quarters of active internet users.

- Tumblr is an emerging player in social media, nearly tripling its audience.

Access the full PDF of State of the Media.

Thanks to Matt Shepherd for tweeting about this.

The video originally appeared in a post on Search Engine Land.

Looking through the stats on my blog I’ve noticed that a lot of folks are searching for inspiration to help them come up with good ideas to post on Twitter.

Previously I’d written about a post on Ari Herzog’s blog by Mark Havenner in which Mark describes his C.R.A.S.H formula when he’s stuck for tweet ideas.

Comment. Reply. Ask. Share. Help. This is an excellent formula.

I’d also like to share my tweeting philosophy with you in the hope it will help those of you looking for inspiration on Twitter.

Your number one goal when posting to Twitter should be to add value.

In fact I think Jason Falls put it best when he said, ‘Share good shit.’ Anytime you post to Twitter, ask yourself, ‘Is this something others will want to know? Is it of value to them? Am I sharing knowledge?’

One of the most popular types of tweet are those that contain links.

Dan Zarella recently posted an interesting infographic showing how to get more retweets on Twitter. I think you’ll find his information useful when considering what to post to Twitter. Dan describes himself as a social media scientist so you’re probably wise to heed his advice.

Dan recommends we tweet links, stop talking about ourselves, say new things and tweet about Twitter.

So head on over to your Twitter account and tweet away!