Accelerators: The Social Media Shortcut

Little has been written about accelerators, even though they provide a great way for fans of social media to more quickly and easily share interesting content through their favorite sites. Accelerators save time and effort by reducing the number of clicks required to tweet or share links through social media, like Twitter and Facebook.

In simple terms, an accelerator is a tool for speeding up computing tasks. As it applies to social media, accelerators provide an easy-to-use shortcut for sharing content without the need to download or install bookmarklets. Accelerators are particularly useful for users who share, or want to share, content often.

While more websites every day come equipped with simple ways to share links and articles, the vast majority of sites still does not provide these shortcuts. And that’s where accelerators come in handy.

For example, Nokia issued late last year a press release in Hong Kong to notify its users that it did not need to initiate a charger exchange program in China and Hong Kong. The press release’s webpage does not provide a “share” button, so sharing this news without using an accelerator would require users to copy the link, open a new browser tab or window, go to Bit.ly (or another URL shorterner) and finally post the news for their friends to see.

With an accelerator, you could simply right-click the already-open browser tab, select where you want to post the news directly from the shortcut menu, and voila! The screenshot below illustrates how simple reposting is using accelerators.

To find the accelerators that are of interest to you, simply right-click an Internet Explorer 8 browser window and click on “All accelerators” and "Find more accelerators". You will then be able to find many of your favorite sites to post to. The sites will be added to your right-click shortcut menu in just a couple of clicks.

In addition to posting and sharing news, accelerators provide a number of other practical applications to make web surfing easier and faster. For example, you can:

• Map and locate an address on Google Maps (or other)
• Define a word or phrase on Wikipedia
• Email a link to a friend
• Translate a word or phrase with an online dictionary
• Much more!

So, if you’ve been hesitant to jump on the social media bandwagon because sharing is just too cumbersome, consider using accelerators and in just three clicks, you’ll be posting your favorite content for all your friends and followers to see!

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Five Types of Facebook Users--Which One Are you?

The whiner, the narcissist, the clever one, the secret stalker… What type of facebookers populate your friends list?

If you’ve been using Facebook for some time, you’ve probably noticed that most of your friends have developed a particular usage pattern in posting content to the popular social networking site.

Some of your friends might be sarcastic or cynical all the time, while others might have a tendency to be helplessly optimistic about everything.

A number of people might argue that the different usage styles of facebookers are mostly associated with demographics but age, gender, education level, etc. are not the only factors that affect the usage patterns of facebookers.

In fact, based on our research and findings, personality trumps demographics in determining what kind of facebooker people become. In other words, whether you like it or not, your Facebook comments and posts reveal much about your personality and thought process!

So, what kind of Facebookers populate your “friends” list? See if some of your friends fit the Facebook profiles described below.

The Clever One

His witty comments and funny remarks spark entire Facebook conversations, while his entertaining links provide for great repost material. The clever facebooker is probably our favorite kind of user, bringing color to dull pages and laughter to rainy days.

The Whiner

Probably the most annoying kind of Facebooker, the whiner contributes very little to the Facebook experience. This kind of user utilizes Facebook as an outlet for his misery and bitterness, constantly complaining about the oh-so-horrible things that happen to him in life. Now, there’s nothing wrong with posting a pet peeve here and there—we all need to share some of our frustration every once-in-a-while— but some facebookers just make a profile out of it and that’s a definite turn-off.

The 40-Year-Old Who Acts Like a Teenager

This kind of user is more entertaining than he is annoying. His cryptic posts all stem from his desire to fit in with a community that used to be dominated by teenagers. Of course, Facebook is now populated by users of all ages and backgrounds but that doesn’t stop him from posting SMS-style, acronym-heavy comments and status updates. Sometimes we wonder if he even understands them himself. His posts, however, never fail to entertain and he brings much life to the Facebook world.

The Secret Stalker

This kind of user is difficult to spot. In fact, this facebooker is protected by Facebook’s privacy settings and policy, which blocks people from finding out who has been checking out their profile. But we all know they’re out there! Former girlfriends, insecure husbands, jealous exes, secret admirers… they’re all checking out your profile on a regular basis, enjoying the ability to peek and peep without having to worry about getting caught. If you’re one of them, be happy that you’re not one of the 80 million Chinese using RenRen (the Chinese Facebook equivalent), which let’s users see who’s visited their profile.

The Narcissist

The narcissist is the kind of user who uses Facebook as a vehicle for shameless self-promotion. Often boasting about how awesome his lifestyle is, this user loves to update his profile picture with the latest snapshot of his good-looking self and constantly monitors Facebook for photos in which he might appear. Carefully making sure to “untag” himself from any snapshots that don’t show his best side, this user spends much time perusing his own profile to make sure that his Facebook image is as perfect as his hair.

The Passive One

Shy and quiet, the passive facebooker rarely posts links, submits comments, “likes”, or otherwise contributes to the Facebook community—even though he’s as addicted to the site as the rest of us are. He checks for updates multiple times a day and knows everything that is going on in his friends’ lives, even though he would never admit to it. While this kind of facebooker doesn’t bother anyone, he also contributes little to the community and generally brings little entertainment value to the Facebook universe.

The Ideal Facebooker

So, what is the ideal facebooker like? Obviously, he is different for all of us but there are a number of things Facebook users can do to make sure they don’t get “defriended”.

1. Participate. Facebook just wouldn’t be the same if its users never posted any funny links, cool videos or hot photos. We all like witty comments and interesting posts that kick-start entire wall conversations. Don’t be afraid to contribute—that’s what social networking is all about!
   
2. Involve your friends. Facebook is about the social network that you share with your friends. Submit content that you believe they would enjoy and share information that would be of interest to them. If you just use the platform as a soapbox for your accomplishments, you run the risk of getting “hidden” from your friends’ pages.
   
3. Don’t argue. Public spats look bad for all parties involved and lead to lose-lose situations. Facebook and the Internet being public forums, it’s best to avoid getting into catfights or meaningless disputes. If you have an egg to peel with someone, handle it like a grown-up and don’t do it online. Remember, what is on the web can haunt you for a very, very long time!
   
4. Be your best self. “Be yourself” is popular advice but in the case of some facebookers, may not be good advice at all. While the popular cliché is 100 percent valid for likable people, it’s terrible advice for facebookers who are racist, sexist or just plain bigots. Rather, be your best self and contribute to the community in a good way.

Any Facebook types you’d like to mention? We’d love to hear about them, so feel free to leave a comment!

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Study: Twitter Score of 15 Major Tech and Web Companies

With all this talk about social media adoption and the meteoric rise of Twitter, we decided to venture into the Twitterverse to gauge the activity levels of some of the world’s largest and most established technology and Internet companies. Surely, these tech and web leaders would be advanced in using social media, including Twitter, as a way to communicate with their early-adopter audiences—right?

Here is what we sought to find out:

1. As indicated by the number of Tweets, which companies are the most active on Twitter?
   
2. As indicated by the number of followers, which companies are the most popular?
   
3. Which companies do not have a customized, branded profile?
   
4. As a whole, which companies are the most social?
   

To find answers to these questions, we picked 15 well-known technology and Internet companies and looked at their profiles for basic things, like the number of tweets issued by the profile or the number of followers they had. We expected to find that the vast majority of these businesses would, at the very least, be actively engaging their following on Twitter with regular tweets, news updates and possibly even customer service. We also expected every single one of these tech and web bellwethers to have a personalized, branded profile page reflecting their business’ brand feel.

Findings – No Branded Backgrounds?

The results of our query were a bit surprising. While a number of the companies we researched are clearly actively engaging their audiences on Twitter (including HP, Microsoft, Google, Symantec, Oracle, Sony, Yahoo! and Apple), several companies came up short of our expectations. In fact, a shocking number of companies didn’t even have a customized or branded Twitter background. Shouldn’t a branded background be a given for any leading business?

Surprisingly, companies like Cisco, Baidu, Nokia, IBM, Juniper and McAfee only use default or non-branded backgrounds for their Twitter profile and rely solely on the small space provided by the profile photo to display their logo. Backgrounds provide the opportunity for businesses to include contact information to customer service, product promotions, links to the company’s website and other landing pages, so not utilizing this space seems like a bit of a waste. In fact, with a little extra effort, any company could easily change its background for special occasions, as Google has been doing with its homepage for years.

In terms of popularity, as indicated by the number of followers, Google came in first by a very large margin. With more than 1.57 million followers as of September 14, Google has more than 23 times more followers than the second company on the list, Apple, which has 66,374 followers. Sony came in third, with 65,953 followers, Google’s rival Microsoft was fourth with 40,772 followers and Yahoo! rounded out the top five with 21,681 followers.

On the low end of the list were Chinese Internet company Alibaba, with 475 followers and networking company Juniper Networks with 485 followers. In addition, Baidu’s top profile appears to be handled by someone not linked to the company and features links and tweets to content inappropriate for children. It is unclear whether Baidu handles any of the profiles that pulled up through our profile search using the company name.

With regard to engagement, as indicated by the number of tweets issued by these company profiles, Apple leads the pack with 3,280 tweets, far ahead of number two Microsoft, which posted 1,592 tweets. HP comes in at number three with 1,576 and Cisco and Sony round out the top five with 1,340 and 1,165 tweets respectively.

Correlation Between Tweets and Following

What is interesting about these numbers is the fact that there is clearly a correlation between a company’s engagement on Twitter and the number of followers it has. Four out of the six companies with the most followers are also the ones with the most tweets. Uber-cool Google, which ranks number 10 in terms of tweets but number one in terms of following, is one of the few statistical outliers in this study, where the correlation between number of tweets and number of followers isn’t strong. Nokia and HP are the other two statistical exceptions, with a disproportionate number of followers compared to their tweet rank. The remaining 12 companies in the study show a strong correlation between number of tweets and number of followers, as illustrated by the graph below. In other words, the more you tweet, the more followers you will attract.

So, if there is a strong correlation between Twitter engagement and the number of followers, why are some companies still posting few Tweets? Why aren’t more businesses, especially in the innovative tech and Internet industries, putting more effort into building relationships on Twitter and doing a more concerted effort of using social media as a channel for communications? Maybe these companies would answer that: 1) They don’t believe they could see the ROI from putting time and resources to work on social media activities; 2) They don’t currently have the time, budget or resources available to do it; or 3) Why now? This is, after all, a time when money needs to be spent on programs with immediate return on investment.

To those questions, we would respond: 1) There are several quantifiable ways to demonstrate ROI, including tracking the number of customer leads and sales generated through social media and Twitter. Other quantifiable numbers include website traffic generated and metrics based on specific social media campaigns 2) Large companies have an entire army of employees at their disposal for Tweeting. Every single employee is a potential tweep and could be contributing on behalf of the company, so there are definitely more than enough resources available for tweeting. Get your workforce to engage in social media! 3) If you’re not already engaging in social media, you are losing ground to the competition. The real question is not, “why now?” but rather, “why not?” In addition, whether you like it or not, people and competitors are talking about your company on social media like Twitter, so it’s in your best interest to be part of the conversation.

Conclusion

Clearly, more and more companies every day continue to join the social media movement to actively engage and communicate with their audiences. But this practice isn’t yet pervasive and many businesses, including some of the world’s largest technology and Internet companies, still aren’t putting much effort into effectively using social media as a communications tool. Until they do, these companies run the risk of being at a disadvantage from a communications standpoint.

About the Study

The companies in this study were selected randomly. All numbers were recorded on September 14, 2009. The study is meant to provide anecdotal evidence of technology and Internet companies’ activity levels on Twitter. The company profiles were found by performing a simple Twitter profile search. When the search delivered multiple profiles, we selected the one with the largest number of followers, as long as it was clearly linked to the company in question.

Study Findings

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Twitter Reality-Check

Earlier this summer, HubSpot published a report containing eye-opening data about the meteoric growth of the Twittersphere. With all this talk about Twitter’s massive expansion (sign-ups increased 900% over the past year), HubSpot dugg a little bit deeper to unearth the truth beneath the gross sign-up numbers. The findings lead to an unmistakable conclusion: Twitter’s growth needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

Let me be clear: I am a firm believer in social media. They have already started playing, and will continue to play, an important role in the way companies brand themselves and market their products to end-users. There is no doubt that social media are here to stay and that they cannot be ignored as a marketing tool.

But presenting social media as the end-all-be-all of marketing would be as much of a mistake as ignoring them. HubSpot’s State of the Twittersphere report provides a great illustration of why this is true. The report shows that most of the people who sign up on Twitter are inactive and never really engage with the application. This indicates that most new members register primarily because they are curious about the trendy application but then quickly abandon it because they don't find value in it.

Here are some of the findings around the activity levels of Twitter accounts:

• 55.50% who sign up for Twitter don't follow anyone
• 54.88% have never tweeted
• 52.71% have zero followers


Image courtesy of Mashable.com

As a fervent Tweep, I know that Twitter is only half the fun when you don’t use some of the applications that have been built around it. TweetDeck, for instance, makes the Twitter experience a hundred times more meaningful by allowing users to manage their followers by groups, topics and searches. But many people never get to that point before abandoning Twitter.

What this means is clear: Twitter is not the end-all-be-all of marketing. Social media programs are most effective when they are part of an integrated marketing strategy—perhaps, as an extension of it. Results from social media efforts will be optimal if the content generated and shared is in line with a company’s over-arching communications messages and goals. Traditional marketing tools, like public relations and advertising, are excellent content generators that can help companies to fuel conversations and initiatives in the social media universe.

Therefore, before you pull a Skittles campaign on your company (or client) and turn over your entire website to social media, keep in mind that Twitter numbers must be taken with a grain of salt. Otherwise, you might end up with a bitter taste in your mouth.

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Social Media: New Vehicle for Public Scandals?

News surfaced today that Miley Cyrus was having a very public Twitter spat with her boyfriend, Justin Gaston. Cyrus and Gaston reportedly tweeted the following dialogue, cautiously avoiding the use of the direct messaging function:

Gaston -“People mistake stupidity for bravery way to [sic] easily.”
Cyrus -"Yeah. I love when people mistake bravery with writing a few stupid tweets trying to make it seem like they don't care. You're afraid to love.”
Gaston -“Sorry, Miles. But you can't work a stripper pole one day; and then pretend to be an innocent, scorned teenager the next. At least not via Twitter.”

Some media covered this public twitter exchange from the angle that Cyrus needs to learn the basics of social media communication (i.e. use the direct messaging function). I disagree with this view, as the entertainment business thrives on almost all kinds of publicity—positive and negative.

In this respect, the entertainment business is quite different from the regular business world. Most of the time, even negative publicity leads to increased iTunes downloads and movie ticket sales in the entertainment business. For those who disagree with this statement, feel free to ask Paris Hilton how she feels about it.*

Of course, the business world is different. Scandals and public spats between businessmen are damaging to businesses and definitely lead to lose-lose situations. It is never recommended that business executives start airing their laundry out in public.

But the news today that Cyrus and Gaston chose Twitter as the medium for their argument only cements social media’s place as a mainstay in our society. And that is good news for any business that is considering the use social media for marketing purposes.

*Notable exceptions to the argument that all publicity is good publicity for entertainers includes Tom Cruise’s bizarre behavior on Oprah and his spat with Matt Lauer as well as Mel Gibson pegged a racist after being arrested for drunk driving.

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