Is April the worst month in the social media calendar? It just might be.
It kicks off with April Fool’s Day, which is the most strained and painful day of the entire year. And it rounds out with Ed Balls Day on the 28th — another twee Twitter in-joke that has long outstayed its welcome. And almost everything in-between is garbage as well.
So let’s jump straight in and get wading through the trash heap that was April 2021. If one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, then that other man will have their fair share of treasure to enjoy.
April Fool’s Day is the worst, and I hate it
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Social media platforms usually aren’t very good at accessibility. They tend to prioritise functionality over inclusion. And they don’t incentivise users to bother creating content that works for everyone.
And I get it. If you’re not aware of the concept of accessibility, it can be a daunting subject. You might find yourself asking questions like:
- Why do I need to make my social content accessible
- How do I do it?
- How far do I have to go?
And it’s that last one that might catch you out the most. Accessibility is something of a spectrum. And there’s always going to…
Maybe I’m just jaded, but democracy doesn’t seem to be working very well lately.
Brexit. Trump. Boris. People seem to LOVE voting for stuff that’s not in their interest. And we have to shrug it off and say: hey, that’s democracy!
Meanwhile, we pour scorn on non-democratic countries. How awful, we say. How can their people ever be free if they don’t get to check a box every five years?
Democracy is sometimes described as the least-worst form of government. But I don’t even think that’s true. A benevolent dictatorship, able to act unilaterally in everyone’s best interests, would be…
Social marketing is important, obviously. We all know that it’s worth doing, or nobody would do it. And yet, proving its value is incredibly difficult.
For other forms of marketing, this isn’t even a question. Take our friends over in Paid Social. They can easily explain their value. They can even run the numbers and give you their value to two decimal places. Put money into ads, track conversions, rinse and repeat.
For hyper-targeted forms of marketing — like Paid Social - attribution is really easy. And by attribution, we mean measuring the impact of your marketing activity. …
Well, that’s three months done then.
It’s ridiculous how quickly this year has gone already. And yes, I will be complaining to the manager.
But I hope you’ve been having a lovely time. I’ve been despairing a bit about the state of things. And what does and doesn’t get celebrated in this industry. Take this tournament that Twitter Marketing has been running over the last month:
Are these the best that Twitter has to offer? A bunch of fast-food chains and gaming companies? …
Disclaimer: I’m not a user researcher. Nor am I a Product Manager. My credentials to talk about this stuff are simply a decade of working at tech companies in customer service and marketing roles. So there!
I started my career as a Customer Service Advisor at Spotify, then a medium-size Swedish startup that had yet to prove itself. And one of my earliest responsibilities was some basic community management of an online message board the company hosted with a site called Get Satisfaction.
Get Satisfaction was a pretty basic forum. You had boards and threads and all that jazz. But…
It happened again! Another month passed, and social media marketing happened. It’s absolutely relentless, isn’t it?
So, how was your February? Mine was good! I took half the month off work to move flat and generally chill after an intense start to the year. But I kept an eye on things. Well, both eyes. Both eyes at all times. Because I’m sick, and my brain is addicted to social media.
While I was away, the team absolutely smashed it! Check out this playful post about the June 21st end-of-lockdown announcement:
It’s not real data, of course. But it’s a…
It’s over! The longest month of our lives (possibly of all time?) is finally over. I don’t know about you, but I’m absolutely knackered. Simultaneously knackered from doing SO MUCH and doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I’m not sure how we’ve ended up in this hellish paradox.
The big deal for me was working on the annual #YearInMonzo campaign. This is our annual, data-driven experience that lets you see your spending habits for the previous year. Y’know, like your favourite music streaming app does.
A highlight for me was that we got to grapple with an exciting new format: the ever-popular ‘like…
Let’s play a game. I’ll give you four Facebook posts, and all you have to do is say which one got the most reach. Easy, right?
1 — An image meme.
It’s that Bernie Sanders that was everywhere all last week! The social copy a relatable witticism about waiting for payday.
2 — A blog post
Here’s a bit of financial education content: a blog post about budgeting. The card image is some of those oddly-proportioned marketing illustration people. Descriptive social copy.
Data is the currency of marketing. That sounds super pretentious, and I hate myself for writing it. But I think it might actually be true.
If you’re going to do any marketing exercise, you first need to answer two questions: why you’re going to do it, and how you’ll know if you’ve been successful. And to answer those questions, you’re going to have to measure something.
How and why you need to be looking at data
Example: your brand is launching a new product. You want as many people to know about it as possible, so you decide to use social media to reach a large audience. …
Richard Cook
Professional cynic (but my heart's not in it)
