Author: Brian VanHoven

Why I Love Twitter

How Twitter is Getting it Right

If you work in social media, you know by now that Twitter just underwent the great purge. Since the beginning of 2018, Twitter has been cutting the fat; removing bots and spam accounts from the platform. Fast-forward to Spring of 2018 when Twitter users and social media community managers all over the world began to see dramatic drops in followership. Today the dwindling of follower counts has subsided and things appear to have leveled out. Now that we can catch our breath, it’s time to take account of what we lost and what we gained during the great Twitter purge of 2018.

During the height of the purge, one thing was abundantly apparent: both people who consume social media and people who work in social media are obsessed with numbers. If you browse social media news, you’ll see headlines like, “Snapchat, no longer bleeding users, tests Android app redesign” or “Facebook doesn’t want to talk about how many people use its app anymore.” You’ll also see headlines like, “Twitter loses millions of users, but still makes record quarterly revenue.”

Twitter’s experiment flipped our followership goal on its head. Instead of banking on the total number of users, they focused on daily active users. It was this approach, quality vs. quantity, that earned Twitter a sizable valuation bump during the fourth quarter of 2018.

Daily Active Users vs. Total Users

There’s another take away that I think can be applied to the best practices Rolodex of any social media manager. Twitter’s increased valuation proved that daily active users are always a better indication of the value and the quality of whatever service, product, or information you are offering. I’m talking about consistency and steady growth that aligns with your engaged target audience. Daily active users and even weekly active users are a great indicator of loyalty, or at least sustained interest. At the end of the day, your numbers don’t have to be huge, as long as people are taking action.

If your number of daily active users isn’t growing, that means it’s time to tweak something or test something new…

As social media professionals, we should always aim to develop content and share resources or products in a way that resonates with people. If we’re not doing that, then we’re doing something wrong. So, if you find yourself constantly focusing on increasing your numbers of followers or clicks, here are a couple of alternative data points to focus on down the road. Who knows, if you start focusing on these new numbers, the original numbers you were looking for might follow!

Best Social Media Metrics to Track

Daily Active Users vs. Total Users

Engaged Followers (Or Percentage of Engaged Followers) vs. Followers

Hover Time vs. Impressions

Time On Page vs. Link Clicks

Views Past 30 Seconds or Views that Lead to Further Engagement vs. Views

Hopefully, by focusing on this data you can draw some important insights on what works versus what doesn’t work. Happy Analyzing!

The Lost Art of Grassroots Engagement

We live in a digital age. Most people are using their mobile phones to receive information and news updates, advertisers are pouring millions of dollars into social and digital media platforms to reach audiences, and couples are finding love through dating apps and websites. Clearly, any successful marketing campaign needs a digital component. But, what about the traditional forms of engagement and outreach – do they still hold any value?

Our recent work with one of our clients helped us to realize that traditional marketing can still be effective. And in some cases vital to the success of a campaign…

The Challenge

When a Fortune 150 Company made plans to do business in the District, many residents, government officials, and community leaders were concerned about the idea. A great deal of misinformation surrounded the proposed plan and created a vocal opposition to our client. The company realized that it was time for a change. They decided to switch up their strategy when the traditional means of reaching DC audiences failed. Up until this point, the focus was given to government relations and some limited digital and broadcast advertising.

Our team was in charge of mobilizing the community to show support and to maintain a positive public perception. To accomplish this, we activated our community engagement team. We worked on educating and informing residents from every corner of the city. Our canvassing team went door to door in neighborhoods, metro stations, bus stops, communities of faith, parking lots, senior centers, grocery stores and other areas where residents visit, work, and play. The goal was to generate letters of support and petition signatures in favor of our client. The results? We received over 12,000 letters of support signed by community members and leaders and collected over 10,000 hand-signed petitions. All of this illustrated the widespread community support for the company, which led to the eventual approval of the multi-million dollar business plan.

Successful Planning

The key to our success was that our team was not pushing an agenda. We had honest conversations with residents about what the merger entailed. And how it would impact the city and the benefits of the proposed merger. Residents were able to ask questions, discuss potential drawbacks, and gain clarity around the information we presented. Other key takeaways from this process – and any grassroots community engagement campaign – include:

Personal Touch – residents and community leaders appreciated that the companies cared enough to send out a street team to engage with them. In our fast-paced society, it is rare to have an opportunity to speak one-on-one with someone about an individual campaign or issue. There is a sincerity in this type of outreach that cannot be duplicated through any other channel.
Hard-to-Reach Populations – this campaign allowed our team the opportunity to reach many populations and communities. Even those that are often left out of generic mass media campaigns. We communicated with older adults, immigrant communities, and disenfranchised populations that may feel neglected or left without a voice in local government and business issues.
Complex Issues/Campaigns – the details of the proposed merger were extensive and multi-layered. Many of the benefits that residents would enjoy were very complex and incredibly difficult to translate into short messages. This made it more difficult to share through any digital, broadcast, print, or out-of-home outlet. Face-to-face engagement with residents was essential for our team. We had the ability to breakdown all the details of the proposed merger in terms that the general population understood.

Conclusion

All the new mediums and outlets are great for reaching target audiences and influencing behavior. However, they cannot replace the unique nature of engaging with consumers on an individual basis through grassroots outreach. It may take more time and additional funds, but the impact on communities is immeasurable.

Branding Your Way to Summit Success

Branding is an essential element of successful campaigns. When I say branding, I’m not referring to a complete overhaul of an existing brand, but detailing how we implemented branding strategies within a campaign to enhance its impact and bring us even closer to achieving our goals.

One of our recent campaigns was for DC Health and the DC Mayor’s Office. We promoted and executed Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Maternal and Infant Health Summit. This was a multifaceted campaign that promoted the branded mayoral Summit and maternal health resources for women and mothers in DC, wrapping up with an event attended by over 1,000 DC residents.

The very first thing we had to decide on was our Summit logo. You may think this would be the simplest part of the campaign. However, it took many designers and many rounds of concept changes and edits before we came up with our perfect logo. This logo became the identity of our initiative and would go on to inform every outward facing aspect of this campaign – from our Twitter page profile to the design of our advertising, to look and feel of the event.

As important as that decision was, branding is much more than just slapping your logo on anything and everything. It’s about having consistency across all of your channels, in both messaging and visual elements.

Messaging

Before we dive in, it’s important to note the gravity of maternal health, particularly in DC. DC has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, with African American women four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related complications. Our client keenly understood the impact this issue has had on DC residents and enlisted us to develop a variety of messaging to use throughout the campaign.

We chose a messaging tactic that, yes, addressed that this was a serious issue but didn’t just dwell on its negative aspects. Both the Maternal and Infant Health Summit and campaign aspired to bring hope to the community. Mayors from across the country, health leaders and professionals, and mothers all came together to collaborate on solutions while raising awareness about resources. Themes of positivity and encouragement became the basis of our messaging.

Our *amazing* digital team curated daily content for Twitter and Facebook that centered around solutions, tips, and resources, and highlighted community organizations that serve our women and mothers of DC! They developed a voice and a personality for the Maternal and Infant Health Summit brand that was authentic. That voice continued to be captured through the messaging in other aspects of our campaign.

Visual Elements

We made a decision early on to hold a photo shoot with real DC moms; pregnant or with their babies. This creative choice aligned with our brand personality. We included the community in our advertising, web presence, and print collateral instead of using stock photos or models, which allowed us to position this Summit organically within our community.

Every form of communication, whether it popped up in your Instagram feed, was tweeted or could be found on our website, shared a variety of translatable key visual elements, all inspired from the logo design. Visual consistency is so important, as each interaction someone has with the brand should help to build awareness, recognition, positive association, and trust. The Maternal and Infant Health Summit itself was no different. From stage design to signage, programs to videos – everything was centered around the brand we had created and the result was an incredibly engaging and successful Summit!

Day in the Life: Digital Director

Andima Umoren, Octane’s Director of Digital shares her daily activities from sun up to sun down, and how she remains organized in a field that requires knowledge about everything digital, from SEO to running a successful e-marketing campaign.

5:30 – I wake up. Actually, this is just the time I want to wake up, so I can meditate and go to yoga. Catch me in a month, I’m working on it.

6:30 – My alarm clock goes off and I snooze it until 7:00 AM

7:00 – I’m finally waking up. I grab my phone and get caught up on emails and spend more time than I should on Instagram.

7:00 – 9:00 – We can fast-forward through all this stuff. This isn’t a fashion blog, you don’t need to know my skincare regimen.

9:30 – 9:45 – I arrive at work and head straight to the kitchen to grab some coffee and water. Then I spend the next couple minutes reviewing my to-do lists on Asana and organizing my thoughts. Then I write down what meetings, priority items, and tasks I want to get done for the day down in my notebook.

9:45 -10:15 – If you work in digital, you know that the platforms you use to carry out your work change every single day. Maybe Facebook makes a change to its advertising platform or Snapchat releases a new filter. As a digital professional, you need to know about it. So, how do I keep up-to-date? Twitter! Twitter is my go-to platform for news and updates. And yes, I have an embarrassing amount of Twitter Lists. (Breakfast normally happens around this time as well.)

10:00 – 10:30 – After browsing my Twitter feed, I conduct my second dive into my emails and start to deal with the emails I flagged earlier in the day as easy “to-do’s” and make a note to tackle the other emails later.

10:30 – 1:00 – I read an article that General Assembly shared about being productive, so I’ve been practicing some of the strategies in the article for a month or so. It really works for me! I reserve my mornings for working through my most intensive projects, i.e. presentations, strategies, writing, taxing analytics projects, etc. I reserve meetings and less time-consuming tasks for after lunch. So, around this time my door is closed and I’m working through a time-sensitive deliverable with a couple of coffee breaks in-between.

1:00 – 1:30 – Lunchtime! More details that you don’t need because this isn’t Refinery29.

1:30 – 2:30 – Back to the to-do list. Around this time, I’m trying to knock out as many small tasks as I can. Making an update on one of our WordPress hosted websites. Reviewing staff editorial calendars. Proofreading a blog post. Even posting an ad for a UX Freelancer. The list goes on.

2:00 – 3:00 – It’s brainstorm time. Typically, our Senior Account Executives are the one’s holding brainstorms. But when the Octane Digital team gets to launch a “digital only” campaign it’s all-hands-on-deck. As a boutique PR firm, we like to invite all staff members to brainstorm.

3:00 – 3:30 – I take another “educational break” to browse my Twitter timeline and read articles about the latest updates in digital marketing. I make it a practice of sharing articles with the digital team and letting them know how any updates may change the way that we work. We use Slack as our internal content sharing platform.

3:30 – 5:00 – I get my second wind of energy in the afternoon after lunch time restlessness wears off. This is typically where I dive into wrapping up the longer project I focused on in the morning.

Business of Pride

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