Archives For Social Media

See how many fake Twitter followers someone has

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Social media allows anyone to look popular and credible. You can buy 5000 Twitter followers for $5 (or Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube friends) and this makes it difficult to see who you can really trust.

Fakers @ Status People is a tool to help. It lets you see how many fake Twitter followers someone has:

Fakers Wall

 

How to use Fakers to find out how many fake Twitter followers someone has

1. Sign in for free with your Twitter account

Click 'Connect to Twitter' to sign up for free

Click ‘Connect to Twitter’ to sign up for free

2. Click to authorise Fakers to login with your Twitter details

'Authorise app' to login to Fakers using your Twitter account. No Tweets shall be sent from your profile.

‘Authorise app’ to login to Fakers using your Twitter account. No Tweets shall be sent from your profile.

3. Wait as Fakers scans your own Twitter account to see how many fake followers you have

Watch a pretty blue spiral spin as Fakers calculates how many fake profiles you have following your Twitter account

Watch a pretty blue spiral spin as Fakers calculates how many fake profiles you have following your Twitter account

4. Either sulk or celebrate your score

If you have a good score, share it to show off and boost credibility with your followers

If you have a good score, share it to show off and boost credibility with your followers

 

5. Try someone else’s Twitter profile

Take a look at some other Twitter profiles - maybe people you follow or tend to recommend. Are they who they say they are?

Take a look at some other Twitter profiles – maybe people you follow or tend to recommend. Are they who they say they are?

Future of social media influence scores

Future social media influence scores such as Klout may take fake followers into account. There’s no reason why Fakers cannot share their APIs with third-party applications and make their fake-scanning technology available for all.

What does this mean?

Being found to have fake Twitter followers tinges your reputation. For example, Tim Ferriss above has 11% fake followers – that’s over 44,000 profiles.

Yet before rushing to judge, this does not mean he, or anyone else with a similar score, added these themselves. To look legitimate fake Twitter profiles follow real people. They also use computer bots to re-tweet real Twitter users. If a fake Twitter profile is trying to look like they’re interested in outsourcing, book publishing and lifestyle design, it’s only normal that they’d follow someone like Tim Ferriss who is an author on all those subjects.

Should I, or should I not buy fake Twitter followers?

Large Twitter followings do give instant credibility to onlookers, but not influence. You’ll be Tweeting to a wall. Best Twitter practice is to find real and relevant Twitter users and build your following slowly over time (read my eBook, Tom’s Twitter Blueprint).

I’ve bought thousands of fake followers, what should I do?

If you’ve already bought thousands of fake followers and want to reduce your risk of being caught out and receiving negative publicity, there are a number of options you can do:

1. Confess – Write a blog post outlining exactly what you did and why – you were experimenting with digital marketing to see what would happen. Describe the results (if they’re positive i.e. drove organic growth, then you were smart and it’s a win for you. If they’re negative and nothing happened, then say you’ve stopped and are sharing the insight to others – a win for you.) Now, if anyone does raise the fact, you can point them to your blog post and show them that it’s old news.

2. Reduce the proportion – Win real Twitter followers quickly by advertising on Twitter, engaging in popular #hashtag conversations and conducting large quantities of legitimate Twitter action.

3. Block your followers – You can block your fake followers (follow WikiHow instructions) one at a time. This might take a while.

4. Delete your account – Delete your Twitter account and start again.

In Marketing, Social Media , , , , , , ,
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Portait by Pepe Ronnie

Man on a mission

No it’s not me, it’s Pepe Ronnie – the man who took this photo of me. Pepe is a photographer on a mission. He wants to save the world one photo at a time. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – they all have “disgusting” photos, Pepe says, and he’s changing that.

The idea of getting a professional photo done is normally not something most people think about. Unless it’s for a wedding, (British) people  think it’s slightly vain – and expensive.

“What the fuck is this?” Pepe asks, looking at the LinkedIn picture of someone at the #londonstartups event. He proceeds to tell the poor man that it’s crap, and that he better change it if he wants to be taken seriously.

“Your social media profile is the face that the entire world sees,” Pepe says to me. “It’s got to be good.”

His attendance at #londonstartups has become a feature that the entire group now looks forward to – Pepe is known to rip business cards up in front of people’s eyes. Hilariously ruthless and relentless, Pepe will make you change your photo one way or another: resistance is futile.

Entrepreneurs and startups are his speciality. In a competitive market where bloggers and journalists often pluck portrait photos off Twitter, Facebook and Google Images, having a good photo pays.

Leaving the tube at Kennington, I give in to Pepe’s beckoning and walk up his stairs to the studio.

“Stop being constipated!” Pepe laughed as I struggled to “think of beautiful lesbians making love on top of [me]“.

This was Pepe’s brilliant technique to make me relax. Controlled and directive, Pepe was fantastic at getting the most out of my Hugo Boss (Asian Branch) looks. He spots your little quirks and encourages you to own them.

In fifteen minutes were were done.

“There’s no need for a three hour photo shoot. We only need one photo, and once we get it, that’s it.”

Check out some of Pepe’s work on Facebook and help him save the world one photo at a time. Pictures start at about £25 – yes, really, that’s it.

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Tech City Journalists

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Are you a new technology firm in the UK? 

Wouldn’t it be great if you had the contact details of all the tech city journalists? Even better, SME journalists too? How about both technology and SME journalists in the UK and internationally?

All of this information is available for free online if you look hard enough, and use tools such as journalisted.

But there’s no point in you repeating work I’ve already done, so click the bright orange button to download a media list of all technology, SME journalists, and more.

Download Now

Disclaimer - All information was publicly available online. The information is intended for personal use only. Please be sensible when contacting journalists and do not send spam. Please read this set of PR ethics. 

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Integrated Communications

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If you want your message to ripple across the pond of noise, you have to use an integrated communications strategy. It’s true in life that some people listen to the radio on the way to work whilst others watch TV before going to bed; Some pick up the newspaper on the train, others read Tweets. Focus solely on one channel, and you miss everyone else.

Unlike what most ‘modern marketers’ say these days, social media isn’t everything. 7 million people in the UK listen to BBC Radio 1 every morning and 2 million tuned in to Channel 4 to watch people getting high on Ecstasy live. There are so many more channels than just Twitter and Facebook.

To get across all of them, you have to create a narrative that will stick on TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, blogs and on social media. If you can make a message work well on each and every one, you’ve got a winner. So how do you go about doing that?

First, look inwards. Who are you trying to reach? Bring them in to your organisation and ask them to be a part of it. Ask the very people you’re trying to target to help you design the campaign. This in itself is a story – you could make it a competition and invite a relevant magazine to a behind-the-scenes exclusive.

Then invite bigger names to get involved; it’s kind of like getting sponsors for an event. If what you’re doing is noteworthy, you’ll pick up some interest from bigger brands (or individuals) quite easily. Don’t be afraid to pay for it either, celebrity endorsement is as common as odd socks. Partner with them and stand on their shoulders. This will open the media’s doors as they’re already interested.

Use everything as content. Get interviews on local radio and TV networks for your partners – ask them to talk about your message in return.  Write press releases quoting the partners from the interviews: ‘As Tom Church recently said on Sky News…’ Send the releases to all news desks and relevant blogs (where possible, call first). Take pictures of your press cuttings, and share them (and/or links) on your social media channels.

If you’re really smart, you’ll get the last part to feed back into the top, keeping the conversation going and the ripples ever flowing. So when you’re thinking about how to get your message out there, don’t worry so much about what tools you’re going to use – whether it’s a Twitter account or on blogs – focus on your narrative and how it could work on every channel.

In Communication, Communication Is The Key, Public Relations, Social Media , , , , , , , , , ,
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New vs. Evergreen Content

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New vs. Evergreen Content

We Are Social is a marketing agency that has an excellent blog detailing all the latest changes in social media and how to use that for your marketing purposes. I recommend it if you want to learn what’s new.

However, it’s also an example of a New content strategy, versus an Evergreen content strategy. As social media (and the media in general) changes so fast, any blog post they write is dead within a few weeks. There’s always a new site or platform, a new button or way of subscribing, a new targeting feature or advertising method. They rely on the new to attract visitors. But could you rely on the old?

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In Communication Is The Key, Marketing, Opinion, Social Media , , , , , , ,
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Free eBook: Tom’s Twitter Blueprint

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Twitter is a minefield. Take the right steps and you can reach your goal. Take the wrong steps and it can end in disaster. Today, I’m giving you my eBook, Tom’s Twitter Blueprint, completely for free.

Gain access by clicking ‘like’, ‘tweet’ or ‘G+’ below:

The content will then appear beneath.

 

 

 

 

For the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with over a dozen Twitter accounts (fake, of other participants, and my own @tomchurch) testing a whole host of things.

I purchased every premium software package and professional service available online. I bought thousands of fake followers to see if they lead to organic growth (they don’t). I advertised on all the social networks and interviewed people who have learnt to gain Twitter success the hard way: Through trial and error. And together, these lessons have been put into one succinct and free eBook: Tom’s Twitter Blueprint.

Download it today by clicking one of the social media buttons above. A unique download link will then appear (as a .PDF). Enjoy it, try it, and share it.

Thank you for being a reader of Communication Is The Key. This is my way of giving back and showing that I really appreciate it! Let me know what you think on Twitter.

In Communication Is The Key, Social Media , , , , , , ,
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How to get a better Klout score: Cheat

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In three weeks, you can be more influential than Warren Buffet. Or can you?

Cheat your way to the top of Klout

Klout claims it ‘measures your influence on your social networks’. It doesn’t. It measures how many re-tweets and Facebook likes you get (alongside a few other meaningless statistics) and then churns that into a single score.

Anyone can cheat their way into getting a killer Klout score, which is why you should take it with a pinch of salt. In this blog post, I show how easy it is to artificially boost your Klout score (and thus how pointless it is).

To experiment, I created a fake account on Twitter, Facebook and various other platforms, then used Klout for about three weeks, got my score to level 59 (higher than Warren Buffett, David Cameron and Angela Merkel – but was I more influential?) and then stopped.

If you’re using Klout, want to know what it’s all about, or are basing any kind of decision on it, read this post.

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In Communication Is The Key, Marketing, Opinion, Social Media , , , , , , , , , ,
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Pay with a tweet: a social media model that works

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In the real world, few like to share content. So how do you get them to? Of the thousands of articles that you read, how many do you share on your social media? 1, maybe 2%? When someone is searching for information and it’s there, they take it. Very rarely do they say thank you – after all, it’s on the internet, the faceless jungle where morals don’t exist. If it were in a shop, or in person, then it’d be different. But it’s not. And that’s not a problem we should be tut-tutting, it’s just the way it is. As marketers, bloggers, startups and business owners, we’ve got to man up and deal with it.

So for an open experiment of which I’m sharing the results with you here, I wrote two blog posts giving away extremely valuable information in return for a tweet (or a Facebook ‘like’, or G+):

But for users to get the information, they had to share it first. In one day, I received more shares, likes and G+ than I had altogether since this blog began.

tweets

Readers get information by sharing with a tweet

Within the first two hours of The Guardian post being published, I received 35 social media shares.

Now, I know that’s not amazing compared to some of the big boys out there, but I’m a small personal blog with a tight level of readership – and I stopped counting after the first two hours.

The question is, what would happen if the big boys did use it? What would happen if you used it?

It’s not just content that can be given in return for a tweet, but downloads too. Imagine if Google offerred its latest Android OS for free if users paid with a tweet. It’d be a global viral sensation within minutes.

So ask yourself, “do I have super-amazing information or a digital good that could be given in return for a tweet?”

If yes, then here’s the secret WordPress plugin that no-one knows about. And you don’t even have to Tweet in return if you don’t want to (but you know you want to): Like To Keep Reading plugin

In Social Media , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Video Marketing Tips for Startups & Entrepreneurs

George from Think Tall Films came over to briefly discuss what startups and entrepreneurs can do to market their videos. He explains how YouTube is the second biggest search engine after Google itself, and that videos are great ways to rank well in Google itself.

See also: How to market your startup without money

Key lessons are to keep your message simple, short and snappy. George and his team at Think Tall Films have racked up over a million combined views from their videos, and you can view some of the most recent after the break.

If you’re looking to create some video content for your startup, follow @thinktallfilms for some tips, or contact George directly.

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On a quiet afternoon, the ticket hall of Estació de França, a public train station in Barcelona, turns into an impromptu wild carnival for vagabonds. Organised entirely via Social Media, it’s an example of 21st Century marketing perfection.

Social Media Marketing: Lessons From The Vagabundos

The Vagabundos are an underground community of house and techno music lovers who follow one DJ in particular: Luciano. He created a Seth Godin-esque tribe, who follow him around the world and turn up in thousands to unofficial parties such as the one in the video above, after announcing it just once on his Facebook page:

luciano facebook post for train station party

Luciano invites fans to a free party on Facebook

Marketers dream of such loyalty. So how does he do it? Firstly, when I said people follow him around the world, that wasn’t quite true. Luciano (and various other artists – he has his own record label now) goes to his fans. Berlin, Switzerland, Chile, Ibiza, Japan, Hungary, Barcelona, Ibiza… Day after day he flies (now on his private jet) from city to city, playing gigs at wherever his fans are. Over the years he has developed a global audience, and organises parties sometimes a year or more in advance, keeping their interest going.

As he travels, fans are kept in the loop primarily via social media. His Facebook fan page is full of Instagram photos of him preparing sets, working or playing. They are the first to know of any news, and almost every post is shared by hundreds. Through this, Luciano has managed to develop an incredible brand image: The Vagabundos. Wanderers of the world, his followers live in the moment and roam wherever they please. Beautiful, desirable, shareable, obtainable.

His music, majestic to even an untrained ear like mine, seems to embellish this magically. And that’s the most important lesson of all, his product – the music – is fantastic. He plays it to his fans directly, or they can buy his albums, and to those that can’t make the festivals/gigs/parties he shares the moment through the creation of artistic videos (coincidently made by my brother Terry). These videos are created to capture the feeling of the moment, and as I’m sure you’ll agree from watching the one above, they do so brilliantly.

This has three benefits: One, attendees get to re-live the moment and share it with their friends; Two, fans who couldn’t come get to participate in a different way; Three, new fans are created and the loyalty of old ones increase. Maybe that’s four benefits. The point is, marketers need to think of interaction with their fans in a slightly different way. As Robert Greene, author of 48 Laws Of Power (US) says, “Everything is material”.

So what have we learnt from Luciano? Product is key. Go to where your market is. Communicate your story through social media. Use that to create a desirable brand image that forms a community. Find ways to let everyone share it. And Let the party go on well after the event.

One last thing…

If you want to learn more case studies like this, and receive them directly via email, simply give your email in the box below. You’ll receive my very best including productivity strategies, interviews with serial entrepreneurs and invitations to meetups.

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