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ARE YOU AN byTedJanusz NFORMER OR A MEFORMER? n social media sites, about B0 percent of us share a common characteristic. According to researchers at Rutgers Universiry the vast majority of us use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedln, and other popular sites to talk about ourselves (in other words, we are "meformers"). Only about one-fifth of users take advantage of these tools to primarily share information that could benefit someone else ('infomers"). Which are you? TED JANUSZ is a professional speaker on the topic of "social media for baby boomers," author, and marketing consultant. He is the author of the Social Media Marketing Guide for Parking Professionals,which is a free publication for lPl members and can be downloaded from parking.org/ socialmediaguide. He can be reached at ted@ ja n uspresentations. com or 614.440.7487. An example of a post an informer might sendwould begin "Time-sav- ing detour around the new constr-uc- tion." A meformer might begin a tweetwith "me now" information, such as "tired and upset." Here is the takeaway: Inform- ers have twice as many followers as meformers. lfYou're Happy andYou Know lt .a JtrP It also helps to be upbeat. According to social media scientist Dan Zarre11a, "Negative remarks include things iike sadness, aggression, negative emotions and feelings, arld morbid comments. Nobody likes to follou. a Debbie Downer. Accounts with lots of followers don't tend to make many negative remarks. Ifyou want more follow- ers, cheer up!" OtherThings Not to Do onTwitter The following list of no-no's comes from Alice Martin, president of Shroomsociai: & #Tul-tweeting under the influence. Need I say more? #LOL x Never glve your password when prompted to after opening a link. Your account will be hacked, sending spamming messages to the last people you followed. * Don't send several tweets to people who don't follow you back or you risk suspension. x Sending the same link or tweet out within a 24-hour timeframe is considered spam. a Don'tbe abul1y. * Don't ask inappropriate questions publicly or send private direct messages to those who don't follow you. e #Don't #over-do +hashtags. l'm Outta Here! An interesting study was conducted by a group ofKorean researchers to determine why someone might unfollow a Twitter account. After looking at 1.2 million Twitter accounts, here were the top six reasons: s Too many updates all at once. a Uninteresting topics. * Mundane details of daily life ('meformer"). e Politics. a Advertisement. Automatically generated tweet. Like Clockwork The use ofschedulers foryour social media updates can be helpful, especially because your followers are unlikelyto be engaged with Twitter at all times and tend to read mostly real-time t\,yeets. But as digital strategist Charles Cunningham warns, 'Automation of your digital netvrorks is incredibly tempting but you aren't going to see the results you would from an organic approach." Be a person, not a robot. Give People What They Want Formulate a social media policy for your parking facility, bearingin mind research conducted recentlyfor TWitter UK by Nielson, which discovered the top eight reasons why people follow brands: . They like the brand. . To be notified ofspecial offers/promotions. . Staying up-to-date with brand news. . Learning about new products and services. . Current customers. . To take part in competitions. . They tweet interesting or entertaining content. . To get freebies. Kevan Lee of BufferSocial sums it up: "TWitter users love discounts and freebies, and they are like1y to follow a brand to get some goods. Ifyou can add value in this way-you might see your followers grow." Lee summarizes by saying, "Post to social media often, as part ofa consistent, dependable strategy. You're bound to get better as you go, and people are going to notice and appreciate that you're sticking around to stay o F F F 14 TNTERNATTONAL pARKtNG tNST|TUTE I VnV ZOrS connected." o
