Happy Fav Five Friday!

The Experience

Have you ever found yourself in a check-out line reading those paper and magazine covers?

I try to fight the magnetic attraction of these short phrases, but how can I resist headlines like these:

• 10 days to a BETTER YOU
• A Diet Plan That Works
• Woman gives birth to Alien Baby
• 6 Secrets to improve Your Sex Life
• These Tax Tips put Cash In Your Pocket

I was happy about the person in front of me demanding a “price check” while forcing expired coupons on the frustrated cashier.  The magnetic attraction over powered me and I found myself reading all about the “Alien Baby”.  I also purchased a magazine that included tips on 30 minute meals, Rachael Ray is awesome!  This experience got me thinking.

Why Should I Care About Headlines In My Social Media Posts?

• Connecting to your audience is important
• Headlines are important
• People are busy
• Attention spans are getting shorter

Competition for attention is increasing every day.  People and technology are getting better at filtering data.  Do you want to be filtered?  Connecting with your target audience will help prevent you from being filtered. I know my inbox, RSS reader, Twitter stream, and search results contain lots of important information, but some things get filtered out.

Do any of these social media posts from Twitter stand out?

Which post stood out to you?  I liked “Things To Think About To Create A Successful Social Media Campaign“.  I continued the conversation by reaching out and now I am connected and will continue building a deeper relationship with @mrktgeek. I found a lot of very interesting information about social media in her Twitter Stream and her tweets are very well written, which makes it easy for me to understand what her content is about.  I like easy!

Building Relationships With Effective Communications

Twitter Fans To Twitter Followers

Take a look at this Twitter Stream from a writer that knows how to communicate with his target audience.  Do you see a difference in the writing style?  Do any of these posts stand out?

Which post stood out to you?  All of them stood out to me.  These tweets are from Pete Cashmore (Mashable), he has over 600,000 followers.  These tweets are some of the most retweeted tweets on Twitter.  A “retweet” is the action of other people sharing your tweets on twitter.  I recommend following these tweets at @mashable Do you think you could benefit from having a million or so people helping you with your ideas?

How are these Social Media Posts Different?

• Well formed and to the point
• Magnetic Attraction
• Uses question style well
• Uses announcement style well
• Great use of trigger words

Crafting A Headline For A Social Media Post

I am not a great writer, but I wanted to share some information from a very intelligent person that I believe my target audience would find very interesting.  I carefully chose the right words to create a headline for my target audience and submitted a quick post to Twitter.  The target article received over 90 extra views in the matter of a few minutes.  You can review the article for yourself at http://bit.ly/ukZLt

5 + 2 Tips On How To Improve Your Social Media Post

• Think about your target audience
• Create a strong headline
• Include reader trigger words in headline
• Read your headline out-loud
• Update your headline
• Communicate directly to your reader in your headline
• Create a relationship early in your copy

What is your advice for improving social media posts?

What is your best tip for creating an effective headline?

Please share your tips in the comment section here.

The United States Air Force Raises the Social Media Bar

Happy Fav Five Friday!

All I can say is WOW! I am really glad you are here. I seem to jump all over the place with Enterprise 2.0, Social Media, and Government 2.0. I try to include a little something for our wide audience of web strategist, developers, designers, government followers, and social media folks. In a previous post we covered some points on the difference between Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media. Today I would like to share some amazing things our government agencies and warfighters are doing with Social Media. Read the rest of this entry »

Birmingham City University Offers a Master’s Degree in Social Media

• Are you a Twitter Power User?
• Are you a Facebook Guru?
• Are you a Pro Blogger?
• Do you have a passion for Social Media?

You can now pursue your Social Networking Degree in Social Media at Brimingham City University.  I have seen an explosion in the social media field and now that we are incorporating these tools into Enterprise 2.0 Solutions, we may need some kind of Degree or Certification Program.  We have big corporations and businesses investing a lot of money and time into Enterprise 2.0 (Social Media in the business environment).  Our Government also seems very interested in using Social Networking tools in the Government 2.0 space.  Will Degree Programs help these organizations save time and money?  Many of these organizations require a degree & certifications from their developers.  Most decisions about software and social media tools for their enterprise 2.0 solutions have already been made before passing tasks to the developers.  Some of these decisions about the enterprise 2.0 or government 2.0 solutions are getting made by people that don’t know what Twitter, Facebook, Wikis, and Blogs are or don’t use them on a regular basis.  The big mistake happens when decisions are made based the the hype word of the day.  Now, don’t get me wrong, mistakes will be made, that’s the price for being on the edge.  When it comes to Social Media, I say just do it.  Surround yourself with people that have a passion for social media.  Get involved with online groups and have some real discussions.  Have conversations with your target audience and discover how you can help.

Master’s Degree in Social Media outline video by Course Director Jon Hickman

Jon Hickman: MA in Social Media from Kasper Sorensen on Vimeo

What are your thoughts about Degree Programs in Social Media?

Do you know of any formal education resources in the United States offering Social Networking Courses?

Are Social Networking Degree Programs needed for students interested in Social Media?

What are your thoughts?