Twitter Archives | Andy Ebon - Wedding Marketing Blog

Wedding Instability Created by Turkey Military Coup

Two years ago, during pre-election instability, the Turkey Military shut down major internet platforms: Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. On the heels of an attack at the Istanbul airport, military leadership stepped in to remove the democratically elected government.

Wedding Instability

In a rather bizarre turn-of-events, the deposed Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan FaceTimed into a live TV news broadcast to encourage citizens to fight back against the army takeover. The newscaster was forced to leave the station and give up her phone, at the hands of 40-50 members of the military.

Istanbul, Turkey leads Wedding Tourism

Potentially, the developing events could be highly unsettling to the Turkish wedding industry. Istanbul is the world leader with some 150,000+ weddings, annually.

Turkey draws wedding tourism from all over Europe and Asia. Depending on how this plays out, instability could have a massive negative impact on the wedding industry.

OPINION: Paralysis of major social media platforms, and other internet activity can be devastating in any country. It’s important to play close attention to this and consider how extreme actions could affect any of us in any country.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Blog
The Wedding Marketing Authority

15,000 Twitter followers grow

Twitter followers grow, like Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, or Pinterest followers is NOT simply a numbers game. I can hear you giggling in the distance. REALLY!! It’s NOT just a numbers game!

I know, it seems counter-intuitive to hear that anyone who has just passed 15,00 followers on Twitter, is trying to play it down. Actually, I’m not trying to play it down. There is a different number, far more important to me. It’s 95%

My Twitter presence is tightly framed. It’s about WEDDING MARKETING, and connecting with wedding industry people in the English-speaking world. A while back, someone asked me, jokingly, “Why limit yourself to the English-speaking world?” Easy answer, unlike my mom and dad who spoke eight and three languages, respectively, I didn’t get the language gene. I’ve still got a lot of territory to visit in English-speaking countries.

In the headline, I reference the number, 25,000. If I retained every follower, I’d have 25,000 or more, in total. I reject about two out of three.

Here are some reasons and profiles for rejection:

No logical reason for connection: a plumber in Wichita has no reason for following me or vice versa.
No multi-level marketers or get-rich quick businesses.
Profile states a large number of unrelated interests and hobbies, but no purpose.
No headshot or company logo
No website address
No Tweetaholics: A disproportion of posts to followers. (i.e. 27,000 posts; 172 followers).
… and there are more reasons… to many to list.

Except for a scant 5%, or fewer, made up by friends, musicians, and smattering of others, the 95% are exclusively wedding and hospitality industry types, including media.

Anyone who visits my Twitter page and looks at who follows me, OR who I follow, recognizes that I’m there for a single purpose, wedding marketing.

Whether your Twitter-universe is 1000, 10,000, or 100,000, it your relationships should be concise. Otherwise you’re wasting time and dealing with lots of digital noise.

If you have a Twitter account, have a reason for being there, and focus. Focus on who you follow, who follows you, and specific interaction.

Andy Ebon
Wedding Marketing Expert
The Wedding Marketing Blog

Hashtags and Ham Sandwich Marketing

As I was reading every possible book and resource on blogging, I came across the great title: No One Cares What You Had For Your Lunch: 100 Ideas for your blog. It turned out to be one of the most important marketing lessons, about blogging, micro-blogging (Twitter), social networking (Facebook), and business networking (LinkedIn).

Now, we add the posting of nonsense hashtags to Twitter and Facebook to a long list of pointless activities. And not just nonsense hashtags, but many, on a single post. Don’t think it looks hip or smart, momentarily, but there is no upside impact, particularly on Facebook. In fact, the reverse is true.

Each HASHTAG should have a purpose…

The essence: In all forms of advertising, marketing, social media, and networking you are vying for people’s attention within brief and/or limited time constraints. It is important for your words and images be pithy, crisp, motivational, interesting, and memorable.

To rambling about topics which don’t pass the ‘Who cares?’ test is not just a waste of a reader’s time, it increases the likelihood they will tune you out in the future.

Facebook offers many options for people to lessen your presence, including demoting you to acquaintance status or turning off the appearance of your updates in their news feed. So, with those choices (and others), to unfriend or block someone and likely offend them; you can simply silence them.

Just what is Ham Sandwich Marketing? It is my buzzword phrase, inspired by the aforementioned book. It is my notation of meaningless posts and status updates that are useless and annoying to everybody but the person who initiated them.

Example: “Just had lunch at Wolfgang Puck with Susie, Johnny, and Big Al.”

My response (Either mentally or actually, by Direct Tweet, Direct Message or Public Facebook Wall Post): “Did you have a ham sandwich?”

It’s my not-so-subtle sarcastic way of nudging the poster or blogger with the subtext: “I read your item. Am I supposed to know who Susie, Johnny and Al are? Am I supposed be impressed you lunched at Wolfgang Puck. Why don’t just tell me you had a ham sandwich. That would be equally unimpressive and unnecessary?”

If you’re lunch was outstanding, take a picture of the ham sandwich. post about the freshly made Dijon mustard, the soft fresh-baked roll, and what variety of ham was involved. Then there is possibility of being entertaining. Otherwise, you’re just engaging in Ham Sandwich Marketing.

In today’s fast and furious world of communications, being boring is a big crime. Being irrelevant is a felony offense.

Don’t waste people’s time. Be interesting or be gone!

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority
The Wedding Marketing Blog

Facebook Removes PERSONAL PROMOTED POSTS option

At the Wedding MBA Conference, last week, I made a presentation on blogging, asserting it should be the foundation of every wedding businesses’ online marketing program. I referenced an article I’d read, which said (paraphrasing)…

“Would you rather own your social media platform or rent it?”

The point being, you can post to your heart’s content, about whatever you think is relevant and important, on your blog. However, when using other platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc., you are subject to changes in their policies and rules, often made overnight and without warning.

In the words of Tony Kornheiser,

“I believe I had that right!”

Almost on cue, Facebook removed the option to Promote a post, at a price of $6.99. For those people who have been using a Facebook personal page for business purposes, you have been left high and dry. Early in the year, business owners were first mystified, and then enraged, and their reach on Facebook updates took a decided downturn.

Over time, each time Facebook tweaked their algorithms which determine who sees your update, the raw percentage dwindled. By early 2014, only 6-7% of your Facebook friends were getting your updates on their news feed. Now, GETTING THEM doesn’t mean SEEING THEM. The news feed flies by, and friends may or may not see them.

Facebook was presenting us with news feed of organic, promoted and sponsored updates. In simple terms, with dwindling reach, you presented an opportunity to buy back visibility to the friends YOU ACCUMULATED , often over a long period.

Congratulations! The rug has officially been pulled from beneath your feet.

I have insisted, over several years that using a personal page for business would be fine, until Facebook decided to pull the plug. And, at that point, it would be smart to have a business page, up and running.

In my mind, many of us have been in denial about the ongoing benefits of Facebook. If you build a business page on Facebook, that’s a good move; however, you still have to pay to BOOST your updates, there.

The stronger move is to build and support a business blog (or fortify an existing one) and attract an audience, directly, and with various Social Media platforms as leverage, in this effort.

This post is not an “I told you so”

It simply points out a significant change in Facebook marketing, and suggests that each business look for more stable ways to share its news and marketing messages.

NEXT PREDICTION: Facebook will freeze personal pages being used, primarily, for business purposes.

Andy Ebon
The Wedding Marketing Authority

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