MARKETING
Sense and Sociability – The Corporate Guide to Social Media Etiquette
“Women belong in the kitchen.”
Unfortunately for Burger King, this tweet definitely didn’t go down well on Twitter (no surprise).
Although it was only in subsequent tweets that the meaning of the post was explained, the damage had already been done. Burger King faced plenty of backlash and had to remove the post.
Burger King’s mishap highlights the importance of having social media etiquette standards for your company and employees. And in this article, you’ll learn how to avoid poor social media etiquette and mind your manners online.
What is Social Media Etiquette?
Social media etiquette refers to the guidelines that govern communication behavior on social platforms. It encompasses the way you share ideas and takes into account how those ideas will be perceived by others in a digital space.
Social media is now part of everyday life with over 4.4 expected users by 2025. As such, it’s a no-brainer that brands use it to communicate with their customers.
However, just as it’s crucial to practice proper etiquette when conversing in-person, you also need to do the same online.
Poor social media etiquette can lead to terrible consequences for an erring company. For example, in 2018, Snapchat lost an estimated $800 millionafter making a post that seemed to trivialize domestic violence.
If you don’t want similar terrible consequences to your business, then you need to take social media etiquette seriously.
The Benefits of Social Media Etiquette
Here are some benefits of practicing proper social media etiquette.
It makes your brand empathetic
Your audience is your greatest asset, and using proper social media etiquette forces you to put yourself in their shoes. And when you’re in their shoes, you gain a better perspective of their wants and needs.
It helps you recover from fails
There’s no perfect brand, and we all stumble at times. However, with good social media etiquette, you can recover from your mistakes. For example, despite its fail as quoted in the introduction, Burger King managed to turn things around, at least to an extent, with an apology that felt genuine.
It makes your social media campaigns more productive
Social media is a landmine that’s difficult to navigate. However, good social media etiquette can guide you and help you produce good results.
It helps you focus on what’s important
Good social media etiquette reduces the chances of starting a fire you’ll need to put out on social media. Thus, you’ll have time to focus on what’s really important: your bottom line.
It keeps you on the good side of the law
If your platform has privacy and compliance laws, good etiquette will help you stay on their good side and protect you from lawsuits and such.
It keeps you top-of-mind
When you respond quickly to feedback, even positive ones, you show that your customer’s opinions matter.
Therefore, it’ll be easier for your business to stay top-of-mind for these customers.
Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media Etiquette
Each social media platform is different, but social media etiquette transcends these differences and will result in good results regardless of the platform. Here are 5 Do’s and 5 Don’ts of social media etiquette.
Do’s of Social Media Etiquette
1. Stick to your core values
Your core values should resonate in your content. So if one core value is respect, you’d want to keep sassy comments out of your social media.
On the other hand, if your brand is big on humor, then snarky comments would be on-brand. An excellent example of this is Wendy’s.
2. Respond Quickly
Here’s an interesting stat: 79% of customers expect a responsein the first 24 hours of reaching out to your brand on social media.
So, DO respond as soon as possible. Responding quickly to positive feedback reinforces a customers’ liking of your brand.
Slow response, especially to complaints, makes customers feel like they’re left on read—and we all know how that feels.
Nike Support (@NikeSupport) replies to customers every few minutes, which is probably one reason why people love them on social media.
3. Complete your social page profile
If people come to your page and see an incomplete profile, it gives the wrong impression and they’ll feel you’re not serious enough about engaging with them.
So, complete your profile and include useful information, for example, contact information when appropriate.
Glossier’s Instagram profile, for example, contains information you need to know about it and includes its website where you can get more information.
4. Use Hashtags Correctly
Hashtags can boost engagement, but too many hashtags on a post can make you look unprofessional and annoying.
Displaying good social media etiquette will require you to use only hashtags that are relevant to the post.
Coca-Cola’s branded #ShareACoke hashtag is an excellent example of a brand that used hashtags well.
5. Post Regularly
While your audience and industry should be factored in, a good rule of thumb is to post at least once a week.
If you don’t, there’s the risk of losing out on opportunities for driving brand awareness.
Don’ts of Social Media Etiquette
1. Don’t overdo humor
Humor is subjective, and what’s funny to you might be insensitive or downright offensive to others.
If you’re not sure about how a joke would be taken, then it’s better to keep it locked away.
Aside from Wendy’s, another brand that’s hacked funny social media replies and posts is Innocent Drinks (@innocent)
2. Don’t be desperate
Don’t be desperate to get followers. It can be off-putting to see a business ask for followers every chance it gets.
By posting valuable and authentic content, you’ll be able to grow your follower count and get high-quality interactions that will attract even more people.
Fenty’s social media posts include testimonials from women of different nationalities and ethnicities, which is one reason for its rapid growth.
3. Don’t over-promote the business
Followers will quickly get tired if they see too much on social media from your brand.
Balance is key. If ever you’ll post more often than before, tell your audience beforehand and explain why. Then they’ll be less likely to unfollow you during your spree.
4. Don’t use a bot for replies
Tempted to use a bot to respond to your customers? Then you’re on your way to losing them.
Users are smart, and they can sense when a response is automated. If you can’t be online 24/7, share the hours when customers can reach you on the platform. Twitch Support’s bio contains its scope of assistance and open hours.
5. Don’t write in all caps
DO YOU WRITE IN ALL CAPS? Then you are likely stressing out your audience. Why? BECAUSE IT FEELS LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING AT THEM!
Even Twitter’s official business website for brandsadvises against tweeting in all caps.
So, stop with all caps. They aren’t funny and come off as rude and aggressive. Use all caps only when something is truly important (or exciting), and you definitely HAVE to call your audience’s attention to it.
Social Media Etiquette for Employees
Social media can be a minefield, and only good social media policies can guide brands and employees around it. Here are some guidelines to protect your employees, and by extension, your brand, from behaving indecently on social media.
Respect others
Although employees have the right to say what is on their minds and can post content on their personal time, it’s important to encourage them to be polite and calm on social media.
Thinking before replying or posting online can de-escalate a potentially bad situation.
Respect privacy and confidentiality
Social media isn’t the place to discuss sensitive company matters or disclose internal information.
As an employee, you might not realize that you’re discussing sensitive or internal matters, so the best thing is to take no chances. If it’s not your place to do so or you’re unsure, then move on without discussing such matters online.
Don’t always want to be first
There’s a rush that comes from being the first to ‘break the news.’ However, doing so might come at the cost of losing your job.
So before you post or comment, ensure you’re entitled to share the information. Even if it doesn’t get you dismissed, some information you share might hurt others and ruin relationships.
Don’t use social media on your employer’s time
Your employer is paying you for your time, so act accordingly. Don’t abuse their trust even if your employer allows you to use social media while at work.
If you’re the social media manager, stick to the professional accounts. Using that time to attend to trivial, personal stuff is unfair. It’s also risky because you could end up mixing up accounts and posting something you shouldn’t with your professional account.
Be a good company ambassador
Be mindful that you represent your employer. Thus, post information like you’re posting on their behalf.
Use good judgment when posting online. For example, if someone posts negative information about the organization, don’t fly into a confrontation. Instead, tell someone in charge who can handle the matter or give you instructions on how to handle it.
Do Social Media Etiquette The Right Way
These Dos and Don’ts of social media etiquette might seem challenging to follow. However, following them can save you and your company a lot of stress.
Several brands have experienced the power of cancel culture firsthand, and you can avoid their experiences by practicing good social media etiquette.
When you care about your audience and put yourself in their shoes, you can have a good culture of social media etiquette that will benefit your brand.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2010 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
MARKETING
YouTube Ad Specs, Sizes, and Examples [2024 Update]
Introduction
With billions of users each month, YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and top website for video content. This makes it a great place for advertising. To succeed, advertisers need to follow the correct YouTube ad specifications. These rules help your ad reach more viewers, increasing the chance of gaining new customers and boosting brand awareness.
Types of YouTube Ads
Video Ads
- Description: These play before, during, or after a YouTube video on computers or mobile devices.
- Types:
- In-stream ads: Can be skippable or non-skippable.
- Bumper ads: Non-skippable, short ads that play before, during, or after a video.
Display Ads
- Description: These appear in different spots on YouTube and usually use text or static images.
- Note: YouTube does not support display image ads directly on its app, but these can be targeted to YouTube.com through Google Display Network (GDN).
Companion Banners
- Description: Appears to the right of the YouTube player on desktop.
- Requirement: Must be purchased alongside In-stream ads, Bumper ads, or In-feed ads.
In-feed Ads
- Description: Resemble videos with images, headlines, and text. They link to a public or unlisted YouTube video.
Outstream Ads
- Description: Mobile-only video ads that play outside of YouTube, on websites and apps within the Google video partner network.
Masthead Ads
- Description: Premium, high-visibility banner ads displayed at the top of the YouTube homepage for both desktop and mobile users.
YouTube Ad Specs by Type
Skippable In-stream Video Ads
- Placement: Before, during, or after a YouTube video.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Vertical: 9:16
- Square: 1:1
- Length:
- Awareness: 15-20 seconds
- Consideration: 2-3 minutes
- Action: 15-20 seconds
Non-skippable In-stream Video Ads
- Description: Must be watched completely before the main video.
- Length: 15 seconds (or 20 seconds in certain markets).
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Vertical: 9:16
- Square: 1:1
Bumper Ads
- Length: Maximum 6 seconds.
- File Format: MP4, Quicktime, AVI, ASF, Windows Media, or MPEG.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 640 x 360px
- Vertical: 480 x 360px
In-feed Ads
- Description: Show alongside YouTube content, like search results or the Home feed.
- Resolution:
- Horizontal: 1920 x 1080px
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920px
- Square: 1080 x 1080px
- Aspect Ratio:
- Horizontal: 16:9
- Square: 1:1
- Length:
- Awareness: 15-20 seconds
- Consideration: 2-3 minutes
- Headline/Description:
- Headline: Up to 2 lines, 40 characters per line
- Description: Up to 2 lines, 35 characters per line
Display Ads
- Description: Static images or animated media that appear on YouTube next to video suggestions, in search results, or on the homepage.
- Image Size: 300×60 pixels.
- File Type: GIF, JPG, PNG.
- File Size: Max 150KB.
- Max Animation Length: 30 seconds.
Outstream Ads
- Description: Mobile-only video ads that appear on websites and apps within the Google video partner network, not on YouTube itself.
- Logo Specs:
- Square: 1:1 (200 x 200px).
- File Type: JPG, GIF, PNG.
- Max Size: 200KB.
Masthead Ads
- Description: High-visibility ads at the top of the YouTube homepage.
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080 or higher.
- File Type: JPG or PNG (without transparency).
Conclusion
YouTube offers a variety of ad formats to reach audiences effectively in 2024. Whether you want to build brand awareness, drive conversions, or target specific demographics, YouTube provides a dynamic platform for your advertising needs. Always follow Google’s advertising policies and the technical ad specs to ensure your ads perform their best. Ready to start using YouTube ads? Contact us today to get started!
MARKETING
Why We Are Always ‘Clicking to Buy’, According to Psychologists
Amazon pillows.
MARKETING
A deeper dive into data, personalization and Copilots
Salesforce launched a collection of new, generative AI-related products at Connections in Chicago this week. They included new Einstein Copilots for marketers and merchants and Einstein Personalization.
To better understand, not only the potential impact of the new products, but the evolving Salesforce architecture, we sat down with Bobby Jania, CMO, Marketing Cloud.
Dig deeper: Salesforce piles on the Einstein Copilots
Salesforce’s evolving architecture
It’s hard to deny that Salesforce likes coming up with new names for platforms and products (what happened to Customer 360?) and this can sometimes make the observer wonder if something is brand new, or old but with a brand new name. In particular, what exactly is Einstein 1 and how is it related to Salesforce Data Cloud?
“Data Cloud is built on the Einstein 1 platform,” Jania explained. “The Einstein 1 platform is our entire Salesforce platform and that includes products like Sales Cloud, Service Cloud — that it includes the original idea of Salesforce not just being in the cloud, but being multi-tenancy.”
Data Cloud — not an acquisition, of course — was built natively on that platform. It was the first product built on Hyperforce, Salesforce’s new cloud infrastructure architecture. “Since Data Cloud was on what we now call the Einstein 1 platform from Day One, it has always natively connected to, and been able to read anything in Sales Cloud, Service Cloud [and so on]. On top of that, we can now bring in, not only structured but unstructured data.”
That’s a significant progression from the position, several years ago, when Salesforce had stitched together a platform around various acquisitions (ExactTarget, for example) that didn’t necessarily talk to each other.
“At times, what we would do is have a kind of behind-the-scenes flow where data from one product could be moved into another product,” said Jania, “but in many of those cases the data would then be in both, whereas now the data is in Data Cloud. Tableau will run natively off Data Cloud; Commerce Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud — they’re all going to the same operational customer profile.” They’re not copying the data from Data Cloud, Jania confirmed.
Another thing to know is tit’s possible for Salesforce customers to import their own datasets into Data Cloud. “We wanted to create a federated data model,” said Jania. “If you’re using Snowflake, for example, we more or less virtually sit on your data lake. The value we add is that we will look at all your data and help you form these operational customer profiles.”
Let’s learn more about Einstein Copilot
“Copilot means that I have an assistant with me in the tool where I need to be working that contextually knows what I am trying to do and helps me at every step of the process,” Jania said.
For marketers, this might begin with a campaign brief developed with Copilot’s assistance, the identification of an audience based on the brief, and then the development of email or other content. “What’s really cool is the idea of Einstein Studio where our customers will create actions [for Copilot] that we hadn’t even thought about.”
Here’s a key insight (back to nomenclature). We reported on Copilot for markets, Copilot for merchants, Copilot for shoppers. It turns out, however, that there is just one Copilot, Einstein Copilot, and these are use cases. “There’s just one Copilot, we just add these for a little clarity; we’re going to talk about marketing use cases, about shoppers’ use cases. These are actions for the marketing use cases we built out of the box; you can build your own.”
It’s surely going to take a little time for marketers to learn to work easily with Copilot. “There’s always time for adoption,” Jania agreed. “What is directly connected with this is, this is my ninth Connections and this one has the most hands-on training that I’ve seen since 2014 — and a lot of that is getting people using Data Cloud, using these tools rather than just being given a demo.”
What’s new about Einstein Personalization
Salesforce Einstein has been around since 2016 and many of the use cases seem to have involved personalization in various forms. What’s new?
“Einstein Personalization is a real-time decision engine and it’s going to choose next-best-action, next-best-offer. What is new is that it’s a service now that runs natively on top of Data Cloud.” A lot of real-time decision engines need their own set of data that might actually be a subset of data. “Einstein Personalization is going to look holistically at a customer and recommend a next-best-action that could be natively surfaced in Service Cloud, Sales Cloud or Marketing Cloud.”
Finally, trust
One feature of the presentations at Connections was the reassurance that, although public LLMs like ChatGPT could be selected for application to customer data, none of that data would be retained by the LLMs. Is this just a matter of written agreements? No, not just that, said Jania.
“In the Einstein Trust Layer, all of the data, when it connects to an LLM, runs through our gateway. If there was a prompt that had personally identifiable information — a credit card number, an email address — at a mimum, all that is stripped out. The LLMs do not store the output; we store the output for auditing back in Salesforce. Any output that comes back through our gateway is logged in our system; it runs through a toxicity model; and only at the end do we put PII data back into the answer. There are real pieces beyond a handshake that this data is safe.”
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