Can you feel that? Summer is coming. With Memorial Day right around the corner and summer travel plans on the brain, this week’s Social Media Face Off is a battle between two of the largest travel websites—Expedia and Priceline.

In order to compare the brands on social, we set up search streams for each brand in the uberVU platform and compared the results from the past two weeks to determine our winner.

Fasten your seat belt and secure your tray tables. Let’s find out which travel booking site is first class in social.

Round One: Mentions

Expedia takes off first with 13,362 mentions, easily topping Priceline’s 7,016 mentions.

mentions

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The conversation maps in the uberVU platform show the most-talked about topics for a particular keyword or company name. Brands can find helpful insights from the maps by identifying hot topics amongst their audience. It would be easy for a brand to brush off words or phrases in the maps that seemingly don’t belong, but sometimes the insights behind them tell a real story that could be helpful to the brand’s marketing efforts. And sometimes they’re just funny.

We’ve been keeping tabs on some of the top brands for awhile now, so we decided to take a look at their social conversations for the past three months to see if anything out of the ordinary popped up. Here’s what we found.

Applebee’s

The conversation map for Applebee’s highlights the social web’s sentiment about the brand with phrases like “you are amazing” and “ILYSM” (translation: I love you so much. Don’t worry, we had to look it up) trending. But the word that was used the most was “Liam.” Why? Well if you’re 13 years old that name should ring a bell. One Direction’s Liam Payne tweeted about how he would love to go to Applebee’s in December and it continues to trend for the brand today. Sign that kid up for an endorsement deal.

applebees

Olay

Olay’s conversation map mostly contains phrases that you would expect for the skincare line, but the phrase that was the most out of place—“25 Walmart”—was also the one that ranked the highest. We did some digging into the mentions and found the trending story responsible. Mommy blog, Blessed Beyond Words, was giving away a $25 Walmart gift card, courtesy of Olay. Mommy blogs and giveaways: true rulers of the internet.

olay

Poland Spring

“Water,” “bottle”…… “Rubio?” Marco Rubio has dominated the Poland Spring’s conversation map for the past few months thanks to his now infamous #WaterGate moment during his State of the Union rebuttal. The internet went crazy and Poland Spring got some free exposure. No word on if Poland Spring is in fact a Republican.

poland spring

American Airlines

A few phrases seemed out of place on the American Airlines map, most centering around the NBA finals being played at the American Airlines arena in Miami. The term that stuck out the most to us —being the social media nerds we are—was “Klout.” Turns out American Airlines has a new partnership with Klout that allows influencers with a Klout score over 55 to access the airline’s Admirals Clubs, regardless of whether or not they’re flying on the airline. Does that include free peanuts?

aa

Hyundai

Hyundai’s map looks pretty standard for a car company….until you get to the end. Does that say “suicide?” Hyundai Europe recently released an advertisement depicting a man attempting to commit suicide via carbon monoxide. The ad was quickly pulled, but unfortunately for Hyundai, it looks like the negative press has gained enough traction to trend for the company.

hyundai

Proactiv

A lot of celebrities endorse Proactiv, but only one has the power to trend on Proactiv’s conversation map. “Justin” would be for none other than the Biebs himself, Justin Bieber, who is a spokesperson for the brand. The singer has actually been promoting Proactiv for a few years now so we thought it was pretty interesting his name was still trending for the company. It seems as though the social web has enough jokes to keep the story going. One being how can Bieber promote an acne product when he hasn’t even hit puberty yet? I guess we’re not the only ones who think that’s funny—“puberty” is on the map too.

proactiv

 

 

We hope you enjoyed a lovely Mother’s Day and treated Mom to something nice. More importantly, we hope you took the time to sit back and reflect on just how much you’ve learned from Mom. She taught you your ABCs, your manners…and how to be a successful social media manager.

That’s right: the lessons Mom has been teaching you all along can help you be a better community manager. Who knew Mom knew so much about social media marketing?

Here are 6 Mom lessons you should remember when managing your community (because she said so).

1. Just Be Yourself

…..and everyone will love you. (Or in the case of my mom, “and if they don’t like you, then screw ‘em.”) This advice was practically written for social media. Some brands think they have to be funny, witty or plain outrageous to earn traction in the social web. But that approach won’t work for every brand. Nothing sticks out more than a social strategy that’s forced (like say a pharmaceutical company posting cat pictures). Stay on brand and your fans will like you for you.

2. Do Your Homework

Mom never let us slide when it came to our responsibilities. We always had to be prepared by doing our homework and studying for our exams. Imagine how Mom would feel if she knew you were winging it when it came to your brand’s social media marketing. (We already harped on this one but perhaps you’ll listen to Mom). Know your audience. Do your research. Have a strategy.

3. If You Can’t Say Something Nice, Don’t Say Anything at All

It’s easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment. Just remember that what happens in social media will live on forever. Once it’s out there, you can’t take it back. Take the time to think through your posts and make sure that the content is something that your brand can stand behind.

4. Call Your Grandparents

You forget and put it off, but when you finally do reach out, Grandpa and Grandma are always so excited to hear from you. It’s always easier to engage with the people who reach out to you, but we shouldn’t neglect those who need to hear from us. Remember your lurkers (the people who view your content and follow conversations but never participate). They need your attention too. So how do you reach out to them? Offer low-risk ways for them to participate in your community like polls or contests. Track successful content and use it to figure out what they’re responding to.

5. You Can’t Have Dessert Unless You Eat Your Vegetables

She was really strict on this one too, wasn’t she? Well, so is your community. If you spend the majority of your time promoting your brand—a marketer’s sweet indulgence—you’ll ruin your community’s meal. Remember the 70/20/10 rule. 70% of your posts should be interesting, beneficial content, 20% should be shared content and only 10% should be promotional. You can’t have your cake until you earn the trust of your community by providing value.

6. Stop Hitting Your Brother

But he hit you first! That excuse never worked with Mom and it’s not going to fly with your social audience either. While it’s tempting to respond to nasty comments or troll-like behavior, you have to be the bigger person (more Mom wisdom). Respond to any controversy quickly and with facts—leave emotions out of it. Be empathetic, but don’t let yourself get drawn into a fight. Always remember that you are representing your brand and company.

Facebook can’t be that hard, right? Your mom certainly seems to be figuring it out. Mom might even make an excellent community manager—if her brand’s community wanted to see pictures from your fifth birthday party. Thankfully, your brand’s audience wants more than your embarrassment. So, what exactly do they want? Well, as the social media manager managing your brand’s Facebook account, you’ll have to experiment to figure that out. But we can tell you what they don’t want.

Avoid these 8 Facebook mistakes to ensure your brand’s likability:

1. Winging It

That’s right: You need a plan. And no, your plan can’t be just to have a Facebook page for the sake of having one. Your page needs to serve a purpose and you need to have a real goal in mind. Are you going to use your page to build brand awareness? Will you use it for an extension of customer service? Are you using it to connect with fans? You must decide on your direction and then tailor your posts for that reason.

2. Making Facebook Mad

One way to definitely fail at managing a Facebook community would be to have your content deleted by Facebook itself. You have to play by the rules.

Facebook has strict rules regarding brand pages and it is your responsibility to know them. One recent update that we’ve seen become a problem for brands is the 20% rule. Profile images, cover images and promoted image content cannot contain more than 20% text. If you violate this rule, your image is sure to be rejected or taken down.

facebook_image

Not sure if your cover photo has too much text? Check out this handy tool to test whether your image adheres to the 20% text rule.

3. You. Never. Stop. Talking

Have you ever had a conversation with someone where you couldn’t get a word in? You learned all about their life but they didn’t ask you one question about yours. Annoying, isn’t it? One-sided conversations are the worst—online and off. There is a big difference between talking to your fans and talking at them. Interact with your community by asking and replying to questions. Listening and reacting is the only way to step out from the noise and be part of the conversation.

Engaging is now easier with Facebook’s new reply feature, which allows you to reply directly to comments left on your page and start conversation threads. Plus, the most active conversations among your audience now appear at the top of the posts ensuring that people who visit your page will see the best conversations. This also makes your replies stand out more, which is helpful in showing just how much your brand is engaging with its audience.

macys

4. Being Shady or Lazy

In addition to interacting with your community you also have to monitor them. And by monitoring we don’t mean deleting every post you don’t like. Negative feedback will happen whether you like it or not. Acknowledge the negative rather than cover it up. Deleting negative comments will only further enrage the angry posters and will make you look sneaky.

What you are allowed to delete is spam or anything that you find inappropriate. It is important to establish a moderation policy that makes it clear to your audience what is acceptable on your page and what is not. uberVU’s page points out what types of posts we would remove from our page—things like “hateful remarks or threats against countries, ethnicities or other groups of people.”

Make sure to check your page and comments regularly so spam or inappropriate posts don’t get out of control. An overload of spam on a company page shows just how little the brand is using it. And who wants to follow a company who is not present and actively engaged?

5. Looking Like a Dictionary

So. Much. Text. Facebook is visual so don’t bore your audience with text-heavy posts. Trust us, no one goes on Facebook for a nice, long read. Add some fun to your content with bright, vivid images. They will be sure to catch people’s eyes and draw them into your page.

Posting images is now even more important with regards to Facebook’s recent changes to the news feed. After realizing that 50% of news feed content was images, Facebook’s new feed now focuses on making those images stand out even more. This means that long text posts will be easily lost in the shuffle.

Start to think about new ways to tell your stories. Add images where appropriate, but do not add an image for the sake of adding an image. It should be relevant to the content and ideally add value.

news

6. Tweet Assault

Your tweets aren’t invited to the Facebook party. Why? Because Twitter and Facebook are two very different networks. Twitter is fast paced and high-volume which means you can tweet twenty times a day and no one will blink. Facebook is much more personal and relaxed. Fans do not expect (or want) to read your daily posts plus twenty tweets every day.

Because the networks are so different, the content you provide on each should differ as well. Your fans on Facebook expect different things from you than your followers on Twitter. So please, do NOT auto-publish your tweets onto Facebook. If your fans wanted to read each and every one of your tweets, they would follow you on Twitter.

7. “Like” Abuse

“Like this if you don’t kick puppies.” We’ve all seen these kinds of posts (and probably “Liked” them out of sheer guilt). But did these “Likes” result in any real worth for the original posters?

Likes and Shares are important. The more people that “Like” or share your posts, the more people the message is reaching. But is that message enhancing your brand? The amount of “Likes” won’t matter if the message has no value. Emotionally manipulating your fans into sharing or liking a post will not gain you meaningful exposure or engagement.

If you’re posting interesting content that’s right for your brand, the right fans will share it, which means it is more likely to reach your intended audience. Fans who genuinely like your content will promote it because they want to, not because you’re guilting them into sharing it.

8. Being Boring or Annoying

Forget your paycheck for a moment. Would you like your page?

Think of your Facebook page as an extension of your brand. The page is not there just to reiterate everything on your website but rather to provide additional, exclusive content. This means offering your fans something they won’t be able to get anywhere else. Perhaps it’s a behind-the-scenes look at your company or tips for using your product. Mix it up and keep it fun.

What this exclusive content shouldn’t be is a constant sales pitch. Using your page to only repurpose sales messages is more likely to annoy than actually work. Try to keep promotional messages to a 10% minimum. The remaining 90% should be valuable content that your audience wants—both original content and other’s content you choose to share.

Need help with Twitter, too? Check out our 7 Common Twitter Mistakes & How to Avoid Them

In this week’s Social Media Face Off we decided to put two of the world’s top fashion magazines head-to-head. ELLE and Vogue are both staples in the fashion industry— and hair salons— across the globe, but which magazine is the supreme social fashionista?

In order to compare the brands on social, we set up search streams for each brand in the uberVU platform. Deciding to judge the magazines based on the brand names themselves, we searched in all languages and included mentions for all international and US editions. We also isolated out ELLE magazine mentions from the common usage of the word “elle” which means ‘she’ and ‘her’ in French. We’ve compared the results from the past two weeks to determine our winner.

The stilettos are on. Let’s see which magazine is working the social media runway best.

Round One: Mentions

In round one, we have a clear winner. With 20,105 total mentions, ELLE more than doubles Vogue’s 9,522 mentions.

mentions

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