Top 10 Social Media Marketing #FAILS of 2013 [INFOGRAPHIC]

Let’s face it: Sometimes the best way to learn is from the mistakes of others.

As businesses and agencies continue to develop social media strategies, the list of campaigns that have blown up in certain brands’ faces grows longer.

Of course, social media mishaps can sometimes get more press than the social media programs that actually work as they were designed to. Just look at 2013′s strangest social media strategy — the faked Chipotle Twitter account hack. Meanwhile, an actual Twitter hack on Burger King’s account gained the fast-food chain hundreds of thousands of followers this past February.

Well, 2013 had its fair share of companies that created a stir in the social media world. From choosing the correct platform for your campaign to quelling your rage before posting to thinking about all the consequences of promoting a live chat,  there’s plenty of  important lessons to be learned from each of these high-profile fubars.

The infographic below presents 10 of the best (worst) social media fails of 2013.

Image: masters-in-marketing.org

How to Customize Your Social Share Buttons for Increased Traffic

Are you happy with how social share buttons work on your website?

Do they auto-populate with information that makes your brand look good on social networks?

To maximize the benefits of social sharingon your website, you need to make sure  your social share buttons contain customized messaging that’s easy for your readers to use and benefits your brand.

In this article, I’ll focus on how to optimize the top social share buttons for your website.

What’s an Optimized Share Button?

An optimized share button automatically generates a sharable message with custom information for your brand.

Here’s an example of a social share button tweet that’s not optimized with custom information.

Here’s an example of a tweet that has not been customized.

While the product ID number shows in the URL, the tweet is missing the brand’s Twitter handle and hashtags. Including these items would help the brand increase followers, reach and engagement.

Here’s an example of a social share button tweet that’s optimized to auto-populate with the brand’s Twitter handle.

This tweet has been customized to display the product name and color number within the URL, and includes the brand’s Twitter handle.

Notice the additional information included thanks to the customized URL in the tweet above.

Customized share buttons let your readers share useful information and help you control brand messaging at the same time.

Installing Social Share Buttons

Each social channel handles share buttons differently and allows for various levels of customization. All channels offer options for look and feel, size, share count, connection annotations and what metadata is automatically pulled through the widget.

Below, I cover share buttons for Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Facebook and email.

I’ll explain which buttons let you add your username or include hashtags; how URLs, images and page summaries are rendered; and how to best install and customize each button.

If you have a basic familiarity with HTML, the buttons are relatively easy to install. You can also send this to the person who does your technical web support.

#1: Twitter Share Button

Have you ever wanted to retweet something from someone you wanted to network with, but couldn’t find his or her Twitter handle in the automated tweet? Did you look for a Twitter handle to include in the retweet? Or did you abandon your networking endeavors?

In the example below, the Tweet button on ModCloth’s blog automatically pulls through the blog title, a custom shortened URL and their Twitter handle.

This is an example of a tweet from a customized Tweet button.

Here’s how the message looks when tweeted.

Here’s how you can customize the Twitter Share button:

Step 1: Go to Twitter Buttons and select the “Share a link” button you like best.

Complete the form fields in Options and make sure to include your Twitter username in the Via and/or Recommend section.

Select “Use the page URL” for share URL and “Use the title of the page” for tweet text.

Customize your Twitter Share button with your Twitter handle and any relevant hashtags.

Step 2: Click the Tweet button to preview how your tweets will display.

Preview the auto-populated message to see how it looks with your customizations.

Step 3: When you’re satisfied with how the tweet looks, copy and paste the code into the HTML for your site in the location you’d like the button to display.

Save the change to your site and you have a customized Tweet button.

#2: Google +1 Button

The Google +1 button attributes include the page title, URL, image and recommendations.

Simple’s Google +1 buttons automatically pull through article titles and images.

You can also select from advanced options, including how the +1 button loads, to better fit the needs of your website. For example, select Asynchronous JavaScript loading to improve page load time by allowing the browser to load the page and the +1 button code at the same time.

Google+ pulls information to auto-populate in one of four ways, in this order:

• Schema.org
• Open Graph Protocol
• Title and meta description
• Google’s best guess from page content

To ensure the best rendering of the share message and create the most eye-catching message, I recommend you implement both Schema and Open Graph on your site.

Visit the Google Developers page and follow the instructions below to customize your Google+ button.

Step 1: Select the desired button size, annotation format (meaning where the share count displays) and width.

Customize the size and format of your Google +1 button.

Step 2: Select the appropriate advanced options.

Advanced Google +1 button options allow you to choose how the button loads on the page, impacting render time.

Step 3: Now that you’ve formatted your button, click “Want to customize your snippet?” below the preview and code to customize the share message.

Here’s where you can customize the message that is auto-populated for the Google +1 button.

Step 4: Copy the snippet code and the button code from step 2, and paste them where you want the button to appear.

Preview the share button and copy your code here.

Just like that, you have an optimized Google+ button on your site.

#3: LinkedIn Share Button

LinkedIn’s Share button is more basic than those for other social media networks. And it isn’t for every brand, but should be included if you deliver B2B content.

The LinkedIn Share button not only pulls through your title, description and image from the page, it also lets users edit the post.

The target audience for American Express’s Open Forum blog is entrepreneurs and SMB owners; therefore, it makes sense that LinkedIn is the first button in their share options.

To install the LinkedIn Share button, visit the LinkedIn Share Button generator and follow instructions below.

Step 1: Leave the URL to be shared blank and it will default to pulling the current page. Select how you want the share count to display.

Select your preferred format for the LinkedIn Share button.

Step 2: Preview your button. If you’re satisfied, click “Get Code,” then copy and paste it where you want the button to display.

Copy the code generated for your LinkedIn Share button.

That’s it! Your optimized LinkedIn Share button is ready to go to work.

#4: Pinterest Pin It Button

Because Pinterest is image-based, the Pin It button only works on pages that include an image.

The Pin It button ignores any background images in your CSS and pulls any content within tags that are at least 80×80 pixels.

If your page has multiple images, they are listed in the order in which they are specified in the HTML file.

Fab.com coded their Pin It buttons to automatically show their brand name in the pin description.

Pin It buttons require a bit more advanced coding than other sharing buttons. Don’t be afraid to check with your web developer to make sure you’re using the correct URL, image and description. When you’re ready to build your button, visit thePinterest Widget builder to get started.

#5: Facebook Share Button

Facebook offers two types of buttons: Facebook Like and Facebook Share. Both buttons allow users to share your content on Facebook and create a story on their news feed. The difference is in how the news feed stories display and how much control the user has in crafting that story.

While both buttons allow users to add a comment and tag friends, the Facebook Like button doesn’t allow them to edit the headline, description or thumbnail image.

Here’s a Facebook Like button dialog box. Note that you’re unable to choose the thumbnail image or edit the title or description.

The Facebook Share button lets users make these changes. That means more exposure and engagement for you because the reader can personalize the post for their audience.

In this image you can see how the Facebook Share button allows the user to edit the description (highlighted in blue).

For this reason, I recommend you create a customized Facebook Share button for your website.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to add Facebook Share buttons to your site:

Step 1: Leave the URL field blank, as this will default to sharing the page that the button lives on. Enter the width that makes sense for your page design.

Then choose from six different layouts that combine different designs and share count displays. I recommend you use a version with share count to increase sharing—if readers see that others have shared something, they’re more likely to share it themselves.

Customize and preview the Facebook Share button.

Choose from six different layout options for the Facebook Share button.

Step 2: Click “Get Code” and choose between HTML5 and XFBML (iFrame and URL do not work with the Share button).

Copy the code that Facebook generates for your Share button.

Step 3: Copy and paste the code where you want the button to appear on the page.

Step 4: Include the proper Open Graph (OG) tags in your page to allow for more appealing share messages. The basic OG tags to use are title, site_name, URL, description, image and app_id (this tells Facebook what the site is and allows Insights to work).

An OG tag for a page title looks like this:

Depending on your business’s industry and the type of content being shared, you can also include other OG tags like media type (this defaults to the website if no media type is specified), locale, author and publisher. It may seem complicated, but know that OG is just meta-tags and your web developer should be familiar with them. Learn more about Facebook Open Graph.

Once the code is copied and saved to your site, the Facebook Share button is installed.

#6: Email This Button

True, email is not considered a social media network. However, according to research by The Atlantic, emails, instant messages and other “dark social” channels account for 69% of the sharing that occurs online.

These objects are considered “dark social” because they’re untrackable throughGoogle Analytics as people typically copy and paste a direct link, which shows as direct traffic in analytics.

Email buttons differ based on whether you’re using HTML, CSS or another programming language. Regardless of which language was used to build your site,make sure the title pulls through as the email subject line, and the URL renders correctly in the body copy so that the recipient can easily click on the link to visit the source from any email platform and device.

Work on your own or with a designer to develop a button that matches the look and feel of your site. Then add this code, which will open up the user’s default email client and create a new message:

mailto:email@domain.com?subject=page title”>email button

How to Measure and Enhance Performance

Google Analytics shows activity on these buttons within the Social Plugins section. You can also use Event Tracking to see how many users click on each social share button.

Keep an eye on the volume of shares for each button.

If you find that one button isn’t generating any shares, your audience simply may not use that social media channel. Consider removing the button to make room for others that perform well.

Conclusion

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest are arguably the top 5 social networks today. While you should make it easy for your readers to share your content on these networks, you should also make it a priority to control how your content looks when it’s shared.

Take advantage of the custom attributes each platform’s share button provides to helpensure that your brand messaging stays intact when your content is shared.

What do you think? How do you use social sharing on your site? Which buttons have you seen the most success with? Share your experiences in the comments below.

Blog Growth: How to Build a Mega-Following

Do you want to attract a bigger audience to your blog?

Are you wondering how you can write content that will generate more comments, shares and subscribers?

To learn how to grow a successful blog, I interview Syed Balkhi for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Syed Balkhi, founder of multiple popular websites, including WPBeginner andList25. He’s also the founder ofOptinMonster.

Syed shares how he grew his very popular sites and provides actionable tips that you can employ to grow your own blog traffic.

You’ll learn about the different types of content that work best and some profitable choices for monetization.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!

Listen Now

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher or Blackberry.

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Blog Growth

The idea for WPBeginner

Back in 2009, Syed did consulting work for small businesses, with a lot of the work retainer-based. To free up some time, he decided to switch his clients to WordPress, which would give them the ability to change their own text and not have to contact him directly.

Once this change happened, Syed was still approached with the same questions about WordPress. At the time there was no other WordPress resource site out there for beginners. So WPBeginner was formed on July 4, 2009.

WPBeginner was started because so many people were asking the same questions about WordPress.

Syed explains how his goal in the beginning was to produce multiple posts a day and answer all of the questions that he was asked. The idea was to put the answers on the website so he could link back to them, rather than send an email.

When he noticed that other people were using the site, he knew there was definitely a market for it.

You’ll hear how Syed used Twitter to help with content creation and why he used Diggand StumbleUpon to push articles.

Listen to the show to find out why it was Syed’s goal to help individuals, rather than have hugely popular articles.

WPBeginner’s site metrics

Syed states that WPBeginner gets an average of 1.5 million page views a month and they have just over 70,000 followers on Twitter.

Listen to the show to find out how these figures are similar to Social Media Examiner’s.

The lessons learned about content creation

From the very beginning, Syed built an email list, but he didn’t engage with it. At first, he didn’t realize the value of asking people to ask you questions.

Now when you subscribe to WPBeginner, it asks you one question: “What is the one thing we can help you with right now?”

Once you have subscribed to WPBeginner, you are given the opportunity to ask one question.

You’ll discover why there is huge value in this one question and how this has changed the way WPBeginner creates content.

Syed used to be the only person who wrote articles, but the site now has multiple writers with a very good editorial workflow.

Listen to the show to hear how the interaction and response to email has developed the WPBeginner community.

WPBeginner’s business model

Syed explains that his business is monetized through building WordPress applications and plugins. A lot of the time, it’s conversion marketing for clients.

The WPBeginner brand allows them to position themselves as experts. Whenever somebody wants a WordPress company to work with, they automatically think of WPBeginner.

You’ll hear how they use affiliate links for paid plugins.

In the beginning, Syed tried display advertising. He had ads through AdSense,  and private ad sales. You’ll find out why these ads didn’t work for the WPBeginner audience and how affiliate deals make more sense.

Affiliate deals make more sense for the WPBeginner audience.

Listen to the show to find out why we use DoubleClick for Publishers at Social Media Examiner.

The challenges 

Syed explains that one of the biggest challenges they face is being able to stay up to date.

Blog articles can become outdated, and because of WPBeginner’s reputation, people in the WordPress community hold them to a very high standard. So they have to make sure articles are updated to the best of their ability.

The editorial team spends time making sure all articles are relevant and concurrently strives to produce new content.

Listen to the show to find out why all of WPBeginner’s articles are how-to information.

How List25 started

Syed explains that List25 is an entertainment site. Each article relates to 25 things on a particular topic. The slogan is “Consistently Conciliating Curiosity.” You’ll hear the original idea that Syed had for a new site and how it turned into List25.

List25 was launched at BlogWorld LA in November 2011.

At present, List25 has over 250,000 Facebook likes, over 530,000 YouTube subscribers and 62 million YouTube views. The site gets tons of visitors every month. It’s growing at 52,000 YouTube subscribers a month.

Syed believes the reason why it’s grown so quickly is because of the type of content. It appeals to the masses and is much more shareable. It raises curiosity in people’s minds.

You’ll discover why list-based posts are very popular and shareable.

One of the things that Syed did differently with List25 was to grow on all different outlets. You’ll find out why they have a lot of success on Tumblr and StumbleUpon, and how Syed uses Twitter search to ride the hashtag during holidays.

Listen to the show to find out how content is created for List25.

The strategy for List25′s YouTube channel

The videos on YouTube are created with the images from each article and made into a slideshow. Syed’s friend then does the voiceover from the article list.

The images from each article are compiled into a slideshow-style video for YouTube.

You’ll hear how they cross-promote their content and collaborate with various YouTube channels.

Syed says that YouTube was an experiment that turned out to be great. They now plan to put more thought into the video layout.

Listen to the show to hear how the YouTube channel drives people back to the website.

Lessons learned about these two very different websites

Syed states that with List25, you can’t control what is said. There is so much up for debate. You can only moderate it or facilitate the discussion; whereas with WPBeginner, you can engage with users and help them out.

You’ll find out why WPBeginner is easier to manage.

The reason that List25 has grown a lot faster is because Syed has a network of power users on different social media networks. He understands the game of making it go viral.

Listen to the show to find out why List25 is about stirring people’s emotions, whereas WPBeginner has a more practical approach.

High-frequency content versus low-frequency, high-quality content

Syed says it all depends on your audience. On his personal blog he writes once or twice a week, on WPBeginner he writes once a day and on List25, they publish multiple articles a day. It depends on the model you have and what your goals are.

Articles are published once a day on WPBeginner.

If you’re a small business, a coach or in a specific industry, Syed advises you to create low-frequency, high-quality content. However, if you have a site where your primary means of revenue is display advertisement, you’ve got to get more page views. This means you have to provide high-frequency content. You need to provide your audience with multiple articles.

Listen to the show to find out why it’s important to stay relevant with high-frequency content.

Survival Tip: How to Use Testimonials in Your Marketing

Recently I’ve created a new video series. I want to share with you three simple steps for using testimonials in your marketing and why they are super-powerful forms of marketing.

We did testimonials at Social Media Marketing World this year and we will use them to sell next year’s conference.

Here are three simple steps for getting successful testimonials.

1. Obtain exit surveys through audio endorsements and video. This is very easy to do. You can use a survey system like SurveyMonkey. The two questions you need to ask are, “Would you recommend this to a friend or colleague?” and “If you were recommending this to a friend or colleague, what would you say?” You’ll find out why these questions are so important.

Another powerful form of testimonial is to record someone who can recommend whatever it is you have to offer. You’ll hear a testimonial clip from Mari Smith at Social Media Marketing World. When you ask for a testimonial via video, you need to let the interviewee speak first and then always ask a follow-on question. It’s the key part of the testimonial.

2. Go through and identify the good testimonials that you might want to use.

3. Pull it all together. You’ll find out how we put all the video clips together to make one amazing video testimonial.

Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you.

Other Show Mentions

Social Media Marketing World 2014 is our physical mega-conference, which is set to return to San Diego, California on March 26, 27 and 28.

The conference features more than 60 sessions in four major tracks: social tactics, social strategy, community management and content marketing.

Click here to see the full clip of all the great video testimonials we put together for Social Media Marketing World. It’s a 10-minute video, which includes a lot of people you respect such as Chris Brogan, Mari Smith and many others, who thought this was one of the best conferences they had ever been to.

I suggest you check it out.

Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:

• Connect with Syed Balkhi on his website, his personal Twitter account or the WPBeginner Twitter account.
• Check out WPBeginner.
• Look at AdSense,  and DoubleClick for Publishers to monetize your blog with ads.
• Head over to List25 to see the type of lists they create.
• Take a look at List25 on Facebook and YouTube.
• Use Twitter search to find relevant hashtags.
• Listen to Episode 7 with Marcus Sheridan: Blogging for Business: How Content Can Improve Your Sales.
• Visit my YouTube channel to see more actionable marketing tips.
• Check out the testimonials from Social Media Marketing World 2013.
• Learn more about Social Media Marketing World 2014.
• Contact Emily at emily@socialmediaexaminer.com if you are interested in corporate sponsorships for Social Media Marketing World 2014.

Help Us Spread the Word!

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If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast, please head over to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review and subscribe. And if you listen on Stitcher, please click here to rate and review this show.

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What do you think? What are your thoughts on building a mega-following?Please leave your comments below.