In the digital age where we must dodge Game of Thrones spoilers everywhere we turn (some might say it is even your fault for not keeping up), we must protect Avengers: Endgame at all costs. The highly anticipated premiere is tonight, culminating an era comprising 22 movies and perhaps the highest-grossing franchise of all time. For those of you who were quick enough to snatch your movie tickets two weeks ago, kudos to you. For those of us who have work and must wait until the weekend, I wish you all the best.
But what about those who are the latter and can’t stay offline due to their job? For those Marvel fans who double as social media managers or Digital content writers, you have to always be monitoring what’s trending and what the hot topics are online. But how can you hop on the Twitter trending topics when those inconsiderate trolls are sneaking Endgame spoilers throughout the timeline? Here’s how to avoid ruining your Endgame experience.
Schedule. Schedule. Schedule. As a social media manager, or whatever your online post is, you should already be familiar with social media calendars. Curating your monthly posts so as to not be scrambling at the last minute is basic social media practice. Now more than ever, you must prepare for at least the next few days every single post across social channels you need to put online for your brand. Schedule them out and that lessens the likelihood of you spotting something you didn’t want to.
Mute like your life depends on it. Twitter has this nifty little feature where you can mute words or phrases so they don’t pop up on your timeline. This might be tricky, as you might think you muted all the main phrases and important characters’ names and then wham! You forgot about some secondary character and then their death or some other spoiler slaps you in the face while scrolling.
Delete the apps and manage on desktop. If your brand/company doesn’t have a floater social media smartphone, you more than likely manage social media monitoring tools, like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, on your desktop. These are great platforms where you can customize social listening to your brand, so you can avoid anything that doesn’t pertain to you. You will still see your mentions, comments and timeline still without the risk of being spoiled like when scrolling on your phone. That said, delete all your social media apps. That might be the only definite way you won’t be tempted to search the #Endgame hashtag tonight. Besides, if you’re a Marvel fan, (like me) and have been waiting for this moment for a looooong time, not being on social for a couple days is worth it.
When all else fails, avoid Twitter like the plague and hope your boss understands. With such a gargantuan franchise coming to an end in the MCU, you can’t take any chances. Especially if you’ve done the effort of buying tickets beforehand, had a Marvel watch party leading up to it, and are avoiding wearing mascara to the showing because we all know it will be a sob fest. If you’ve done all of the above, you should be fairly safe, but you never know when someone coming out of the theater as you’re walking in might murmur something that undoes everything.
Even if you do get spoiled, don’t let it ruin your anticipation. Regardless, the movie ought to be a good one, even if you sort of know how it ends. Sit back with your snacks, have fun, and remember: Don’t Spoil the Endgame.
How would the words from the “Father of Advertising” be like for today’s social media?
Cultural icon and advertising giant, David Ogilvy is the original “Mad Man” that graced the streets of Manhattan from the late 1940s (when Ogilvy & Mather was founded) to the 1980s. Known as the “Father of Advertising,” Ogilvy was a tycoon and pioneer not only in the advertising world, but to all writers and businessmen around the globe. Here is a memo he sent to his Ogilvy & Mather staff in 1982:
Courtesy of Ogilvy
Ogilvy’s (they recently when through a name change) client work have won umpteen awards and their whole brand aesthetic is the envy of the advertising world. (Just peep their Instagram.) Ogilvy’s words and writing tips have transformed the writing world, from small bloggers (*cough cough*) to tech giants.
In this day and age where Instagram is at the helm of the social media ship and Facebook is struggling to be the own-it-all giant, advertising takes on a whole new meaning. Now, that certain face wash isn’t bracketed by sitcom episodes on the TV or slapped inside a magazine at the salon – instead, your favorite influencer holds it in front of her for an Instagram portrait, the caption greeting being *AD*. Or maybe it’s on a promoted Tweet while scrolling across your feed. Whatever the medium, it’s clear the game has changed. However, David’s words still ring true and prove to be beneficial if you want to make it in the social media world – whether as a consumer yourself, or the one selling.
Here are 5 writing tips from David himself – but the catch is they have been modified (by moi) to fit into today’s Twittering-influencer/millennial-y world. (*All original photos credited to Ogilvy; red corrections added by me.)
1.
We are constantly being bombarded every day by sponsored posts, promoted tweets, and the occasional pop-up ad sneak attack when we are just window shopping for a pack of face masks on Amazon. We do realize people have to make a living obviously, but the way things are marketed to us today is different than it was a decade ago. Heck, a year ago. Unless your post contains something different, something that doesn’t blatantly scream “I AM BEING PAID BY EVIAN WATER FOR THIS POST CLICK CLICK LINK IN BIO” people will discredit you as someone who only cares about being sponsored, not about the followers.
Your sponsored product these days have to be more than ‘buy this, buy this’ just because you want the commission. Many influencers are partnering more and more with products that fit their own brand ideals. Take a look at the Canadian sisters behind @Wellnesstravelled. Their goal is to attempt to travel while creating ZERO waste. That’s right. They’re doing the impossible. Behind every post is a stronger purpose, something bigger than them – even bigger than their followers. And precisely because of this, they get the attention they deserve. They move their audience to follow in their footsteps in helping the environment. I’m not saying you have to do something that grand, but as long as the idea seems big to you – or to your followers – you’re bound to get the traction you need.
2.
I only agree with this somewhat, as many brilliantly creative posts are out there that do not get as much likes as, say, a celebrity’s bare bottom. BUT in the grander scheme of things, this proves to be true for many influencers and brands in the industry. Anybody can take a bikini shot in front of a beach, pretending to not notice the camera. But a small toy llama sunbathing? Now that’s not something you see everyday. This is Eylul Savas’ goal with the account @LlamaWithnoDrama– people’s feeds are saturated with too many bathtub-Bali shots, but a llama in a bathtub instills more fun, cute responses and not any of the envious ones. This account has hundreds of thousands of followers, all coming along on Llama’s adventure, because it is something different than they’re used to.
Or how about @Ihavethisthingwithfloors, this account is all overhead shots of feet standing primly on top of a usually-gorgeous but always different floor. Their feed is about one thing: Floors. With all kinds of patterns, textures and wordings, this grid looks very pleasing to the eye and will also make you stop while scrolling and definitely double-tap. Neat, right? Something as simply creative as this can make you stand out.
3.
Scrolling through your Twitter feed you will see the truth of this message. Almost all of the tweets that go viral were either birthed as jokes or spin something newsworthy into a humorous angle. More and more corporate accounts have been leaning to the self-deprecating “savage” humor to cater to millennials. Take infamous Wendy’s, for example. The giant fast-food chain’s Twitter account is chock-full of viral content, as far as participating in a National Roast Day where they dissed (prominent) accounts all day. The streaming platform Netflix has also recently caught on trend, even dropping F-bombs on the platform, the only consequence being thousands of retweets.
I’d recommend against using profanity to garner some engagement of course, (especially if it doesn’t fit your brand guidelines.) Baby steps: Don’t be so formal online, at least not on Twitter. Take on a personal tone, and engage in a trending meme now and then, with measure. By lightly joking with audience members, people will feel the brand is more authentic and engage more with your brand.
4.
This one proves to be true for almost all social platforms. Many studies on Instagram posts – especially after the new algorithm – show that engagement does not fall when posting more frequently. In fact, you will more than likely get even more followers if you post 1.5 times a day. The more you post, the more relevant you become. While many fashion brands prove to be quite successful by posting even 30 times a day, it all depends on your brand. There’s always the concern of ‘spamming’ your followers, and this is where the next tip (#5) will come in. You need to listen to your data and your audience. Don’t take Instagram insights for granted, and post at peak times to see how you perform. Try posting every day for a week and see what difference it makes. I know for the brand I manage, posting every day proved to be a huge success, getting almost double engagement than it usually did.
5.
Insights and Analytics are there for a reason. Posting blindly will result in almost no engagement, unless you’re lucky or have really, really loyal fans. This doesn’t only go for influencers, but all brands. Without a strategy, you are bound to get nowhere with your social media. Having a content calendar scheduled for every post is imperative if you want to build up your brand online. There are many free tools online that can help you do this, or you can do it yourself every month by writing up a calendar on Excel.
Know your audience: what do they like? What are their interests? When are they on Facebook? Target them using these facts available to you for free. If you want to delve deeper into the data behind your socials, there are also tools for that. But don’t ignore the data, at the very least know who you’re talking to whenever you post.
These are just a few tips from David that I have altered to fit today’s social ambience. Digital marketing is a living, breathing thing: always changing, hence a year from now many of these might not even be true anymore. If you’re obsessed with social, or if your job requires you to be, you might have known many of these things already, or have a few thoughts of your own. Do you agree with these tips? Were they helpful or not? Let me know what you think in the comments!
Below are a few more of my favorite quotes from David that didn’t make the cut:
Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.
If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.
If you can’t advertise yourself, what hope do you have of advertising anything else?
The Pen & Harpoon 