ARE YOU AN NFORMER OR A MEFORMER?

byTedJanusz

n social media sites, about B0 percent of us share a common characteristic.

According to researchers at Rutgers Universiry the vast majority of us use
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedln, and other popular sites to talk about
ourselves (in other words, we are "meformers"). Only about one-fifth of users take
advantage of these tools to primarily share information that could benefit someone
else ('infomers"). Which are you?
An example of a post an informer

.a

might sendwould begin "Time-sav-

accounts, here were the top six reasons:

JtrP

s Too many updates all at once.

a Uninteresting topics.
* Mundane details of daily life

ing detour around the new constr-uc-

tion." A meformer might begin a

tweetwith "me now" information,

('meformer").
e Politics.

such as "tired and upset."

Here is the takeaway: Informers have twice as many followers
as meformers.

a Advertisement.
Automatically generated tweet.

Like Clockwork

lfYou're Happy andYou

Know lt
It also helps to be upbeat. According to social media
scientist Dan Zarre11a, "Negative remarks include things
iike sadness, aggression, negative emotions and feelings,
arld morbid comments. Nobody likes to follou. a Debbie
Downer. Accounts with lots of followers don't tend to
make many negative remarks.

Ifyou want more follow-

The use ofschedulers foryour social media

updates can be helpful, especially because

with
Twitter at all times and tend to read mostly real-time
t\,yeets. But as digital strategist Charles Cunningham
your followers are unlikelyto be engaged

warns, 'Automation of your digital netvrorks is incredibly

tempting but you aren't going to see the results you would
from an organic approach." Be a person, not a robot.

ers, cheer up!"

Give People What They Want

OtherThings Not to Do onTwitter

The following list of no-no's comes from Alice Martin,
president of Shroomsociai:
TED JANUSZ is
a professional
speaker on the topic
of "social media

for baby boomers,"

author, and marketing
consultant. He is the
author of the Social
Media Marketing
Guide for Parking

Professionals,which
is a free publication
for lPl members and
can be downloaded
from parking.org/
socialmediaguide.
He can be

reached at ted@
ja n uspresentations.
com or 614.440.7487.

14

&

#Tul-tweeting under the influence.

#LOL

Need I say more?

x Never glve your password when prompted to after

opening a link. Your account will be hacked, sending
spamming messages to the last people you followed.
* Don't send several tweets to people who don't follow
you back or you risk suspension.
x Sending the same link or tweet out within a 24-hour
timeframe is considered spam.

Formulate a social media policy for your parking facility,

bearingin mind research conducted recentlyfor TWitter
UK by Nielson, which discovered the top eight reasons
why people follow brands:
. They like the brand.
. To be notified ofspecial offers/promotions.
. Staying up-to-date with brand news.
. Learning about new products and services.
. Current customers.
. To take part in competitions.
. They tweet interesting or entertaining content.

a Don'tbe abul1y.

To get freebies.

Kevan Lee of BufferSocial sums it up: "TWitter users

* Don't

love discounts and freebies, and they are like1y to

e #Don't #over-do +hashtags.

brand to get some goods. Ifyou can add value in this

way-you might see your followers grow."

l'm Outta Here!

often,

ask inappropriate questions publicly or send

private direct messages to those who don't follow you.

follow

Lee summarizes by saying, "Post to social media

as

part ofa consistent, dependable strategy. You're

group ofKorean

bound to get better as you go, and people are going to

researchers to determine why someone might unfollow

notice and appreciate that you're sticking around to stay

connected."

An interesting study was conducted by

a

Twitter account. After looking at

TNTERNATTONAL pARKtNG tNST|TUTE I

VnV

1.2

ZOrS

million Twitter

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