Bridget Willard | SaaS Marketing Agency

Category: Social Media

  • Automation Removes Intimacy

    In Cincinnati, in a hotel elevator, I recognized someone I’d been following on Twitter.

    Jason said, “Wow, Bridget. You know everyone.”

    Right. It’s my job.

    The Siren Song of Automation

    Hardly a week goes by where I’m not pitched the newest, shiniest version of a social media tool or automation service. And I’ve not been shy about my feelings for the subject. The poor dead horse is being abused at this point.

    That said, there are dangers of automation. Removing yourself from understanding your customers and even knowing who they are can remove that feeling of intimacy.

    Intimacy just means hands-on or being close. There’s a revival in the crafts movement — people want to create with their hands. They are making their own bread, beer, and beading their own jewelry.

    Even in the business world, there’s a movement to go back to working in your business instead of on it. Yes, in your business — in the craft. Being hands on.

    So, why would you want to automate the most important part of your business — customer relations?

    The Power of A Name

    When I applied to be a Happiness Hero at Buffer, one of the prerequisites was to read the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. No doubt you’ve heard of it or read excerpts if not the whole thing.

    What stands out most is the power of using someone’s name. I’ve been practicing this a lot lately. In fact, I think it was misunderstood last night with our waiter as flirtation, but there is a risk in everything.

    Twitter Lists

    So, one of the most important part of my social media strategies — especially on Twitter — is listing. So, you can write a script that will add people to a list depending on the keywords they use in their bio or hashtags that they tweet. You can sign up for the brand new service that promises you’ll never have to lift a finger to tweet. But you may miss out on a lot.

    One of my rituals is reading bios and adding people to lists. When I’m notified that I get a new follower, I check out their profile, follow or not, and put them on a list. This is the first level of intimacy.

    Oh. Okay. John Doe just followed me. He lives in Orange County and is a social media marketer. I’ll put him on my Social Media list and my Orange County list.

    Whispering In Your Ear

    Back in the day, I worked at a church. The pastor could never remember anyone’s name. So, I’d stand next to him and when someone approached, he’d ask me their name and I’d whisper it in his ear.

    So that worked for a congregation with about 150-200 people which fits right in the Dunbar number if you believe that’s our social limitation.

    But will the new fancy tool do that in person? Sure, they promise the world online, but what about when you meet said follower at a conference?

    WordPress and WordCamps

    For our industry, WordCamps are our trade shows. There is at least one almost every single weekend. As a marketing manager for a WordPress Plugin Development Shop, attending these conferences and knowing our customers is important.

    Knowing your customers by name is important for a few reasons. Let’s start with common decency and manners. That should be enough.

    Let’s not forget the power of someone’s name. Is it better to greet someone as “Hey there bro” or “Hey, friend?”

    Or is it better to say,

    “Hi, Paul. How was your trip on the train?”

    It shows that you care. It increases loyalty. It is the beginning of a relationship. If you truly care about people and building up a culture of community, this is tantamount — required as a baseline.

    Knowing your customers has never been a bad thing.

    Automation Removes Intimacy

    Back to the title, “Automation Removes Intimacy.” The intimacy you have with your customers on social media is important for in-person meetings. It’s important for keeping that relationship going online.

    Social media is about connecting, as humans, to other people. Whether it’s for friendship or to increase the lifetime value of a customer, being social can never be automated.

    Well, if Science Fiction catches up to us, perhaps you can get a protocol droid like C3PO.

    Until then, be cautious when automating. You should want to spend the time getting to know your customers.

  • Why even spend time online? Human ROI

    I’ve been criticized ever since my online journey began back in the days of dial-up and AOL. (True story: I attended my first Bible study online in an AOL chat room.) Why do you spend so much time online?

    It’s become such a common occurrence that I try to never use my phone in person, save a couple of selfies.

    Case in point: A Birthday Party Tonight

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BMIp-hXAjsS/

     

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BMIqDkJgLYg/

     

    And, you know me, I have to grab a sunset.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BMILFv1AQ9t/

    The point is this:

    All of the time I have spent building relationships online has always come back as a return — in humanity.

    Human ROI

    Relationships matter because people matter. The more you invest in people the more they will invest in you. This has never failed me.

    Tonight, I was invited to a surprise birthday party for SMMOC co-founder (with his wife) Bob Watson. This group has been instrumental in my career change and path.

    Last week, I told Bob as much and he recorded a small video on his Instagram account.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BL4R_xng_eC/

    Of course, I wanted to join in the fun, see old friends, and wish Bob a very happy birthday!

    Hugs Galore!

    Though I knew I would be surrounded by my social media friends,  I became nervous (would anyone greet me? etc). So, my very good friend Jen Miller said she would be my plus one and it would be fun.

    You know what? It was fun.

    I had great conversations with people I haven’t seen (in person) in months or even  years. Yet we’ve been able to stay connected, and dare I say not superficially, online.

    I engaged in personal conversations, was part of a running birthday joke, ate dinner, drank Diet Coke, cracked jokes. I felt like me.

    You know why?

    Because I was surrounded by friends. And they weren’t fake.

    I was hugged by everyone. Because they’re real people. Real relationships. Real friends.

    Why do I spend so much time online?

    I spend time online because my friends are there. It’s not a chore. It’s not something I need to be unplugged from. It’s something that helps me feel connected to this world. Maybe I’m weird. But I think people value that time.

    Spend time on social media creating, maintaining, and deepening relationships and you’ll always get back Human ROI.

    Promise.

    😉

  • Trust & Communication: Foundations of Any Relationship

    Relationships take on many forms. We have business relationships with coworkers, employees, bosses, supervisors, vendors, and clients. We have family and spouse relationships. We have friends and people that we meet through mutual friends.

    Each category of relationship has a different level of intimacy but the same basic element is required in them all: trust. Trust comes from communication — both big talk and small talk.

    Communication in the Workplace

    “In management settings, trust increases information sharing, openness, fluidity, and cooperation.”

    It’s easy in this age of technology to take communication for granted — to presume communication. In decades past we overly relied upon in-person meetings. They were deemed a waste of time. And then we moved to conference calls, which have become a total joke. And now, we’re expected to develop relationships and collaborate on projects  solely with text-based tools like Asana, BaseCamp, Trello, and Slack.

    I read an article this week called “Let’s end the ‘schedule a call’ culture.” In it the author says,

    “I’m not entirely sure how we’re going to replace the schedule a call culture. Collaboration tools is probably the easiest answer, but …  Maybe we all just put our heads down and wait for the AI robots to take our jobs. But first, let’s discuss this schedule a call culture — albeit briefly.” Ted Bauer

    Toxic Communication*

    “In a relationship, it typically takes five good interactions to make up for a single bad one.”

    If you see warning signs early on in the relationship of unwanted behavior (badmouthing, gossip, indiscretion, inconsistent statements (lying), rudeness (especially to wait staff), irritability, tardiness, addiction, etc.), those red flags should be noted, especially if you notice a pattern.

    People don’t improve their behavior as they get to know you; rather, they feel more comfortable and become more “themselves.”

    Red flags are warnings to us all. We would be wise to heed them.

    Nonverbal Communication

    But how much communication is really verbal? This is wildly debated, but I would argue that if you only rely upon the written word you miss a lot.

    “One way of increasing your accuracy is applying the 3 C’s of Nonverbal Communication: context, clusters, and congruence.” Psychology Today

    In this world of text messages, email, and Slack, it’s a good time to talk about how much of communication is actually verbal — regardless of where you land on the research — there’s more to communication than the actual words.

    So how do you project warmth and build relationships in a primarily digital age?

    Open Communication

    Trust comes from open communication. Open communication occurs when people feel safe. We like to think it’s more complicated than that. It’s not.

    “You see, if the conditions are wrong, we are forced to expend our own time and energy to protect ourselves from each other, and that inherently weakens the organization. When we feel safe inside the organization, we will naturally combine our talents and our strengths and work tirelessly to face the dangers outside and seize the opportunities.” Simon Sinek 

    How can you make people feel safe?

    In their article called “Connect, Then Lead” on Harvard Business Review, authors Amy J.C. Cuddy, Matthew Kohut, and John Neffinger say:

    “A growing body of research suggests that the way to influence—and to lead—is to begin with warmth. Warmth is the conduit of influence: It facilitates trust and the communication and absorption of ideas. Even a few small nonverbal signals—a nod, a smile, an open gesture—can show people that you’re pleased to be in their company and attentive to their concerns. Prioritizing warmth helps you connect immediately with those around you, demonstrating that you hear them, understand them, and can be trusted by them.”

    Communication & Culture

    Culture comes from how a group relates to each other. This can be good or bad. So, intentional community building is all the rage these days. Companies who are intentional with their culture protect their culture. They seem to do this in one of two ways: either they all work in-house or have regular meetings on video (Buffer, Automattic are two examples).

    “There needs to be no advantage to being in the office, and no disadvantage to being out of the office.”” Joel Gascoigne, Buffer (They have since gotten rid of their office in San Francisco.)

    Regardless of your preference, company culture is definitely top-down.

    When asked how a middle manager can affect company culture, Simon Sinek gave this advice:

    Treat those in your realm of influence as you believe important. Meaning, do what you can where you can.

    If you feel uncomfortable at your workplace, perhaps it’s time to look elsewhere.

    It’s up to you.

    Sometimes, believe it or not, it’s difficult to engage in conversations with people. If you want a better relationship, perhaps it’s up to you.

    Maybe you need to be the person who asks how they are doing, if they watched [insert sports game here] last night, or patted them on the back (verbally, with emojis, or giphys in Slack) for a job well done.

  • Automating Friendships

    Friendship isn’t something that can appear by magic, API calls, or automated audience reports. It takes time listening, investing, responding.

    Just like in real life.

    This tweet is the inspiration for this post.

    I know that I’ve talked about relationship marketing before. It takes time.

    If we could automate friendship, there would be a lot fewer lonely people in this world.

    The lure of automation

    Automation is like the siren song to marketers luring them with promises of slick reports, extra time, and better insights. What they forget to tell you is that the rest of us can tell when something is automated.

    There is no software that will replace authentic, real interaction between you and your customer.

    Sure, you can send auto tweets thanking people, auto responders in emails, and even direct messages to people who followed you in the last ten seconds.

    Here’s the thing: we know they’re not real. So, who are you really fooling?

    Auto Direct Messages on Twitter

    I’ve talked about this for years. People are convinced that they work. For me, it’s just one more thing to delete. It’s noise that drowns out legitimate messages.

    If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d unfollow anyone who sent me one of these.

    Read these two examples. If either one of them had bothered to really check me out, they would have known that I don’t like automation.

    Automation and Curation

    Look. Let’s be honest. I have tons of friends who use APIs, RSS feeds, and other kinds of automation. They choose the people they trust then load them into Buffer or whatever. That’s fine. If you’re sure that all of the content is something you feel comfortable tweeting, posting, etc., then do it — with my blessing.

    Curating content is hard. I admit it. It means I read. It means I interact with people. I trust instinct, gut, and messaging.

    I’ve talked about it before. I curate content by curating people. I make friends, put them on Twitter Lists, and read their tweets. If their blog post, video, etc. is something that I agree with, then I will share it on the appropriate social network.

    Hybrid Approach

    Like most things in life, hybrid solutions are usually best. Of course, I schedule some tweets. What I don’t do is auto schedule based on an RSS feed or a hashtag or a keyword.

    I don’t tweet things I don’t read. Why? Because I am responsible for ensuring that the things shared for a brand do not conflict with their messaging. No app can do that.

    So, how do I make friends online?

    You talk to people.

    You can start with asking questions. You can reply to tweets. Take two weeks and spend ten minutes a day on Twitter actually talking to people. Read tweets. Get to know what the person likes.

    We call this providing value.

    You can also share their posts.

    You can comment on their blogs.

    You can step outside of your own world and read other people’s content.

    Invest in people and they’ll invest in you.

    This has been my experience.

    I believe it can be yours, too.

     

     

  • What Makes an X Profile Good For Business?

    Updated January 12, 2025

    What makes an X profile good? It depends upon your purpose. For this article your purpose is business — networking and gaining clients.

    Some people think what makes a profile good is just the number of followers. To be honest, if I see a super lopsided account (following 40 and 40,000 followers), I think they’re not being social. They’re unlikely to reply, more likely to have automated DMs, and less likely to be a contact or peer that’s useful for my network.

    Instead, I would encourage you to look deeper than just the number of followers on X. Focus your time and efforts on how to set up your account and engage well.

    You already know how to set up your X account (If you don’t, go here.) But now you want to know if your account looks professional. In other words, does your X (Twitter) profile look good to prospects?

    Not only will this article review how you set up your own account, but these points will help you decide who to follow, hire, or do business with that person or brand. For in-depth detail on Twitter Strategy, you’ll want to read the book or blog post, “The Definitive Guide to Twitter Marketing.“

    “The way you describe yourself on Twitter has everything to do with how people perceive you online. So how the heck do you do it right?”

    Buffer

    Your X (Twitter) Bio Should Be Clear

    Your bio should make sense. What is it that you do? Does your 96-year-old grandmother understand it?

    Your account should have a header, a clear photo, a website, and a bio. Your bio should be clear to people outside of your niche and be optimized for keywords. Yes, people perform searches on X. Don’t waste too much of your 140-280 characters on hashtags unless you really want it.

    “Just as you would when optimizing a Web page for search engines, when you write your Twitter bio think about your desired spheres and include words and phrases about them. A touch of personality is helpful, too.” Convince & Convert

    Your photo, header, and bio should be complete before you start following people. As a bonus, I also look to see if you’ve created lists.

    More about your bio here:

    Here are Examples Of Good X (Twitter) Profiles

    screenshot of Carol's Twitter account
    Carol’s Twitter Account is bomb. Period.

    Here’s Carol Stephen’s X (Twitter) profile. She’s got a very healthy setup and has been a user since 2009. She’s also the co-founder of #DigiBlogChat with Larry Mount. That Twitter Chat has been running for over 10 years.

    Highlights.

    1. She has a header photo that is relevant. It’s the baseball diamond for the SF Giants. She’s in the Bay Area. So important for local SEO.
    2. Her photo is recognizable even on mobile. At least half of Twitter users are on mobile and there your Twitter avatar is about 1 cm squared. That’s pretty small.
    3. Her bio makes sense. It tells you something about her hobbies and her business. (She is a gym mouse and a conscious soul.) But also, she blogs for startups (what she does). Bonus points for her Amazon Author Page and Twitter Chat info.
    4. Location is filled in and makes sense. It’s not vague or a GPS number. Seriously, stop it.
    5. Link is her website.
    6. She follows over 18,000 people and has 22,025 followers. This is good. I aim for a 1:1 ratio because X (Twitter) is one of the only social networks that enforces following/follower ratios.
    7. She has lists.
    8. Bonus points for a pinned tweet from the last Twitter chat.
    9. As of January 12, 2025, she also has a link to her Bluesky account.

    Here is an example from a business account, my friends at Blue Steele Solutions.

    Great business Twitter account by Blue Steele Solutions.
    Great business Twitter account by Blue Steele Solutions.
    1. The header photo is branded and matches their website.
    2. They are using a square version of their logo–the image of which is reinforced on their header photo and, of course, website.
    3. Their bio tells you they are a branding agency. Bonus points for identifying their company-wide love of tacos.
    4. Location is accurate.
    5. Link is her website.
    6. They follow 2,823 and have 2,851 followers. This is great for a newer account like theirs. (Seriously, the first 1,000 followers are the hardest. I’d aim for growth near 1,000 a year if you spend two hours a day.)
    7. They have lists.
    8. Bonus points for a pinned tweet going back to their website.

    Why does following back on X (Twitter) matter?

    Social media is about connection and engagement; it’s no different on X.

    If you’re only following 30 people, because you don’t want your home feed cluttered, then why are you online?

    Did you know you can use lists? Not following people back communicates that followers are not valuable to you. Is that how you want to start off meeting people?

    A Word About Vanity Metrics on X

    This is where we talk about vanity metrics. That is, x amount of followers as social proof. Does it matter?

    This is a “it depends” territory. If you’re a self-professed social media guru with less than 1,000 followers and you’ve been on Twitter since 2007, maybe I don’t believe it. And I get the whole, “a cobbler’s children have no shoes” axiom. I mean, I haven’t blogged here in a month. I get it. The day job tends to take away all of our attention.

    To me, the ratio and engagement say more about whether they’re good at social. So, that’s my segue.

    What Is Good Engagement on X?

    If vanity metrics are only a shadow of social proof, then the actual proof is in the eating  — I mean tweeting.

    I like to see a good mix of tweets, retweets, and replies. I call this granola.

    If you only have oats in your granola, it’s just uncooked oatmeal. A good granola needs nuts, oats, and probably carob chips. A healthy mix. Or take salad if you like that better. Iceberg lettuce does not a salad make. You at least need carrots and tomatoes. And do you have to beg for croutons? Come on. But I digress.

    To audit an account (yours, for example) look at the Tweets and Replies Tab. For Carol, this would be here.

    Note: on mobile, all of the tweets, saved the pinned tweet, are mixed together. This is why I think it’s even more important to have a healthy  mix.

    She’s replying to people, sharing her own content, sharing other’s content, and retweeting (bonus points for old school retweet, too).

    What is an Appropriate Response Time On X?

    If you tweet someone and they respond six months later, I’d say that’s not a healthy account. Now, that’s not obvious from a cursory (visual) audit. Let it be a cautionary tale. Social Media Managers may come and go (are you paying them enough?) but it’s your account, company, brand. You should care the most.

    No one can care more about your account than you. My friend Robert Nissenbaum even goes as far as to say that outsourcing your social isn’t authentic. On this we disagree, but he’s partially right. That person should be you or your brand.

    Being on Brand on Twitter

    Some people think that replies and retweets are off-brand. Firstly, I’d say that it’s rarely true.

    Secondly, I’d say that you should follow parallel industries. For contractors, follow real estate brokers and local businesses. For social media managers, follow website developers. For WordPress plugin authors follow developers and businesses that would use your plugin. You get it.

    Showing more than one dimension is not only a demonstration that you “get social media” but it’s social.

    Have you ever gone out to dinner with someone who wouldn’t shut up about themselves? How often do you repeat that?

    If your brand is human, your conversations on Twitter are inherently “on brand.” Interaction is how we build relationships. Relationship marketing matters for brand building and, therefore, business building.

    Make Your Twitter Stand Out

    • Completely fill out your bio. You have 160 characters. Make them count.
    • Tweet your own content on a regular basis.
    • Pin a tweet leading to your website.
    • Spend time replying to other people’s posts. It’s the power move.
    • Share other people’s content in a new tweet.
    • Respond to tweets. Thank people who share your content.
    • Be a polite, human being. That’s never off-brand.

    Need Help? Get A Twitter Audit

    I do offer a Twitter Audit for a very low price if you’d like more specific advice for your company.

    (Updated 5/10/2021, 1/12/2025)