Earlier this year, I wrote about how effective social media marketing requires a little bit of LOST’s John Locke and Jack Shepherd.

The show’s lead characters were so similar, but so different. Locke was a man of faith, whereas Shepherd was a man of science.

One specific instance where this is increasingly true is in Twitter hashtags.

Hashtags keep Twitter organized. They allow you to stream keywords and phrases. They make Twitter easier to consume.

They also make it easy to measure Twitter.

There are many tools that measure hashtags (with TweetReach being my favorite right now).

So where does faith vs. science come into play here?

Easily: How do you choose a hashtag?

Hashtag of Science

Your hashtag is unique and true. It accurately portrays exactly what the conversation should be about, either spelled out or as an acronym.

#ESR1256 doesn’t scare you as a hashtag.

You know that you can accurately measure the traffic on the hashtag to gain a real picture of conversations around your topic. Even if the hashtag is difficult to remember, you are OK with that, because it means you’ll get next to zero erroneous messages.

Hashtag of Faith

You want people to stumble upon your conversation.

Quoting the Jackson 5: “I wanna be where you are…oh ah oh!”

You are comfortable using a hashtag that may be used by other people, since it means more people will potentially see your content.

When to be Scientific

The “scientific” hashtags work brilliantly at events where you have a captive audience. Conferences, classes, assemblies…and even TV and radio shows. They also work well with strong communications and advertising campaigns.

When you can easily communicate how your audience should contact them, the easier it will be for them to remember the hashtag, even if it’s a bit quirky.

When to have Faith

When you are trying to flood a message out, using a relevant hashtag people are using makes the most sense.

Relevant being the key word: don’t post to #music when you want to talk about paintings. Unless a musician did the painting.

Think of it as a less-annoying version of interruption marketing, since the people you would be “targeting” are already interested in the topic at hand.

In measurement, you may get some additional, non-related posts, but that’s a risk you’re willing to take.

We live in a world where bad things happen. Sadly, they happen all the time.

And when large-scale tragedies occur, be it a natural disaster or a senseless terror-driven attack, people “gather” on social media.

I remember back to 9/11. I was in upstate New York and my family was just north of Washington, DC. We were far enough away from the attacks to not be scared, but close enough to not be able to make phone calls due to jammed lines. Back then, we used AOL Instant Messenger to connect with each other.

A dozen years later, the landscape has changed, with Facebook, Twitter, and countless other platforms allow us to connect with each other.

But they also allow brands and organizations to communicate with people.

So what should a brand do when something horrible occurs?

1. Shut The Hell Up.

It’s simple. Don’t say anything. Your post about the new ice cream flavor or drink special or upcoming sale is not important right now. So stop posting. Naturally, there will be a lag time between the incident and when you hear about it, but as soon as you know about the event, press pause. Think about it this way – would the EMS and fire fighters and police appreciate someone barking marketing stuff around a crime scene?

2. Unschedule Your Content.

Many brands and organizations use various tools to schedule content in advance. This helps increase efficiency, but also makes Step 1 a little bit harder. Go through as soon as you can and unschedule your posts for at least three hours, depending on what happened. Then, at the end of that time period, reevaluate.

3. Clear The Road.

While it may feel nice to show your audience that you are acknowledging the crisis, it’s best for brands to steer clear so pertinent information fills feeds and timelines.

Caveat: You CAN share news and important information to be part of the solution.

A perfect example of this came during this week’s Boston Marathon explosions, where Google created a “person finder” to help in the aftermath. This allowed people to reconnect, but also included important contact information on the home page of the tool.

4. Audit The Future.

At some point, things will settle back down and go back to some semblance of normal. Make sure that the content you “relaunch” with is sensitive to what occurred. You don’t necessarily need to mention what happened, but make sure your content is fairly basic and “safe.” For instance, after a deadly flood, promoting swimming lessons could be considered a bit off-key.

Information is power.

Crowdsourcing democratizes information.

So what happens when crowdsourced information collides with an angry crowd?

This:

Carlos Marmol, a struggling pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. had salt rubbed in his wounds shortly after losing his high-profile job in the bullpen as the team’s closer when his Wikipedia page referred to him as “arguably the worst pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball.”

The editorialized line was quickly removed, but not before it made headlines.

The facts say that while Marmol may not be a Hall of Famer, he is no scrub. He has 116 career saves, with an 81.6% conversion rate.

By comparison, Jim Johnson of the Orioles, who saved 51 games last year and is widely regarded as one of the top closers in baseball right now, has a career save percentage of 79.6%. And Tampa’s Fernando Rodney, another feared closer, boasts a 77.1% save rate.

So Marmol is clearly not the worst pitcher ever. Not even close.

But he is off to a bad start this year for one of the hallmark teams of Major League Baseball, so his struggles get compounded – and it manifested in Wikipedia.

Is this sort of high-profile pranking – Wiki-Terrorism – the wave of the future?

With a platform so open, there have likely been millions of errors, both unintentional and malevolent, over the years on Wikipedia. But the Marmol situation is garnering major attention.

Will we view this a as prank akin to drawing devil horns on a poster of someone you don’t like? Or will this eventually be classified as libel?

To me, there is a clear difference between (a) writing a blog post on your site calling Marmol the worst pitcher ever and (b) carjacking his Wikipedia page to reflect those opinions.

Also, if you’re a fan of the Cubs, you should WANT Marmol to find his groove and be successful for your team, right?

What’s your take? Was this a harmless prank or did it go too far?

Clear and simple: With every fiber of my being, I support marriage equality.

(I don’t tackle political issues here…and there is nothing about this issue that I find political. Foreign policy, the economy, immigration – those are political. Nothing about the equality of human marriage under the law should be politicized.)

I also love the power of social media.

And when the Internet pours out in support of the cause, it’s a beautiful thing.

Tuesday morning, the Human Rights Campaign posted a red and pink version of their familiar logo to Facebook to raise awareness of this week’s Supreme Court hearings on the Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act.

To say the activated their base would be an understatement.

In 14 hours, the original post was shared over 63,000 times. No typos there.

And it has already spawned countless tributes, as so many people show their support of HRC and their mission.

Some of the best are below.

I don’t know if changing a Facebook profile photo will sway the Supreme Court in any way. But I do know that social media gives people a platform to share their beliefs, and it’s our right to use that platform as we see fit.

So, today, my blog is a small platform I have to show my support, and I’m using it.

Follow the hearings and proceedings through HRC’s “Stand for Marriage” portal here.

Social platforms thrive on businesses.

They may tout the amount of users they have, but for most networks, user counts are the bait to help catch the big fish.

On the flip side, many platforms have put up barriers and rules that have made it difficult for marketers to justify having a strong presence on the website.

However, three networks (Pinterest, Facebook and Yelp) have recently announced updates and tools that cater directly to marketers.

Pinterest Web Analytics

On the web page announcing their new analytics tool, Pinterest described it best: “See what people are pinning from your website.”

Despite all the numbers we see about how many bazillion people are using Pinterest, the big question has always surrounded what are they pinning from a particular website. If there are millions of items pinned each day, but none are from your site, that will inform your decision whether or not to jump on the site. Conversely, if you see that there are LOTS of pins of your content, it also has an impact. Of course, neither scenario leads to a clear-cut strategy to or not to have an active Pinterest presence, but it gives you critical data for your decision-making process.

The key for Pinterest is that in order to get these analytics, you must have a URL validated through their site – basically, you need an account to get the stats.

Most marketers would feel comfortable launching an account to own the data, even if you don’t post to the page actively. However, if you HAVE an account, you are more likely to use it than if you don’t (simple math, no?).

So, big win for Pinterest in aiding marketers sell their network up the ladder and report on it’s success in business goals.

Facebook Cover Photos

One of the most annoying aspects of marketing on Facebook since the shift to Timeline was that you couldn’t really use the cover photo for marketing purposes.

It was valuable real estate on your page, but it couldn’t contain any calls to action, URL or contact information. Basically, it was wasted space from a branding perspective.

To push it over the edge, updating a cover photo earns placement in the News Feed of your followers. So, if you were able to get your content in front of their eyeballs, there wasn’t much return on it.

But Facebook recently removed most of the restrictions.

Text can still only take up 1/5th of the space, but this is a common-sense change that will provide marketers with the ability to better (and more creatively) use all aspects of their Facebook presence.

Yelp Revenue Estimator

“Yeah…but how much revenue is it bringing in?”

The bottom line is critical, in that all line items must contribute to it in some way. There are expenses that are valid, but they have to contribute to the money-making machine.

Yelp’s new free Revenue Estimator, released this week, helps small businesses capture leads generated from the platform, with a calculator to help tailor the results to their company.

While it isn’t a perfect tool, it will help businesses understand how they can work with Yelp – be it just a page or an advertising campaign.

As they mentioned in their blog post announcing the tool, this estimator will help provide a baseline to judge advertising campaigns against.

While this may not scale to large businesses, Yelp is not designed for them, necessarily.

This is a smart upgrade, and hopefully the sign of more to come from Yelp.

Anyone can Tweet. It’s honestly not that difficult.

Anyone can post to Facebook. If a billion people are doing it, it must be fairly user-friendly.

But very few organizations know how to gather, analyze and act on data generated from the social web.

That’s why I’m thrilled to be co-chairing the “How to Measure Social Media in Government” conference from the Advanced Learning Institute April 30 & May 1 in Arlington, VA (with optional workshops April 29 and May).

The format of the conference is fantastic: a combination of general sessions, intimate Q&A sessions, networking and workshops.

Here is the letter my co-chair, Melissa Spade, and I wrote, which sums up what you should expect at this event:

Dear Federal, State and Local Government
Communications Professionals:

Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

Figuring out the difference between the countable and what counts is a major challenge government agencies face when measuring and reporting on their social media efforts.

The truth is that social media measurement is not systematic.

In this training, filled with both case study presentations and workshops, you will learn how a diverse set of government agencies and entities successfully measure their social media programs. You will hear how they overcame internal and external challenges to find success, the free and paid tools they utilize, and the analytics used to support program growth, among other critical lessons.

You will hear proven strategies and practical experiences, firsthand, from leading organizations and practitioners, including how the:

• Fort Huachuca Public Affairs Office is using classic public affairs techniques in a new media environment
• Federal Highway Administration is measuring their insights to determine the next steps in their agency’s social media plan
• Texas.gov is monitoring and measuring their organization’s social media efforts to increase ROI

How Will This Training Help You And Your Organization?

While the presentations and panels will be best-in-class, this training will also center around the social part of social media, featuring networking events for attendees and presenters to connect and engage.

Take advantage of this opportunity to hear from leading communicators that are already effectively measuring and reporting on social media. Your time is valuable and this training is designed to maximize the effectiveness and relevance of the sessions, with cutting-edge technologies and real-time case studies.

Register today online or call the training hotline at 888-362-7400 to attend A.L.I.’s “How to Measure Social Media in Government,” training this coming spring in Washington, DC.

We look forward to seeing you at this information-packed event.

Sincerely,

Mike Schaffer, Director, Digital Strategy
Melissa Spade, Senior Account Supervisor
HAGER SHARP
Training Co-Chairs

Looking at the list of speakers, I’m just as excited to be in the audience as to be presenting. And the pre- and post-training workshops look fantastic, too! (Looking forward especially to Jonathan Rick’s SEO workshop).

As co-chair, I get special powers, like a $400 discount code! When you register, say my name (Mike Schaffer) or enter promo code SPK to save $400 on registration.

So…register now…and pass the details (and the discount code) on to your government friends who want to learn about social media measurement.

I hope to see you there!