TAKA DESIGNS

If you do a quick search on Google for “common social media mistakes” you’ll pretty much find the same points being covered again and again.  Everything from not posting enough, failing to stay engaged, not having a plan, etc. I think by now a lot of these are pretty much ingrained into our heads. So instead, I wanted to point out a few mistakes that may not be so obvious:

1. Placing social media icons without links to profile pages
2. Using hashtags on Twitter for #everything
3. Automatically linking your Facebook updates to Twitter or vice versa.

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I’ve been a big fan of popchips and the other day I stumbled upon Trader Joe’s version called Popped Potato Chips that looked remarkably similar. If you’re a fan of Trader’s Joe’s it may come as a surprise, but many products that they sell under the Trader Joe’s label, are actually made by some well known companies. As an article by Fortune titled Inside the Secret World of Trader Joe’s goes on to say, “…big, well-known companies also make many of Trader Joe’s products. Those Trader Joe’s pita chips? Made by Stacy’s, a division of PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay. On the East Coast much of its yogurt is supplied by Danone’s Stonyfield Farm.”

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Strike three for Samsung. Did they just copy Apple again? This time it’s not a phone or a tablet, but a commercial called “The Way We’re Wired” for its new Galaxy S II phone. They must have run out of devices to copy. The video looks frightening similar to Apple’s famous “Think Different” commercial, right down to the narrator’s voice (Apple used Richard Dreyfuss). You be the judge and compare.

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Has Twitter become so ubiquitous in our lives that brands and journalists are now using tweets readily as endorsements and quotes? It’s been happening for some time now, but with the rise of major brands like American Express and The New York Times now on the bandwagon, Twitter continues to be a major source information and value. Let’s take a look at some examples of how tweets are being used.

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LinkedIn recently made headlines when it decided to automatically opt-in all 120 millions of its users to a new feature that exposes profile information such as names and photos within ads for third parties. All done without any direct notification to its users. As you can image, users were outraged.

Surprisingly, it isn’t uncommon as companies like Facebook have been notorious in the past for opting-in users to new features that affect privacy settings without direct notification. So I was pleasantly surprised when I recently received an email from United Airlines Mileage Plus encouraging me (now there’s a new concept) to update my profile settings to receive future email updates for offers and announcements.  In return I would earn 500 bonus miles.

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