“Thank you for calling, how can I connect you?”
Making A Digital Footprint..Can Anyone Actually See it?
In this day and age, making a connection is easier than it ever has been. The digital sphere as a whole provides ordinary people with the opportunity to share. Share opinions, share stories, share experiences. It is mind blowing to think you can catch the attention of someone on the other side of the world, with a simple click. Social Media and the use of websites or personal blogs makes it easy for you to not only share, but to share across various platforms…and quickly. As soon as you post an Instagram photo, you’re one click away from extending that post to your Facebook, your Twitter, your Tumblr. As much as it might weird you out to think about, your digital participation creates a persona that is just as relevant as your physical presence.
Over the last week, I posted various types of content across five different social platforms. I can’t decide yet if I am surprised by the level of engagement they each received.
On Facebook, I chose to share my blog post from Medium that I wrote last week. Fortunately, my mom is way cooler than me. Her “sponsored” post encouraging her friends to like MY post shot my like count through the roof. Thanks mom, I can definitely say it boosted my Facebook confidence. However, without the promotion from my mom, I definitely do not think I would have received as much attention. This reaction had me asking many questions, mainly about generational preferences. Maybe, my mom succeeded in drawing attention to my post, because the majority of her friends and others in her generation, are more active Facebook users. Food for thought, when considering Facebook marketing ploys.
On Instagram, I chose to repost a photo that was previously posted by one of my favorite stylists. I was really digging her outfit and I wanted to share it. A few hours later, I reposted again. This time, it was a shot taken from the Oscar De La Renta show at New York Fashion Week. I bring up the second post because the difference in engagement between the two proved a theory of mine I was experimenting. The first post, I shared much earlier in the day. The second, around lunch time..mid-day. I’ve decided that the reason my second post got DOUBLE the engagement of the first, is because of timing. More people are on their phones midday, probably as they enjoy lunch or a work break. Early in the morning, many of my followers are not awake, or are already at work. More food for thought, when considering Instagram marketing ploys.
My following three post were significantly less interesting. On twitter, I shared a post regarding Veuve Clicquot’s “Yelloween” campaign. It received a few favorites, a retweet or two, not bad. However, I firmly believe this is because of our class discussion at the time, and our attempt as a program to promote Yelloween. A similar experiment to see how large of a footprint we could make.
Then followed the Pinterest post and a quick share to my LinkedIn. Not surprisingly, neither of these posts received any attention. I have decided to blame that on my content, and the popularity of the two platforms. Pinterest is extremely popular. However, the idea of sharing a link to my blog post was probably not the right call when trying to engage my followers. They aren’t on Pinterest looking for blog links…but that’s okay. Neither am I. LinkedIn I played down to being a platform I am honestly not very familiar with. I am really working toward making my LinkedIn presence stronger but my efforts this time definitely didn’t draw much attention..oops.
The question is…with this many people flooding the digital atmosphere…how much of a ripple am I actually making? To reference an earlier blog post of mine, Is anyone reading this? There is so much potential for digital impact, but are you achieving the level of impact you desire?
-CA
This post was created as part of the Global Luxury Management Program at the NC State Poole School of Management. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
