4. Timing Is Everything

Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.

—Nathaniel Hawthorne [1]

Most people think of social media outlets (Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and so on) as an “in the moment” type of media. What does that mean? Well, think about this: You walk into your favorite store and encounter one of the most unprofessional sales assistants you’ve ever come across. What do you do if you’re active in social media outlets like Twitter? You open your smart phone and tweet something like this:

Worst customer service I’ve ever encountered—shame on you #company

There are times when we feel compelled to express our thoughts and feelings in this fashion and more often than not, someone listening to our rants responds with a sense of sympathy ...

Get Social Media Analytics: Techniques and Insights for Extracting Business Value Out of Social Media now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.