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Wednesday 29 May 2013

YouTube's New Tool Makes it Easy to Create Slow-Mo Videos

Working under the premise that “slow-mo makes everything better,” YouTube added a new slow motion enhancement tool to its built-in editor on Tuesday, making it accessible to everyone who uses the site to create videos.


YouTube’s built-in video editor already has a number of different effects that users can harness when editing their videos. The slow-mo effect was developed in-house at YouTube, using frame analysis to blend intermediate frames together. The result: Videos look like they were shot with a high-speed camera.
Videos that feature slow-motion effects seem to be popular on YouTube. For instance, the Slow Mo Guys channel has more than 2 million subscribers and 220 million overall views.

Check out a slow-mo video created with the editor, above. The original video is posted below:


What are your thoughts on YouTube's new slomo feature? Will you use it? Tell us in the comments, below.
Images courtesy of iStock Photo, plusphoto

Friday 24 May 2013

Introducing Twitter’s New Marketing Tool: The Lead Generation Card

Yesterday, Twitter released details of its new expanded tweet model, the lead generation card: a powerful new tool for companies looking to generate cost-effective leads on-site.


Lead generation cards contain a company’s chosen offer and a customisable call to action button which, when clicked, will send the user’s email address and @username directly to the company. All the user’s information is filled in already, so they just have to click to send it to the company. The whole process is secure, so users need not worry about their information falling into the wrong hands.

Twitter’s new lead generation cards will make it easier for users to show their interest in a company, speeding up the whole process of responding to offers by keeping it all on-site, while also helping companies build up a larger database of enthusiastic customers. Lead generation is of the highest importance to marketers, says Revenue Product Manager Mitali Pattnaik in the announcement post on Twitter’s advertising blog:

Marketers regularly talk to us about their goals, and for many it boils down to one major theme: generating leads, and ultimately driving purchases. 

Companies can use lead generation cards to display offers, to advertise jobs or to promote new products – as long as they are giving users an incentive to send their email addresses and Twitter information, marketers are only limited by their imagination.

Before releasing lead generation cards, Twitter successfully tested the feature with a small number of companies, including Full Sail (@fullsail), New Relic (@newrelic) and Priceline (@priceline), and discovered that the feature helped brands forge “deeper connections with customers”.

At the moment, lead generation cards are only available to Twitter’s managed clients, but they do plan to roll out the feature globally to smaller businesses soon.

What do you think of Twitter’s new lead generation cards?     

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Facebook Admins Can Now Create Unpublished Posts On Their Page


ezeesocial composeFacebook administrators now have the option to create unpublished posts in the compose box on their page, instead of having to create them using Facebook’s Power Editor or the ads API.

Unpublished posts are hidden from the news feeds of a page’s fans. Instead, administrators can target specific groups of fans with unpublished posts by promoting them using adverts.

To create an unpublished post on their page, administrators first have to click on the tiny clock symbol to the bottom left of the status box. An option to “+ Add year” will then appear – an option administrators should take. After an admin has selected a year, a tick box will appear beneath, ticking this box will allow them to “Hide [the post] from [their fans’] news feed”.

With unpublished posts, administrators can experiment with different targeting options without inundating their fans’ news feeds with unwanted content. In fact, by targeting certain users with posts, based on their interests, brand loyalty, age, gender and location, page administrators can ensure more engagement with the content they create.

For example, a cinema chain could create an unpublished post to advertise a new horror film to fans of horror, then create a different one to promote an action film in the news feeds of action film fans, or a car company could advertise a people carrier to a family man, then advertise a roadster to a bachelor.

When news feed unpublished posts were introduced to the Power Editor and the ads API earlier this year, Facebook PMD AdParlor, who had been experimenting with unpublished posts, released some revelatory results. In one of AdParlor’s campaigns, the average click-through rate of unpublished post ads was 57% higher than that of organic post ads, while the cost per sign up was $0.65 less.

Although the new unpublished posts tick box is a bit hard to find, it makes unpublished posts more accessible and simpler to create.

Have you used unpublished posts to promote your business’ Facebook page? Do they work?       

Monday 20 May 2013

Pinterest Now Lets Users Send Pins On-Site


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Pinners can now send individual pins to their friends on-site as long as they both follow each other – before, pins had to be sent via email. Pins can be sent on both desktop and mobile devices, to both desktop and mobile devices.

To send a pin to a friend, follower or family member, users just have to click the “Send” button on the bottom right of a pin box. A screen will then pop up with a search bar and a short list of suggested recipients based on the people the user has most recently sent pins to.

Users can include a special message with any pin they send to their friends in order to – as software engineer Sunny Rochiramani puts it in the announcement post – “give it a more personal touch”. Pins can still be sent to Facebook friends or via email if the intended recipient is not on Pinterest, or either party doesn’t follow the other.

Pin recipients are notified if they are sent a pin. If they repin, like or comment on any pin they receive, the sender receives a notifcation also. The update is small, but it shows not only that Pinterest’s engineers are aware of their customers’ frustrations with the service, but also that they are willing to address these frustrations, however small, to make Pinterest more user-friendly.

Pinterest will be rolling the feature out over the next few weeks.

Have you sent any pins to your friends? Has it become easier?       

Friday 17 May 2013

Social Media Promotions Of The Week: 17/05/2013

Every social media promotion in this week’s SMPW has a video: two use a video alongside a larger campaign while one makes clever use of YouTube’s features. In fact, YouTube itself has a promotion out this week for an event they’re holding very soon. Here are the top five:

1. P&G – ‘Thank You Mum’



During the London Olympics last year, consumer goods company Proctor & Gamble ran a very successful campaign encouraging everyone to thank their mums. To celebrate global Mother’s Day on Sunday (though not in the UK), P&G are rereleasing their “Thank you Mum” campaign, starting off with an uplifting video about Maria Shriver and her mother Eunice – the founder of the Special Olympics.

To help promote the video, P&G are promising to donate $1 to the Special Olympics on their Facebook page every time the video is shared, until $50,000 has been donated. At the time of writing the video has been shared over 43,000 times.

To coincide with the campaign, people can tweet motherly advice on Twitter using the hashtag #MomsWisdom.

2. BNP Paribas#TweetandShoot


To celebrate a successful 40 year partnership with the French Open, BNP Paribas are inviting tennis fans to compete with French tennis ace Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a Twitter-powered tennis game.

On 23 May, Twitter users will be able to position a ball on a virtual court to aim their shot. The shot will then be encoded into a tweet with the hashtag #TweetandShoot, decoded by a tennis ball machine connected to the internet, then fired into the area of the court the user chose.

Each tweet will be selected at random and then fired at Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who will have to keep his wits about him if he wants to return as many of the randomly processed shots as possible.

3. Volkswagen – Hidden Frame


Volkswagen Brazil has made clever use of YouTube’s pop-up frame preview feature in their new YouTube advert.

Viewers are asked to hover their cursor at a certain point along the videos time line in order to warn the actor talking to the camera of a falling man.

The video advert has been released to promote Volkswagen’s new side assist feature, which helps drivers see objects in the side mirror’s blind spot.

4. UEFA – The Race


On Wednesday, Chelsea F.C. defeated S.L. Benfica in a hard-fought Europa League final. In the run up to the match, European football governing body UEFA decided to challenge two groups of fans – one group Portuguese and one group English – to a race to the Amsterdam Arena where the final was held.

The fans had to display passing, dribbling and technical skill to progress through the various stages of the race, with the S.L. Benfica fans getting their hands on the trophy first. The Race proved not to be a sign of things to come, however, with Bratislav Ivanovic’s injury time goal earning Chelsea the trophy on the night.

5. YouTube – Arnold Pumps You Up For Comedy Week


Next week is YouTube Comedy Week: a seven day long event during which YouTube’s stars will release videos showing the best that they have to offer.

Acts such as The Lonely Island, College Humor, Vince Vaughn, Epic Meal Time and Epic Rap Battles of History will be involved in Comedy Week. The videos will be a variety of skits, live streams and “fan challenges”.

Which is your favourite social media promotion this week?  

Wednesday 15 May 2013

New Facebook Timeline Sections Roll Out Worldwide

Facebook sections movies Facebook has made sections available worldwide, enabling all users to express themselves and share their interests in app-specific boxes on the timeline. Many apps have already taken advantage of the new feature, integrating with sections to provide users with a new way to interact and engage with games, music, movies and much else besides.

Goodreads, Netflix and Rotten Tomatoes have all integrated with sections to enable users to star-rate and categorise books and movies. Sections are tabulated, allowing users to say whether they have read a book or watched a movie, want to do so, or have liked the book/movie on Facebook.

Music apps have also integrated with the new sections feature, so users can now share the songs they listen to and like. Users can also listen to their friends’ favourite songs by clicking on them in the timeline. Facebook believes that sections are better than the now-defunct aggregations, according to the announcement post on the Developers pages:

Sections are […] a more beautiful and lasting way to display your app on timeline compared to aggregations, which we are no longer supporting.

In the announcement post, Facebook also highlights the potential that integrating fitness apps within the timeline could have: friends could motivate one another by sharing fitness regimens. Endomondo, Nike+, Runtastic, and Strava are the app examples given, written above a chart displaying a random user’s weekly running distances.

Facebook sections running
App developers have the opportunity to be creative with their sections, messing around with tab titles and the content within them. The game Pearl’s Peril, for example, displays a user’s completed levels on the timeline, information similar to that which is shared in the notifications section of the news feed.

At the end of the announcement post, Facebook shares its best practices for app developers looking to take advantage of the new sections feature:


  1. Give people a way to add your custom section to timeline: Consider including a URL in your app to give your users a preview of your section and help them decide whether to add it to timeline (see Foursquare example below).
  2. Choose the right template for your section: For example, apps with great visual content should use the gallery template to draw people's attention. We also support list and map templates.
  3. Focus on quality and completeness before submitting your section for approval: To make the review process simple, submit your section only after making sure your object images and descriptions are complete and look great from the perspective of your users.
According to Facebook’s announcement post, users are already taking full advantage of the new sections feature, adding 200 million items daily. At the time of the posts publication 17 billion songs had been added to music sections via apps or likes.

Do you like Facebook’s new apps sections?       

Monday 13 May 2013

YouTube Introduces Paid Channels


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YouTube will now let a few dozen of popular channels charge viewers a subscription fee of 99 cents or more per month, the company announced in a blog post. Each of these channels will offer two weeks of free viewing before charges kick in and some will provide discounts for those who sign up for an annual subscription.

Some of the YouTube channels that are part of the pilot program include Big Think Mentor, Comedy.TV, PGA Digital Golf and Pets.TV.



"This is just the beginning," YouTube said in the blog post. "We’ll be rolling paid channels out more broadly in the coming weeks as a self-service feature for qualifying partners."

The move comes with relatively little risk for YouTube and the possibility of generating significant revenue by taking a cut of subscription fees and advertisements that air on the channels.

Would you pay to watch videos from your favorite YouTube channels? Share in the comments.

Image via Getty/Lionel Bonaventure

Saturday 11 May 2013

Facebook Updates Its Page Manager App For iOS Devices


mzl.bvdmsfyv.320x480 75 Facebook rebuilds its Page Manager iOS app, with faster response time, filters for photos, and stickersFacebook has rebuilt its Page Manager App to make it “faster and easier to use”, according to the download page in the iTunes app store. Facebook has also added photo filtering and stickers to the app. Only the iOS app has been updated thus far, there is no word yet on when Android users will be able to download the new version.

Facebook has made some changes behind the scenes to improve navigation on the app: scrolling through the news feed is faster and more intuitive; photos can be opened and closed quickly with a single downward swipe.

Previously, users could not edit photos using the app, instead they had to apply filters and make changes to photos in Instagram, or another image editing app, before uploading them to their page in the Page Manager app. Now, iPhone and iPad users can edit the photos as soon as they are taken or uploaded to the app, with a similar array of filters to those available in Instagram.

Page administrators can also add stickers and emojis to messages sent using the app. Facebook started using stickers last month, adding them to Facebook Messenger on iOS devices earlier this week– they were already available to Android users.

Have you used stickers yet? What do you think of them?


Wednesday 8 May 2013

SeeItShopIt, The First Ever Interactive Facebook Shop


seeitshopit
Modern communications agency network Isobar has launched SeeItShopIt, the first ever interactive shop within the Facebook news feed. UK-based clothing retailer Littlewoods has become the first brand to use the SeeItShopIt interactive catalogue feature on their Facebook page to advertise Myleene Klass’ new summer swimwear collection.

A post announcing the launch of the swimwear range appeared on the Littlewoods Facebook page late last month, as well as on the news feeds of Littlewoods’ fans. The post, which utilised SeeItShopIt, appears at first glance to be a video post, with a static image overlaid by a play triangle symbol.

Clicking on the play symbol opens up an interactive catalogue consisting of three columns. The first column shows all the items in the swimsuit range in a down-scrolling photo gallery. hovering the mouse at the bottom or the top of this column will make it scroll downwards or upwards respectively. Clicking on an image will open it into the middle column, which shows a larger version of whichever item has been selected.

Clicking on the middle column will enlarge the product image so that it spreads across all three columns. Again, hovering the mouse at the top and bottom of the image will scroll it – the image is fitted width-ways, so is too tall for the original box. The third and final column on the right contains a description of the product, a price, and a share button. Beside the share button is a link to the product page on the Littlewoods site.

Gary Williams, Littlewoods retail director, explained the company’s choice to use the new tool:

Littlewoods always looks to be leading customer experiences, whether online or offline. The SeeItShopIt tool gives us the ability to deliver a new way for our Facebook fans to connect with our products. For the first time, users can share individual items, browse through collections and navigate straight to product pages via the Facebook news feed. If Littlewoods successfully monetises their Facebook page using SeeItShopIt, earning revenue from their Facebook fan base directly on the site, then other brands will follow suit.

According to Isobar’s CTO, Rick Williams:

We created SeeItShopIt to deliver an interactive shopping experience directly within Facebook‚s news feed, where users spend most of their time. The tool will allow any brand with a broad product portfolio to monetise their Facebook fan base by providing a seamless shopping experience.

 Have you had a look at SeeItShopIt on the Littlewoods Facebook page? What do you think?    

Friday 3 May 2013

70% Of Brand Engagement On Pinterest User-Driven, Study Reveals


imageA recent study conducted by “Digitas, the top integrated global brand agency, and Curalate, the only marketing and analytics suite forPinterest and Instagram”, has revealed some startling Pinterest engagement statistics, the most surprising of which is that 70% of brand engagement on Pinterest is apparently generated by users, compared to only 30% by brands.
Over the course of a month, between March 15th and April 15th, Curalate collated and analysed “almost 10 million pins, repins, comments, likes, and keywords” from more than 120 automotive, electronics, and fashion/retail brands. Researchers then determined which pins were “Top Images” based on the number of times they had been pinned and repinned.

Top brands within the fashion/retail industry are the most successful at driving engagement on Pinterest, with their pins getting an average of 46 repins from the active Pinterest community. Average users who pin fashion/retail images, on the other hand, are getting around 6 repins. This stat is even more surprising when you consider that 82% of the fashion/retail images on Pinterest are pinned by the community.

A similar percentage, 75%, of automotive images are pinned by the community. However, vehicle brands are only averaging a measly 3 repins on every pin, compared to the 10 repins the community is getting. The study puts this deficit down to the fact that most automotive websites use Flash, making it difficult for the community to pin content. This, however, doesn’t explain why the images they are managing to pin are getting such low engagement figures. Apu Gulpta, Curalate’s CEO, encourages car manufacturers to work on their Pinterest strategy:

Aspirational products such as cars should do well on Pinterest. It's unfortunate to see the auto industry stuck in first gear. The industry needs to leverage the heritage of their brands to tell compelling visual stories that create emotional connections with consumers. Additionally, while automotive websites may not discard Flash anytime soon, some straightforward changes make these sites shareable, now.

In the electronics industry, roughly the same amount of pins are generated by brands as those generated by the community, with a 47/53 percentage split. User-generated pins are still getting the most engagement, however, receiving an average of 14 repins compared to the average 5 repins brand pins are getting. At the time of the study, the digital health trend was in full flow, with many pinners talking about calorie tracking devices.

The study has also revealed the best days and times for each industry to pin, referring to companies in the Eastern Time zone: for fashion/retail companies the best time is 3:00PM while the best day is Friday; for automotive companies the best time is 12:00PM while, again, the best day is Friday; for electronics companies the best time is 10PM while the best day is Monday. Digitas’ Senior VP of Social, Mobile and Content Lead, Jordan Bitterman, extols Pinterest in his closing comments:

Brands need to go forth and pin. This study reveals the opportunity for brands to drive the conversation on visual platforms like Pinterest. By leveraging rich consumer insight, brands can take the guess-work out of their visual content strategy, and share the types of images their audience wants to see.


Of course, the findings of this study aren’t definite, but the study’s methodology was extremely concise and complete, taking into account 10 million individual examples of activity on Pinterest. Hopefully, someone will reveal the best times to pin outside the Eastern Time zone soon.

Do you agree with the findings of this study? How do you think automotive brands can increase engagement on Pinterest?

Wednesday 1 May 2013

20 Video Ideas For Your Business’ YouTube Channel




So, you have set up your business’ YouTube channel and you’re ready to start uploading videos but, frustratingly, you have no idea what to post. Here are a few ideas of different videos you could post to engage with potential customers and clients, while also raising brand awareness. If you haven’t created your YouTube channel yet, I advise you read my post on Social Media Today first.

1. Events


Record the events you hold and post the videos on YouTube. If you have footage from previous events you have held, post them as well.

If you attend any events, record what happens and post it on your channel. Post videos of interesting industry-relevant talks and business shows you go to. Show your subscribers what these events are all about.

2. Live Streams

If you want you can live stream events, or anything else for that matter. If your subscribers need to be up-to-date with everything that happens, invite them to watch your event on a live stream.

3. Presentations

Post videos of any of your presentations which display your ability to keep an audience’s attention. If you have any extra slides that you want to add to the presentation, post those as well. Upload the slideshow itself if it is particularly good, adding a voiceover for clarification.

4. Adverts and Promotions

Upload videos to accompany social media promotions that you run on Facebook and Twitter, or just create adverts specifically for YouTube.

You don’t have to be a big company to create an advert: Dollar Shave Club made the advert below and it went viral, garnering over 10 million views and winning the company a lot of new customers.  



5. Tour the Office

Show people where you work and what you do on a normal working day. Making it clear that your office is full of normal, hard-working people can make your business more personable.

6. Interviews

Interview the founders and the board members of your company. If you have products that only your company makes and distributes, interview the people involved in the creation process.

7. Meet the Staff

Introduce the people who work in your business. Invite them to talk about why they enjoy working for the company. Ask them what they think makes your company stand out from the competition. Talking heads videos are very popular at the moment, especially with web companies like Google and Facebook.

8. Tell your Story

Make a video about the history of your company and embed it on your company website. If you have an interesting story to tell, tell it. Business’ with inspiring foundation stories can help to create more buzz around the industry they work in.

9. Products and Services

Introduce new products and services, and describe the benefits of your current ones, with videos that you post on YouTube and embed on your website’s product pages.

10. How To

Make ‘how to’ videos about your products, or about products within your industry. ‘How to’ videos are very popular on YouTube. If there isn’t a good explanatory video for a product relevant to your industry, creating one could help publicise your company.

11. FAQs

Answer the most common questions that your customers have with videos. Embed it onto the FAQs page on your company’s website to accompany a text version of FAQs and answers.

12. Experts

Conduct interviews with experts and respected figures within your industry. By associating yourself with leading figures within your industry and getting them to enter into engaging debates, you will raise your business’ profile.

13. Hints and Tips

Upload videos of useful hints and tips for those working in your industry. For example, I could create a video recounting everything I say in this blog post and post it on YouTube.

14. Testimonials

Ask your contented customers to record videos of themselves using your products and services, explaining how they were really useful. Or you could invite your customers in and make the videos yourself.

15. Contests

Run contests and competitions using YouTube by uploading videos with contest information on the site and them embedding them on the competition page. Competitions which ask entrants to like pages on Facebook or subscribe to channels on YouTube will increase social media engagement.

You could even run contests asking your subscribers to post the best video online, challenging them to create a video of the most innovative use of your product. You could then upload the best videos onto your channel.

Nissan’s advert below invited customers to use a hashtag to contribute ideas for a new car:



16. Blog Posts

Make videos to accompany the blog posts you write and embed them in your blog. Explanatory videos will help you get the point of your articles across. Also, videos help web pages appear higher in Google searches.

17. Podcasts

If you have a regular podcast show, why not visualize it? You could record a weekly/ fortnightly/monthly video with updates and announcements, or you could create graphics to accompany your voice recordings.

18. Responses

Read out emails that you have received and answer the questions they ask. Customers will appreciate the fact that you have taken the time to read and respond to their emails. Posting the videos on YouTube will ensure that everyone can see them, making it less likely that the same questions arise over and over again.

19. Announcements

Celebrate a milestone or your company’s anniversary. Announce new products and services that are in development. build interest and excitement for your upcoming releases.

20. Archive

If you have an archive of old videos, post those that you think are relevant and interesting to viewers. In the past, companies have uploaded old adverts to YouTube which have gone viral, raising brand awareness and increasing customer interest.


What sort of videos do you post on your business’ YouTube channel?