tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46872906019243960702024-03-05T22:48:20.545-08:00Social Media Marketing Made EasyMili and Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06816440857578675731noreply@blogger.comBlogger399125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-19133483284168184362015-04-01T02:54:00.001-07:002015-04-01T02:54:22.764-07:00Facebook To Change How It Counts Likes<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Liked No More</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
Facebook are messing around with their algorithms and likes
once again.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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It seems to me that Facebook <b>never can quite nail down just
how they want all of their business and marketing tools to function</b>. I’d
happily estimate that within the next few years they still won’t have decided
and will still be trying to work out how to best use the <b>tools at their
disposal.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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In their next steps to try and figure out what works best,
Facebook have announced that they’re going to <b>changing how their count Likes</b>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQCAdP-sT9lCNhyphenhyphenuI00sRTU0JDI7sLt0NrGlCCy2MEHYvzR4SombaiOn6U0s2pcb53ABL3TQU8K1_OXppAsPuoVGq0_Q1NDV7NG1uVB2O6_BRgy_X7c4Nbva9lEIthEIX4N-VT7Y-8y68/s1600/Facebook-Like-GETTY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQCAdP-sT9lCNhyphenhyphenuI00sRTU0JDI7sLt0NrGlCCy2MEHYvzR4SombaiOn6U0s2pcb53ABL3TQU8K1_OXppAsPuoVGq0_Q1NDV7NG1uVB2O6_BRgy_X7c4Nbva9lEIthEIX4N-VT7Y-8y68/s400/Facebook-Like-GETTY.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">trendingdig.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Before you panic, <b>don’t worry, it won’t affect any of your
personal accounts</b>. So you can stand proud of your profile picture with 100
Likes and rest assured it’ll stick with those <a href="http://i.imgur.com/NsLZ5hu.jpg"><span style="color: red;">triples</span></a>.</div>
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So what exactly are Facebook planning to change? <b>They’re no
longer going to count likes from people who have either deactivated their
accounts or passed away</b>. Also, this will <b>only apply to celebrity and business
pages</b>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This change should hopefully make it clearer to businesses
about how many <b>likes they really command</b> and how <b>relevant those likes are to
their brands</b>. This should hopefully lead to more conversions when compared to
the current like count. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/news/page-likes-update"><span style="color: red;">blog post</span></a>
where Facebook announced this change, they commented that:<br />
<br />
‘<i>To make audience data even more meaningful for businesses, we’re updating the
way Page likes are counted by removing memorialized and voluntarily deactivated
accounts from Pages’ like counts. This change ensures that data on Facebook is
consistent and up-to-date</i>.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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Facebook then went on to talk about the benefits: <o:p></o:p></div>
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‘<i>Removing inactive Facebook accounts from Page audience data
gives businesses up-to-date insights on the people who actively follow their
Page and makes it easier for businesses to find people like their followers
through tools like lookalike audiences</i>.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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</div>
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Facebook have warned businesses and celebrities that over
the next few days they should be expecting a ‘<i>small dip</i>’ in their like count.
So if you notice any differences on your own pages, don’t worry, <b>those likes
didn't really exist anyway</b>. Also, if someone reactivates their account, all of
their likes will pop up again. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Essentially, all this update is going to do is give
businesses and celebrities a more honest Like count. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Facebook <b>aren't necessarily getting everything wrong when it comes to marketing</b>. They're just working out all the kinks very slowly. </div>
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Time will tell how beneficial this all really is though. <b>All
eyes on you again</b>, Facebook. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: http://www.socialsongbird.com/2015/03/facebook-to-change-how-it-counts-likes.html</span></div>
Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-28130000643468107482015-04-01T02:48:00.003-07:002015-04-01T02:49:45.076-07:00YouTube Preparing to Launch Paid Ad-Free Subscription Service <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>
Streamlined Service</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJv-hOWjjrIdUkzwruOO_dwlF9NTIf073el0qB7yzLxdq6J_XxMbWOx_UizLFotYvI1oqrz1aIUQxWRewlNV7s40_vvlXq-txyx9pLkHjiYeQNDIMz4PbbNyBBPJNkVqJSC7v7c_oWF3jt/s1600/136881034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJv-hOWjjrIdUkzwruOO_dwlF9NTIf073el0qB7yzLxdq6J_XxMbWOx_UizLFotYvI1oqrz1aIUQxWRewlNV7s40_vvlXq-txyx9pLkHjiYeQNDIMz4PbbNyBBPJNkVqJSC7v7c_oWF3jt/s400/136881034.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span class="irc_ho" dir="ltr" style="margin-right: -2px; overflow: hidden; padding-right: 2px; text-overflow: ellipsis; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">nypost.com</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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There have been rumblings of an<b> ad-free, paid
subscription-based YouTube service</b> for some time now, but in the past few days
the rumors have been confirmed by Google officials. Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s
head of content, confirmed that<b> they were “fine-tuning the experience”</b> at the Code/Media
conference in Orange County late last week.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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Paid, ad-free versions of otherwise free services have been
proven to work well in the past. As of mid-January, <b>around 25% of Spotify’s
hulking 60 million-strong user base are paying subscribers</b>, a ratio that it’s
been healthily maintaining for almost a year. Spotify’s traffic figures are of
course utterly dwarfed by YouTube, who<b> rake in more than one billion users
every single month.</b><o:p></o:p><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
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This move will also play a vital role in <b>YouTube’s
increasing presence in the movie streaming market</b>. Some full films are
available to watch on YouTube, some legally, others not. You can also pay a
one-off rental or purchase fee for certain films. With a subscription service,
YouTube could eliminate or at least downsize this function and move <b>a model
more similar to Netflix. </b><o:p></o:p><br />
<b><br /></b></div>
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This idea was actually taken for something of a test-drive
back in 2013, when certain content providers <b>were allowed to charge a subscription
fee to access certain video channels</b>. Partners during this trial run included
National Geographic, Sesame Street and the PGA. It got some attention, but not
anywhere near as much as some of the partners had hoped for.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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Similarly, the Music Key service was launched to invited
members as a beta back in November, enabling said users to watch music videos
without any advertising between them and the content. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div>
“We’ve invited our best users - it will launch in a few
months to the public. It is a very important part of business. There are
audiences who just don’t want to see ads. and in music - they want things like
offline access. We want to deliver to fans and we want to deliver to creators a
new revenue stream. This is an important initiative for us.” - Robert Kyncl</div>
</blockquote>
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Currently Music Key is the service being earmarked for an imminent release, but it’s clear that it’s intended as a precursor to <b>a more
rounded, complete, universally applicable ad-free service</b>.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: http://www.socialsongbird.com/2015/02/youtube-preparing-to-launch-paid-ad.html</span></div>
Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-66739584913126120702015-04-01T02:44:00.000-07:002015-04-01T02:45:50.336-07:00Facebook’s 2 Million Advertisers<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">
Facebook's Advertiser Base Doubles </span></b><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi680jI18U-CGqrqD1cK56g9yx43XcY2gj4CiwImdwfWvvvXG6wWN0CVlcVNe7Qp5U9e5IUIAx7GSgFPnhouhjImm5KpzVNjOImXvDKu-wnH4Mw2EccmC15k-O91EboADuoT2DuD-dzbqQ/s1600/fbads.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi680jI18U-CGqrqD1cK56g9yx43XcY2gj4CiwImdwfWvvvXG6wWN0CVlcVNe7Qp5U9e5IUIAx7GSgFPnhouhjImm5KpzVNjOImXvDKu-wnH4Mw2EccmC15k-O91EboADuoT2DuD-dzbqQ/s400/fbads.jpg" height="235" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">dailyinbox.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
</div>
The number of Facebook advertisers has <b>lept from 1 million
to 2 million in the last 18 months. </b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Facebook is always trying to find new ways to modernise and
open up their website to as many social groups and generations as possible. Right now, the focus seems to be on
businesses.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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As many young adults are entering the adult world, having
grown up with a Facebook account, <b>starting a business on their reliable social
media network will come as second nature</b>. As for older companies who haven’t
tried online marketing until now, who will they find first? <b>Facebook</b>: the most
popular and accessible site of their time and their children’s time.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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However, with Facebook increasing their business audience
more and more every few months, it is questionable if Facebook really is the
best way to advertise your business.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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<b>Facebook is known for its fickle nature</b>. In 2010 its focus
was on gaming. Some people signed up to Facebook just to be able to tend to
their virtual crops and livestock on FarmVille. Then in 2014 there were <b>over 93
million people playing Candy Crush every day</b>, most of these were through
Facebook. When Facebook bought Instagram it became an even bigger platform for
photo sharing as well. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq9qxJLXUzx5PeoriObMNp_keJbXIbFyi2RzoVlOS8lmDM2rk2RPsltN6Zu4agE8P5IfldebAtvxWlrL5mgEZ6RIwsO7G4dSRZkNFPXvnTUCg7qf9EhtigAJEeCy2C57Uio0FH7g5q0vw/s1600/1858485-farmville_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq9qxJLXUzx5PeoriObMNp_keJbXIbFyi2RzoVlOS8lmDM2rk2RPsltN6Zu4agE8P5IfldebAtvxWlrL5mgEZ6RIwsO7G4dSRZkNFPXvnTUCg7qf9EhtigAJEeCy2C57Uio0FH7g5q0vw/s1600/1858485-farmville_1.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">giantbomb.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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So right now, <b>advertising is where Facebook wants to excel</b>.
Since 2009, Facebook’s been trying to build a relationship with businesses,
which was done through the introduction of 'Pages.' At first, all this did was
encourage an onslaught of youths to create pages with vaguely amusing names
whose main focus was to rack up the likes. Thankfully, they moved on and pages
are now being used for the reason Facebook intended.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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With a recent addition of a ‘Boost Post’ function available
on pages, there really are no limits for businesses. Except you must have over 400
likes… <b>and be willing to pay</b>. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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There are areas you can edit when boosting your post, one
being budget. Basically the more you pay the more people you reach. 3 GBP will
reach 1,200-3,200 on an average page with 800+ likes. At the other end of the
scale, 99 GBP can reach up to 54,000 people on a similar page. <b>But this is for just one post and if you want
it go for more than one day, and then you need to pay at least 1 GBP a day</b>. However,
allowing businesses to spend as little as 1 GBP a day, can be helpful for
smaller businesses and budgets.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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There have been fears that <b>the traffic this feature brings
to your page is not always legitimate</b>; one business stated that although the
likes on their page increased, the actual interests and locations of these
people were not suitable for their product. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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However, what seems important is to remember to edit all the
settings that are available and make sure you’re specific with location and
target audience, or you could end up wasting your money. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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Facebook’s efforts have been impressive and although Google
is still in the lead with over 4 million advertisers, <b>Facebook has done in less
than 3 years, what it took Google to do in five</b>. The fact that advertisers in Facebook are
increasing at such a rate seems to suggest that this method is working.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: http://www.socialsongbird.com/2015/02/facebooks-2-million-advertisers.html</span></div>
Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-17929952089193661212015-04-01T02:38:00.004-07:002015-04-01T02:46:41.543-07:00Instagram Revenue To Hit $5.8 billion by 2020<b><span style="font-size: large;"> Filters In The Future </span></b><br />
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Our ever popular photo-sharing network is projected to
generate $700 million this year. <b>That's going to jump to $5.8 billion in revenue in 2020</b> according to new
estimates from analysts with Cowen & Co.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz_yJovlsZJKqE7jJxID5qaHuyNmseYTWg-qwyktFmcxmP2avjDVzR45t8sWxBPp7ynp-w0tSxiYeK4_XVeCizxHgiey0jR715RXeAUTaHtabUwmNEAWUgTzfMGdcx6UPt9ca1wxaTAic/s1600/video-instagram-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz_yJovlsZJKqE7jJxID5qaHuyNmseYTWg-qwyktFmcxmP2avjDVzR45t8sWxBPp7ynp-w0tSxiYeK4_XVeCizxHgiey0jR715RXeAUTaHtabUwmNEAWUgTzfMGdcx6UPt9ca1wxaTAic/s1600/video-instagram-2.png" height="230" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">technobuffalo.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
That is some remarkable growth. I can only imagine that
Facebook is gleefully rubbing its hands together after it’s smart move to buy
Instagram. I wish my investments would do that well. <b>Maybe it’s time for all of
us to purchase just a little bit of Facebook stock?</b></div>
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This prediction for greatly increased revenue is based on
another prediction that the report makes. Cowen’s report estimates that by
2020, <b>Instagram’s user base will have more than doubled to 680 million</b> picture
happy fanatics. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I don’t see why that’s a too farfetched idea. Every day I
find that more and more of my friends who have always sworn off from Instagram
and its filters have finally taken the plunge and started following me. It’s
only natural – <b>Give in to the dark side of filtering everything</b>. <a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2015/02/doom-game-gets-social-media-treatment.html#.VOsGCynrMmU">Even some games have the right idea. </a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Naturally, the huge increase in user base leads to a huge
increase in advertisers utilising the photo-sharing platform. Hence the
ridiculously massive projected revenue for 2020. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here’s what the analysts at Cowen & Co said in their
report concerning Instagram’s revenue. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>‘Given the user scale, adv. interest, shifting TV ad spend
to Digital and FB’s monetization capabilities, we are more confident in our
Instagram revenue ramp from $0.7BN in '15 to $5.8BN in '20.’<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Facebook picked up Instagram in 2012 for what was a
relatively modest $1 Billion. (I say modest when we speak about the realms of
money these places dish out) and <b>since then it’s now estimated to be worth
about $33 Billion</b>. Once again Facebook are showing us how and when to pick up brands.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Instagram now boasts more monthly users than even twitter
and it still shows no signs of slowing down. It’s the social media giant that
we all hate to love. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Did you know, that in 2014, if you stacked up all the Instagram
photos on top of each other that were uploaded within <b>12 hours, you’d have a
stack as high as Everest</b>? In 6 days you’d have a stack that would reach the
outer edge of the earths atmosphere. This was all last year as well, these
figures are only going to go up. Take a quick look <a href="https://photoworld.com/photos-on-the-web/">here</a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I think it’s very safe to assume that Instagram are going to
hit their revenue markers for 2020. It may sound like a ludicrous amount to us
now, but they show no signs of slowing down.</div>
<br />
<br />
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Time to filter everything.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: http://www.socialsongbird.com/2015/02/instagram-revenue-to-hit-58-billion-by.html</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-23123684710207930822015-04-01T02:34:00.001-07:002015-04-01T02:46:33.026-07:00Virtual Reality Apps On Facebook<b><span style="font-size: large;">Oculus Rift: Nearly a Reality</span></b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Facebook's development of the Oculus VR is moving quickly as we go into 2015, <b>but what exactly are Facebook's plans?</b></span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj3ysp0PWX55OKtVSc4TGeIgr_ya2LiJYAOPdl_BllVWxYdt4fIBAldb5F4iDn_UNdDvigwPHQPNqWnwYcug8aDk2Mg76RF6DQIZZUd160wydYvFIgZjOtuaDLPZoqpQsm7pTB9TOp2Ag/s1600/the-oculus-rift-headset-i-012.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj3ysp0PWX55OKtVSc4TGeIgr_ya2LiJYAOPdl_BllVWxYdt4fIBAldb5F4iDn_UNdDvigwPHQPNqWnwYcug8aDk2Mg76RF6DQIZZUd160wydYvFIgZjOtuaDLPZoqpQsm7pTB9TOp2Ag/s1600/the-oculus-rift-headset-i-012.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">ghanalive.tv</span></span><br />
<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>In March 2014</b> Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had acquired Oculus VR, the leading product in virtual reality gaming. <b>After
a massive total of two billion dollars were exchanged in a combination
of Facebook stock, cash and incentives for the brand</b>, the question on everybody’s lips: <b>what did the multinational social networking site want with a gaming device?</b><br /><br />There were initial concerns that headstrong Zuckerberg <b>might turn the innovative headset away from gaming and into a social platform</b>. On his Facebook page, Zuckerberg said, <i>“Imagine
enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of
students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor
face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.” </i><br /><br />Facebook Chief, Chris Cox explained earlier this week at the Code/Media conference <b>that the company was already developing their own virtual reality apps</b>.
Although detail was limited and the release date of these apps is a
long way off, Facebook have said that they want to be able to send
bigger and fuller pictures using VR, instead of the snippets that can
currently be uploaded to Facebook.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Nonetheless, <b>this is not to say that Oculus has abandoned gaming altogether</b>.
The original developers and creator, Palmer Luckey, have continued to
work on their projects with little interference from Facebook. The demo
of <b>Crescent Bay, a standing-up virtual reality game, was trailed early this year and the reviews were more than encouraging.</b></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUoRvYE_JBOlJiPbioiVYcAgF4ZNXqaSoO4OtQAsVk-sXsodgEpBJe2qcIZqrB8iLAxrDirJgs3MGp24KKxsgIKhsOv-Md6hx3Qcg77sf8nkPNtyDNvdDiVUmrzhRvsNvWA1iJdRRro0s/s1600/oculus-rift-hands-on-ces-2015-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUoRvYE_JBOlJiPbioiVYcAgF4ZNXqaSoO4OtQAsVk-sXsodgEpBJe2qcIZqrB8iLAxrDirJgs3MGp24KKxsgIKhsOv-Md6hx3Qcg77sf8nkPNtyDNvdDiVUmrzhRvsNvWA1iJdRRro0s/s1600/oculus-rift-hands-on-ces-2015-3.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">gizmag.com<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The relationship between
Facebook and Luckey is currently proving to be highly beneficial and is
really accelerating the progress of Oculus which has developed greatly
since its prototype in 2012.<br /><br />Luckey is able to focus on the
engineering of the product, whilst Facebook can take on all the
paperwork and recruitment that a normal company in its early stages
would be battling with. <b>However, the headset still isn’t available for the general public to buy</b> and there are still problems with input devices and sound quality. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But overall, <b>progress is moving at lightning speed</b> and who knows what the future holds for Oculus when there is a company as formidable as Facebook behind them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 15pt;">Source: </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">http://www.socialsongbird.com/2015/02/virtual-reality-apps-on-facebook.html</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-zXEXzBedI40%2FVOxniwYuuiI%2FAAAAAAAAAe8%2FBHezUA2z2Ns%2Fs1600%2Fthe-oculus-rift-headset-i-012.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj3ysp0PWX55OKtVSc4TGeIgr_ya2LiJYAOPdl_BllVWxYdt4fIBAldb5F4iDn_UNdDvigwPHQPNqWnwYcug8aDk2Mg76RF6DQIZZUd160wydYvFIgZjOtuaDLPZoqpQsm7pTB9TOp2Ag/s1600/the-oculus-rift-headset-i-012.jpg" -->Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-28220748411172987362014-08-27T03:53:00.000-07:002014-08-27T03:53:33.249-07:00Amazon Buys Twitch For $970 Million <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Live Streaming Site To Up Its Game</b></span><br />
<br />
Twitch (formerly Twitch.tv) is a video streaming site which has become one of<b> the premier social platforms for gamers</b>
to share the experience of playing through games, and even to play them
collaboratively as in the great Internet social experiment Twitch Plays
Pokémon.<br />
<br />
It’s one of the biggest sites you’ve probably never heard of, with <b>55 million monthly visitors</b>. It accounts for 40% of all streaming traffic online, and during peak hours even has <b>2% of all internet traffic in the U.S.</b>
running through it – only Netflix, Google, and Apple account for more.
All this is very impressive for a company which was only set up three
years ago as an offshoot of Justin.tv, a site set up so that founder
Justin Kan could broadcast his life 24/7 (‘lifecasting’).<br />
<br />
And so, naturally, it has been snapped up by one of the web’s big
players – in this case Amazon. This week the ecommerce giant announced
that it was purchasing Twitch for<b> $970 million cash</b>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KjXzBudpxto/U_xVawfxlBI/AAAAAAAAAbU/BtZTSGFRgnM/s1600/twitch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="twitch" border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KjXzBudpxto/U_xVawfxlBI/AAAAAAAAAbU/BtZTSGFRgnM/s1600/twitch.jpg" title="twitch" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: maximumpc.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />The move is a little surprising considering that earlier this year Google-owned <b>YouTube was reportedly in talks with the site</b>
for a similar amount. While the world’s foremost video-hosting site may
have seemed a more natural choice to take over Twitch, there were
allegedly anti-trust issues in play which tripped the deal up in its
later stages.<br />
<br />
Additionally, in a statement accompanying the announcement of the deal,
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear stated that ‘Being part of Amazon will let us do
even more for our community’. The implication, mirroring that reported
by inside sources, seems to be that <b>Twitch was offered more freedom under Amazon’s wing</b>. It will remain independent, but backed by the deep pockets and international infrastructure of Jeff Bezo’s company.<br />
<br />
It is this infrastructure and ready capital which will prove so important to Twitch. While the company was offered<b> hundreds of millions of dollars in funding by venture capital investors</b>,
they felt that what they really needed was an established system of
distribution which they could piggy-back on rather than undertake the
onerous task of establishing a global network themselves.<br />
<br />
Amazon is a perfect fit in this regard, and the licensing deals which it
holds with many media companies means that negotiating the tricky
copyright issues around the live broadcasting of games will be<b> considerably easier</b>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5ni36uAyJo/U_xWDAFFDII/AAAAAAAAAbc/FjtRoLIGxY4/s1600/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="amazon ceo jeff bezos" border="0" height="179" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5ni36uAyJo/U_xWDAFFDII/AAAAAAAAAbc/FjtRoLIGxY4/s1600/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos.jpg" title="amazon ceo jeff bezos" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: cnet.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The decision also makes sense for Amazon, who have been looking to move
into game development for some time now with their Amazon Game Studio to
round out the media development wing of the website. Their aggressive
expansion into television production in particular could be a model for
how they hope to crack<b> the lucrative gaming market</b>. Amazon are
already the second-largest sellers of games behind Valve’s online Steam
store, and by bringing Twitch into the fold they are buying the eyes of <b>millions of gaming customers</b>.<br />
<br />
Twitch’s legions of loyal users probably won’t experience a huge shift
after this deal, particularly considering Shear’s expression of intent
to remain<b> as independent as possible</b>. It’s also very much in
Amazon’s interests to let Twitch do what they do best, which is to build
what is fast becoming the most popular social platform for gamers in
history.Mili and Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06816440857578675731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-59896699198451051702014-08-27T03:51:00.000-07:002014-08-27T03:51:20.814-07:00Instagram Introduces New Analytic Tools<b><span style="font-size: large;"> App Becomes A More Viable Tool For Brand Promotion</span></b><br />
<br />
Ever since Facebook bought Instagram for a cool<b> $1 billion</b> back
in 2012, the photo sharing site has been in an enviable position. With
the economic support of Zuckerberg’s social media empire behind it, it
has been able to grow and develop without the immediate pressure of
having to monetise the attention of its <b>150 million+ dedicated users</b>.<br />
<br />
Nothing good lasts forever, though, and the time has come for Instagram
to start turning its attention to the uncool issue of revenue
generation. That spectre has been floating around the app for about a
year now, since <a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2013/10/instagram-introduces-adverts_10.html#.U_c_vvldVVU">Instagram started inserting ads into users’ feeds back in late 2013</a>. Additionally <a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2014/07/instagram-unveils-new-photo-messaging.html#.U_c_7fldVVU">Facebook leaked their Snapchat rival bolt via an Instagram banner ad last month</a>, so users have had plenty of time to get used to the idea of beautifully filtered photos trying to sell them stuff.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZkWD-_1ajVs/U_c-kEkglBI/AAAAAAAAAa8/u24nWy040SA/s1600/Instagram-logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="instagram marketing" border="0" height="186" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZkWD-_1ajVs/U_c-kEkglBI/AAAAAAAAAa8/u24nWy040SA/s1600/Instagram-logo.jpg" title="instagram marketing" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: techcrash.net</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br />
<br />
Now it seems as though the app is starting to <b>get serious about appealing to marketers</b>.
It’s rolled out a suite of deeper analytics to allow advertisers
greater insight into how their campaigns are performing and being shared
– or not, as the case may be. Although the service has been selling ads
for a year, it’s been difficult for those investing to have<b> any real ideas about the returns they’re getting</b>.
So far the system has relied upon the Instagram team manually updating
advertisers on how their campaigns are getting on, which is good for
building relationships with marketers but not so great if clients want a
more data-heavy idea of how they’re doing.<br />
<br />
While the new system will allow advertisers to see how their campaigns are doing<b> in real time</b>,
they won’t be able to make adjustments with the same flexibility; for
example, by making increased on-the-fly investments in campaigns which
are garnering unexpected levels of attention. Presumably this won’t be
long in coming, however.<br />
<br />
On a functional level, businesses will not only be able to see how their
investments are working but will be able to plan and execute them via a
dashboard interface on their desktop – previously advertisers have had
to operate via mobile along with the rest of Instagram’s users.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XCTD9vn_cTI/U_c_Lq0ZxdI/AAAAAAAAAbE/PvYvImchTus/s1600/A-Marketing-Machine-Called-Instagram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="instagram marketing" border="0" height="231" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XCTD9vn_cTI/U_c_Lq0ZxdI/AAAAAAAAAbE/PvYvImchTus/s1600/A-Marketing-Machine-Called-Instagram.jpg" title="instagram marketing" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: oficinadamarca.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
When it comes to encouraging marketers to see their site as a viable
option for investment, developers have two ways to go. They can alter
the experience of using the app to make it easier for advertisers to get
greater access to users, <a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2014/08/twitter-to-show-you-tweets-you-dont.html#.U_dAcPldVVU">as Twitter have done in their recent decision to insert favourited tweets in people’s Timelines</a>,
even by people who the user doesn’t follow. The problem with this, as
Twitter have discovered, is that people don’t like having unwanted
content shoved in their faces for sake of appealing to marketers.<br />
<br />
The alternative, which is the route Instagram seems to be following (for now), is to set up<b> a sophisticated set of tools for marketers</b>
behind the scenes so that they can best manipulate the platform as it
is. The main advantage of this, of course, is that since users don’t see
anything they don’t have anything to complain about, apart from a
sneaking sense of discomfort as posts which seem to prominently feature
Coke products start to crop up more and more.Mili and Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06816440857578675731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-78887437230601013682014-08-27T03:47:00.000-07:002014-08-27T03:47:37.610-07:00Majority Of Digital Media Now Consumed Via Apps<span style="font-size: large;"><b> Smartphones And Tablets Rule, Apparently</b></span><br />
<br />
It doesn’t take much to realise<b> the ubiquity of the smartphone</b>.
Just step outside, or look around your group of friends, or look at your
own hand – you’re probably holding one right now. You can run your
whole life from your phone, from banking to booking holidays to replying
to emails to watching<b> videos of baby pandas</b>. All the most vital aspects of modern life are in your pocket.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2014/05/social-media-and-mobile-device.html#.U_cSkPldVVU">It
seems like something of a formality, then, for a recent survey to
reveal that mobile apps account for the majority of our time spent using
digital media</a>. 52% of our online activity takes place through apps,
and if you include mobile browsing that figure jumps to 60%.
Desktop-based digital media consumption thus accounts for only 40% for
our online lives.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QUqe1Fo0PZs/U_cRaTSvKzI/AAAAAAAAAak/FZeEw6cTgV4/s1600/smartphone-apps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="smartphone apps" border="0" height="192" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QUqe1Fo0PZs/U_cRaTSvKzI/AAAAAAAAAak/FZeEw6cTgV4/s1600/smartphone-apps.jpg" title="smartphone apps" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: aptito.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br />
<br />
Also somewhat notably, while people are consuming more digital media than ever (a 24% increase on last year)<b> that media is coming from fewer and fewer sources</b>.
42% of all app time on smartphones takes place in the user’s most used
app – which in most cases means Facebook, especially with those aged
25-34 who spend 18.5% of their time on apps on the social network. Three
out of every four minutes of app usage takes place on one of the user’s
top four apps.<br />
<br />
What the data also shows, interestingly, is that there is <b>a dedicated base of app power users</b>:
7% of smartphone users account for almost half of all download activity
in a given month. Most users, however, spend their time on a few main
apps. Discounting functional apps like Google Maps and Gmail, <b>Facebook is by far the most used</b>
followed by YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Despite all the fuss made
over exciting new social networks, amongst the older generation there is
a lean towards old stalwarts: Words With Friends and Solitaire both
beat out Pinterest in the 55+ demographic.<br />
<br />
The main takeaway from all this, though, is that social networking, and the internet in general, is <b>going mobile at a far more rapid pace than anyone really seems to be anticipating</b>.
Just as ten years ago the idea that someone would move into a new house
and not bother to install a landline phone would seem ridiculous,
perhaps a decade from now <b>the desktop computer will be seen as an anachronism</b>
in comparison to the ease and portability of smartphones and tablets.
Particularly with the gradual shift of data off local servers and into
the cloud – the placing of the iCloud app as the 11th most used app
reinforces this – means that the additional memory which a PC provides
is of less and less relevance.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8CwKxuopBPU/U_cSGwCnrGI/AAAAAAAAAas/kVBZWsK0V-s/s1600/Young-people-using-smartphones-and-tablets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="young people apps" border="0" height="213" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8CwKxuopBPU/U_cSGwCnrGI/AAAAAAAAAas/kVBZWsK0V-s/s1600/Young-people-using-smartphones-and-tablets.jpg" title="young people apps" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: blog.eyesurf.info</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
What is clear, from the fact that social media takes up a quarter of all
time spent on mobile apps, is that the increase in mobile usage is
driven by <b>a desire for connectivity</b> as much as for convenience.
Especially among the 18-24 demographic, where all but three of the top
ten apps by use are social (the three exceptions being Pandora Radio,
Netflix, and iFunny – the latter of which is arguably at least partly
social), it is clear that social networking and the app market make for
perfect, and lucrative, bedfellows.Mili and Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06816440857578675731noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-26122031143315192502014-08-05T04:25:00.001-07:002014-08-05T04:25:34.021-07:00OKCupid Co-Founder Speaks Further On User Experimentation<span style="font-size: large;"><b> OKCupid Lies To You Almost As Much As You Lie To It</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
Christian Rudder, co-founder of <b>OKCupid</b>, has spoken further about<b> his company’s experimentation with users</b>
following his controversial blog post ‘We Experiment On Human Beings!’
last week. After admitting that the post was ‘sensationally written’ and
at least partly intended to incite active debate around the topic, he
defended the dating website’s actions on the grounds that it was part of
the ‘scientific method’ – that <b>without this kind of experimentation no website could ever hope to improve its users’ experience.</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7THDlNKISb0/U9-WXRWHy3I/AAAAAAAAANI/1PABzR4O11Q/s1600/okcupid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="okcupid dating" border="0" height="138" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7THDlNKISb0/U9-WXRWHy3I/AAAAAAAAANI/1PABzR4O11Q/s1600/okcupid.jpg" title="okcupid dating" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: the1stclasslifestyle.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a>The backlash against <b>OKCupid</b> (<a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2014/07/facebook-experimented-on-you-back-in.html#.U9-XoPldVVU">and <b>Facebook</b>, for a similar experiment that they admitted to conducting earlier this year</a>) has mainly centred on <b>the idea that there is some implicit agreement between user and company</b>, that the obligation rests with these companies to represent our data in a reasonable and expected way.<br />
<br />
The first problem is that <b>we don’t see everything we theoretically ‘should’ on social media sites anyway</b>. <b>Facebook</b>
rolled out its Top Stories feature some time ago, wherein it was the
most popular and commented-upon posts which took up most of the space on
users’ feeds rather than relying on pure chronology. Users grumbled,
but there was still the option to view posts by ‘most recent’ and
clearly enough people were happy with Top Stories for it to stay.<br />
<br />
Likewise, as Rudder pointed out, <b>OKCupid</b> already uses certain metrics and algorithms to determine who is compatible and who isn’t. <b>These are not written on tablets of stone</b>,
contrary to popular belief – thousands of years of human intellectual
endeavour have gone into the figuring out what makes people fall in
love, and it seems unlikely that a couple of guys managed to crack it on
their first try (even if they did go to Harvard). <b>Constant tweaking and refinement is the name of the game</b>
when it comes to perfecting user experience, and doubtless these same
people would be kicking up a fuss about some other aspect that wasn’t
running according to their exact preferences.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WsfWn4RWBOY/U9-WxR5SyVI/AAAAAAAAANQ/yJWb0Ib7zBc/s1600/holdinghands.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="okcupid dating" border="0" height="228" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WsfWn4RWBOY/U9-WxR5SyVI/AAAAAAAAANQ/yJWb0Ib7zBc/s1600/holdinghands.jpg" title="okcupid dating" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: 640toronto.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Perhaps most importantly, <b>everyone who has complained about this is a shameless hypocrite</b>.
To launch into self-righteous indignation over how you are represented
on a dating site of all places seems to lack so much self-awareness as
to be comic. The stereotype of the 22 stone, thrice-divorced chain
smoker who lists themselves as having an athletic body and enjoying long
walks on the beach is beyond a cliché by this point, but the fact
remains that<b> everyone misrepresents themselves on dating sites</b> as well as on the internet in general.<br />
<br />
Steven Furtick said that <b>‘the reason we struggle with insecurity is because we’re comparing our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel,’</b>
and yet that doesn’t stop us posting pictures of our amazing safari but
not of us curled up in bed with the flu, of fancy dinners with friends
but not eating McDonalds alone in our car. Perhaps one day we’ll reach a
stage of self-confidence sufficient to represent our true selves both
online and off, but until that mythical point<b> it’s hard to blame OKCupid</b> for fiddling with a few profiles to try and find out who we really are, and who we might really love.Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-85434555735432139672014-08-05T04:18:00.000-07:002014-08-05T04:19:24.980-07:00WWI Remembered On Social Media
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>People Come Together To Commemorate Losses Of The Great War</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
Wilfred Owen, as he watched his fellow soldiers die beside him the
trenches, asked ‘What passing-bells for those who die as cattle?’ Now, a
hundred years later, on the centenary of the beginning of <b>World War I</b>, <b>people have taken to social media to remember and commemorate</b> those who gave their lives during the conflict.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SG-hzoPZ_c0/U99zdQKjcpI/AAAAAAAAAMw/iGPZ45uYRWA/s1600/ww1+centenary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="wwi centenary" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SG-hzoPZ_c0/U99zdQKjcpI/AAAAAAAAAMw/iGPZ45uYRWA/s1600/ww1+centenary.jpg" height="180" title="wwi centenary" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: rayburntours.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a>While the politicians’ speeches and newspaper
articles were about the big picture, social media gave people a chance
to speak out about the personal effect of the Great War; <b>people spoke of grandparents, neighbours, teachers who gave their lives</b>.<br />
<br />
Engagement with social media also<b> gave organisations a chance to make public information about the War</b>
in new and innovative ways. The Greater London Reserve Forces’ and
Cadets’ Association (GL RFCA) created a Facebook page for a fictional
soldier from Battersea called Walter Carter which was then updated in
real time with posts about events leading up to the outbreak of war,
incorporating real historical documents and references.<br />
<br />
On Twitter the hashtag <b>#WWIcentenary</b> was trending, with people using it to <b>share the memories</b> which had been passed down to them. Since<b> Harry Patch</b>,
the last British veteran of the trenches died in 2009 the importance of
maintaining this history has become more acute and social media acted
as a forum for people to collectively share and store these memories.<b> Almost sixty thousand people tweeted with the hashtag #WWI in July alone</b>,
with many of these being concerned with personal memories and
experience: according to the website findmypast.com, 1200 of those
tweets alone mentioned ‘home,’ and over 1600 mentioned ‘love.’<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C4uDa16BNSY/U990EYzS5pI/AAAAAAAAAM4/v3MCje3nfEM/s1600/ww1+memorial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="wwi memorial" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C4uDa16BNSY/U990EYzS5pI/AAAAAAAAAM4/v3MCje3nfEM/s1600/ww1+memorial.jpg" height="215" title="wwi memorial" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">Source: stokesleyheritage.wikidot.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>The coinciding of the centenary with the Commonwealth game</b>s gave
an additional poignancy to proceedings, with the contributions from all
the former nations of the British Empire being recognised. David Cameron
used #WWIcentenary to talk about a special service at Glasgow Cathedral
to recognise the contributions of the Commonwealth nations, and
individuals used social media as a platform to speak about <b>those who they feared may be forgotten</b> – such as the 400,000 Muslims who fought for the Allies during the conflict.<br />
<br />
People also took the opportunity to launch campaigns to bring this mass remembrance offline. The hashtag <b>#lightsout</b>
was created to encourage people to switch off their lights between 10
and 11 pm tonight, a reference to Sir Edward Grey’s remark at the
outbreak of war that<b> ‘The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.’</b><br />
<br />
All this helps to remind us that<b> social media is not simply a platform for a display of our own lives</b>,
or a tool to facilitate business – it is what it says it is: a society.
Its strength is not something inherent, but only a product of the
interaction of the<b> billions of individuals who use it</b>, and one
may hold out some hope that that the kind of international conversation
and cooperation seen on this anniversary is something of a guarantee
that that which is being remembered is truly being consigned to history.Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-39580221222112252812014-03-21T08:52:00.000-07:002014-03-21T08:52:36.711-07:00 Children need ‘true grit’ to be able to cope with social media A leading headmaster has stated that children are being made to feel
like the “inadequate stars of a second-rate biopic”. This comes after
the increasing level of personal scrutiny aimed at youngsters on the
Internet, and many are taking the position that social media is now a
negative thing. The risks are there to see but there is also another
side of social media that can be beneficial.<br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl6U10XLoxElhKY2tEbqQuDFJ7kjawB3kNlN6pGeGmyo1SiENR2488SqQQ41u5ADydlMrtk3qJxbHL-jLyjcjqBqys0h200Ewz27YmsOPCMyswi0b32WuwwmCe35C7Xqhm119KyqI6M6Wo/s3200/child+soc.jpg"><img alt="Children and social media" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl6U10XLoxElhKY2tEbqQuDFJ7kjawB3kNlN6pGeGmyo1SiENR2488SqQQ41u5ADydlMrtk3qJxbHL-jLyjcjqBqys0h200Ewz27YmsOPCMyswi0b32WuwwmCe35C7Xqhm119KyqI6M6Wo/s3200/child+soc.jpg" title="Children and social media" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Source: huffingtonpost.com</span></div>
<div>
<br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a>Andrew Halls also said that sites such as
Facebook, Ask.fm Little Gossip and Instagram are forcing under-16s to
live under an “electric adjudicator far more cruel and censorious” than
teachers, and parents. During the speech he suggested that the growing
influence of social media is fuelling a surge in mental health problems
amongst children in all social classes.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
These are very strong words from someone who is meant to be tutoring new
technologies that come into play and not slamming them down. Like
everything there is a plus and negative side to all inventions, and it
is surely the education system’s role to nurture children through the
positive steps whilst explaining the negatives and the impact they can
have on others.</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Andrew Halls is in a position of high authority, and many will no doubt
take on board his words, and this is why it is so surprising that his
choice of argument is baffling. If a child was to read what he has said
then the natural reaction would be to challenge that authority, because
he is clearly against social media. This is what happens in schools
without the appropriate tutoring. There is a growing issue to do with
bullying online but the wrong way to go about challenging it is to just
identify it in the public eye. Mr Halls should have said what he plans
to do to keep this at bay, because that is what is needed due to social
media not going away.</div>
<br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh84yXY7QAkaNPqdjA7z3vO9PULvzMOlEPNeZXjDt6UySYVWeiqqj-TXLTAgF9gVNtKyyIp7drH8jcQaTD1Asxt7sxDB8Di2LHFPETl9BnA7c1mAa1aIBRwbVSliJPsAm6u7UaPMHarkkKn/s3200/soc+m.jpg"><img alt="Technology and social media" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh84yXY7QAkaNPqdjA7z3vO9PULvzMOlEPNeZXjDt6UySYVWeiqqj-TXLTAgF9gVNtKyyIp7drH8jcQaTD1Asxt7sxDB8Di2LHFPETl9BnA7c1mAa1aIBRwbVSliJPsAm6u7UaPMHarkkKn/s3200/soc+m.jpg" title="Technology and social media" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Source: zowchow.com</span></div>
<br />There are educational benefits to be seen out of sites such as
Facebook, and maybe what the educational institutions should be doing is
encouraging their students to use the site as a form of collective
discussion after school. Despite the children being sat in front of a
screen after school is not ideal, it is now the reality so at least this
would help them pursue knowledge instead of harming others.<br /><br />In
today’s world, it is appropriate that not only should children be
learning the core subjects at school, but also be taught in social media
management. By this I mean personal management, and this would include
how to act online, and what types of things to avoid, but also how to
gain intellectually out of using social media. This may not appeal to
everyone, but at present there is no one else suggesting alternatives.
This is possibly the route Mr Halls should have pursued before launching
an attack on social media as a whole, because one day his students may
be using the platform as a way to start a successful business.
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-2cLspBbMHZM%2FUyrzaUMuxbI%2FAAAAAAAAASo%2FuFWbAk4L7CY%2Fs3200%2Fchild%2Bsoc.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl6U10XLoxElhKY2tEbqQuDFJ7kjawB3kNlN6pGeGmyo1SiENR2488SqQQ41u5ADydlMrtk3qJxbHL-jLyjcjqBqys0h200Ewz27YmsOPCMyswi0b32WuwwmCe35C7Xqhm119KyqI6M6Wo/s3200/child+soc.jpg" --><!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-DjBSdPcnnwc%2FUyrz9Atl2XI%2FAAAAAAAAASw%2F_nHaZ5mTGCE%2Fs3200%2Fsoc%2Bm.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh84yXY7QAkaNPqdjA7z3vO9PULvzMOlEPNeZXjDt6UySYVWeiqqj-TXLTAgF9gVNtKyyIp7drH8jcQaTD1Asxt7sxDB8Di2LHFPETl9BnA7c1mAa1aIBRwbVSliJPsAm6u7UaPMHarkkKn/s3200/soc+m.jpg" -->Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-90242620178056659112014-03-19T08:38:00.002-07:002014-03-19T08:38:59.842-07:00 Has social media created the 'dual individual'? Social media is a place for the self-obsessed at times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can scroll down an Instagram feed and see
many selfies taken at different angles and topped off with an array of
filters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people upload a different
picture every time their mood changes in one day, but why?
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPf6cmIRVSaXd4R0JJnXR9-WEIDuo9XCGXJAyA1AwEMXK-Fn2UNsFCkNK_ER5NGXaynqYplc8kYTkWshkbacMzvLRfJk0t8M1_ibwpuXl-KkeO8nRsjakqYG0uVURFYX3LQ3I81lc2zt3N/s3200/pressure.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPf6cmIRVSaXd4R0JJnXR9-WEIDuo9XCGXJAyA1AwEMXK-Fn2UNsFCkNK_ER5NGXaynqYplc8kYTkWshkbacMzvLRfJk0t8M1_ibwpuXl-KkeO8nRsjakqYG0uVURFYX3LQ3I81lc2zt3N/s3200/pressure.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Source: businesscomputingworld.com</div>
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a consumer driven culture, you just have to take a trip
to your local shopping centre and you will see multiple pictures of barely
dressed models with seemingly flawless body figures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is having an impact on how the masses
see themselves, and it has a detrimental effect on how society is being
educated about how to act in both the public and personal spheres of
communication and self-building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Marketing has been massive in the influence of the beauty image, and
displaying a massive image of a model with a protruding six-pack and sculpture
like jawbone with zero body hair is actually making the majority of society
strive for something that is not attainable without the help of surgery.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dramaturgical theory is now reality and most people are
taking on the roles of people they see on TV, making life essentially a
theatrical performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is also an
emphasis in society to stay young, and therefore the natural symptoms of
growing older, or hitting another stage of life are being looked at as
negative. This is especially the case for women who have a tough time when it
comes to cosmetic judgement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The whole
language around a female who is growing older is significantly more negative
than a male.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example Women are
subjected to negative comments if they are displaying wrinkles on the face,
with terms such as ‘weathered’ and ‘hag’ being used.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is different for men as there as society
now views them as ‘matured’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
essentially an argument that society suggests women grow old, and men grow up.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Social media came along and the spotlight is as blinding as
ever, especially for young people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>People are conditioned now to project an unrealistic version of
themselves online, and in the end it just wears down a persons psyche.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone is putting so much time into
creating a digital identity, and the fine details of a digital persona all
depends on how others are portraying themselves online.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With all this going on behind the scenes,
what happens to the ‘real life’ person in front of the computer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there now a duel personality?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are two versions of one entity too difficult
to maintain?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is maybe where the condition ‘Smiling depression’ comes
from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone who is suffering will be
very good at hiding the psychological difficulties that they experience, and
often adopt a happy disposition, along with a great sense of humour among
social gatherings, but ultimately struggle in isolation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Social media then is a tool for people who wish to project
this platonic ideal of the self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This in
turn constructs a mentality other than the physical one that is present,
leaving the individual literally in two minds as to who they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where the person finds it impossible
to lead two lives, as they are chasing their aspirations in the real world,
whilst striving to portray a perpetually happy persona on the Internet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Y5VmJFTW4gywXVqaGrCDwGEJVYIRjhsy_pjIHLgEqS5aSCII5h8g_eztUwcNuuJD6J5AUSRGFYKgqtcVnUWVMMNk3NmRpljPGa4gkUurg1QHaSbmfxzahqf2zU3JbNJe4W4JZnTh1CTQ/s3200/out.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Y5VmJFTW4gywXVqaGrCDwGEJVYIRjhsy_pjIHLgEqS5aSCII5h8g_eztUwcNuuJD6J5AUSRGFYKgqtcVnUWVMMNk3NmRpljPGa4gkUurg1QHaSbmfxzahqf2zU3JbNJe4W4JZnTh1CTQ/s3200/out.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Source: digitalfire.co.za</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
If a person then chooses to ditch one of the personalities
then problems can occur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case
that the individual chooses to pursue the goal of polishing their online
persona then they become detached from the so called ‘real world’, leaving them
alienated from society, therefore their inter-personal skills would suffer as a
result of lesser human interaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
the individual was to abandon the online self, then again this may lead to
alienation as now it is an expectation by the majority that an individual takes
part in social networking, and if you’re not, then why?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Both of these options could then lead to a psychological
illness such as depression and then the spiral continues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This sort of discussion brings up the fact
that our society are still children in the world of social media, and young
people in particular are facing growing pressure to lead dual lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Networks such as Instagram are a place to spawn
these new personalities, as an individual is not pressurised to display their
negative traits, and by looking at someone’s profile, you could easily think
that you are inferior due to the perfection quest of some.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
It is an issue that will no doubt continue due to the growing
influence of not only social media, but also marketing across the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not only in shopping centres that
display the beauty image, but also TV shows, films, and magazines that tell you
that you should also look like a model, or else success will not come your
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a difficult environment to stably
live in for some people who are of a sensitive nature, but one hopes that the
positives of social media will outweigh a problem such as this. Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-86652703010525799302014-03-14T04:26:00.002-07:002014-03-14T04:26:52.726-07:00Would You Rather be Social or Interesting? <div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.jeffbullas.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Would-you-rather-be-social-or-interesting.jpg"><img alt="Would you rather be social or interesting" class="aligncenter wp-image-33783" src="http://www.jeffbullas.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Would-you-rather-be-social-or-interesting.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
The “Interest Graph” is not the “Social Graph”. But what does that mean and why should you care?<br />
Despite the rapid ascent of Interest-based platforms, such as
Pinterest, Sulia, WeHeartIt and Wanelo, we rarely see dialogue about the
Interest Graph except in a Social context. However, The Interest Graph
and Social Graph are two fundamentally different infrastructures with
different underlying assumptions for marketers.<br />
<br />
Sure, they often overlap, but it’s time we come to appreciate their
differences, so that we can be more effective marketers on a social web
driven by people’s passions and interests.<br />
So should you be social or interesting?<br />
<br />
<h2>
The social graph is about who you “know”</h2>
Friends, followers and connections represent some degree of
familiarity, ranging from a spouse to someone you met once at that thing
you went to. If you think in High School terms, the Social Graph is all
about getting in with the cool kids, so you can multiply your reach and
borrow from their swagger.<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: left;">
The basic assumption of “Social Marketing” is:<br />
</div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<i>“If someone knows someone else, they will be interested in similar things”</i><br />
<br />
</div>
<h2>
The interest graph is about “passions”</h2>
In high school, the “Interest Graph” is like clubs or sports teams- a
group of people coming together because they love to do the same thing.
They may or may not be friends, may or may not know each other, but
they share a common passion that brings them together. The more
passionate they are the more likely they are to create, share and
comment.<br />
<div align="center" style="text-align: left;">
The basic assumption of Interest Marketing is thus:<br />
</div>
<div align="center" style="text-align: center;">
<i>“If someone is interested in something, people who are interested in similar things will be interested in that thing”</i><br />
<br />
</div>
<h2>
Social marketing is about reach</h2>
The more people who see your message, the further it will spread.
This means you will need to continue to grow your social networks on
Twitter to remain ahead of the competition. It’s about building an
online distribution network.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Interest marketing is about relevance</h2>
If you hit the right audience with the right message, you can connect with valuable customers through a trusted authority.<br />
<br />
Studies show that <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/287174913709384253/" target="_blank">traffic from Pinterest is more valuable than traffic from Facebook and Twitter,</a>
likely because the audience is better qualified to begin with. That
said, Facebook and Twitter still have substantially larger user bases,
so if your strategy requires very broad reach, it may be easier to find
it through the social web.<br />
<br />
By digging deeper, other critical differences between Social and
Interest-based marketing emerge. Let’s compare Facebook and Twitter, the
preeminent Social networks with Pinterest, the preeminent
Interest-based network to illustrate a few distinctions:<br />
<br />
<h2>
1. Content: Real-Time vs evergreen</h2>
Information about Interests becomes dated less rapidly than what’s
trendy on the Social scene. If you’re interested in gardening, chances
are an article about how to optimally plant daffodil seeds will be as
relevant five years from now as it is today. Conversely, most news
articles, events and other timely posts about the new blockbuster movie
we’ll all forget in six months isn’t.<br />
<br />
Cool comes from knowing what’s hot now; Interesting comes from knowing quality information. That’s why <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/287174913709384091/" target="_blank">content on Pinterest lives longer than content on facebook</a>.<br />
<br />
As marketers, we need to differentiate our content strategy. All too
often at Tailwind we hear “Pinterest doesn’t work for us. We’re sharing
the same thing there as on facebook but not getting results.” It’s not
that Pinterest “doesn’t work for you;” you’re just doing it wrong. Start
with the audience on Pinterest and ask yourself- what content does this
audience need? Chances are, it’s different from what your facebook
audience needs. And if done properly, it can pay dividends over a much
longer period of time- more similar to your SEO content strategy.<br />
<br />
<h2>
2. Discovery: Search vs stream</h2>
When Pinterest first gained notoriety, publications focused on their
unique, scannable visual feed. While that feature has been very
important in establishing Pinterest’s identity, interestingly Pinterest
has recently focused on raising the profile of other methods of
discovery – namely, <a href="http://blog.pinterest.com/post/74744409147/its-going-to-be-an-interesting-year">Interests</a> and <a href="http://blog.tailwindapp.com/pinterest-search-front-center/" target="_blank">Pinterest search</a>.<b> </b>And this makes perfect sense: In Interest-based discovery, depth of content matters.<br />
<br />
You may passingly decide to check out Breaking Bad, but once you get
hooked, you may find yourself researching everything from the actors’
backgrounds to blue crystalline cake toppings for your next house party.
With topical content, it’s rare that users go beyond the first article,
and even more rare that enough information will be organized and
accessible to dig deeper if you wanted to.<br />
As a result, the stream is the thing- you want a wide variety of new
content, but don’t need or expect to dig deeper on most social
platforms.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<h2>
3. Tools: Don’t ask your butcher to remove your appendix</h2>
Sure, surgeons and butchers both cut flesh daily, but when precision
is necessary, call a surgeon. In the same vein, you shouldn’t look to
tools built for Twitter or Facebook to develop your Pinterest strategy.
As CEO of the leading <a href="http://tailwindapp.com/">Pinterest Analytics and Marketing tool</a>,
this suggestion probably seems self-serving. But if we didn’t see that
the Interest Graph requires unique tools, we wouldn’t be building
Tailwind in the first place. Let’s examine a few cases in point:<br />
<h3>
Analytics</h3>
Tailwind initially took off as the go-to analytics tool for marketers
on Pinterest. Today, over 12,000 brands rely on us for insights that
inform their campaign strategies. At first our approach was similar to
advanced Social analytics tools, but over time we realized that metrics
need to be thought of differently for Pinterest. For example, Facebook
and Twitter tools tend to focus on recent content, in a real-time feed,
to help you understand which posts were more or less successful. For
Pinterest, though, immediate analysis of content can lead to incorrect
conclusions. Consider this <a href="http://blog.tailwindapp.com/viral-pin/">case study of a pin that went viral six months after being posted</a>.<br />
<br />
Due to the evergreen nature of content, one must constantly refresh
engagement data on past posts, as an individual pin may look like a dud
after an hour or a day, but after connecting with the right interest
group can become a star 14, 30 or even 180 days later. For this reason,
we’ve built capabilities to be able to track the life of a pin over
time, so when your late blooming content comes to life, you’ll (a)
notice it and (b) be able to understand how and why it went viral.<br />
<h3>
Community management</h3>
Social CRM tools frequently emphasize who has the most followers, so
you can amplify your message as quickly as possible. In a real-time,
reach-based environment, this makes sense. Conversely, when you’re
trying to amplify a message on Pinterest, what topics a user is
influential about matters far more. Someone may have 2 million
followers, but if their authority is in Men’s Clothing and Home Décor,
paying them to pin your wedding pins isn’t likely a good use of
marketing budget. At Tailwind, we solve for this, by showing our users
what topics influencers are trusted about and helping identify impactful
pinners for a topic, not just ones with high follower counts.<br />
<h3>
Discovering content to pin</h3>
Given the longevity of a pin, emphasis on visual content and focus on
curation over creation, it might not surprise you that the top sources
of content on Pinterest are quite different from the top sources on
Twitter or Facebook. Topical, news-oriented content performs very well
on platforms powered by the social graph, as timely content can spread
rapidly through social circles.<br />
<br />
On Pinterest the question is often- what are the <i>best </i>sources
of content for a given topic. Thus, in order to help Pinners discover
better content to pin, we had to dig deep into understanding the best
sources of content on a given topic- often this means content is a bit
less newsy in nature, as the news cycle doesn’t allow for deep coverage
of many topics.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Which should I choose?</h2>
So, should you focus on the Interest Graph or Social graph?<br />
<br />
Most likely, the answer is <b><span style="text-decoration: underline;">both</span></b>. Most businesses need both broad reach and targeted marketing to fill their funnel. However, you may lean more heavily into…<br />
<br />
<b>Social</b> if your business involves short blasts of intense
promotion of unique products or content (e.g. concert promoters, news
media), your audience knows each other well in real life (e.g.
University Student Affairs Office) or the economics are driven more by
volume alone (e.g. CPM-based publisher in non-niche category).<br />
<br />
<b>Interest-based Marketing</b> if your business rotates products
frequently but sells into the same audience (e.g. most retailers),
serves customers with a specific hobby/passion (e.g. category-driven
media publication), needs to be recognized as a subject matter expert
(e.g. most service businesses) or targets an audience with common
interests that’s geographically fragmented (e.g. camera manufacturers
targeting photographers and wedding photography targeting brides).<br />
<br />Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-1679699770324627792014-03-10T07:57:00.000-07:002014-03-10T08:02:40.210-07:00The New Facebook Ad Campaign Structure: Here is What You Need to Know<img alt="The New Facebook Ad Campaign Structure: Here is What You Need to Know" class="alignnone" height="208" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/SocialMouths/facebook_ad_campaign_structure.jpg" title="The New Facebook Ad Campaign Structure: Here is What You Need to Know" width="400" /><br />
<br />
Last week, Facebook announced the redesign and launch of a new
structure for its advertising campaigns. This new structure is scheduled
to start rolling out tomorrow (March 4) to all ad platforms, including
Power Editor.<br />
<br />
In this short but sweet post, we’ll take a look at what those changes are, so you can be prepared.<br />
<span id="more-12596"></span><br />
Lately, Facebook has been making several changes to its advertising
products, mostly to simplify things, in other words, to eliminate
things. But in this case, it looks like we are adding something new to
the mix.<br />
<br />
Here is the diagram published by Facebook itself last week and, as
you can see, there is a new element called Ad Set, and this changes how
campaigns are structured.<br />
<br />
<img alt="Facebook new campaign structure" class="alignnone" height="400" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/SocialMouths/facebook_new_campaign_structure.jpg" title="Facebook new campaign structure" width="381" /><br />
So here is how the new campaign structure works:<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Campaign</h2>
You start by setting up a campaign based on one specific Objective.
You probably remember that, not too long ago, Facebook changed “Ad
Types” for “Objectives” with the purpose of letting marketers focus on
the goal of the campaign instead of the type of ad.<br />
<br />
This means that the campaign will now be determined by that goal. To
give you an example, a campaign can be designed specifically to drive
traffic to your site. Everything inside this campaign will be focused on
that goal.<br />
<br />
If you have been running Facebook ads for a while, you know Objectives were part of the Ad settings.<br />
<br />
<img alt="Facebook Ad Objectives" class="alignnone" height="228" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/SocialMouths/facebook_ad_objectives.jpg" title="Facebook Ad Objectives" width="400" /><br />
<br />
Also, Facebook didn’t mention any changes to the actual set of
Objectives, which at the moment are: Page Post Engagement, Pages Likes,
Clicks to Website, Website Conversions, App Installs, App Engagement,
Event Responses, and Offer Claims.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Ad Set</h2>
This is the layer that has been added to the structure. You can set up multiple ad sets within a campaign.<br />
<br />
Ad sets will help you assign different budgets and schedules, but
most importantly, you will be able to segment your campaign into
different target audiences and measure the results independently.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Ads</h2>
Just like Ad Sets, you can create multiple ads inside them. At this
level, you will control the actual content of the unit, in other words,
you can create ads with different images, links and copy.<br />
You will still be able to customize the bidding for each ad unit.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Existing Campaigns</h2>
One more thing to consider is that, existing campaigns will be
automatically migrated to the new structure, but their delivery and
spending will not be affected.<br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Quick Recap</h2>
In short…<br />
<ul>
<li>The Campaign controls the Objective</li>
<li>Ad Sets will control the budgets, schedule and target audiences</li>
<li>Ads will carry the content (Images, copy, links)</li>
</ul>
I personally think that, while it feels like a bit more work, it is a
better organization that will also be translated into better reporting.<br />
<br />
What do you think?Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-52367579374733452242014-03-07T04:41:00.004-08:002014-03-07T04:41:40.693-08:005 Reasons Why The Ellen Tweet Worked (and 1 Key Question)When Ellen took to a captive live TV audience of millions last night,
took a “selfie” with 11 of Hollywood’s hottest celebrities, and put out
a call to become the most tweeted tweet ever, not surprisingly, the
world listened. The tweet, which at time of writing has more than 2.6
million retweets, (more than 3 times the previous record, Barack Obama’s
first tweet after being re-elected for his second term)<br />
<br />
But why did this work? How did it “beat” agency newsrooms filled with
thousands of social media professionals, paid millions of dollars to
create the next “Oreo cookie” or “Pharrell’s Hat”? And what does it
really mean for the future of social media marketing?<br />
<br />
Far be it from me to take a pedestal spot and claim I know all and
see all, and speak for everyone, I did want to offer a few observations
in convenient list format. So, here we go.<br />
<h4>
<strong>1. The tweet represented the end an era of social media marketing</strong>.</h4>
It represented the end to a lot of thinking about what’s truly
possible in social media marketing by setting the bar so high for future
content that it is literally impossible for anyone else to catch up.
Previous “branded viral tweet” stalwart, “You can dunk in the dark”
produced by Oreo and 360i and the arguable inventor of the “real-time
marketing” era of social media got about 15,000 retweets, or 1/173rd the
total of the Ellen tweet. The problem is that every brand now wants
success, because it is indeed “possible”. Few realize the amount of
work, timing, and, well, money that went into making this one iconic
moment (and I’m sure we’ll read about that exact effort in the trade
press in the next few days). It now either requires brands to level set
with their strategy to something more realistic, or open up and pour out
their pocket books to emulate the same success.<br />
<h4>
<strong>2. The tweet was about the photo, and not the brand.</strong></h4>
While, to the more trained eye, it was pretty obvious that Ellen was
taking the selfie on a Samsung, well, thing (I’m still not sure which
device it was, and I *own* a Galaxy S4) it wasn’t obvious in the photo
that it was a Samsung device. Why does this matter? Because people don’t
typically like to share blatant advertising. The creative itself, is
the non threatening shot of a group of celebrities that most people like
or admire at least one of, in a moment that is at once both unexpected
and unique. It’s no less harmless to the average user than any other
photo. And this is a big reason why it spread more quickly. No “catch”.
No “gotchas”. No public shaming for most who shared this photo. And as
Kasey Scala pointed out, most people probably don’t even care that it
was Samsung. Samsung’s agency left it to the trade press to figure out
their involvement, well, in addition to a little “humblebragging”:<br />
<h4>
<strong>3. The tweet was sent to an already huge Twitter audience that just grew bigger as the buzz did.</strong></h4>
Ellen started the night with more than 25 million Twitter followers
already, putting her in the top 15 worldwide anyway. This ensures that
anything that plays to her audience would have done decently well,
regardless of the circumstances. Amazingly, her account grew 1.5 million
followers (hat tip to Eli Langer for that stat) in the day of and after
the Oscars telecast giving her an even bigger audience to work with
again.<br />
<h4>
<strong>4. Ellen has an audience that appeals to a broad demographic.</strong></h4>
Twitter has had trouble with growing, and reaching a mainstream
audience, which has become more obvious since Twitter’s IPO last year.
But in terms of audience that Twitter wants to reach and grow to,
there’s really no better way to introduce Twitter to than to do it with
Ellen DeGeneres, who can be an excellent guide to continually explain
the product and how it works during her show. This education, of course,
starts with getting people started with a simple example — retweeting
and sharing a photo of celebrities that they love.<br />
<h4>
<strong>5. The call to action was simple but still required TV to execute the moment.</strong></h4>
As many folks in digital like to say, TV is over. But it’s not. TV is
still remarkably big. The key with execution is recognizing that a
live, captive audience really only exists for in two primary cases:<br />
<ul>
<li>Major sports events</li>
<li>Major award shows</li>
</ul>
The inventory for these moments is now limited, as we live in a DVR
and instant streaming society. The Oscars telecast represents as least
as much if not more of a general audience than the Super Bowl (and
considerably cheaper to buy as well.). But Samsung likely had to buy
advertising on the Twitter end as well (imagine launching a
server-crippling campaign on national TV without their support? Not
likely). This is where the innovation is, and likely a point that will
sit in Twitter sales pitches for the rest of time. Twitter makes
engagement from live TV truly possible at amazing scale.<br />
The key question, of course, is whether or not Samsung’s investment
in the greatest “selfie” ever taken results in additional purchases of
Samsung products. Or does it even matter? That’s up to them to decide.<br />
Either way Samsung’s integration has clearly created a new case study
in social media marketing. But, it’s just a matter of time before the
next major brands tries to capture lightning in a bottle again.<br />
<em><br /></em>Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-15520006054206887782014-03-05T03:10:00.000-08:002014-03-05T03:10:59.252-08:00Social Startups: Pie Is Your Company’s Social Pinboard<br /><div class="gigya-sharebar-post-detail" id="gigya-sharebar-0_gig_containerParent">
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</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="articlebody">
<img alt="Image" class="imgp_img" height="123" src="http://socialmediatoday.com/sites/socialmediatoday.com/files/imagepicker/246411/social_startups_long_53.jpg" width="640" /><br />
<br />
“People
in ad agencies are exposed to an incredible amount of information every
day, from videos to articles and infographics to everything else,” says
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=17532665&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=DWtU&locale=en_US&srchid=261660781393908057540&srchindex=2&srchtotal=20&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A261660781393908057540%2CVSRPtargetId%3A17532665%2CVSRPc">Pieter Walraven</a>, co-founder and chief product officer of <a href="http://www.piethis.com/">Pie</a>,
a Singapore-based startup changing the way companies share knowledge
“They’re constantly scouring the web for inspiration and looking for the
next big trend.”<br />
<br />
Walraven and his co-founder, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=12181886&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=Q-jv&locale=en_US&srchid=261660781393908110901&srchindex=3&srchtotal=31&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A261660781393908110901%2CVSRPtargetId%3A12181886%2CVSRPc">Thijs Jacobs</a>,
noticed email and chat were used for sharing and organizing ideas
within teams. But he says these platforms get too noisy once the group
reaches a certain size. They found Pinterest and Dropbox are not ideal,
as people ended up using personal accounts for work. Intranet platforms
Yammer and Chatter posed other challenges, including being dull and
complicated, which led people to give up using them after a few days.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" class="imgp_img" height="279" src="http://socialmediatoday.com/sites/socialmediatoday.com/files/imagepicker/491566/pieter_walraven__thijs_jacobs.jpg" style="float: right;" width="401" /><br />
“It’s
a shame, because here we had all these people collecting inspiring,
important things, but without a tool to make these things easily
accessible, all their time and effort was being wasted,” Walraven says.<br />
<br />
Founded in February 2013, the free <a href="http://blog.piethis.com/">Pie</a>
app is designed to help teams collect, organize, share, and discuss the
business-related links, visuals, content, and more that they find in
and out of work every day. “Social media agencies and ad agencies are
among our most active users on Pie,” says Walraven. “For example, <a href="http://proximityworld.com/#%21/the-work">Proximity</a> (a digital agency owned by <a href="http://www.bbdo.com/">BBDO</a>)
uses Pie to create a library of everything for work. They have a board
for competitor news and campaigns, one for marketing trends, a board for
UX best practices, and so on. Many people throughout the agency
contribute to those boards, so the entire team is creating a company
library packed with information, which they use to germinate new ideas
and reference old ones.”<br />
<br />
Besides internal sharing, Walraven says agencies use <a href="http://www.piethis.com/about/">Pie</a>
boards with clients. “This drastically reduces the number of
back-and-forth emails with their clients and eliminates the nightmare of
managing a project through huge, bulky email threads with attachments
scattered everywhere. Agencies use Pie to create boards that neatly
contain everything for a client project: Google Docs, Dropbox files,
relevant articles, competitor references, and so on, including all the
discussions on each item.”<br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" class="imgp_img" height="175" src="http://socialmediatoday.com/sites/socialmediatoday.com/files/imagepicker/491566/pie_logo.png" style="float: right;" width="250" /><br />
Let’s
say you’re starting a new infographic project, and you’ve found a few
visual references that will help your designer. Instead of sending your
designer an email every time you find a reference, you can create a
board on Pie called, “Infographic Project.” This <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/pie-computing">board</a>
would contain all the relevant information for the project: a link to
the creative brief on Google Docs, Dropbox links to previous revisions,
and even links to similar infographics. You can copy and paste links
directly into the Pie web app or use the “Post to Pie” Chrome extension.
When you post something you can select which board you want to post it
to as well as the coworkers with whom you’re sharing it. Since <a href="https://twitter.com/piethis">Pie</a>
is free to companies of all sizes, you can create as many boards as you
want, and invite as many team members or collaborators to a board as
you’d like.<br />
<br />
When you post something to <a href="https://twitter.com/piethis">Pie</a>,
it will appear in the company stream for your coworkers to see and
discuss. Every day, Pie sends email digests of the most popular things
posted by you and your coworkers so you never miss a thing.<br />
<br />
“Our long-term vision for <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/piethis-com-pte-ltd">Pie</a>
is to build a social layer on top of your content by building smart
integrations with other services you already use,” Walraven says. “We
think teams are eventually going to want a solution for bringing
together all of the different services they use to create and collect
content, and we want to be there when the market is ready. Some of the
much-requested integrations in the pipeline are Evernote, Google Drive,
and Dropbox, to name a few.”<br />
Watch a video of Pie in action <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcizbd8rnZ4">here</a>.</div>
Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-18791357727420214682014-03-03T03:51:00.000-08:002014-03-03T03:50:59.995-08:00 5 Ways to Increase Your Brand’s Exposure on Social MediaBecause of social media, you have more options for your marketing
budget than ever before. This is a double-edged sword, however; while
this plethora of choices gives you more opportunities to connect with
your existing clients and draw in new business, it can also be difficult
to prioritize your time and money.<br />
<br />
However, no matter what strategy you ultimately choose, there are five things that should definitely be in the conversation.<br />
<br />
<span id="more-24097"></span><br />
<h3>
<strong><a href="http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Brand-Robot.jpg"><img alt="Brand Robot" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-24095" height="200" src="http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Brand-Robot-300x200.jpg" width="300" /></a></strong> </h3>
<h3>
1. Create Valuable Content</h3>
While this might seem obvious, it’s worth stating because creating
valuable content is possibly the most important thing you can do to
increase your brand’s exposure on social media. To this end,”value”
comes in many forms. The content could be funny, informative,
controversial, or inspiring. As long as it enriches the people who see
it, they will be more likely to share it with their friends giving you
free “word of mouth” (or, in this case, “click of mouse”) advertising.<br />
<br />
In addition to word-of-mouth advertising, creating valuable content
for your blog, Facebook page, or other social media outlets will
reflect positively on your brand. Like a bottle of wine with a fancy
label, creating valuable content shows that you’re invested in creating a
high-quality product.<br />
<h3>
2. Interact With Your Community</h3>
So people have started to notice your valuable content? That’s great,
but it’s not worth much if you don’t follow it up with some good
community interaction. Ideally, at least some of your valuable content
ends with the opportunity for user interaction, also called a “call to
action.” A call to action could ask the users to share the piece, it
could ask them to join a debate, or it could just answer a question.<br />
<br />
Basically, start a dialogue. It might be difficult to get people
talking at first, but once you do, your posts will be a lot more
interesting for <em>other</em> users to read and it will be more fun to maintain as well!<br />
<h3>
3. Localize Your Social Media Pages</h3>
Ideally, you should create blogs or websites for each locality in
which you do business. This is especially important for large businesses
that span cities, or even states, but this tactic also can be valuable
for smaller businesses with locations in different parts of a single
city as well. These localized blogs will, of course, have locally
relevant content, which will be valuable to the people living in the
area. Localizing a blog will also increase your social media ranking for
searches in that area and will make your website more tempting to other
local businesses for cross promotional deals.<br />
<br />
If you don’t want to spend the time or money building and maintaining
a blog for each of your locations, it is still a good idea to build
local social media pages that will share locally relevant content. This
can be a good compromise for those who don’t want to mess around with
buying a lot of domain names but still want to take advantage of local
internet traffic.<br />
<h3>
4. Target Mobile Social Media Users</h3>
Of the <a href="http://www.census.gov/popclock/" target="_blank">317.2 million people</a> in the United States, fully <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/mobile-social-for-business/" target="_blank">half own a smart phone or tablet</a>
and of these people, half actively use social media on that device.
That’s a potential audience of 79.3 million people — definitely not
something you want to ignore. Unfortunately, native ads don’t show up on
the Facebook mobile interface (not yet at least). If you were relying
on native ads, therefore, you’re missing a large part of the market.<br />
<br />
Also, Facebook has recently started using a program called <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/story-bump/" target="_blank">StoryBump</a>,
which decides what Facebook users will see first in their News Feeds.
The old program tried to pull posts that would match the interests of
the individual and, while story bump does this to some degree, it
relies more heavily on how many times an article is shared and when it
was posted.<br />
<h3>
5. Consider Hiring a Full-Time Social Media Manager</h3>
If you’re thinking about bumping your social media marketing efforts
up a notch, you might want to consider bringing a full-time social media
guru onboard. For small businesses that are operating on tight margins,
it might be prudent to check all the financial factors before creating
such a position. Make sure your company has the most affordable <a href="http://www.electric.com/business-rates.html">business rates</a> for cutting
energy costs to ensure you have enough room in the budget to make such
a hire. Otherwise, you may want to just consider hiring a freelancer.<br />
<br />
Either way, however, with these five tips under their belt they’ll be
well on their way to building your company a large social media
following.<br />
What other tricks do you know for maximizing a brand’s social media presence?Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-39032584593558256302014-02-28T08:54:00.001-08:002014-02-28T08:54:29.229-08:00Improve Customer Experience? Increase Sales!Businesses spend a lot of time and money romancing their prospects, hoping to make a sale.<br />
<br />
They
build new websites, spend money creating and running ads and hire
people to do countless other marketing activities. If successful, their
efforts will pay off by attracting new business and closing sales.<br />
<br />
But what happens after the sale?<br />
<br />
Most
of the time, the customer experience is far less romantic: Receipts,
shipment tracking numbers, and automated thank you emails. If you’re a
service provider, it might be thank you emails, yearly reviews, and
referral requests.<br />
<br />
Do any of those sound enticing to you as a customer? Would they make you want to do business with a company again?<br />
<h3>
The Bare Minimum is Not Enough</h3>
Your
marketing, advertising, and sales process might be impeccable. But it’s
just as important to deliver outstanding service once your customers
finally decide to buy from you.<br />
<br />
I had an experience last week. I
purchased a coat and a sweatshirt from a company that I’ve liked for a
long time. Their marketing is incredible. They tell a visual story on
Instagram like nobody’s business.<br />
<br />
But after I made the purchase, I
didn’t hear from them aside from an automated purchase confirmation. I
had no idea when it was shipping, how long it would take to arrive, or
who to contact if I had questions. This was my first red flag.<br />
<br />
The
second red flag came when they emailed me ten days later, apologizing
because my sweatshirt was sold out. They didn’t present me with any kind
of solution. They just asked whether I would like to have my jacket
shipped to me anyway.<br />
<br />
I replied with an email asking for options:
Can I choose a different color? Is it possible to get a credit to buy
something else? Either way, I’d like the jacket shipped, Thanks.<br />
<br />
Two
days later, I get a shipping notification, followed by a response:
“Sorry, the sweatshirt is completely sold out.” The following day, the
jacket arrived, and so did a refund receipt in my email for the
sweatshirt I ordered.<br />
<br />
<strong>What Could They Have Done Better?</strong><br />
<br />
I would really like to buy from this company again, but I’m not sure if I will. Here’s why:<br />
<br />
<b>They didn’t present me with options:</b>
Rather than just telling me that my item was sold out, I would have
loved to get a store credit. Not only would I have been happier, they
would have turned lemons into lemonade and gotten a sale out of it.<br />
<br />
They <i>could have</i> allowed me to choose something else instead, processed my order, and shipped my new item with my jacket.<br />
<br />
Instead,
if I want to buy something I would have to wait until they process my
refund (2-3 days), go back online, shop for something else, and wait
another 2 weeks for them to ship it. I just don’t feel confident in the
process any more.<br />
<br />
<b>Lack of communication:</b> Responding to
emails or phone calls promptly is one of the easiest ways to improve
customer experience. Even if there’s nothing wrong with an order, a
quick personal email can improve your customers’ experience tenfold.<br />
<br />
In
this case, there was a problem with the order, which makes
communication even more important. Had they communicated better
throughout the process, I would be eager to jump back on their website
and order something else.<br />
<h3>
New Customers vs. Returning Customers</h3>
Customer
experience can make all the difference when it comes to getting repeat
business and referrals. Here are 5 incredible stats that you need to
know:<br />
<br />
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
1.<strong> 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience.</strong> (<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://ctt.ec/XQfer" target="_blank" title="Tweet This">Tweet This</a></span></strong>) <i>Source: Harris Interactive, Customer Experience Impact Report</i></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
2. <strong>Attracting a new customer costs 5 times as much as keeping an existing one.</strong> (<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://ctt.ec/0Tb2j" target="_blank" title="Tweet This">Tweet This</a></span></strong>) <i>Source: Lee Resource Inc.</i></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
3. <strong>The
probability of selling service to a new customer is 1 in 16, while the
probability of selling service to a current customer is 1 in 2.</strong> (<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://ctt.ec/A7GL8" target="_blank" title="Tweet This">Tweet This</a></span></strong>) <i>Source: Earl Sasser of Harvard Business School and Merry Neitlich of Extreme Marketing</i></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
4. <strong>Happy customers who get their issue resolved tell about 4 to 6 people about their experience.</strong> (<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://ctt.ec/Ba571" target="_blank" title="Tweet This">Tweet This</a></span></strong>) <i style="line-height: 1.5em;">Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC</i></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="padding-left: 30px;">
5. <strong>A customer is 4 times more likely to buy from a competitor if the problem is service related vs. price or product related.</strong> (<strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://ctt.ec/7VLeC" target="_blank" title="Tweet This">Tweet This</a></span></strong>) <i>Source: Bain & Company</i></div>
<br />
As
you can see, a positive customer experience is not just about making
your customers happy. It’s about the bottom line for your business.<br />
<br />
Communicate.
Help your customers find a solution when a problem arises. These are 2
simple, but powerful things you can start doing today.<br />
<br />
What are some other simple ways <i>your</i> business has promoted a positive customer experience?<br />
<div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
<div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
<span class="dropcap">F</span>or corporation founders like <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/about-GoDaddy.aspx">Bob Parsons of GoDaddy</a>,
managing social media workflow is paramount to staying in touch with
customers and maintaining an existing client base. GoDaddy manages a
social media account on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube,
and Pinterest (and, likely, some that I’ve missed). However, if you’re a
solopreneur or small business owner, social workflow is just as
important as it is to the big leaguers.<br />
I’m not part of a social media marketing agency or huge corporation,
but just handling social marketing for my own individual blog requires
me to use tools to improve workflow. Keeping up with the daunting
aspects of social marketing makes it almost impossible to do anything
else. The right apps, extensions, and software, however, have helped me
do the work of many by helping me become organized and efficient.<span id="more-26942"></span><br />
<h6>
TwentyFeet</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">1</span>Like Google Analytics for social media, <a href="https://sumall.com/20ft">TwentyFeet</a>
uses graphs and charts to show me the impact you have across all your
social media channels. This single tool can turn you into your own
social media marketing agency.<br />
<h6>
WhoTweetedMe</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">2</span><a href="http://www.whotweetedme.com/">WhoTweetedMe</a>
is an excellent tool for anyone who relies heavily on Twitter for
marketing. If you’re like me, you have lots of Twitter traffic and very
little time. I use this tool to help me decide which people are the most
important to interact with simply by cutting and pasting a URL into the
tool’s search bar.<br />
<h6>
Twylah</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">3</span>I use <a href="http://www.twylah.com/">Twylah</a>
to capture and preserve all my best tweets into a single attractive
page. To avoid having to either waste precious time going through my
feed or resigning myself to the fact that my finest updates are lost
forever, I use the tool to centralize my tweets that relate to social
marketing.<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.mediashower.com/img/1503/Screen%20Shot%202014-01-12%20at%2010.51.33%20PM.jpg" width="400" /><br />
<i>Twylah can turn your best posts into their own brand.</i><br />
<h6>
Buffer</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">4</span>Of all the auto-posting apps, <a href="http://bufferapp.com/">Buffer</a>
may be the best of the bunch – at least of those geared toward social
marketing. Not only does it make it easy to share pre-loaded tweets, but
scatters them out at the times that are most efficient for your
specific account.<br />
<h6>
Let’s Crate</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">5</span>Similar to Dropbox, but better and simpler, <a href="https://letscrate.com/">Let’s Crate</a>
uses a technique that could make any social media marketing agency more
efficient. I simply drop my files in the crate, and the tool generates a
single link for me to share across all my platforms.<br />
<h6>
Gmail Inbox Checker</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">6</span>This Chrome extension is a very
simple, easy solution for Gmail clutter. Infinitely better than all of
Gmail’s built-in priority-classification systems, <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mail-checker-plus-for-goo/gffjhibehnempbkeheiccaincokdjbfe">Gmail Inbox Checker</a>
makes sorting, prioritizing, and responding to emails a piece of cake.
It also lets me increase workflow by offering customized notification
settings.<br />
I don’t know where I – or my social marketing strategy – would be
without the help of the litany of awesome tools designed to make my life
easier. Everyone’s needs are different, so start with these, look
around, and decide which ones are right for you. But remember – you’re
not alone and don’t need to do it without help.<br />
- See more at: http://socialmedia.biz/2014/02/27/add-these-6-tools-to-improve-your-social-workflow/#sthash.ABr4Ow12.dpuf</div>
corporation founders like <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/about-GoDaddy.aspx">Bob Parsons of GoDaddy</a>,
managing social media workflow is paramount to staying in touch with
customers and maintaining an existing client base. GoDaddy manages a
social media account on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube,
and Pinterest (and, likely, some that I’ve missed). However, if you’re a
solopreneur or small business owner, social workflow is just as
important as it is to the big leaguers.<br />
I’m not part of a social media marketing agency or huge corporation,
but just handling social marketing for my own individual blog requires
me to use tools to improve workflow. Keeping up with the daunting
aspects of social marketing makes it almost impossible to do anything
else. The right apps, extensions, and software, however, have helped me
do the work of many by helping me become organized and efficient.<span id="more-26942"></span><br />
<h6>
TwentyFeet</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">1</span>Like Google Analytics for social media, <a href="https://sumall.com/20ft">TwentyFeet</a>
uses graphs and charts to show me the impact you have across all your
social media channels. This single tool can turn you into your own
social media marketing agency.<br />
<h6>
WhoTweetedMe</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">2</span><a href="http://www.whotweetedme.com/">WhoTweetedMe</a>
is an excellent tool for anyone who relies heavily on Twitter for
marketing. If you’re like me, you have lots of Twitter traffic and very
little time. I use this tool to help me decide which people are the most
important to interact with simply by cutting and pasting a URL into the
tool’s search bar.<br />
<h6>
Twylah</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">3</span>I use <a href="http://www.twylah.com/">Twylah</a>
to capture and preserve all my best tweets into a single attractive
page. To avoid having to either waste precious time going through my
feed or resigning myself to the fact that my finest updates are lost
forever, I use the tool to centralize my tweets that relate to social
marketing.<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.mediashower.com/img/1503/Screen%20Shot%202014-01-12%20at%2010.51.33%20PM.jpg" width="400" /><br />
<i>Twylah can turn your best posts into their own brand.</i><br />
<h6>
Buffer</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">4</span>Of all the auto-posting apps, <a href="http://bufferapp.com/">Buffer</a>
may be the best of the bunch – at least of those geared toward social
marketing. Not only does it make it easy to share pre-loaded tweets, but
scatters them out at the times that are most efficient for your
specific account.<br />
<h6>
Let’s Crate</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">5</span>Similar to Dropbox, but better and simpler, <a href="https://letscrate.com/">Let’s Crate</a>
uses a technique that could make any social media marketing agency more
efficient. I simply drop my files in the crate, and the tool generates a
single link for me to share across all my platforms.<br />
<h6>
Gmail Inbox Checker</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">6</span>This Chrome extension is a very
simple, easy solution for Gmail clutter. Infinitely better than all of
Gmail’s built-in priority-classification systems, <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mail-checker-plus-for-goo/gffjhibehnempbkeheiccaincokdjbfe">Gmail Inbox Checker</a>
makes sorting, prioritizing, and responding to emails a piece of cake.
It also lets me increase workflow by offering customized notification
settings.<br />
I don’t know where I – or my social marketing strategy – would be
without the help of the litany of awesome tools designed to make my life
easier. Everyone’s needs are different, so start with these, look
around, and decide which ones are right for you. But remember – you’re
not alone and don’t need to do it without help.<br />
- See more at: http://socialmedia.biz/2014/02/27/add-these-6-tools-to-improve-your-social-workflow/#sthash.ABr4Ow12.dpuf</div>
<div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
<span class="dropcap">F</span>or corporation founders like <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/about-GoDaddy.aspx">Bob Parsons of GoDaddy</a>,
managing social media workflow is paramount to staying in touch with
customers and maintaining an existing client base. GoDaddy manages a
social media account on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube,
and Pinterest (and, likely, some that I’ve missed). However, if you’re a
solopreneur or small business owner, social workflow is just as
important as it is to the big leaguers.<br />
I’m not part of a social media marketing agency or huge corporation,
but just handling social marketing for my own individual blog requires
me to use tools to improve workflow. Keeping up with the daunting
aspects of social marketing makes it almost impossible to do anything
else. The right apps, extensions, and software, however, have helped me
do the work of many by helping me become organized and efficient.<span id="more-26942"></span><br />
<h6>
TwentyFeet</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">1</span>Like Google Analytics for social media, <a href="https://sumall.com/20ft">TwentyFeet</a>
uses graphs and charts to show me the impact you have across all your
social media channels. This single tool can turn you into your own
social media marketing agency.<br />
<h6>
WhoTweetedMe</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">2</span><a href="http://www.whotweetedme.com/">WhoTweetedMe</a>
is an excellent tool for anyone who relies heavily on Twitter for
marketing. If you’re like me, you have lots of Twitter traffic and very
little time. I use this tool to help me decide which people are the most
important to interact with simply by cutting and pasting a URL into the
tool’s search bar.<br />
<h6>
Twylah</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">3</span>I use <a href="http://www.twylah.com/">Twylah</a>
to capture and preserve all my best tweets into a single attractive
page. To avoid having to either waste precious time going through my
feed or resigning myself to the fact that my finest updates are lost
forever, I use the tool to centralize my tweets that relate to social
marketing.<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.mediashower.com/img/1503/Screen%20Shot%202014-01-12%20at%2010.51.33%20PM.jpg" width="400" /><br />
<i>Twylah can turn your best posts into their own brand.</i><br />
<h6>
Buffer</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">4</span>Of all the auto-posting apps, <a href="http://bufferapp.com/">Buffer</a>
may be the best of the bunch – at least of those geared toward social
marketing. Not only does it make it easy to share pre-loaded tweets, but
scatters them out at the times that are most efficient for your
specific account.<br />
<h6>
Let’s Crate</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">5</span>Similar to Dropbox, but better and simpler, <a href="https://letscrate.com/">Let’s Crate</a>
uses a technique that could make any social media marketing agency more
efficient. I simply drop my files in the crate, and the tool generates a
single link for me to share across all my platforms.<br />
<h6>
Gmail Inbox Checker</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">6</span>This Chrome extension is a very
simple, easy solution for Gmail clutter. Infinitely better than all of
Gmail’s built-in priority-classification systems, <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mail-checker-plus-for-goo/gffjhibehnempbkeheiccaincokdjbfe">Gmail Inbox Checker</a>
makes sorting, prioritizing, and responding to emails a piece of cake.
It also lets me increase workflow by offering customized notification
settings.<br />
I don’t know where I – or my social marketing strategy – would be
without the help of the litany of awesome tools designed to make my life
easier. Everyone’s needs are different, so start with these, look
around, and decide which ones are right for you. But remember – you’re
not alone and don’t need to do it without help.<br />
- See more at: http://socialmedia.biz/2014/02/27/add-these-6-tools-to-improve-your-social-workflow/#sthash.ABr4Ow12.dpuf</div>
<div id="stcpDiv" style="left: -1988px; position: absolute; top: -1999px;">
<span class="dropcap">F</span>or corporation founders like <a href="http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/about-GoDaddy.aspx">Bob Parsons of GoDaddy</a>,
managing social media workflow is paramount to staying in touch with
customers and maintaining an existing client base. GoDaddy manages a
social media account on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, YouTube,
and Pinterest (and, likely, some that I’ve missed). However, if you’re a
solopreneur or small business owner, social workflow is just as
important as it is to the big leaguers.<br />
I’m not part of a social media marketing agency or huge corporation,
but just handling social marketing for my own individual blog requires
me to use tools to improve workflow. Keeping up with the daunting
aspects of social marketing makes it almost impossible to do anything
else. The right apps, extensions, and software, however, have helped me
do the work of many by helping me become organized and efficient.<span id="more-26942"></span><br />
<h6>
TwentyFeet</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">1</span>Like Google Analytics for social media, <a href="https://sumall.com/20ft">TwentyFeet</a>
uses graphs and charts to show me the impact you have across all your
social media channels. This single tool can turn you into your own
social media marketing agency.<br />
<h6>
WhoTweetedMe</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">2</span><a href="http://www.whotweetedme.com/">WhoTweetedMe</a>
is an excellent tool for anyone who relies heavily on Twitter for
marketing. If you’re like me, you have lots of Twitter traffic and very
little time. I use this tool to help me decide which people are the most
important to interact with simply by cutting and pasting a URL into the
tool’s search bar.<br />
<h6>
Twylah</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">3</span>I use <a href="http://www.twylah.com/">Twylah</a>
to capture and preserve all my best tweets into a single attractive
page. To avoid having to either waste precious time going through my
feed or resigning myself to the fact that my finest updates are lost
forever, I use the tool to centralize my tweets that relate to social
marketing.<br />
<img alt="" border="0" src="http://www.mediashower.com/img/1503/Screen%20Shot%202014-01-12%20at%2010.51.33%20PM.jpg" width="400" /><br />
<i>Twylah can turn your best posts into their own brand.</i><br />
<h6>
Buffer</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">4</span>Of all the auto-posting apps, <a href="http://bufferapp.com/">Buffer</a>
may be the best of the bunch – at least of those geared toward social
marketing. Not only does it make it easy to share pre-loaded tweets, but
scatters them out at the times that are most efficient for your
specific account.<br />
<h6>
Let’s Crate</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">5</span>Similar to Dropbox, but better and simpler, <a href="https://letscrate.com/">Let’s Crate</a>
uses a technique that could make any social media marketing agency more
efficient. I simply drop my files in the crate, and the tool generates a
single link for me to share across all my platforms.<br />
<h6>
Gmail Inbox Checker</h6>
<span class="dropcap2">6</span>This Chrome extension is a very
simple, easy solution for Gmail clutter. Infinitely better than all of
Gmail’s built-in priority-classification systems, <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mail-checker-plus-for-goo/gffjhibehnempbkeheiccaincokdjbfe">Gmail Inbox Checker</a>
makes sorting, prioritizing, and responding to emails a piece of cake.
It also lets me increase workflow by offering customized notification
settings.<br />
I don’t know where I – or my social marketing strategy – would be
without the help of the litany of awesome tools designed to make my life
easier. Everyone’s needs are different, so start with these, look
around, and decide which ones are right for you. But remember – you’re
not alone and don’t need to do it without help.<br />
- See more at: http://socialmedia.biz/2014/02/27/add-these-6-tools-to-improve-your-social-workflow/#sthash.ABr4Ow12.dpuf</div>
Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-35243059580079681192014-02-26T07:33:00.002-08:002014-02-26T07:33:56.420-08:005 Ways to Make Shareable Images That Drive TrafficAre you sharing compelling images across social networks?<br />
<br />
Do you want more engagement and traffic from your efforts?<br />
<br />
If you’re not regularly sharing images that resonate with your audience, you’re missing out on a ton of engagement.<br />
<br />
In this article you’ll <strong>discover the essential elements of shareable images that increase engagement and drive traffic to your website</strong>.<br />
<h3>
Why Use Images to Drive Social Engagement?</h3>
People are drawn to visual content and <strong>take action based on its subtle cues faster than any other medium</strong>–faster than text, audio or video.<br />
<br />
The power of pictures isn’t restricted to image-centric platforms like <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/pinterest-tips-for-your-business/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a> and <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/instagram-marketing-how-to-get-started-with-instagram/" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. Visuals are attracting attention and driving engagement across all social networks. Even <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/linkedin-professional-portfolio/" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="http://sociallysorted.com.au/twitter-gets-visual-3-image-mistakes-you-are-making-on-twitter/" target="_blank">Twitter</a> are getting in on the action and showcasing images.<br />
<br />
All
of the major social networks are highlighting visual content. Brands
that can leverage the power of original, optimized images are getting
noticed.<br />
<br />
If you’re worried you need a graphic designer or special
skills, don’t be. In this article I’ll introduce you to the tools you
need and the five essential elements of shareable, traffic-driving
images that you can include in your marketing plan today.<br />
<h3>
#1: Give Your Audience What They Need</h3>
If you want to encourage engagement and shares, your images have to <strong>appeal directly to your target audience</strong>.<br />
<br />
Create images and infographics that either <strong>solve a problem or inspire your community to take action</strong>. Images that <strong>give short, instantly actionable advice</strong> are highly shareable. Quick tips, how-to’s, quotes and fun facts are all very popular.<br />
<br />
Social media expert <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kimgarstboomsocial">Kim Garst</a>
matches audience expectations with useful tips by regularly posting
images with social media advice and tagging them with #biztip.<br />
<br />
Her
community shares these problem-solving tips like wildfire, which
results in an exceptionally high organic engagement rate on Facebook.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 455px;">
<img alt="kim garst tip" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="2" height="667" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-kim-garst-tip-image.png" width="445" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Creating an image with a useful tip makes for an instantly shareable piece of content.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
<span id="more-55518"></span><br />
How-to images have also proven to be a powerful way to <strong>encourage sharing and engagement on blogs or social platforms</strong>, especially Pinterest. Australian stylist and blogger Nikki Parkinson from <a href="http://www.stylingyou.com.au/2013/08/2-minute-makeup" target="_blank">Styling You</a> uses this type of image well.<br />
<br />
She
often posts a clever mix of photos and text overlays to demonstrate a
process. She created this highly pinnable image to show how to do makeup
in 2 minutes.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="nikki parkinson tip" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="3" height="294" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-styling-you-2-minute-makeup.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
How-to images are highly shareable on Pinterest.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
What
makes this image so attractive are the original photos, text overlays,
numbering and step-by-step instructions. Embedding this type of image in
her blog posts makes those articles immediately eye-catching and
pinnable.<br />
<br />
If you decide to <strong>create a how-to image</strong>, you can garner even more engagement (and blog traffic) if you <strong>upload it to</strong> <b>Instagram,</b> and <strong>share it across all social media platforms</strong>.<br />
<br />
Don’t
forget quotes! On any social platform, quotes are one of the most
shareable types of image. If you decide to go this route, <strong>focus on being inspiring or helpful</strong> to get the most engagement.<br />
<br />
Your first instinct may be to share quotes on Facebook (and that’s not a bad idea), but have you considered Instagram? <a href="http://instagram.com/mastinkipp">Mastin Kipp</a>, founder of The Daily Love, posts a mix of behind-the-scenes images and inspirational quotes on Instagram with great success.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="mastin kipp tip" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="4" height="238" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-mastin-kipp-daily-love-screenshot.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Simple, branded quotes create an emotional connection with your audience and are highly shareable.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
Finally, funny photos are always a winner on social media, but what about fun facts?<b> </b>Combining a fun fact with a beautiful image is a great way to create shareable content and engage your audience.<br />
<a href="http://www.tourism.australia.com/" target="_blank">Tourism Australia</a> pairs highly engaging images with little-known facts about Australia and shares them on its <a href="https://plus.google.com/+australia/posts" target="_blank">Google+ profile</a>. Fans love it and respond by sharing the information with their friends!<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="tourism australia image" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="5" height="506" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-tourism-australia.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Tourism Australia has tailored its image strategy to its Google+ audience with informative, beautiful images!</div>
</div>
<h3>
#2: Be Consistent and Quick</h3>
<a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-fan-engagement-tips/" target="_blank">Facebook reach</a> has gotten a lot of attention lately and sharing images continues to boost organic reach and engagement. Do you want to <strong>skyrocket shares for your images</strong>? Then be timely!<br />
There are two ways to leverage the power of timeliness to make your images more shareable: consistency and fast action.<br />
<br />
A
consistent approach to sharing images should be a part of every brand’s
social media marketing tactics. To get started, simply <strong>post an image at the same time every day</strong>.<br />
<br />
For example, each day food blogger Bianca Slade of <a href="http://www.wholefoodsimply.com/">Wholefood Simply</a>
posts amazing images on her Facebook page. She shares her wheat-free,
dairy-free, sugar-free creations and asks a simple question: “Have you
tried it?”<br />
<br />
The result has sent foodie fans around the world into a
frenzy, excitedly sharing Bianca’s creations. They’ll even bypass the
news feed and go straight to her Facebook page to check out the recipe
she posts at the end of the day (that includes me, guilty as charged!).<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 421px;">
<img alt="wholefood simply image" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="6" height="467" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-wholefood-simply-caramel-fudge.png" width="411" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Tease your fans back to your Facebook page or website with captivating images on Facebook.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
But
Bianca doesn’t stop there. She leverages her engagement and includes
her fans in the decision-making process for the recipe of the day.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 378px;">
<img alt="wholefood simply choice image" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="7" height="471" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-wholefoodsimply-choice.png" width="368" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Ask your fans to give their two cents by using an image.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
For one of the best examples of timeliness, look no further than Oreo. You’ve probably seen the <a href="https://twitter.com/oreo/status/298246571718483968/photo/1" target="_blank">famous tweet that Oreo</a>
sent out during the 2013 Super Bowl. The marketing team acted swiftly
during a power outage, posting a well-timed tweet before the power came
back on. It was perhaps one of the most quick-witted acts of marketing
on social media to date.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 447px;">
<img alt="oreo image" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="8" height="527" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-oreo.png" width="437" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Oreo scored a touchdown with their famous quick-witted Tweet.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
Of course, Oreo has a team of people at the ready to <strong>jump on these kinds of opportunities</strong>. But that doesn’t mean small businesses can’t do it too. <strong>Keep an eye out for new updates to products or services in your niche</strong>. Those updates are important news for your customers!<br />
<br />
In the example below, Facebook expert <a href="http://www.facebook.com/amyporterfield">Amy Porterfield</a> acted quickly to share news about a new Facebook feature by posting a simple screenshot from a blog post at <a href="http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/">Duct Tape Marketing</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 377px;">
<img alt="amy porterfield image" data-jpibfi-indexer="9" height="495" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-amy-porterfield-breaking-news.png" width="367" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Screenshots provide instantly shareable images—a great way to quickly announce breaking news.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
By
using a shareable screenshot with a link to the original article, Amy
added value to her community, brought engagement to her page and drove
traffic to Duct Tape Marketing’s blog.<br />
<br />
Of course, you don’t have to wait for breaking news to make a splash. With a little planning, you can <strong>be ready for popular upcoming events</strong> and <strong>release images at the start of a celebration to get early traction</strong>.<br />
<br />
Keep in mind that events recognized by others in your industry will <strong>attract more shares</strong>.
For example, on International Midwives’ Day, my business created a
simple yet compelling image using PicMonkey to celebrate the day.<br />
<br />
We posted it early in the morning on the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/knowyourmidwife" target="_blank">Know Your Midwife</a>
Facebook page. The result? Over 1,400 shares by the end of the day! The
image swept through pregnancy, birth and parenting pages across
Australia, then the US and the UK.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="know your midwife image" data-jpibfi-indexer="10" height="503" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-know-your-midwife-viral-shares.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Creating a timely image that appeals directly to your audience results in big engagement.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
One
of the keys to creating a shareable image is subtle or no branding.
There is a fine line between a timely post and shameless self-promotion.
In the image above, we decided not to include any branding at all. That
made the image more universal, which encouraged other pages to share it
as if it were their own.<br />
<h3>
#3: Create Original Art</h3>
In a
world where we’re bombarded with information, anything new stands out
from the crowd and catches our attention—on any platform, at any time.
Take advantage of that and be part of the 20% of people who create
original content for the other 80% to share.<br />
<br />
When you create original images, they’re yours to keep. You can <strong>use them in any way you want</strong>, whenever you want.<br />
<br />
You
never have to wonder about breaching copyright, reading the fine print
on a stock photo or making the big mistake of using an image from Google
Images. (A quick reminder: Don’t use images you find on Google; it’s
not a stock library.)<br />
<br />
You don’t need to hire a graphic designer to create original images. You can <strong>do it yourself with the advice and tools listed below</strong>.<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: #ece5b6; border: 2px solid #c9c299; margin: 0pt 0pt 20px; padding: 15px; width: 500px;">
<b>Tips for Creating Original, Shareable Images</b><br />
I’m not creative enough!<br />
I don’t have time!<br />
I have no idea where to start!<br />
Yes
you are, yes you do and no problem. There are a number of easy-to-use
tools that give you instant creativity and design skills, as well as
allow you to share images quickly.<br />
If you’re at your desk, you can <strong>use image-editing tools</strong> like<b> </b><a href="http://www.canva.com/">Canva</a> or <a href="http://www.picmonkey.com/">PicMonkey</a>. Both offer gorgeous (and handy) templates. Use them to <strong>create 5-10 images with a similar theme</strong>.<br />
Not at your desk? Use your phone! Apps like <a href="http://www.instagram.com/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/instaquote-add-text-captions/id551012097?mt=8">InstaQuote</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/overgram-add-text-captions/id574443485?mt=8">Overgram</a> (free) or <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/over/id535811906?mt=8">Over</a> (paid) make your on-the-fly pictures into works of art you can share immediately.<br />
There
are hundreds of apps and tools available for you to use, and the list
above is by no means exhaustive. But remember, you don’t have to try
everything all at once. Avoid being overwhelmed by starting with just a
few tools.<br />
As you <strong>become skilled with one tool, add another tool or app to your design kit</strong>. When you find something you love, stick with it for a while until something else strikes your fancy.<br />
<b>Two More Tips for Creating Original Images</b><br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Create a branded background template</strong>
you can reuse for tip or quote images. You can simply upload it to
Canva or PicMonkey when you want to create a new image with a text
overlay. Reusable templates save lots of time!</li>
<li>If you have a
graphic designer, ask him or her to give you PNG files to work with.
They’re easy to overlay on backgrounds or templates, which means you can
create images quickly when you need them.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h3>
#4: Optimize Size, Branding and Source</h3>
When
creating images, optimization is key. Think in terms of size, branding
and source information so your image not only suits the platform(s) you
post it to, but has the best chance of being noticed and shared—and
sending traffic back to your website.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.jonloomer.com/2014/01/20/facebook-image-dimensions/" target="_blank">best size for your image</a> will depend on how you want to use it and where you’re posting it.<br />
When
you want to use an image on Facebook and Twitter, 1200 x 627 pixels
works best. Keep that in mind when setting the featured image for a blog
post.<br />
<br />
If you’re posting primarily to Instagram, square-ratio images work best and can work well on Facebook too.<br />
<br />
When
you’re aiming for Pinterest, use an image with a portrait orientation
as those are shared most often. They also look good in Facebook’s news
feed and in Google+.<br />
<br />
To <strong>see how important image size can be, take a look at my test below</strong>. I uploaded a 1200 x 627 pixel image and used it as my blog post’s featured image.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="socially sorted image" data-jpibfi-indexer="11" height="611" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-sociallysorted-blog.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Your blog post’s featured image will show up when readers share your post on social networks.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
When
I shared the link on Facebook, it pulled the featured image into the
news feed as a linked post without using any additional <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/wordpress-plugins-for-social-media-content/" target="_blank">Open Graph coding or plugins</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 509px;">
<img alt="socially sorted post image" data-jpibfi-indexer="12" height="344" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-sociallysorted-facebook.png" width="499" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Use the right dimensions for your blog post featured images so they play nicely with social networks.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
When I used <a href="http://www.bufferapp.com/" target="_blank">Buffer</a> to share the blog post link to Twitter, the image still looked fabulous and stood out in the Twitter feed.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 455px;">
<img alt="socially sorted twitter image" data-jpibfi-indexer="13" height="775" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-sociallysorted-twitter.png" width="445" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Images uploaded to Twitter stand out in the news feed.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
<strong>Experiment with image sizes</strong> so you can <strong>optimize your content for each platform</strong>.
In many cases, one image size may suit more than one platform. Find out
what works for you, your preferred platforms and where your audience is
hanging out.<br />
<br />
Here’s an important tip: As you’re creating your original shareable images, don’t forget to <strong>brand them with a simple watermark</strong>. Once created, you can save the watermark and add it to future images as well. Your URL or logo make ideal watermarks.<br />
<br />
Make
the watermark bold enough to remind people that you created and own the
image (and where to find more information), but subtle enough that you
don’t appear too self-promotional.<br />
<br />
In the example below, you can see how <a href="http://www.ytravelblog.com/">Y Travel Blog</a>
did a great job of creating a beautiful, pinnable image with subtle
branding. Their logo in the bottom right corner isn’t intrusive.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="ytravel image" data-jpibfi-indexer="14" height="725" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-ytravelblog-beach.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<div class="wp-caption-text">
A subtle watermark can help identify an image while protecting its source.</div>
</div>
<h3>
#5: Use an Obvious Call to Action</h3>
In
any news feed on any social platform, you’re always competing against
friends, family, funny photos, small businesses and big brands for the
attention of your ideal audience.<br />
<br />
Your engaging image may catch their attention, but then what? If <i>you</i> don’t know what you want fans to do when they see your image, they won’t either.<br />
<br />
Your goal is to <strong>garner likes, comments or better yet, clicks and sharing</strong> (the golden tickets of social marketing). To get those, you <strong>need an obvious call to action</strong>.<br />
<br />
Ask yourself two things: Can the image stand alone? Is there a clear call to action?<br />
<br />
As
humans, we’re drawn to images and we naturally migrate to those in
social news feeds. If we can’t immediately discern the meaning of the
image, we may look to the description or post to find context, or we may
move to the next interesting thing.<br />
<br />
To <strong>give your fans and followers immediate context</strong> and encourage them to take action, <strong>add some text to your images</strong>. In the example below, which image are you more likely to click on?<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="social sorted pin image" data-jpibfi-indexer="15" height="480" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-sociallysorted-obvious-image-tip.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Titles add context and encourage users to click through for more content.</div>
</div>
The bottom picture gives viewers clear context and can stand alone. Your fans know what they’ll find when they click through.<br />
<br />
When you’re sharing images, there are two places to <strong>put a call to action: on the image itself or in the description</strong>
(this is usually a clickable link). This is universal, whether you’re
using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Pinterest.<br />
<br />
Mari
Smith added a call to action to her Facebook cover photo asking fans to
click to sign up for an upcoming webinar. An effective way to convert
fans to attendees!<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="mari smith image" data-jpibfi-indexer="16" height="221" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-mari-smith-timeline-image.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
A Click Here button or call to action on an image can be hard to resist!</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
When
fans click on the image, they can find out more about Mari’s webinar by
clicking the hyperlink included in the image description.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="mari smith link" height="172" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-marismithlink.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Include a second call to action in your description to tell your fans what you want them to do.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
If
you want to try the same thing on Instagram, take a cue from Tabsite
co-founder Mike Gingerich. He posts a snapshot of his latest blog post
to <a href="http://instagram.com/mikegingerich">Instagram</a>. It’s a
simple photo of his computer screen coupled with a call to action in the
description that leads followers back to his blog.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="mike gingerich image" data-jpibfi-indexer="18" height="287" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-mike-gingerich-instagram.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
A simple reminder to visit your blog for more content can be a great call to action on Instagram.</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
Instagram is a bit different from the other social networks. You can <strong>include a URL in your description</strong>,
but it’s not clickable. However, you’re allowed one clickable link on
your Instagram profile, so be sure to make this a link to your website.<br />
<br />
On Pinterest, the <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/tbdofficial/" target="_blank">Beauty Department</a> excels at providing images that have a clear call to action to visit its blog <a href="http://thebeautydepartment.com/2013/07/kitchen-beautician-scalp-remedy/" target="_blank">for more information</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="beauty department image" data-jpibfi-indexer="19" height="806" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/dm-beauty-department-avocado.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
Want the full story? Click through to the blog!</div>
<div class="wp-caption-text">
<br /></div>
</div>
<b>Some Parting Thoughts</b><br />
<br />
Shareable
images are the key to creating engaging social media content. There
isn’t a single network that doesn’t rely on compelling images to garner
interaction.<br />
<br />
An easy way to <strong>integrate more visual content</strong> into your social marketing plan is to <strong>use images that speak to your audience</strong>. <strong>Try posting an image at the same time every day</strong>, and be sure to <strong>include a strong call to action</strong>.<br />
<br />
<strong>Take advantage of the many tools available and create a template that reinforces your brand</strong> and makes it quick and easy to make new images in batches.<br />
<br />
With a little work and planning, you’ll be seeing higher engagement and more website traffic in no time.<br />
<br />
<b>What do you think?</b> <strong>What kinds of images do you share with your fans? Which social networks have been most responsive?</strong> Share your experience or examples in the comments below.Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-26883974441035702512014-02-24T06:01:00.000-08:002014-02-24T06:01:05.356-08:00How to Increase Your Social Media Following by Over 700%Are you looking for creative ways to grow your social media following?<br /><br />Are you dealing with limited resources?<br /><br />Then you’ll want to study what Microsoft Dynamics did.<br /><br />How is a giant like Microsoft the same as everybody else when it comes to social media marketing?<br /><br />They have the same challenges as any company. They have to figure out:<br /><br /> Whom they’re talking to<br /> What their needs are<br /> Where and how to talk to them<br /><br />And even though they’re Microsoft, they still have limited resources to do it all. So how does Microsoft do social media? They start by trial and error, and then see what works and what needs changing. Sound familiar?<br /><br />Over the past two years, Microsoft Dynamics, a business group of Microsoft, pruned their social channels by half, but now reaches more customers.<br /><br />I spoke with Kelly Rigotti, senior marketing communication manager of social media for Microsoft Dynamics, to learn how they did it.<br />microsoft vine video<br /><br />Microsoft Dynamics uses Vine videos as visual elements in their Twitter stream.<br /><br />Social Media Handles and Stats<br /><br /> Website<br /> Blog<br /> LinkedIn showcase page – 1,488,797 followers<br /> Twitter primary account – 13,813 followers<br /> Facebook primary account – 31,013 followers<br /> YouTube – 6,319 subscribers; 904,542 views<br /><br />Highlights<br /><br /> In 2011, had over 40 social accounts and blogs. Now has 23 accounts and blogs<br /> Up to 75% of followers of their LinkedIn showcase page see their updates<br /> YouTube views per month increased 700% over the last 15 months<br /> Facebook fans increased 900% over 15 months with 99% unsponsored posts<br /> Twitter account started from scratch in 2012 grown to over 13,000 followers<br /><br />#1: Who’s in Charge of Social?<br /><br />Before Rigotti was hired two years ago at Microsoft Dynamics, they had over 40 social media accounts and blogs spread over multiple platforms. A lot of people had social media as part of their job. But no single person was responsible for it as a whole.<br /><br />Rigotti sees the way things evolved at Microsoft Dynamics as similar to what happens at many companies.<br /><br />“Nobody would dream of going off and doing his or her own website,” she said. “You don’t go off and do your own advertising campaign.” But teams would start their own social channels because it was so easy.<br /><br />“Somebody would hear about something new, like a blog, and get the okay from their manager to start it,” she said.<br /><br />But the company realized they needed to start thinking strategically about social media. They created a new position and hired Rigotti, who had consulted for them previously. Her sole responsibility would be to manage social media.<br />microsoft social acccounts<br /><br />Microsoft Dynamics started looking at social accounts strategically.<br />microsoft pared social acccounts<br /><br />Microsoft Dynamics pared social accounts and groups to 23 from over 40.<br />#2: Storytelling vs. Talking About Products<br /><br />Rigotti’s hiring coincided with a shift in marketing strategy for Microsoft as a whole. She characterizes it as a storytelling approach vs. a product-centered approach.<br /><br />“We wanted to start talking to customers about what their needs are as opposed to what our products are,” she said.<br /><br />Instead of talking about individual products, they would listen to their customers and then show how they could help them do their jobs better.<br />microsoft customer service update<br /><br />Microsoft Dynamics shifted to addressing customer concerns with their social updates.<br /><br />Many of the existing social accounts had been started by product specialists and had a product-centered approach. The shift meant these accounts would need to be cut, tweaked, repurposed or updated.<br /><br />This required a diplomatic approach on Rigotti’s part. But first she needed to track down and evaluate what they had.<br />#3: Selling the Idea Internally<br /><br />She searched to find all of the Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and other social accounts containing “Microsoft Dynamics” and figure out who owned them.<br /><br />At the same time, she and her team of two were developing the messaging and talking to the people managing the accounts.<br /><br />Since they would need to give control over to Rigotti and her team, she made special effort to bring everyone on board with the idea.<br /><br />“We were not saying, ‘Thanks for your two years of work, but that doesn’t matter anymore,’” Rigotti explained. Instead she touted the benefits of letting her team take over the time-consuming tactical aspects of social media.<br /><br />“You share your expertise with me and I’ll make sure we grow the audience for that content,” was her message.<br /><br />It wasn’t always an easy sell. “People are really rational when they see you’re not abandoning something, but instead bringing things together,” she added.<br /><br />By the end of the first year, Rigotti’s team had pruned their social media accounts to four platforms, focusing on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.<br /><br />Rigotti said she is often in the role of traffic cop, tracking down unofficial accounts that still pop up. “It’s a constant effort through education and communication,” she said. But she explains the reason for curbing additional accounts this way:<br /><br />“We always ask, ‘Can we reach an audience with this account that we can’t reach on our other channels?’”<br />#4: Content + Connections<br /><br />The company has a range of audiences, including end users, purchasers and solution partners in each of five priority industries.<br /><br />“We don’t have specific social media communities for each one of those audiences,” said Rigotti.<br /><br />So how do they reach more people with fewer social accounts? They think about what ties all these audiences together.<br /><br />“We asked, ‘What’s the story we can tell that will appeal to as many of these people as possible?‘” Rigotti said.<br /><br />The message they developed was that the technology you use makes a difference in the way you work. That story is the common thread they use in all their content on all their social media channels.<br />microsoft linkedin update<br /><br />Even when talking about products, the focus is on solutions, not features.<br /><br />For content, Rigotti and her team rely on product and industry specialists, such as manufacturing industry experts who know what that audience cares about. Then they think about how they can socialize that information.<br /><br />About 30 people contribute content as determined by an editorial calendar. “It’s all about great content and great connections,” Rigotti said.<br />#5: Evaluating Results<br /><br />The link between social media and product sales at Microsoft Dynamics is not direct, because end users typically purchase through a solution provider.<br /><br />To evaluate social media activity, Rigotti said they approach it similarly to PR. The focus is on awareness and engagement.<br /><br />They use the enterprise social media management program Sprinklr to track metrics such as reach, hashtag use, etc., and NetBreeze, which Microsoft Dynamics acquired in 2013, to track sentiment and mentions.<br /><br />Though their measurement data is proprietary, Rigotti noted that they are getting great visibility with LinkedIn. Up to 75% of followers are seeing content from their LinkedIn showcase page. That translates to over a million followers getting their updates.<br /><br />Their main Twitter account was started from scratch in 2012 and has grown to over 13,000 followers to date. Facebook and YouTube followers have grown to 10 times and 8 times their previous numbers, respectively, since mid-2012.<br />microsoft parature tweet<br /><br />The Microsoft Dynamics Twitter account, new since 2012, has an engaged follower base.<br /><br />Rigotti stresses that whatever metrics you evaluate, the most important thing is to be consistent over the long-term. Looking at a snapshot of data or a small sampling of posts won’t tell you much. Pick something to measure and evaluate it over time.<br /><br />“Even if [the criteria] are not the most accurate, we can measure over time to see progress,” she said.<br /><br />What do you think? Is your company overextended on social media? Could you benefit by pruning your accounts and focusing on storytelling to your core audience? Include your comments and questions below.Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-21011811368992829312014-02-07T11:04:00.002-08:002014-02-07T11:04:45.376-08:00Why businesses should be on social media<a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2014/01/social-media-can-do-your-work.html#.UvOWchB_vTM">The social media</a>
world can be a daunting place. It's a world that is growing rapidly,
with new features, platforms and apps appearing all the time. Whether
for personal or for business use, it's hard to keep track of the newest
trends, let alone learn how to use them. With this in mind, it's
understandable why some companies want to shy away from social media.
Every business, from large corporations to fledgling companies, already
has an abundance of tasks to do. Social media ends up being another
thing to add to the list.<br />
<br />
The fact remains <a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2014/01/how-to-use-pinterest-to-drive-sales.html#.UvOW_RB_vTM">that social media is imperative in the modern business world</a>.
It's not just a phase, and it will continue to develop and grow,
whether you choose to take part or not. Social media is the future of
marketing and promotion, proving itself as an essential tool to boost
your company. To put it bluntly, the sooner you get involved, the better
off you will be. Don't get left behind.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1KPuR2UqhN-1dLcyuocz03Ptyx-1GJ8kyVgG5fKHlCmQyYRXHky0-WEoXRqiO5m771RKx_tRS4Ck-cq17HNLVTVwovjpZ7xQVIt3_BS3l4K_q1kKUZy0J-4TMJaKVpBbn9HHv3RY_YZk/s1600/happy.jpg"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1KPuR2UqhN-1dLcyuocz03Ptyx-1GJ8kyVgG5fKHlCmQyYRXHky0-WEoXRqiO5m771RKx_tRS4Ck-cq17HNLVTVwovjpZ7xQVIt3_BS3l4K_q1kKUZy0J-4TMJaKVpBbn9HHv3RY_YZk/s1600/happy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<a href="" name="more"></a>Should you jump on the social media bandwagon? The
answer is a resounding 'yes'. There have been many studies into the
beneficial effects of social networking and marketing in recent years. A
McKinsey & Co <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_rise_of_the_networked_enterprise_web_20_finds_its_payday">study</a>
in 2010 found that companies that embraced social media were “more
likely to be market leaders”. The advantages of social media are clear:
you can monitor your networks to figure out the return in your
investments; you can easily measure the effectiveness of your campaigns;
monitor the growth of your accounts and increase your social media
reach. So how does it work?<br />
<br />
It's all about understanding your brand and your customer base. With the
right strategy, social media can make marketing and service a whole lot
easier. You can essentially engage in your sales. Social media
marketing allows you to monitor brand management whilst creating<a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2013/05/social-media-is-changing-how-we-do.html#.Uupc_9x_vDY"> brand awareness</a> by connecting with customers. At the same time, you can focus on service and monitor troubleshooting problems.<br />
<br />
What could you achieve through the right social media<a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/2013/06/the-importance-of-knowing-your-audience.html#.UupdI9x_vDY"> strategy</a>?<br /><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEj12lprP5PCDc_GwLeEceIPPeMQnTri3eVskcooG90OBan178ABQck7V_xfIr6CLrpdR1J9D9iFrrWlRzXohTtSUPGuoi0QJmvLdk5e8trneraAbdBZWzYThz9Ki_h4NpcqiRmqMzmCJOvH3q6eFQUUXWBqPUo-dHHdTfDadx7ZsLh7e0Zwv6XxFJthyphenhyphen-DdsS-GN-Gu=" width="400" /></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Exposure</h3>
Over 80% of online marketing firms report that social interaction
between customers and businesses is the key to social media networking.
Through word-of-mouth marketing, you are sure to boost your brand
awareness. Exposure is key for growth, and virtual word-of-mouth
marketing can help you achieve this. We trust friends over brands or
adverts, so giving your customers a trustworthy product is essential.
Want proof? A recent study showed that 75% of people are somewhat or
highly likely to share content they like online with friends, co-workers
or family—49% do this at least weekly (<a href="http://www.socialquickstarter.com/content/1-why_social_media_marketing">Chadwick Martin BaileyConsumer Pulse 2010</a>).<br />
<br />
<h3>
Reputation Management</h3>
Social media allows you to monitor both your online and offline
presence. You can see what customers and competitors alike are saying
about your business. This is a huge advantage, allowing you to use the
insights gained to fix problems. You can show your human side by
answering questions on forums and message boards. This lends a personal
touch to your business, which is harder to obtain offline. Furthermore,
you can demonstrate the expertise you have in your niche, building trust
with your consumers.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Branding</h3>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjKQrXttYK6UF7_4bYm_DkIe9yR4P9sI6K9tCNsk_xFB2LuoaYsohiYX2cffYMjns_GwQAK8zZUD7obHBNcusruyaSzQFuNx9yjGWZROLD3yuChe25AgoC2BR72458x7d746fGaLApNbGRblGI2Nd5P__K5RoOyQrQZIKylS5XZDK9y1nTQJMpxO1mJeIhYCmKsH985=" width="400" /></div>
<br />
<br />
Through social media you can generate a recognisable identity. The tools
available online can build up hype about your business, in a way that
creates a buzz. If marketed in the right way, you can increase your
social media reach. The more fans and followers you accrue, the better
reach you'll have. <a href="http://www.uefa.com/community/news/newsid=2038761.html">UEFA</a>, for example, passed the 37 million mark in 2013 due to their effective social media strategy.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Cost-effective</h3>
An online presence can save you lots of money in the long-term. Much
cheaper than the traditional advert, cross-platform networking allows
you to build your accounts and customer following without breaking the
bank. It is time-consuming, but there are lots of options to hire people
or distribute tasks. Social media marketing is a huge advantage for
smaller companies, allowing them to compete with the larger corporations
in some areas. <br />
<br />
<h3>
Measure effectiveness of campaigns</h3>
You can use many different platforms, such as <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/">Google Analytics</a>,
to monitor your online presence. Thus, you can review which online
campaigns are successful. It allows you to analyse and track engagement
and progress year-over-year, so that you can move forward faster by
learning your former faults. <br />
<h3>
Boost your search engine rankings</h3>
The more of an online presence you have, the higher you may be in search
engine rankings. If you want a higher ranking for your online networks,
you can include follow links. These can be found on many networking
platforms or news sites.<br />
<h3>
Explain yourself</h3>
With 24-hour customer interaction, can come 24-hour customer complaints.
Well, hopefully not, but should the situation arise, be proactive about
it. It is much easier to show an understanding, trustworthy side to
your business online. If customers can see that your business is
accessible and trustworthy, they are more likely to walk away satisfied.
Through negative comments you may end up making huge improvements to
your company. You may even end up finding new ideas for your business.<br />
<br />
So start simple: establish your presence on a network that is in tune
with your brand. Once you've got to grips with this, you can start to
cross-promote across other platforms. So take a deep breath, dive in and
get social. You won't be disappointed.
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Are you wondering how you can use social media to build valuable connections?<br />
To learn about the importance of relationships in business, I interview Ted Rubin for this episode of the <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/category/podcast-episodes/" target="_blank">Social Media Marketing podcast</a>.<br />
<h3>
More About This Show</h3>
<img alt="Social Media Marketing Podcast w/ Michael Stelzner" class="alignright" data-jpibfi-indexer="2" height="300" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/socialmediamarketing-michaelstelzner.jpg" width="300" /><br />
The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.<br />
It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.<br />
The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).<br />
In this episode, I interview <a href="http://tedrubin.com/blog/" target="_blank">Ted Rubin</a>, co-author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Return-Relationship-Kathryn-Rose/dp/1625632371" target="_blank"><em>Return on Relationship</em></a>. He’s also the former chief social marketing officer for <a href="http://collectivebias.com/" target="_blank">Collective Bias</a> and <a href="http://www.opensky.com/" target="_blank">OpenSky</a>. Prior to that, Ted was the CMO for <a href="http://www.eyeslipsface.com/" target="_blank">e.l.f. Cosmetics</a>.<br />
Ted shares the best ways to start to grow your online connections via social media.<br />
You’ll
learn what you need to include in your profile and why return on
relationship is the most important thing for a business or brand.<br />
Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!<br />
<h3>
Listen Now</h3>
You can also subscribe via <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-media-marketing-podcast/id549899114">iTunes</a>, <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SocialMediaMarketingFeed">RSS</a>, <a href="http://stitcher.com/s?fid=26782">Stitcher</a> or <a href="http://us.blackberry.com/apps/blackberry-apps/podcast.html">Blackberry</a>.<br />
<span id="more-52772"></span>Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:<br />
<h3>
Relationship Marketing</h3>
Recently I attended <a href="http://nmxlive.com/2014-lv/" target="_blank">New Media Expo</a>
(NMX) in Las Vegas, where I was not only embraced by fellow podcasters,
I was overwhelmed by the number of people who came up to me to thank me
for this show. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and
every one of you.<br />
Since I had a mission for this conference, I
didn’t announce that I would be attending. My hope is that you will be
inspired by the story of why I did this, and that you will try it for
yourself.<br />
<strong>How to build relationships in person, that often start online</strong><br />
In my second book, <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/launch/" target="_blank"><em>Launch</em></a>, I talk about the power of other people. I coined the phrase “<a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/why-marketing-hurts-your-growth-and-what-to-do-about-it/" target="_blank">Elevation Principle</a>,” which consists of great content plus other people minus marketing messages equals growth.<br />
For
podcasters, the “other people” include listeners—a segment of whom I
call “power users,” or people with extreme influence. Without them, it’s
really hard to grow your business.<br />
I went to NMX with two
purposes. I wanted to build relationships with the podcasting community
and the parenting community, since I’m a newbie in both of these spaces.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="nmx fellow podcasters" data-jpibfi-indexer="3" height="360" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ms-nmx-friends.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
New Media Expo was a great event to connect with fellow podcasters.</div>
</div>
You’ll discover why I only attended a few sessions, and made it a priority to hang around at the end of each session.<br />
One of <strong>the best places to meet the speakers is out in the halls</strong>,
or where the speakers gather to network with each other. They don’t
seem to attend any sessions other than their own. It’s an opportunity to
have amazing conversations with influential people.<br />
You’ll hear
the types of questions I asked to get people engaged, which can develop
into real relationships. This is one of the secrets to the success of my
business, and it can be for you too.<br />
My take-home lesson is to <strong>get involved in real life</strong> <strong>through face-to-face encounters</strong>. One of the best places to do this is at a conference. Our upcoming conference, <a href="http://bit.ly/16OOnwB" target="_blank">Social Media Marketing World</a>, is a great place to start.<br />
<strong>Are relationships still important AND achievable with social media?</strong><br />
Ted Rubin likes to say that “<strong>relationships are the new currency</strong>.”
With all of the different social media channels available, you can
reach the world 24/7, without ever leaving your home. It used to be that
you had to wait until you were at a company meeting or an event to meet
people.<br />
The problem today is that when people click your name or
check a box to follow you, they immediately think they have a real
relationship with you or your brand.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 248px;">
<img alt="like following buttons" class=" " height="51" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ms-like-following-buttons.jpg" width="238" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Just by clicking like, people think that they have a real relationship with you.</div>
</div>
A
lot of brands believe that they need to get as many likes and followers
as possible so they can broadcast to them. It’s not about broadcasting,
though—it’s about building relationships.<br />
<em>Listen to the show to find out why building a relationship online is no different to a regular relationship offline.</em><br />
<strong>How to make people feel like you’re giving them your full attention with social media</strong><br />
Ted says that you have to start with what he calls “looking people in the eye digitally.” An easy way to do this is to <strong>look at their profile and learn something about them</strong>.<br />
He often quotes <a href="http://www.dalecarnegie.com/" target="_blank">Dale Carnegie</a>‘s book, <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People" target="_blank">How to Win Friends & Influence People</a></em>, as one of the best social media books ever written.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 128px;">
<img alt="how to win friends and influence people" height="188" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ms-how-to-win-friends-and-influence-people.jpg" width="118" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
The book was written in 1936.</div>
</div>
The
most important part of the book is on how to connect with people. One
of Dale’s statements is, ”A person’s name is to that person, the
sweetest, most important sound in any language.”<br />
One of the
simplest ways to get someone to totally focus on you is to call him or
her by name. You can easily get a person’s name from their profile and
you should <strong>always have your name easily accessible as well</strong>.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 486px;">
<img alt="ted rubin about page facebook page" class=" " data-jpibfi-indexer="6" height="243" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ms-ted-rubin-about-page-facebook-page.jpg" width="476" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Always make sure that your name and a few personal details are accessible on your profile.</div>
</div>
You’ll
hear the advantages of calling someone by his or her name and how to
pick up on personal things that you can then use to make a connection.<br />
Ted says there is no excuse in this digital world for failing to <strong>find out something about the person you are talking to</strong>. It’s these little things that set you apart from everybody else.<br />
<em>Listen to the show to learn why it goes a long way for people to know who you are as a person.</em><br />
<strong>The phrase “Return on Relationship”</strong><br />
Ted
says that when he first started to use the phrase in 2009, he thought
he had coined it, but soon discovered that back in 2001, there had been a
white paper called “Return on Relationship.”<br />
He first started to use the expression when he worked at <a href="http://www.eyeslipsface.com/" target="_blank">e.l.f. Cosmetics</a>. When Ted joined the family-owned business, they had no marketing budget. This was a huge challenge for him.<br />
Within
four years, e.l.f. had grown to a $10 million business, and had about
2.4 million people in their database. Ted saw this as a great
opportunity to do promotions and leverage the data with social media.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="elf cosmetics" class=" " data-jpibfi-indexer="7" height="294" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ms-elf-cosmetics.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
The number of names in e.l.f.’s database increased from 600,000 to 2.4 million, from the use of promotions and social media.</div>
</div>
The
owners found it hard to understand why he wasn’t doing something that
led directly to revenue. Ted found a way to get them to understand. It
wasn’t about <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-improve-your-social-media-marketing-return-on-investment/" target="_blank">return on investment</a> (ROI), it was about return on relationship.<br />
You’ll
discover what platform Ted used back in 2008-2009 that made him realize
he was on to something. At the same time, he had built the first
aggregated content site. The blog was very active and it really
connected with people.<br />
<em>Listen to the show to learn why the
return on relationship today is about the connection, loyalty and
sharing you have with people.</em><br />
<strong>Examples of brands that have done this well</strong><br />
<strong></strong>Ted is a huge fan of <a href="https://twitter.com/JetBlue" target="_blank">Jet Blue</a> because they listen. They let you know that they care when you have a problem and that they are doing something about it.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="jetblue on twitter" data-jpibfi-indexer="8" height="496" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ms-jetblue-on-twitter.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Jet Blue does a great job of listening to customers.</div>
</div>
Ted likes to say that <strong>brands are from Mars and consumers are from Venus</strong>.
Brands say one thing, and consumers hear it differently. Consumers want
to be heard. You can go a lot further if you show that you listen.<br />
You’ll hear what happened when Jet Blue’s reputation took a hit back in 2009, and how they used social media to overcome it.<br />
<a href="http://www.duanereade.com/" target="_blank">Duane Reade</a> is another company that does an amazing job at building relationships. When Ted worked at <a href="http://collectivebias.com/" target="_blank">Collective Bias</a>, he helped build Duane Reade’s social presence from 900 to <a href="https://twitter.com/duanereade" target="_blank">1.7 million Twitter followers</a>.<br />
You’ll find out the strategy and what people associate the brand with.<br />
<em>Listen to the show to find out why critics are very valuable to your business.</em><br />
<strong>The importance of brand advocates</strong><br />
Ted feels that in today’s digital world, <strong>recommendations and comments made by people are held in high regard</strong>. A lot of <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/establishing-trust-how-to-build-relationships-with-social-media/" target="_blank">relationship building</a> and interaction are vicarious—not necessarily resulting from a direct conversation.<br />
Some
people watch others’ conversations on Twitter or visit a person’s
Facebook page every day just to get a feel for who they are.<br />
For Ted, <strong>advocacy is about people who share and make recommendations</strong>. He feels that the comments people make to their friends via social media are more important than reviews.<br />
You’ll
hear about the best ways to build brand advocates and how their
suggestions can help you form a connection with your community.<br />
<strong>The best advocates you can have are your employees</strong>. A company called <a href="http://dynamicsignal.com/" target="_blank">Dynamic Signal</a> does a great job of helping company employees build their personal brands.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 487px;">
<img alt="dynamic signal" height="190" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ms-dynamic-signal.jpg" width="477" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
You should give your employees a place where they can talk about you on your platform.</div>
</div>
<em>Listen to the show to find out how you can pay attention to your advocates.</em><br />
<h3>
Other Show Mentions</h3>
This week’s podcast is sponsored by Social Media Marketing World.<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/16OOnwB" target="_blank"><img alt="SMMW logo" class="alignright" height="121" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/images/SMMW-logo.png" width="181" /></a><a href="http://bit.ly/16OOnwB" target="_blank">Social Media Marketing World 2014</a> is our physical mega-conference, which is set to return to San Diego, California on March 26, 27 and 28.<br />
The
conference features more than 80 sessions in four major tracks: social
tactics, social strategy, community management and content marketing.<br />
A
small sampling of some of the marketers speaking are from brands such
as LinkedIn, Discover, Marriott, Huffington Post, H&R Block, Humana
and Adobe, among many others.<br />
To reinforce the networking value of this conference, here’s a clip from <a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/" target="_blank">Chris Brogan</a>.<br />
If you want to take your relationship marketing to the next level, this is where you need to be. Be sure to <a href="http://bit.ly/16OOnwB" target="_blank">check it out</a>.<br />
<strong><a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/voicemail/" target="_blank">Call in</a> and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show</strong>.<br />
<h3>
Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:</h3>
<ul>
<li>Connect with Ted Rubin on his <a href="http://tedrubin.com/blog/" target="_blank">blog</a> or on <a href="http://www.returnonrelationship.com/" target="_blank">Return on Relationship</a>.</li>
<li>Read Ted’s co-authored book, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Return-Relationship-Kathryn-Rose/dp/1625632371" target="_blank">Return on Relationship</a>.</em></li>
<li>Check out <a href="http://nmxlive.com/2014-lv/" target="_blank">New Media Expo</a> (NMX) as a great place to network.</li>
<li>Read more about the Elevation Principle in the book, <em><a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/launch/" target="_blank">Launch</a>.</em></li>
<li>Check out <a href="http://www.dalecarnegie.com/" target="_blank">Dale Carnegie</a>‘s book, <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People" target="_blank">How to Win Friends & Influence People</a></em>.</li>
<li>Try the <a href="http://www.refresh.io/" target="_blank">Refresh app</a> to find out more about people in your contact file.</li>
<li>Head over to <a href="http://www.eyeslipsface.com/" target="_blank">e.l.f. Cosmetics</a> and check them out on <a href="https://twitter.com/askelf" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/elfcosmetics" target="_blank">Facebook</a>.</li>
<li>Take a look at <a href="https://twitter.com/JetBlue" target="_blank">Jet Blue</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/DuaneReade" target="_blank">Duane Reade</a> on Twitter to see how they develop relationships with customers.</li>
<li>See how <a href="https://twitter.com/AmericanAir" target="_blank">American Airlines</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Delta" target="_blank">Delta</a> have followed in Jet Blue’s footsteps on Twitter.</li>
<li>Check out <a href="http://dynamicsignal.com/" target="_blank">Dynamic Signal</a>, an employee advocacy service.</li>
<li>Learn more about <a href="http://bit.ly/16OOnwB" target="_blank">Social Media Marketing World 2014</a>.</li>
<li>Contact
Emily at emily@socialmediaexaminer.com if you are interested in
corporate sponsorships for Social Media Marketing World 2014.</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: #ece5b6; border: 2px solid #c9c299; margin: 0pt 0pt 20px; padding: 15px;">
<strong>Help Us Spread the Word!<br /> </strong><br />
Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. <strong><a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/love.html" target="_blank">Simply click here now to post a tweet</a></strong>.<br />
If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast, please <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/social-media-marketing-podcast/id549899114" target="_blank"><strong>head over to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review and subscribe</strong></a>. And <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/stitcher/" target="_blank">if you listen on Stitcher, please click here to rate and review this show</a>.</div>
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<ul>
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</ul>
<strong>What do you think? What are your thoughts on building meaningful connections? </strong>Please leave your comments below.Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-80581248357746770022014-01-22T08:24:00.000-08:002014-01-22T08:24:00.826-08:006 Simple Photo Tools for Creating Social Media VisualsAre you including images in your social media content?<br />
Looking for easy-to-use tools to help you create images for your content strategy?<br />
If
the idea of using Photoshop makes your head spin or hiring a graphic
designer isn’t an option, there are many easy-to-use, low-cost
alternatives available to you to create social media graphics.<br />
In this article, I’ll show you <b>6 easy tools that will help you create compelling graphics for social media</b>.<br />
<h3>
#1: Use PicMonkey’s Online Photo Editor to Take Your Images From Good to Glorious</h3>
<a href="http://www.picmonkey.com/" target="_blank">PicMonkey</a>‘s free option has a wide variety of frames, special effects and font types to choose from.<br />
With a touch of a button, you can <strong>crop and resize your photo</strong>, and <strong>add text to your images</strong>.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="picmonkey image" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="2" height="480" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jc-picmonkey-image-by-kj-ammerman.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Choose from a wide variety of free fonts on PicMonkey to create appealing images like this one with PicMonkey.</div>
</div>
<span id="more-52882"></span><br />
The paid option offers additional features that include more frames and photo effects.<br />
PicMonkey is a great solution for all types of social media images. Not only can you <strong>create graphics for your posts</strong>, you also can <b>make banners and buttons for your social media accounts</b>, such as Facebook.<br />
<h3>
#2: Express Yourself Through Photos and Creations on LiveLuvCreate</h3>
<a href="http://www.liveluvcreate.com/" target="_blank">LiveLuvCreate</a> is an image-creation website most anyone will find easy to use.<br />
With LiveLuvCreate, you <strong>pick from a variety of design layouts</strong>—from one image as a background to a collage of graphics. You can <strong>use images from your computer or choose from LiveLuvCreate’s library</strong>.<br />
<strong>Choose up to three text areas</strong> with a range of font types, colors and styles.<br />
You may also <strong>select borders, filters and photo effects</strong> for additional image enhancements.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="liveluvcreate-app" data-jpibfi-indexer="3" height="338" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jc-livluvcreate-sample-image.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
An example of a social media graphic you can create on LiveLuvCreate.com.</div>
</div>
Once you complete your graphic, you can <strong>share your creation on Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook</strong>, or download the image to your computer.<br />
<h3>
#3: Create Your Own Designs With Canva</h3>
<a href="https://www.canva.com/" target="_blank">Canva</a>
is a free application that offers a myriad of graphic types for use in
everything from presentations and posters, to business cards and
invitations. For social media use, consider Canva to help you<b> design Facebook cover photos and blog images</b>.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="canva image" data-jpibfi-indexer="4" height="720" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jc-canva-image-by-kj-ammerman.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Canva offers many different layouts to help you create compelling and shareable social media images.</div>
</div>
If you’re signed into Facebook, Canva can pull in your photos. You can also <strong>upload your own graphics from your computer</strong>, or <strong>purchase from Canva’s stock image library</strong> (most images are only $1 US).<br />
Additionally, Canva has a unique feature where you can <b>collaborate with other users</b>, which is great if you need to <strong>share or edit your images with someone</strong> else.<br />
Canva
is currently under closed beta, but you can reserve your username and
be placed on a waiting list. Then, you can try Canva out once you gain
access to the beta version.<br />
<h3>
#4: Use Image and Photo Editing Software From Paint.NET</h3>
If you want some of PhotoShop’s capabilities, check out <a href="http://www.getpaint.net/" target="_blank">Paint.NET</a> as an alternative.<br />
Paint.NET is a free download for PCs and <strong>offers many of the same features available in PhotoShop</strong>.<br />
It <strong>supports layers</strong>, has unlimited undo capability and offers special photo effects, including red-eye removal. You can also <strong>draw shapes</strong>, <strong>add text and recolor your images</strong> with <a href="http://www.getpaint.net/" target="_blank">Paint.NET</a>.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="paintnet-app" data-jpibfi-indexer="5" height="281" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jc-paintnet-example.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
You can easily crop any image on Paint.NET and then resize to your specifications.</div>
</div>
Because Paint.NET is a free download, tapping into the user community is the best way to get help with how to use it. <b>Check out </b><a href="http://forums.getpaint.net/" target="_blank"><b>Paint.NET’s online forum</b></a><b> for help, tutorials and plugins</b>.<br />
<h3>
#5: Design Unique and Compelling Presentations With PowerPoint</h3>
It may come as a surprise to see <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/" target="_blank">PowerPoint</a> on this list, but it offers another easy way to create social media images.<br />
Any PowerPoint slide can be saved as a JPEG or PNG. Just <strong>click on Save As</strong>, and then <strong>select JPEG or PNG</strong> from the Save as Type drop-down menu.<br />
PowerPoint
then asks if you want to export every slide or just the current slide.
Select Current Slide Only, and you have an image file of your PowerPoint
slide. If you’re comfortable using PowerPoint, <strong>take advantage of this capability to create social media images</strong>.<br />
And if you’re looking for an easy way to<b> make Facebook cover photos</b>, be sure to <strong>check out <a href="https://tabsite.com/blog/facebook-cover-image-powerpoint-design-template-for-pages/" target="_blank">Tabsite’s PowerPoint Template for Facebook Cover Photos</a></strong>.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="tabsite-facebook-template" data-jpibfi-indexer="6" height="270" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jc-tabsite-template.png" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Use Tabsite’s PowerPoint template to create eye-catching Facebook cover photos. Photo courtesy of Tabsite.</div>
</div>
Tabsite
made a free, easy-to-use template that even shows where your profile
photo appears on a cover photo so you can design around it.<br />
<h3>
#6: Make Awesome Collages With PicCollage</h3>
Don’t
forget that compelling social media images can include snapshots, and
when you want to creatively display these types of photos, check out <a href="http://pic-collage.com/" target="_blank">PicCollage</a>.<br />
PicCollage is an app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.<br />
Once you download the app, <strong>use photos from your Facebook account or camera stream</strong> to create collages.<br />
<strong>Select a background</strong> on PicCollage, <strong>add your photos</strong>, then text and stickers to your image. PicCollage also allows you to <strong>resize</strong>, <strong>rotate</strong>, <strong>edit</strong> and delete any of your creations. When you complete your collage, you can <strong>share your image on Facebook</strong>, <strong>Twitter and Instagram</strong>.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 333px;">
<img alt="piccolage-app" data-jpibfi-indexer="7" height="571" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jc-piccollage-sample-layouts.png" width="323" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
You can choose from many different layouts for your collage. Photo courtesy of PicCollage.</div>
</div>
Use
PicCollage to creatively display photos from a client event, office
party or conference. Or pull in a favorite quote and surround it with
images.<br />
With a little creativity, PicCollage helps you create social media graphics that show a more personal side to your business.<br />
<b>Final Thoughts</b><br />
While hiring a graphic designer or learning to use PhotoShop may be the best solution, it’s nice to <strong>know you have alternatives</strong> to help you design graphics to share on social media.<br />
When you need help to create social media graphics, <strong>consider any of these tools</strong> to help you get the job done.<br />
Do your research. Finding the right image design tool is a bit like trying on shoes; you need to <strong>choose the best one to fit your needs</strong>. You may find that it’s best to use multiple platforms to create your social media graphics, like <a href="https://twitter.com/kristinimagines" target="_blank">KJ Ammerman</a> who likes to use Picmonkey and Canva.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 413px;">
<img alt="picmonkey and canva image" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="8" height="403" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/jc-picmonkey-and-canva-image-by-kj-ammerman.jpg" width="403" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
KJ Ammerman likes to use Picmonkey for backdrops, Canva for layout and then back to Picmonkey for text.</div>
</div>
<b>What do you think? Do you use other image-creation tools besides PhotoShop? What other sites or apps would you recommend?</b> Share your comments and suggestions in the comments box below.Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-38400505218836865732014-01-20T08:29:00.000-08:002014-01-20T08:29:19.288-08:00Top 10 Social Media Blog Finalists 2014: This Week in Social MediaWelcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/tag/social-media-news/" target="_blank">social media news</a>.<br />
<h3>
Finalists: Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2014</h3>
We received <a href="http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5th-annual-top-10-social-media-blog-contest-nomination/" target="_blank">over 600 nominations</a> for our fifth-annual Top 10 Social Media Blogs contest (the blogosphere’s biggest contest for social media blogs).<br />
The list of 22 finalists is pretty impressive! See for yourself below.<br />
<strong>The judges</strong>: Our judges include <strong><a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/" target="_blank">Lee Odden</a></strong> (author of <em>Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing </em>and<em> </em>CEO of TopRank Online Marketing), <strong><a href="http://denisewakeman.com/" target="_blank">Denise Wakeman</a></strong> (founder of the Blog Squad™) and <strong><a href="http://maximizeyoursocial.com/" target="_blank">Neal Schaffer</a> </strong>(author of three books, including <em>Maximizing LinkedIn for Sales and Social Media Marketing)</em>. They are currently finishing up their reviews of these sites.<br />
<img alt="contest judges" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/lj-2014-blog-contest-judges.png" /><br />
Here are the finalists (in alphabetical order):<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.amyporterfield.com/" target="_blank">Amy Porterfield</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bloggersmakemoney.com/" target="_blank">Bloggers Make Money</a></li>
<li><a href="http://kimgarst.com/blog/" target="_blank">Boom Social</a></li>
<li><a href="http://brandswithfansblog.fandommarketing.com/" target="_blank">Brands With Fans</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.christiankonline.com/" target="_blank">Christian Karasiewicz</a></li>
<li><a href="http://dannybrown.me/blog/" target="_blank">Danny Brown</a></li>
<li><a href="http://dustn.tv/" target="_blank">Dustn.tv</a></li>
<li><a href="http://jennstrends.com/" target="_blank">Jenn’s Trends</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.jonloomer.com/" target="_blank">Jon Loomer</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.likeable.com/blog/" target="_blank">Likeable Daily</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.muddywall.com/" target="_blank">Muddywall</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.pagemodo.com/blog" target="_blank">Pagemodo</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.postplanner.com/blog/" target="_blank">Post Planner</a></li>
<li><a href="http://pushingsocial.com/" target="_blank">Pushing Social</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.razorsocial.com/" target="_blank">RazorSocial</a></li>
<li><a href="http://simplymeasured.com/blog/" target="_blank">Simply Measured</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.socialmediafrontiers.com/" target="_blank">Social Media Frontiers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://sociallysorted.com.au/" target="_blank">Socially Sorted</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sociallystacked.com/" target="_blank">Socially Stacked</a></li>
<li><a href="http://socialmouths.com/blog/" target="_blank">SocialMouths</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.spiderworking.com/blog/" target="_blank">Spiderworking</a></li>
<li><a href="http://topdogsocialmedia.com/blog/" target="_blank">Top Dog Social Media</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>
<span id="more-53138"></span>How We’ll Pick the Winners</h3>
<strong>#1: Initial Qualification</strong>:
A blog must have a strong social media focus and must have been
nominated multiple times by multiple individuals. If someone nominated
more than one blog, only the first nomination was counted.<br />
<strong>#2: Final Winner Selection</strong><br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Quality of posts</strong>:
Our judges will examine and score the quality of posts on each blog.
Educational and discussion-spurring posts are more valuable than
self-promoting posts.</li>
<li><strong>Frequency of posts</strong>: Blogs that feature multiple posts per week will score higher. This is a sign of the blogger’s commitment to blogging.</li>
<li><strong>Reader involvement</strong>:
Regular comments from readers are another sign of a healthy blog. In
addition, the number of nominations for a specific blog plays a part in
this.</li>
<li><strong>Blog ranking</strong>: The number of other blogs
that link to the nominated blog shows the value of the content. We’ll
use accepted third-party blog ranking systems for this portion of the
score.</li>
</ul>
Congratulations to the finalists! We’ll announce the winners here soon!<br />
<h3>
What’s New This Week?</h3>
To help you <strong>stay up to date with social media</strong>, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.<br />
<strong><a href="http://newsroom.fb.com/News/782/Finding-Popular-Conversations-on-Facebook" target="_blank">Facebook Launches Trending</a></strong>:
“A new product that’s designed to surface interesting and relevant
conversations to help you discover the best content from all across
Facebook.”<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 489px;">
<img alt="facebook trending" height="182" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ck-facebook-trending.jpg" width="479" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
“To
the right of your news feed, you’ll see a list of topics that have
recently spiked in popularity. The list is personalized, including
topics based on things you’re interested in and what is trending across
Facebook overall.”</div>
</div>
<a href="https://twitter.com/twitter/status/422840296175443968/photo/1" target="_blank"><b>Twitter Rolls Out New Web Design</b></a>: Twitter is “now rolling out a refreshed <a data-expanded-url="http://twitter.com" dir="ltr" href="http://t.co/eNvqKTup1d" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="http://twitter.com">http://twitter.com</a>” to reflect the look and feel of their iOS and Android apps.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="twitter web refresh look" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="4" height="382" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ck-twitter-web-refresh-look.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Twitter’s new design on the web.</div>
</div>
<a href="http://youtubecreator.blogspot.ca/2014/01/comments-page-brings-your-comments-in.html" target="_blank"><b>YouTube Launches New Comment Management Tool</b></a>:
YouTube has “fast-tracked the development of a new comment management
page that lets you see, respond to and moderate your comments all in one
place.”<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 489px;">
<img alt="youtube comment management tool" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="5" height="203" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ck-youtube-comment-management-tool1.jpg" width="479" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
“From
this central page you can easily remove comments, flag comments for
spam or abuse, give a thumbs-up or click over to the video watch page
and reply.”</div>
</div>
<a href="https://blog.twitter.com/2014/new-ways-to-create-and-use-tailored-audiences" target="_blank"><b>Twitter Releases New Ways to Create Tailored Audiences</b></a>: “Advertisers can define groups of existing and potential customers more flexibly and connect with them on Twitter.”<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="crm approach" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="6" height="645" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ck-crm-approach.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
“You
can now create tailored audiences from lists of email addresses from
your own customer relationship management (CRM) database or you can use
your CRM database records that you have previously stored with an ad
partner.”</div>
</div>
<a href="http://staff.tumblr.com/post/73343571003/are-you-always-mentioning-things-gross-stop" target="_blank"><b>Tumblr Adds Support for @Mentions</b></a>: In Tumblr, “just type @ and a username when you’re writing a post and let that person know that you mentioned him/her.”<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 473px;">
<img alt="tumblr mentions" class="" data-jpibfi-indexer="7" height="561" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ck-tumblr-mentions.jpg" width="463" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
Tumblr adds Mentions feature.</div>
</div>
<a href="http://blog.linkedin.com/2014/01/15/the-linkedin-volunteer-marketplace-connecting-professionals-to-nonprofit-volunteer-opportunities/" target="_blank"><b>LinkedIn Launches LinkedIn Volunteer Marketplace</b></a>: “Nonprofits can discover the relevant members who’ve expressed interest in volunteering.”<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="linkedin volunteer marketplace" class=" " data-jpibfi-indexer="8" height="233" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ck-linkedin-volunteer-marketplace.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
“These
members will now be able to browse hundreds—and eventually thousands—of
specific, high-quality volunteer opportunities that nonprofits are
seeking to fill.”</div>
</div>
<strong>Here are a few social media tools worth checking out</strong>:<br />
<a href="http://loginbox-app.com/loginbox/site/" target="_blank"><b>LoginBox</b></a>: A mobile app that “will change the way you log into websites on your iPad and iPhone, forever!”<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 278px;">
<img alt="loginbox app" data-jpibfi-indexer="9" height="401" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ck-loginbox-app.jpg" width="268" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
With
a fresh and different approach, LoginBox not only remembers and fills
in your username and password, but also automatically completes any
other login workflow actions that may be required.</div>
</div>
<a href="http://www.kuhcoon.com/" target="_blank"><b>Kuhcoon Ads</b></a>: An app you can use for Facebook ads management and optimization.<br />
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 490px;">
<img alt="kuhcoon" data-jpibfi-indexer="10" height="359" src="http://cdn.socialmediaexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ck-kuhcoon.jpg" width="480" /><div class="wp-caption-text">
“Create, manage and monitor on the go!”</div>
</div>
<h3>
Other Mentions</h3>
<strong><a href="http://bit.ly/1gw5ue5" target="_blank">Introducing Social Media Marketing World</a>: </strong>60+ pros help you master social media marketing! Join Chris Brogan (co-author of <em>The Impact Equation</em>), Mari Smith (co-author of <em>Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day)</em>, Michael Hyatt (author of <em>Platform)</em>, Jay Baer (author of <em>Youtility)</em>, John Jantsch (author of <em>Duct Tape Marketing</em>), Amy Porterfield (co-author of <em>Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies)</em>, Mark Schaefer (author of <em>Tao of Twitter)</em>, Michael Stelzner (author of <em>Launch)</em> and experts from <strong>more than a dozen brands</strong> as they reveal proven social media marketing tactics at <a href="http://bit.ly/1gw5ue5" target="_blank">Social Media Marketing World 2014</a>—Social Media Examiner’s mega-conference in beautiful San Diego, California.<br />
<em>Check out this overview of the conference or <a href="http://bit.ly/1gw5ue5" target="_blank">click here for more details</a>.</em><br />
<strong>What do you think? </strong>Please share your comments below.Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687290601924396070.post-8701932582326081372014-01-17T07:18:00.000-08:002014-01-17T07:18:17.394-08:009 Ways to Improve Your Social Media in 2014 with the new Buffer for Business<header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: 'Roboto Slab', serif; font-size: 4.8rem; font-weight: 300; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 1.6rem;">
<img alt="9 Ways to Improve Your Social Media in 2014 with the new Buffer for Business" class="alignnone" height="350" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/SocialMouths/buffer_for_business.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Roboto, serif; font-size: 18px; height: auto; line-height: 27px; max-width: 100%;" title="9 Ways to Improve Your Social Media in 2014 with the new Buffer for Business" width="900" /></h1>
</header><div class="entry-content" itemprop="text" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 2.6rem; padding: 0px;">
Buffer has been around for a while now, as a great tool to publish updates to social media, which I enjoy using frequently on <a href="http://twitter.com/socialmouths" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff403a; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;">my Twitter account</a>. Recently, the Buffer team announced <a href="http://bufferapp.com/business?utm_campaign=socialmouths" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff403a; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">Buffer for Business</a>, with some great <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/introducing-buffer-for-business-the-most-simple-powerful-social-media-tool-for-your-business" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff403a; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">improvements to existing features</a> and a few exciting new ones.</div>
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I thought of taking the whole product for a spin and see what I like or don’t like about it.</div>
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Here are some of my thoughts and suggestions for improvements on Buffer’s new product:</div>
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1. Admin rights for members of your team: You can approve first</h2>
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When you start adding more team members to your Buffer account, your social media profiles can get a bit messy with everyone jumping in. The Buffer for Business plans introduced much-needed approval features for team member contributions.</div>
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Now, if a team member is set to contribute only, their posts will be added to a queue for approval before being published.</div>
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2. Integration with Google Analytics</h2>
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We all use Google Analytics, so it’s even more useful when it integrates with another product we use. Buffer’s Business analytics now offer integration with Google Analytics, letting you set your own UTM tracking parameters for buffered posts. This will make it so much easier to track and report on your specific marketing campaigns, or those of your clients.</div>
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<img alt="" class="alignnone" height="495" src="http://blog.bufferapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Screen-Shot-2014-01-08-at-10.09.18-AM.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="764" /></div>
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3. Adding a large number of social accounts</h2>
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With Buffer’s Business accounts, you can now add even more social media profiles. Currently the product supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and App.net. With LinkedIn groups and Facebook and Google+ Pages, there are so many places to keep up with your brand’s social media presence that the extra account options will certainly come in handy.</div>
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<img alt="" class="alignnone" height="269" src="http://bufferblog.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/composer.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="600" /></div>
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4. Options for more team members</h2>
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You can also add up to 25 team members to manage your social media profiles now. If you’re managing an agency or a marketing team, this will be really useful for spreading the workload.</div>
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<img alt="business" class="alignnone" src="http://blog.bufferapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/business.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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5. Brand new analytics: tracking of clicks, retweets and more</h2>
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The new, improved analytics of Buffer is one of the parts I’m most excited about. The team has pushed for more flexibility and reliability in reporting, and it shows. They’ve added graphs so you can visualize your stats and you can choose different elements to compare, like posts per day and clicks or retweets.</div>
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6. See how fast your fans and followers are growing</h2>
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One thing that I’ve always used other tools for is visualizing my follower growth. Now, I don’t have to. Buffer’s Business analytics include the option to see a graph of your follower growth compared with your account’s activity and engagement.</div>
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<img alt="Screen Shot 2014-01-08 at 10.44.22 AM" class="alignnone" src="http://blog.bufferapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Screen-Shot-2014-01-08-at-10.44.22-AM.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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7. Custom date ranges for analytics</h2>
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Unlike previous version of Buffer, where you had to scroll through your updates chronologically, you can now choose a custom date range to view your analytics plotted on a graph. There are some built-in date ranges as well, just to make things easy. But if 7 days, 30 days or 90 days don’t suit you, you can choose to view 6 months or a year’s worth of stats, or even choose specific dates based on your marketing campaigns.</div>
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<img alt="date range" class="alignnone" src="http://blog.bufferapp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/date-range1.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: auto; max-width: 100%;" /></div>
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8. Reorder your analytics</h2>
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One thing I’ve been wanting to do for a long time is understand the trends in which of my posts get more clicks and which get more engagement. In the new Buffer analytics grid, this is easy to do by clicking on a heading to reorder the stats.</div>
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9. Export your data</h2>
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Lastly, I’m really excited that I can export my analytics now. This means I’m not tied-in to Buffer and I can use my own analysis or just save the stats to come back to later. I can also send them as a report to other people in my team or to clients.</div>
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My wishlist for Buffer</h2>
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The Buffer team have done a great job with Buffer for Business, and I’m excited to see where it goes in the future. There’s always room for improvement, of course, so here are a few things on my wishlist for the team at Buffer:</div>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: square;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Continued improvement for analytics: </span>The current improvements are great, but I think this is an important area for Buffer to focus on. I’d love to see even more options to control how the data is presented and to really drill down into useful insights about my social media marketing.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: square;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Grouping of accounts based: </span>When you’re using Buffer to manage social media for multiple clients, it can get quite unwieldy with a lot of social media profiles in your account. A way to group these profiles by client would make it much more manageable.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style-type: square;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">support for Facebook groups and tagging (and Pinterest!): </span>I’m keen to see more social networks added to Buffer like Instagram and Pinterest, but first I’d like to see better support for Facebook. Being able to post to specific groups and tag other Facebook users will make Buffer a much better marketing tool.</li>
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If you’re looking to make a few changes in 2014 to your Social Media marketing and getting it up to date, I think <a href="http://bufferapp.com/business" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff403a; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;" target="_blank">the new Buffer product</a> might be worth taking a look.</div>
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Of course, I’d love your take on the pros and cons here. Have you tried it out before? If so, what’s your thinking? Hit me in the comments below.</div>
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Mili Poncehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10946153311679415691noreply@blogger.com0