Social Startup: Percolate

“What should I say?” It’s the question and number one challenge brands ask themselves every day, according to Noah Brier, co-founder of Percolate, a social SaaS startup dedicated to answering that call. “Percolate is interested in helping brands create content at social scale,” Brier explained.

Percolate started in 2011, a few years after Brier met his co-founder James Gross at likemind event, what The New York Times called “a monthly kaffeeklatsch for creative professionals” (and something Brier co-founded as well). Brier was at The Barbarian Group and Gross was at Federated Media, and both realized that there was a need not being met: helping brands figure out what to do with all of the fans and followers they were collecting.

Brier knew that the potential was there, but first helping brands move away from “the blank boxes” of Facebook and Twitter needed to happen. “People are looking for the silver bullet ad unit, and we’ve got it already: it’s a Tweet, a Facebook post, a photo,” said Brier. The challenge as he sees it, then, is to simply and repeatedly create shareable content for those ad units. “Brands’ problem is not that they’re rich with content. The challenge they have is how to create enough every day to continue to be relevant.”

Which is why Percolate is designed for their main users: community managers. CMs can quickly and efficiently create content using their system in preformatted blocks designed for the standard social networks. Users get content briefs to suggest future content based on what they’ve already created through Percolate, making discovery that much easier.

Brier feels strongly about making CMs lives’ better, and says he wants to serve them as much as CMOs. “One of the things that need to change is that community managers need to get more of a seat at the table than they have right now. They’re frequently at the end of the cycle, but they’re asked to oversee the most strategic brand assets they have. They need to have a bigger role, not just posting content.”

To that end, Percolate has hosted a monthly event called Speakeasy for CMs to get together, socialize, hear speakers, and more. For now they only happen in New York, but they have plans to take a road show soon.

Ultimately, Brier believes that “Great social content lives at the intersection of brand voice and cultural relevance. That’s always been true but what’s changed is that cultural relevance happens so much faster now. As a brand your challenge is to make that connection in real time. We’re trying to build tools to surface that relevance and make it easy to create the content.”

Percolate most recently raised a $9M Series A in November of 2012, led by GGV, First Round Capital and Lerer Ventures. Their current customers include Fortune 500 companies such as GE, Xerox, and American Express.

ThingLink's Interactive Images Come to Facebook

Marketers just got a powerful new way to reach fans on Facebook: interactive images powered by ThingLink.

The popular interactive-image platform officially hit Facebook on Tuesday morning. That means posts there now let fans interact with content embedded "inside" an image — other photos, video or text blocks, for example — without leaving Facebook Timeline.

ThingLink allows users — ranging from big national brands to someone like you or I — to enhance images with links to other selected pieces of content. When you hover over a main image, icons pop up to indicate the presence of additional content. Then, with a click, users can open YouTube videos, audio clips, other websites and virtually anything else that would previously have had to be linked to elsewhere. Check out this Facebook post from Doctors Without Borders for a hands-on example.

In theory, the entire package offers a great opportunity for brands, which aim to get as much information as possible in front of fans, but often have very little time to make an impression.

ThingLink isn't the first interactive-image service to hit Facebook — Stipple did so in January — but its presence does point to a growing trend. Interactive images essentially give brands (or anyone else) a standalone communication platform within the larger Facebook platform.

Back in November, ThingLink made its debut on Twitter. Since then, the platform's reps say brands have "commonly seen" more than five times as much engagement on Twitter posts using ThingLink images. So if the results are any indication, it's set to become a useful tool on Facebook now, as well.

Do interactive images such as ThingLink's have a future online? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Homepage image via iStockphoto, enjoynz

What Should Your Business Be Pinning On Pinterest?

Pinterest, the social pinboard site, has grown astronomically in the last two years, hitting 48.7 million users in February. Like Twitter and Facebook, the two powerhouses in social media, businesses have realised that Pinterest has great potential as a marketing and networking platform. The powers that be at Pinterest have also realised the potential of their site, creating business pages and releasing in-depth analytic tools for companies to measure the impact and success of their pins.

One of the best things about Pinterest is that users can pick and choose what sort of content they see by following pinboards rather than pinners. You need to make sure that your business’ pins are interesting and, just as importantly, that your pinboards are well named, well maintained and relevant to your business.

1. The Basics

Even before you start looking for images, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. Firstly, the names of your pinboards are extremely important. To differentiate your pinboards from the crowd, use original names. There are so many boards entitled ‘For The Home’, which is one of the default names on Pinterest. Make sure that your titles contain industry keywords, of course, so that they can be found by relevant searches, but be creative with the rest of your title. Be concise as well: convey as much about the pins on each pinboard as you can with only a few words.
When you start searching for and uploading images, make sure that they are of a good quality and that they are suitable for Pinterest. Pinterest images can only be 554 pixels wide, so panorama-like images are not particularly suitable. The best images are long and thin, requiring the user to scroll down to see their entirety. If a whole image gets cut to fit in the usual Pinterest column view, make sure that enough is on show to persuade users to click and enlarge it. My final piece of advice in this section is that you should make sure that the file name of your image reflects the subject shown.

2. Stay Relevant

Ensuring that the majority of your pins are relevant to your industry is of vital importance. There is no point in creating boards that have nothing to do with the products or services you offer because, even if they become very popular, you will be promoting completely the wrong image for your company. If you are new to pinterest, why don’t you search for industry keywords to get some inspiration. Have a look at your competitors and compatriots boards, see what they pin. If you already have some boards set up, you could repin images you come across while searching.

Don’t get too caught up in looking for inspiration, however. There are an awful lot of pins on Pinterest and an awful lot of pinboards as well, so it is of vital importance that you identify your company’s niche: what makes you different to all your competitors and how you can illustrate this niche in your pins. It could be your commitment to staying green, or the family atmosphere you have within the business. Once you’ve worked out what makes you stand out, try to work this into your pinning strategy. Finding something that differentiates you from the millions of other pinners on the site will help you stand out from the crowd.

Separate your ideas into categories which will later become pinboards. If you sell tangible objects, you could just have a pinboard entitled “Our Products”, containing photographs of each product you sell. This, however, is a bit boring, especially if your products aren’t very photogenic. Try to be creative in the way you display your products. Many home retailers, for example, create virtual show homes containing their products arranged in an aesthetically pleasing fashion. If you sell products that aren’t photogenic, why not show them in action. If you own a B2B company selling industrial printers, for instance, create pinboards of images showing what your printers can print.

If you are particularly proud of your advertising, show it off. Create a pinboard showing all the advertising banners and copy that you have displayed. You could even create image-focused advertising campaigns specifically for Pinterest. Make sure you don’t go overboard with advertising, however, only pin the best designed adverts that you have created – after all, Pinterest is a social media site first and foremost.

As I said earlier, if your business has a family atmosphere, celebrate it. Post images of your staff members enjoying themselves in the office. You could even post pictures of the office you work in. If you attend any conferences or hold any events, take pictures and create a board. By posting pictures of your employees hard at work, you are humanising your company and making it more approachable. On the SMF Pinterest profile, there is a whole pinboard devoted to the most recent business show we attended. You could also celebrate milestones achieved by your company, such as a move to a new office or a successful business venture.

3. Have Fun

Not all of your pinboards have to be solely about your business, or even your industry. Create some pinboards about the things that interest you and might interest potential customers. Arguably the three biggest categories on Pinterest are Fashion, Food & Drink and Humour. We at SMF have created pinboards which celebrate elements of the industry we work in as well as one of the big categories: ‘Geek Treats’ contains images combining the world of baking which that of geek culture; ‘Web Humour’ contains funny images from around the web, many of which are about the web; on ‘Digital Meets Fashion’, we have pinned some images of cool technology-themed clothing items.

Combining your industry with a sense of fun isn’t difficult, especially when one of the greatest tools in your arsenal is the infographic. Infographics have shot to popularity in the last few years, exploring subjects as diverse as the Syrian crisis and Dr Who villains. Infographics display data and information in a visual, easily-digested, attractive way. Think of what infographics you could create with information relevant to your business.

If your images are fun and interesting, they are more likely to be repinned, hence widening their potential audience and getting your company noticed. Don’t be afraid to repin things on your ‘fun’ boards, however, as the better the pins on the board, the more likely people are to follow it.

4. Group Boards

Creating group boards is a great way of networking and building up a following on Pinterest. To create a group board, all you need to do is invite other pinners when you are given the option. You can also make existing boards into group boards using the same process.

Be discerning with your invitations. Invite clients, affiliates and employees to pin on boards that are relevant to them. Don’t just invite everyone, as not everyone will want to be involved. Likewise, don’t just accept any invitation to a group board, only contribute to those that could benefit you.

Group boards are labelled with a little group emblem – the silhouette of three heads – beside the number of pins they contain. There are numerous benefits to creating group boards: the ‘Follow All’ button on group boards encourages users to follow all the pinners on said board, which could help build your following; the increase in traffic could lead to more repins and hence a wider audience for your pins; inviting certain users to pin on your boards could make them into brand advocates; there will be less work for you as everyone else will be pinning content on your boards.

Of course, don’t forget to moderate and monitor boards that you are involved with, so that you can leave them or delete them if they get off-topic.

5. It’s Not Just About The Images

The writing you surround your images with is just as important as the image itself. You are allowed 500 characters to describe you image which, if anything, is too much. In this description you should put a link to the page where it originated. For example, if you post a picture of one of your products, include a link to a page from which it can be purchased.

Include keywords and hashtags in your description so that your images can be easily found. It is also a good tactic to include relevant hashtags which are popular or trending at the time, as it could get your pin a wider audience. In the case of your pinboards, a well titled pinboard, with an original but relevant name, could get to the top of a search.

The rest of the description needs to be relevant to the image and relatable for the audience. There is no point in writing complex technical descriptions if your target audience won’t understand it. Write something understandable, informative and compelling that potential customers will understand and enjoy.

How do you manage your Pinterest account?     

5 Tactics to Grow Your Email List

Back in January, many email marketers said increasing their lists was their top goal for 2013. Well, spring is here. Is your mailing list growing as fast as your flowers and lawn? If not, it's time to execute a new plan.
Many marketers have email addresses only for 30% or less of their customer and prospect lists. They're tempted to revert to their direct-mail experience and reach for a quick fix like email append ("e-append") and list rental/purchase.

But in today's engagement-based inbox placement world, this "quick fix" approach can give you more headaches than new sales.

If you seek quantity over quality in list growth, you're practically inviting the ISPs either to block your entire opt-in mailing list or route everything to your recipients' bulk folders, where they'll languish in obscurity until the ISPs dump them automatically.

So, what should be in your email list growth plan? Below are five tried-and-true methods to ignite your email list growth, in a safe, permission-based way.

1. Make It Easy to Opt In on Your Website

Your customers and prospects must be able to find your opt-in form easily on your home page. This advice has been around for years, but today's web designers apparently didn't get the memo. They position Facebook and Twitter icons prominently but send you on a search-and-rescue mission to find the opt-in field.

Many websites undersell the email value proposition, using just a link saying "Sign Up for Email" relegated to the homepage footer. Worse, the email opt-in call-to-action isn't even on the page. Make your forms stand out. 

If you want to get more opt-ins, make the email invite more visible. Use a benefit-based call-to-action, and test an offer that you subsequently deliver in your welcome series.

2. Don't Stop at Just One

Add more opt-in forms throughout your site and in various placements: above the fold (the horizontal halfway point on your website, like the fold in a newspaper), below the fold, in the right rail, in left-hand navigation and on a dynamic layer that displays according to visitors' site activity.

Test these locations to see how many more opt-ins you can drive, each one alone and in combination with each other. One opt-in form on a page might drive X, while having two opt-in form placements on a page might drive 1.5X to 2X. 

At the EEC Summit in 2012, Tommy Hilfiger reported that his company drives 2% of all site visitors to opt in by using a dynamic opt-in layer served to new site visitors on site entry.

3. Collect Emails at Your Stores

Ask your customers to opt in for email at your checkout counter or when requesting an email receipt. However, be sure you are collecting high-quality names. 

You'll have to develop a request procedure that helps you overcome two big pitfalls of point-of-sale requests: phony addresses, either provided by reluctant customers who can't say no to the request or keyed in by sales associates who have to meet email quotas. 

Mistakes, which happen when sales people misspell a written address, misunderstand a customer's spoken address or omit a crucial detail like the "@" symbol. 

Here are a few suggestions for collecting more and better addresses:

• Let customers type in their email addresses on a POS touchpad or credit card terminal. 
• Give them an offer or benefit for signing up in-store. 
• Explain what they'll be receiving. 
• Get explicit permission before adding the address.

 

4. Make It Mobile

Consumer adoption of mobile sites and apps makes mobile another important collection point for opt-in for both email and SMS text. The best mobile site home pages have two opt-in forms: one for email, one for SMS. Remember the constraints that mobile puts on viewing and data input. 

Don't ask users to fill out lots of form fields. Keep the form short and simple. You can collect more information later in your welcome series using progressive profiling.

5. Remember Your Social Networks

Give your Facebook followers a simple opt-in form page. Call out the benefits and differences between your social experience and your email communications.

Consider using social login, also known as social sign-in. This uses existing login information from social networks such as Facebook or Twitter to sign in to a website without having to create a separate login account specifically for your website. 

You can also use this process to allow your site registrants to quickly and easily sign up to receive your marketing emails.

Twitter Set to Launch Trending #Music Site

Twitter appears poised to launch a new music app this weekend! The web page was spotted at music.twitter.com featuring the #music hashtag and a sign-in button, suggesting the new service is getting ready to launch. Discovered by The Verge, the sign-in button leads to an authorization request for an app called "Trending Music Web." Also Stephen Phillips, founder of We Are Hunted, the music service recently acquired by Twitter, has been seen tweeting songs via this new music application. The tweets links to embedded audio from SoundCloud and Rdio, so it would be safe to say these companies will be part of the Twitter Music experience.

Test#NowPlaying @whoisgambles - Safe Side ♪ soundcloud.com/whoisgambles/g… — Stephen Phillips (@huntedguy) February 2, 2013

these guys have got it together #NowPlaying @atlasgenius - Trojans ♪ rdio.com/artist/Atlas_G… — Stephen Phillips (@huntedguy) April 10, 2013

This is an interesting new offering from Twitter which has yet to officially go live as the current sign-in isn't functional yet. The service is expected to launch some this weekend though, which would coincide with the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in California which started on Friday. As such, the timing of this new music app launch couldn't be any better, as they're likely hoping to piggyback on the extra music hype this weekend given the enormous concert taking place.

 So what do you think? Could this new way to embed music within tweets signal a potential block on YouTube videos coming, by removing their Twitter Card support, in an effort to steer people to use this instead?

How Social Media Can Benefit Your Business

Social sites are the online places where users connect with each other via communities and participate in discussions through various media. These sites initiates a sense of community in its every user. There is a rise in popularity of social media sites as people now want to be heard and connect with more and more around the world. As most of the traffic online is present on such sites so there is need to change your business strategies to attract potential customers. Always think a better way to market your brand.

Social media marketing can be helpful for any type of business. It is not that it only benefits large scale business but it is equally useful for small scale and medium scale business. It should be followed correctly to build relationships with your old customers and to attract new ones. You can also build relationships with other companies through networking.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing:

• You can interact directly with your customers using sites such as Facebook.
• Launch new products and generate awareness about products and services.
• Gather reviews and feedback of users about your product or service using Twitter and YouTube.
• Customers get an instant update on their favorite brand.

A business always flourish if it keeps track of its users review and feedback, there is no other better platform than social media for this purpose. You can participate in various social media sites. Use blogs to publish latest news, current events and other resources that are worth to publish. Use forums to resolve any query related to your product or service. It is also a good way to promote your brand by using signatures and profile links. You should hire a professional marketing expert for creation and promotion of your page on these sites. Sometimes overdoing this task can also result in negative marketing and will create a bad image of your brand so be careful.

Earlier very few people were aware about social marketing but it has gain popularity in a very short time and it is here to stay. Facebook is the leading social networking tool now. Internet experts have predicted major developments in coming time. Since mobile platform is already in the way so all eyes are on mobile phones. With advancement in technologies, there is need to change marketing strategies of your business. You can't ignore social media and its benefits in your business. You are here to attract millions of potential customers and network inexpensively.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7586185

How To Use Twitter Lists To Help Your Business

With Twitter lists, you can categorise other Twitter users into groups based on what they have in common, or in any way you want. All the tweets from users on a list will appear in a single column on the list page, making them easier to track. Your business can use lists to keep track of customers, connections and even competitors.

Creating a list is easy, just click on “Lists” in the “Me” tab on Twitter and select “Create list”. You must choose a name and write a description for your list, then decide whether you want the list to be private or public – accessible to just you or accessible to everyone. You can add other users to your list (as long as they have not blocked you) at any time from their profile page. You cannot add yourself to a list.

A well-managed Twitter list can be a powerful tool for any business. Here are a few tips on how to get the best out of Twitter lists:

1. Naming a list

List names cannot begin with a number and they cannot exceed 25 characters in length. 25 characters is plenty. Make sure the names you give your lists are concise and accurate. If you want to create a list of companies which distribute products to your business, call it “Distributors”, for example.

Lists with accurate names are more likely to appear in the right searches. Good lists can help raise your profile on Twitter, as people will become aware of your business after following your list. Renaming a list will drop all its followers, so make sure that when you create a list you give it the right name.


2. Managing your lists

You can create up to 20 lists, each of which can contain up to 500 Twitter handles. Manage your Twitter lists well so that you don’t end up needing 21 Twitter lists, otherwise you will have to delete one. If your Twitter list is public, deleting it will annoy other Twitter users who have followed it.

Categorize the people you already follow into lists. If you have a large number of clients, put their Twitter handles into a list so that you can follow their conversations. Do the same with your business contacts and suppliers.

3. Track your customers

Use lists to track your customers and monitor their conversations. You don’t need to follow someone to add them to a list, so if you don’t want to follow everyone who follows you but you still want to know what they are talking about, add them to a list.

Add people who tweet about your company or the products you sell to a list. By creating lists of potential customers you can discover what they want from your company. By monitoring these lists of potential customers you won’t miss an opportunity to engage with them.

4. Monitor your competitors

One of the best things about lists is that you can monitor people without having to follow them. Create a list that includes your competitors and other businesses that work within your field. You can use lists to track what your competitors are up to without them knowing, which could provide you with inspiration and ideas on how to use Twitter to promote your own business.

5. Research and connect

Search for other users’ lists that are relevant to your field. You may find great new Twitter contacts on a list created by another Twitter user with the same interests as you. Adding a user to a public list is a compliment, so don’t be afraid to add those people whose opinions you respect to lists. If anyone adds you to a list have a look at the other people in the list, it may provide you with some great new contacts.

How do you use Twitter lists to promote your business?        

Social Media: How To Get Your Fans And Followers To Love You

To summarise, sharing information, content and images which your fans might be interested in reading, sharing and commenting on, is the appropriate strategy instead of writing about what you think they should know.

So you regularly post inspiring quotes, adorable kitten photos and amusing memes, but your response rate is still very low and you feel that you are tweeting just for the sake of it. You may feel like you are up against a wall! What do you post or tweet to make you stand out in all the social media clatter?

I will give you three very simple ideas that will change your situation radically.

Display your individuality

Post images of your clients, your office, your colleagues and even your waiting room, after all, Facebook is more about faces! You can look for young successful people in your company and write briefly about them and what they have done that is interesting and motivating. Instead of senior management personnel, pick your subjects out of the younger group. Highlight the things that these people have done to make them unique. It would be a good idea to use eloquent captions with the photographs. Of course, you must remember to respect the privacy and confidentiality of each individual.

Creating small videos

If you have an iPad or iPhone, download the video app Vine for Twitter. You can look for ideas on how organisations use Vine, such as making 6 second stories about the typical day of the life of a customer. Look around at your company's clients. Is there someone among them who could be the subject of an inspirational story? You can provide a simple example of how one inspirational person can have a very strong impact on the world. @DibetesUK uses Vine to express their gratitude individually to their donors. You can sync Vine with other social media sites to share your clips very quickly and conveniently.

Focus on what the fans want to know

Instead of thinking about what you want to tell your Twitter fans and Facebook friends, stay focused on what they are interested in. An example of this is the Beverly Farmers Market, which functions only in spring, and organizes a brief enclosed market early in the winters, and shares information about other farmer markets. Their fans love it. This strategy provides an excellent example of a company that provides information about what its fans are interested in, instead of focusing singularly on their own organization and its activities. If you provide information about some other entity, tag the pages that you use as references and connect to these sites.

Twitter Relaunches Twitter For Business, Offers Companies Tips For Success

What can your business do in just 140 characters? Twitter wants to help you find out.

Twitter relaunched Twitter for Business Monday, an online resource for businesses to learn the best practices in incorporating Twitter into their marketing efforts. Online lessons include everything from mastering the basics and building your community to how to use Twitter Ads self-service functionality.

The site also includes some examples from people businesses such as Porsche and Hubspot who are already using Twitter as a way to connect with customers.

While much of the content is similar to what Twitter previously made available for businesses, that content is now organized in such a way that it’s easy for Twitter beginners as well as experts to get what they need from the site.

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