10 Things Your Business Could Be Doing Wrong On Social Media

Here are ten ways to get social media wrong:

1) Lack of Strategy

A recent report conducted on a diverse mix of British businesses revealed that over two thirds implement social media into their organisations, but alarmingly one third still don’t have a plan in place. Social media will not be automatically integrated with your company’s overall marketing campaign. To avoid wasting valuable time and energy you need to set your objectives, know your target audience and how to reach them, as well as how to measure the success of a social media campaign.

2) Great expectations

 

Do not expect immediate results and a flood of cash just because you ‘do social media’. This process requires consistency and hard work. Even better stop treating social media as a process but rather start seeing it as an organism. If you set realistic goals which are aligned to your business strategy you can keep it alive and see it growing.

3) This is not our priority

 

This is usually a mix of ignorance and arrogance. It is surprising how many business owners misinterpret social media as distractions, silly networks and apps that only teenagers use. It is all just a passing fad right? This was the main argument presented by business owners at the dawn of the World Wide Web as well.

4) Anyone can do it

 

You wouldn’t hand the keys of your car to someone not ready to drive. Then why hand the keys of your company’s marketing success to someone who doesn’t know what to do with them? There are thousands of cases of companies’ posts and tweets gone wrong, all courtesy of staff members who simply didn't know what they were doing. Always ensure that your authorized social media users are properly trained. Perhaps it is safer to start from the “alphabet” of social media as well; Hashtags, @ replies, tagging etc. are not necessarily easy or intuitive.

5) Social media is our broadcasting tool

 

Yes it is. But it is also a conversation starter. Every social network has an element of feedback and dialogue built into it; this why it is called social at the first place. Do not tire your audience by constantly beaming out messages, instead, focus on interaction.

6) I will post something in a couple of weeks

 

Companies often get all amped up about their shiny new Facebook page, but then a couple of weeks later have already forgotten to update it. If you don’t want your social media pages to turn into Post Ghostdowns better come up with a content strategy.  Embrace social media as part of your business and set aside 10-20 minutes every day to work on it. It is a worth-while investment and the only way to create the desired engagement.

7) I will get back to you. One day.

The purpose of social media is to communicate in real time. However, on a report conducted by the Social media marketing and measurement firm Socialbakers, it was found that brands are ignoring 70% of fan comments. When they do respond it typically takes them a full 24 hours on average… Not ideal.

8) Oops I said it again

 

“It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute” Will Rogers would say.  Or just an embarrassing tweet, we would add. There is a vast range of examples here but some are more memorable than others. For instance, Gap seemed to encourage those impacted by the Hurricane Sandy last year to do some online shopping. It was not the brightest idea nevertheless the company took down the tweet and offered a semi-apology.

9) Sorry for being boring

 

Corporations who have no voice, do their best to be politically correct and don’t have a story to say areboring. Don’t be afraid to have some fun and put behind the wheel employees with strong people skills.

10) This is professional. Strictly professional.

 

Somehow when corporations enter the digital space, forget that behind every little avatar is a real person who deserves to be acknowledged. We’ve created this digital divide and fail to connect in a meaningful way. Treat people the way you would treat them in real life. Be human. Make friends. But remember; everything you say, no matter how casually you say it, becomes part of your image and your brand.

How to Avoid Spreading Your Social Media Crisis Messages Too Thin

One of the biggest communications mistakes a business can make is to take on too much when it comes to social media. Every time a new channel pops up, they jump in before any kind of content strategy is done, or without thought to how much time, personnel, and resources might be needed. Is it any wonder that many company social media channels wither and die? Jay Baer calls this trend rampant social participation proliferation, a term he got from Jeremiah Owyang. Unplanned social media growth is a threat to effective engagement, and if applied to crisis communications, can do more harm than good.

In a crisis, dissemination of information is a high priority. The need for real-time interaction and accurate information gathering puts an added burden on an already-stressed communications team. Plastering your messages hastily over every popular social media channel is a mistake. Where social media strategy is vital in business, it is more important in crisis. Here are some principles to follow that will help you figure out how to plan for crisis communications using social media.

1. Stay within your established platforms. This is the most important guiding principle to remember. For instance, if you have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a YouTube channel, and an Instagram account, stick to those channels when planning any kind of crisis responses. This is where your fans are and this is where your detractors will want to voice their opinions.

There are several reasons for doing this but the most obvious is that a crisis is not the time to build an audience or plan strategy for a new channel. Objectives are different in a crisis than in everyday social media. Your goals should be two-fold: reach the widest audience and enlist advocates who will help you spread the message. Second, every channel you post on, you have to monitor. Think of your resources, personnel, and time.  Third, you don’t have to answer every negative post that pops up on every channel. You’ll be playing whack-a-mole. Stick to the channels where you have established a fan base, and enlist your advocates to help you amplify your message. Use scheduling and amplification tools, but don’t try to build a presence on a new channel during a crisis.   

2. Stay within your primary broadcast or customer service channels. Even if you love Vine, it isn’t an effective crisis communications channel. Neither is Pinterest or Foursquare. Primary broadcast channels are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, blogs, podcasts, message boards, text alert systems, and customer care channels. I can guarantee you will have your hands full trying to respond to your fan base on your regular broadcast channels. Don’t waste time trying to get your message out to every nook and cranny on the internet. Also, don’t forget your allies in traditional media.

Prioritize your messages and prioritize your channels. Concentrate on channels where messages will be amplified for maximum reach and media coverage. Be strategic to gain reach, don’t try and create it by adding superfluous social media posts.

3. Spend priority time monitoring instead of multiplying your message channels. Set up a series of Google Alerts or use a monitoring app such as Mention, Radian 6, Meltwater Buzz, Hootsuite or others to catch the mentions of your brand or keywords on the internet. Again, time pressure in a crisis is ever present. Your ability to set up an editorial strategy that includes posting to social media, traditional press releases, answering media requests, and digital monitoring is going to be hampered by time pressure in a crisis. Take a realistic approach considering your resources and present fan base.

4. At the first sign of crisis, call a reputable crisis management firm in your sector. Today, many agencies that advertise social media crisis expertise are social media people with no communications or public relations background.  Knowledge of social media is no good in a crisis unless it is informed by an understanding of effective media relations. Check backgrounds, bios,  and client recommendations to make sure the agency has experience handling real-time crises.  

Most professionals I know will give you a free consultation up front, and even if you don’t hire them, they can give you a realistic idea of what you’re up against and what it’s going to take to mitigate the event. It’s the most important call you’ll make. 

LinkedIn Launches Sponsored Updates

In a move to monetize its service, LinkedIn has launched sponsored updates, which are, essentially, the site’s version of a Facebook promoted post. Like promoted posts, LinkedIn company page administrators can pay to have their sponsored updates appear on the homepage feeds of relevant users who do not follow their company already.

Sponsored Updates can appear on desktop, smartphone and tablet devices. They are clearly marked ‘Sponsored’ at the top, the main content is as it would be on a normal post and the normal calls to action – Like, Comment and Share – are joined by a ‘Follow’ button, enabling users to follow the company which posted the content.

David Hahn, Vice President of LinkedIn’s Product Management, announced the new feature in a blog post yesterday, also taking the opportunity to reveal some impressive LinkedIn membership statistics: the social media site for professionals now has over 225 million members, 3 million company pages and 300 notable figures contributing to the Influencer programme.

Hahn believes that the 1.5 publishers whose content is featured on the site will greatly benefit from the new feature, as will the members who post it. Members can target professionals based on the information they have on their profiles, promoting sponsored updates in 20 different languages across the 200 countries where LinkedIn is active.

Marketers are increasingly leveraging content to inform, educate, and inspire their current and prospective customers. But the high quality content they’ve produced – slideshows, articles, videos, and whitepapers – does not always achieve enough reach and engagement on their own channels. With Sponsored Updates, marketers will be able to distribute this content directly to relevant professionals in a place their customers and prospects are already consuming professionally relevant content. Marketers can target Sponsored Updates to any segment of our premium audience based on professional profile data. 

Users can choose to pay by click or by impression, and then they can monitor their sponsored updates using LinkedIn’s analytics software. In the announcement post, Hahn gives a few examples of companies which have successfully used sponsored updates already: Telstra managed to increase the rate at which they gained new followers by 12%, while HubSpot generated “400% more leads coming from their target audience compared to other paid channels”.

The sponsored updates feature is currently only available to customers with an account representative, but it will become available to all companies in the next month.

What do you think of LinkedIn sponsored updates?

Google Powers Up The +1

Google has increased the significance of the ‘+1’ button on Google+, changing its function so that more +1’d posts feature in the Google+ stream.

Before, a +1 would only inform the content’s publisher which users appreciated what they had posted, consequentially appearing in these users’ streams. If a user wanted to draw a friend’s attention to a particular post, they had to share it with them.

Users were only notified about a friend’s +1 via an ‘activity update’, which would provide them with the most basic details of a post. Now, if a user +1s a post, it might appear in the Google+ streams of other users in their circles.

The changes to the +1 make it even more similar to the Facebook ‘Like’, a tool which can help posts get ranked in the news feeds of a user’s friends. however, Google has not released information concerning how a +1, or a share for that matter, will affect a posts chance of appearing in a friend’s stream. In the announcement post, Google’s Shimrit Ben-Yair says that Google+ will “occasionally highlight posts that were +1'd by people in [a user’s] circles”, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is very vague, giving no indication which +1’d posts will be highlighted and why. In fact, the wording almost suggests that the process will be entirely random.

I’m not suggesting that Google be completely transparent about their post ranking software (that would be ridiculous), or even that they release an EdgeRank-like algorithm onto the web, but it would be useful to know how much both +1s and shares are taken into account, and if they are taken into account together. For example, will a friend’s article shared publicly have more significance than an article they have +1’d, or vice versa? The only way to find out, I suppose, is to experiment.

Despite Google’s secretiveness, the new and improved +1 button will undoubtedly help users get their articles and posts more views on Google+. The more streams a post appears in, the more likely it is to be seen and clicked on, gaining the user who posted it a wider audience.

Users can still control who sees the posts they +1 by changing their account settings, but if they decide not to, only their friends who have permission to see their +1’d posts will see them, just in a new place. Users can also filter the +1’d posts they see in their stream, so if a friend or a circle are a bit scattergun with their +1s they can alter their settings so any content said friends do +1 doesn’t appear in their stream – learn more about how to do this here.

What do you think of the new +1 button?  

LinkedIn Adds Two New Features To Notifications Sidebar

Professional social network LinkedIn has added two new features to the info bar on the right-hand side of the homepage: “Who’s Viewed Your Updates” and “You Recently Visited”. According to the announcement post on LinkedIn’s blog, the features “are intended to provide you with more personalized insights on your activities and engagement across LinkedIn.”

“Who’s Viewed Your Updates” shows users all the content they have posted in the last 14 days and who has seen it, as well as the engagement this content has received. LinkedIn also separates the engagement statistics into interactions by 1st degree connections, interactions by 2nd degree connections and interactions by 3rd degree connections, so users can see just how far their posts have permeated their network. According to LinkedIn, “Who’s Viewed Your Updates” will help users improve their actions on the site:

Now you have real-time feedback on how the content you read and share resonates within your network, giving you more opportunities to build your professional brand and make connections with new professionals that share common interests.

The other new feature, “You Recently Visited”, helps users to find old searches they have done, group discussions they’ve been involved in and profiles they have looked at by displaying them in the sidebar.


Both features will help users research and monitor not only their own action on the site, but also the actions of their connections, opening up the possibility of further interaction and engagement, and keeping users on the site for longer periods of time. Notice that users are encouraged to “Share something new” in the “Who’s viewed your updates” section: a clear indication that LinkedIn wants its users to be more active.

These two new features will roll out to all users soon.

What do you think of LinkedIn’s new features?    

Twitter Introduces Two-Step Authentication

Twitter has finally introduced two-factor authentication to more securely protect accounts, the company announced Wednesday.

The move comes after a number of hacks of high-profile Twitter accounts, including The Onion, the Associated Press and E! Online.

Jim O'Leary from Twitter's product security team announced the new feature via a blog post, saying it is in response to accounts "occasionally" being compromised by phishing schemes or password breaches on other sites.

The move will likely be of most interest to major brands with a presence on the site as a part of an effort to ward of hackers. By implementing the feature, it will make it more difficult to gain control of an account.
Twitter is calling the new feature "login verification." It works similarly to other two-factor authentication systems, especially Google's feature: After the account holder logs into an account, Twitter will send a special code to the user via SMS text message that the person must enter to gain access to the account.
The second step is required every time the user logs out and logs back in, a Twitter spokesperson told Mashable.

Users can enable login verification via their Twitter settings page. You'll need both a confirmed email address and a verified phone number on your account to use the feature, and the system will send a test message to finish the activation.

Importantly, apps that you've linked to Twitter will continue to work "without disruption," O'Leary wrote. For apps other than a browser that require you to log into Twitter, you'll need a one-time password, available on Twitter's application page (this is also similar to how Google two-factor authentication works).
Twitter built login verification out of its Twitter for SMS feature, which was actually what the service was initially based on when it debuted in 2006. O'Leary says the work the company put into login verification will enable more security enhancements in the future.

Calls for Twitter to introduce some kind of two-step verification service grew louder after account hacks became a frequent occurrence. Besides the companies mentioned earlier, the BBC, the Financial Times, Burger King and Donald Trump have all experienced Twitter hacks in recent months.

Mashable editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff wrote in April that the time had come for the feature to arrive on the service, and he recommended Twitter make it a requirement for verified accounts.

What's your take on Twitter's two-step verification? Will you use it? Let us know in the comments.

Twitter Acquires Data Analysis Startup Lucky Sort

Twitter has acquired Lucky Sort, a startup that specializes in data visualization, the two companies announced Monday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Lucky Sort was founded two years ago and launched its first product called TopicWatch last February. TopicWatch let users analyze real-time trends on social media (including Twitter) as well as from other news sources. As part of the acquisition, Lucky Sort will shut down its services in the coming months.

"Our goal was to make huge document sets easier to analyze, summarize and visualize by building elegant and user friendly tools for text analysis," Noah Pepper, CEO of Lucky Sort, wrote in a blog post. Today I’m very excited to announce that our journey has entered a new phase: Lucky Sort has been acquired by Twitter!" Twitter confirmed the acquisition in a tweet.

The startup will move to San Francisco where it will join Twitter's revenue engineering department.
Twitter has acquired multiple startups in the data space in recent months, including the scalable computing company Ubalo and the social TV analytics company Bluefin Labs.

Mashable composite. Images via Twitter, Lucky Sort

What To Expect From Facebook Video Ads

Facebook is set to release video advertising into the news feed this July, says The Financial Times in a recent article detailing the expected financial benefits the service will have for the social media giants.

The new video adverts will autoplay in a user’s news feed without sound, giving the user the option to restart the video with sound. The ads can run for a maximum of 15 seconds but, to increase brand exposure, Facebook will ensure that users see advertising from only one brand on any given day. Naturally, there are concerns that the ads may be too disruptive, leading to decreased user activity on Facebook.

To test its effect on active user figures the service will first go through an extensive testing phase, with Facebook’s key advertisers – American Express, Coca Cola, Ford, Nestlé and Unilever to name a few – taking part in the trials period. There is no indication as to whether or not certain ads will be targeted at specific users, but this could be down to the small number of brands involved in the testing phase. If the trials prove successful and more brands are persuaded to use the service, there may be more opportunity for targeting.

To persuade more brands to use the feature, Facebook are charging them slightly less than the amount they would pay for TV advertising. Facebook video ads will reportedly cost somewhere in the “low $20s” per thousand video views, even when audio has not been activated.

Facebook, Yahoo and AOL have all been pitching their advertising services to agencies in the past month in order to get a slice of the $64.5 billion US TV ads market. As a result, eMarketer expects revenue from digital video ads to increase by 41.4% between 2012 and 2013, reaching $4.1 billion – which is still only a small percentage of the TV ads market overall.

Facebook video ads are expected to raise around $1.5 million a day for Facebook, but this could increase to $4m a day by the end of the year according to Morgan Stanley analyst Scott Devitt.

Do you think Facebook video ads will be a success? Or will they prove to be too disruptive?       

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.

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?     

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?        

Personal Branding Using Social Media

If you have ever bought anything online, do you remember making a little research online using a few Google searches and going through reviews just to make sure you are buying the right thing?

Before the advent of online media, we always checked with a few people we thought knowledgeable before making a buying decision or any important decision for that matter.

Today, whether you are going for a job interview, or looking to make a business deal - either you are making Google search to find more or your prospective employer/partner is doing the same activity on you.
The point is, your reputation today, is more important than ever before. Your reputation reaches your destination before you do and that is why your Personal Branding is so important today.

What Is Personal Branding?
Personal Branding is the way you market yourself. It is something related to your reputation. It refers to the way your peers see you. A few questions given below can make will clear the clouds of your doubt about personal branding in your case.

1) What ideas pops in others mind after hearing your name?
2) What do you represent?
3) Are you expert in what you do?
4) Are you trustworthy?
5) [and the most important] What do you stand for?

Gone are the days when Branding was confined to celebrities. Everybody has a brand value and social media makes it so important for you to build your brand reputation so you can have your value in the marketplace.

How To Do Your Personal Branding?
Companies spend a lot of money and their effort to build a brand value for themselves online. Entrepreneurs therefore, must focus on benefiting from this trend and build their own brand identity and leverage social media to influence the market.

Among many ways, let's keep this discussion to the social media tools and technologies and how you can use them the right way for your Personal Branding.

Here are some basic steps to start to establish your brand value online using the social media channels:

1) Create your Facebook profile: According to a report, the Facebook's population is as big as whole world's was in 1804. So it is one of the powerful ways to create your online presence.
Set up your Facebook profile if you don't own one. Remember that whatever you say or do online becomes a public record of your personal brand.Keep a hawk eye on what you post/update/like.

2) Set up your Google+ profile: Till date, Google holds the number one position as search engine. So don't underestimate the ability of Google+ to add a rocket speed to your Brand Value.
If you have a Google account (Gmail account), you are already on Google+. So spend some time to tweak your Google+ profile. When you are logged in your Google account, you can find your Google+ account option as a '+' followed by your name.

3) Set up your Twitter account: Twitter is a micro-blogging service where you can share insights and links on the topics that demonstrate your area of expertise and professional knowledge. Write your Twitter bio describing yourself in 160 or less characters. Follow influential people of your industry. Provide link to your online resume in the website field of your account.

4) Set up your LinkedIn profile: This should be your first stop if you are a student or a professional. It is closest thing to your online resume. You should set up your LinkedIn profile with utmost care. Fill out the profile completely.
Do not skip out any experience or details. The default headline describes your current job title. You can and should change it manually if you are not happy with the look of your profile headline. Your summary should include a brief paragraph summarizing your work experience and your career aspirations.

5) Set up your Blog/Website:This is the most powerful step of all. After your social profiles on all these mainstream social networking sites is in place, it begins to create an image of a genuine person for you. That is a great beginning.

However, there is more to personal branding than having a bunch of social media profiles. Your own website, your own blog starts to make that difference for you.

We all have talents, we all have unique skills and we all have some passions. These are the things that can help you get going with your blogging journey.
If you don't have a website and you want to learn more about it (such as why you need one, how to do it etc.).

My Questions To You
1. Why do you think your Personal Branding is important to you?
2. How have you leveraged Social Media channels to grow your personal brand and your business?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7544435

Twitter Celebrates Its Seventh Birthday

Today Twitter is celebrating its seventh birthday: it is seven years to the day since co-founder Jack Dorsey sent the first ever tweet. Now, Twitter has over 200 million active users sending more then 400 million tweets every day.

To celebrate its birthday, Twitter has created a video highlighting some of the most memorable moments in its lifetime, starting with the first ever tweet sent by @Jack, which read “just setting up my twttr”.

Twitter recounts when the hashtag and retweet functions were introduced to the service in 2007, astronaut Mike Massimino’s first tweet from space, Twitter’s popularity during the World Cup in South Africa and Obama’s “Four more years” tweet after his election victory – the most retweeted message in history.


In the announcement post on the Twitter blog, editorial director Karen Wickre (@kvox) thanks all 200 milllion+ Twitter users, saying that without them, Twitter would never have become what it is today:

As we’ve grown, Twitter has become a true global town square — a public place to hear the latest news, exchange ideas and connect with people all in real time. This is where you come to connect with the world at large. Get on your soapbox to critique elected officials, or go sotto voce to the neighbor next to you. And as in other gathering places, commerce happens too (and jokes and art-making and debating, and — you get the idea).

So, in seven years Twitter has amassed over 500 million registered users, 200 million of whom are active. Its servers handle 400 million tweets and almost 2 billion search queries daily. The microblogging site took in $288.3 million in ad revenue in 2012. So, where will Twitter be in another 7 years?

Where do you think Twitter will be in another 7 years?

3 Ways to Start Using Google+ (Before It's Too Late)

The Kevin Pollak Chat Show is a Charlie Rose style interview with two people in front of a black backdrop.

Each week a mainstream celebrity or influential entertainer shows up to talk with the actor/comedian about their career, life, and experiences.

The show is highly engaging for movie buffs, and shot in beautiful HD and perfect audio. You would never know it's live. Or exclusively the internet.

It’s a great example of the original programming that will hit a wide audience when everyone can watch it directly from their living rooms.

Because in a few years, every television in every household will go directly to a main menu when you turn it on. You'll be able to bypass cable for the first time in history and pull up Netflix, Hulu, or even YouTube.
And the one thing connecting everyone to YouTube -- including you and your customers -- is Google+.

Your New Social Spine

Pinterest is still all the rage.
Mashable pumps out story after story about Vine.
And Google+ is derided as a desert wasteland.
But which is going to have a bigger impact on your bottom line?
Google+ isn't supposed to be Facebook or Twitter. Instead it's a "social spine", a virtual identity, that connects you to everything else online.
Like Gmail, Google Drive, Google Places for your business address, Google Analytics, and more.
And of course, YouTube.

Google's Billion Dollar Gamble

On October 9th 2006, Google acquired the 19 month old YouTube for $1.65 billion.
And people -- mainly journalists and other critics -- were tough on Google, claiming it was a huge sum for the then unproven and unprofitable company.

Well look at them now. The once maligned network is now a huge success.
The price Google paid was a steal for it. Today, YouTube has over 800 million unique users, receives over 4 billion views per day, and is the second largest search engine in the world. They're even adding original programming.

And when internet-enabled TV's become mainstream in every household, it will grow even more. As it grows, so too will Google+.

Because that's how you'll login, keep track of your favorite videos or shows, and then share them with your friends -- on any social platform.

3 Ways to Start Using Google+

Strategy #1: Get Them to Come Back for More
The whole point of social media is to increase engagement with potential, current and past customers.
Which self-proclaimed "gurus" translate into singing Kumbaya around a campfire and talking about loving one another.

But what it really means is better brand recognition, recall, and trust. Which translates into more effective lead nurturing, retention, referrals and repurchases.

So start with your client and customer segments, and break them down into different personas. Now what are their aspirations or goals in life and work? What are the common obstacles each face? And then what are the pain points (or symptoms) of each obstacle?

Maybe that means making more money or cutting expenses. Or perhaps it means less stress and an escape from reality.

Whatever the case... give them compelling reasons to follow, react and engage with your brand by solving these issues for them. And then add some personality to get people to react emotionally.
So use copywriting at the heart of every single update and campaign to increase awareness, interest, and engagement.

Strategy #2: Video, Video, Video
One of Google+'s biggest differentiating factors is the seamless YouTube integration. So capitalize on it!
Do you have a complex product or service? Then use video tutorials to illustrate them the pain in their life, and how your product/service can alleviate it. Teaching works better than selling in social media.
Shoot a 5 minute industry wrap-up with the latest changes and news stories to keep your clients and customers abreast of developments that may affect their business. Show testimonials from happy customers to boost credibility and overcome objections.

Bring a camera or iPad along to company events and record what's going on. This exclusive content can be made only available on Google+, and will give people an "inside look" at how your company thinks, works, and treats one another.

You can even use the Hangout feature to do live interviews or "office hours". And then published it directly to YouTube and Google+.

Strategy #3: The Zero Moment of Truth
Everyone's search results are now personalized based on three factors:

1. Your physical location
2. Your past browsing history
3. And your social media connections

This is already happening. So the concept of SEO keyword rankings will become even more meaningless.
When someone searches for your product or service, the search engine result pages will show a mix of past websites they've been to, recommended results from their social sphere, and a lot of local results.
The key to dominating these search engine results pages is through Google+'s local and Zagat review integration.

Want more local SEO traffic? Then get more reviews and recommendations on your Google+ page.
Because when new prospects want to research their options for your services and products, they're going to start with search.

And Google+ is your best bet to quickly and cheaply get in front of them.

Top 10 Twitter Tips for Boosting Your Small Business

Of the top five social media sites for small business (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest), Twitter is one that every company needs to utilize. Simply by creating your own Twitter profile, updating often and joining the online conversation, you can reap some huge benefits for your business. Take a look at the top 10 ways to use Twitter as an internet marketing tool.

1. Use trends to your advantage. 
Breaking news often gets tweeted before it even makes it to the major news sites. Capitalize on that trend by using hashtags for trending topics in your updates. Try your best to link current news and events to your business posts. People searching for those hashtags will then find your posts. Not sure what's trending? Twitter shows you right in the left column of your home page; you can choose to see what's trending globally, or locally.

2. Post often. 
Businesses should tweet, at minimum, once a day. Two or three times is better and five times daily is optimal - although some marketers recommend 10 tweets per day! Link your Twitter page to your Facebook and Pinterest pages, too, to get maximum leverage out of each post.

3. Post at the right time. 
Pay attention to the day and time you post. The majority of Twitter users are active from early to mid afternoon. At night (especially Friday after 6 PM), your posts could get lost in a big influx of updates. The optimal time to post also depends on your content; people who follow entertainers and celebrity news are most active on weekends while newshounds follow Twitter Monday through Friday.

4. Acknowledge your followers. 
Always respond to others; if someone mentions you via an @ shout out or by retweeting one of your posts, send them a tweet thanking them for their effort. Try reciprocating their effort, as well, so the relationship becomes a two-way street, opening the lines of communication and establishing a relationship.

5. Mention others. 
Posting a few tweets with @ shout outs mentioning your customers, vendors, and business partners is a great way to show others you care about them (it gives their profile a boost). And it shows that it's not all about you.

6. Mix up the content. 
Don't post the exact same content twice; Twitter won't allow it. You can post similar content and link to the same URL several times but don't overdo it for fear of annoying your followers and getting a slap on the wrist from Twitter, which limits the number of times you can tweet the same URL. How many times can you link to the same URL? There is not an obvious answer but Twitter will let you know by disallowing any tweets over the limit.

7. Repeat your marketing message. 
Do post your most important content more than once. If you have a blog post you really want people to read, post a link to it at various times of the day and various days of the week since all Twitter users don't follow established patterns of use.

8. No direct advertisements. 
Twitter is not a direct sales tool. Never post only about your company and its products - who wants to read that all the time? It's not a forum for advertising; it's a way to find and connect with people who may need your products or services.

9. Share good content. 
Scout the web to find articles, pictures and audio clips your followers are interested in (not just your own website content or blog posts). There's nothing wrong with sharing industry news stories from other internet sources with your followers. If you think they'll be interested in a story, they probably will be.

10. Offer discounts. 
Some of the most popular posts are those that offer discounts (such as specially priced airline tickets or cheap hotel offers) to Twitter users. Get rid of your dead stock by sharing a special Twitter offer code for a deeply discounted deal. Those are the kind of posts most likely to get retweeted; after all, everyone wants to share their savvy shopping skills!

Are you ready to jump into the social media craze and create your own business account on Twitter? If you don't have the time to post and keep up with contacts several times a day, a professional internet marketer might be the best solution. It's more affordable than you may think - and it allows your company to get noticed on one of the most popular social media sites today!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7527425

Social Media for Business - 5 Reasons to Go Social

If you are a business owner, you might have noticed how other businesses have jumped in to the social media bandwagon ever since Facebook, Twitter, and other huge social networking sites came into the scene. And if you haven't already joined the thousands or millions of businesses worldwide who have taken advantage of social media, you are definitely missing out. Social media for business has become an important part of every business owners' overall online marketing campaign.

The mere thought of adding social media to your online marketing strategy could be stressful or discouraging, most especially if you are just starting out. If you do, chances are you are one of those who have decided not to get your business on Facebook or Twitter, because there's a lot to learn and you just don't have the time.

Take a deep breath. Learning social media for business could seem like a daunting task and could mean the learning curve is huge, but once you realize the impact of reaching out to your potential customers, it will make a lot more sense. If you are not used to interacting with different types of people online, or if you are too shy, you would have to make a little shift in your mindset.

Businesses of all sizes have utilized social media to build their brand and online visibility. Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, helps you in keeping in touch with your target audience (which are your potential customers or clients), to build a strong community of loyal followers who will establish you as a leader in your niche, and who will be ready to buy from you. This is how significant social media for business is and this is why you need to be social.

Here are 5 more reasons why your business needs to go social:

1. Promote your products and services in an inexpensive way (or for free).Whatever your budget is, there is a solution to your needs. Getting out there and building your social media presence is an inexpensive way of informally advertising what you have to offer. I mentioned "informally advertising" simply because social media channels are not like classified ads sites. Social media is used to interact with people, to share interests, and to share information that your target audience would find valuable. When you earn your target customers' trust, they will be ready to buy.


2. Receive advice from similar businesses. Every business has its competitors. The wonderful thing about social media is that it helps us have a healthy competition among other businesses. In order to succeed, you would want to learn from those who have been there and done that, don't you? Personally, I surround myself with people who have already established themselves as experts in my field and I learn from them. By networking with other people who are in the same business as you, you will benefit from their wealth of knowledge in order to help you grow your business.


3. Share expertise to build your credibility. This is one of the things that I usually stress out to clients that I partner with. Social media for business isn't purely for advertising your products and services, but more importantly, for establishing yourself as a leader in your niche. Let's say you are a relationship coach. You can post relationship tips on your social networks, and offer a newsletter where singles or couples can subscribe to in order to get tips on how to handle their relationships. With the help of social media, you will be able to share your expertise with the people who need you.


4. Create buzz about your website, products, and services. You can easily create buzz for your business in a variety of ways using social media. Write how-to articles for your blog so you can address the problems that your target audience might be facing, and being the expert that you are, you will be able to give them solutions. Create short video series about your products and services, or weekly tips video series and upload them on YouTube and other video sharing sites. Extract a sentence from your article and post that as a status update on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Through these activities, not only will you be building your credibility, but you will be promoting your products and services as well.


5. Get Found by Your Customers Online. With location-based social networks, you can easily be found by your customers online. What this means for your local business is more exposure both to your website which leads to more foot traffic to your brick and mortar store.

Facebook Users Can Now Promote Their Friend’s Posts

Businesses and individual users have been able to pay to promote their posts on Facebook for a while, ensuring that their favourite photos and statuses will get as wide an audience as possible. Now, users can pay to promote their friends posts.

Say your friend has posted a photo of you that you are particularly proud of, or your partner posted a photo of the cake that you made for them, now you can make sure that all your friends see your achievements – for a fee.

Users will not need to ask for permission from their friends to promote their posts but, according to webzine The Verge who reported the update last week, Facebook has made sure that the content poster’s privacy is respected:

"You can only promote posts to the people that your friend originally shared with," a Facebook spokesperson told The Verge. "If you have mutual friends, they’ll see that you shared it and promoted it."
The feature is only available to Facebook users with under 5,000 friends or subscribers, and is being gradually introduced to users worldwide.

However, after originally setting a 5,000 friend limit to users who wanted to promote their own posts, Facebook made the service unlimited. So, it would be no surprise if, at some point, Facebook made promoting friend’s posts available to all users.

Would you pay to promote your friend’s posts?

Twitter Raises Price Of Promoted Trends To $200,000

Twitter seems to be having some success with their “Promoted Trend” marketing feature, as they have raised the price of the service from $150,000 to $200,000.

For $200,000 (£127,600), a company can have their preferred message on top of one territory’s trending list on the Twitter homepage for a whole day. The promoted trend service can be used to effectively advertise a new product, or raise brand awareness on Twitter.

The $200,000 dollar price tag represents an 150% increase from the original $80,000 – the value of a promoted trend when the service was launched in 2010.

The price increase is due to the service’s popularity, the service’s popularity is due to its success and the service’s success has been well-documented in case studies on the Twitter business page.

Absolute Radio, Cadbury and LG are three of the companies that Twitter has mentioned in its case studies. Each one has had success using promoted trends to raise their profile on Twitter.


Absolute Radio used the promoted trend #nowplaying, an already popular hashtag on Twitter, to advertise their “Faces For Radio” campaign. The promoted trend was tied in with a twitter competition: every hour for 24 hours one lucky entrant won £250 if they tweeted whichever song was playing on the radio to @AbsoluteRadio using the #nowplaying hashtag.

During the campaign, @AbsoluteRadio spiked at 73,000 mentions reaching 23 million people. During the day of the competition, Absolute Radio also saw the number of online listeners increase by 7%.

After their Wispa Gold chocolate bar was discontinued, Cadbury was bombarded with consumer requests to start making it again. In conjunction with their extensive London 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics campaign, Cadbury used the promoted trend #WispaGold, asking people to complete and retweet their “I love #WispaGold because _____” message.


After the promoted trend was launched, Cadbury saw an increase of 1,800% in positive mentions of their brand.

To promote their new Optimus L Series phone in the UK, LG launched the @LGTicketHunter competition, offering people the chance to win exclusive tickets to upcoming concerts. Using the promoted trend #LGTicketHunter, the company drove traffic onto a map website. Every time someone tweeted with the #LGTicketHunter hashtag, the map zoomed in on where the LG street team were waiting. The first person to find the team won the tickets.

During the five days that the campaign lasted, #LGTicketHunter was mentioned over 50,000 times and delivered over 20 million impressions.



In each of these case studies, the company has either used promoted trends in conjunction with a competition or as part of a larger campaign, making interactions and mentions more likely. However, it was the fact that each promoted trends was constantly visible on the UK’s Twitter homepage for a whole 24 hours that kept them in the public’s consciousness.

Of course, promoted trends do have their drawbacks. Apart from the astronomical price (which, if the campaign proves to be a success is arguably worthwhile), there have been occasions when promoted trends have been hijacked by the public to decry the company’s that use them, as the buyer has no control over what features on the promoted trend’s page.

One of the most notorious examples of a failed promoted trend campaign is #McDStories, when an ill-advised, self-congratulatory McDonald’s marketing campaign backfired: instead of tweeting reasons why they loved McDonalds, the public used the hashtag to accuse the fast food company of animal cruelty, poor hygiene standards and taking advantage of their customers.

So, how does a company best utilise a promoted trend? Firstly, use it as part of a wider campaign, secondly, reward those who mention it and finally, don’t invite praise if your company has little to be proud of.

Would you pay $200,000 for a promoted trend? Has your company used them before? How successful were you?