15 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- Your Online Privacy Checklist
- Reasons Why You Keep Losing Twitter Followers
- Social Media: Loss of Control or The Path to Serendipity?
- 5 Tips for Expanding Facebook Reach with Sponsored Stories Ads
- Starbucks – 3 Twitter Best Practices
- 39 More (of the) Best Social Media Guides, Tips and Insights of 2011
- Facebook Timeline Privacy Settings – The Check You STILL Need To Make
- The First 5 Things You Should Do With Your Google+ Business Page
- The Top 20 Twitter Clients Being Used In 2012
- Are You Still Not Convinced That People Take Buying Decisions On Twitter?
- Are Social Media and SEM Really "Advertising"?
- Companies That Blog are Finding Success
- Blogging: A Faster Way to Build Brand and Authority!
- The Importance of Listening. Key to Social Media Success
- The Great Facebook IPO
| Posted: 31 Jan 2012 02:20 PM PST As a mother, I will do anything to protect my two-year-old daughter; which is why I was royally freaked out last year when two things happened: Number one: A friend came over to my house and used her mobile phone to "check in" on Foursquare, thereby revealing my address to all of her followers. Not so great. Number two: I received a Facebook friend request from someone I thought I didn't know. After corresponding with the person, I realized they were someone I was close with at one time and have distanced myself from. This person was using a fake account to view photos of my daughter. Also, not great. These incidents got me thinking: In a world where transparency is king and cybercrimes are growing, what can people do to protect their privacy online? Here are eight great ways to protect yourself and your image: 1. Search for yourselfType your name into search engines such as Bing, Google and Pipl. You'll be surprised what information is available. While you're at it, search for your family members. You can even set up alerts to notify yourself each time your name is mentioned within a site. Sites such as ZabaSearch, MyLife and Intelius may list partial information about you, but for an extra charge, they may list everything from your address to your cell phone number. While "transparency" seems to be the buzz word these days, keep in mind that these sites may also be used for identity theft. If you find this information to be inaccurate or personal, contact the sites and ask them to remove your listing. 2. Adjust your privacy settingsFacebook privacy settings are a big deal. Make sure you've customized them to ensure your private information is not visible to the outside world. For example, you may want to only allow friends, or friends of friends, to search for you on the site. You may also want to only allow friends to see your list of friends and photos. Don't be fooled, mostly everyone uses Facebook to search out others they may know. This can include law enforcement, loss prevention, criminals, gangs, employers, recruiters, old-flames…and the list goes on. While it may be an ethical violation of privacy, it is certainly not a legal one. Remember: if you don't change your privacy settings, the world will see your profile, which includes wall posts, photos and anything else you've posted. *Also, Facebook announced new security features on January 28, 2011 in honor of Data Privacy Day. These are definitely worth a peek! 3. Personalize your passwordStrong and unique passwords are vitally important, especially if you pay bills online. Shy away from using your birth date, Social Security number, last name, or child's name when creating your password. Instead, make your password strong and unique by combining letters, symbols and numbers. Equally important is a strong security question. Let's say someone who knows you wanted to hack into your bank account. If the answer to your security question were common knowledge (mother's maiden name, anniversary date, child's name) they would have no problem accessing your money. It is your responsibility to make sure that your passwords are as difficult as possible to guess. 4. Be mindful about where you "check in"Location-based networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla might be useful for finding people to chat with at bookstores or racking up visit points at your local coffee shop (maybe even earning yourself a free latte), but they can also serve as serious privacy busters. Never check in at home, at someone else's home, at your child's school, or (gasp!) your lover's house. By registering yourself in these personal sites, you are giving a potential villain entry to your (and your loved ones') location. Ask yourself, are you always checking into the same location on a specific date and time? When you create a habitual pattern of visits, this not only helps people who want to meet you find you, but it also provides predators the ability to predict where you will be and get there in advance. Last, be sure your privacy settings are tightened up so only your approved friends list see your whereabouts. 5. Screen your updatesLets say you are going on vacation to the Bahamas and you are so excited that you share your trip plans with your followers on Twitter and Facebook. Great idea, right? Wrong. Check out this video about a couple who, after they posted that they were going to a party, one of their followers broke in to their home: http://youtu.be/N7Z6DCDnfRw Rule of thumb: never post anything that may lead harm to yourself or someone else. Also, remember that if you post your vacation (or party) plans, it can be easy for a predator to check sites such as ZabaSearch, MyLife and Intelius for your address and other personal information, then make a surprise visit. 6. Don't be the fish that gets caught in a netBeware of false emails that ask for your private information. They may be emails that appear to be from your bank, a friend or any other organization that looks official. There are many types of phishing scams. My favorite are emails that come from a benevolent individual that is being held captive in a third world country and claims they have millions in the bank, but need your help to be freed and are willing to provide a reward. You would be surprised by how many victims fall prey to these scams. More information can be obtained from Microsoft Online Safety. The best way to protect yourself is to keep private information private. In this situation, it's okay to keep secrets. 7. To Wi-Fi or Not To Wi-Fi?That is the question! Not familiar with the term Sidejacking? Developer Eric Butler has exposed the weaknesses of the web with his new Firefox extension, Firesheep, which will let online predators essentially eavesdrop on any open Wi-Fi network and capture users' cookies. ??This threat has been around for years and you’re at risk from sidejacking when you use the Internet via unsecured public Wi-Fi or WLAN (wireless networking) hotspot. Here's how it works: an attacker on the same Wi-Fi network could use Firesheep to “sniff” and use login sessions of surrounding users that have logged into their webmail; Facebook, Twitter or other social networking accounts; or Amazon account in a public place. From there, the potential damage is endless. To read more about Firesheep, visit TechCrunch. 8. Invest in anti-virus technologyThe Internet has facilitated an easy way to access information right from your home computer. Viruses and other malware created by hackers try to access your information and even damage your computer. One great way to protect yourself is by purchasing anti-virus technology. Just visit sites such as McAfee, BitDefender or Symantec, and download a privacy program for your computer. Computers that share the same network, such as businesses or a home network, will spread a virus quickly and easily if they are not protected. Anti-virus software prevents the spread of viruses to others in which you communicate with through email, the Internet or file sharing. Anti-virus programs also offer firewalls to protect your identity and your passwords. Check out this list of the top 10 anti-virus programs. |
| Reasons Why You Keep Losing Twitter Followers Posted: 31 Jan 2012 01:30 PM PST
Are you tired of losing more and more Twitter followers every day? You don't have to lose them but it will require you to change what you are doing. What most people don't realize is the reason they are losing Twitter followers is because they are the ones doing something wrong. I know you don't want to believe it but this is a common thing that Twitter users do and unless you figure out what you are doing wrong you will keep losing the followers that you have. Reasons You Are Losing FollowersToo Many TweetsHow many Tweets to you do every day? Are you doing too many that your followers are getting tired of seeing your updates? A lot of people Tweet too many times but if you are Tweeting things that people like, then keep doing it. Just know that some people would prefer to see fewer Tweets so make sure you figure out what your followers like the most. Repeat FollowingDo you follow and then unfollow a lot of people on a daily basis? It might be a bad idea to follow hundreds of people in a single day and that is why a lot of people will stop following you. Although this is a great way to get more followers, your actual followers might not like it. Just know that it would be better to get your followers the right way as opposed to using the system to get as many followers as you can. No ProfileDo you have a profile on your Twitter account? If you are not using your profile to actually say what you talk about, then people will start to unfollow you. The problem that I see quite a bit is that Twitter users will add a profile that doesn't even represent what they will be Tweeting. Just do yourself and your followers a favor and create a Twitter profile that shows what you will be Tweeting. Affiliate LinksHow many affiliate links do you post on your Twitter account? Do you add an affiliate link every few hours or do you place affiliate links every week or so? The amount of affiliate links that you Tweet will make a huge difference in the amount of people that follow you. My advice is to make sure that you are using affiliate links sparingly because this is one of the worst things that you can use in a Tweet. Constant RepliesAre you constantly replying to Tweets other people do? Do you use hashtags whenever possible? These might be the reason for you losing your Twitter followers. The problem with putting @XXXX in your Tweet is that most people won't know what you are talking about, this goes for hashtags too. If you want to keep the following that you have, then you need to use replies and hashtags sparingly. Trust me on this one, this is a common reason people will unfollow you. I know this for a fact because this is one of the reasons I will unfollow people as well. Most people don't like to see a bunch of gibberish so make sure that whatever you are writing will make sense to everybody that is reading it. Being that Twitter is a great way to get more traffic to your website you need to use it but make sure you are aware of what you are doing. I know that there is a lot of stuff that you are worried about right now but Twitter should not be one of them. If you'd like to follow us, and receive tips and tweets on internet marketing, blogging, and work from home topics I'd be more than happy to have you. Twitter.com/plrnetmarketing has grown to close to 60,000 followers and I appreciate each and every one of you! |
| Social Media: Loss of Control or The Path to Serendipity? Posted: 31 Jan 2012 12:55 PM PST I find myself in conversations about social media and its implications occasionally. And I mean: off-the-web, real-life discussions. Usually one of the pivot points is about whether or not it is a ‘good idea‘ to expose too many information about oneself to public. Many are afraid of becoming completely transparent to the “system” (could be anything from a 1984 scenario down to a governance, agency, cooperation or social platform.) It’s the idea of protecting their personal data that prevents them from actively sharing personal or person-related information on the web: where it is there, forever, in public… irrevocable. It’s the loss of control that keeps them back. It’s indeed an important consideration to make and I do share some of the concerns about the lack of a “permanently delete” button for (person-related) content on the web. I do see the potential issues that could arise if all those information being acquired by the big players fall into the wrong hands or it’s used for a bad purpose. But that seems to be an uphill battle and in many cases the consumers don’t seem to care too much about sharing their data: when it’s convenient, when they can save, when it’s fun. The same people that refrain from social networking have no problem with bonus programs or online shopping. So, bluntly speaking it seems to come down to the usual suspect: Return on Investment or “what’s in for me?” Once the conversation is at that point there’s suddenly the notion, that there may be positive effects in sharing information as well. So, it’s no longer a rip-off, but a trade-off. You get something in return for exposing that data. So let’s get to the fine-print! In general the deal is about exposing some of your personal data and getting something in return. That may be bonus points, miles, coupons, discounts, specials and what else you got. Yet, in terms of social networking the results may not be that easy to put into metrics, there are more of a long-time strategy that could have many positive effects. If you tackle it from that perspective and start engaging on social networks it can go many routes. It’s up to you and what you’re looking for. No matter what your interest are – there are other people out there sharing your passion. There sure are plenty of communities on the web on every topic. There sure are things that would be interesting for you too, right? “OK“, some of the skeptics may say” … but I still wouldn’t know what to post there or why to spend all the time?” Fair enough – and that’s ok! Take your time to familiarize yourself with with the communities and platforms first. Start by reading, by searching. You may want to spice up your profile/avatar. Then you may feel like commenting, start doing a bit of curating and who knows … eventually you feel the urge to post something on your own sooner or later. “So, what’s in for you?” Only you can find out… yet here’s a short list of benefits many people see. Your mileage may vary; but this is why I got active on social networks… 1. Connect with like-mindedWhen I started blogging in 2007 the intention has been to share and exchange experiences on developing applications with emerging technologies at SAP. Being part of the first wave of early adopters and pioneers in this field requires to constantly having to look out for new technology trends, evaluating their readiness and their fit for business purposes. By nature, at this early point in the adoption cycle there are no best-practices on how-to leverage the tools – they yet have to be defined. And this is where social network come in: through blogging I have been able to connect to colleagues and peers and find people with similar interests and challenges. By connecting with them I got new ideas, new input, new directions and – hopefully – vice versa. Fellow SAP Mentor Jarret Pazahanick put it down nicely the other day:
…which brings us to number 2. 2. Expanding your horizonOnce you start actively sharing some of your thoughts and content – you get feedback and take part in the conversation. You can get to know some really smart people out there. I think I can safely say that my horizon has expanded tremendously since I started to blog and tweet. Especially the concept of following subject matter experts, thought-leaders and alpha geeks on Twitter and periodically tapping into their minds has been something that sold me for good. In the areas of software development, enterprise software and SAP there is a very active and passionate community on Twitter, including board members, executives, topic experts and influencers such as the SAP Mentors. All of these people are on Twitter to interact with each other and they are usually very approachable. From personal experience I can say that you can indeed engage across companies and corporate levels, raise your voice and eventually ignite change. 3. Gathering informationAs I said, a central part of my job is to filter information, gather quality content, provide assessments and roll-out our findings. A perfect match for social networking. Yet, that’s not to say that I can get everything I need to know by just following the right people. I still have to actively and more systematically perform my research using a variety of tools such as RSS readers, newsletters… even email. Social platforms do help though to find new and interesting people or content. They are covering my blind spot if you will. They let me know of the big stories, the talk of the day. If you are interested in how-to leverage social media for such purposes, I can highly recommend Jon Reed‘s The Power of Pull, SAP Style: How I use “pull technologies” to raise my game – and how you can too. One particularly aspect of Jon’s reasoning brings us to the next point:
4. ContributingIt’s an interesting idea indeed: if one does all that reading, filtering and analysis – why not do so in a way that let others build upon your work? I found that by tagging all the information I process day- in/day-out and by spreading the word about the useful things I find I can actively contribute something valuable. Summarizing my thoughts and voicing my opinion helps me to really think something through – sort of: “you’ve only truly understood something you can explain to others!” As I need to organize all the information anyway, doing so publicly just ensures that I put that extra effort into it (which I may neglect if i’d just scrabble it down for my own eyes!) Plus – I get valuable feedback from readers. Which brings us to the last point… 5. Establishing your BrandEvery link you bookmark, every information you tweet, every topic you blog about… it all adds to your social profile, your digital footprint. Yes, there’s gonna be plenty of information about you on the web if you do, but that may not be too bad after all – if it’s quality content and something you stand up for, is it? A friend of mine who happens to make a living with social media says it all in her presentation about Your Brand on Social Media. There’s little to add to what Natascha says, yet – let me close it all up by referring back to something I wrote in one of my former blog posts:
The more technical people may call it SEO-fying your digital presence, for the others: it comes down to actively sharing in order to make room for opportunities. Or as John Hagel III and John Seely Brown call it: Shape Serendipity, Understand Stress, Reignite Passion. So, whether it’s the loss of control or the path to serendipity… or maybe something in between… at the end of the day: life is what you make it! PS:Posting all this certainly has that “preaching to the converted” feeling to it. Yet, given that Social Media Week is coming up I figured it may be about time to try get some people reconsider their standing towards a more active participation in social media. Consequently, it’s up to us… the converted to spread the word. On… but more importantly off-the-web. References:
The blog post was originally published on the SAP Community Network. |
| 5 Tips for Expanding Facebook Reach with Sponsored Stories Ads Posted: 31 Jan 2012 12:45 PM PST
Facebook's Sponsored Stories, launched last year, engage friends of fans by showing them the brands and products that their friends "Like." So if your Page has 1,000 "Likes," there's an average of 130,000 people that you can engage with through Sponsored Stories. And because the ads that appear include friends names and even profile pictures, you can achieve a click-to-connection rate of 40-60% with a properly managed campaign… just because their friend already approves of your Page. Here are 5 quick tips to get your Sponsored Stories off the ground and expand your Facebook Page's reach:
Sponsored Stories can help a Page with just a few "Likes" grow quickly. And the best part is, as your Page "Likes" grow, so does the number of people who can be targeted through Sponsored Stories. Have you used Sponsored Stories to expand your Facebook Page's reach? Leave a comment below and tell us about it. Allocate Your Marketing Resources Accurately
|
| Starbucks – 3 Twitter Best Practices Posted: 31 Jan 2012 11:15 AM PST Twitter can help your business get closer to its customers … create better word of mouth and greater brand advocacy … and generate great ideas from engaged fans. How? Start by learning from the best practices used by companies that have been successful with Twitter. Start by learning from Starbucks. When a national brand accumulates nearly two million followers on Twitter, its social media strategies are worth examining. The Seattle-based coffee giant is currently ranked as the fourth most popular corporate brand in this space. (By way of comparison, General Motors has 44,000 Twitter followers.) The Starbucks tweetstream is impressive. Check out these three easy-to-emulate Twitter best practices. Each can be adapted to any industry, and each is modeled consistently via the company’s Twitter account, @Starbucks — which I found to be deeply personalized to individual questions, complaints, and suggestions from customers. Best Practice #1: Do Something You Know Your Customer Believes In. Starbucks uses Twitter to promote cause-driven promotions that resonate powerfully with its user base. One particularly successful example was a “promotion where customers received free coffee if they brought in a reusable mug. This promotion grew their online fan base by 21% outside of the U.S. and by 6% overall. It not only drove sales, it changed how people purchased and consumed their coffee.” (Source: Smartblogs.) What causes do your customers believe in? Best Practice #2: Ask for Pictures. Starbucks uses Twitter to post plenty of interesting, user-generated images of its followers drinking from, displaying, or generally having fun with something that bears the familiar green company logo. Circulating these images means more engagement, greater advocacy, and broader brand awareness. How easy is it for a customer to take and forward a picture of your brand image? What would happen if you tweeted those images? Best Practice #3: Let Customers Know That You Are Using Their Ideas. Starbucks uses Twitter to update individual customers on the status of individual ideas they have submitted via @MyStarbucksIdea. Wouldn’t you follow a company that kept you up to date about that? |
| 39 More (of the) Best Social Media Guides, Tips and Insights of 2011 Posted: 31 Jan 2012 10:30 AM PST The notion of using social media for business has gone from cutting edge to commonplace in an amazingly short time. And for those laggard firms still resisting social media, recent changes by Google now make it all but imperative. Of course, there's no single cookie-cutter approach to social media marketing that works for every enterprise. And many companies that jumped in early experienced failures and disappointments, pulled back, and then re-approached social media from a more strategic angle.
Find the answers to these questions and more here in more than three dozen of the best social media guides, insights, rants and reports of the past year. Social Media Marketing Tips and TacticsSocial Media, What Matters Most for Marketers by iMedia Connection Noting that the "trend in digital information sharing (on social networks) is still a huge challenge for many companies," Rick van Boekel advises marketers to develop a strategy, stay involved (or stay away), and integrate efforts among other guidance for marketing success in social media. Practical Reasons Why Businesses Need Social Media by Social Media Today Austen Mayor articulates both qualitative and quantitative justifications for social media investments. Among the hard numbers he lists: according to a social media industry study, 72% of companies active in social media report higher website traffic, 62% say it has improved search engine rankings, and 48% say it has increased sales. Why Aren't You Promoting Your Social Profiles? 10 Ways to Make it Happen by The Social Media Chef
Stop shoving social media down my throat by {grow}
50 Social Media Marketing Tips and Tactics by Jeff Bullas
Forrester: 5 Stages Of Social Media Growth by MediaPost Online Media Daily Gavin O'Malley reviews research from Forrester on the five stages of social media maturity that corporations typically pass through, starting with the dormant stage ("one in five companies still don't use any social media. These companies tend to be highly conservative, heavily regulated, or just not interested, according to Forrester") then progressing through "distributed chaos" and additional steps before reaching the optimization stage. A quick guide to 5 social media platforms by iMedia Connection
Social Trust Factor: 10 Tips to Establish Credibility by The Marketing Nut
Social Media Marketing – 10 Inspiring Infographics by Jeff Bullas Jeff Bullas shares some interesting social media statistics (e.g., Tumblr is now attracting over 90 million unique visitors every month; StumbleUpon drives over 50% of all social network traffic) as well as helpful how-to's (e.g., How to Twitter and LinkedIn Boot Camp) in this intriguing collection of infographics. How to be a rock star on 8 social media platforms by iMedia Connection
Don't Let Legal Keep You Out of Social by Social Media Marketing Magazine
Busting Social Media Myths and Avoiding Common MistakesFive Social Media Myths You Need to Know by frogloop
Four Common Social Media Mishaps by iMedia Connection
Ten Myths About Social Networking For Business by Forbes
B2B Social Media GuidesTop social media platforms for businesses by iMedia Connection Kent Lewis outlines the benefits of social media for B2B businesses, the challenges such vendors face in social media, the essential elements of a B2B social media program, and the best platforms to utilize (blogging, LinkedIn and Twitter are obvious; Facebook and Quora somewhat more questionable). Turn B2B Buying Into a Social Experience by iMedia Connection
YouTube Tips and TacticsYouTube etiquette for 2011 by iMedia Connection
6 Best Practices For Small Business YouTube Marketing by OPEN Forum
YouTube It; You Rank for It – Improve Your YouTube Rankings by iMedia Connection
Search and SocialWhen search meets social by Econsultancy
How Social Media Affects Content Relevance in Search by Mashable Shane Snow explains why and how Google and Bing are incorporating social signals into the search algorithms, how these changes may help newer businesses, and which previously helpful SEO tactics are now much less important. The key to success in this new world is creating highly sharable content and building a network of influencers who will share it. Social Media Monitoring and ROI Measurement10 Measures of Social Media ROI for Your Brand by SocialTimes
Forget Social Media ROI by ClickZ
Social Media ROI for Me-Too-ers versus Innovators by SocialSteve's Blog
Things We Should Ask The ROI Question About Before Social Media by UnMarketing
5 Ways to Measure Social Media by ClickZ
The ROI of Social Media ROI by iMedia Connection
Explaining "social media ROI" AGAIN. And again. And… again. by The Brand Builder Blog
14 Top Tracking Tools For Your Social Media Stats by Abnormal Marketing
INFOGRAPHIC: How Much Does Social Media Really Cost? by Scribbal Mariel Loveland presents an outstanding infographic detailing the internal and external costs of social media marketing along with the expected savings or return in various business areas, drawing on both statistical and anecdotal data. The Business Impact of Social Media [Infographic] by ReadWriteWeb
Facebook, Twitter Shares Outpace Other Social Buttons by MediaPost Online Media Daily
10 Intriguing Insights on the State of Social Media and Blogging by Jeff Bullas Jeff Bullas (again) summarizes 10 key insights from Nielsen research on social media, among them: Facebook dominates the "time spent online" metric—Facebook users collectively spend three times as many minutes with Facebook as they do with Yahoo, and four times as many as with Google. Nearly a quarter of total online time is spent with social networks and blogs. And women outnumber men on eight of the top 10 social networks—but guys are in the majority on LinkedIn. Social Media Bigger And More Influential Than Ever, Reveals Q3 Nielsen Report [INFOGRAPHIC] by All Twitter
Social Media Report: Q3 2011 by Nielsen Research Want to draw your own conclusions from the research cited by Jeff and Shea above? Here's the source. 9 Social Media Infographics You Must See by DreamGrow
|
| Facebook Timeline Privacy Settings – The Check You STILL Need To Make Posted: 31 Jan 2012 10:28 AM PST NOTE: as of today (31st January 2012), the below is only of concern if you've upgraded your personal Facebook profile to the new "Timeline" format. If you haven't (or Facebook hasn't yet done it for you, as it will do eventually), you need to come back and check your privacy is intact AFTER the change :) Reading through today's social media news, I came across an article just published on the Guardian's website, asking "What if your Facebook Timeline was read instead of your CV?". Not a huge concern to me personally, I tend not to post anything hugely personal and / or incriminating on Facebook, plus I was pretty sure I was on top of my privacy settings. But the mention of changes around the introduction of the Timeline format gave me a nagging doubt, so I thought i'd revisit my settings and just, y'know, double check. Oh. Where'd my Privacy settings go?!First of all, the way your privacy settings are organised within Facebook seems to have changed. They used to be all in one place, and relatively easy to see what was set to what – plus, there was a "view as stranger" link so you could double check what your profile actually looked like to someone outside of your friend network. I was in a hurry, admittedly, but I couldn't find that now, and there are settings which go down into several levels of complexity under both "Account Settings" and "Privacy settings" – these are both to be found under the drop down arrow at the top right of your screen. How to check what's private on your Facebook profile Not reassured at all so far, I decided to take the quick route. Because I have a couple of dummy accounts used for training, I can easily log into those, search for myself and see how much of my timeline was visible. That may not help others much, as Facebook makes you log in before you're able to search for someone, so you either need to:
If that "view as stranger" button IS still there somewhere, please do post directions to it in the comments! And here's what's NOT private… In my case, EVERYTHING. Bear in mind, I work in social media, I am as aware of functionality changes as probably most people outside of Facebook itself. Plus, I know i've set everything to "friends only" in the past, and checked externally that it was working as it should be. When my profile switched from the old format to the new Timeline, all of my previous (private) posts were published as fully public. Which means, if the new Timeline has made everything I've posted in the last four or five years public, it very likely has made yours public too. You DO need to check, or at least go through the process below unless you don't mind the entire Internet viewing your entire status history. How to fix it Using the drop down arrow at the top right of your screen, go to "Account > Privacy Settings". About half way down the screen there is an option "Limit the audience for past posts". When you click on "manage past post visibility" you'll get a warning message come up, with a button "limit old posts". That's the baby you want. Once i'd clicked that, viewing my profile from the dummy account gave me exactly the result I wanted – my basic details were still visible, but my status updates weren't. Spread the word I've never joined in the general yelling about Facebook and privacy invasions, because personally I thought that the old settings were manageable and if you're old enough to use the site, you're old enough to take responsibility for your settings. BUT. This time, it seems to me like a deliberate attempt by Facebook to get around my previous settings. When those updates they'd just published with my timeline were made, it was totally clear from my privacy settings that I only intended them to be shared with friends, not to be made public. Maybe there was something in the teeny print around swapping to the Timeline format which said "oh, by the way, we're going to totally disregard your past privacy settings", maybe not – but I have to say, Facebook – I'm not impressed! If you want to make sure your friends aren't accidentally "exposing" themselves to the world, feel free to send them the link to this post! |
| The First 5 Things You Should Do With Your Google+ Business Page Posted: 31 Jan 2012 10:00 AM PST
Obviously (I hope it's obvious!) the worst thing you could do is just let your page sit idle. So let's set some priorities and get to work making your page effective. The recent announcement by Google that G+ is now heavily integrated into Google search makes it all the more important that you optimize your page and start your involvement on Google+. G+ is still young, but it's growing rapidly. Early adopters of any new social media outlet gain significant advantages over the competition, and it's not too late to claim that space in Google+. Where to Start on Your Page? Set Priorities Google+ Business Pages offer unprecedented search ranking advantages, so make optimizing your profile for both regular Google search and G+'s internal search your first priority. Next you'll want to make sure your profile "sells the follow." Does it capture attention and say, "You'll want me in your circles!" in those few seconds when someone takes their first look? Once your profile page is in good order, you'll be ready to start posting great content and engaging to build your following. Those priorities in mind, let's get started with the five first things you should do with your Google+ business page: 1. Optimize Your Page for SEO As I said above, one of the most powerful features of G+ is Google search. You'll want to take advantage of that to make sure your business page is likely to be found, both in Google+'s internal search and in Google's regular search engine. Perform the steps below to make your page attractive to Google's search bots. (Hint: to edit your page, select the profile view and click the "Edit Profile" button, then click in the area you want to edit.)
For more tips on optimizing your business page profile, see my "Complete Guide to Optimizing Your Google+ Brand Page." 2. Upgrade Your Page's Visual Appeal 90% or more of the "job description" of your brand page falls under "first impressions." Most people will only come to your page once, to evaluate whether you are worth circling (the Google+ term for "following"). And on average they will only spend a brief time there, so you want to do as much as possible to grab their attention get them to click that "Add to Your Circles" button.
3. Fill Your Post Stream with Quality Content Even before you get your first follower, I recommend getting at least three or four posts up. By default visitors land on your posts tab first. So your posting stream is the real first impression-maker, seen before your About tab. Seeing "XYZ Brand hasn't shared any posts yet" isn't exactly a good "circle us" call to action. Your first posts should be superstars, showing off the kind of great, interesting content people will get if they follow you. This article isn't about good content creation, but at least do the following in your posts:
4. Begin to Attract Followers Now that you've got your page optimized for search, you've made it visually appealing, and you've begun to post quality content, you're ready to open the doors and do business. But as in any social media outlet, there is no "build it and they will come." You have to attract early adopters of your page and then utilize them to build a following. Getting that snowball rolling takes a little more work on Google+. For one thing, to prevent spam following, Google+ restricts brand pages from adding anyone to their circles until that person either has added the page or link-mentioned it in a post. In addition, unlike Facebook, Google+ doesn't (yet) have ads that you can use to bring new people to your page. So how can you begin a following?
5. Engage! Once you've got a base following, establish a good cycle of posting and engagement.
Just as engagement is key to good EdgeRank on Facebook, so it seems it will be a strong force in the amount of influence your page has in Google and G+ search. Just having a profile and posts centered around good keyword strategies is not enough. If two pages are otherwise equal in a keyword area, Google will give the boost to the one that has more G+ reach and engagement. Conclusion Especially with the advent of Google Search plus Your World, G+ business pages offer an exciting opportunity for even small brands who have never had much of a voice on social media. We are still very much on the "ground floor" of this fast-growing network, especially for marketing. Those who build their pages and content carefully and invest now in posting and engagement should reap big rewards down the road. If your brand already has a Google+ page, share with us what has worked for you. |
| The Top 20 Twitter Clients Being Used In 2012 Posted: 31 Jan 2012 06:10 AM PST
Cibo, a digital agency based in San Francisco, saw my tweet and responded as follows: @NealSchaffer Interesting poll, a quick query of 5,000+ agency accounts and 1.5M+ tweets shows that HootSuite leads. twitter.com/cibostudios/st… — CIBO (@cibostudios) January 15, 2012 I am assuming that Cibo pulled in this data directly from the Twitter API, so I believe these results are a good enough sampling to be pretty indicative as to the top 20 Twitter clients being used in 2012. Chances are you are using one of these, but with the changing social media landscape and your potentially shifting objectives and ways in which you and your business use social media, I thought it was a good idea to do a short review of the top clients in hopes that you might want to try a client or app you may have never heard of before. 1. HootSuite is a web-based social media dashboard designed to manage a whole slew of social media platforms above and beyond Twitter — Facebook, Linkedin, and have even begun limited support for Google+ — and multiple social profiles in one interface. It also offers the ability to produce reports based on custom analytics to better track brand awareness, follower growth and other pertinent demographic data. Initially built for internal agency use, we can now say that HootSuite is the most popular Twitter client in 2012. Needless to say that if you haven't tried HootSuite yet, you owe it to yourself to sign up for a free HootSuite trial! 2. The "web" entry refers to those who send out a tweet from Twitter.com, which underwent improvements and now sports a new interface, is still a relatively simple and elegant approach to tweeting, searching and discovering. If your business only has one account for tweeting, Twitter.com is still an option, and even if you use other clients listed here, you still might be finding yourself coming back here on occasion. 3. Tweetdeck, which was acquired by Twitter last year, is a social media dashboard application for managing Twitter and Facebook accounts, and it is safe to say that it was the leading client outside of Twitter.com before the emergence of HootSuite. Once only available as an Adobe Air application, it is now compatible with several operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Chrome OS and Linux and is also available for the iPhone, iPad and Android devices. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future to this application, which is another good reason to search around for alternatives just in case… 4. Twitterfeed is a utility that allows bloggers to "feed" their blog posts or other RSS content to Twitter, Facebook and other platforms thereby enabling publishers to reach a wider audience and while receiving real-time data. Yes, that's right: The fourth largest client for tweeting is an automated one… 5. Facebook features the ability to sync one's Twitter account to his or her Facebook page. This allows your Facebook posts to be automatically tweeted and retweeted on your Twitter account. I'm personally usually not a big fan of cross-posting from one social media website to another, where hashtags mean nothing and the @FacebookUsername don't translate to @TwitterUsername. 6. The Tweet Button is a small widget that can be embedded into websites (such as online magazines and news sites, including this blog) which gives viewers and readers the ability to share articles of interest to their followers. It is fascinating to see the amount of sharing of content that internet users do on Twitter. This means that if your website doesn't have a Tweet Button, you're missing out! 7. Twitter for iPhone is the official app that is compatible and can be downloaded to an iPhone, iPad or an iPod touch powered by at least iOS 4 or later. Twitter developed this application by purchasing the creators of the best client for the iPhone at the time: Tweetie. 8. CoTweet is a social media management tool that allows teams to manage one or more Twitter accounts by offering such capabilities as tweet assignments, notes, and on duty status. Similar to a HootSuite or a TweetDeck, I praised the "archive" functionality in CoTweet and announced that it was one of my Top Twitter Applications in a recent blog post. However, CoTweet's parent company, email marketing software company ExactTarget, announced just recently that the free edition of CoTweet will no longer operate after February 15, 2012. While ExactTarget will be releasing a new social media management dashboard called SocialEngage to replace it, I have already switched to a new client (keep reading!). 9. Twitter for Mac is a desktop application designed specifically for the Mac. It is a sister app to the official iPhone and iPad apps that was originally known as Tweetie. Amazing how many Mac users are also heavy tweeters! 10. The web service dlvr.it allows bloggers to publish, distribute and syndicate their content across various social media platforms. Dlvr.it has become popular recently as a TwitterFeed replacement in that it gives you more robust filtering and analytical capabilities. Once again, though, this is a platform for automation. 11. Paper.li enables people to publish online newspapers based on twitter topics — stories and articles — that they like, giving their readers fresh news daily, automatically, like a personalized broadcast. If you thought you've been seeing a lot of Paper.li tweets recently, you're not alone. As a source of tweets Paper.li is now a huge player, and it will be interesting to see if this trend continues – and how it evolves. 12. Originally known as Tweet Later, offering the ability to back then a cutting edge way of scheduling your tweets to post in the future, SocialOomph is a service, both free and paid, that offers productivity solutions for social media users. Among its many features are the ability to manage many accounts, post scheduling and blog integration. I know many Internet marketers who are still heavy users of SocialOomph, but I don't know how many enterprises have adopted them. 13. I was happily surprised to see another app that I regularly use and highly recommend, Buffer, make it to the top 20 Twitter clients in 2012. Buffer offers a smarter way to schedule your tweets. Plan out all your tweets for a particular day, fill up your Buffer with your desired tweets, then Buffer schedules them for you. While not a true client per say, Buffer is a perfect complement to help you schedule your posting on Twitter and on their recently added support for Facebook. 14. Tweetie for Mac was designed originally for the iPhone and later made available for desktop, but after being bought out it is only available now as the official Twitter client. I assume that these are the diehard Tweetie users who have yet to upgrade to the "official" client for whatever reason, but this obviously isn't an option anymore for you or your business. 15. Echofon is a client that this available for iPhone, Mac, Windows, and Firefox. It has the ability to automatically sync unread tweets between a computer, and iPhone and other devices. While Echofon has always been a popular Twitter client for the iPhone, it now supports browser and PC environments as well. I was honestly surprised to see it make the top 20, but apparently a lot of you out there are using them! 16. Twitter for Blackberry is the official app specifically for use in Blackberry handsets. 17. Twitter for iPad is another official app that was developed after the release of the iPad and is a sister application to the official iPhone and Mac apps. 18. MarketMeSuite is a social media tool and software created for social media marketing and management. Its creators aim is to turn one's followers into customers via better online engagement. Once only used by Internet marketers and social media enthusiasts, MarketMeSuite is now used by more than 20,000 businesses. To be honest, this is the one tool on this list that I've been looking to spend more time investigating, so if you're a user, please share your impressions in the comments. Thanks! 19. SproutSocial is another social media management tool for Twitter and Facebook, but this one offers contact management, competitive insight, lead generation and more unique functionality. Since SproutSocial also had the killer archive feature I was looking for, and was also available for the iPhone, I switched over to using SproutSocial as my main social media client early in 2012 and am not looking back. If you haven't, sign up for a free SproutSocial trial – and discover what you might be missing! 20. The web service bit.ly is a tool that helps collect, organize and shorten links and URLs. It is available via web or mobile. Many users use the bit.ly bookmarklet to easily create tweets with shortened links which they can then analyze the results for later. When you analyze these top clients and realize how many are for mobile, iOS, automation or are or will be discontinued, it is safe to say that the top Twitter clients in 2012 for any business to consider come down to:
For any business that tweets, however, they are undoubtedly using Facebook and are looking for a cross platform social media dashboard. Those 5 clients in bold above are what you should be investigating if you are looking for a new client to use in 2012. I find that active tweeters often have very deep and passionate relationships with their social media apps, so now it's your turn: What do you use for your Twitter client and recommend to the world? Any surprises in the above results? |
| Are You Still Not Convinced That People Take Buying Decisions On Twitter? Posted: 31 Jan 2012 06:04 AM PST One of the questions that I always face in training seminars, most of the time by small business owners, is the doubt that social media actually affects buying decisions and that social media networks – especially Twitter – are not ideal market places, rather a platform where marketers spam other marketers with content and offers. The purpose of my blog today is not to educate people how to use Twitter in order to generate leads and find potential customers (I will leave that part for my social media training seminar that will take place end of February in London) but rather to show you two important things. One that people DO take purchase decisions based on feedback from other social media users and secondly that brands that do not focus on social media might lose potential customers. Let me show you an example: As I was browsing my search streams on MarketMeSuite I stumbled across the following tweet by a user who is moving house and is looking for the best Internet and phone line providers. Here is the tweet:
Based on my personal experience (and as you will see from this example I wasn’t the only one) I have used two different Internet service providers the last 4 years with BT being horrible and suffering a lot of random disconnections during the day, so I shared my point of view with Rebecca. I have followed a similar example with Joomlart CMS those who follow my tweets know this already.
What amazes me is the willingness of people to share their experiences with other people when it comes to buying decisions. By searching the stream I found references from other users to Sky broadband, BT, O2 etc by people who do not follow Rebecca or vice versa but maybe were participating at that time in a discussion about internet providers, or have a search stream monitoring specific keywords (the way I found Rebecca's tweet). Now the one million dollar question is this: Does BT, Sky Broadband and O2 monitor these discussions? I mean, if I was able to find those tweets surely they should be able to as well and from what I see O2 is a winner and my opinion about O2 corresponds with lots of other users. How about a tweet from BT Internet saying this: Hello, I am sorry that you had a negative experience using our service. What was the main issue? We might be able to help! And if we go back to O2 who seems to be the preferred choice amongst users, how about this: Thank you :-) We try our very hardest to keep our customers happy! FYI here is our “Moving Home” Surprisingly they do have a moving home page so that suits the buyer's decision perfectly (see link above). I normally write long blogs but I think that this pretty much sums up what I've been encouraging people to do with social media. People are out there looking for products, to take decisions, to ask for a second opinion. Are you listening to them? |
| Are Social Media and SEM Really "Advertising"? Posted: 30 Jan 2012 04:10 PM PST
Today we're going to debate that statement a little. Is Social Media advertising? On The Social Graf blog, Erik Sass noted yesterday that in recent IPOs for LinkedIn and Zynga, advertising revenue was not a big factor. LinkedIn makes almost half of its money from headhunting and job-finding services; Zynga makes 80-90% of its revenue by selling virtual goods. Does this mean "advertising takes a back seat"? The question is not whether Social Media is advertising or is putting it in the back seat. They have a symbiotic relationship; great advertising has always driven positive word-of-mouth. The only difference today is that social media has turbocharged word-of-mouth. Maurice Levy of Publicis tripped over this dynamic the other day when he said "Recommendation and endorsement from a friend is sometimes more powerful than the greatest ad." No, not “sometimes” – always more powerful than the greatest ad. Word-of-mouth is advertising – advertising we can only hope to influence, never control. Is SEM advertising? Meanwhile, over on AdAge's DigitalNext column, Josh Shatkin-Margolis says we should "Stop Pretending That Search Engine Marketing is Advertising". He actually made a great distinction in his second paragraph: "SEM is the worst form of advertising, but bear in mind that it is the best form of targeting." True enough. No one will claim that unclicked search copy is effective. Cheap? Yes, as in "the impressions are free." You get what you pay for. Yet is there any reason a consumer would not call this advertising just because it neither promises nor delivers a memorable, persuasive message? I don't think so. We're splitting hairs with some of these discussions. Another headline this week proclaimed that "Google Passes Yahoo in Online Display Advertising". So are we going to say that Google's online display is advertising, while the search copy just pixels away is not? What is advertising? What isn't? A wise colleague, now retired, used to say, "Everybody's selling something, boitshick." This is true of both search and display. Social Media, too, although it's a little different because we are counting on consumers to help us do the selling. To those consumers, however, it's all advertising. |
| Companies That Blog are Finding Success Posted: 30 Jan 2012 04:05 PM PST
The title of this article looks at this topic from a glass half-empty picture. It should say companies are finding success through blogging. If you read between the numbers there are some very interesting figures that I would echo. Today, I had a discussion with another Marketing Executive and we were discussing our approaches to social media and I told him the most successful social media platform I am using is my corporate blog. This study would tell you that my conclusions are well-taken. The article indicates that companies are gaining a presence on social media platforms. However, the real key is "How successful are they with respect to these platforms?" Make sure you focus on this particular section of the article: Blogging More Successful Than SocNets
Source: Blogging Down Among Inc. 500 but still rated successful. This is the key. Put the effort into your blog and you will see results. The reasons are pretty obvious:
Read this article. Some great information contained in this study. What other items did you see when reading this article? Would be interested in your thoughts. |
| Blogging: A Faster Way to Build Brand and Authority! Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:45 PM PST You visit us here daily and weekly and you come back to read our articles. You Tweet them, share and post them out to your communities because they bring some value to your day and life. We as bloggers in this community really appreciate that. We want you to get to know us as people and professionals. How else do we build the like and trust, that paves the way for a possible professional relationship?
It can build your brand and propel your clout and authority to the top of your field fairly quickly. Content creation and content marketing are only at the beginning. We are officially a 'content generation' world, so get on the train and ride with us. You don't have to be anything more than yourself and do what you are capable of doing, but you should seriously consider adding, updating and integrating blogging into your marketing repertoire. It's NOT negotiable if you want to be taken seriously. You have a personal brand but not enough people know about you? Blogging lets people learn more about you and how you help others. Blogging can get more people to recommend and promote you. Blogging is easy to integrate with email marketing and other social media. Blogging and writing gives people a glimpse into your mind and muse. Blogging is trending strong now and will continue to. Hire somebody to help you or simply commit to getting better at it yourself. It will pay big dividends. Just ask any one of us that write weekly and monthly for this blog. You have helped all of us build our brand and authority in this space. Thank you and please keep coming back. Author: Deborah Shane is an author, media host, speaker, writer and branding strategist. She hosts her Toolbox Blog and is in her third year of hosting a weekly business radio show called Deborah Shane's Metropolis that has over 32K downloads! She is a regular contributor to several national business, career and marketing blogs and websites. Her new book Career Transition-make the shift is available on Amazon.com and all major book sellers. Deborah delivers smart, no-nonsense ideas and solutions, which make her a popular go-to resource for clients, national media and influential blogs. Visit her at www.deborahshane.com. |
| The Importance of Listening. Key to Social Media Success Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:10 PM PST For 2012 we're also blending video blogs into our mix. Check this latest one focusing on the Importance of Listening – a key component for social media success. |
| Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:10 PM PST If the rumours are true, Facebook will file its long-awaited IPO sometime this week and it's going to make history.
|
Are the "Likes" on your Facebook Page plateauing? Even if you're mixing up the content and finding new ways to encourage sharing, it's still possible to experience slow growth. Why? Because there are 800 million active users on Facebook, sharing 
While certain aspects of social media have stabilized (e.g., Facebook is the largest social network and is unlikely to fall to any "Facebook killer" application anytime soon; Google is going to keep trying to build its own social network until it manages to create one that attracts more users than lawsuits), many practices are still evolving. What's the most effective way to grow a company's social influence? How widely within an organization should social media tasks be distributed? How can an brand establish trust online? What are the best practices for sharing content on each major social network? What common mistakes and pitfalls should be avoided? Is it really possible to measure 
Chris Tompkins supplies 10 methods to help "promote your social media profiles OUTSIDE of logging in to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter," such as adding your social media profiles to company email signatures, business cards, advertising and all marketing collateral.
Mark Schaefer explains why be believes it is NOT a good idea to force "social media down the throats of employees at every level of the company," contrary to advice given elsewhere. People bring different skills to the job. As Mark concludes, "Being adept at social media is NOT EASY for everybody. And we should be able to live with that human diversity."
Jeff Bullas lists "50 synergistic social media marketing tips and tactics to market your content and ideas and help them to spread to a global audience," divided into six platform categories: blogging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Slideshare.
Linda Ireland offers helpful tips to marketers on going beyond the basics to take advantage of the unique strengths of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and LinkedIn (e.g., "If you're a B2B company, LinkedIn is a great way to identify, connect with, and build stronger relationships with potential customers by interacting with them through LinkedIn Groups and providing responses to the questions they post on LinkedIn Answers").
Frequent best-of honoree 
Kent Lewis packs an incredible amount of useful information into this concise post, which outlines tactics for marketing success, illustrated with real-world examples, for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, SlideShare, Quora and Foursquare.
Glen Gilmore reviews some high-profile examples of social media legal cases, which, he writes, "have largely been related to cases of egregious misconduct." He then explains the basic legal and regulatory risks associated with social media, and presents a plan to minimize such risks in business social media use.
Commenting on Facebook's dominance and huge market reach that, "while it maybe true that your organization needs a better Facebook strategy, it's also important that you dig a little deeper into social media stats," Allyson Kapin debunks five social media myths. Though her focus is on fundraising and social media use by non-profit organizations, much of the material here applies more broadly.
For those executives who still block or limit access for their employees to social media sites and mobile devices, Adam Hartung reminds readers that personal computers were once looked at as productivity destroyers (PCs were viewed as toys that lacked the robustness of mainframe applications by some CIOs back in the 80s) and warns that "best practices" (e.g., "We need to control employee access to information" and "We need to keep employees focused on their job, without distractions") are a dangerous myth.
Erik Deckers advises against, among other social media faux paus, socialcasting, relying on a single network, or, interestingly, "Putting a B2B company on Facebook or a B2C company on LinkedIn…People go to Facebook to chat with family and friends, not to buy industrial adhesives. People go to LinkedIn to connect with people who can help them do their jobs better, not share their love of your white chocolate macadamia nut brownies."
Neal Rodriguez provides "a comprehensive guide to social networking misconceptions—each accompanied by a tangible action plan that you can take right now," such as "Myth 4: You have to spend hours a day on Twitter" (he recommends using Tweetchats—not a bad idea, but not right for everyone).
Tony Zambito outlines the changes social media has brought to the B2B buying process and identifies four areas where buyer expectations have changed that B2B marketers need to be aware of and address. Another outstanding post from Tony is 
Daisy Whitney provides excellent tips for making the most of YouTube, such as paying special attention to the crucial first 15 seconds of every video you produce; entering your keywords in rank order; and uploading a custom thumbnail image for each video rather than relying on the YouTube default selection.
Todd Wasserman shares advice from entrepreneurs who've been successful with YouTube marketing on best practices for the platform, including buying ads, finding your niche, using technology such as 
Chris Adams of 
Due to the growing importance of social signals in search results, Nick Jones writes that "2011 marks the year when social media has shifted from being nice to essential…Social elements play a huge part in the traffic generated, but also…citations and "votes" in the form of Tweets and Likes go a long way to indicating to search engines that this content has value and deserves to rank for relevant keywords."
Neil Glassman presents his "ten measures of social media marketing ROI," though ROI purists may quibble with some of his entries, e.g., raising the quality and quantity of job applicants by creating a "social culture." But it's an intriguing list nonetheless.
The brilliant Heidi Cohen contends that only a third of companies are attempting to track social media ROI; outlines three reasons why such calculations are difficult (e.g., "Social media interaction tends to happen outside of the purchase process, either before or after"); and presents as alternatives five social media metrics she believes really do matter.
Steve Goldner uses a graphical social media activity scale to explain the differences in tactics and related ROI measurements between "Me-Too'ers" (focused on basic activities like setting up social profiles and adding sharing buttons to their websites) and "Innovators" (integrated social media efforts, formalized social media relationships).
Scott Stratten makes a concise yet blistering argument against obsessing over social media ROI, noting that social media is held "to a higher level of judgment than most things in business," then questioning the ROI of things like meetings, logo-emblazoned coffee mugs and employee commute time.
Frequent best-of contributor 
Scot Wheeler presents a helpful diagram for evaluating social media while also noting that "ROI is not always the best way to evaluate the value of social media engagement to an organization…Often, when management asks for the ROI on social media, what they are really asking for is the value of social media engagement to the business." He then describes the usefulness of awareness, buzz, reach and sentiment as measures of social media value. Also worth checking out is Scot's follow-up to this post, 
Olivier Blanchard serves up an entertaining and informative rant about the continued inability or refusal of many social media professionals to explain the ROI of social media, writing "As annoying and curious as it was, back in 2009, when so many so-called 'experts' and 'gurus' couldn't figure out how to explain, much less determine the ROI of anything relating to social media, it is inexcusable today." He explains the basics of social media ROI measurement, though conceding in the end that "Not all social media activity needs to drive ROI."
Fiona McEachran takes a look at 14 
Klint Finley reports on research regarding social media use in Forture 500 companies covering priorities, success measures, rationale, and brief profiles of successful social media use in big companies (Coca Cola, jetBlue, Dell, Red Bull and others).
Laurie Sullivan highlights research from BrightEdge showing that "Web site pages displaying the Twitter share button get seven times the social media mentions compared with those that do not…(yet) nearly half of the largest 10,000 sites on the Web still don't display any kind of social sharing links or buttons."
Shea Bennett shares more takeaways from Neilsen research, such as that "40% of social media users access content from their mobile handsets," with users over the age of 55 driving much of this growth. Social networks and blogs are visited by more than three-quarters of Internet users. And Tumblr is among the fastest-growing networks, tripling its user base in 2011.
Mart Prööm presents a fascinating collection of infographics, with stats and findings ranging from the percentage of U.S. adults who use social media every day (65%) and the top buyers of social media monitoring tools (43% are social media managers, 19% are agency professionals) to the leading social networks for small business (78% are on Twitter, 75% on Facebook) and a simple process for creating a social media strategy.
So you've followed the sage advice of savvy social media experts like 
I recently changed my main Twitter client (more information on that below) and decided to create a 
In an 
Interestingly, most of the platforms that declined in penetration among the Inc. 500 in 2011 were rated very highly by their users. For example, 92% of those using a blogging platform said it has been successful for their business, up from 86% in 2010. Message/bulletin boards were rated even more highly, with 96% of users finding them successful. By contrast, Facebook was rated successful by only 82% of its users, down from 85% the previous year, putting the social network behind Twitter (86%, up from 81% in 2010), and LinkedIn (90%).
| You are subscribed to email updates from Social | Business 2 Community To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu