'Net Features : twitter

Big Brands Using Twitter for Customer Service

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:35:00 GMT

Have you ever sought out customer service on Twitter from a brand you’re currently doing business with (or are looking to do business with)? If so, you’re definitely not alone.

A new report from Simply Measured indicates that consumer demand for customer service on the social network continues to grow and brands are responding by increasing their investment.

Thirty-two percent of brands now have dedicated customer support handles according to the quarterly study, which examines the Interbrand 100. What’s more, there was a whopping 63 percent increase over the previous quarter in the number of brands that sent over 50 customer service related tweets per day. Apparently, the volume of customer service tweets is growing… and fast.

According to the research, customer service account mentions increased by 5 percent, and brands increased their responses to support issues by 13 percent, delivering nearly 94,000 customer service tweets in the quarter. But is it paying off?

“There’s no questioning the value of Twitter as a critical channel for customer support,” said Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured. “Since we started tracking this data nearly a year ago, we’ve seen brands significantly increase their investment in dedicated support handles, improving their ability to respond quickly while serving more customers. I expect we’ll see this trend continue upward as more brands realize how easy it can be to meet the needs of socially savvy customers.”

The average response time for those brands examined was shortened from 5.1 to 4.6 hours and the average response rate increased from 42 to 45 percent. How exactly are brands’s customer service teams responding?

According to Simply Measured, many are choosing to funnel customer service requests through to traditional support channels where they are better equipped to process issues, track resolution and do so privately. 46% of customer service responses contained one or more of the following tactics:

- Linking users to a website (20 percent)
- Requesting more info (12 percent)
- Directing users to email (9 percent)
- Direct message (6 percent)
- Call a support number (5 percent)

Integrating Audio into Twitter with Audioboo

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:55:00 GMT

Social podcasting player Audioboo, which enables users to record unlimited amounts of audio, announced that it can now be integrated with Twitter media cards.

Audio that is recorded on Audioboo can now be shared on Twitter directly through the platform and played through a bespoke embed in Twitter’s timeline without opening a new window.

“Twitter and Audioboo have always been a great combination, this latest development just makes that integration smoother and faster,” said CEO Rob Proctor. Just like TwitPic brought images into Twitter’s timeline, now Audioboo is adding sound – without breaking away from the Twitter experience to visit another site.”

Twitter Analytics Fails to Impress at Launch

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:19:00 GMT

Twitter is making its Analytics products free to the general social media public.

The information it’s making available however is failing to impress much of anyone (at least me), as most of the data is likely already included in whichever social media listening/management tool that you’re currently using today. There are some bright spots however.

In addition to showing mentions, follows/unfollows, and the click performance of recent tweets (along with how many favorites, retweets and replies it received) it also reveals which tweets had the broadest reach when compared to normal tweets. For example, we were able to tell at a glance that one of our recent tweets had 3x the normal reach. That’s not a game changer, but it is certainly a nice feature.

The inclusion of advertising related analytics, or perhaps even real-time trending topics from a specific following in the future could certainly add some value to social media marketers. Twitter users can access their Twitter Analytics by visiting ads.twitter.com, and logging in with their username and password. Just clicks the ‘Analytics’ link to see the growth of a particular Twitter following, as well as some general statistics on the performance of individual tweets, or the ‘Timeline Activity’ option to dig into the individual tweet performance.

Which Social Network is Best for Merchants?

Michael Garrity — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:00:00 GMT

For the most part, e-commerce and marketing professionals tend to agree that social media plays an important role in the success of an online retail business. That’s good to know, but one tiny problem remains: With so many social networks and ways to interact with consumers on the World Wide Web, which site is THE BEST one to invest your time and energy on?

This is a question that has plagued marketers for a few years now, but since social media has officially been around long enough for every facet of it to be thoroughly examined (in most cases, more than twice), the pros and cons of the various social networks out there are well documented. This means finding the one that is going to be best for merchants should be a cinch, right?

Facebook
When it comes to social media, the first thing that pops into most people’s minds is their Facebook profile. Mark Zuckerberg’s famous website may have a questionable privacy policy, but there’s no doubt that when it comes to growing and engaging with your audience, advertising and even selling your products (through “f-commerce” services from companies like Volusion and Ecwid), Facebook has all of its competitors beat. With more than 1 billion users, Facebook has the largest collection of potential consumers out there, and plenty of ways to get your brand in front of their eyeballs, including its various advertising programs (display ads, Sponsored Stories, etc.) and the new-ish Graph Search feature.

Twitter
Twitter is a great platform for marketing your brand and sharing your unique message with the world. Since you only have 140 characters to say what you need to say, it really ensures that you stick to the essentials (something most marketers would be smart to do more of). It’s also an excellent platform for accepting and responding to customer queries and complaints (and retweeting compliments) in an efficient manner. Plus, with new services like Chirpify, in-stream Twitter-commerce is starting to become a reality, although a shaky and certainly immature reality, for the time being.

Google+
Google+ has yet to come out with a really feasible, useful shopping option like Facebook or Twitter, and it certainly doesn’t have the audience reach that Facebook can offer, but it does do one thing: help you get found. Since G+ is so closely integrated with Google Search, setting up a Google+ Page for your online e-commerce business is a great way to improve the way your business shows up on the world’s most popular search engine (by a long shot). Google+ also offers the added benefit of Google Authorship, which is great for online merchants with a blog, as it will provide their content with more credibility and authority in the SERPs.

Pinterest
Merchants love Pinterest, because it allows them to share images of their products to interested consumers, and we all know how much people on the Internet love pictures. The huge surge in popularity that Pinterest has seen in the last two years has been a dream for retailers, particularly those that sell products that lend themselves to being looked at repeatedly, such as apparel or home décor. And although interested consumers can’t actually make purchases on the social pinboarding site, Pinterest does allow them to click and link and be taken directly the specific page on their website for the product their interested in. So, since it is basically the online version of “just browsing” through a store, and can thus lead to impulsive purchasing decisions, Pinterest is certainly a favorite among online merchants, for good reason.

So, which is best?
Well, I guess that depends on what you’re looking for. Having a presence on the “Big 3” (Facebook, Twitter and Google+) is more or less imperative for different reasons (brand recognition, search visibility, customer engagement, etc.), but finding the one that works best for your business is really a matter of what your company’s unique needs are. While Facebook currently offers the largest selection of audience targeting and advertising options, as well as third-party services that allow you to actually sell your products through the search engine, making it the most solid, go-to social network for most merchants. But with that being said, don’t discount the power of Pinterest as a way to drive interest in your products and help browsing consumers find your offerings while they’re already searching for similar items.

Back to the Basics: A Social Media Content Creation Checklist

Administrator — Wed, 29 May 2013 20:10:00 GMT

:: Kate Salyers, Your Social Status ::

Social media content creation is one of the most ignored steps of a social media strategy. Businesses are often eager to “get in the social media game,” ignoring the need for representative content. At best, this leads to failed and abandoned pages and at worst, the strategy will fail to deliver on any of its potential.

Your current social media strategy may have been very effective for the initial platform it was developed for. However, it is possible that over time, you have added platforms and targeted different users that you initially sought to engage. Whether you have a working content strategy, a strategy that is not performing to the level you hoped, or no strategy, I am sure that this checklist will provide some insight into the process.

Where to start? What type of content is appropriate for each social media platform? Who is my end-user? What do I want them to do when they receive my content? How will I know it was effective? These are all questions that you should have on your mind as you develop a content creation strategy.

Step 1: Identifying social media platforms

It is critical to know your audience. Each platform has its own audience and preferred access method. Too many links embedded in a notification may not be an issue for a platform that relies on a Web browser, but will seem slow or unwieldy if viewed by a smartphone. You can identify your audience on each platform by cross-referencing your site-specific demographics with your current target audience.

Step 2: Defining the content mix

Don’t get lured into using the same message format for all platforms. A strategy is only effective if the content is compelling. As mentioned in Step 1, the content may be the same but delivered differently depending on the platform and the anticipated device. Too many use the same content message across multiple social media platforms, thus not effectively reaching their platform specific target audience.

Also remember that a fresh mix of posts is needed to keep followers interested. For example, you could rotate through sales-based posts, interactive posts, and informative posts to make sure that your page remains worthy of its followers.

Step 3: Organizing and planning your content

Take the necessary time to organize and plan content. Many businesses start well but fail to remain consistent. If the content delivery slows, becomes sporadic or stops, your social media strategy becomes stale and your audience will too.

Stay consistent by planning content on a monthly basis. I recommend two tools to assist in this.

The first tool is a content posting calendar. This could be as simple as a tabbed spreadsheet that is labeled by social media platform. Staying organized ensures that the messages are clear and true to the platform it will be posted on. It also provides a historical perspective on your content development.

The second tool is an automated posting service such as Hootsuite or TweetDeck. Content for multiple platforms can be created and scheduled to be delivered a month in advance. This ensures that content delivery will be “interruption free” in spite of peak times, vacations, etc. Also, the strategy can be viewed in a larger time frame. You should also take care to know when your target audience is most likely to be influenced by your content. Posting about social activities during normal business hours on weekdays will most likely not yield great results. Consider that you are not the only account the end user is following.

Step 4: Tracking the Post

Social media platforms and automated services are not always perfect. Follow up posts by double-checking that the message(s) intended for that day on the platform it was intended for. Verify that the links contained actually work. Take note of the amount of time it takes to load images and videos. Also, record any comments that are generated by a particular post. This will give you immediate feedback as to what might be working.

Step 5: Moderating

Step 5 separates the “posters” from the “strategists.” Showing personality, responding to comments, and engaging the followers is what social media is all about. Whether the comments posted are positive or negative, they require attention. You need to know what is being said about you. Your competition is watching both the comment and your response. The amount of time that lapses between a negative post and your response is very important. Even if you can’t respond completely, you can let the community know that you are looking in to the comment and will respond in full.

Step 6: Collecting Feedback

Collecting feedback from your audience, whether through comments that are given or analytics, is the metric in a successful strategy. Review your followers regularly. If your followers are mainly local, then you should consider times relative to your product and audience. However, if your audience is international, time of day should be taken into account. Free analytics tools can be found on some social media platforms and you should use them to your advantage. Keep an eye out for the number of comments and shares the posts have to help define, or redefine, the days and times you decide to post.

This checklist is part of an iterative process. Changes that you make today will propagate through the user community, they will react and you will collect the data. You will tweak and publish. The cycle continues...

Kate Salyers is the CEO of Your Social Status, a social media and digital marketing training and strategy company based out of Dayton, Ohio. Her years of experience with training and developing social media and digital marketing strategies for Fortune 500 companies like 3M as well as smaller businesses like Towne Properties, has helped her approach social media and digital marketing with a unique approach that caters to multiple industries and user types. She can be reached at kate@yoursocialstatus.com.

8 Ways to Create & Portray Brand Authenticity

Administrator — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:20:00 GMT

:: Eric Taylor, Qwaya ::

A positive brand reputation is something that will serve your business well, especially in the realm of social media. Not every brand is going to become a household name with millions of followers, but well-respected companies stand a better chance of influencing who buys from them (and why) and to what frequency.

Developing a brand’s reputation isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight, but there are many different and useful tips to help you improve your own company’s reputation as an authentic, high-value brand.

8 Ways to Create and Portray Brand Authenticity

1: Figure out Your Purpose and Vision and Match Values

Before you begin your social marketing quest to brand your business, you have to start by taking self-inventory. What are your values, and how do they relate to what you want your brand to stand for? Since a brand should be a personal thing, it should be built on your values – on the values of your business. Your brand should be unwavering in this regard, and unafraid to hold that line.

2: Build a Network Using Organic Elements

Paid advertising is OK and, in most cases, actually necessary if you’re using Facebook, but organic reach has its place too. This is especially true when you’re dealing with brand authenticity. Allowing a network of social sites to develop and share organically—at least in part—really pushes a cleaner, more authentic image.

Editor’s Note: Check out “7 Ways to Build Authority on Google+” and “4 Creative Ways to Use Tumblr for Business” as both of these social networks can affect both a brand’s reputation and search standings.

3: Cater to the Right Market

Authenticity in branding is sometimes as easy as catering to the right audience. For instance, if you’re catering to a broader market than you should be in an attempt to develop mass followers, then your advertising and branding methods are going to stand out as a little all over the place, subsequently giving you a fake, inorganic appearance.

Editor’s Note: Today’s brand marketing isn’t about reaching the largest audience, it’s about personalizing the experience for one person to build loyalty, as a result of brand authenticity and personal relevance. Watch your inboxes and mailboxes for our July issue, which covers this hot topic in depth.

4: Learn From Your Competition

Learning about your competitors is always a fantastic way to glean important information about your branding efforts. The more you understand about how others are appearing authentic, the easier it’s going to be for you to tweak things and to come across in a positive fashion. Sign up for your competition’s newsletters, Like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter and Pinterest.

5: Ask For Feedback Regularly

If you want to know how the public views your brand, then make an effort to ask. It could be as simple as releasing a status update that asks the question, “What do you think about us?” Asking for feedback is par for the course, but make sure to follow up with each responder, so they know their feedback is heard and valued.

Editor’s Note: Discover the top digital survey solutions.

6: Honesty and Transparency as a Policy

One of the premier ways to ensure your brand is seen as authentic is to be very open about what’s going on behind the scenes and also with what’s coming down the pike. Make it a policy to be open and transparent, not only in your social media branding (e.g. posts, responses, who your brand follows, etc.) but in all of your online marketing. You will benefit greatly from this.

7: Don’t Lower Your Standards

There are many times when you will be tempted to roll around on the floor with the heathens on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Yelp, or even in your own comment sections. But if you care to notice, the biggest, most well-respected brands out there that engage with fans on social media only do so when they’re approached with positive intent. In other words, the flame-happy trolls don’t receive any feedback. And this is how it should be. Don’t lower your standards by playing around in the mud. Companies should attempt to take brand “distractors” offline by asking them to email someone within the business, so they can solve the issue at hand.

8: Incorporate an Actual Personality

No brand can remain all business, all the time and actually appear to be personable, transparent and authentic. What are you actually doing for the real people following your brand if you’re not allowing your brand to have its own personality? Your brand is a living, breathing thing that needs to have its own voice and personality. And while that voice should directly coincide with your values and your message, it’s still important to inject personality into it. This could include posting images of a company picnic or publishing notes on how a product launch really went down (e.g. long nights and lots of pizza).

Coming across as an authentic brand will open many doors that were seemingly unavailable. Believe it or not, brand authenticity and brand size have a direct correlation. In other words, those brands viewed as authentic are those brands that become household names and big players. Fortunately, social media and the Web, in general, can even the playing field. But before you go tinkering around with the recipe in order to boost your brand’s reach, look at it from an organic, authentic standpoint.

Author's bio:

Eric Taylor is a social media enthusiast, freelance writer and business developer for a Facebook ad campaign tool - Qwaya. The company also provides extensive information, tools and up-to-date news about social media marketing strategies latest trends, most specifically in Facebook.

Social Media Solution Uses Twitter to Drive Traffic to Partner Channels

Michael Garrity — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:15:00 GMT

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company TIE Kinetix has added a new social element to its Content Syndication Platform with the launch of the Social Media Syndication Solution that is designed to make delivering dynamic marketing messages to a partner community on Twitter more accurate and effective.

This solution was created to allow vendors that sell through partners to connect their Twitter messages with the “right” content and lead capturing tools that will use syndication to drive conversions on their partners’ websites, and when that happens, it boosts sales and benefits both parties.

“Twitter is an extremely powerful tool in today’s business world,” said TIE Kinetix CEO Jan Sundelin. “We’re excited to be offering our customers a unique solution that enhances their marketing efforts and helps them better utilize these key social avenues.”

So, companies leveraging Twitter in their sales cycles can use the Social Media Syndication Solution to send messages from multiple partner Twitter handles, and users will not be able to detect the involvement of the original company at all. Plus, since it’s integrated into the Content Syndication Platform, when tweets include a PDF attachment, it will automatically be co-branded for each partner, and other links in tweets will direct traffic to the website of the partner that originally posted the message.

“This solution allows companies to not only tap into their own Twitter base, but also effectively access their partners’ Twitter followers,” explained Sundelin, “Which increases the number of eyeballs on their marketing material exponentially, in turn boosting sales and revenue for all.”

The first company to utilize this new solution is the longtime TIE Kinetix customer Siemens Enterprise Communications, which partners with a number of small resellers that have few marketing resources. Through the Social Media Syndication Solution, however, Siemens is able to help its partners cultivate their Twitter presence by automatically posting its own content to its partners’ followers, which helps them “find, engage and nurture new potential sales opportunities.”

Five Mother’s Day Social Strategies

Allison Howen — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:00:00 GMT

Sunday is Mother’s Day, which not only means that you still have time to pick up gifts for the most important ladies in your life, but also that brands have put their Mother’s Day marketing campaigns into full force across all social networks.

In fact, every holiday, event and change of season provides marketers with a timely promotional angle. And naturally, all brands take a different approach in their holiday-related campaigns. For example, a retailer typically promotes products as gift ideas, while content publishers create relevant content or contests to increase engagement. Yet, the best and most complete strategies combine multiple techniques in order to cater to every fan and followers’ preferences.

Website Magazine located five stellar Mother's Day social examples to offer inspiration for this holiday and future ones, too. Remember, Father’s Day is just around the corner…

Goal: Get People Talking

Brand: Seventh Generation

Social Network: Facebook

Strategy: Seventh Generation took to Facebook to ask a feel-good question and remind us how important moms are in our lives. The company’s use of an image to assist in asking the question “What is the best advice your mom has ever given you?” certainly grabs fans’ attention better than a text-based post and most likely leads to better engagement rates. Additionally, these fan interactions help Seventh Generation foster better relationships with its customers, as well as helps to increase brand awareness.

Goal: Generate Conversions

Brand: Sephora

Social Network: Pinterest

Strategy: Retailers and Pinterest go together like peanut butter and jelly, as this social network has proven to drive valuable traffic to e-commerce websites. Beauty company Sephora is taking advantage of this influential social network by creating an entire board devoted to Mother’s Day gift ideas. Not only do these featured items take visitors directly to product pages on Sephora's website when clicked on, but many of the images also include the hashtag, #mothersday, in order to increase the product's and Sephora's visibility on the pin boarding social network.

Goal: Boost Follower Numbers

Brand: ExtraTV

Social Network: Twitter

Strategy: Giveaways and contests are always a good tactic for increasing your social following, so why not combine these promotions with a timely event? Not only does this strategy from ExtraTV help the brand obtain more followers, but since the company asks for retweets, it also increases their visibility. Plus, this strategy will ultimately leave the two winning followers very happy.

We're giving away 2 @bfflco gift bags for #MothersDay! Follow @extratv & RT this message for your chance to win! bit.ly/MDWin
— ExtraTV (@extratv) May 7, 2013

Goal: Increase Brand Awareness

Brand: Google

Social Network: Google+

Strategy: Another feel-good strategy comes from Google, who has chosen to use Sunday’s holiday as a way to shamelessly promote its very own social network. That said, this video is very relatable (almost a tear-jerker), and truly shows how technology can be used to connect with the most important people in your life.

Goal: Improve Visibility and Engagement

Brand: Beats By Dre

Social Network: Twitter

Strategy: Advertisements are always a good way to increase your brand’s visibility, but Beats By Dre takes this strategy a step further by using an interactive and timely Promoted Tweet to reach new audience members. In fact, once someone clicks on the link to make a #Pillconfession (Pill is the name of one the company’s wireless speakers), they are directed to the company’s website where they can explore products and interact with the #Pillconfession campaign by posting a Mother’s Day confession either on Twitter or Facebook. Additionally, visitors can view the confessions of other consumers at the bottom of the webpage, which features an interactive collage of tweets and posts.

Got a #pillconfession? Make yours on beats.is/PillConfessTW. Apologies to moms everywhere! twitter.com/beatsbydre/sta…
— Beats By Dre (@beatsbydre) May 2, 2013

Now Open: Twitter Self-Serve Ads

Allison Howen — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:30:00 GMT

After spending a year in limited release, Twitter has finally opened its self-service advertising program to the public.

This is not only big news for businesses who maintain an active presence on the micro-blogging social network, but also for businesses that are new to Twitter and professionals who are trying to grow their personal brand – as these ads improve a user’s visibility and can even help a business increase key metrics like conversions.

Twitter Self-Serve Ads 101

Twitter's self-service platform offers Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts as advertising formats. Both formats are labeled as “Promoted” when they appear on the social network so that users can easily identify them as paid advertisements. That said, all Promoted content is displayed next to regular content on a Twitter user’s newsfeed, which means that these ads don’t interrupt the user experience.

Promoted Tweets, for example, appear in the newsfeed on mobile devices, desktops, laptops and tablets, while Promoted Accounts are featured in the “Who to follow” area of the homepage.

Once you begin the ad creation process, Twitter offers a variety of targeting options, including by location, gender, interest categories, user names, device and platform. These options should be leveraged to help users reach the most relevant audience. After the campaign’s audience has been selected, creating a budget is the next step.

Twitter’s self-serve ads only require users to pay when targeted audience members engage with Promoted Tweets or Accounts. This includes interactions such as clicks, retweets, replies, favorites and follows. During the set-up process, users can select their daily maximum budget as well as maximum bid per engagement or follow. In order to make the process easier for new advertisers, Twitter even provides a recommended maximum budget for each ad type ($1.50 for Promoted Tweets and $2.50 for Promoted Accounts). Moreover, the social network provides an “Estimated Reach” graph within the self-service interface, so that users have a better understanding of how their budget and targeting options will affect their ad’s visibility.

It is also important to note that Twitter’s self-serve ad platform provides users with real-time analytics, which can be used to analyze and optimize future campaigns. For instance, the Promoted Tweets dashboard displays valuable ad metrics, such as impressions, number of clicks and click rate, while the Follower growth chart helps users keep track of their brand's growth by providing data on followers that have been gained with and without Promoted Accounts.

5 Best Practices

1. Take advantage of location targeting – Twitter’s targeting options allow users to target by location on a country, state/region and metro level. This allows users to decide if their campaign should be launched on either a very broad or a local level. Moreover, users can target numerous locations with one campaign, which is beneficial to brands that are present in a variety of areas, businesses that have storefronts in multiple locations and expanding businesses.

2. Reach relevant people/groups – Ads perform best when they are displayed to people who are interested in the advertiser and their content, which is why this targeting option can greatly influence an ad’s effectiveness. Users can target by both @username interest and interest category. The interest category option is helpful when trying to reach a specific group of people, while the @username option helps businesses make sure their ads reach specific and influential Twitter users.

3. Target based on device/platform – The device and platform targeting options allow users to focus their campaigns on their most valuable or relevant customers. For example, if you’re launching a Promoted Tweet for a new iOS app, you most certainly want to target iOS devices and probably desktop and laptop computers, however, you might want to leave Android and Blackberry users out of your campaign so that your ad dollars aren’t wasted.

4. Don’t be over-promotional – The best part of Promoted Tweets is that they are incorporated into a user’s newsfeed, which means they are not an in-your-face advertisement. That said, the best way to obtain higher engagement rates with these ads is to make sure the content appears as it would in a regular tweet. This doesn’t mean that these tweets can’t contain links or some type of promotional information, however, it’s important to stay relatable so that customers are more likely to interact with your ads.

5. Amplify existing tweets – If you have already posted an engaging tweet that contains content suitable for an advertisement (such as a white paper link, a look at a new product or info on a hot promotion), consider using it for a Promoted Tweet. Twitter allows users to promote multiple tweets, including new and existing posts. Since some content has already proved to be engaging, businesses can put it in front of a brand new audience to further increase its visibility and boost its audience interactions.

Target Twitter Ads with Keywords

Allison Howen — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 18:25:00 GMT

Twitter is stepping up its ad game with its latest launch of keyword targeting in timelines.

Keyword targeting allows advertisers on the micro-blogging social network to reach consumers based on the keywords in their recent tweets and the tweets that they have recently engaged with. According to Twitter’s blog, this feature is especially valuable for advertisers looking for signals of intent, because it lets them reach users at the right moment and in the right context.

“For example: let’s say a user tweets about enjoying the latest album from their favorite band, and it so happens that band is due to play a concert at a local venue,” the blog post states. “That venue could now run a geotargeted campaign using keywords for that band with a Tweet containing a link to buy the tickets. That way, the user who tweeted about the new album may soon see that Promoted Tweet in their timeline letting them know tickets are for sale in their area.”

It is important to note that this new feature won’t disrupt the user-experience on Twitter, because the social network isn’t showing ads more frequently in timelines and consumers still have the ability to dismiss Promoted Tweets that they don’t find relevant. Moreover, the Promoted Tweets that users do see should, overall, be more relevant to their topics of interest. In fact, Twitter claims that the results of its tests with a small group of advertisers show that consumers were more likely to engage with Promoted Tweets that used keyword targeting.

The feature is currently available in the full Twitter Ads UI and through the Ads API. Advertisers interested in setting up a campaign that uses target keyword simply need to enter the keywords that they want to target, choose whether they want to use phrase match or unordered keyword match, and then specify any other desired targeting options, such as location, device or gender.

Viral content is king for marketers says Twitter's Bain

Administrator — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:00:00 GMT

:: by Lindsay Whitehurst, Website Magazine Special Contributor ::

One way to think of Twitter is as a digital watercooler, a gathering place for people to talk about their favorite TV shows, latest news or make a political statement.

Though it is one heck of a watercooler.

“About 400 million tweets are sent through the platform every day,” said Adam Bain, Twitter’s president of global revenue, at the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit in March. The platform now has 200 million active users, up from 100 million a year ago.

“We’re growing quite nicely,” Bain said — something of an understatement. Hired away from News Corp. almost three years ago as part of an effort to ramp up the company’s monetization efforts, according the blog TechCrunch, Bain is focused on mobile ads. They are expected to account for about half of Twitter’s $582.8 million in advertising revenue this year, and the company is expected to make nearly $1 billion next year on the strength of mobile, according to the research firm eMarketer, reported by Reuters.

“We have to get past this mobile first … It’s not just mobile first, it’s mobile only,” Bain said. Despite its relative youth, Bain said he doesn’t need to convince companies of the power of the platform.

“In my journey to go see [companies] I thought I would need to tell the story of ‘Why Twitter?’” Bain said. “Everyone knew why. The biggest question was, ‘How?’”

Twitter’s answer to that question, at least in part, is content. Create something fascinating, something that people want to pass on and share, and users do marketers’ work for them. Think word of mouth on steroids.

“When you touch our platform, you come ... with a key question — What’s hot, what’s new, what’s happening in the world,” Bain said. “Our core thesis is that, in order to measure the wallet, you have to first start by measuring the mind and heart.”

On Twitter, users don’t create in-depth profiles. Instead, they constantly create, and re-create, online personas. “You are what you tweet, you are who you follow, you are who you re-tweet,” said Bain.

Marketers need to be “so good, so interesting, so thought provoking that … people want to spread it out at their own personal risk,” Bain said. Do that, and users can be “moving the message on the marketer’s behalf.”

That take also recognizes the medium’s organic, grassroots streak, something Bain says Twitter took into account when designing their strategy for brand enhancement.

“It’s not enough to just be loud,” he said.

But Twitter still has more in prove to show online watercooler buzz can translate into dollars.

“What you’re really going to see from us is deep investigation on the analytics side,” Bain said, referencing the company’s recent acquisition of Bluefin Labs, a social TV analytics company. “The product works when we’re sending you to someplace that’s interesting.”

2013: Social SEO Required

Administrator — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:47:00 GMT

By Clayburn Griffin, Organic Search Director at Catalyst

Good SEOs can no longer ignore social. It may have been possible last year, while search engines were still experimenting with the incorporation of social signals into their algorithms, but in 2013, Social SEO is required.

The Web is an evolving system. The old system of using backlinks to determine authority and relevance by the search engines has become outdated. This was the system pioneered by Google, and while links are still important, search engines are realizing that social media has changed the very nature of the Internet.

Now people online engage with content and websites in a variety of ways that all tie back to their identity. Identity is the key to Social SEO. Search engines are giving people their own authority and relevance, just as they would a website, and the signals that a user gives to a piece of content pass the user’s authority and relevance to it. These signals tell search engines that a user, a specific user with certain interests and proficiencies, approves of pieces of content. These signals range from simple votes (likes, +1’s) to shares (tweets, posts) and even commenting. Search engines incorporate these social signals into their ranking algorithms.

Social SEO is about optimizing for these social signals in order to boost search engine rankings. To get you going in the right direction with your Social SEO initiatives, here are a few tips that will help to ensure your Social SEO strategy is successful.

Optimize Your Site for Engagement

You drive traffic to your website from several channels, but without engagement from these visitors, you’re missing the opportunity to enhance your authority. You can increase engagement by making it easy for them by including proper social sharing buttons. Don’t go with one of those catchall widgets that clutter your website and look tacky. Use the buttons that matter most, namely: Facebook Like, Twitter Tweet and Google +1.

These buttons allow easy sharing and should be placed within or around the content that they’re meant to share. Don’t put these buttons in your header. People expect share buttons to be associated with the content they’re positioned around on a Web page. If you have a Like button in your header, then it may seem to be for your brand’s page or your homepage rather than the specific content being shared. And a single page that lists many pieces of content should include each piece’s associated share buttons in an intuitive way.

Facebook Like:

• Consider whether you should use Like or Recommend. Should you include Send?

• Set the proper Open Graph tags on each page so that the posts to Facebook contain the appropriate information. Always include a thumbnail image (e.g., the og:image tag to designate the specific image on the page).

Twitter Tweet:

• Set the tweet text. Use an engaging message that will describe the link and help get click-through from impressions.

• Use relevant hashtags. You can set the hashtag attribute to pre-populate the tweet with a hashtag. If your content is relevant to a popular hashtag, include it to help every tweet get more exposure and add more relevancy to the link being tweeted.

• Identify yourself as the author (via). After the tweet, users are suggested to follow the Twitter handle. So, help them connect with you when they share your content.

• To make a secondary suggestion, fill out the Related attribute. This account will be suggested alongside the author recommendation. Commenting is also important to engagement. Make it easy for users to comment on your content without the need to log in. If you include a login feature as well, provide multiple options. Disqus is a particularly good commenting system and is a social network of its own in a sense.

Use Google+

Don’t neglect Google+. While the activity numbers may not be as impressive as Facebook’s, it has a far greater impact on search results. Whether people actively use Google+ or not, many are performing searches while logged into their Google account (and in many cases this is also their Google+ account). Organic traffic from the (not provided) keyword has been increasing substantially recently, and this traffic is from people signed into Google when performing a search.

So, even if they aren’t posting to Google+, their search results will be affected and their social connections will have a big influence on those results. That means the people who are using Google+ regularly have considerable power to shift rankings.

Make sure you’re on Google+ connecting with people and sharing your content. Gain additional exposure for your brand by contributing in relevant Google+ Communities, as well.

Empower Your Employees

Having a social media policy that encourages employees to be active in social media can help create many brand evangelists on the Web for you. In addition, key members of your organization may be in a good position to lend major credibility and authority to your Social SEO campaign.

Provide a list of your social media profiles so that employees are able to find them easily. On occasion send out a company email to promote new content on your website and ask employees to share it via their social media accounts.

Read More

For a more in-depth analysis of Social SEO, you can read Catalyst’s newly published ebook “Social SEO Strategies: Mastering the Art of Social SEO.” The publication explains the nuts and bolts of Social SEO, as well as provides a roadmap for campaign set-up, strategy development, execution tactics, tools, automation and performance metrics. The complimentary eBook (PDF format) is available on the Catalyst website at:

By Clayburn Griffin

Clayburn Griffin is an Organic Search Director at Catalyst, a pioneer in strategic digital marketing services for Fortune 1000 brands. Catalyst’s services include: SEO, paid search marketing, social SEO, content strategy, digital asset optimization, e-retail optimization, and more.

Pinfluencer Gets a New Name and Social E-Commerce Product

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:15:00 GMT

Pinfluencer literally made a name for itself by providing marketing and return-on-investment (ROI) analytics to brand’s using the Pinterest social network. However, as the company begins to move away from only using information from Pinterest and Facebook to incorporating image-based sites like Twitter, Tumblr and Polyvore into its platform, it felt like maybe a name-change was in order.

From now on, Pinfluencer will be known as Piqora, a marketing suite that will include analytics, promotions, content management and even social e-commerce.

“We have changed our name to Piqora, because it is an elegant blend of piquing one’s curiosity and inquiry about products,” explained the company’s CEO, Sharad Verma. “The new name also implies pictures and the IQ lends itself to deep analysis. This encompasses the essence of what we do.”

As mentioned, the new moniker isn’t the only big news to come from Piqora; the company is also launching a new social e-commerce product for brands on Pinterest and Facebook known as Gallery, a tablet-optimized and automated visual feed of a company’s current stock and top trending products on social media. Not only will this establish a social commerce experience for consumers, but (more importantly), it helps marketers turn their social traffic into conversions.

Since Pinterest is such a visual discovery experience that promotes browsing, pinning and purchases, it seemed like a natural choice to the folks at Piqora that they should find a way to turn these users into customers. Naturally, the best way to do that is by offering visually compelling product options on channels like Pinterest and Facebook. The Gallery landing pages for Pinterest-driven traffic promote on-site product browsing, pinning and purchases.

“Our new Gallery product gives brands a way to nurture their discovery traffic from social networks and tablet users,” said Verma, adding that it can also “showcase what is most popular and offer customers a rich, boutique-type browsing experience.”

In addition, Piqora will also monitor the social “pinning” activity on Facebook and Pinterst and examine search queries, traffic and purchase data from Google Analytics, Omniture and Coremetrics.

TweetDeck Upgrades Search Functionality, Offers Column Filters

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:05:00 GMT

Twitter-owned Tweetdeck, arguably the most popular platform for social media users to manage the Twitter conversations, has released a set of column filters for both the Tweetdeck web and Chrome apps.

Twitter recently released content filters for search columns as well – part of its efforts to bring features and functionality of its AIR app to the Web.

Users will be able to show (match) or exclude specific words and phrases from an individual TweetDeck columns as well as choose to view only those Tweets (or retweets) that contain media (images or video). It’s not difficult to see how improved filtering will make it easier to scan and find specific tweets or content within them.

Does Follower Score Matter?

Allison Howen — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:00:00 GMT

One of the best ways to gain digital popularity is by marketing your brand on social networks like Twitter.

Professionals and brands alike can leverage social sites to reach a large audience, foster relationships and gain free word-of-mouth advertising. Of course, obtaining an impressive Twitter following is easier said than done. The most common strategy is to follow people or companies in hopes they will return the favor. But how often do the Twitter elite actually use this tactic?

In order to find out, Website Magazine looked at the follower-to-following ratio of 20 popular Twitter handles –10 individual accounts with more than 10,000 followers each and 10 verified brand accounts. This ratio has been labeled as the Follower Score, and it shows whether or not some of Twitter’s most successful handles lean on the people they follow in order to boost their own following.

Check out the results of the Follower Score audit below:

Individuals – Average Follower Score: 33%

1. Lisa Taron @ThePetBookLady – Follower Score: 49%

2. Kacey @sparkliebarbie – Follower Score: 2%

3. Dora Woodrum @dorawoodrum – Follower Score: 42%

4. Justin Maudlin @friscofoodie – Follower Score: 29%

5. Lilach Bullock @lilachbullock – Follower Score: 42%

6. Tara Stiles @tarastiles – Follower Score: 3%

7. Lauren Berlingeri @lazaberlingeri – Follower Score: .7%

8. Harley Pasternak @harleypasternak – Follower Score: .2%

9. Kim Garst @kimgarst – Follower Score: 94%

10. Trisha Haas @MomDot following – Follower Score: 64%

Brands – Average Follower Score: 14%

1. Olive Garden @olivegarden – Follower Score: 2%

2. MailChimp @MailChimp – Follower Score: 18%

3. Tillamook Cheese @TillamookCheese – Follower Score: 47%

4. Sephora @Sephora – Follower Score: 33%

5. Urban Outfitters @UrbanOutfitters – Follower Score: .2%

6. Dominos @dominos – Follower Score: 7%

7. E! Online @eonline – Follower Score: 2%

8. Huffington Post @HuffingtonPost – Follower Score: .2%

9. Whole Foods Market @WholeFoods – Follower Score: 17%

10. DeVry University @DeVryUniv – Follower Score: 10%

Takeaways

While the results of the Follower Score audit varied greatly, the calculations do show that individuals who market themselves on Twitter typically follow a larger percentage of people than brands that are doing the same thing. This is most likely because these people don’t already have a customer base and therefore need to depend on networking with others in order to increase their following.

That being said, there are many additional strategies one can use to obtain a larger audience on Twitter, including using trending topic hashtags on a regular basis, promoting a Twitter account on other digital properties, interacting with followers and, most importantly, posting a variety of intriguing content. After all, obtaining followers is only half the battle, because once that is achieved, you need to find a way to keep them engaged.