'Net Features : twitter

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.

Twitter Gamification with Bunchball Nitro Connectors

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:05:00 GMT

Gamification is a digital trend that captured my attention since it first began to emerge. Why? Well, I think people need motivation – but motivation doesn’t always have to come in the form of money. Sometimes it’s enough to be about our ego alone.

Bunchball is one of those gamification providers that seems to have everything figured out – as if you couldn’t tell from our coverage (seen below). But the gamification technology provider apparently has no plan to stop bringing gamification to the digital business masses in every way possible.

The company has announced plans to release a connector to Twitter for its Nitro gamification engine and its Integrated Nitro solutions.

Bunchball’s Nitro Connectors enable enterprises to connect gamification programs to enterprise applications and social networking tools. With Nitro Connector for Twitter, Bunchball customers will have at their disposal a rather powerful way to motivate site vistiors, consumers and employees to post tweets that support brands and campaigns. Companies can define and track phrases and hashtags that relate to their products, services or indstures and detect when users include them in tweets – rewarding users for their activity.

"Bunchball's Nitro Connector for Twitter is a great example of the value that our Nitro Connectors bring to customers. You can easily and quickly extend your gamification initiatives to include tweets containing the hashtags or phrases you care about most, at the moment that you care about them. With Nitro Connector for Twitter, we're helping customers drive the behaviors that drive their business."

More from Website Magazine on Bunchball:

- Making Gamification a Reality

- Bunchball Gamification Bounces into Salesforce

Twitter Allows AmEx Customers to Buy Products by Tweeting

Michael Garrity — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 18:35:00 GMT

Will that be cash, check or…tweet?

Yesterday, Twitter announced the kind of shocking news that users will now be able to pay for products by simply tweeting thanks to a new integrated payment system from American Express.

This feature is known as Amex Sync, and as the name suggests, it allows Twitter users to sync their American Express cards with their accounts on the social network (which means, of course, that this ability is currently limited to American Express customers only). Once the two accounts have been merged, users can buy selected items by including special hashtags in their tweets.

Once users have tweeted this hashtag, they’ll receive a response from the @AmexSync Twitter account; after that, all they have to do is tweet the confirmation hashtag within 15 minutes and the transaction is completed. All products will be delivered to the billing address that the user has on file.

Amex Sync was actually originally launched last year, but at the time it just let customers receive special offers, discounts or deals by tweeting specific hashtags; this new ability to purchase items was apparently the next logical step in the partnership between the two brands. It is particularly advantageous for Twitter, as the partnership provides a new source of revenue for a website that has long been reliant almost solely on advertising dollars.

At present, American Express has said that users can purchase “American Express Gift Cards and products from Amazon, Sony, Urban Zen and Xbox 360” using the Amex Sync payment system.

I guess all that’s left to do now is sit back and see if social commerce on Twitter takes off and finds greater success than it has so far on Facebook, where the results have (for the most part) been disappointing, at best.

Content Marketing Without a Blog

Administrator — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:00:00 GMT

It’s no secret that content marketing has a phenomenal ROI (the statistics only seem to get better with each passing year). In fact, Kapost and Eloqua recently produced an eBook on the ROI of content marketing in which they stated that per dollar content marketing produces three times the number of leads as compared to traditional marketing.

Unfortunately, many businesses have shied away from content marketing, mistaking the term for a synonym of “blogging,” which is not the end-all-be-all of content marketing. In fact, I can think of seven ways you can do content marketing without a blog…

Vlog

Not much for writing, but love talking? Share your experience and knowledge through a vlog series on YouTube, and promote it through your Twitter and Facebook page. Trust me, this works. If you need any evidence, allow me to point you to the wildly successful "Will It Blend?" campaign by Blendetc.

Podcast

You aren’t much for appearing on camera either. That’s fine – go the route of the podcast. Interview experts in your industry, or just take 10 minutes to address your customers’ frequently asked questions. The podcast is still a viable form of content marketing. Plus, it’s the only non-visual form on this list.

Facebook & Twitter

It almost goes without saying that Facebook and Twitter are great ways to drive a content marketing strategy, but don’t take my word for it. 76 percent of businesses are using social networking for business objectives.

Infographics

Are you in an industry that loves statistics and facts? (Hint – the answer is a resolute ‘yes’.) Put the right amount of creativity and effort into it, and you can have an infographic that goes viral. Seriously, any business can leverage an infographic to their advantage. As an example, take Brilliance, a jeweler whose “Kardashian Wedding vs. Average Wedding” infographic went viral in 2011. The infographic brought in thousands of visitors to the company’s website because it was well done and interesting.

Whitepapers

So, I said I have seven strategies that avoid blogging, but not writing. If you’re a B2B company, then a white paper could be just the thing you need to widen your reach and generate hundreds of new leads. If there’s no one in your company capable of writing a rock-solid white paper, then it’s worth budgeting some cash to pay a professional to do the job. A half-baked white paper receives the same critical acclaim that a half-baked research paper earned you in high school. Back then, it was a C+. Today, it’s money down the drain.

Knowledge Bank

You can approach the Knowledge Bank strategy in one of these two ways (or both): your bank could be an organized index to all of the resources on your website, and/or it could serve as a roundup of the web’s “Best of the Best.” Either way, the point is to make valuable information organized and easy to find.

Pinterest & Instagram

At the end of Aug. 2012, the Los Angeles Times described Pinterest and Instagram’s growth as “meteoric,” citing a 2,183 percent growth over the course of one year for Pinterest. Instagram has performed remarkably well, too. From July 2011 to July 2012, monthly traffic increased from 56,360 to 12 million. On Thanksgiving Day 2012, Instagram users shared a jaw-dropping 10 million photos. If your product or service has a visual draw, then sign up with these sites today.

The Bonus

There are many benefits of doing content marketing with a blog. According to the 2012 Digital Content Marketing Survey, blogging is the second-most utilized form of Web content (75 percent), right behind social media (90 percent). Also, the best results come from social media content, e-newsletters and blogs.

Though we’re still waiting on the 2013 Survey, I’d be surprised if the blog isn’t holding steady.

About the Author

Amie Marse, is the founder and managing partner of Content Equals Money, a content writing service for agencies and Web-based clients.

4+ Ways to Engage with Twitter's Vine Videos

Allison Howen — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:45:00 GMT

Social networks can sometimes feel like a jungle, so Twitter decided to add a vine to the mix (not literally, of course).

Vine is Twitter’s new mobile service that allows users to capture and share short, six seconds or less, looping videos. According to a blog post from the social network, the briefness of Vine videos is meant to inspire creativity, just like Tweets. Moreover, the videos capture sound in addition to motion. Currently Vine is available for free in iTunes for both the iPhone and iPod Touch, but it is important to note that Twitter is working to make it available on other platforms soon.

The best part about Vine is that it opens up a completely new way for brands to connect with their customers on Twitter. In fact, some companies have already started using the application to engage with followers, including Urban Outfitters, NBC News and Red Vines. In a smart move, Red Vines even turned its Vine media post into a promoted post, so that a larger audience will have a chance to engage with the content. However, creating a six-second video that engages audiences can be more difficult than it seems, which is why Website Magazine has put together a list of strategies brands can implement when leveraging Vine to interact with their followers. Check out the examples below:

(Tip: Click on the video to pause/start it)

Preview Content

One of the most practical uses of the new Vine app is to provide a (very) brief preview of a longer piece of video content that you want users to watch, much like the Birmingham City Football Club does below. Of course, you’ll also want to include a link to the full video if one is available.

Callum Reilly sat down to talk to @blues_tv earlier. Look out for the full feature. #BCFC vine.co/v/b5FhmD0mgUU
— Birmingham City FC (@BcfcDotCom) January 25, 2013

Take Users Behind-the-Scenes

Many brands, including BuzzFeed and NBC News, have been using Vine to take their followers behind the scenes of their businesses and offices. This helps consumers feel more connected with your brand, but can also be entertaining.

Dancing vine.co/v/b5dpFadpuUQ
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) January 25, 2013

A quick tour inside 30 Rock with @twitter's new mobile app, Vine. vine.co/v/b5H9K2WIYej
— NBC News (@NBCNews) January 24, 2013

Branding

Social media is one of the most powerful branding tools available to marketers, and companies like Red Vines, as aforementioned, have already found interesting ways to push their brand using Twitter's new app.

We made a @vineapp Vine video of Red Vines. #Vineception vine.co/v/b5D7vzrz6OY
— Red Vines (@RedVines) January 25, 2013

Good Clean Fun

You can increase engagement and score a few extra retweets by simply posting fun – or funny – videos that will capture the attention of Twitter users. Just look at these entertaining videos that Urban Outfitters and The Daily Beast have posted.

The most important Vine you'll ever see. #uodogs vine.co/v/b5HEYV0IQPJ
— Urban Outfitters (@UrbanOutfitters) January 24, 2013

Our #firstpost on Vine! Malia Obama photobomb, natch. vine.co/v/b5HA7MJ5eAU
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) January 24, 2013

And More

The Vine application is still hot-off-the-presses, so all of the innovative ways that it can be used as a Twitter marketing tools haven’t even been thought of yet, let alone explored. But as of right now, its usefulness only seems limited by a marketer’s imagination. For instance, Vine can help companies show off new products, improve customer support by answering questions or providing tutorials and can even be used to share (retweet) consumer-generated content about a product or business. And that’s just the beginning!

Profile Inspirations for the Big 4 Social Networks

Allison Howen — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:55:00 GMT

In today’s digital age, it is important for every business to broaden its audience reach by maintaining a presence on four of the ’Net’s most popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

However, posting engaging content and interacting with fans is just one part of the equation when it comes to maintaining a successful social presence, with the other part of the equation being design. In fact, often times, brands focus solely on posting a variety of content to social networks and forget about optimizing the real estate on their profile altogether.

Luckily, Website Magazine has found some of the best examples of social profiles on the Web to help provide some inspiration for future profile-redesign projects. Check them out below:

Facebook

There is a large amount of space to work with on Facebook Pages, most notably, the 851 x 315 px cover photo that is featured at the top of every profile. Although most brands have a Facebook presence, few utilize the social network’s design aspects quite like the brands below.

Kit Kat
This sweet company takes fan engagement to a whole new level by prominently featuring fans on its cover photo.

Priceline
This travel company has streamlined its marketing initiatives by using its Facebook cover photo to promote its ongoing “Priceline Negotiator” campaign. Moreover, the image features a specific hashtag so that fans can take their conversations from Facebook to Twitter without missing a beat.

Method
Method maintains a clean design by featuring and identifying its line of products on a white background in the company’s cover photo.

Twitter

Designing a Twitter profile can be tricky, because this micro-blogging social network displays profile pictures directly in the middle of the 520 x 260 px header images. As if creating a design that works with two images wasn’t hard enough, Twitter profiles also leave room for background images, which can appear differently on computer screens depending on resolution. However, the trick is to make all these elements come together into one large design.

Beggin’ Strips
Purina’s Twitter account for the delectable doggie treat, Beggin’ Strips, uses strategic placement to make its profile picture and header image appear as one design.

IKEA USA
While IKEA USA’s Twitter header and background image flow together nicely, the company keeps its branding initiatives strong by featuring the company’s icon as its profile picture.

CoreCommerce
CoreCommerce does a really good job at maintaining a simple profile design on Twitter that still attracts attention with the use of bright colors. Additionally, the company uses its background design to let prospective clients know exactly what type of services they can expect from the CoreCommerce platform.

Google+

Although Google+ hasn’t taken off in the way that social sites like Facebook and Twitter did, it is still vital for companies to maintain a profile on this network – to boost their SEO initiatives, if for nothing else. The main design elements to focus on when optimizing a Google+ profile include the large 250 x 250 px profile picture and the even larger cover photo, which measures 890 x 180 px.

San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo has an unfair advantage when it comes to design, because its entire business is built on animals, and who doesn’t like looking at pictures of animals? That being said, the zoo still took some time to create a cover photo and profile image that feature a variety of the zoo’s inhabitants – mammals, birds and amphibians.

Instagram
For proof that simple is sometimes better, look no further than Instagram’s Google+ profile design.

Silverpop
This cover photo has been leveraged to visually feature the types of services that Silverpop offers.

Brands attract a whole different type of audience on LinkedIn, which is a good thing. However, optimizing the design on LinkedIn Company Pages can be a bit of challenge because brands want to attract attention yet stay professional at the same time, all with a limited amount of customizable space. That being said, the focus for these pages should be the 646 x 220 px main cover photo, because this is the first thing people see when arriving at a Company Page.

Nokia
Nokia uses its cover photo for featuring a variety of its products on a simple background.

General Motors
This automobile company optimized its cover photo specifically for LinkedIn by keeping the focus on people.

HootSuite
Just like Nokia, HootSuite does a solid job of featuring the type of services it offers without being too flashy or over-promotional.