'Net Features : wm-sociallmedia

Advertisers Sour on Facebook

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:30:00 GMT

A new report out from Social Media Examiner indicates that despite high levels of usage, Facebook advertisers might be starting to sour on the network (despite reports that ad exchanges are doing quite well) as a means to drive awareness and clicks.

Ninety-seven percent of participants in the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report indicated they were using social media for their business and 86 percent considered it an important part of their digital marketing mix.

According to the report, 92 percent of respondents were using Facebook as part of their social media efforts - but that's where things start to go downhill. Just 49 percent considered Facebook to be their most important social media platform, and only 37 percent thought their Facebook ads were effective.

Is your Facebook advertising effective? If so, what's your secret? Share your advice with other Internet professionals and post a comment below.

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.

Extinguish PR Firestorms with Social Tool

Amberly Dressler — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:06:00 GMT

What does your company do when its social media mentions go from 4,000 mentions per week to 36,000? Does it take its social media manager out for lunch? This was the fluctuation Lululemon, a brand of workout clothes, saw after its recent product recall announcement, according to Topsy analysis. Lululemon’s sharp drop in sentiment around the brand, however, was certainly not cause for celebrating. But what can be done in the middle of a digital PR firestorm?

Topsy, an instant social insight platform, recently launched new functionality that lets users react in seconds to emerging PR crises, find and promote the most viral content and identify and engage with local customers. These capabilities can be useful for situations such as Lululemon's to monitor negative Tweets, analyze how much traction a crisis is getting and then immediately engage and reply directly to influencers to mitigate impact.

Topsy Pro already allows users to spot trends, track sentiment and identify key influencers relevant to their business. This new features will allow users to also reply, retweet or favorite key Tweets surfaced in an analysis.

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.

DoWeComply.com Enlists Crowdfunding, Partners

Amberly Dressler — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:30:00 GMT

DoWeComply.com, a media website focused on social media compliance and the law, is one of the newest companies to crowdfund its project (ending May 17).

DoWeComply.com has selected the Indiegogo platform because it fits its business model and offered an affordable platform that didn’t require the developing company to give up ownership or pay large commissions.

“As we looked at our options to fund DoWeComply.com, we realized that we could go to traditional seed or venture capital, but we felt it was premature to explore those options,” said Debbie Harris, CEO and Founder of DoWeComply.com. “Crowdfunding DoWeComply.com gave us a real-world opportunity to explore and experience crowdfunding in a reputable way. Crowdfunding gave us an alternative to traditional capitalization.”

DoWeComply.com is developing its site out in the open, because the stakeholders believe that the topic of social media compliance is bigger than just them. They are big believers in social learning, and the idea was for people to see the direction they were going in and building a community that was vested in how and where the site developed.

According to Harris and David Mayne, VP of Digital Business for DoWeComply.com, the website will focus on three main areas: resources, partners and news. The partner area, for example, will include a partner directory with companies oriented to the digital marketplace.

The big attraction for partners is that the social media compliance field brings a high-level client that most technology partners are interested in reaching. Partnering with the site can mean a percentage of per-click programs or a sale, whatever works for best for both companies.

An early partner is SocialSafe, which is a company out of the U.K. that stores company’s pictures and social media content, which allows businesses to keep a record of everything that has been said or done on their pages or profiles. This is particularly useful when social media efforts are handed over to employees, so SocialSafe makes a record of interactions, conversations, posts, etc.

Mayne says that DoWeComply.com knew that it needed to have multiple areas and parallels, so they are building relationships with technology partners, which is also helping them grow a base of contributing experts, while also standing up as an expert themselves.

As for the news section of the site, DoWeComply.com will take actual court cases involving social media and explain the ramifications to other site owners. Those in the social media space should pay attention, as there are case studies being developed by the day.

Hilton Focuses on Quality, Locality in Quest for 1 Million Likes

Amberly Dressler — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:45:00 GMT

Increasing global engagement of qualified fans in target demographics was the goal behind Hilton Hotel & Resorts' strategic campaign to achieve 1 million likes on Facebook. Hilton reached its goal this month and became the first hotel brand to do so.

Through its strategy for Facebook promotion, Hilton targeted its key demographics.

"By engaging qualified fans through wide-reaching targeting of users who like travel-related interests, we were able to reach an audience who already expressed an interest in hospitality," said John Forrest Ales, Senior Director, Global Brand Public Relations, Hilton Hotels & Resorts. "Not only did we seek out these qualified fans, we were able to also focus our efforts on target countries and regions where Hilton has a strong brand recognition and presence. By reaching these qualified fans, we are in a strong position to grow loyalty and create relationships that provide value to the individual Facebook users and give us unique insight into the expectations of our guests and how we can best meet their needs."

Additionally, Hilton reached qualified fans in target countries through translation of content into local languages and ensuring culture and regional accuracy.

"Being a global brand with properties in 80 countries gives us great advantages," said Ales. "Our global page has become a valuable channel for conversations about hotels, regions, openings, news and promotions, and showcases our position as a global hospitality leader. With every activity, we operate with a global mind and a local perspective. On Facebook, this translates to connecting with a global audience while also sharing local content that resonates with different regions around the world. We accomplish this in a variety of ways including: posting during hours when Facebook users in a specific geographic area will be most likely to engage to using local language and thinking strategically about feeder markets and travel patterns. Our properties do a tremendous job of sharing information with us in local languages and alerting us to cultural nuances, seasonal activities and other items that are authentic to their locations."

Earlier this year, Hilton also launched Mexico and U.K. specific pages through the Facebook global pages structure.

"This helps us connect more directly with travelers in these priority markets for us," said Ales. "Region-specific pages enable us to further tailor our content to ensure it is targeted directly to these users. We localize select posts by geo-targeting certain regions or fans depending on the type of news that we are posting, and share news in Spanish and Portuguese for the Mexico page. These pages provide great opportunities for us to show both our relevance in the region and the exciting things happening in destinations most visited by travelers originating from those markets."

5 Questions to Ask Your Social Media Consultant

Allison Howen — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:00:00 GMT

A brand’s social media presence is only as effective as the person managing it.

This is why it is important for social media consultants to not only be well versed in content posting strategies, but also familiar with important metrics that can be used to measure a brand’s social success.

That being said, every social media consultant is different. One person may measure success by the number of followers a brand has, while another might measure success based on fan interactions. This is why it is important for business owners and social consultants to be on the same page with their social media strategies. In fact, by having the same goals and expectations, teams can work together to optimize social strategies in order to obtain better metrics and a better overall ROI.

So whether you already employ a social media consultant or are looking to hire one in the near feature, consider asking the following questions so that you can be assured that you are both working toward the same goals:

1. How do we measure engagement?

Every business wants to post “engaging” content, but how your social consultant measures the engagement of that content is what really matters. For example, do they weigh certain interactions, like “shares”, more heavily than an interaction such as a “like"? Knowing the answer to this question will help you get a better understanding of what your engagement score means and how your content is resonating with your audience.

2. Are we measuring conversions?

Measuring conversions on social media can be tricky, which is why it is important to know if and how your social media consultant is tracking this metric. Moreover, this metric can show brands which social network contains the majority of customers that are likely to convert. By knowing this, brands can increase conversions by launching exclusive promotions on that network.

3. What type of content receives the most interactions?

While the answer to this question may vary by network, this is an important question to ask because it can help teams optimize their content production strategies. For example, if videos receive more shares than other content types, then the brand’s social media consultant should relay that information to the content production team. By doing this, the content team can focus more of their time on producing videos and not as much time on producing less influential types of content.

4. How do our follower numbers compare to our competition’s follower numbers?

A social media consultant’s job is not to only manage and monitor your social accounts, but also to monitor the social accounts of your brand’s competitors. By doing this, the consultant can gain insights into the content and promotion strategies of these brands and collaborate with your team for ways to stay ahead of the competition.

5. What tools do we use to measure our social success?

Most social networks have some type of analytics offering, however, the ’Net is full of robust tools that can provide even further insights into your brand's social success. By discussing which tools are being leveraged, you will be able to make sure that none of your brand's valuable metrics is going to waste.

Sprout Social Asks Brands to #BePresent

Allison Howen — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:30:00 GMT

Sprout Social is helping brands better measure and improve their social media engagement with its newest campaign, #BePresent.

The campaign includes a new Engagement Report, which is available for free to all brands at mustbepresent.com. The report from Sprout Social uses proprietary models to identify social messages that likely require a response, as well as measures the brand’s responsiveness to those inquiries. The report aims to help brands discover opportunities to better manage workflow, allocate resources and improve engagement metrics. Each report provides a variety of statistics, including response rate, average response times and industry and peer-group benchmarks.

“Social media has forever changed the way brands interact with customers and it is not enough to simply push messages out into the world,” said Justyn Howard, CEO of Sprout Social. “You have to engage, you have to foster dialogues, and you have to provide exemplary social care. In short, you must #BePresent.”

The #BePresent initiative offers baseline engagement metrics, encourages social participation and identifies areas for brand improvement. The process is straightforward, brands simply need to visit mustbepresent.com, create a #BePresent account and authorize it with Twitter in order to generate the free report.

Once a report is generated, Sprout Social monitors activity in real-time and users can check back to update their report or look to the Sprout Social platform for more in-depth insights. That being said, it is important to note that the Engagement Report does not determine a final “score” or highlight one most important metric, but is instead meant to show relative performance.

“To singularly define one metric or create an ‘end-all-be-all’ score somewhat defeats the purpose of holistic and ongoing engagement,” said Howard. “We want brands to know where they currently stand, set goals appropriate for their business, implement a strategy to improve and then continually track progress.”

Moreover, Sprout Social is also launching a new suite of features in its Social Media Management (SMM) platform to coincide with the #BePresent campaign. New features include detailed engagement reporting, additional analytics over time and multi-profile summation of data and responses. Additionally, engagement metrics and indicators will be present throughout the platform in order to help keep teams aware of their performance in real-time.

Facebook Offers Graph Search Insights/Suggestions

Allison Howen — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:15:00 GMT

Since Facebook’s launch of Graph Search, there has been a lot of speculation of how this feature will influence people’s search habits both on and off the world’s largest social network.

Although Graph Search is still in beta and currently only available to select users, Facebook has unveiled some insights into how those who already have the new search feature are utilizing it. The insights reveal that most people are using Graph Search to look up friends (in the same way they did with Facebook's original search feature), followed by those who leverage the feature to find photos, plan trips and discover new things. While this basic use of the new search feature is not surprising, Facebook is also offering some search suggestions to help people discover other ways to take advantage of Graph Search.

For example, although many people are leveraging Graph Search to find pictures of friends and family, Facebook suggests that members use Graph Search to discover public images from brands or news organizations. This can be done with a simple search like “Photos by National Geographic.” Moreover, members can use Graph Search to plan activities with search queries like “Ski resorts my friends have been to” or “Hotels near Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.”

These insights and suggestions that come directly from Facebook seem to imply that the social network's members are typically not using Graph Search beyond basic searches for finding people or Pages – as they did with the social network’s original search offering. This could pose a problem for Facebook, because even though Graph Search has the potential to shake up the local discovery and search industries, doesn’t mean it will. This is especially true if members aren’t aware of how to use the feature or are simply not using it to its full potential.

Facebook's search suggestions further prove how important it is for brands to maintain an engaging Page on Facebook, which can be accomplished through posting a variety of content and fostering interactions with fans. By doing this, brands will have a better chance of showing up in the results when members conduct searches for public images or for places that their friends have been to or liked.

Viralheat Developer Platform Makes Apps Social

Allison Howen — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:30:00 GMT

Social media marketing provider Viralheat has launched a new platform, which makes its big data analysis technology available to developers so that they can make their apps more social.

The platform includes a new suite of APIs that allow developers to integrate social data and capabilities, including management, engagement, sentiment analysis, publishing and monitoring into their applications, and has already been leveraged by word-of-mouth marketing platform SocialChorus and real-time digital analytics provider Anametrix.

SocialChorus, for example, integrated with Viralheat’s sentiment analysis API, which has enabled the company’s dashboard to deliver real-time feedback on the mood of advocate content and comments.

“In order to ensure efficiency at the scale our customers’ demand, it was critical that we automate sentiment analysis across social networks,” said Greg Shove, CEO and Founder of SocialChorus. “Our customers want to scale their brand advocacy efforts, so we intend to provide greater efficiency for all aspects of the social advocate program management process. One such area is sentiment analysis, which needs technology when you have thousands of advocates … Viralheat helps us do this at scale.”

Conversely, Anametrix leveraged the new APIs to help its clients market more effectively and increase revenue.

“As marketers rely more and more on social media to complement and amplify their paid media activities, it is critical to understand the results of their social media efforts so they can gain a complete picture of all marketing efforts and results,” said Pelin Thorogood, CEO of Anametrix. “The new Viralheat APIs provide the Anametrix marketing-analytics platform with near instant social-media-data access, enabling our clients to correlate in real time social data with campaign performance data from Google Adwords, DoubleClick and many other sources. Together, Viralheat and Anametrix give marketers the insights they need to drive a greater return on marketing investment because they decipher how earned media metrics – such as social mentions and sentiment – relate to paid media metrics – such as CPA (cost per acquisition).”

By leveraging the APIs, developers have more free time to focus on their applications. This is because Viralheat’s cloud infrastructure takes care of details, such as scheduling messages and monitoring thousands of conversations in real-time. However, it is important to note that in order to start using the new APIs, developers need to create a Viralheat developer account.

“We want to empower developers to socially enable the world-class applications they are building,” said Raj Kadam, Co-founder of Viralheat. “By rolling out our suite of APIs, we are breaking down the barriers for developers.”

Social Tactics of the Web 100

Allison Howen — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:07:00 GMT

Social media has been among the hottest topics in tech for a few years now, with marketers continuously working to improve their strategy and foster better relationships with their customers.

Since every business is unique, there are many different approaches for implementing a successful social strategy. Skittles, for example, keeps its audience amused with light-hearted and quirky status updates, while Chase uses its Facebook Page to promote giving back to the community. Moreover, some social networks are better suited for specific industries, such as the relationship connection between Pinterest and retail.

The point is that there is not a one-size-fits-all social media strategy. Instead, every company’s social strategy should be tailored to meet the goals of the business and needs of its audience. This doesn’t mean brands cannot inspire brands (particularly within the same industry) – after all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Look below to gain some insights into the social strategies of some of the hottest companies, as named by Web100:

Financial – E*Trade

The social managers of financial companies have a tricky job, because they need to keep content professional and compliant to ensure security and keep consumer confidence intact, while still being engaging. Furthermore, posting content onto visual social networks, like Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube can be challenging.

That said, E*Trade does a good job at reaching its customers through a variety of social networks, all of which are featured on the site’s landing page. These social networks include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn. While most of its postings are informative, the company also takes an interactive approach by asking its audience questions. For example, the company posts a “Question of the Week” every Monday to Facebook and Twitter, which even has its own hashtag #QOTW. This week’s question also took a timely approach, by asking an Oscar-related question in response to the Academy Awards that aired on Sunday night.

It is also important to note that E*Trade keeps up with content on its YouTube channel, which can be difficult for a financial company to do. While it helps that E*Trade’s baby commercials tend to go viral, the company complements that type of video content with educational videos.

Lifestyle – Seventh Generation

Lifestyle sites thrive on community interaction, which makes it no surprise that a site like Seventh Generation features the company’s presence on five social networks under the “Our Community” section of its landing page.

The company’s featured social networks are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. However, it is important to note that Seventh Generation also has a presence on Google+ and LinkedIn, despite the link to those social profile being absent on the company’s landing page. The company has a very robust posting strategy, which includes a little bit of every type of content – informative, promotional and interactive. Moreover, Seventh Generation cross-promotes its content from YouTube onto Facebook and Twitter, so that its videos reach a larger audience across the social Web.

Overall, Seventh Generation does a good job of promoting its own content and products along with relevant content from other companies. This makes the brand trustworthy as it is truly providing information, regardless of where it comes from, that reflects the company’s ultimate goal – helping people achieve greener lifestyles.

Retail – Home Depot

Retailers love social media, because it provides them with free word-of-mouth advertising as well as a way to foster better relationships with customers in order to achieve better lifetime values. Moreover, social networks like Pinterest and Instagram are a perfect place for these companies to promote their products.

Although the Home Depot landing page only features links to the company’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube profiles, the home improvement store also maintains a presence on Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+. The most noticeable takeaway from Home Depot’s social strategy is the company’s consistency across networks. For example, the company uses the same icon for every network’s profile picture, as well as very similar background images. This strategy reinforces the company’s branding and makes the company’s verified profiles easy for consumers to identify across the social Web.

It is also important to note the company’s posting strategy, which uses a combination of promotional, local and interactive content to encourage interactions. For example, the company posted a Facebook update targeting Alabama residents last weekend, informing them to take advantage of the state’s 2013 Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday. Moreover, the company posts a lot of questions on its Facebook, Google+ and Twitter accounts, which is a strategy that can improve engagement rates. Lastly, the company takes advantage of the popular DIY trend by providing tutorial project videos on its YouTube channel and home improvement tips on its Pinterest page.

Service Providers – Fandango

Service providers help connect society with unique services that help make life easier, and customers nowadays have the ability to learn more about these companies and their offerings via social media.

Fandango, for example, is a widely used service that provides consumers with the ability to search for movies at a variety of theaters and purchase tickets prior to the movie’s showtime. The company features links to its profiles on two of the Web’s largest social networks, Facebook and Twitter, directly on its landing page. That said, Fandango’s social presence also extends to some of the Web’s other popular social networks, including Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest, however, most of these profiles have little activity.

Fandango has no shortage of visual content (the company is promoting movies after all), so it combines a visually driven social approach with an interactive one. This is done be asking its audience questions, administrating polls and posting fill-in-the-blank status updates. Furthermore, the company frequently cross-promotes its YouTube content onto Twitter, which entices consumers to click play, watch the trailer and then go to Fandango.com to purchase some tickets.

News & Media – TMZ

News and media companies cannot survive today without a social strategy. In fact, many people discover important and breaking news on social sites in our digital age. This is why entertainment news site TMZ features a link to every social profile on the company’s landing page, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube and StumbleUpon.

Not only does TMZ display links to these social profiles on its website, but also cross-promotes its content across social networks. For example, the media outlet posts its YouTube videos to social networks like Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon, as well as displays links to its social networks in the background of its Twitter page and Tumblr page, and features a Facebook app that takes users to its YouTube page.

Since TMZ certainly doesn’t have a shortage of content, the company’s real challenge is to deliver content to the social Web in a way that entices its audience to click on its posts. Luckily, the company’s social media managers have found a good way to combine witty captions with straightforward facts to give each piece of content the best chance at receiving high-engagement metrics.

Technology – Microsoft

Technology companies are no strangers to social networks, after all, social has become an integral part of many products and services within the tech industry. Furthermore, tech companies know the value in the reach of social, and often times leverage these networks to promote their products and services.

Microsoft, for instance, features links to its Facebook and Twitter profiles under a “Follow Us” section on Microsoft.com. While the company also has a presence on YouTube and LinkedIn, most of its social activity is found on Facebook and Twitter. This activity includes a combination of promotional, informative and visual content regarding its products. The company even makes its trivia questions visual, by creating and uploading an image with large text that asks a question, instead of simply typing it out in the status field. This strategy better grabs attention from its audience, which leads to more likes, comments and shares.

It is also important to note Microsoft’s Twitter strategy, which updates followers with the latest news for Microsoft products. This is done not only through Microsoft posts, but also through retweets of other user’s tweets regarding Microsoft products. This strategy makes it easy for Microsoft users to stay up-to-date with all of the information concerning their favorite products.

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.

Curalate for Instagram: Analytics for Visual Social Platforms

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:30:00 GMT

Social media analytics are the hot sector right now among the digerati and big brands are jumping on the bandwagon in digital droves.

Zappos’ recent selection of Pinfluencer, for example, to help manage and analyze its promotional efforts on the network is sufficient proof for many that brands are finally starting to figure this whole "visual social media" thing out - at least in part. As many brands are quickly discovering, Pinterest is far from the only horse in the visual/social race. Facebook-owned Instagram is making moves and the savviest social media analytics providers are well aware of its potential to influence prospective and existing customers and users.

Case in point, visual analytics and marketing platform Curalate recently announced the availability of analytics and promotion solutions for Instagram, making it the first (if not only) vendor to bring analytics from Pinterest and Instagram analytics into one consolidated dashboard.

The updated platform enables brands to understand image popularity (and recency), consolidate conversations on both Pinterst and Instagram into one feed, create promotions on the two visual networks (and Facebook), share photos directly from within the platform's dashboard, and analyze performance of their Instagram campaigns as well. One of the more appealing features is the ability for brand users to differentiate between engagement on fan-posted and brand-posted images.

“Images drive emotions with an immediacy that no other medium offers. Brands are rapidly tapping into the power of imagery to connect with consumers and drive real business results,” said Apu Gupta, CEO and co-founder, Curalate. “By adding Instagram to our successful Pinterest solution we’re helping brands see the bigger picture. Curalate enables brands to engage audiences across networks based on what’s most relevant rather than what’s most recent.”

Screenshot of the Hashtag feature within Curalate which is used for tracking social promotions on Pinterest and now Instagram

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.