Twitter Advice for those just starting off with the platform
You'll know that Twitter is a platform worth taking seriously as these statistics show:
Twitter has 316m monthly active users. (Source: Venturebeat)
500m tweets are sent per day. (Source: Expand Ramblings Report)
80% users access Twitter on mobile. (Source: Statista)
Given these stats, it's no surprise that Twitter is being used by different types of businesses to promote their brand, connect with their target audiences and boost social conversions.
In fact, in a blog posted on Adweek.com, writer Shea Bennett reports that almost 67% Twitteratis buy from brands they follow on Twitter. So, what does it mean for startups and small business owners? This means that Twitter is not going away anytime soon and is going to establish a cobblestone bridge between businesses and potential buyers.
Businesses with all kind of…
The latest figures comparing the popularity of social sign-in on different platforms
Social sign-on continues to evolve. The latest reports from social sign-in platforms Gigya and Janrain show that Facebook continues to dominate social sign-in but is plateauing, whilst Google plus is starting to pull out of its long-term downward trend. The other players maintain their smaller shares of the market.
Facebook dominates social sign on when it comes to mobile applications, but the picture is more diverse when it comes for media/publishing websites.
For more information on latest social sign on figures see the latest report from Gigya.
Original post - February 2013: Google+ introduces Social Sign-In
I've explained before why I see social sign-on as a significant…
Use the latest Facebook ads with ease
There's been an exciting new development in the world of Facebook advertising - video ads made up from a sequence of static images. They are called Slideshow Ads and are an option for a number of the common ad objectives.
Video has been where it's at on Facebook for some time now. And new (novel) ad formats generally tend to get good traction anyway, so I decided to try one in anticipation of our Black Friday sale at Musicademy.
What you need
A series of static images
Power Editor (and a bit of knowhow on using it)
Copy, landing page etc etc as per usual
What you do to create an ad
Create your Campaign and Ad Set (targeting, etc) as you usually would in Power Editor. Check the Instagram placement at Ad Set level if you want the ad to show there too.
Create an Ad - select "Ad with…
How and why you should get started with Instagram advertising
Did you know that since September any business could buy and place adverts on Instagram? Better still, they could do this easily using Facebook's existing Ad tools with no new system to learn! Sounds good, right? But what does this tell us about Instagram?
The significance of this news wasn't lost on me at the time Instagram rolled out ads to every advertiser, yet even to this day it seems to have been largely glossed-over by mainstream social media news sources. Even Instagram's own announcement back in September was sketchy on exactly what businesses could do, let alone how they could do it. Since then Instagram have continued to release new features for advertisers but still few are aware of the possibilities or how easy it is to have a dabble. But most importantly, there's little real understanding of why businesses might now consider advertising on Instagram.
I've unpacked the key points, the different ad types, plus a brief…
A reminder of Facebook's changes during October
Since a relative lull of announcements about new developments in August and September Facebook has been busy with releasing a bunch of updates since and some are well worth knowing about. The biggest from an advertiser perspective is the launch of Lead Ads and Facebook retail listings, but the one that will get the most media coverage once rolled out is the so-called Dislike or “Emotion” buttons. Local business verification is also an important one for many brands.
Here’s a quick roundup with links to articles that explain the topic in more depth.
Facebook Lead Ads
Lead Ads look like other Facebook ads except that when you hit the call-to-action button you stay on Facebook with a Facebook form collecting the customer data. This is particularly useful on mobile as it reduces the load time an external page is likely to suffer and enables Facebook to auto-fill many…
Use these less well-known Social Media tools and Hacks to Get Things Done
The world of social media is a busy place. A very busy place. And this means that it can often feel like you're shouting into the wind with your social media campaigns. Indeed, if you approach social media without a strategy and without the right tools, your social media activity may amount to exactly this.
The good news, however, is that, as social media has grown, more and more tools have become available that can help the shrewd social media marketer do their job more effectively. These include tools for scheduling posts, tracking follower/fan demographics, refining content, creating social media calendars, and much, much more.
It’s hard to imagine running a decent social media marketing campaign without using at least some of these tools. And the very best social media marketers often use a variety of tools and make sure…
How and why brands should embrace Instagram for marketing
In most countries, Facebook is both king and queen of social media. According to the latest statistics from Pew Research, 72% of American adults use Facebook. But that growth has been relatively stagnant over the past 3 years. When you consider Facebook's organic reach of 6%, the potential audience size becomes much smaller. Organic reach on Instagram, on the other hand, is growing rapidly. Early indications also suggest that Instagram users are more receptive to branded content. Given Facebook own Instagram, it's hardly a competition. However, it does matter which is more effective when it comes to deciding where your time and marketing budget should be spent.
According to this infographic from EcommerceCEO, now is the perfect time for marketers to consider Instagram. Engagement is 58X higher on Instagram and brands can reach 100% of their followers. Only 36% of marketers currently use Instagram,…
A tutorial example of using Facebook Ads for Event Promotion
Promoting live events might be the most challenging form of digital marketing campaign you will ever work on. Or so it’s been my experience over the past few years with our monthly MnSearch events and one-off events like LocalU Twin Cities.
Not only do you have to try to market an event based on features, benefits and price points, but you also have to try and convince someone that it’s worth taking time out of their work day or personal life, and drive across town to attend. And all for 'One Night Only!'.
This is the exact opposite from most Paid Search campaigns that can be built to be relatively 'Evergreen'.
Because attendance can fluctuate greatly, and breaking even is often the priority goal, we are continually looking for very cost effective means of…
Twitter suddenly becomes more important to marketers with the latest integration - now rolled out to desktop as well as mobile
Importance: [rating=5] For Digital Marketers, Social Media Marketers and SEO consultants
Recommended link: Google's original announcement of new Twitter Integration
So, they've made up! You may remember how Google used to partner with Twitter and take their firehose to display tweets in near real-time - I remember it was sub ten seconds. Then they fell out and this feature disappeared back in July 2011. Well a new form of the integration is back as has been previewed over the last few months. I've been taking a look to see how significant it will be for businesses. It looks like a great deal for Twitter to me and an acknowledgment by Google that Twitter, not Google+ is THE source for real-time updates as it had hoped.
What marketers need to know about Google's Twitter integration
1. The…
Examples and tools showing that, to get great results with social media, you base it on insight
Let's say you’re boarding an airplane, and you strike up a conversation with the pilot. You ask how the weather is looking. He shrugs and says, “I don’t know; I haven’t checked the forecast. I’m just going with my gut.”
Unless you have a death wish, you’d probably turn around and get off the plane. You know a safe journey requires research, but when it comes to social media, many marketers skip that step. Instead of checking the social media forecast, they fly blind.
As social media strategist Marji Sherman learned when she started at Kohler, overlooking the social media forecast can have serious consequences. Her research revealed that the company’s social media strategy was missing the mark. Examining the data, Sherman…
