Twitter moves to a more Google-like intent-based keyword targeting
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Twitter blog announcement
Twitter has offered interest-based advertising for some time, but we’re notifying this is a big deal since from today it offers targeting based on intent shown by keywords in a similar way to Google AdWords.
The way this works is that when someone tweets and it contains a targeted keyword, a promoted tweet can be delivered as this example of a request for a coffee coupon shows!
BrandRepublic reports that several companies looking to drive awareness and transactions have used the approach including Everything Everywhere (@EE), MicrosoftJapan(@SurfaceJP), Walgreens (@Walgreens) and GoPro (@GoPro).
For GoPro, which offers wearable and gear-mountable cameras, engagement rates as high as 11% were seen and more than two million impressions after testing keyword targeting in timelines across four marketing campaigns.
This advertising is not…
Have you tried Facebook's Promoted Pages yet?
I noticed something new in my admin panel last week. Yep, I'd finally got Promoted Pages rolled out to me. Sometimes I think I'm the last admin on the planet to get the new features.
Promoted Pages is a really simple way to get more Likes to your Page but it does come with a few caveats and warnings.
#1 It's a rolling program
You choose your daily budget and carry on spending until you stop the ad. Helpfully Facebook shows the metrics in your Page admin without having to dig around though so you should have it as a constant reminder.
#2 It's not very targeted
One of the beauties of Facebook advertising is the platform's targeting ability. Promoted Pages will (at least until you tweak some settings) blanket target everyone in your selected geographic area (and all friends of fans).
#3 The ad copy isn't what you think
As…
How to avoid Google+ being another push channel
Last week, I attended BrightonSEO where one speaker asked an interesting question showing how agencies manage social media channels for their clients:
"How many people here manage Twitter profiles for clients?"
> Around half still raised their hands
"How many people here manage Facebook pages for clients?"
> Slightly more than half of the room raised their hand
"How many people here manage Google+ accounts for clients?"
> Three quarters of the room raised their hand
I know it was an SEO conference and there are obviously search benefits for Google+ pages, but can this be correct?
Hmm...
We now know that Google+ is catching up with Facebook in terms of active users, and that keeping on the right side of the search giant is a must, but are brands really taking that much notice of the social network?
Well it seems so. 75% of the top 100…
Social media: why you need to consider ROE on Social Media
The days and ways of traditional marketing are changing. While companies are still pumping hard cash into print, TV and radio ads, Social Media has become a key ingredient of any marketing plan. However, there is a major difference.
While in traditional marketing, once the ad/s have hit the medium, there is not much one can do but, to sit there and calculate the return on investment (ROI) using various campaign measurement metrics. On Social Media it is a different story altogether. As Social Media is always alive', the marketers need to remember that they have to engage with the customer 24/7 and 365 days of the year. This 'constant contact' allows you to approach, respond and react in real time.
Hence to achieve better results a continuous effort has to be made by businesses to satisfy the ever intelligent customer on…
Nested Comments are currently a "work-in-progress"
Facebook rolled out yet another change in the last couple of weeks which enables nested replies.
My understanding was that the new feature was only being rolled out to pages with over 10,000 fans, however I was offered it last week so clicked the "like" button. Beware that it doesn't really work on mobile but on the desktop version it is potentially a useful feature for posts with multiple comments and responses.
If you haven't seen the above notification then go to Edit Page and Manage Permissions. From there tick "Replies".
Now I can totally see the sense of nested replies in that people can easily respond directly to comments without the need for an @name before the comment and the resultant scroll up the page to read the original…
New study shows that social media sacrifices vary by gender
This is a thought-provoking infographic based on a summary of a study commissioned using an independent research company for Browser Media.
The survey investigated the UK usage of social networking sites and their sacrifices for the ‘social fix’. The Infographic illustrates key findings from the survey, the takeaways for us were:
Women are more active on social networking sites; 60 minutes per day vs 48 minutes.
Social media users are sacrificing socialising (14%), sleep (10%) and even sex (8%).
Location is one factor determining social usage; respondents in Sheffield spend twice as long as those in Edinburgh. Can you conclude that from a survey? We're not sure about the accuracy of this comment:
"if you're young, female and live in Sheffield, it's highly likely that you spend a substantial part of your day on social networking sites"
…
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March 26, 2013
Tips and examples for creating effective Facebook brand apps
Facebook applications can be a great way to increase a company’s fans’ tie to their social presence, while simultaneously delivering valuable user and customer data. For a large number of brands, apps can be essential to their healthy Facebook presence in order to add value to their growing fan base through online sales, personalisation mechanisms, incentives and competitions and more.
For the majority of brands though, producing their own apps is not essential, nor should they be. If you are perhaps thinking of a Facebook app for your brand I am not trying to convince you otherwise. If your current of future Apps work by definition because they have a function and output for the user that supports the brand, aids user discovery and interest and adds value to them as a consumer, then it's going to be a good investment of time.…
New feature offers to find similar audiences based on existing customer profiles
Value/Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Facebook Announcement
This new feature from Facebook for advertisers promises more relevant ads through extending the custom or Similar Audience targeting feature to now include what it calls “lookalike audiences.”
Advertisers will be able to upload their customer profiles, referenced by emails or phone numbers, and then Facebook will automagically target a similar profile of Facebook users based on similar interests, demographic data or location. Inside Facebook has a few examples of companies using Lookalike Audiences who have seen sizeable improvements in cost-per-acquisition through this approach.
We had a discussion on this new Facebook Ad targeting feature in our Answers forum recently when this was first announced. There seemed some enthusiasm for it.
Marie Page said:
“I’ve been looking at custom audiences recently and am planning on using…
An introduction to creating campaigns with Vine
By now you might well have heard of Vine, the latest feature available on Twitter that lets you capture just 6 seconds of footage. There in lies the creative element to Vine… how do you make 6 seconds of engaging and exciting video?
Vine is a great marketing tool for getting your message out there in an interesting and attention grabbing way. The main advantage of Vine is that this can be achieved relatively quickly. However, the temptation can then be to make something fast, without a well thought out plan of action. Any marketing output, no matter how light-hearted or small, has a direct reflection on yourself /company, so it pays to have a clear and concise message.
You can download Vine for free.
Getting started with Vine
…
Pinterest releases new analytics service for verified businesses
Value/Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Pinterest blog announcement about Pinterest Web Analytics
Our commentary on Pinterest Analytics
Until today Pinterest, like Twitter, has been weak at providing insights to marketers about which content is popular for their company pages. It didn’t have the equivalent of the Facebook or LinkedIn Page Insights for example.
Instead companies have used tools like Pinreach, Pinfluencer and Reachli (formerly Pinerly) to find out which boards and pins were popular and who was influential in sharing content.
How to use the new Pinterest Analytics
It’s good to see Pinterest Analytics isn’t a pre-announcement and it’s available from today. I have just set ours up. Here’s how:
Step 1. Setup a verified Pinterest business account as we explained when these were introduced in November 2012.
Step 2. to the New Look - top right
Step 3. Select Analytics from the company menu - again top…
