Layout update offers new header image
Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Twitter blog announcement
Marketing implications of Twitter change
From September 18th Twitter updated their profile page layout. The most significant change relevant to marketers is that a profile image can be uploaded. Recent images uploaded have also been given more prominence.
It’s a move which mirrors a similar feature on company pages for Facebook and in Google+.
The layout change also appears to give more scope for updating the background image to give more information about a company. Increased horizontal space now seems to be available for this than has been possible in the last couple of years.
The examples that Twitter gives of using the new header option aren’t too inspiring. Twitter’s own new profile page is limited.
You can see from this example that the layout change does give more emphasis to your URL and the value proposition, you offer followers through Twitter, now placing…
A tutorial to check your LinkedIn Company Page works well with the latest LinkedIn updates
LinkedIn started in 2002 as a personal profile space where professionals could share their expertise, experience and connections.
Some people naturally wanted to showcase their business and wrongly used the personal profile as a business profile.
To address this need, LinkedIn created Company pages and September 2012 has seen an update in the look of company pages which more closely mirrors the Facebook company page, with a cover image at the top of the page, logo and company name above this (rather than below as on Facebook), followed by the latest news feed. Remember that the Company Activity status updates were introduced in October 2011 - are you using them yet if you're in B2B.
Here’s an example of the Dell company page with…
Using the LinkedIn Skills feature for career development or identifying influencers
Update: September 2012. LinkedIn now has 10 million users in the UK, impressive for a country with a population just shy of 60 million. LinkedIn say that's four out of 5 professionals. To celebrate, LinkedIn have produced this nice infographic we thought we'd share with a reminder to check our tutorial below for how many are in each specific business category.
LinkedIn Skills will show you how many professionals share your skills and who are the major influencers in your sector.
This is a relatively new feature in LinkedIn that pulls data from its now enormous user-base to create both an interesting and useful tool.
In this post, I'll first take a look at how the size and growth of…
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September 17, 2012
A small business campaign example shows which calls-to-action work best
Giulia’s family runs the popular Italian restaurant ‘Al Gatto Nero’, in Poole in the UK, and they get customer interactions with QR Codes every day.
Giulia’s goal is to spread the word about their delicious stone-baked pizzas. She decides to use QR codes to get more Facebook likes and more enewsletter sign ups. Good move!
As there are several places she wants to use QR codes, Giulia decides to use the Campaigns and Sources to track which places give her the best results.
She has already registered for a free account at www.freeqrcodetracker.com, so she logs in and starts by creating 2 campaigns:
Campaign #1: “Facebook – get more likes”
Campaign #2: “enewsletter – get more sign-ups“
Giulia now creates…
Spredfast release Social Engagement Index Report which shows different company roles for managing social media status updates
Value/Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Download 30 page PDF research summary - registration required
This report from Spredfast highlights some interesting trends in how businesses are utilising social media channels. The title is a little misleading since it suggests degree of consumer engagement with social media, it goes have some info on this, but we didn't find it so actionable. What we found more interesting is how businesses are managing social media. Spredfast defines 5 roles:
Admins have access to all features and functionality in Spredfast including the ability to monitor, publish, configure, and make administrative changes.
Managers monitor and publish content and manage basic account settings (add and edit users, groups, streams).
Editors monitor and publish content.
Writers create original content and respond to network engagement (content created by this role is often sent through an approval path).
Viewers can…
An introduction to issues to consider when starting a social listening or social media monitoring programme
In previous posts, we have shown the vast number of options when choosing social listening software (250 according to this report). But any tool is only as good as the process used to take advantage of the insight generated. While these are potentially immensely powerful tools, they can be a huge drain on time and productivity if not utilised for the right reasons and in the right way. As with any other marketing tool it has to be linked to business growth but just how do you use these tools effectively?
What is Social Listening?
Starting with the basics, you need to scope out what you're looking to use social listening for. Start by defining how you intend to use it to add value to your business. How will you explain it to colleagues. This is…
Interest targeting enables targeting by 350 interest categories and @usernames
Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Twitter advertising blog
The Twitter advertising blog has announced an improvement to targeting of its Promoted Tweets advertising which takes it closer to Facebook’s targeting options. Dubbed “interest targeting”, there are two options for targeting:
1. Targeting by 350 interest categories
Broad categories of interest can be targeted using selection from these categories:
2. Targeting by @username
Although the category-based targeting was most widely covered, more intriguing is the targeting by @username. This looks more useful for micro-targeting since you can create a custom segment based on related brands and celebrities. It’s similar to the Facebook feature to target ads according to the Likes of users. Note though, that this does not enable you to target specific users. Twitter explains:
“Custom segments let you reach users with similar interests to that @username’s followers;…
It depends whether you're content sharing or starting conversation
With so much written about the importance of marketing automation these days, the argument has touched on social media many times.
It makes sense too as social media becomes more important, we want to use social media more within our personal or brand marketing, so in turn we want to make that a good investment. Born from the world of email marketing automation of years ago, we now have products like Eloqua, Marketo and Genius, as well as smaller players such as Office Autopilot, all of which can enable large scale automation.
So can social media marketing be automated?
Of course it can - most importantly within Facebook and Twitter - Hootsuite is probably the best tool to use, and it's relatively cheap. Yet I have Scott Stratten's hilarious comment that that a unicorn is killed every time someone sends an automated tweet, I…
Google+ with Google Apps, a platform for business?
I've written recently about Google+ as the true social network and so it's particularly fascinating to read this announcement today about Bringing Google+ to Work - it's a very exciting step for Google considering their already significant progress into Cloud based business applications - something that we already use across Smart Insights as it turns out.
A new business specific feature set
1. Private sharing
Google Apps users (people running Gmail for business email, Calendar and Docs) get more control over the content they post to Google+. Simply mark it as 'restricted'. These posts become private to your organisation and can never be re-shared with anyone outside. You still get the flexibility to share it with specific partners or colleagues outside the organisation as well if you choose.
Video meetings integrated with Google Apps
Thanks…
How the 4Cs model of social business highlights ways to create shared value
In my previous post I asked whether businesses are ready for social business and looked at 10 pitfalls of using social media which suggested many may not be. For those who are becoming proficient in using social media, understanding progression to social business is the next logical step. This begs the ‘what is social business?’ question. In this post I will look at the scope and applications of social business so that you can review how much progress your own organisation has made onto becoming a social business?
What Is Social Business?
So what does the term social business actually mean? Another buzz word coined by highly paid management consultants or a fundamental change in the modus operandi of your organisation, critical to future growth and competitiveness?
In simple terms, a social…
