20 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- It’s Game Time on Twitter
- How to Buy a New Facebook Sponsored Ad
- Predicting the Future with Social Media
- Army of Darkness is a Better Blogger Than You. And Here’s Why.
- 25 Tips & Tricks to Help You Build Better Relationships With Your Fans
- Want to Get Your Twitter Page Verified?
- Focus on the Easy Adopters, the Rest Will Follow
- Google Plus Features – A Beginners Guide
- 5 Tips for a Social Media Profile Extreme Makeover
- WaveMetrix Releases Quarterly Social Media Report
- 3 Types of Plugins That Can Totally Screw Up WordPress Upgrades
- Social Media Tactics: Questions to Ask
- Power to the People – The Shorty Awards
- How to Get Blog Followers like the Pied Piper of Hamelin!
- The Biggest Lesson @leowid Learned in his First 6 Months of Blogging
- The Most Powerful Small Business Tweets of 2011 [Infographic]
- 4 Signs You’re Killing Your Company Blog
- Top 3 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn Company Page
- 9 Tactics for Upping Your Presence on Twitter
- This is Why You’re Not Seth Godin.
| Posted: 18 Jan 2012 03:30 PM PST
We hear so many different approaches when it comes to spending time on Twitter. Maybe you have tried and given up already. It almost sounds like a basketball game, you are on the bench waiting for the coach to put you in the game. Once the coach puts you in the game, you are live and you need to contribute some way immediately or soon your time or the game time will be over. As a player, you have to be mentally ready for live action, you do this through practices, being on the same page as your coach and performing at a high level to gain acceptance from the coach and to ultimately help your team win. There are some similarities between the two. As I approach time spent on twitter, I have found that I am more focused first thing in the morning. I have a special game plan which involves sharing a blog post from my company or this site and I try to get in the game by posting some type of action tweet to get people interested in the topic I am posting. (I have learned that topics need to be different from the masses to stand out). From here, I look for other "key people" that I follow through Twitter lists or new followers, who have just started following me and I see if we can have a discussion on a particular topic. (I usually perform this activity between 7.30-9.00am time frame for a total of 15 minutes) Occasionally, throughout the day, I will check for people mentioning my post, retweeting or asking me a question and I make sure to follow-up with them. (Once an hour or so) Finally, closer to 5.00pm I will look at the "key people" I follow or the hot topics of the day and see if I can add any value to the conversation. (Another 15 minutes) My point here is that Twitter is real-time. Just like a basketball game, you need to come ready to play. Some days are better than others, but However, most of us can't watch Twitter straight for 8 hours. That is not healthy and I would not encourage that. However, over time spent on Twitter, you do recognize patterns and you are able to pinpoint people who post good information and those that don't. What does your game plan for Twitter look like? Are you spending a lot of time on Twitter? Have you studied Twitter a lot and are now reaping the benefits of this platform or are you still trying to decide if it is a good use of time or not. Believe me, I ask myself this last question everyday. In any case, I hope your Twitter game face is on and I hope to see you soon on the court.   |
| How to Buy a New Facebook Sponsored Ad Posted: 18 Jan 2012 02:30 PM PST Facebook's sponsored News Feed ads have gone live. These ads (now called “Featured“) enable you to link an advertisement to what a Facebook member has indicated he or she likes. If you are interested in buying a Facebook sponsored ad for your business, the process is fairly simple. Begin by accessing the Facebook Ads page. Click on the "Create an Ad" button in the upper right and a form appears that allows you to choose the type and design of your ad via menu options. You can select either "Sponsored Stories" or normal "Facebook Ads." When you choose Sponsored Stories, a screen appears that enables you to select targeting information—the location of where your ad will appear and demographic data, including age, sex, relationship status, education, interests, etc. You can input any specific interests of your target audience or choose from a “Broad Category Targeting” menu. Clicking a broad category on the left column—such as Music, Movie/film, or Family Status—gives you a number of finer-grain options on the right for that category. You also select who will see the ad among fans and the general public. Another portion of the form enables you to choose your ad scheduling and spending options—including your currency, time zone, and your ad's start time. You can select the default "Run my campaign continuously starting today" or click on the calendar options and choose dates and times. Lower down, you select your campaign budget and input a dollar amount to spend per day or over the lifetime of the ad. You also select a bid amount. The form provides a field for you to input your maximum bid, and the tool offers a suggested bid. You are given the option of clicking on "Use Suggested Bid," which inputs the bid amount the tool suggests. Here’s an example of a suggested bid: “Based on your targeting options, Facebook suggests a bid of $0.99 per click. You may pay up to this much per click, but you will likely pay less. Note: Tax is not included in the bids, budgets and other amounts shown.” Clicking on "Set a Different Bid (Advanced Mode)" allows you to specify a different bid amount and gives you the option of paying per number of impressions (CPM), which is how many thousands of times the ad is loaded, or paying per click (CPC). Facebook also gives you an Estimated Reach for your ad, which appears in the upper right corner of your screen, based on the demographics you have chosen. Finally, a "Review Ad" button at the bottom brings up a screen summarizing your order. You can hit "Edit" to change the parameters or "Place Order" to set the ad in motion. For help, a button in the form of an envelope appears at the bottom of the page labeled "Questions about your ad?" This link brings up a form you can fill in and send to the Facebook Help Center. A "Design Your Ad" FAQ provides answers and details about the process. For example, your ad must include an image and must include a title and body, and is limited to 25 characters for the title and 135 characters for the body.   |
| Predicting the Future with Social Media Posted: 18 Jan 2012 01:00 PM PST Forget predictions from Nostradamus or the Mayan Calendar. Now, we have companies like Recorded Future analyzing semantics and sentiments to foretell the future. They do this by sorting through thousands of news publications, blogs, tweets, comments, trade journals, government web sites, financial databases, and more. Recorded Future sees ahead "By applying temporal analytics to what is written about the future, and by algorithmically crowd-sourcing the resulting temporal information, we can draw conclusions and gain insight." Now even small businesses can tap into the trove of rich data and forward-looking insights. Quentin Hardy of The New York Times claims the service, once affordable only for big businesses and wealthy institutions, now has a web-based version subscription for $149/month. "The Web has come to reflect the world," Hardy quotes Christopher Ahlberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Recorded Future. "We can use that to predict things", says Ahlberg. With costs dropping and social data continuing to grow, small businesses can consider adding these analytics to their social media arsenal. For those companies that just want to take a quick peek into the future, check out Recorded Future's free 14-day subscription. Even the spy agencies are applying these breakthrough technologies to predict revolutions, natural disasters and economic disruptions. Wired Magazine's Sharon Weinberger writes ("The Spy Who Tweeted Me: Intelligence Community Wants to Monitor Social Media") "A research arm of the intelligence community wants to sweep up public data on everything from Twitter to public webcams in the hopes of predicting the future." The project is apparently the brainchild of Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity [IARPA], a relatively new initiative of the intelligence community. Gaining insights on consumer attitudes and behavior has always been critical for big marketers like Procter & Gamble and Ford, but now tech companies like HP are using social media data to predict success of box office hits, new ideas and products. Michael Stelzner (How HP Uses Social Media Science To Make Predictions) explores this emerging capability with Bernardo Huberman, director at HP Labs and author of The Laws of the Web: Patterns in the Ecology of Information. According to Huberman, HP can use certain "mechanisms" and "predict with extreme accuracy box office revenues two weeks before a movie opens". While social media monitoring of current trends is not a new phenomenon, bitly, the popular URL shortening and real-time analytics service, now claims, "We See into the Future". Through their newly released monitoring service, bitly says they provide a picture of "the future by knowing what is popular and exciting on the Internet before anyone else does." Bitly uses real-time, collaborative filtering and search weight results by cross-platform social engagement to extract the "ebb and flow of trending topics" identified hours or days before they are picked up by the news, Google or Bing. And just when you think you've heard it all, companies like IBM are scanning social media data to predict women's heel heights, perhaps taking business intelligence to new heights. Companies and marketers that can understand and exploit rich sentimental trend data and see ahead, bringing their brands and consumers along on the journey, will enjoy a tremendous competitive advantage. While there are skeptics and critics of these analytics, it is nonetheless intriguing to consider the predictive capabilities of emerging social media tools. And if you think about it, the less-scientific Nostradamus had a few predictions that didn't happen, but we still tweet them. Let's just hope his 2012 doomsday prediction will be wrong. That's one tweet (with our "sentiments" of course) that will be worth sharing! This post was originally published on AT&T's Networking Exchange Blog.   |
| Army of Darkness is a Better Blogger Than You. And Here’s Why. Posted: 18 Jan 2012 12:00 PM PST Although his random (but always hilarious) cameo appearances and his role in the hit show Burn Notice are nothing to sniff at, Bruce Campbell is probably best known for his unforgettable performances as Ash Williams in cult classic films like Evil Dead 2 and its 1992 sequel, Army of Darkness. He consistently delivers biting one-liners and a devil-may-care attitude that can't be duplicated. What can Bruce and his wit teach you about blogging? Well, with the guidance of some of his most memorable quips from Army of Darkness, you'll learn why it's a must to sprinkle humor and attitude into your blog posts – and into your daily life as a blogger – all while looking like a BAMF. Rule #1: Not all serious situations call for serious responses. Have you ever read a blog so boring that you clicked away before making it through the intro paragraph? Or perhaps you have trouble composing articles that aren't gravely serious and to-the-point? Here's where Bruce comes in! Do you think Ash Williams lets a few undead jerks and a serious mood bring down his witty demeanor? Heck no. Even when Ash is faced with grave danger, he still manages to see the humor in situations and he doesn't hesitate to bring that to light. Case in point: even when Ash was catapulted back into the Middle Ages, attached to a chain gang, and told he had to jump into an ominous pit where death surely awaited him, he still had a witty remark for the fellow chained up behind him: Duke Henry: You, Sir, are not one of my vassals…who are you? Ash: Who wants to know? Duke Henry: I am Henry the Red. Duke of Shale, Lord of the Northlands and leader of its peoples. Ash: Well hello Mister Fancypants. Well, I've got news for you pal, you ain't leadin' but two things, right now: Jack and shit… and Jack left town. See what he did there? Okay, maybe don't insult your audience, but you get the idea. This isn't a free pass to make a joke of serious situations, but it's possible to lighten the mood when it's called for. Humor really does make a difference when you're setting the tone for your posts, especially when it comes to your readership and their vested interest in what you have to say. Have a quip for every situation! Rule #2: Kill 'em with confidence and stand your ground. You've got to decide which side you're on, and you've got to do it authoritatively. No one likes a flip-flopper and few people are going to read your blog if you can't form a concrete opinion on a subject. Furthermore, your blog will be dead in the water if you're not confident in the stance you've chosen. There will be haters in the comments no matter what your opinions (oh yes, there will be!) but you can't let that decide your outcome. Don't be a pansy – stand up for yourself and stand your ground. Old Woman: I'll swallow your soul! Ash: Come get some. Rule #3: Don't get too comfortable, and always prepare for the unexpected. Staying one step ahead of the curve can only benefit you on your journey. It's fine to feel pride in your work (see the previous point on confidence) but don't let it go to your head. You're not invincible and there will always be challenges (and enemies) waiting around the corner to catch you in a trap or to gore you with sharp objects. Avoid a nasty situation by either getting wise to tricks or by simply using your experience to air on the side of caution. (After a possessed woman is knocked to the ground, supposedly unconscious) Ash: It's a trick. Get an axe. Rule #4: Impostors will try to throw you off track. Don't let them. When Ash is again faced with the same evil entity that transported him back into the Middle Ages, it gets the best of him by using his reflection in a broken mirror to spawn a handful of mini-Ashes, who dutifully try to bring him down. No one likes a copycat, including Ash! Show impostors that you're the original by reasserting yourself as the one in charge. In other words, lay the smack down on those who pass your words and talents off as their own. Ash: Oh, you little bastards! All right, I'll crush each and every last one of ya! I'll squash you so hard you'll have to look down to look up! Rule #5: Be a fearless leader and unite your audience. Ash could have easily retreated from the Deadite army by fleeing to the mountains after Arthur suggested it to the group. Do you know why he chose to stick around? Because he's a natural leader, and you should be, too. He knew that the Medieval soldiers would never be fully rid of the Deadite army until they faced them, and he also knew that they could emerge victorious if they worked together to outwit (and out-fight) the evil that approached. Don't give up when times get tough – step up to the plate and take care of business. Ash: Go ahead and run. Run home and cry to mama. I'm through runnin'. I say we stay and fight. Now who's with me? Rule #6: Always have a better weapon than your competition. Is your opponent armed with jagged teeth and a bad attitude? No problem; use your chainsaw hand. Is a skeleton army coming at you full-force with razor-sharp swords? Bust out that boomstick and the homemade gunpowder arrows and catapults. Your competitors will constantly try to get the best of you with the latest-and-greatest plays, but you can stop them by calculating their next move – and then one-upping it. Ash: You see this? This…is my boomstick! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that? [See a clip of this scene here] Rule #7: Always get your man…er, girl. In the end, Ash Williams successfully leads the Medieval knights to defeat the Deadite army and he even manages to save his love interest from succumbing to an undead life. Due to his confidence, wit, and brute strength, he was able to get the girl and travel back to his original time period. If you're a fearless, talented, and badass blogger, then work hard and aim for that payoff before you reach the end of your story! (Dips the girl in his arms) Ash: Gimme some sugar, baby. In short, don't be afraid to find that humor, confidence, and strategy as a blogger. Incorporating Ash's strengths will not only make you tougher but also give you the skills you need to climb your way to the top. It won't be easy, but being awesome never is. Just be sure that your chosen sense of humor and strategies match your (or your brand's) established personality. Otherwise, you're going to come off as fake as a B movie's special effects. Oh, and one more thing before I go: Hail to the king, baby.
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| 25 Tips & Tricks to Help You Build Better Relationships With Your Fans Posted: 18 Jan 2012 11:35 AM PST When it comes to community management, there’s no doubt size does matter. But size, without engagement, means nothing. So what tricks do we have in our bags to keep the fans interacting with us? The following is a compilation of methods that could help you improve your user engagement level: Work with your content 1. Aggregate fan posts. Publish a list of best comments from your fans. Or choose two opposing comments and make a poll. 2. Suggest activities to your fans. Let them know about events (training, webinars etc – yours or from other companies). Invite them to join you in an activity. 3. Use polls. A poll is an easy and quick way for the fans to give their input, also allowing for a more detailed opinion in the comment section. 4. Use video and infographics. The data is presented in a great looking format and people love to share it. 5. Post useful content (even if it’s not yours). Don’t spam your fans. Publish only what is of interest. Also, share interesting news from other players in your field, or linked with it. 6. Fill in the gap posts. Start sentences and let your users finish them. Here’s an example: “A best practice in social media is to _______.” It depends on the statement you are asking your fans to complete, but it will attract interaction. 7. Let’s have some fun also. For fun, do some caption contests. Or play a game. Campaigns and Events 8. Stage an event (on your Facebook wall, on Twitter). For example, one a week hold a live Q&A session with an expert in your field. Or have someone come and tell his/hers personal experiences. 9. Hold a webinar. Webinars offer valuable information to your users. They are likely to sign up, providing you with their e-mail and, if encouraged, share the information. 10. Make a stand. Choose a cause related to your field and get involved. This will also show to your human face. 11. Partner up. Find a brand suited for you and join your social marketing efforts. Hold events together and you will both benefit from it. 12. Come up with an unique event. For example hold an auction for your product. Offer some samples to you most loyal fans. Hold a contest and give an online internship to a fan. 13. Give exclusive offers to your fans, based on them engaging with your brand. 14. And the winner is… We all love prizes. So hold as many contest as you can. Don’t go for big prizes, small is better. And don’t give an iPad just because it is trendy. The best prize is something related to your brand (after all, they are fans of your brand) or to the occasion (Christmas, Easter etc). Socialize It is called social media for a good reason… because it is social. If you are not, you are missing the point. Don’t be afraid to let your fans know you are human. They will better resonate with you. 15. Let them see behind the curtain. A beautiful picture from outside the office window, a pic with the team working or just a problem you’ve been working all day on solving. Your users will love that they can see you working. 16. Promote your fans. Many brands have a “Fan of the week/month award”. You should try it. Or, if a user came up with something useful to you, don’t forget to mention him and credit his efforts. 17. If your fans love your products, let the world see this. Ask your fans to send you pics with them using your products. Or maybe they can send some great chart/ infographics with what your product has done for them. It’s a win/win (you could offer them something in return). 18. Surprise your users. Your fans are not just numbers, so don’t treat them like it. For example, is it their birthday? Send them a short Happy Birthday message. Mabe even a gift? (and it can be branded) Or maybe, it is the perfect time for them to use your product (are they going on a holyday?), so send them a little something. 19. Did they order something? Find out a little more about them and send them a personalized package. Maybe they could benefit from some other service you offer, maybe they mentioned it on social media. 20. Say thank you. Find a nice way to say thank you. Make a video and post it. Sing a song, decorate a wall, mention them in a meeting (anything you can think of). 21. Go offline. Don’t be afraid to take your relationship to the next level (I mean offline). Send them a mail or give them a call. Say thank you and ask if you can hap them with anything or if they have a suggestion. They will like that you care and that they are important to you. 22. Post something unrelated to business. Post a link to a great recipe, maybe a trick to get a special offer on something. They will appreciate the effort. TIPS 23. Link your accounts. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Plus etc are all part of the same media. So link them. Send your users from one platform to the other and then to your website. Off course, don’t make them work to hard. But if an interesting discussion is going on on Twitter, let them know on Facebook, maybe they want to join. Or, if you have an event on Facebook, send an invite on Twitter. 24. Use pictures not links. You are probably posting quite a few link go generate traffic to your website. A better approach is to post a picture and put the text and link in the “About” section. You will get a lot more engagement. 25. Don’t post the same thing. You probable have accounts on a few social media platforms. Don’t post the same text for a link on all accounts. It is likely your fans follow you across multiple platforms and they will see the same message. Come up with different copy. If you know of any other great ways to keep your fans interacting with your brand, please share them in the comments section.   |
| Want to Get Your Twitter Page Verified? Posted: 18 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST I've always wondered how certain people and So here's the deal… I know that many companies (small businesses especially) see being verified on Twitter as a means to set their business apart and further drive popularity and brand awareness. However, Twitter has ,whether intentionally or not, made it rather hard for this to happen. According to a fellow small business owner, Andy Cohn, president and publisher of music magazine The Fader, number of followers are not enough to get verified on Twitter. Cohn stated that despite his 73,000 followers, Twitter reps told him the the only way he can get his account verified is if, "an account has had impersonation issues or is an advertiser who's spent at least $15,000 over three months." What does this mean to other small business owners? Unfortunately, this means that unless people are creating malicious accounts in your name or if you’re willing to pay top dollar in ads, you business will not be able to be verified on Twitter. Life despite being verified Even though being verified may be out of the question for your business and your budget, there are still many ways to be successful on Twitter. Gaining followers and interacting with them on Twitter is still a great way to grow your business. Even though you may have to get creative to prove your legitimacy, you should not get discouraged by not having that coveted check beside your company's name. How are you setting yourself apart from others on Twitter despite having a verified account? photo credit: better wings The Ultimate Guide to Social Media for Small Business   |
| Focus on the Easy Adopters, the Rest Will Follow Posted: 18 Jan 2012 10:15 AM PST Social adoption strategies are not easy to implement in ANY business, and if anyone tells you differently they are lying!
How can you convince people to change their communication and collaboration processes and implement a new social business infrastructure, when in their eyes the current model is not broken? Let’s see if any of these arguments sound familiar to you… “What is the ROI of ‘Being Social in the Workplace’ anyway?” “Social? That means I need to learn even more tools huh?” “So you want my workforce to spend all their time on Facebook?” “I’m already social, I sent a tweet last year” These are what we call Social Barriers, the human instinct blockers based on fear. Overcoming the fear of change is not easy and yes it is a generation thing. The younger generation are entering business with a good knowledge and understanding of social without the added baggage of pre-defined traditional business processes. Adoption is therefore natural and unforced. So how do you overcome these Social Barriers in the workplace? Focus on the Easy Adopters, the rest will follow…There are are couple of ways to face these Social Barriers, and deliver a social adoption strategy:
The latter is an approach I have had a lot of success with, which has also helped influence C-Level buy-in. You could choose either of these approaches or you can do both in parallel, just don’t be afraid to change tactics if you find an approach is not working for you. Every business WILL go social, it’s just a matter of when, and how you approach it…   |
| Google Plus Features – A Beginners Guide Posted: 18 Jan 2012 09:50 AM PST Over the past few weeks I have dedicated time to understanding the nuances of how to use some of the Google Plus Features and I thought I would share my findings with you. Why do I think Google Plus is Important?Google's latest changes to their search algorithm, Google Plus Your World (which I discussed in my last post, What is Search, Plus Your World and Why is It Important? )means that when providing search results, Google will now be pulling information from Google Plus to provide you with a unique and personal experience. This is important because if you have an active and engaged community on Google Plus where you are sharing relevant, informative and educational subject matter and more importantly getting recognised as doing so by getting +1'd (which is the Google Plus equivalent of a Facebook Like), then that social proof will tell Google's search algorithm that your content is valuable and should be shared in the search results. That content will also become available in the search feed of friends of the person who recommended it. This is great as your content will be appearing in the search results because a friend or associate interacted with that content; by interacted I mean commented on, shared or +1's. Their interaction could well influence the searcher's decision to review that content. Let's take a quick look at how to use Google Plus Features for beginners.I am not going to go through how to set up an account because that is quite self-explanatory. Instead, I am going to start by outlining some of the features. How to use Google Plus StreamsThe Google Plus Stream is the equivalent to the Facebook Wall in that it contains all the information that your social circles are sharing. However you can customize this so you only see certain information, posts, links, images, videos from certain circles. This means that you can avoid having a constantly cluttered stream allowing you to be more focussed. How to use Google Plus Circles
When adding people to your network you can add them to a circle that only you see the name off. For example you could add Barrack Obama and David Cameron to a Political leaders circle. You could add Tim Tebow and Tony Romo to a circle called NFL quarter backs. The beauty of this feature is that you can actually control exactly what information you choose to share with each circle. You can also go into the circle to read the stream, knowing that the information flowing in that stream will be filtered only for that niche. How to Use Google Plus' what's Hot FeatureI really like the addition of the What's Hot feature. What's hot is exactly what it says it is, it provides a feed of what is trending at that moment in time. I am sure you will agree is not that revolutionary, so why do I like it so much? Well, you can add your own search criteria and save those searches so you get results for what is hot. For example, for the search "entrepreneur" or "small business marketing tips" or "football", rather than scouring the entire internet for news to share to your community you can have a few specific searches saved. Browse them and share relevant ones with your community. It is very similar to the Google alerts feature and for me will certainly save a lot of time. This is a very rudimentary look at Google Plus features; there are some other features that are slightly more complex, such as Google hang outs, that will probably deserve a post of their own to discuss how to use them. The key take away from this post is that Google have provided users with a social media platform and their latest Google algorithm takes into account social influence. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out that it is important to get on board with Google plus sooner rather than later. Come and join me on Google Plus by Clicking Here ====>>>: James Debono add me to one of your circles and let's start sharing.   |
| 5 Tips for a Social Media Profile Extreme Makeover Posted: 18 Jan 2012 09:45 AM PST It can be difficult to stand out in the fast paced world of social media, but having a well branded cohesive design across your social profiles can help differentiate your business from the masses. Doing so will help reinforce your brand with existing customers and give a fantastic first impression to new prospects. We just finished a complete social media profile redesign across all of our channels and we are thrilled with the results. Here are five tips to help your business do the same. Have a running theme – It's a good idea to unify your social profiles with a good running theme. Since Marketo's software helps you increase your revenue, among other things, we decided to go with the theme of "Crank up the Revenue." It's the perfect extension of our Revenue Rockstar program to the social-sphere. Keep it playful and fun – Social is about not taking yourself too seriously. Your profiles should reflect this and have a sense of playfulness to them. Taking a note from the classic film, Spinal Tap, our new profiles showcase this idea because we turn your revenue up to eleven, it's one louder. Use colors from your website – When designing your social profiles; keep in mind the colors from your website. If you incorporate these colors it's much easier for visitors to relate to your overall brand and feel. We focused on purple, grey, and orange, colors that are synonymous with Marketo. Get a professional – Although it's simple to design a basic profile, if you really want to take it up a notch, hire a professional. Select an agency to guide you through the maze of custom sizes, optimal resolutions, and illustrations. We found a boutique agency and discussed our vision with them. Along with our style guide and a crash course in Marketo culture, they turned our ideas into reality. Connect the online with the offline – A good agency will deliver your new social profile images as vector files. Vector files are created by graphic designers so that logos and other images can be easily converted to a wide range of sizes without distorting the image. This means you can utilize your new designs for trade show props, business cards, or even on a billboard without losing image quality. What do your social profiles say about your business? Are they unified with your overall brand? Have any tips to add? Have a running theme – It's a good idea to unify your social profiles with a good running theme. Since Marketo's software helps you increase your revenue, among other things, we decided to go with the theme of "Crank up the Revenue." It's the perfect extension of our Revenue Rockstar program to the social-sphere.   |
| WaveMetrix Releases Quarterly Social Media Report Posted: 18 Jan 2012 09:10 AM PST WaveMetrix recently released the sixth edition of their quarterly report, covering social media trends. Keyword this quarter? Creativity!
With social media advances, it's no longer a question of technology, but rather a question of creating conversation. WaveMetrix notes the importance of letting fans lead the discussion about your brand. Consumer 2 Consumer communication increased tenfold in Q3 through tactics of "Twitter Parties" and gaming apps. WaveMetrix also reiterates the importance of targeting specific demographics. There's an abundance of brands aiming their initiatives at very defined age and gender groups including Harvey Nichols, Dr Pepper and Diesel. Of course this approach has only been successful when agencies research and identify exactly what kinds of humor and intellects will hit home with their audiences. Jobs well done? Harvey Nichols "Walk of Shame" ad campaign didn't alienate older audiences because it poked fun in a positive way at its younger demographic. Jobs not so well done? Dr. Pepper's "No Women Allowed" caused tension in both male and female audiences. The quarterly trend report includes a lot of analysis of real-time Tweets. Marketers have found that there is a very small window of opportunity to leverage a lot of engagement during events like the Consumer Electronics Show or the X Factor finale. In order for consumers to be interested and active, the goals of the conversation need to be consistent. Takeaways for Q3: Consistency, Content, Creativity. Let's see what the relationship between these three entails in Q1. Download the full report for more information.   |
| 3 Types of Plugins That Can Totally Screw Up WordPress Upgrades Posted: 18 Jan 2012 08:15 AM PST
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| Social Media Tactics: Questions to Ask Posted: 18 Jan 2012 08:05 AM PST This post is an excerpt from The Ultimate Guide to Social Media for Small Business If you've gotten this far into your planning, congratulations! You are now ready to layout the nuts and bolts to execute your strategy and ultimately fulfill your business goals. Tactics boil down to the specific pieces of content, relationships you will need to build, and what channels you will be utilizing to communicate with your prospects and customers. So some of the questions you will need to answer within the tactics section are:
Do they questions apply to your situation? How are you answering them? The Ultimate Guide to Social Media for Small Business   |
| Power to the People – The Shorty Awards Posted: 18 Jan 2012 08:00 AM PST Starting movements has never been easier, especially since the digital revolution brought us the delights of the Internet and social media. In fact, since communication went global it has changed the world as we know it, bringing about cultural shifts in every walk of life. Like never before brands, organisations and even individuals can start their own movements at the click of a button. They can push messages out there, get feedback, build something and make things go viral with the whole world listening, watching, sharing and participating. And nothing beats brand credibility than someone sharing your messages. Take the Shorty Awards, for example. It’s an annual awards event that ‘honors the best producers of short content on social media’. Now in its fourth year, it recognizes the people and organizations producing real-time short form content on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube and the rest of the social web. But here’s the clever bit. Millions of people make their nominations by either tweeting or going through the ShortyAwards.com website, supporting their favourite characters on the web. All those tweets then culminate in a highly anticipated awards ceremony that celebrates the winners in dozens of featured categories, as well as thousands of crowd-sourced community ones. Think about it. It’s a whole awards ceremony that involves the public. It’s giving ‘power to the people’ and allows anyone to have a good chance at winning one of the many categories. Don’t you think that’s awesome. You simply wouldn’t have ever imagined something like this was possible, even 10 years ago. Sure – we had telephone voting, but nothing spreads as easily or as fast as tweets or Facebook updates. And every year the Shorty Awards has expanded, becoming one of the biggest events on the web and now supported by the likes of The New York Times. It’s a viral events platform that has become a success through making best use of sharing. It has started a movement of its own while allowing millions of others to do the same. The Shorty Awards is a great example of how anyone can start their own movement or have a chance at being recognized for their efforts and hard work. The Internet has made the world smaller and given power to the people. And I’m actually on there, currently in 11th place for the ‘Blogger’ category. You can vote for me and Creative Boom here.   |
| How to Get Blog Followers like the Pied Piper of Hamelin! Posted: 18 Jan 2012 07:30 AM PST There are countless blogs on the internet. Some good, many bad and a few that are indifferent. What is it that makes those good blogs stand out from the rest and what can you do to ensure that your blog breaks into the elite and gets followers, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin? In simple terms the answer to the question is you need to learn how to play the right tune. Why do You Need to Know How to Get Blog Followers?Before you start a blog you need to understand your purpose for doing so. Is it:
Whatever your purpose you need to have a clear picture of your end goal in mind before you blog, as without that focus your words will be lost in a sea of competing blogs and simply get washed away. Even with the crystal clear clarity of your end goal the path to success is not guaranteed. Know you have clarified the purpose of the blog you need to consider the following; Content is KingIn order for your blog to be taken seriously you need to produce compelling content that people want to read. If your content is sub standard, it provides no value, is not educational, entertaining or enlightening then people will move on. There is no room for mediocrity you need to take the time and patience to learn how to blog effectively; Pick the right subject matterCheck, double check and even triple check the readability of your content before publishing. Think about including other media formats such as video, images, info graphics. If you can do this while keeping it fresh and your message compelling then you will keep your reader engaged to the final full stop and the call to action. Post RegularlyOne of the main reasons long running sitcoms gain and keep their popularity is because people know what time they will be on. People get conditioned to know that on Tuesday and Thursday a new episode will be aired and they then fit this into their plans. Set a timeline and stick to it. Even better, broadcast when you will be publishing new content so you are held accountable by your readership if you don't publish. Invite CommentsAsk questions, be controversial or open up a debate. These are great ways that you can get people to start commenting on your posts. Don't be offended if you don't get any comments, think back to times when you have been in training or a seminar and the organizer has asked for questions and everyone waits until somebody else goes first as they don't want to look stupid. You are not going to look stupid. Say what you think. If you think the post is good, let the writer know and why. If you disagree with a point then let the author know, if you think there is something else that could add value to the blog or the topic then add it. With all that in mind if you would like to leave a comment to let me know exactly what you think of this post then please do so. I won't be offended. Honest! Display Your Social SignalsBy letting new readers to your blog know that there is already a community who read and are engaged with your blog people will feel more comfortable. For example on the right hand side of my blog I have my Facebook page, my Twitter feed and my YouTube channel displaying some of the fans and followers that are engaged with my blog. Do the same on your blog; promote your blog in as many ways as possible. Make people feel that they are part of something bigger. Give those new readers the opportunity to connect with you in as many ways as possible. Give a GiftGive your potential loyal reader the opportunity to claim a free gift to keep them connected with your blog
Learning how to get more blog followers is about giving INCREDIBLE value. The more value you can give to your audience, the greater the chance you have of building those long term connections and satisfying the purpose of you going through the trials and tribulations of starting a blog in the first place.   |
| The Biggest Lesson @leowid Learned in his First 6 Months of Blogging Posted: 18 Jan 2012 07:10 AM PST  Photo credit Redden-McAllister Recently I asked some of my favorite bloggers about the biggest lesson they learned in their first 6 months of blogging. The answers I got were fascinating, educational and often surprising. This and next week I will run a series of posts sharing my findings, and today we're starting with none other than Mr. Leo Widrich. Leo is the force of nature behind the Buffer App, an indispensable tool in anyone's Twitter arsenal. He has written for many highly regarded blogs and has probably had the highest creative output of any other blogger I know of in his first 6 months of blogging. So, without further ado, let's see what the biggest lesson was Leo had learned in his first 6 months of blogging. This is what Leo had shared with me. Learning What People WantThis goes back to the famous Paul Graham quote, that only a selected few can get printed on a t-shirt:" Make something people want." Within 6 months of blogging, I got a great feeling of what it means to build something that people want. Not just readers, but users, press writers and people of all sorts. It would be foolish to say I have an understanding of it, but I definitely tasted what it is. For readers: Within my first 6 months of blogging, I could learn which types of headlines do best (list posts, HOW TO's and completely crazy stories), which lengths of posts does the best, which layout of posts does the best and so much more. I don't mean learning about it, but experiencing it, seeing which posts I wrote got more traction, whilst others don't. This was amazing. For press writers: Being a blogger helped me a great deal to understand what others want to write about – because I am a writer myself. Approaching the press for stories about Buffer became a lot easier, my pitches much more focused on them and their readers and the level of understanding – from writer to writer, much more casual and comfortable. For users: As a blogger I learnt that no one likes to read announcements or pure facts about the achievement of you and your startup. So I started to turn everything into guides, HOW TO's and actionable tips that anyone can use for their advantage right away. This post might be a great example to showcase this. For myself: Lastly, I learnt what I wanted myself. This came mostly through my personal blog. Blogging as a form of personal development is my most recent discovery, but helped me tremendously already. Spilling my thoughts on a canvas, to shape and form how my brain works is one of the things I would have never discovered without. So in short, if there is anything I would recommend, it is to start blogging. There It IsSo there it is. Pretty amazing insight from the guy that did it all. I especially love the ending. You really just have to suck it up and start blogging.
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| The Most Powerful Small Business Tweets of 2011 [Infographic] Posted: 18 Jan 2012 07:00 AM PST Tweeting has become a daily activity for businesses, influencers and media outlets. Twitter gives everyone an equal opportunity to speak his or her mind and spread awareness. But we started to wonder, what were the top tweets in small business this year? Which tweets were the most re-tweeted in 2011? We examined the Twitter leaders in small business – check out the infographic below.   |
| 4 Signs You’re Killing Your Company Blog Posted: 18 Jan 2012 06:30 AM PST Business blogging is one of the most valuable marketing tactics a company can employ online. And in light of Google's recent "freshness update", having a business blog to drive your SEO is more important than ever. However, running a successful business blog is not as simple as many site owners think. It is a huge time commitment (with no end date) and the potential for taking a wrong turn is very real. Here are 4 things that could end up killing your company blogYou can't get at least one post published each week. All that matters is monetization.   |
| Top 3 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn Company Page Posted: 18 Jan 2012 06:10 AM PST
As a follow-up to my post Social Media Optimization 101: How To Optimize Your Profiles, I’ve outlined the top 3 ways to tackle optimization of your LinkedIn company page to start gaining better search visibility and referral traffic to your website, blog or conversion landing pages, which helps enhance your lead generation efforts. 1. Write A Keyword-rich Company OverviewThe best place to start optimizing your company page is the Overview for your page. Not only is this the first content area a user sees on your page but it also acts as the page’s meta description in the SERPs. Take the time to work in some of your target keywords within this overview copy and your core specialties. 2. Post Frequent Keyword-rich Status UpdatesThanks to the new company page status updates feature, you can post keyword-rich status updates with links to your latest blog articles, news releases or featured promotions. Try to post at least one status update daily to enhance your page and to show up in your followers’ feeds. 3. Develop Targeted Services PagesOne of the largest overlooked features of LinkedIn company pages is the ability to create targeted pages for your company’s individual products and services. These pages allow you to add valuable outbound links to specific landing pages on your site, embed videos, and feature a content download or promotion with an embedded outbound link. The sooner you implement these optimization tips on your own company page the sooner you’ll start to benefit from the power LinkedIn presents with your overall Inbound Marketing and lead generation efforts. To learn more on how LinkedIn and other social media channels fit into the disciplines of Inbound Marketing, download our FREE Inbound Marketing guide.
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| 9 Tactics for Upping Your Presence on Twitter Posted: 18 Jan 2012 05:20 AM PST Whether you work for a Fortune 500, mid-sized start-up, or play a starring role in a solo operation out of your basement, building a brand presence on Twitter is a must. Doing so can give your business access to a near endless pool of potential customers (360 million and counting to more precise) and the ability to tap into new markets with a single tweet. However, I'm not here to debate the merits of Twitter with you. If you're reading this post, I assume you've already come to your own conclusions about Twitter. So, without further ado, here are 8 tactics your brand can use to up its presence on Twitter. Tactic # 1 Include industry key terms in your bio. Don't fill your bio with a bunch of corporate speak and generic mission statements. Instead, fill it with meat: contact details, sales pitches, and, most importantly, industry key terms. Use all of these details to tell your brand's story in 160 characters or less. Doing this will increase your Twitter searchabilty and tells potential customers why they should care about your brand. Tactic # 2 Make a custom background with contact info. While you're limited to only160 characters that the bio offers, your brand's story isn't. Create a customized Twitter background and give more information or pictures that can help tell the tale. If you're a pizza shop, include pictures of how the shop looked ten years ago and how it looks today. If you're a shoe retailer, like zappos, include extra contact info such as your email address, Facebook page, or telephone number. And extra points for anyone who uses a QR code in their background, as @socialmouths does in their custom background. Tactic # 3 Retweet the experts in your industry with @theirname. This tactic is particularly useful for brands in the B2B space. When someone comes to your Twitter page, your bio and custom background aren't the only things on display—visitors will also be paying a great deal of attention to your individual tweets. Your tweets – the kind of information you provide, what types of relationships you've developed and how much you value customer feedback – tell a lot about what you value as a brand. So when you tweet make sure to mention experts in your industry and include their @twittername. This not only shows visitors that you are knowledgeable in your field, but it also gets the attention of the experts—who will then retweet your tweets, essentially widening your engagement loop. Tactic # 4 Include Images of your team and events in your tweets. This is a new ability on Twitter, which may explain why it's so underutilized. Adding images to your tweets is a great way to project a human element to your Twitter feed. Show company employees cutting lose at functions, show successes, show customer interactions. All tweets that include pictures show up in the recent images tab, so if there's an old picture you want to stay up there, you'll have to keep retweeting it. Also, one warning: don't post one dimensional, "safe" pictures (i.e. just staged pictures or generic pictures). Your followers will sniff out the fake as soon as it's up. Tactic # 5 Find industry contacts through Follower Wonk. Follower Wonk is amazing. Unlike the Twitter search box, which just searches recent tweets, Follower Wonk can dig through the millions and millions of Twitter user profiles, searching for relevant key terms listed in the bio. If your brand is looking to connect with more people within the Advertising industry, just do a Follower Wonk search for "advertising", or make it even more specific by searching for "IAB" (Interactive Advertising Bureau). And, best of all, you can follow all of these users in app (saving you a boat load of "loading time"), and you can sort the list by relevancy or follower/following ratio. It's a quick way to find the social media influencers in your industry. A must have for B2B companies. Tactic # 6 Find more experts/similar companies by following lists. After locating an industry contact through Follower Wonk, check to see if they are on any relevant lists. More than likely other users have searched for the same type of social media influencers, and have created a list of similar Twitter accounts. For instance, if I were looking for a recruiter or job site's with Twitter accounts, I would check out the lists that @CareerBuilder is listed on. And if I'm a distributor of ice cream hardware products, I would check out lists that @cherrygarcia (Ben and Jerry) is included on. Tactic # 7 Join established industry chats…or start your own. Of course, joining an established chat is a great way to network and establish your expertise within a given industry. Each chat is checked by using a hashtag (i.e #eventprofs), and those comments which include this feature are read by everyone participating in the chat. To find relevant chats within your industry, search for industry keywords on Hashtags.org. Tactic # 8 Join WeFollow. Want Tweeps to find you? WeFollow has a large network of Twitter people, expands across a number of categories, and is free for anyone to sign up. Many people use WeFollow to search for industry contacts, so sign up for this free service to increase your Twitter presence. Tactic # 9 Create a Publishing Schedule through Hootsuite. Having consistent content on your twitter feed increases the chances that customers will continue to return. And one way to do this is to schedule tweets through a publishing platform, such as Hootsuite. With Hootsuite, you can set-up tweets days, weeks, even months in advance, ensuring your feed is always filled with content. Industry related tips or quotes is a good piece of content to schedule out in this fashion, as I've done with @Exec_comm's tweets in the picture above. And for those worried about over flooding your followers feeds—don't be. Read the study by Kiss Metrics for a full explanation. But as a general rule of thumb, schedule no more than 4 tweets per hour. Any tips tactics that I missed? What has your company done to increase it's presence on Twitter? Please let us know in the comments section.   |
| This is Why You’re Not Seth Godin. Posted: 18 Jan 2012 04:00 AM PST Seth Godin is an insanely successful entrepreneur, marketing author and speaker. Is his social media model of broadcasting without engagement scalable for you too? I recently received this inquiry from a friend: I launched a new blog on Sunday. It's sort of a quote of the day/micro blog for entrepreneurs. It posts each morning at 9:00 and I have it auto-tweet so people can follow it that way. My question is: Should I begin to follow a bunch of people on that account or should I just use it as a way to have people learn about the blog? My model is Seth Godin's blog. He has over 137,000 followers but that Twitter account follows 0. Well, if it works for Seth, why can't it work for you? Let's take a look. To be successful as a social media marketer, you have to find a way to move your content through an engaged network. To achieve this, you need a) a content strategy and b) a network strategy. Seth certainly provides interesting, consistent, and relevant content and let's assume my friend does too. In this way, they both have a content strategy that could attract readers. The second critical issue is "network strategy" … we need a place for all that cool content to go. Seth Godin is a rare commodity on the social web: A true celebrity. Like Lady Gaga or a famous athlete, Seth has an engaged network purely because of who he is. If you are reading this blog, I'm guessing you are not a celebrity. If you are, please let me know so I can tell my mother. She doesn't get the Tao of Twitter thing at all! So without a built-in network, we have to earn our tribe the old-fashioned way — by actively seeking those who would be interested in us, consistently engaging with those folks, and being authentically helpful. It's difficult to do this by auto-broadcasting blog post links from a standing start. In fact, it's probably a recipe for failure. People don't want auto-tweeted ads for your blog. They want you. They want to make friends and build new business relationships. And then, maybe, just maybe, they will read your blog posts. "Seth Godin" is not scalable business model for new bloggers and there are no shortcuts. To build social media success from scratch, you have to work hard at it — one connection, one blog post at a time. Right? Mark Schaefer is a marketing consultant, author and college educator who blogs at {grow}. You can also follow him on Twitter: @markwschaefer.   |
companies get verified on Twitter but others don't. A recent article published on 
The reason?
A circle is effectively a group of people that share the same interest. When you initially get started with Google plus you will have circles such as friends, acquaintances, family however you can customize it and add your own circles.
Brands profiled include 
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Those that tell you they need updates (they're the easy ones!) The answer is simple here, update them before you upgrade…..
Those premium plugins that are sneaky because they don't always use the auto update feature.
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If you’re still not utilizing LinkedIn at this point for networking or business development you’re being lazy. There, I said it! In all seriousness, LinkedIn is now 147 million users strong and growing, making it a valuable social media channel for business professionals and companies of all sizes. As this professional network grows so does the competition, making it harder to ensure you’re found when a user conducts a general search within LinkedIn.
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