In The News
Tips for Getting Seen on Facebook
Oct 30th
by ctinct
Did you ever wonder why you never see some of your friends in your Facebook News Feed? If you only have 3 friends you probably get to see all three in the News Feed, but if you have few hundred there are most likely a handful that never show up. Tom Weber and The Daily Beast did a one month test to see if they could figure out how Facebook’s News Feed algorithm works.This also applies to business pages. If the members of your organization’s page on Facebook have a few hundred friends and like a lot of business pages, you’ll have to fight for your spot in their News Feed.
The Daily Beast’s one-month experiment into Facebook’s news feed yielded the following discoveries:
- A bias against newcomers
- “Most Recent” doesn’t tell the whole story.
- Links are favored over status updates, and photos and videos trump links.
- “Stalking” your friends won’t get you noticed.
- Raise your visibility by getting people to comment.
- It’s hard to get the attention of “popular kids.”
As a business owner getting started on social media, you may read that and think that it would be fairly impossible to grow your business page, especially if you won’t be showing up in anyone’s News Feeds because you’re new and you don’t get any interactions. Whenever I do presentations I always get asked by those getting started on Facebook how they can begin to grow their page members. Here are the tips I give to all of my clients:
Study Reveals Why Consumers Fan Facebook Pages
Oct 29th
Have you ever wondered why people decide to become fans of Facebook pages? Understanding the reasons people become fans can help your business or brand develop better strategies.
In this article, I take a look at two studies.
The first reveals why consumers fan businesses on Facebook. The second one examines how marketers are keeping up with the ever-changing world of social media.
#1: Nearly 40% of Consumers “Like” Companies on Facebook to Publicly Display Their Brand Affiliation to Friends
As Facebook grows, we’re able to learn even more about the behaviors and preferences of its users. As Facebook continues to change, new stats surface to give us an even better idea of how consumers on Facebook prefer to interact with brands and companies. A new report released by ExactTarget and CoTweet found that discounts and “social badging” were the primary reasons consumers Like brands on Facebook.
26 Twitter Tips for Enhancing Your Tweets
Oct 28th
Almost anyone these days can throw together 140 characters and call it a tweet. But to use Twitter for maximum business impact there are many tried and true content sources ready to be used.
In this post I’ll introduce practical ways to use good content for your tweets, everything from A to Z.
#1: Answers
Think about the questions your customers and prospects asked you this past week. Or maybe there are the repeat questions you’ve already answered on the FAQ page of your website.
To get started, create a list of questions, and answer them in your tweets one by one—paying particular attention to the most relevant at this time. For example, focus on seasonal questions, current rates and discounts, promotions and sales or commonly asked how-to’s in your business and industry. Save the list and add to it as you go along. What you don’t use this week may make even more sense a few weeks from now.
#2: Behind the Scenes
Anne Handley refers to this type of content sharing as the “insider’s view of your company,” where you have the opportunity to share updates about the projects and work you’re currently involved in. You can also use behind the scenes as an opportunity to welcome a new client or feature any other newsy development. Give readers or followers an inside look at your company.
Avoiding Bad Trips in the Twitterverse
Oct 27th
By Gina Smith
ver the summer, Virgin America started a risky promotional campaign, encouraging passengers to use its free onboard Wi-Fi service to tweet good vibes about their flying experiences. The San Francisco-based airline identified 120 influential users on Twitter and offered them all free round-trip flights. The comments were overwhelmingly positive, as expected.
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| All Atwitter: With his Twitter outburst against referees, entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban prompted the NBA to write a new policy about tweeting before, during, and after games. Credit: R. Blake Ramick |
But in the business of image making, one nasty post can ripple through the Twitterverse and spoil a whole day. The stakes in social media are higher than with traditional media relations, says Porter Gale, Virgin America’s vice president of marketing. The impact of both positive and negative statements “can easily be amplified because of followers and fans.”
On one recent day, for instance, a semifamous actress named Mackenzie Firgens thanked Virgin Atlantic for the “pretty view to Seattle” and linked her thousands of followers to a picture she took out her window. Stacy Small, who goes by the handle EliteTravelGal, exclaimed: “totally luv my main cabin seat w power, wifi, tv, snax.” But a flier named Darrell Whitelaw snapped a picture of a broken seat that “needs to be fixed.” And AlisonEvents, a wedding and party planner, tweeted about “the worst flight on VirginAmerica”: “plane landed and fire trucks had to rescue us and drive us to the gate. Not awesome.”
The viral nature of social media can turn even the most random, off-the-cuff comment into a broadcast. In the airline world, the most famous example is the case of Kevin Smith, a Hollywood producer with more than a million followers on Twitter. Earlier this year, before the start of a Southwest flight, Smith was told that he was too large for his seat and was asked to vacate the aircraft. He repeatedly and profanely tweeted and blogged about his experience, criticizing Southwest in general for the “fat policy” and the pilot and flight attendant who spoke to him in particular. Even after Southwest apologized, the outrage on Twitter persisted for days.
Why crisis management and social media must co-exist
Oct 27th
By Rob Birgfeld
hen it comes to corporate crises, social media is most often perceived as a culprit. Communications traditionalists, used to creating and managing messages, see the current environment as a polluted one in which a single blog post, tweet or update from a nobody can snowball into a full-blown catastrophe. They point to Domino’s and Motrin, as well as to Nestle and most recently, Gap to demonstrate how things have changed for the worse.
There’s no doubt things have changed — and we can argue until we’re blue in the face over whether what we’re seeing is better or worse. But what’s not open to discussion is that this new reality requires new tactics. And while social media has become the weapon of choice for angry masses to fuel the fire of negativity, it is also the very best asset for crisis management.
In a session titled “Digital Crisis Communications” at this year’s Blogworld Expo, panelists Scott Monty of Ford, Shel Holtz of Holtz Communication + Technology, Dallas Lawrence of Burson-Marsteller’s Proof Integrated Communications and moderator Valeria Maltoni shed light on what today’s corporations can do to monitor, confront and manage crises in social spaces. Here are a few choice takeaways from the panelists to help you navigate and avoid crises in a 2.0 world.
Top 7 Social Media Services for Small Business [MASHABLE AWARDS]
Oct 27th
s part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Best Social Media Service for Small Business.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.
Throughout the year we’ve spoken to many small business owners, asking them about their best practices, recommendations and success stories in the social media space.
Pulling from their experiences, we’ve learned that choosing social platforms should be based on what type of content your company produces, where your audience is already active, what your goals are, and how you plan to add value for your business’s followers.
While every social platform isn’t fit for all businesses, there are quite a few standout services that can be utilized throughout many industries. Here are our top picks for social media services for small businesses — many of these may not be surprising, but that’s because the success stories we’ve heard have proven them over and over again.
Which social media services do you recommend for small businesses? Add your thoughts in the comments below.
What’s next for politics and social media?
Oct 27th
Each election cycle sees social media become a slightly more potent force in U.S. politics — but its effects are still relatively limited, according to panelists at an event organized by Politico and Facebook and held at the George Washington University.
A recent GWU/Politico poll found 89% of respondents said they had never directly interacted with a politician through a social network — compared with 2% who say they did once, 7% who say they do it occasionally and 2% who say they do so frequently. GWU professor Matthew Hindman noted that he expects these numbers to increase by 2012, as more young people who grew up with social technology reach voting age.
But Facebook’s Adam Conner says asking about direct engagement is deceptive. Rather than asking how many people have directly engaged a candidate through a social network, Conner says it would be better to study how many people have gotten information about a candidate through their Facebook newsfeed because one of their friends supports that candidate. “That’s where you get the viral feedback loops,” he said.
Being A Twitter Snob Is A Good Thing
Oct 26th
By Mitch Joel
It annoys many people when they follow you on Twitter and you do not follow them back. Too bad. Don’t do it.
The only people you should follow on Twitter are people who are immediately interesting to you or people who might become interesting to you. Ignore the rest. I know, this doesn’t sound very “social media,” but it’s true and it’s a needed commodity in a cluttered world (you can read more about why you should be a Twitter Snob right here: The Trouble With Twitter – Confessions Of A Twitter Snob and, if that doesn’t get you re-thinking your Twitter strategy, read this: The Dirty Little Secret Of The Twitter Elite). You may think that this reasoning is anti-Social Media or that by not following someone back, you will be insulting them, but if you read the Blog post, The Dirty Little Secret Of The Twitter Elite, you’ll understand that even though they may be following you back, they’re probably filtering you and/or ignoring you.
But, there’s a better reason to not follow back everyone who is following you on Twitter.
Here’s a real-life example: the other day, Alistair Croll recommended I check out Tim Carmody on Twitter. Tim has a cool Blog called, Snarkmarket, and is a contributor to Wired. He has 2,221 followers but only follows 414 people. I wasn’t immediately struck by Tim’s Twitter feed, so I looked at some of the people he was following and I could not believe the quality of people he is connected to. What really shocked me is how few of those people I was following. I hit the Twitter equivalent of pay-dirt.
Busting the Top 3 Guest Blogging Myths
Oct 25th
What’s smarter? Putting all your eggs into your own blog basket or placing a few real fine blog posts on another person’s blog? If you’ve pondered these thoughts, keep reading…
Guest blogging has been around for a long time, but it’s an especially hot topic now. With the concept becoming even hotter daily, it’s quite natural that myths emerge.
This post looks at three myths around guest blogging that have been actively discussed recently.
Myth #1: Guest Blogging Is a Waste of Time
“Why would I spend so much time arranging, discussing and writing a post to get just one or two links from the very bottom of my article?”
Those who think guest posting is done for link-building—and measure the guest posting campaign by the number of links—completely don’t get it. There’s so much more to it, which you’ll miss if you focus on links. In fact, I’ve been discouraging guest bloggers from thinking about links overall: just stop building links while guest blogging. Period. Focus on other benefits of guest blogging.
5 New Ways to Market Your Brand on Facebook
Oct 25th
With 500 million members and growing, Facebook offers brands and marketers direct contact to the largest pool of online users on the web. After all, social media is fast becoming more popular than e-mail on mobile devices and more convenient for news consumption than the daily paper.
In recent weeks and months, Facebook has introduced and improved a number of on-site tools that sage brands and businesses can use to better market themselves. Even the simplest of tools such as “Likes” and photos could serve as a catalyst for a viral network effect. Of course, there’s also opportunity to be had with more calculated efforts around Place Pages, Questions and the New Groups.
New as these conveniences may be, they’re still rich with opportunity. What follows is a look at how these tools, mixed with a little ingenuity, can be applied to your marketing purposes.
