3 Signs That You Shouldn’t Do a Twitter Q&A

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Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” just been skewered by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection for promoting bogus weight loss supplements. He’d also been ridiculed on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” in a segment that received over 5.4 million YouTube views. Even worse, every social media marketer had seen the #AskJenny debacle, in which former “The View” host Jenny McCarthy had been mocked for her quacky medical views. To connect with the audience, Dr. Oz’s social media team scheduled a Twitter Q&A with the hashtag #OzsInbox. It didn’t go well. In fact, it became one of Twitter’s most epic fails.

When they’re done well, scheduled at the right time, and handled by an experienced social marketing team, Twitter Q&As can be great for a brand. When they’re handled poorly or scheduled at the wrong time, they turn into public relations disasters. Twitter Q&As aren’t a great way to rebuild positive feelings around a struggling brand. If your organization is facing one of these scenarios, you should skip the Twitter chat. [Read more…]

Top 10 Important Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Social Media

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Editor’s note: This post was written by Isabel Williams, who works at http://www.bizdb.co.uk/. With a background in new business technologies, Isabel is a passionate blogger and experienced educator who writes and lectures about leveraging the potential of the World Wide Web for business development.

things you didnt know about social media

Social media is constantly changing and every time we measure consumer behaviors, we come up with new interesting statistics that broaden our knowledge about how users interact with companies. The nature of this interaction also changes, but fortunately we’ve got a whole wealth of tools at our disposal to track and measure all kinds of activity on social media, helping marketers to set up new strategies that foster the brand-consumer relationship. Here are 10 interesting facts about social media you probably weren’t aware of – number 7 might completely change the way you reach out to brand customers. [Read more…]

Figure out the Best Hashtags to Use With These Tips

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Best hashtags to use

Image – Anna Creech, Flickr.

The value of a great hashtag is vastly understated in the social media marketing scene, even though they’re becoming more and more common. People, businesses and brands can benefit greatly from having one that is memorable, impactful and useful in more than one setting. Choosing a truly great hashtag for your social media outlets, however, isn’t as easy as some might think. There are some key components to finding the best hashtags to use. Read about some of those below.

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Is Paid Social Media Advertising Really Worth It?

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Whether you love it or hate it, social media really is a revolutionary way to connect with an audience, convey a message, or stay in touch with friends. That said, it didn’t take very long before social’s popularity led invariably to the trend of social media advertising. The first wave came with company pages and profiles, which then evolved into the paid, campaign-based platforms we have today. Though all trends point to “Yes, invest more” when it comes to these social media advertising campaigns, the question of whether they’re worth your budget still stands.

Facebook's paid social media advertising platform.

To click or not to click?

This week, we break it down to see if it’s really worth it in the end. [Read more…]

A Review of this Year’s Newest Social Networks

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Another year’s nearly in the books and a slew of new social networks are working to catch our attention in their respective app stores. Whether you’re looking to make new friends or find another avenue to share an opinion or tell a great story, 2014 had something for everybody. Here are a few of the budding social networks you may want to give more than a passing swipe.

SUPER

SUPER is a new take on well-known features of social networks.

The latest brainchild of Twitter co-creator Biz Stone, SUPER is a funky social networking app that brings its own style to sharing life’s moments. The function of the app is actually very simple–just snap a picture, choose the appropriate ALL-CAPPED caption, write some text, add a filter, and send. The app itself is praised for its superior, yet simple design, and it carries with it a certain self-awareness to the social space. [Read more…]

The Biggest Social Media Game Changers for 2015

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As 2014 starts winding down, it’s important to look forward and capitalize on the latest trends coming down the social media pipeline. For marketers and bloggers alike, social media networks can be a veritable springboard for great products, services, and ideas. In case you missed it, here’s a list of the biggest social media stories that are going to make a splash in 2015.

1. Wearables

Wearable technologies will have an affect on social media in 2015.
Image courtesy of Giuseppe Costantino. Used in conjunction with Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

As if we couldn’t get more attached to our smartphones, the increasing popularity of wearable technology now allows us to stay connected all hours of the day. From Google Glass to Android Wear and the Apple Watch, these ultra-portable smart devices afford new ways to post, share, and check in seamlessly.

How might this affect the social media savvy? Most important, these devices bring a new sense of immediacy to social media. With sharing that’s even more instantaneous, more visually-driven content will be critically important. As devices become smaller and more integrated “in the moment,” you can forget reaching your audience with pages upon pages of text. [Read more…]

5 Important Social Media Metrics You Aren’t Measuring

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Social media can be a harsh terrain to navigate. Whether for businesses or freelancers, the social media landscape is often fraught with uncertainty and only one unfortunate constant…change. The best way to understand where to start or where to go next is through consistent measurement. No, the number of “likes” or favorites is not useful, nor are they any indication that you’re “doing” social right.

In an attempt to shed some light on the subject and steer individuals and businesses back on a path toward meaningful social media marketing, here’s a list of 5 social media metrics that are actually worth measuring.

  • Resolution Rate

It’s a pretty well-known rule that if you have an idea on the Internet, there’s at least one person who will criticize it. Businesses on social media know this feeling all too well, as miscommunication among staff and outright faux pas have received intense backlash from followers. Anticipating these types of interactions and developing processes to resolve them quickly is a great step toward a more successful social media presence. Enter Resolution Rate: the ratio of inquiries that were resolved to all other inquiries. This social media metric allows you to ensure you’ve got a grip on the two-way street that is social media interaction. [Read more…]

5 Dead Simple Tips That Will Bring You Tons of Traffic from Twitter

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Editor’s note: This post was written by Tim Soulo, who calls himself an MMA marketer (which stands for “Mixed Marketing Arts”) and his focus is tactics and strategies that bring you either money or clients. Make sure to visit his personal blog at: BloggerJet.

Get tons of traffic from Twitter

How come Twitter is so simple and yet every social media expert on the planet tries to make it look so complicated?

Twitter marketing is not a rocket science, and obviously you don’t need a PhD to run your Twitter account, right?

tons of traffic from twitter

Source

However, many bloggers seem to misunderstand how Twitter works and as they try to milk it for traffic they end up doing totally ineffective things: change their profile picture 3 times, order a custom twitter profile design, and rewrite their twitter bio twice a week. But all of that doesn’t help. [Read more…]

This Common Practice & Mindset May be Sabotaging Your Online Marketing Efforts

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Never before in history has the potential of commerce been so ripe and rich with Billion dollar possibilities for marketers. Social media has given us unprecedented reach and influence on international markets and given rise to tools that make delivering the right products to consumers a win-win experience. There’s glory everywhere and everyone wants a piece of the pie and is ready to do all that it takes to achieve victory. More businesses are realizing the benefits of social media and online marketing and budgets and teams are transformed.

marketing-sale

However, as usual, there are a few problems that seem to be holding back the average online marketer. And as we’ve witnessed time and time again, in the words of Gary Vaynerchuk, “marketers ruin everything.” As he explains in the video below and the one here, we certainly have the wrong approach. [Read more…]

How to Use Twitter’s Advanced Search Engine for Networking & Marketing

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Twitter cannot be ignored, point blank. If you and your business have written it off as a site simply for teenagers or idle youngsters to rant, make noise and post about every meal they’re having, you’re dead wrong. Any website that has 645 million active users with 58 million public conversations per day is not something you should be ignoring in your marketing strategy; and if you have an account but are not using it, I’m going to convince you to start doing otherwise.

twitter-advanced-1014x487 [Read more…]