TwitterToolsReviews |
- SELF Magazine Ripped Apart On Social Media For Mocking Cancer Survivor
- Selling With Social Media: A New Direction for Businesses
- Microsoft’s Bing Lets Amateur Photographers Take #TheBigShot, Winning Photos To Feature On Home Page
- How to Get Customers to Post Instagram Pictures
- How to Not Suck At Facebook #387: Frenemies, Unfriending, And Hate Reads
- How to Not Suck At Facebook #387: Frenemies, Unfriending, And Hate Reads
- LinkedIn Publisher – Initial Thoughts
- How Constant Contact Uses Pinterest to Reach a B2B Market
- Instagram Looking To Replace Foursquare As Location Service With Facebook Places
- Miley Cyrus Course Offered At Skidmore College
| SELF Magazine Ripped Apart On Social Media For Mocking Cancer Survivor Posted: 27 Mar 2014 09:56 PM PDT SELF magazine is not getting any social love today, after a rather clumsy misstep of theirs went viral — in a regular column in which the rag mocks things for which it does not approve, cancer survivor and runner Monika Allen was blasted for donning a tutu while running. Allen was doubly horrified by the SELF debacle when she discovered the tone of the pic's commentary (her runner badge reads "die tumor die"), as she believed the coverage was intended to be positive and added that she "couldn't wait to send copies of the magazine to [her] dad and [her] in-laws." In a section titled "The BS Meter," SELF magazine's editors sniffed: "A racing tutu epidemic has struck NYC's Central Park, and it's all because people think these froufrou skirts make you run faster. Now, if you told us they would make people run away from you faster, we might believe it." Over on Facebook, the page Glam Runner — from whom SELF obtained the shot — reports that the mag apologized for their "snarky" treatment of the image. Earlier, they'd explained: "The real story behind this photo is that Tara and Monika, pictured here, are board members for Girls on the Run San Diego. They founded Glam Runner, a business that sells running tutus, to raise funds for the council. They are dedicated to helping grow the program in their community. The real story behind this photo is that the awesome duo were running the LA Marathon while Monika was receiving chemotherapy treatments for brain cancer." The page posted this evening: Prior, they'd said: The mag also posted to address the controversy: While SELF has said "sorry," the story continues to irritate social media users, and some have pledged to stop purchasing or subscribing to the fitness publication. The post SELF Magazine Ripped Apart On Social Media For Mocking Cancer Survivor appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Selling With Social Media: A New Direction for Businesses Posted: 27 Mar 2014 09:43 PM PDT To learn about why you need to rethink the sales process in this social age, I interview Tom Martin for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast. The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner. It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing. The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting). In this episode, I interview Tom Martin, author of The Invisible Sale: How to Build a Digitally Powered Marketing and Sales System to Better Prospect, Qualify and Close Leads. His agency is Converse Digital. Tom shares the concept of painless prospecting and propinquity. You'll learn how to succeed in the changing social media sales landscape, and how your business can embrace these new strategies. Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below! . Tom believes it's more about how buyers buy than the way businesses sell. With the Internet, people can hide behind the anonymity of Google search. You can do all your pre-purchase research without having to talk to a salesperson. You only have to talk to a person once you've made a short list of companies you are interested in and want to close the deal.  Buyers use Google search for pre-purchase research. Today's buyer prefers this process, as it's easier and more efficient. With this in mind, companies have to adjust. In the early days, the power was with the salesperson, but with the knowledge available online today, the power is in the hands of the consumer. Tom says as a business, you have to stop thinking about how you sell because you don't really sell anymore. Instead you help buyers make a buying decision. When they make their decision, hopefully it will be in your favor. Although it won't always be the case. You'll discover how your system needs to be set up properly and the approach you need to consider. If you have a really good product or service, more often than not, you will win the conversion. Most people are turned off by people selling to them. The best way is to show them that you're willing to help and that you always have their best interests at heart. Listen to the show to find out more about how the approach to sales has changed. An example of a business that has embraced new ways to sell Tom talks about a camera store called Adorama based in New York that he used as a case study in his book, The Invisible Sale. Adorama only has one store, but does business in all 50 US states and 5 countries.  The camera store Adorama is used as a case study in The Invisible Sale. Adorama has two sides to their business, B2C and B2B. Regardless of which side you look at, they approach it the same way. Their philosophy is to sell by sharing original educational content. Even though it's a photography store, they sell more than just cameras. They've built a Learning Center that includes Adorama TV, which is one of their huge content pieces. The Learning Center is a treasure trove of educational content.  There is everything from learning how to shoot a photo to discovering the best equipment. Although their approach is to educate, when you watch one of their videos, you'll notice easy-to-follow links to products below the video. You'll find out how they used YouTube to allow people to reach that product.  All products mentioned throughout Adorama’s videos are linked below the video for easy access. In 2010, they saw a general growth curve, mainly due to the educational content they provide. The moral of the lesson is that if you can make your buyer smarter and better because they are doing business with you, then Tom believes you will succeed in selling more to that buyer. Listen to the show to hear why Tom relates it to fly-fishing and how it's the same with modern content marketing. What is a social agent and why is it important? Tom describes a social agent as someone who doesn't necessarily buy from you, but recommends you to a friend or colleague who might buy from you. A lot of the time, social agents can be your most valuable customers that you never do business with. They're the best customers you'll have. You need to draw in your social agents through educational pieces. A relationship is formed with your brand or company when they see value in what you are doing. You'll learn how Tom became a huge social agent for Adorama. Listen to the show to find out the importance of empowering everyone to be a social agent for your company. In The Invisible Sale, you reveal a process that helps people sell without cold-calling and advertising. Can you explain the process? Tom calls the process "painless prospecting." The concept is a spin on inbound marketing. The core difference is that most content and inbound strategies leverage search and keyword optimization. As more and more businesses discover and deploy keyword optimization and SEO strategies, Tom believes that only so many will win the battle. It's going to get more competitive and much more difficult. Whereas painless prospecting is built on the concept of propinquity. Propinquity is a scientific theory that powers the formation of relationships. It says that if you bump into someone a lot, the higher the likelihood of you touching them more often, reading their content or meeting them in person, the more likely you are to like that person, providing you like them each time you meet.  You need to build your business on the concept of propinquity. Tom's painless prospecting philosophy is that you don't walk away from SEO, but do get off your own blog. You need to think and care more about putting great content on other people's blogs. Tom advises you to treat every blog as your own. When you put content in these places, they are called Propinquity Points. You'll learn how to develop a strategy for this to make sure you stay top of mind. Tom shares a quick overview of where you can find places to provide content, but there is a whole chapter (Building a Painless Prospecting Platform) in his book where the process is laid out.  Check out the chapter on Building a Painless Prospecting Platform. If you pay attention to your industry or your prospects' industry, you can usually sit down and list all the places that your prospective customers congregate online and offline. You'll learn where these places might be. If you know your industry well enough, you will already know of 7-10 places without thinking. This is your first list. You'll discover how social listening software such as Radian6 or Sysomos can be beneficial to finding propinquity points for you.  Sysomos can help you find propinquity points for your business. Once you find these points, you can create more opportunities for people to stumble across you and your brand. It's a great way to get a good positive impression. When you get off your own blog, your buyer doesn't have to be in active research mode to stumble upon you. They might then click through to your blog and possibly sign up to read it. You'll learn what can happen if you only stay on your own blog.  You could have people sign up to your blog who weren’t in active research mode. You'll discover why you do your best content work when you write for someone else. Tom advises you to write 4 or 5 posts for other blogs, staged over a 2-week period and keep an eye on your Google Analytics to see what happens. You'll notice that you drive more traffic back to your site. The more you write for these larger audiences, the bigger your chance of people coming over to your site to check out your content. For every 100 people who read your content somewhere else, around 5% will convert to signups. This is how to build propinquity at a blog base. Tom is convinced that the way to win today is to get out there and treat yourself like a media empire. Listen to the show to learn about the invisible component in Tom's book title. What marketers should avoid when using content to try to get a sale Tom says there are two things marketers should avoid. Most people produce content at the wrong level. It's normally the same single unit of content across their blog and podcast. So most feel that one blog post a week is enough without writing for others. First you have to think about content creation as an ecosystem. You should never create one piece of content once. You should look for ways to repurpose it or even rechannel it.  Make sure you repurpose your blog content. You'll learn about the ways you can turn one piece of content into more content. Secondly, Tom states that there is a belief, especially among inbounders, that every piece of content needs to have a call to action. Although research proves calls to action get more conversions, Tom doesn't really believe it. He feels there is still value in pure education. You need to go out and educate your buyer. Don't ask or expect anything in return. Tom states that most buyers know how to buy; you shouldn't need to rely on a call to action for them to have enough confidence to contact you. Listen to the show to find out why your content should always be of value. This Week's Social Media QuestionDebra Keirce, a professional artist, asks, "As an artist, sometimes it will take years between contacting potential collectors and receiving a commission or a purchase. Are there specific social media tools that can be used to help develop, encourage and maintain these long-term relationships, so that the leads don't go cold and people will recommend you to their friends, when at times they are not necessarily looking to buy themselves?"  DebKArt. This is a great question on how to keep top of mind with prospects who aren't ready to buy. The first thing I would recommend is to make sure you listen to this particular podcast for some great ideas. Here are a few examples of what you could do with your business.
When you put yourself in the position of the resource person rather than the salesperson, every time you communicate with prospects, it's a way to stay top of mind. If, and when, they are ready to buy, they are more likely to come back to you or pass your details on to another prospect. You need to have regular touch points. You'll hear an example of what I received from people in the voice talent industry when I was a prospect and how my realtor markets his business using social media. I hope you find this helpful. Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show. Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you. Other Show MentionsSocial Media Success Summit 2013 Social Media Success Summit 2013 is a special online conference designed to help you master social media marketing (brought to you by Social Media Examiner).  Social Media Success Summit 2013. Forty-five of the world's leading social media pros will show you how. Instructors include Jay Baer (author, Youtility), Chri s Brogan (co-author, Impact Equation), Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Michael Stelzner (founder, Social Media Examiner), Mark Schaefer (author, Return on Influence), Jesse Stay (author, Google+ for Dummies), Amy Porterfield (co-author, Facebo ok Marketing All-in-One for Dummies) and experts from General Electric, Sony, E! Online, Kelly Services and Discovery Channel–just to mention a few. Fully online. Click here to learn more. We have finalized our brand panels and here are a few killer ones.
We've got some incredible brands that will share what they do with social media. This is just a sample. There is an enormous amount of how-to content. It's an online conference, which means you don't need to travel anywhere. It's spread over an entire month and it's live. If you want to learn more about it, be sure to check it out. Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Marketing podcast: What do you think? What are your thoughts on selling with social media? Please leave your comments below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
The post Selling With Social Media: A New Direction for Businesses appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Microsoft’s Bing Lets Amateur Photographers Take #TheBigShot, Winning Photos To Feature On Home Page Posted: 27 Mar 2014 09:38 PM PDT
Bing, the search engine from Microsoft, is known for the breathtaking images on its homepage. Every time I search on Bing, I end up discovering yet another beautiful new visual of this planet. The homepage that features the work of renowned photographers has now opened its doors for amateur photographers too. Bing has teamed up with Hungama Digital Services, one of India's leading digital advertising agencies to launch #TheBigShot photography campaign. The 6 week contest invites entries under 8 themes such as People and Cultures of India, Emotions, Wildlife, Birds, Landscapes, Cityscapes and Night Life, In the lap of Nature, Macro, Micro, flora and fauna and Abstract. A celebrated jury comprising leading photographers of India such as Hari Menon, Rathika Ramaswamy, Venky of Photriya Photography and Dr. Ceaser Sengupta will not only be screening the entries, they will also aid amateur photographers with tips and tutorials to hone their photographic skills. The jury will declare a weekly winner in each of the categories, who will have their image featured on the Bing homepage for a day. Bing will also enlarge the image to poster size and send it across to them. Besides being featured in the downloadable wallpaper pack of the Microsoft website, the winning entries will be featured prominently on Bing and MSN India Facebook pages. #TheBigShot on socialCurrently in week 2, the campaign is being actively promoted on Bing India Facebook page with 'Wildlife and Birds' as the theme of the week. Aspiring contestants have to follow the Bing India Facebook page and submit their photographs as per the theme of the week. A Facebook app on the page provides a cool, one-page snapshot of the campaign with a link to the Terms & Conditions.
However, the app does not have a provision to upload photographs. In order to participate, one has to mail their entries to TheBigShotIn@outlook.com. The Bing India team will review the image and will upload it on its Facebook page within 8-12 hours. The photo submissions have been uploaded into Facebook albums with the theme name. Crowdsourcing goes mainstreamGoogle, the search engine giant undertook massive online promotions for its search tool last year. Google's 'Reunion ad' found a spot in YouTube's most viewed ads of 2013. In a space dominated by the term 'Google it' for anybody searching for information on the internet, a search engine like Bing has an uphill journey. Still, Bing has managed its spot and often been compared to be better in terms of Google. While the search engine number game is on, promotional campaigns are seeking to connect with the online community. Taking its celebrated homepage to its users and inviting them to contribute is a cool gesture by Bing. #TheBigShot is not just a photography campaign, it helps nurture a feeling of belonging-ness in web users. I would be thrilled to bits if my shot makes it to the Bing homepage. The concept is good but the campaign could have been more social by enabling photo submissions through the Facebook app itself. I am yet to take the #TheBigShot, hope you do in case you are the budding photographer looking for his big break. The post Microsoft's Bing Lets Amateur Photographers Take #TheBigShot, Winning Photos To Feature On Home Page appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How to Get Customers to Post Instagram Pictures Posted: 27 Mar 2014 08:36 PM PDT By Thibaut Davoult
Are you looking for innovative ways to get your customers (and employees) to post Instagram pictures? Then keep reading because I'm going to show you four ways to bring your "A game" to Instagram and wow your fans. Why Customer Instagram Pictures?Instagram was the fastest-rising social media channel for brands in 2013. You probably already know it's an effective platform for branding and marketing your products and growing your community. But what you may not know is that Instagram is a powerful tool to collect customer-created content you can reuse to your advantage. #1: Enhance Your Online (and Offline) Store With Customer PhotosVisuals greatly impact the behavior of shoppers. Most brands just snap a photo of the product and share it across all social channels, which may work sometimes. But you can take it a step further by crowdsourcing photos on Instagram. When customers see photos of other "regular" people using a product, they're more likely to buy. Why? This kind of social proof is a powerful motivator. Visitors gain trust by seeing others use the products they are about to buy. Let's take the clothing industry, for example. The biggest mistake clothing brands make on Instagram is showing bland product photos—clothing worn by hired models, usually with a white background.  Nasty Gal's The Click gallery powered by olapic features selfies of fans wearing the brand's clothes. Nasty Gal clothing company saw an opportunity and started showcasing their fans' Instagram pictures on their website via olapic. The company has had a 5% increase in overall conversions since implementing the olapic galleries. #2: Make Instagram Fan Photos Into Stop-Motion VideosVine may have made stop-motion video easy to create and easy to consume, but Instagram video is winning the popularity contest. Your fans are using Instagram to take the photos you're using, so it makes sense to share your videos there, where they're most likely to see them.
Lexus reached a younger, tech-savvy audience by using its fans' Instagram images to create this video. Lexus took advantage of fan images for their aptly titled #LexusInstaFilm (shown above) where a group of 200 Instagrammers met on a racetrack to capture the brand's new IS F model. Lexus pooled those photos and created a short video to share on Instagram and other social channels. #3: Create Ads With Customer Instagram SubmissionsIn 2012, Instagram proposed changes to its terms of service that would allow it to sell your photos to brands for advertising purposes. There was uproar from the masses and Instagram quickly changed its tune. Based on the uproar, you'd think Instagrammers wouldn't want their images used in advertising at all. Who in their right mind would voluntarily send his or her own photos to brands so they can use them for advertising? A lot of people. It's all about choice and control. People are willing to give out their photos to be used as ads if the transaction between brands and fans is clear from the start. It helps if the fan gets something in return.  Wouldn't you love to see your name in lights and get some new followers to boot? That's what Ben & Jerry's banked on with their Capture Euphoria campaign. The social-friendly ice cream company ran a simple hashtag campaign to gather earned content. Fans were invited to share their pictures using the #CaptureEuphoria hashtag, then the photos were voted on and the best won a prize. This is where it gets interesting. What was the prize in question? Taking the winner's Instagram photo and transforming it into a real-life ad (including print, billboards and bus-stop posters) that included the winner's Instagram username. #4: Recruit EmployeesAttracting and retaining talent are challenging for any brand. Most companies don't consider Instagram as a recruiting tool, but Levi's had great success with this unique idea. The key to a great Instagram feed that people want to follow is sharing expertly shot Instagram photos on a regular basis. Levi's leveraged their popular feed to lead a model-scouting campaign.  Levi's launched an Instagram campaign to seek new talent. Levi's used photo and video sharing as a way to gather applications. They cut out the middlemen and directly sourced candidates via Instagram selfies. Levi's told fans up front that anyone using #iamlevis in their pictures or captions was granting Levi's permission to use their photos in campaigns. Applicants knowingly used the hashtag to notify the brand of their interest in the job. To track applications, Levi's recruiters ran hashtag searches to scan applicants. You could easily apply this type of campaign to any brand need. For example, nonprofits could do the same to hire volunteers. What ideas do you have?The diverse ways to get customers and fans to create content is one of the reasons Instagram is such a rich and growing platform for social marketers. Marketers are sure to appreciate this earned media and the level of engagement with their audience. Does your audience share what they like with you online? Then you may want to look into ways to leverage this on Instagram. What's even better is that most of the examples here cost little to nothing and are easily replicated by businesses of all sizes. What about you? Have you ever worked with Instagram fans to implement a grassroots marketing campaign? We'd love to hear about your experiences and ideas. Please leave your thoughts and comments below! This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. The post How to Get Customers to Post Instagram Pictures appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| How to Not Suck At Facebook #387: Frenemies, Unfriending, And Hate Reads Posted: 27 Mar 2014 08:16 PM PDT We struggle with the "Don't Suck At Facebook" series on Social News Daily a little, and today's topic is part of why — by and large, we have a strong position against being a Facebook hater, unfriending, or the practice of hate reads and adversarial interaction as a means of overall social media interaction. Trolling is a long-hated social web practice, but not all trolling is even obvious to the perp. And Facebook has opened up a new world of hating, hate reads, and generally keeping certain relationships only to be hateful, critical, or otherwise nasty to others and adding to the net unhappiness across the social web. That said, we all engage in a certain level of hate read … everyone has a little bit of interest in what their adversaries or groups with which they do not agree say amongst themselves. I myself admit to train wreck fascination with certain well-known misogynist enclaves, as a sort of anthropological exercise. Then I take it back to my Facebook wall, ideally for vigorous debate, one of my favorite hobbies. Being challenged and having a heated discussion is super fun, for a lot of us. But there's a place where this crosses over to a near masturbatory fervor to just hate someone or something, and Facebook "friendships" based on hate are something that can poison the social media landscape not only for yourself, but others.
As a "to the mattresses" debater myself (ask my colleague Dusten, who is as inexhaustible as me, how many hours we debated a certain healthcare law last happy hour), I've incurred a significant number of Facebook losses over strong opinions. Comes with the territory for us master debaters … it's never personal, it's just argument sparring, it's super fun, and everyone learns and gets better at making points. Win, win, right? Usually. But I've also noticed on Facebook that there's a contingent of people who not only don't like disagreement, they do tend to make it personal, and this leads to so much sadness, unfriending, and blockings. Which usually falls under the header of "those people aren't worth being friends with," but then, weirdly, they stick around. Just for the hate reading. Yesterday, I spied a loss of one inveterate hate reader on my own list. Nearly immediately? A friend of the hate reader sent and retracted a friend request. It could be just a fluctuation, but this strange group seems to have a fixation on hate-reading on Facebook. Flattering to a small degree, of course, and we all have probably experienced the Facebook frenemy. But it's sad for them and sad for the social web, as it inevitably burns bridges across long-standing friend groups — a lot of my pals came over from the old message board days, and the number of no-fly zones because of a single group of acrimony fetishists has by and large killed the community's ability to stay in touch, because many social media participants are fixated on the Grand Exit, the dramatic unfriend, and the continual recitation of "I blocked this person, so I can't see them because my feels."
To that end, unfriending is a pretty severe step, and one we strongly discourage. There are ways from blocking certain kinds of content, but unfriending a person is adversarial and basically mean. If you can avoid it, do. And if you find yourself threatening and announcing it a lot, you should probably at least implement a policy of discretion. In recent months, I changed my policy from "like literally never" to "consistent open hostility." And that's a decent barometer, but unfriending a person is always likely to tank your real life relationship as well. Don't be that guy. The beauty of the social web is the ability to discuss, learn, teach, share, and expose ourselves to ideas that challenge our worldviews. Hate reading can be a tool for growth and change as well, but if you're getting a boost from hurting or hating others, maybe take a conscious look at why a debate over any number of contentious issues is something that prompts you to cling so closely to a given conflict. Are you genuinely trying to get a point across, or are you fighting to be right? Heated debates don't mean you suck at Facebook — they're often a great social media feature on their own. But being a storm cloud across the social web and continually seeking out personal conflict is a warning sign that maybe you do indeed suck at Facebook … and you should consider blogging or a LiveJournal to work out your frustration instead of using social platforms to mete out sanctimony and rage to others. Have you experienced a friend or contact who seems to stick around only to bicker with you? The post How to Not Suck At Facebook #387: Frenemies, Unfriending, And Hate Reads appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How to Not Suck At Facebook #387: Frenemies, Unfriending, And Hate Reads Posted: 27 Mar 2014 08:16 PM PDT We struggle with the "Don't Suck At Facebook" series on Social News Daily a little, and today's topic is part of why — by and large, we have a strong position against being a Facebook hater, unfriending, or the practice of hate reads and adversarial interaction as a means of overall social media interaction. Trolling is a long-hated social web practice, but not all trolling is even obvious to the perp. And Facebook has opened up a new world of hating, hate reads, and generally keeping certain relationships only to be hateful, critical, or otherwise nasty to others and adding to the net unhappiness across the social web. That said, we all engage in a certain level of hate read … everyone has a little bit of interest in what their adversaries or groups with which they do not agree say amongst themselves. I myself admit to train wreck fascination with certain well-known misogynist enclaves, as a sort of anthropological exercise. Then I take it back to my Facebook wall, ideally for vigorous debate, one of my favorite hobbies. Being challenged and having a heated discussion is super fun, for a lot of us. But there's a place where this crosses over to a near masturbatory fervor to just hate someone or something, and Facebook "friendships" based on hate are something that can poison the social media landscape not only for yourself, but others.
As a "to the mattresses" debater myself (ask my colleague Dusten, who is as inexhaustible as me, how many hours we debated a certain healthcare law last happy hour), I've incurred a significant number of Facebook losses over strong opinions. Comes with the territory for us master debaters … it's never personal, it's just argument sparring, it's super fun, and everyone learns and gets better at making points. Win, win, right? Usually. But I've also noticed on Facebook that there's a contingent of people who not only don't like disagreement, they do tend to make it personal, and this leads to so much sadness, unfriending, and blockings. Which usually falls under the header of "those people aren't worth being friends with," but then, weirdly, they stick around. Just for the hate reading. Yesterday, I spied a loss of one inveterate hate reader on my own list. Nearly immediately? A friend of the hate reader sent and retracted a friend request. It could be just a fluctuation, but this strange group seems to have a fixation on hate-reading on Facebook. Flattering to a small degree, of course, and we all have probably experienced the Facebook frenemy. But it's sad for them and sad for the social web, as it inevitably burns bridges across long-standing friend groups — a lot of my pals came over from the old message board days, and the number of no-fly zones because of a single group of acrimony fetishists has by and large killed the community's ability to stay in touch, because many social media participants are fixated on the Grand Exit, the dramatic unfriend, and the continual recitation of "I blocked this person, so I can't see them because my feels."
To that end, unfriending is a pretty severe step, and one we strongly discourage. There are ways from blocking certain kinds of content, but unfriending a person is adversarial and basically mean. If you can avoid it, do. And if you find yourself threatening and announcing it a lot, you should probably at least implement a policy of discretion. In recent months, I changed my policy from "like literally never" to "consistent open hostility." And that's a decent barometer, but unfriending a person is always likely to tank your real life relationship as well. Don't be that guy. The beauty of the social web is the ability to discuss, learn, teach, share, and expose ourselves to ideas that challenge our worldviews. Hate reading can be a tool for growth and change as well, but if you're getting a boost from hurting or hating others, maybe take a conscious look at why a debate over any number of contentious issues is something that prompts you to cling so closely to a given conflict. Are you genuinely trying to get a point across, or are you fighting to be right? Heated debates don't mean you suck at Facebook — they're often a great social media feature on their own. But being a storm cloud across the social web and continually seeking out personal conflict is a warning sign that maybe you do indeed suck at Facebook … and you should consider blogging or a LiveJournal to work out your frustration instead of using social platforms to mete out sanctimony and rage to others. Have you experienced a friend or contact who seems to stick around only to bicker with you? The post How to Not Suck At Facebook #387: Frenemies, Unfriending, And Hate Reads appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| LinkedIn Publisher – Initial Thoughts Posted: 27 Mar 2014 08:14 PM PDT Some of you may have seen my first posts on LinkedIn new publisher platform which is an extension of the influencer program they rolled out last year. I thought I would share with you my initial observations and also some of my concerns. Firstly I think this is an excellent addition to LinkedIn and look forward to reading some of the posts in the coming weeks and seeing how it is rolls out. My first piece received amazing exposure receiving 10,500 views in the first 24 hours and drew 10% of this traffic to my website which means its life span it goes without saying is far greater than a tweet. Also because the audience is global normal rules for timing postings don't apply.
You are only as good as your last blog Yes the reach is great but you are only as good as your last blog. Remember it's about the audience and not about you so unless you think you what the audience wants to read you won't get the views or share. Unlike the influencers, publisher is more about engagement and conversation. Also I think you will get more story telling and sincere voices rather than pieces written by the Influencers marketing or PR people. It is also good for positioning yourself as a thought leader and showcasing some of your knowledge. Spam alert and the noise It will be interesting to see who LinkedIn dish these out to and also how they deal with the spam because it does run the risk of looking like many LinkedIn groups therefore losing readers due to the spammy ness and self promotion. I also think people may over blog which will make a lot of noise and may affect the quality as after the first 24 hours the posts are not so visible. LinkedIn does own your content, but if you care about your domain and SEO you shouldn't be duplicating your content anyway. I also agree with Katrina Collier this shouldn't replace your own blog and the followers you get from using the site will see your content when you update your status with links to your blog. I would suggest running this alongside your own blog and if there a piece that gets lots of interest you use your blog to go into more detail. The only thing I can really fault is because LinkedIn assign you a category so whatever the post is assign to the category which in my case is Recruiting and Hiring. I only know this as I also posted Call me Little Miss Bossy which should have been in leadership or Women so didn't really get the right exposer as it was not seen by the right audience. Final thoughts – I have a love/hate relationship's with LinkedIn, but Publisher it is a win win situation. I am going to continue to publish on LinkedIn as it helps me broaden my reach and network as a freelancer. The post LinkedIn Publisher – Initial Thoughts appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How Constant Contact Uses Pinterest to Reach a B2B Market Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:23 PM PDT By Louise Julig
"Anyone who says you can't is not being creative enough." She should know. Her team has grown their Pinterest following to over 18,000 in less than two years. How does a company that is not retail and not inherently visual use Pinterest to reach a B2B target audience? The keys are to expand your idea of what your brand is, think visually and have a curating mindset. Here's how Constant Contact appeals to their small-business market on Pinterest.  Constant Contact has 92 Pinterest boards with over 4,000 pins. Organization: Constant Contact Social Media Handles and Stats: Highlights:
Expand Your Idea of What Your Brand IsAyotte urges B2B companies to take a wider view of what their business is really about when thinking about Pinterest. Constant Contact is a software company serving mostly small- and medium-sized businesses and nonprofits. Over half of their customers have fewer than five employees, and 70 percent of them have fewer than 10 employees. In taking in a wider perspective of what they do, Ayotte said that they are really about helping small businesses achieve their goals. "At the end of the day, it's not about software," she said. Taking this expanded view helped her team identify other things their customers would be interested in that could be pinned. Quotes and tips are very successful for them on Pinterest. The Quotes for Small Business Owners board currently ranks second in Google Search for "small business quotes."  Constant Contact’s quotes board ranks second in Google search. Marketing humor is another popular board. Since most of their customers are small businesses for whom marketing resources are stretched thin, it's not surprising that quotes, tips and humor do well.  Marketing humor is popular with Constant Contact’s followers. Pinterest is more suited to evergreen content than Facebook or Twitter. Ayotte suggests that businesses starting out begin with a few boards with evergreen topics and slowly add content as they get a feel for what their audience is interested in. If you're getting repins, it's resonating with the audience. If not, try something else. "If you find topics related to your business, more often than not your audience will be interested in them as well," she said. "You don't have to be so on-brand that it hurts." Think VisuallyOnce you've identified topics your audience is interested in, how do you make them visually appealing? If you're a B2B company, particularly in service or software, you may think that your business does not have visual content to use on Pinterest. "You really have to be very creative," said Ayotte. Constant Contact is a master at creating visually appealing content from quotes, tips and statistics. Corporate community manager Danielle Cormiere will often use PicMonkey to create word images for quotes, statistics, etc., and link the image to the source. The quote below came from the Brian Tracy Quote of the Day newsletter that Constant Contact made into a visually appealing pin.  Creating illustrated quotes is one way to create visual content for pinning. You can even pin inherently non-visual content such as press releases by pulling out a key statistic and using a stock image to create a striking visual.  Constant Contact created this visual to link to a press release on their blog. Another technique is to create and/or link to infographics, but split them up into multiple pins. This increases readability and helps populate your boards, which also helps with SEO.  Splitting an infographic into different pins is a way to populate a board. Constant Contact has found that Pinterest boards are indexed quickly and rank high in search results. More content per board creates more traffic, which helps in search results. For businesses getting started on Pinterest, Ayotte urges them to focus on quality over quantity. "If you pin things that don't look good, then you're defeating the purpose," she said. "First and foremost, Pinterest is a visual platform." Have a Curating MindsetA fundamental principle for social media success is to avoid talking about yourself all the time. The same applies to pinning on Pinterest. "Part of the reason that Pinterest has grown so much for us is because we share generously and are a great curator," said Ayotte. Since Pinterest is used for bookmarking, repinning great evergreen content is a good strategy. It helps populate your own boards, as well as attract followers who trust you will bring them relevant content.  Constant Contact repins from a variety of other sources. Constant Contact also has shared regional boards where local offices pin content.  Shared regional office boards are a way to bring in more pinnable content. Another strategy is to get your customers involved as guest pinners. During the holidays, Constant Contact put out a call that they were looking for customers to contribute holiday tips pins and included them as guest pinners on a shared board. Involving your customers helps you fill out your boards and shows you care about what is important to them.  Constant contact solicited customers as guest pinners to a shared board. Pinterest's Shopping Mindset Is Good for B2BVentureBeat reported that Pinterest drives more revenue per click than Facebook or Twitter. Ayotte said people come to Pinterest with a shopping mindset, using it as a pre-shopping cart.  VentureBeat reports Pinterest creates more revenue per click than Facebook and Twitter. Ayotte believes people are more likely to engage with brands on Pinterest, which is why B2B companies should consider using the platform for branding and education. Pinterest is currently one of the top five referral sources for their website.  Constant Contact’s Pinterest metrics from a two-week period in September 2013. "Is it our primary network? No. But as a secondary network goes, it's a pretty darn good one," she said. "It's driving a lot of traffic, it's creating awareness and it's supporting our brand." Over to You What do you think? Can you think of ways your B2B brand can connect with customers on Pinterest? Include your comments and questions below. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends:
The post How Constant Contact Uses Pinterest to Reach a B2B Market appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. |
| Instagram Looking To Replace Foursquare As Location Service With Facebook Places Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:02 PM PDT
Instagram may be seeking a way to replace its Foursquare API with 'Places' from its parent company Facebook. Foursquare is huge in the locations services space, and their free API is used by Vine, Flickr, Pinterest, and Path, among many others. Uber even uses the API to help drivers and passengers zero in on exact pickup locations. Although Foursquare is constantly updated by its 45 million users and has had billions of check-ins, Facebook could be setting out to make the case that its own location data feed is even more valuable. Instagram has over 200 million users who upload tens of millions of photos every day, many of which are tied to locations. In that data alone there is information such as which venues are most popular that can be extracted. That's one of the reasons Foursquare is so valuable, because it provides similar information to companies. Microsoft recently announced as part of a $15 million investment in Foursquare it will strike a licensing deal for the company's location data. Facebook could be trying to give Foursquare the boot, or possibly kill it. However, one thing is for sure, the switch of API's will challenge Foursquare's staying power. The post Instagram Looking To Replace Foursquare As Location Service With Facebook Places appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Miley Cyrus Course Offered At Skidmore College Posted: 27 Mar 2014 06:58 PM PDT
In the upcoming summer session, New York's Skidmore College will be offering a course focusing on Miley Cyrus. No the class of Miley Cyrus, 21, in all her incarnations won't be classified as women's studies. Instead, it'll be a study in sociology entitled, "The Sociology of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media," which will explore sociological thinking about identity, entertainment, media and fame. The class is a 251-level special topics course taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology Carolyn Chernoff. The professor explains the inspiration behind it saying, "I was teaching a course called Youth Culture in and out of School, and the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) became the twerk heard 'round the world. I showed that video to my class, and the students had so much to say." The topic of Miley Cyrus, her audacious antics, and the of shedding of her good little girl persona, has inspired a course which will allow for discussions on gender, race, class, economic status, identity, fame, and sexualization – examining the transition from former Hannah Montana star to sexualized pop icon, explains ABC News. In January, Chernoff delivered a lecture and mediated a group discussion on Cyrus and the cultural issues at the Skidmore Women's Center. The lecture was called "The Rise and Fall of Miley Cyrus: Race, Class, Gender and Media," and students' reaction was positive, reports the Saratogian. Thereafter, the professor moved forward with plans for her summer course, which will explore the cultural issues Cyrus sings of, dances through and acts wild about. "Miley is sometimes seen as a wild, terrible she-beast," Chernoff said. "After the VMA performance, this young woman was seen as the end of all times." An example of what may be covered in the course is a comparison discussion on Cyrus' VMA twerking antics to the wardrobe malfunction perpetuated by Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson during the 2004 live Super Bowl show. While Timberlake's reputation remained relatively unscathed by the televised scandal, Jackson's career faltered a little after the incident. The course's syllabus is still in development, but Miley Cyrus will be the primary focus on discussions, papers and projects. Chernoff notes Miley is more than welcome to participate if she is ever interested. [Photo Credit: Twitter]The post Miley Cyrus Course Offered At Skidmore College appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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