TwitterToolsReviews |
- Some Of The Most Impressive Social Media Statistics… Ever!
- How a Successful Blog Can Deliver What Readers Want Whilst Making an Additional Income
- #myNYPD Proves the Influential Power of Hashtags
- The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Metrics: Engagement
- Does The Day You Post Affect The Number Of Social Shares?
- No, The Rock Is Not Dead, Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Life (Hoax)
- Why Is April 25 Miss Congeniality Day? Well, It’s The Perfect Date
- 70,000 Pounds Of Little Debbie Snacks Litter Atlanta Highway
- 10 Things You Don’t Know About Social Media Marketing
- 10 Things You Don’t Know About Social Media Marketing
| Some Of The Most Impressive Social Media Statistics… Ever! Posted: 25 Apr 2014 04:43 PM PDT In the business world we’ve become used to seeing internet figures in the thousands, millions, hundreds of millions, and now billions thanks to the work of luminaries such as Mark Zuckerberg, Google, and Twitter. Indeed, Facebook recently celebrated yet another alarming milestone in the form of 1 billion monthly mobile users. Normally you see this type of information in extravagant infographics. To make a change, here are all the major details from the leading social media formats written down with links to sources. Naturally, these statistics are constantly changing and will have moved on within a few months, but for now they encapsulate social media in spring 2014. It’s a revealing insight into the complex, ever evolving world of the internet.
Facebook's success story is almost unprecedented. On the internet, only Google can claim to be better known. Facebook are open with their official statistics, and as of March 2014 they employ 6,818 people. More impressively, there are 802 million active users daily, whilst an additional 609 million daily active users take to their mobile phones for access. This totals some 1.28 billion monthly active users, with 1.01 mobile monthly active users in total (indicating the shift of users towards mobile phones over computers). Facebook state, "Approximately 81.2% of our daily active users are outside the U.S. and Canada". They have been setting records elsewhere in 2014, with remarkable acquisitions of numerous companies. WhatsApp was purchased for $19 billion in March, with Oculus VR following for $2 billion shortly afterwards. As always, the unsurpassed achievements don’t end there with this company. According to database service Statistic Brain (based on figures before 2014), the average user spends 18 minutes on the service per visit. There are around 54,200,000 pages to navigate, which suggests why some people take so much time. This leads to 640,000,000 minutes spent on Facebook each month from total monthly users reaching 1,310,000,000. Condensing this into 20 minutes bursts from global users (pre-2014), there were a million links shared, 2 million Friend Requests sent, and 3 million messages composed. Finally, if you’ve ever wondered how many fake accounts are out there, it’s believed to be around the 81 million mark.
Arguably Twitter’s finest moment of 2014 (and ever) came at the Oscars 2014. Presenter Ellen DeGeneres took a Selfie with a variety of Hollywood stars. The Tweet immediately went viral and was so successful it crashed Twitter’s server. It went live on March 5th and, as of April 25th has, 3, 429, 158 Retweets – an effortless World Record. It’s no surprise that such clout makes Twitter one of the leading social media formats. According to their official stats, there are 241 million active users, they amass some 500 million Tweets a day. 76% of this total is from mobile users, showing the immediate appeal of Twitter and how it can instantaneously connect users to the world. Facebook, Google+, and others don't have such immediacy. Twitter additionally supports over 35 languages, and owns the looping video clip company Vine. This effectively adds an additional 40 million users onto their database. They also dropped in this useful fact, “We also drink 585 gallons of coffee per week.” Don’t work there is you prefer tea. Statistic Brain (with results prior to 2014) offer a few unique insights from January 2014, such as the number of days it takes to reach 1 billion Tweets – five. Every second there are around 9,100, whilst the "Percent of Twitters who don't Tweet but watch other people Tweet" is 40%! Google+
Although some people still keep it at a distance, Google+ is ever growing and has amassed some 540 million active users. It's believed there are at last a billion enabled accounts, and with a 33% annual growth the service could soon be a truly major contender. Google are often secretive about such details, but from October 2013‘s statistics it's clear how rapidly the service is developing. Over six months on from this figure, it has to be presumed G+ has breached the 600 million active users mark.
LinkedIn’s fortunes have boomed enormously recently, thanks to some canny changes to the service. They celebrated reaching 300 million worldwide members in mid-April. They were so thrilled (and rightly so) they made a special infographic to commemorate the occasion. The site, intriguingly, launched before Facebook and Twitter in May 2003, amassing 4,500 members by the end of that month. The online clout of the professional service is ever growing, and there are now three million companies with a LinkedIn page. The active users managed a total of 5.7 billion professional searches in 2012, which suggests figures will be up dramatically this year. Is now the time to take more advantage of LinkedIn? YouTube
The video streaming service is more popular than ever, despite a controversial change to the comments section. Unsurprisingly, as they're a part of Google, YouTube offers some remarkable statistics. The official metrics show there are 1 billion unique users to the site each month, with over 6 billion hours of video watching going on a month, and 100 hours of video time being uploaded each minute. 80% of this traffic comes from outside of the US. As with most social media, mobile devices are increasingly taking up total usage. With YouTube, it's 40% of the global watch time. On a different side, the Content ID element of YouTube (which is based around copyright enforcement) scans 400 years worth of video each day! Major American network broadcasters, movie studios, record labels, governing bodies, and others use the service.
The home of the Selfie was upstaged by Ellen DeGeneres and Twitter at the Oscars. Instagram, one of the leading photo sharing and social networking sites, has over 150 million active users to its name. It’s particularly renowned for its celebrity users, who take to the service to post pictures. Instagram has 200 million monthly users, 65% of which are outside of America. To date there have been 20 billion photographs shared, with 1.6 billion daily likes. To top it off, there are around 60 million average photos uploaded each day. Tumblr
The increasingly popular Tumblr allows for text, photo, quotes, links, music, and videos in the form of a customizable blog. There are 183.1 million of them to date, with 83.1 billion posts. There are also regular meetups with the service as likeminded people connect. Since the company founded in February 2007 there have been almost 34,000 of these, another indicator of the internet’s ability to unite people. StumbleUpon
A favourite of mine, StumbleUpon offers a world of knowledge through arbitrary clicks of the Stumble button. It's a great way to meet likeminded people across the world, and information seekers have taken to the format in their millions. As stated on the front of the site, there are 25 Million "Stumblers", 10.2 millions lists, and 3,000 channels for users to browse through. The service launched in 2002, and by August 2011 it had reached the 25 billion Stumble mark. As of 2014 there are 300 million Stumbles a month, with 7 hours spent stumbling a month, and a 25% monthly mobile growth should send these figures soaring further. All of this is displayed in an official infographic.
Not to be forgotten is Pinterest. Their radical, concise, cascading design may have been utilised by all and sundry (Google+ and Facebook rapidly adopted it), but the service still attracts a huge audience. Pinterest doesn’t release any official statistics on its usership – certainly none I could find. However, Parisian social media research company Semiocast produced a piece in July 2013 indicating the visual discovery, social networking format now had 70 million users. It would appear to be particularly popular in America, where 70% of its traffic comes from. Canada is next up, with the UK, Australia, and Mexico rounding off the top five. The Internet
Although now slightly outdated, the 2012 Internet Statistics article by Statistic Brain makes for alarming reading. That year there were believed to be 1,319,872,109 people on the internet each day, which led to 210 billion daily e-mails. On average, 66 hours a month were spent on a computer. On a comparative note with other popular entertainment forms, it "took the radio 38 years, the television 13 years, and the World Wide Web 4 years to reach 50 million users." If anyone needed further proof of the internet's power and ability to connect people, this statistic is it. It was also revealed, although it isn’t much of a surprise, 80% of e-mails can be classified as spam. Perhaps less surprising still, 80% of pictures on the internet are of naked women. Presumably, cats make up the remaining 19%, with 1% classed as "miscellaneous". On a more touching note, 1 out of every 8 married couples in 2010 met online. So, the internet is a very useful tool after all. The post Some Of The Most Impressive Social Media Statistics… Ever! appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| How a Successful Blog Can Deliver What Readers Want Whilst Making an Additional Income Posted: 25 Apr 2014 04:18 PM PDT As the blogging community continues to grow, so does the importance of obtaining consumer opinion in order to remain successful. By keeping tabs on the changing interests of its readers, a blog can continue to deliver compelling content to current followers and court new audiences to aid ad revenue and income. Towards the end of last year, 61 per cent of US consumers had made a purchase based on a blog post. It is therefore crucial that bloggers communicate with readers and gather insights for analysis in order to produce engaging content that will generate an additional income. Here are three ways of ensuring a blog remains lucrative whilst delivering what people want to read. Monitor conversations By tracking online conversations, bloggers can use insights to proactively enhance content. For example, an independent clothing line might ask readers what draws them in, and then plan more entries based on their feedback. Using community management and responding to influencers not only shows that a blogger is in tune with his or her readers, but it also creates an opportunity to build a valuable rapport that may instil continued loyalty and generate increased sales. Additionally, bloggers can get to know their followers and understand the tone of comments, which can help inform future ideas for posts. Provide an incentive for engagement Survey panels are a valuable method for tapping into target audiences and gathering tailored market intelligence. Bloggers can use these panels to question their own communities to gather editorial ideas, and they can also open them up to third-party companies and organisations. By doing so, both panel owners and panellists are rewarded with a 'thank you' payment, which can be used by bloggers to incentivise survey respondents to remain part of their panels and continue providing their opinions on content preferences. Analyse data Using specific measurement and market research tools, bloggers can gauge the type of content that resonates well and understand consumer habits better. Google Analytics, for example, lets bloggers discover how engaged readers are, even if they don't comment, as well as how many people are subscribing to their posts. Additionally, analysing sentiment provides insight into the type of content that captures attention and will ultimately result in continued income. Do picture-based posts generate a more positive reaction for instance, or does text-based content prove more popular? Analysing data in this way enables bloggers to ensure their goals align with what is actually being realised, and helps them to meet acquisition or sales objectives. These are three examples of how a blog can remain successful whilst delivering what readers want and generating an additional income. By analysing data insights and tracking conversations around a particular blog, authors and marketers can ensure they continue to produce content that will be well received. Additionally, offering an incentive for continued support and loyalty from readers means blogs can stay ahead of competitors by producing innovative content that will result in continued revenue. The post How a Successful Blog Can Deliver What Readers Want Whilst Making an Additional Income appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| #myNYPD Proves the Influential Power of Hashtags Posted: 25 Apr 2014 04:09 PM PDT
It all started with an innocent enough tweet from the New York City Police department Twitter account. @NYPDnews, the official account of the NYPD, tweeted something seemingly positive on April 22nd encouraging followers to hashtag photos with themselves and members of the NYPD. The photos would be featured on their Facebook page. On the surface, and for many brands, this type of social interaction is commonplace and a perfectly reasonable way to interact on social media.
It wasn't long before the hashtag become a trending hashtag and the account was blowing up with replies. Most of the photos* that were coming in were not of smiling fans of the NYPD, but rather photos of borderline and actual police brutality. The #myNYPD hashtag was suddenly popular for all the wrong reasons. While the hashtag takeover did seem to spur an international revolution on social media against police brutality, it still doesn't explain the lack of thinking behind such an impromptu campaign. *It should be noted the majority of the photos were not recent, and many were taken during the Occupy Wall Street movement back in 2011. Commissioner Bill Bratton, knowing that the negativity of the campaign was an undeniable reality, has said he welcomes the attention. Additionally, he shared that no one from the social media team will be held accountable. This should at least spur an internal conversation and serve as a lesson to other municipalities using social media. From a strictly marketing point of view, this was handled with a tad of recklessness; unless of course Bratton is right and it doesn't matter. Police departments, elected officials and other polarizing figures on the public payroll cannot follow the same social rules that apply to brands. Well, they can, but it is advisable that they do not. The #myNYPD hashtag was created to encourage positive sharing and interaction with followers and residents of NYC. Any social media intern could have seen the oncoming negative effects of this. It wasn't the campaign that was a bad idea, it was the hashtag that was a bad idea. Frankly, any hashtag attached to the campaign would have ended up being used the same way. They would have been better off funneling people to Facebook where responses could have been filtered. Before you get all squirrely, I'm not advocating a police state that filters out free speech. My place is not to evaluate the political implications of bringing possible police injustice to light. The counter point to that is the NYPD is not some small town police department looking for attention. They are constantly targeted by the Occupy Wall Street and Anonymous movements. They had to know that giving out a hashtag to be hijacked was like jumping into the lion pit covered in gravy. Lions love gravy. Brands routinely expect their hashtags to be hijacked, but usually those hijackings just result in a litany of off color jokes (which I'm guilty of doing from time to time). Brands rarely get the virulent type of responses that a hashtag created by a police department or government entity would get. Little Debbie does not get a ton of responses from people allergic to snack cakes. If they were to occasionally force feed their snack cakes to those people, then perhaps they might. Such is the case with the NYPD. Like Bratton said, "Often times police activities are lawful, but look awful". The NYPD, as proven, does not make snack cakes. There really isn't a lesson for brands here, in case you were looking for one. Brands don't generally have hacker organizations after them for allegations of government oppression. While I believe that the reaction was telling and helps further the movements of both Occupy Wall Street and Anonymous; there is a lesson here for government agencies using social media (unless they are supporting revolution, which I doubt). That lesson is to not use hashtags unless you are prepared for the fallout. It is not about picking the perfect hashtag, it is about maintaining the flow of social interaction. If you want to run a positive campaign, don't make it so simple to turn it negative. There were numerous ways the NYPD social media team could have made this a positive, fun campaign; rather than one that turned into an expose on police oppression around the world. If anything we can all learn from the #myNYPD debacle, is the true power of a simple hashtag. The post #myNYPD Proves the Influential Power of Hashtags appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media Metrics: Engagement Posted: 25 Apr 2014 03:00 PM PDT
Social media can be an incredibly important tool for your business. But it can also be overwhelming. You're following what's being said about your industry and brand, your team is trying to produce and share great content, you're interacting with customers, finding prospects and you're trying to make sense of it all. The biggest question you're most likely trying to answer is if your work in social is helping you achieve real business results. To find out, you need to measure your efforts by tracking the right social media metrics. Not sure where to start? In this Beginner's Guide to Social Media Metrics, we'll break down the social metrics you should be tracking, describe how to measure them, and most importantly, explain how you can use them so you never miss out on important insights. Engagement Engagement measures how much and how often others interact with you and your content in social media. When someone takes the time to like, favorite or comment on something you've posted, they're actively engaging with your content. Engagement metrics showcase audience action, which is important for social media health and growth. A subset of engagement metrics are sharing metrics, which represent when people amplify your content. All of the major social networks allow users to share content whether it's a retweet, share, reblog, repin, etc. Engagement metrics are important in highlighting the success of content, but depending on your goals, sharing metrics could be of higher value because they extend your content beyond your own audience, increasing its exposure. How to Measure Engagement: Every social network offers different engagement touch points, so each one will be measured differently. Here's a breakdown of engagement metrics by platform:
Additionally, some networks provide additional engagement metrics, which include:
Google+
How to Use Engagement Metrics:
The post The Beginner's Guide to Social Media Metrics: Engagement appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Does The Day You Post Affect The Number Of Social Shares? Posted: 25 Apr 2014 02:08 PM PDT My colleague Henley Wing recently published a post on why content goes viral, which outlined what he had learnt from analyzing over 1m articles and almost 1bn social shares. One of his findings was that posts published on a Thursday got more social shares on average than other posts. Whilst there have been many surveys in recent years arguing about the best time to post, I have always been doubtful about the impact of the day you post. However, I was keen to look at the data and to see how significant the timing of a post might be. The findings from Henley's research in terms of shares by day of the week were as follows:
There are almost too many surveys to list which argue there is a best time to post content. Beth at Buffer has helpfully summarized many of the findings of the various surveys in her review of the best time to post. Many of the surveys she lists in her post have contradictory findings for example Argyle Social found much higher levels of engagement on weekdays than weekends whereas a Buddy Media survey found the opposite to be true. Social Fresh agree with Henley's findings that Thursday is the best day to post to achieve maximum social shares on Facebook. Other surveys suggest the best day of the week to publish content varies according to topic area, some suggest weekends can be good days for some topics. One study suggests that B2B content gets more engagement on weekdays which feels logical. However, is there really a best day of the week to achieve more social shares? I decided to undertake a small research study to test the theory using BuzzSumo data for articles on 'seo' and 'marketing'.For 'Marketing' the data included over 9,000 articles and over 18m shares, so it was a reasonably large data set. Over 90% of all shares were for content published on a weekday, see chart below. One thing that is absolutely clear is that most content is published on weekdays (Monday to Friday) and most shares relate to content published on weekdays.
For 'SEO' the data also included over 9,000 articles though there were less shares, just over 3.6m. Again most content was published on a week day and over 90% of shares related to this content.
So far these results just show that most content is published on a weekday and that most shares relate to this content. No real surprises here, it would be a surprise to find anything else but it doesn't prove that you will get more shares by publishing on a weekday. We need to go a step further and look at the average number of shares for each day. When we look at the average number of shares for posts by the day published we get a different picture. The average number of shares for SEO articles by day of week published was as follows:
In the case of Marketing the average shares by day of week published were as follows:
These results do not provide evidence that more sharing is achieved by publishing marketing or SEO content on weekdays. There is some evidence that Saturday is a poor day for publishing content in terms of shares but Sunday appears to perform well. Other surveys have also found Sundays to be a good day, for example see this article on Entrepreneur.com. We should be cautious though as there could be other factors at work. For example, content may be published on a Sunday but shared on a Monday, also content published on Sunday afternoon and evening on the West Coast of the US is effectively published on a Monday morning in Australia and Asia. The only conclusions I think we can draw at this stage are: 1) over 90% of content on SEO and Marketing is published on week days 2) for articles on SEO or Marketing there is no obvious correlation between the day of the week published and the number of social shares they achieve, there is some slight eveidence that posts published earlier in the week do better than posts published later in the week. 3) it may be worth testing the occasional post on a Sunday as the competition for attention is far less and there is some evidence that posts published on a Sunday still receive significant social shares. Overall whilst in certain industries some days may work better for posting and you do need to assess the situation for your industry, I think there is no general best time to post. This may be a self-fulfilling prophecy as if there was a best time to post, everyone would schedule their posts accordingly and hence it would quickly become a poor time to post because of the amount of posts at that time. If there is a best time to publish content may be it is 2.37pm on a Sunday as argued by Matt McGee. Matt is not serious but it makes the point well. The post Does The Day You Post Affect The Number Of Social Shares? appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| No, The Rock Is Not Dead, Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Life (Hoax) Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:51 PM PDT
Contrary to what you read on Facebook, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is doing just fine. Unless we're talking about the Scorpion King franchise. Har har. But seriously, The Rock is alive and well, despite what the latest death hoax/possible phishing scam going viral on social media may claim. Malwarebytes Labs spotted the hoax, which claims that The Rock died during the filming of Fast & Furious 7, on Facebook this Wednesday. The post asks users to share the video, which reportedly shows The Rock's death, before watching it. God help you if you did. If you did click, you're sent to a link which installs the software program PUP.Optional.Bandoo on your device. Malwarebytes Labs didn't explain what the program does (but dubbed it "potentially unwanted"), though they pointed out that the program is disguised as a Facebook plugin of some sort.
Another note – The post appears to have a static 2,367 comments when you compare screenshots taken by Malwarebytes Labs days ago to the actual page hosting The Rock death hoax today (be careful where you click when you open that link). Look a little closer and you'll see that you can't actually interact with those comments (whether by liking or commenting yourself). This means that the comments were most likely screencapped from other pages, and thus, are not organic to this page. They're copypasta'd, and merely meant to lend to the appearance of an authentic viral post. We don't know who started the hoax (or even exactly why), but rest assured, The Rock is just fine. The post No, The Rock Is Not Dead, Back To Your Regularly Scheduled Life (Hoax) appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Why Is April 25 Miss Congeniality Day? Well, It’s The Perfect Date Posted: 25 Apr 2014 12:05 PM PDT
It's not too hot, it's not too cold, and all you need is a light jacket. Yes, April 25 is the perfect date to sit down on your couch and watch Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality. The movie got its own internet holiday thanks to a hilarious scene featuring Miss Rhode Island. Cheryl, played by Heather Burns, is asked by Mr. William Shatner to describe her perfect date. The beauty pageant contestant doesn't quite understand the question but still gives an answer that all of us can agree with: April 25th is the perfect date.
The scene was so funny (apparently) that people are still laughing at it 14 years after the movies release. Miss Congeniality spawned its own holiday, a terrible sequel, and there are rumors floating around that Sandra Bullock is hoping to turn the movie into a TV show. An insider said: "Sandra loved her Miss Congeniality FBI agent character Gracie Hart…so much that for years she has continued to keep up friendships with FBI agents she met while researching it … Sandra loves that real FBI agents, particularly female ones, continue to respond to and write her letters about both Miss Congeniality and The Heat … Sandra just feels like its time to bring this story to a new generation!" The rumor hasn't been confirmed yet but judging by the reaction to "Miss Congeniality Day" on Twitter… well, the show would probably be a hit. The post Why Is April 25 Miss Congeniality Day? Well, It's The Perfect Date appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 70,000 Pounds Of Little Debbie Snacks Litter Atlanta Highway Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:55 AM PDT Little Debbie makes such popular snacks as Nutty Bars and Swiss Rolls, and today a semi carrying thousands of boxes overturned on I-75 in Atlanta. According to local affiliate WSB-TV, all the boxes added up to 70,000 pounds worth of deliciously sweet goodness. Sweet Snacks Meet Side Of Highway
Let us please have a moment of silence for the Little Debbie snacks that met a tragic fate. Twitter followers quickly responded, mostly curious if any boxes made it out unharmed for nearby motorists to grab a few or 20. People Hope For The Best
Unfortunately, the Little Debbie snacks will likely make their way to a landfill, but on the plus side, that's millions less calories going straight to our thighs. Photo credit: Dan LaMee The post 70,000 Pounds Of Little Debbie Snacks Litter Atlanta Highway appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 10 Things You Don’t Know About Social Media Marketing Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:19 AM PDT
Unfortunately, the perception that social media marketing is cheap and easy is actually costing you BIG BUCKS! We call these opportunity costs because you're giving up the opportunity to make more money because you're not doing it right.
Businesses hire staff or consultants who lack requisite knowledge because they're inexpensive, which is REALLY dangerous for a small business because they're often the entire marketing department. Businesses devote little or no money to their social media marketing program because they've bought into the idea that their free. So, let's take a look at the 10 things you don't know about social media marketing (using the successful guide from Letterman's top 10, here they are in reverse order of importance): 10. Gurus are spending BIG moneyYeah, you got it. All those gurus out there telling you how wonderful social media marketing is and how it's the great equalizer for small businesses are telling you big, fat LIES. I'm sure you've seen boasts about getting 1 million likes in a few weeks or driving massive traffic with a few easy steps. Most of these are lies — or at least half-truths. These folks are getting the results they claim, but they're not telling you they're spending big bucks. Their results are not organic. Now, the advice might be sound, but don't feel bad that you're not getting the same results. I fell into that trap early on. I was doing everything right, but not seeing the kind of massive returns I was reading about. For instance, one guru got 250,000 email subscribers. I did all the right things and only have a few thousand. What I didn't know is this guru was PAYING folks like Guy Kawasaki and other big names some hefty fees to guest blog on his site and create ebooks. He was also paying serious money for PPC ads to promote email subscriptions. 9. Content is KINGOK, so maybe you DID know this one. But, did you know what KIND of content is KING? The kind that visitors find VALUABLE. I recently worked with a client whose previous agency was creating content — which consisted of a single blog post that was entirely promotional. Epic FAIL. Content must be valuable to readers, over 300 words, contain related images, and authoritative links. Avoid keyword stuffing and be sure to share your content ubiquitously. 8. Quantity DOES matterDon't get me wrong. I'm clearly on the quality side of this debate, but you still have to produce content consistently. I strive for 3X per week, but there's not much difference between 2-5 times per week in terms of conversion. Less than that and you won't see the results you're looking for, according to a study by Hubspot. Crappy content will still get you in lots of trouble with Google — and who wants that? Duplicate content will still get you in trouble, so avoid it. What's a marketer to do? Create a content marketing calendar to ease the burden of creating high quality content on a consistent basis. Period. There are no shortcuts. Creating good content is only 1/2 the battle. You need to curate content from other great folks. Not only is it a nice thing to do (and ensures you stay up-to-date with cutting-edge conversations around your niche), but curating content creates a tit-for-tat relationship that encourages others to share your content. 7. Social media marketing in 30 minutes a dayThis is my favorite LIE about social media marketing. If you've read any of the earlier items on this list, you can see that social media marketing takes time. Lots of time. My guess is a small business needs about 10-15 hours a week and a midsized business problem about 80-100 hours a week of dedicated social media marketing. And, don't hire someone to manage your social media marketing without a clear understand of what you need and their abilities. Having a vibrant Facebook profile or a large Twitter following doesn't mean the prospective employee knows what they're doing. And, that leads me to my next point. 6. Social media marketing takes cross-functional skillsHere are just a few of the many skills to look for in whoever manages your social media marketing:
I would look for someone who's a generalist in these areas, with strong marketing and writing skills. 5. Social media marketing IS marketing!There's a reason we call it social media marketing — it's marketing. Sure, you can hire that english major, but it won't work as well. Face it. Marketing students spend 4 years learning marketing — consumer behavior, market research, market strategy, etc. WHY would you think you could hire and english major? Your english major might be a good writer, but does he/she understand the tools of influence? Segmentation? How to construct a market survey? "Nough said. 4. Subtle differences in implementation generate huge differences in results.For instance, writing well is good, but using the tools of influence within your writing is critical for results. Influence allows you to create content that motivates the reader toward actions you need without being spammy or using the hard sell. For instance, a client created a landing page to capture email addresses for an upcoming launch. He invited folks to sign up. Well, I'm gonna rush right out and do that! I convinced him to change the language. The landing page now reads:
This uses 2 tools of influence. 1 is the law of scarcity — people want what they can't have and 1 is tit-for-tat by giving them something no one else has. 3. Only buyer personas matterIt really doesn't matter how BIG your social network is, it's how many in your network fit your buyer persona. That's because only these folks will actually buy your brand and you're in business to make money, right? 2. Engagement mattersHaving lots of followers/ friends/ fans … doesn't mean anything — even if they fit your buyer persona. Engagement is the fuel for message amplification and ultimately may result in viral messaging. Engagement doesn't happen if you're not creating value, being a real person with a strong voice, encouraging folks to engage, etc. Engagement also requires analytics to understand how your network responds and capitalizing on what's working. 1. Social media marketing is SOCIALSocial media marketing isn't just another channel for blasting out advertising messages. It isn't traditional marketing. Spend time (and money) understanding them. Put yourself in the shoes of folks comprising your buyer personas and give them things you'd want. Need help?Whether you need a complete analytics strategy, some help with brand marketing, or some consulting to optimize your existing social media marketing, we can fill your digital marketing funnel. We can help you do your own social media marketing better or do it for you with our community managers, strategists, and account executives. You can request a FREE introductory meeting or sign up for my email newsletter to learn more about social media marketing. The post 10 Things You Don't Know About Social Media Marketing appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| 10 Things You Don’t Know About Social Media Marketing Posted: 25 Apr 2014 11:19 AM PDT
Unfortunately, the perception that social media marketing is cheap and easy is actually costing you BIG BUCKS! We call these opportunity costs because you're giving up the opportunity to make more money because you're not doing it right.
Businesses hire staff or consultants who lack requisite knowledge because they're inexpensive, which is REALLY dangerous for a small business because they're often the entire marketing department. Businesses devote little or no money to their social media marketing program because they've bought into the idea that their free. So, let's take a look at the 10 things you don't know about social media marketing (using the successful guide from Letterman's top 10, here they are in reverse order of importance): 10. Gurus are spending BIG moneyYeah, you got it. All those gurus out there telling you how wonderful social media marketing is and how it's the great equalizer for small businesses are telling you big, fat LIES. I'm sure you've seen boasts about getting 1 million likes in a few weeks or driving massive traffic with a few easy steps. Most of these are lies — or at least half-truths. These folks are getting the results they claim, but they're not telling you they're spending big bucks. Their results are not organic. Now, the advice might be sound, but don't feel bad that you're not getting the same results. I fell into that trap early on. I was doing everything right, but not seeing the kind of massive returns I was reading about. For instance, one guru got 250,000 email subscribers. I did all the right things and only have a few thousand. What I didn't know is this guru was PAYING folks like Guy Kawasaki and other big names some hefty fees to guest blog on his site and create ebooks. He was also paying serious money for PPC ads to promote email subscriptions. 9. Content is KINGOK, so maybe you DID know this one. But, did you know what KIND of content is KING? The kind that visitors find VALUABLE. I recently worked with a client whose previous agency was creating content — which consisted of a single blog post that was entirely promotional. Epic FAIL. Content must be valuable to readers, over 300 words, contain related images, and authoritative links. Avoid keyword stuffing and be sure to share your content ubiquitously. 8. Quantity DOES matterDon't get me wrong. I'm clearly on the quality side of this debate, but you still have to produce content consistently. I strive for 3X per week, but there's not much difference between 2-5 times per week in terms of conversion. Less than that and you won't see the results you're looking for, according to a study by Hubspot. Crappy content will still get you in lots of trouble with Google — and who wants that? Duplicate content will still get you in trouble, so avoid it. What's a marketer to do? Create a content marketing calendar to ease the burden of creating high quality content on a consistent basis. Period. There are no shortcuts. Creating good content is only 1/2 the battle. You need to curate content from other great folks. Not only is it a nice thing to do (and ensures you stay up-to-date with cutting-edge conversations around your niche), but curating content creates a tit-for-tat relationship that encourages others to share your content. 7. Social media marketing in 30 minutes a dayThis is my favorite LIE about social media marketing. If you've read any of the earlier items on this list, you can see that social media marketing takes time. Lots of time. My guess is a small business needs about 10-15 hours a week and a midsized business problem about 80-100 hours a week of dedicated social media marketing. And, don't hire someone to manage your social media marketing without a clear understand of what you need and their abilities. Having a vibrant Facebook profile or a large Twitter following doesn't mean the prospective employee knows what they're doing. And, that leads me to my next point. 6. Social media marketing takes cross-functional skillsHere are just a few of the many skills to look for in whoever manages your social media marketing:
I would look for someone who's a generalist in these areas, with strong marketing and writing skills. 5. Social media marketing IS marketing!There's a reason we call it social media marketing — it's marketing. Sure, you can hire that english major, but it won't work as well. Face it. Marketing students spend 4 years learning marketing — consumer behavior, market research, market strategy, etc. WHY would you think you could hire and english major? Your english major might be a good writer, but does he/she understand the tools of influence? Segmentation? How to construct a market survey? "Nough said. 4. Subtle differences in implementation generate huge differences in results.For instance, writing well is good, but using the tools of influence within your writing is critical for results. Influence allows you to create content that motivates the reader toward actions you need without being spammy or using the hard sell. For instance, a client created a landing page to capture email addresses for an upcoming launch. He invited folks to sign up. Well, I'm gonna rush right out and do that! I convinced him to change the language. The landing page now reads:
This uses 2 tools of influence. 1 is the law of scarcity — people want what they can't have and 1 is tit-for-tat by giving them something no one else has. 3. Only buyer personas matterIt really doesn't matter how BIG your social network is, it's how many in your network fit your buyer persona. That's because only these folks will actually buy your brand and you're in business to make money, right? 2. Engagement mattersHaving lots of followers/ friends/ fans … doesn't mean anything — even if they fit your buyer persona. Engagement is the fuel for message amplification and ultimately may result in viral messaging. Engagement doesn't happen if you're not creating value, being a real person with a strong voice, encouraging folks to engage, etc. Engagement also requires analytics to understand how your network responds and capitalizing on what's working. 1. Social media marketing is SOCIALSocial media marketing isn't just another channel for blasting out advertising messages. It isn't traditional marketing. Spend time (and money) understanding them. Put yourself in the shoes of folks comprising your buyer personas and give them things you'd want. Need help?Whether you need a complete analytics strategy, some help with brand marketing, or some consulting to optimize your existing social media marketing, we can fill your digital marketing funnel. We can help you do your own social media marketing better or do it for you with our community managers, strategists, and account executives. You can request a FREE introductory meeting or sign up for my email newsletter to learn more about social media marketing. The post 10 Things You Don't Know About Social Media Marketing appeared first on Twitter Tools Reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
Everyone seems to think social media marketing is easy — just throw up some posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc, put your Facebook button on everything, and wait for the money to come rolling in. The other misperception is that social media marketing is cheap. Well, compared to spending $2 million on a Super Bowl ad, social media marketing IS cheap, but that doesn't mean it won't cost some serious money.| You are subscribed to email updates from Twitter Tools Reviews To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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