Happy Coffee Day! Here is a fun infographic that tries to explain social media in terms of coffee. This is a pretty good pairing since most of us in the social media marketing world are over-caffeinated, coffee addicts.
Facebook News, Strategy and Tips
Here is a collection of the latest Facebook News, Strategy and Tips. I am constantly adding and updating articles, so be sure to check back regularly!
How To: Get Your Site Found in Google Search Results
So how do you optimize your site to ensure you achieve the best possible search ranking possible? Of course, a majority of your success will come from having quality content, but there are a number of other page features that you need to pay attention to as well. Following the tips in this post should get you some pretty solid results.
Facebook Advertising Targeting – Is It Worth It?
It used to be that organizations would launch a Facebook page, invite some friends, post a little bit, and see organic growth. That was back before Facebook went public. Their main interest was building a user base, and monetizing their user base was secondary. When the user base got into the hundreds of millions and the next logical step was an IPO, Facebook needed to show revenue. And their ad platform has been rather effective in doing so.
32 Great Mobile Apps to Help You Keep Your New Year Resolutions
There is nothing wrong with trying to keep a New Year resolution going for as long as possible and there are a number of mobile apps that will make your efforts a bit easier.
Graphic Maps Out Every Social Media-Related Site Imaginable
If you are an agency-type, you are going to want to save this social media list….
(September 2013) Here are the Latest Restaurant, Retail & Grocery Printable Facebook Coupons
Everything You Need to Know About Content Marketing (Infographic)
Here is an interesting infographic that looks at the state of content marketing, why it is important and what to think about in setting up a content marketing plan.
How To: Add a Follow on Feedly Button to Your Blog (and Why You Should)
OK kids, the day we have all been dreading for month is almost upon us. Next Monday, July 1st is the day that Google Reader is no longer. There are a number of potential Google Reader replacements that will be coming out over the next few weeks. AOL, Digg and even Facebook (maybe) are all […]
A Handy Reference Chart for Social Media Image Sizes
Here is a handy infographic that offers all of the (current) social media image sizes for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. I hope you find this helpful.
How Do Myers-Briggs Personality Types Use Social Media? (Infographic)
This infographic is based on an in-depth study of the relationship between Myers-Briggs personality type and social media usage. There are some very interesting results included in the study…
6 Key Elements to Social Media Community-Building Success
Here is a nice little infographic that lays out 6 key elements that marketers need to focus on when building, and then engaging with, a robust social media community.
Dear Agencies: If You Aren’t Experienced in Digital Ads, Stop Telling Clients You Are
I know how hard you all fought for your advertising budgets. You deserve an agency that will help you get the most out of those precious ad dollars. With a little due diligence up front, you should be able to find the right partner.
What is Your Social Media Personality Type? (Infographic)
Here is a fun little infographic that explores the most commonly found social media personality types.
How Obsessed are We With Social Media and Mobile Devices? (Infographic)
According to this interesting infographic , social media and mobile devices have become a way of life for many of us. Status updates, emails, tweets and texts have all become about as natural as speaking (for some, more natural).
Your Brand’s Social Advertisers & Managers Need to Become BFFs Quickly
If your brand or agency still has your social advertisers and managers siloed, it may be time to think about knocking that wall down. Their (and your) social media advertising success relies on very strong inter-team lines of communication and participation.
How To: Protect Yourself From Black Friday & Cyber Monday Scams (Infographic)
Online shopping is about to get crazy, and in light of this morning’s wide-spread Target voucher scam, I thought I would share this helpful infographic. Some of the stats may be a bit dated, but there is some solid, common sense advice for both merchants and consumers at the bottom of the graphic.
3 Important Benefits of Digital Public Relations. Benefit 3: Social Media
Companies of all sizes and in just about every industry are desperate to figure out social media and find ways that they can stand out from the ever-growing glut of social brands competing for the same news feeds and followers. Building a close relationship between your public relations and social media teams may be that advantage your company needs.
Which Colleges are the Most Social? (Infographic)
Here is an interesting infographic from TopCollegesOnline.org that ranks the top colleges and universities on a few of the top social networks and gives a few crazy stats that put the social activity of the top dogs into perspective.
The Best (and Worst) Times to Post on Social Media (Infographic)
Here is an interesting infographic that displays the best and worst time to post on some of the biggest social media- Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.
How Photos and Videos Dominate Social Media (Infographic)
Here is an interesting infographic that illustrates just how popular photos and videos are on social media and how the social networks are embracing this trend.
The Internet of 2002 vs the Internet of 2012 (Infographic)
Then and Now comparisons are always fun content for infographics. Here is one by Best Education Sites that shows us just how far the Internet has come over the past ten years.
How To: Use Check-In Apps to Attract Customers (Infographic)
The usage numbers for these “check-in” app are certainly trending upward and businesses of all sizes are now trying to figure out how to work them into their marketing and sales plans.
How Do Consumers Use Social and Mobile to Make Shopping Decisions? (Infographic)
Here is an interesting infographic from consumer survey company Empathica. It explores how social media and mobile are used by consumers in shopping decisions.
How to Be Found Easily in Google Searches (Infographic)
Here is an interesting infographic I found from BrandYourself, a personal search optimization service that shows the importance of controlling the information that appears when someone Googles your name and how to do so.
Do People Overshare on Social Networks? (Infographic)
Do you share too much personal information on social networks? Apparently, if the answer is “yes,” you aren’t alone.
How Social Media Users Handle Their Friends’ Political Views (INFOGRAPHIC)
This research is interesting because, although many social media communities and friendships are becoming more and more interest-based, Facebook is still a bit different. Since its launch, people have used Facebook to reconnect with old classmates, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc. Many of these people that we reconnect with have developed political views long since we last spoke to them.
Atari’s 40th Birthday Timeline Infographic
Atari celebrated their 40th birthday this week (specifically, on June 27th) and to commemorate the milestone, the video game maker offered up new games, Facebook giveaways and a little digital marketing geek porn, I mean, an infographic.
Pinterest for Business [INFOGRAPHIC]
Here are some handy stats for all you marketing managers who are evaluating whether Pinterest is a worthy social platform to work into your brand’s digital strategy.
How To: Target LinkedIn Company Status Updates to Specific Followers
LinkedIn recently started allowing company page admins to target page status updates to specific users. The targeted updates show in only the LinkedIn homepages of the targeted groups but still show up on your company page for all users to see.
App Helps You Create a Facebook Photo Collage for Your Cover Image
Pizza restaurant chain California Pizza Kitchen recently created a pretty cool Facebook app that uses your photos to create a collage for your profile cover image.
Is Social Media Making Us Socially Awkward? [INFOGRAPHIC]
Here is an infographic from Schools.com that pulls together stats to attempt to answer the question “Is Social Media Making Us Socially Awkward?”
How and Why Corporations are Using Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]
Most alarming here to me is the drop-off in corporate blogging. only 23% of the Fortune 500 companies maintain a blog. In this age of content sharing, blogging is a critical online activity for all B2B companies and most B2C.
Should Social Media be Allowed in the Workplace? [INFOGRAPHIC]
Here is an interesting infographic that explores various opinions on social media usage in the workplace. The graphic includes stats reported in the report “The Rise of Social Media for Professional & Personal Use” by the staffing agency, Kelly Services.
How To: Quickly Add Text to an Image for Facebook or Pinterest
I am sure you have seen them in your Facebook news feed or on Pinterest- Images with inspirational or funny quotes written on them. People love this type of image and they usually tend to rack up the high like, share, comment and repin totals.
So how does the average Facebook or Pinterest user create such an image? It’s actually really simple. You can create one in about five minutes and don’t even need Photoshop.
14 Tools You Should Be Using to Generate Blog Traffic
The old cliché “Content is King” has never been more true in the digital marketing world. New, fresh, sharable website content not only builds your brand and generates potential leads, but it also keeps your consumers engaged and connected to your brand.
Generating your content is tough, but once you come up with the killer blog post or case study, how do you let people know about it?
How to Build an Engaged Facebook Fan Base
It’s actually easier than you think, providing you are willing to invest a bit in your efforts. Without a doubt, with all the noise and competition on Facebook these days, a combination of incentivizing likes and advertising the offer are the best way to build a quick following.
How To: Change the Name of Your Facebook Page
For years, admins have been stuck with whatever page name they selected when they created the page. They have had to make-do with misspelled business names, name changes, etc since Facebook gave them no way to edit the page name.
Page owners rejoice! Now you can be liberated from your erroneous page names.
How To: Display Your Pinterest Pins on Your Facebook Business Page
Here is a fun way to display your Pinterest pins onto your company’s Facebook page.
What is Second Screen Marketing and Why Should Brands Care About It?
The marriage of television and web is becoming closer and more integrated by the day. Second screen marketing is an excellent tool for anyone, network or brand, that wants to extend the life of their production and get a bit more bang for their investment. By bringing your viewers online, you open up all kinds of new avenues on which you can market to the viewer well after the event, show, video or ad is over.
How To: Be a Public AND Private Individual on Facebook
Many people who use Facebook for personal and work reasons struggle to find the balance between sharing somewhat personal info with friends and sharing with the world. Creating and maintaining a separate page is a boatload of work and, depending on the size of your following, may not be worth it.
In the past, you pretty much had to make the decision- do I make my life public? or do I just shut out everyone I don’t actually know? Most people elected to keep their friend list to those individuals that were close friends and thus, they were not able to enjoy some of the business benefits of growing your network and personally branding yourself.
Is it Illegal for Employers to Screen Candidates Using Social Media?
I just read a piece on the Scottish news site, Scotsman.com, that discusses a study on the legality of employers looking up job candidates on social media sites during the hiring process.
The App to End Drunken Social Networking?
Well, probably not, but it may save you an embarrassing online moment or two tonight.
The Holiday Party Sobriety Test app (from the makers of the Firefox plug-in social sobriety test), runs the user through a series of motor skill tests and then warns you if you are too drunk to be using social media.
LEGO Crowdsources Back to the Future Design
The “Back to the Future” set design is now in development and will be released in mid-2013.
Facebook Tip: What are the dimensions of the Cover Photo in the New Timeline Layout?
Since the new Facebook timeline was released universally yesterday, the most common question I have been asked is: Do you know how big the picture at the top of the new layout is supposed to be?
How To: Add a Facebook Subscribe Button to a WordPress Blog
A few months ago, Facebook enabled subscriptions for personal profiles. Subscribers only see what you make ‘public’ on your Facebook profile. Much like the anyone you put on your restricted list, subscribers never see any posts or wall items that you send only to friends.
The point of subscriptions is to keep popular individuals from having to create a brand page for themselves. So far, Journalists and Celebrities have really taken to the new subscription model.
This week, Facebook released the ‘subscribe’ button for websites. This button works like many of its social button predecessors, and allows you to subscribe to an individual’s public feed without having to leave the person’s site.
Want a Successful Facebook Page or App? Advertise It!
Throughout my years in the digital marketing world, I have found that the best approach to creating a successful Facebook engagement is when you combine engaging page or app content with creative, targeted advertising. Content is the most important element of your campaign, but almost equally important is identifying who your most likely audience is and marketing your page or app to them.
Black Friday Digital Roundup- the Apps, the Deals, the Fun
I have been sifting through the thousands of recent articles on Black Friday digital tools to bring you the most useful ones in your quest for that perfect gift….
How To: Add an Expected Child to Your Facebook Profile
Inside Facebook tips us off today that Facebook has begun allowing parents-to-be to list their expected child as a relative on their profile.
Creating a Public Commenting Policy for a Facebook Brand Page
I just read an article on ReadWriteWeb about the grocery chain, Publix’ rapid accumulation of Facebook likes for their recently launched page.
What I found most interesting was the great ‘House Rules’ app that they include on their page which lays out the ground rules. All brands need to seriously consider doing something like this.
How To: Remove Facebook Activity Posts From Your Wall
Say you wanted to leave messages on the walls of five of your Facebook friend’s walls but you don’t want all of the posts to appear on your wall as recent activity for all to see. Well, in the past you had to remove each post on your wall individually, now you can hide all posts for similar activities.
WARNING: ‘Verify My Account’ is Latest Facebook Scam
I woke up this morning to a number of wall posts from friends telling me to verify my account. Being the cautious (pessimistic) Facebook user that I am, I decided to investigate a bit…
Facebook Tip: Now You Can Tag Pages in Photos
Imagine you just bought a new Jeep Wrangler and took your three best friends out for an inaugural spin in the new wheels. You stop and snap a picture of your three amigos in the Jeep. You then decide you want to show the world your new vehicle and post it to Facebook.
Naturally, you would tag your friends in the photo when you upload it, but now you can tag more.
TV Show Offers Facebook Fan-Only Full Episode
TruTV’s ‘Operation Repo’ is celebrating 500,000 like on their Facebook Page by giving back- they are posting an episode of the TV show exclusively for their Facebook fans.
How Important is SEO for Corporate Social Media Pages?
AllFacebook has some interesting stats on the ranking of corporate social media pages in Google searches.
It is amazing to me that, as digital marketing has been around for some time now, more brands haven’t focused on Search Engine Optimizing their social media pages yet.
The Onion Releases Fake News App
In what surely was no coincidence, The Onion, the very popular news parody site, released their official iPhone/iPad app on April Fools Day. The new app allows you to read the fake news reports and videos that you have come to know and love without leaving the app. There is also some handy share features […]
Screw Conventional Wisdom…Digital Marketing on Weekends Works!
My past life was in PR. In my world, the conventional wisdom was always that all bad news should be released at 4pm on a Friday afternoon. You do this to ensure it appears in the Saturday news when no one is paying attention. You never sent anything of value out over the weekend with […]
How You Can Raise Autism Awareness On (and Off) line
Autism Speaks is working on a campaign to promote autism awareness that integrates digital and traditional marketing pretty well.
The Light it up Blue campaign encourages people to show their blue on April 1st and 2nd. Their microsite gives all the details about what you can do to help offline (wear blue, host an event, change you lightbulbs to blue, etc) and online (place a banner on your site, blog/tweet about autism, change your Facebook avatar and/or status to reflect the effort, etc).
How Many Facebook Friends Actually See Your Posts?
AllFacebook tells us that only 1 in 10 Facebook friends actually see your posts.
Facebook Tip: How to Tag Something in a Comment
Now Facebook is taking tagging one step further. They are now allowing users to tag people, groups or pages in comments.
Looking for Love on Facebook? New App Notifies of Relationship Changes
Update 2/23/11: According to TechCrunch, Breakup Notifier was shutdown by Facebook today. The app had collected 3.6 million users in the 2ish days it was active. Original Post 2/21/11: Love-seekers and gossipers: Do I have an app for you! I just read about Breakup Notifier, which has the most self-explanatory name in app history, in […]
Facebook Tip: How to Comment on Your Page as Yourself
One of the cooler changes that Facebook made with their new page layout and functionality is giving page administrators the ability to comment on their own pages as themselves- not as the page.
How Young is Too Young for Social Networking?
First Lady Michelle Obama revealed Wednesday on the Today Show, that her daughters (ages 9 and 12) are too young for Facebook and that the social networking site was “not something they need.” I never thought much about teens on Facebook, but this story got me wondering; How young is too young for social networking? […]
Billboard’s New Music Chart Based on Social Media Popularity
Last month, Billboard launched a new way to measure music popularity- a chart based on social media activity. The Social 50‘s rankings reflect social media statistics like new weekly artist page likes and views, new followers, song streaming, etc. on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, MySpace and iLike. The Social 50‘s formula and data are provided to […]
Facebook Tip: How you can add an expiration date to your photos
If you are a passive Facebooker and regularly post photos that you would prefer only be viewable for a period of time, you will soon be in luck. German Company X-Pire is set to release its new photo expiration software sometime this week. Basically, before you post an image to Facebook or Flickr, you drag […]
Facebook Tip: Have AMBER Alerts Sent to Your News Feed
Facebook announced yesterday that they are partnering with the AMBER Alert Program by creating 53 new ‘fan’ pages (Each US State, PR, DC and the US Virgin Islands) that issue bulletins for their respective territories. For anyone that doesn’t know, the AMBER Alert Program is a coordinated effort between a number of Local, State and […]
How To: Change the photos that appear at the top of your Facebook wall
Among the many changes Facebook has made with their new profile layout introduction, you now have a row of photos that appear at the top of your profile just under the info blurb and above your wall. These are randomly generated as soon as you convert to the new profile based on photos that you are tagged in (yours or someone else’s).
Facebook Tip: New profile layout now available. How to get yours!
Mashable just reported that Facebook has released the new profile layout a bit ealier than expected. They were supposed to start offering it tomorrow. The most obvious changes are the inclusion of some of your info items and tagged photos at the top of your profile and what used to be your tabs are now […]
New Study: Women Stress More About Facebook Updates Than Men
I just stumbled across this new study that claims that women stress more than men about what they will post on Facebook (69% to 39%). There are also a few other interesting stats regarding the relationship between stress levels and social media included. This seems fairly accurate from what I have observed among friends. What […]
Watch what you post…everyone is watching you!
Social media is, and should be, social. No doubt about it. If you are a broadcaster and fail to listen and engage, you will have a lonely social media existence. That being said, when posting to your various social accounts you should always question what you are posting being mindful of who could be viewing […]
No More Drunk Tweeting or Facebooking: The Social Media Sobriety Test
Big News: A major step has been made in the eradication of the greatest social embarrassment since drunk dialing! The folks over at urlesque have come across a very interesting new Firefox plug-in that doesn’t allow you to post on Social Media unless you pass a sobriety test. You set the times that you are […]
How Social Media Has Changed Election Night for Political Junkies
I am a political junkie. I spent the first 10 years of my professional career working on political campaigns and am pretty sure it will never be completely cleansed out of my system. For me, social media has completely changed the way, and speed, in which I receive my election night news. I have sat […]
Facebook Tip – Stop Tagging Me Bro!
Note: This is the first in a series of quick Facebook tips for brands that will be posted periodically. Facebook tagging is a great way to expand your network. You can tag friends and other pages in your status updates, pictures, notes, videos, etc. I highly recommend a healthy amount of tagging because your post […]
SEO is for more than websites: Optimize Everything!
Now, with Google’s almost daily product expansion, the emergence of digital PR and a number of new deals between the various search engines and social media platforms, optimizing everything that you create digitally has become a critical step in getting your message out and your voice heard.
Are You a Social Media Influencer?
In the early days of social media (just a few years ago), the amount of followers, friends or fans someone had was the only way to measure their influence over their social media network. Over time, those who were not inclined to embrace the ‘social’ part of social media found ways to boost their counts without really putting in the hard work that it takes to grow a loyal and attentive following. The practice of ‘hoarding’ or ‘collecting’ quickly made follower counts relatively meaningless. So the question became- How do you truly measure your social media influence?