25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- Journalism 101 – What Bloggers Need to Know
- Journalism’s Tips For Bloggers: 10 Key Points For Better Blogging
- What Old SEO Tricks May be Hurting You? [VIDEO]
- Instagram’s Terms of Service: You Just Became a Model
- Bounce Rate And SEO
- The Big Grey Hat: SEO Ethical Quandaries
- In Case the Mayans are Wrong: 2013 Social Predictions
- 7 Ways to be Effective on LinkedIn
- 8 Ways to Create Better Facebook Content [Checklist for 2013]
- A Look at Marketing Past, Present, and Future [INFOGRAPHIC]
- What is Blog Reach? 5 Reasons You Should Know (and Care)!
- Instagram Terms Cause Internet Uproar
- Social Media Helps Heal A Nation After Sandy Hook Shooting
- The Power of LinkedIn Groups
- Blogging: The Case For Breaking Your Regular Schedule
- The Immeasurable Benefits Of A Blog
- 24 of the Best Google+ Guides, Tips, Rants and Raves of 2012
- The Mobile Retail Experience [Infographic]
- SMEs Need to Prepare for Google Author Rank and Appreciate How it Can Improve their SEO Strategy in 2013
- Social Media Listening: 5 Steps To Develop Your B2B or Enterprise Listening Plan How
- Indian Brands’ Performance On Facebook (SocialBakers November Report)
- Durex India Spreads ‘Say No To HIV’
- Google Answers Questions About The New Idea Of Negative SEO
- Microcinema: The Next Social Media Star in China
- How We Use Social: Highlights from the Social Media Report 2012
| Journalism 101 – What Bloggers Need to Know Posted: 19 Dec 2012 03:00 PM PST The blogger vs. journalist debate has been a heated topic for years. Bloggers are influential, educational and informative, but some believe (including an Oregon court) that blogging doesn't equate to journalism, hence bloggers may not be considered by some as completely legitimate resources. However, with the influx and influence of blogs, several traditional news media outlets, including The New York Times, have adapted and taken on a more blog stylistic approach. This year, The Huffington Post (considered a blog) won a Pulitzer Prize, which is typically awarded for "achievements in newspaper and online journalism." This was considered a well-deserved victory for blogosphere credibility. However, The Huffington Post also adheres to several standard journalistic practices, something all bloggers should try do. There are significant differences between journalism and blogging, including the idea that "the media" (is supposed to) remain objective and unbiased. Bloggers, however, are known and revered for sharing their opinions. And, to succeed as a blogger, implementing a personality is vital – Something that is clearly absent from traditional news writing. Regardless of these differences, there are important lessons you can learn from journalism, and implement into your blogging practices. Let's jump into some Journalism 101 every blogger should know: Cite Sources and Attribute Content (no ifs, ands, or buts!)
Tech journalist, Jolie O'Dell wrote a blog series called, "Be a Better Journo" in which she discusses attribution: "There are multiple reasons this is in your best interest, the first being that it saves you from looking like a story-scamming scumbag. Second, it saves you in the event of a retraction, in which case you can point a finger and say your source was wrong. Third, especially in the case of opinion and speculation, it allows you to maintain at least a modicum of objectivity. As in, 'I'm objective, but Kara Swisher said these guys are doomed to failure by patent infringement lawsuit.'" "…And finally [citing sources] it's fair and right, which is the only reason you should need in the first place." As O'Dell points out in her post, "How to Tell a Journalist from a Blogger," bloggers are notoriously known for generalizing sources, claiming info as their own, and acting like rabid pageview/pagerank greedsters. To avoid this bad rap, citing sources and attributing content is one of the most important journalism standards a blogger should absolutely follow. These rules also apply to images. Unless you took the image, or bought it on a royalty free microstock photo provider, like iStockphoto.com, then you must give source credit. Plagiarism is unfortunately rampant in the blogosphere, so if you feel and/or know that others are plagiarizing or 'borrowing' your own content without appropriate site sourcing, KISSmetrics recently released an article called, "How to Keep Content Thieves from Stealing Your Work," covering preventative methods.
Choose a Style and Stick to it Edit, Edit, Edit Fix Your Mistakes Write for Your Audience Implementing these standard journalistic practices into your every day blogging ways will not only make your content stronger, but will move bloggers one step closer to becoming recognized as the influential, inspirational and educational content creators we know they/you are! |
| Journalism’s Tips For Bloggers: 10 Key Points For Better Blogging Posted: 19 Dec 2012 02:10 PM PST
What started as a very personal choice to share one's life on the Web is now a standardized format for regular publication in many industries. In under 15 years, blogging has gained a near ubiquitous status as a strong method for regular content production, making it a stalwart of today's marketing strategies. However, at times, its background in personal diaries and self-published storytelling is revealing. Often, blog content is underdeveloped, writing is poor, and narrative appeal is very weak. At times, various professionals in the fields of journalism, publishing, and PR have been frustrated with the blogosphere for its lack of intentionality about quality content production. While typos and eased style can be overlooked, poor content choice can quickly reduce a blog’s standing as a legitimate source of information. Since blogs really did develop from a community of amateur writers on the Web, it's reasonable to assume that blogging is not necessarily informed by the wealth of knowledge collected by journalists and traditional publishers over the years. For this reason, I think bloggers, especially marketing bloggers, have a lot to learn from basic principles in traditional journalism. In 1973, Gatlung and Ruge published a list 10-point framework for understanding and evaluating what makes a strong story. They described the overall framework as a pursuit for "newsworthiness." If used correctly, these 10 criteria can be extremely valuable when trying to find topics that will appeal to wide audiences. From a marketing standpoint, these 10 points are the difference between a good blog and a blog that has the potential for a wide online following. These points will also help develop stronger keyword descriptions, a wider perspective of publishable material, and a way to raise the overall level of content quality.
Obviously, these 10 points are a lot to implement all at once. Try putting a few into use at a time and see how they work for you. Content creation is a constant process of improvement, so if you need more support, download our Blogging Content Ideas Tip Sheet.
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| What Old SEO Tricks May be Hurting You? [VIDEO] Posted: 19 Dec 2012 02:05 PM PST
Brynna Baldauf of Vertical Measures answers "What Old SEO Tricks May Be Hurting You?" TranscriptHi. My name is Brynna, and I'm here to talk to you today about the top three old SEO tricks that are now hurting you. The first one is reciprocal linking and linking exchanges. When you do this, it basically tells Google, or other search engines, that you're actively trying to pursue linking and actively trying to game the system of appearing higher in the search engines. This is something you don't want to do, because they can easily recognize it. They can go to the other sites and see that your link is there as well. So, what you should do, instead, is try to get natural links. Why is it bad if Google recognizes it? Because they can ultimately penalize you, which ultimately reduces your traffic and drops your rankings. One way that you can go about going to get these natural links is trying to produce excellent content, or meeting people in real life and networking and asking, in real life, for a link, or going to a link building company and asking for help, because they have the expertise to get your content placed in appropriate ways. The other thing you don't want to do is keyword stuff your content or domain name. It used to be a great idea to put in as much of the density of keywords as you could. So if you had your exact match keyword appear as many times as possible, it would raise you in the rankings. Now, it's going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to help you. What you should try to do, instead, is write natural content that flows. Before, when you were writing content that stuffed in as many keywords as possible, it became difficult for people to read it, because it would just say keyword, other word, keyword, other word, and that doesn't read well. From that, you not only lost traffic, but now you're losing rankings. What you should do, instead, is create an excellent piece of content and don't even think about SEO. This way you're writing concisely, clearly. You can look it over afterwards and put in things for SEO. This way it makes it not only more readable, but easily searchable for the search engines, because it looks natural and organic. The last and final thing that's now hurting you is non-varied or unnatural anchor text. When you used to want to be linked to, it would be a specific word or keywords, maybe two words, something like "internet marketing." But now, if that happens over and over and over again, it looks clear that you are pursuing link building or actively trying to game the system again in Google. This looks unnatural, because no one would naturally link to you like that. How is a blogger going to link to you when they find you in the real world on their own? They're going to say one of four things. They're going to say either your company name and link to you through that. They're going to say "click here for more information," or another cloud keyword term. They're going to put a few words together, such as "I found this interesting," or "this is a great example of." Or they're going to say something unrelated that you're not actually trying to rank for. And this is just part of the process. You have to remember with all of this that the rising tide rises the ships as well. So even though they're giving you just a link and it may not be your exact keywords, it's still a link and it's still valuable. When you're out there pursuing links or putting links into your content to be spread throughout the Internet, you have to remember that you have to make it look natural. Otherwise, Google is going to find out, and ultimately you're going to be penalized and drop your rankings. This is a big part of the recent updates. And so, it might not have happened yet, but going on into the future, you need to be very careful about your anchor text. The three things that you need to remember are:
This is very important going forward. Thank you. Have a great day. |
| Instagram’s Terms of Service: You Just Became a Model Posted: 19 Dec 2012 01:40 PM PST  Could I be the new face of Shock Top? Fingers crossed. As of January 16th, you, your child, and your dog could all become models. Who's the agency? Instagram. What does it pay? Nothing. Who's the client? Anyone Instagram wants to pimp you out to. Yesterday, Instagram released its new cavalier privacy policy that states "You agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you." Wow. At first I did not mind the thought because I assume my Instagram photos are for public viewing. However, after 30 seconds I realized that these terms actually mean that I might be the new face of the latest herpes medication. That's not okay with me and it's definitely not okay that another company will be making money off of my smug (STD-free) mug. The announcement of change to the terms of service immediately led to a digital uprising amongst the Twitterverse, including a trending of #boycottInstagram. Amazingly, the new terms of service are not effective until January 16th which gives users a significant amount of time to rally against the service and find a decent competitor. The only problem is that we all are just so in love with those damn filters. Seriously, Instagram filters make everyone look prettier and they also make crap iPhone photos look like works of art.  Harpo should have privacy too. Luckily, there are free alternatives if you still want that artistic and retro effect for the picture of your car's dashboard with the clock at 11:11. I'm especially partial to Pixlr-o-matic. It's very intuitive and has great effects. I've only used it on my laptop (since I always use Instagram from my iPhone) but Pixlr-o-matic does also have an iPhone and an Android app. I believe I will be downloading that app promptly. This may also be the best thing to ever happen to flickrwho has lost significant "market" share to Instagram. I understand that Instagram needs a way to monetize, but this is really sticking it in the eye of the community that made it what it is and was responsible for their $1 billion pay day (which is still the most outrageous acquisition for a company with $0 in revenue). What do you think? Will these new terms of service cause you to look for an alternative? |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2012 01:05 PM PST Seo (Ex)pert: We have analyzed your website's stats, some of your pages are of poor quality, they won't be able to be ranked well. You: Ohh!! But these pages are ranking quite well !!! Seo (Ex)pert: You seem to be lucky, seems like Google hasn't seen your web-page's bounce rate yet, Bounce Rate is an important ranking signal You: What is Bounce Rate? Seo (Ex)pert: Bounce rate is the percentage of users who visited only a single page of your website and didn't find content worthy, so they didn't visit any other page, to dig your services in detail. Poor You: Ohh!! I never knew that, can you please help me sort this out? Seo (Ex)pert: Yeah, for sure. We charge $250 per month and we will sort this issue. Many $250 later, again Poor You: Hey, I can't see any tangible effect on my sales from your services… The above conversation is quite common these days, I am sure, you must have been "Poor You" in many such instances. Bounce rate, one of the most talked about matrix and as I said, widely misunderstood concept, gained its popularity after "Panda Update" from Google which is essentially related with thin content, and thus, easy to relate with bounce rate and I did a Google search for "How to install Windows ", landed on a blog post explaining the same, I got the complete A-Z information on installing windows, I thanked the guy who took the pain of writing this blog post and left the website. I never felt like clicking on any other page of the website and thus will be counted as bounce in GA, but I got precise information on my topic and that's what Google wants, best results to users according to their search queries. Same applies to Q& A websites, they provide point to point information about a given topic, no need to dig into the website. Why Google doesn't use GA data in rankings?
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Instead of ranting around Bounce Rate, you should focus on a matrix which is often overlooked and dies a natural death in your statistical analysis. Welcome Click Through Rate(CTR). Click Through Rate (CTR) from the SERPs themselves is an easy to use matrix. Whether or not a result gets clicked on is one of Google's first clues about whether any given result is a good match to a query. We know Google has this data, because they directly report it to us. In Google Webmaster Tools, you can find CTR data under "Your site on the web" > "Search queries". It looks something like this: CTR plays a vital role in adwords and thus on your quality score(PPC). Though, the Adword algorithm is very different from organic search, CTR doesn't need any analytics and search engine can easily calculate CTR, logic is very simple, Relevant results drive more clicks. Can I Manipulate CTR? Yes, you can. CTR by itself can easily be manipulated – you can drive up clicks with misleading titles and META descriptions that have little relevance to your landing page. Though CTR is easy to manipulate, search engines can calculate the time stamps between the click on serp result and when users hit back back button of the browser to return to serp. The lower the the time between a serp click and back button hit, will suggest that the content of the page was not good, thus user decided to look for an alternative. Bing called this time as "Dwell Time" and combination of CTR and "Dwell Time" is a strong matrix to judge the quality of SERP result. If you are trying to manipulate CTR, that kind of manipulation will naturally lead to low dwell time, though. If you artificially drive up CTR and then your site isn't as good as it appears in serp, people will go back to the SERPs. Unfortunately, Google didn't made this "Dwell Time" thing public but, Bing's Duane Forrester wrote a post on "Quality Content" in which he talks about "Dwell Time". But, I do believe that Google does use this time in order to calculate something called "Dwell Time" or maybe with some other name, there's one piece of evidence that suggests strongly to me that they use dwell time as well (or something very similar). Last year, Google tested a feature where, if you clicked a listing and then quickly came back to the SERP (i.e. your dwell time was very low), you would get the option to block that site:
Recently, Google has rolled back this feature because of the social results in serps. The main objective of this feature was to block a site which does not provide useful information as suggested in SERP. I hope the above information explains "How Bounce Rate could mislead you". Instead of focusing on bounce rate, you should care about your snippets in SERP. If your CTR is too low then surely, something is wrong. May be either Description or Titles are misleading, you need to fix them ASAP. |
| The Big Grey Hat: SEO Ethical Quandaries Posted: 19 Dec 2012 01:05 PM PST I have this habit that I'm sure my close friends and loved ones find really obnoxious. When someone asks me what I do for a living I have this compulsion to defend my career choice after I tell them. I'll often do this even when the person I'm talking to has no clue what SEO is (which is usually the case and probably only succeeds at giving the impression that all SEO is shady.) As anyone familiar with SEO is likely aware, that apologetic compulsion is inspired by the industry's black hat practitioners, past and present. Honestly, as one of the SEO-familiar, I'd prefer that the terms White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO were replaced altogether. For White Hat something like: "SEO", "SEM", "Online Marketing", or maybe just "Marketing". While Black Hat SEO could be called "Spam". There's no question that SEO can be more involved, both technically and ethically, than standard marketing but as far as I'm concerned, the same rules apply. You can find a number of SEO Code of Ethics posts on the web- they're usually outlined by SEO companies that award themselves compliance with the code they've just created. Most of the codes have a comprehensive "First Do No Harm" variation, followed by a list of specific practices that conform- or are in opposition to that cardinal principle. I'm not bagging on those codes; they're usually spot-on (and they're usually for the benefit of customers rather than to guide the behavior of employees). The affiliate management agency firm I've worked with has a more proactive "For The Betterment of Mankind" policy that guides their content-creation, which I think should be the industry standard. My only concern with that brand of SEO-ethics-regulating arrangements is the possibility they muddy the waters. In any business there are good and bad marketing practices; honest and shady ones; producers of a quality product into which real work has been done and producers of a lazy, low-quality commodity perpetually looking for a loophole to exploit for a short, eventually counterproductive gain. SEO is no different. If you're working in SEO, trying to game search engines artificially is black hat. So if you're spamdexing; keyword-stuffing; recycling content to give the impression of legitimate, original work; hiding text or links; engaging in link farming with cooperating "mutual admiration society" black blogs (accomplices); spamming blogs or blog comments, you're working black hat and working on borrowed time. If you're engaged in affiliate marketing, cookie-stuffing is black hat, and every cookie-stuffer knows it. As far as I'm concerned producing original, quality content, working on the architecture of a client's page or anything else constructive to make their organization more marketable is advertising- a paid, honest, informative service that improves the business paying for it. On or off the internet, it's pretty clear whether you're engaged in business or working a con. |
| In Case the Mayans are Wrong: 2013 Social Predictions Posted: 19 Dec 2012 12:55 PM PST 2012 is quickly coming to a close, and because of that, our office has been abuzz. But our conversations are not about resolutions to eat less and exercise more—after all, we're a bunch of social strategists and amateur home cooks! Instead, we've been discussing the social trends of 2012 and making predictions about what's to come in 2013. While a lot happened in the world of social this year, a recurring theme is the shift to more visually-compelling content. There was the emergence—and impressive growth—of the image bookmarking platform, Pinterest. Facebook unveiled Timeline, which places more emphasis on user photos. And Instagram use increased exponentially, surpassing one billion photos. The group consensus at ComBlu is that videos, images and photos will continue to be important in 2013. And we have some other predictions for content, influencers, mobile integration, and social media's integration into everyday life. Here's what our team had to say: Content: How it's delivered and where it's sourced
Leveraging the power of influencers
The move to mobile
Social everywhere
Come December 2013, we'll review these predictions to see just how accurate they were. That is, assuming the Mayans weren't right about their prediction… |
| 7 Ways to be Effective on LinkedIn Posted: 19 Dec 2012 12:21 PM PST All social networking venues are not created equal. Each has its own identity. What works on Facebook may not work on LinkedIn or on Twitter. While you can use all social media platforms for an integrated approach to market your book or business, you have to know your audience. The LinkedIn audience is where professionals connect and help each other to be effective, productive and successful. LinkedIn is a great way to build your network, relationships and your personal brand, but in order to do it effectively, you have to use LinkedIn in a professional manner. Here are 7 ways effective: Stay professional. If you wouldn’t put it on your resume, in your portfolio or say it in an interview, don’t put it on your LinkedIn page. It’s not the forum for personal posts and oversharing. Connect carefully. It’s more effective to form relationships just as you would in person. Don’t reach out and ask to connect professionally with people you don’t know. Work relationships slowly through shared connections or referrals. Share resources. On LinkedIn, be sure to share articles, stories and resources that will help your network. Avoid posting only your own content. Build your credibility. Work on building up your recommendations but avoid just swapping recommendations with people you know as that doesn’t look as authentic. Make sure you have some recommendations on your LinkedIn page. Stick with professional photos. You may love your dog enough to make it your profile photo on your personal Facebook page, but make sure your LinkedIn photo is a professional, forward-looking shot. Don’t ask for favors. Nothing is more annoying than a person asking for favors on LinkedIn before they have built a relationship. LinkedIn, like real-life networking, is about give and take. Give first. Don’t send mass emails. Connecting with people is a privilege. LinkedIn is best for one-to-one communication. It is not a forum for mass emails announcing your book, webinar or event. LinkedIn is a great way to gain more visibility, increase your rank with search engines, get business insights and market your book by connecting directly to your audience, just do it professionally. |
| 8 Ways to Create Better Facebook Content [Checklist for 2013] Posted: 19 Dec 2012 12:20 PM PST As you start to make Facebook marketing plans for 2013, here’s a handy checklist to help ensure your posts get maximum exposure:
Five time-tested tips: We had a detailed post about the best calls to action awhile back for anyone who wants to learn more.
What are your Facebook-related resolutions for the New Year? Let us know by tweeting us @shortstacklab You may also like this article: How to Evaluate Your Facebook Page [CHECKLIST] |
| A Look at Marketing Past, Present, and Future [INFOGRAPHIC] Posted: 19 Dec 2012 12:05 PM PST
Nearly 200 years after it was first published, Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” still resonates with audiences everywhere. Its message of self reflection still hits home for audiences around the world. The holiday season is the perfect time for this type of self-assessment. You should take time to reflect on the past, take stock of the present, and start making predictions for the future. This applies as much to your professional life as it does to your personal one. The pace of marketing evolution has become a runaway train, and it’s all most marketers can do just to hold on. With things moving so fast, it is more important than ever to take a step back and evaluate your progress to make sure your marketing is still on the right track. To help you take stock of how far you’ve come and the distance you have left to go, we’ve created an infographic illustrating the past, present, and future of the marketing industry. Just as Scrooge was shown visions of these three perspectives in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” this infographic can help you keep your marketing headed in the right direction. Lets take a look!
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| What is Blog Reach? 5 Reasons You Should Know (and Care)! Posted: 19 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST Does Your Content Travel?
1. TrafficAggregating the number of blog views each month is not the most effective inbound marketing analytic for determining success. First of all, where are they coming from? Paid traffic from PPC campaigns isn’t an effective measure of blog reach, so it shouldn't be considered. The following forms of blog traffic are a much more effective measure of how people are getting to your website:
Why you should care: Sure, you could be ranked #1 for every obscure long tail key phrase about heirloom beets possible, but if all of your blog traffic is coming from Pinterest or another blogger's content, it could be time to refocus and recalibrate. 2. Inbound LinksIf you're writing great content that adds value to your niche, there's a really strong chance people are going to link to it. Not every inbound link is going to drive traffic, but most will increase your website's SEO. Keep a close eye on your back link profile as a gauge for how your content is adding value. Keep it mind that it's not about how many links you're generating but also who’s linking to you. A single link from a high-influence blog could be worth more than 50 mentions on a low-traffic website. Why it Matters: Inbound links are no longer the end-all, be-all of SEO, but they still matter a great deal. Use links as a gauge to find out your reach as well as the types of content you're writing that people want to link to. As an added benefit, keeping a close-eye on your backlink profile can have the added benefit of ensuring you're able to quickly catch links from "bad neighborhood" websites (adult topics, foreign languages and gambling) that could result in Google thinking you're a Spammer. 3. Keyword Search PositionWhat keywords are you trying to optimize your site for, and how are you doing at achieving this goal? If no one Tweets or links to your content, you're probably not ranked very high. Why it Affects You: Search rank for terms that matter in your industry is really a holistic view of how you're doing at content creation and SEO for bloggers as a whole. 4. Personal Search PositionHow are you ranking for your blog's name, your company name and your personal name? Have you earned Google authorship? While personal rank can vary wildly due to how common your name is, it's a safe bet to assume you're doing really well if you're ranked on the first page of results by first name alone. Why You Should Monitor this: While personal search position isn't everything, the more high-quality content you create and publish under your name, the higher you'll be ranked in Google. If you've got an eye on personal branding or achieving a status as a thought leader, personal search position is important. 5. VoiceIt's an abstract measure that's nearly impossible to quantify, but your voice matters. Does Seth Godin have the most-read blog on the internet? I'm sure the answer is no. Is his influence over entrepreneurs and marketers more significant than many other websites with more traffic? Most likely, yes. Voice is a subjective measure, but content written by thought-leaders and experts often has significant share of voice in their industry. Why it Matters: We all want to be thought leaders. Though it's impossible to quantify, if your content is influencing real-life decisions, it's indicative of powerful voice.
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| Instagram Terms Cause Internet Uproar Posted: 19 Dec 2012 11:59 AM PST
What's the Big Deal?Millions of people use Instagram, the filter-applying photography app purchased by Facebook for a cool $1 billion, on social media. There's no doubt you know at least one person or company that has posted a picture using the Instagram app to make a picture look a certain way. Obviously, Instagram is about its user's photos, and this is where the controversy over their new terms of service comes in. Gerry Shih and Alexei Oreskovic with Reuters describe the changes as "a new, draconian grip over user rights." Essentially, what Instagram proposed with its new terms of service is a take-it-or-leave-it mentality. Either you follow it, or you quit the service. More importantly, as Gerry and Alexei note, "The new terms, which allow an advertiser to pay Instagram 'to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata)' without compensation." There it was in plain English on their TOS: Instagram owns your data that you create with their app. This did not sit well with users, and competition pounced. As Liau Yun Qing writes on ZDNet, the "proposed change to its terms and conditions has outraged users, with some vowing to quit the service." Companies like Yahoo, Flickr, EyeEm, and others immediately jumped on the chance to attack their largest rival as they reassured their users that they would always own their photos. Damage ControlBenge Nsenduluka at the Christian Post reports that Instagram executives "began implementing damage control late Tuesday." Instagram execs have pulled a total 180, even insisting their intentions were not to generate advertising revenue from ownership of its user's photos. Whether this is true or not will probably never be known. Many are skeptical given Facebook's ownership of Instagram and the recent drive Facebook has been pushing to monetize everything. Expect a policy revision, and also expect the company to go back to the drawing board about how it will generate more revenue. More importantly, users of the internet have shown once again that their opinions matter. A Reminder of the Power of the InternetThis situation is a clear reminder that it's much better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your content, your terms of service, or anything else you put on the web for the public. If something doesn't quite seem right or smells of arrogance, offensiveness, or inadequacy, don't think it will pass unnoticed. People pay attention, and they will hit you with the very same tools you rely on to expand your clients' brands. Even if the new terms of service was a communication error, the people of the internet gave Instagram a reminder how quickly and virally something can be crushed, justifiably or not. Instagram did the right thing to apologize quickly and promise to fix the changes. Hopefully we see a lot less of these events occurring in 2013. What do you think of the Instagram terms of service snafu? Do you take steps to prevent situations like this happening with your clients? |
| Social Media Helps Heal A Nation After Sandy Hook Shooting Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:52 AM PST We recently reported how social media helped people in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast. Today, we'd like to report about something a little different but just as moving. 26Acts, begun by Ann Curry just yesterday, has already gained serious momentum with people all over the country pledging to perform 26 random acts of kindness. Each act is to help commemorate a life lost at Sandy Hook Elementary. In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, many have taken to social media to discuss their thoughts on gun control laws and mental health issues facing the United States. However, this 26 Acts movement focuses on "spreading kind" and adds positivity to the conversation. This could be why, in the last 24 hours, Ann Curry's movement has garnered a lot of attention. People are tweeting using #26Acts and posting to Facebook to relay their kindness and encourage others to do the same. As Curry tweeted, it has had a "contagious" effect:
Often, we get tied up in the various grievances of social media (changes to privacy policies–ahem, Instagram–or frivolous updating from brands) and forget that it has the power to connect people from different backgrounds and locations and unite them for a cause. Our very own contributor, Jeff Adelson-Yan, has taken the #26Acts pledge on Twitter and plans to spread some holiday cheer in the coming week. So how about it, America, are you participating in the 26Acts and will you document it via social media? |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:25 AM PST
Quickly, I found myself clicking down the "blackhole of social media" (you know when you click so much you wind up somewhere you never expected and can hardly remember how you got there). But this time, unlike my previous social media blackholes of Facebook and Twitter, I found myself surrounded by great connections, and more importantly, really great content. Through LinkedIn's iPad and iPhone app, I've spent some time searching and found beneficial and up-to-date articles without having to sort through photos of pets, kids, and my colleague's last spaghetti dinner. I didn't waste time weeding through mindless updates and (admittedly hilarious) ecards to really find the business-related content I needed. I took some time to comment in group discussions, which reinforced my position as a thought leader and I was able to identify some extremely intelligent experts and exchange insightful dialogue. So since I've rekindled my affinity for the site, I find it imperative to reiterate our Top Five LinkedIn Group lists into one solid blog post, that is definitely worth reading and sharing. In those past posts, we identified the top LinkedIn groups for Finance, Sales and Marketing, Human Resources, Analytics, Cloud Computing, Big Data, and Enterprise Mobility. Below is a full list of all the groups we've identified and if you don't start joining these groups, you are wasting a perfectly great resource! Enjoy..and share!
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| Blogging: The Case For Breaking Your Regular Schedule Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:10 AM PST Content specialists and social This isn't bad advice, in and of itself. But we aren't all cut from the same blogging mold. Just because one very prolific person might be able to post to his blog daily doesn't mean that's a good (or reasonable) plan for all of us. If someone tries to tell you that you must blog daily or you'll never be successful, run, run away. It's true that Google likes to see fresh content, but "fresh" doesn't have to mean "daily." It doesn't even necessarily have to mean weekly. Echoing back to my point that you should write for a human audience, it's important to understand that, Google aside, readers want quality content. They want something of value. They want you to educate, inspire, or at least entertain them. They care about these things more than they care whether you were only able to publish posts on five of the seven days last week. That being said, I do think that it's important to write regularly (or, if your content isn't written, then it's important to create regularly). Does this mean that you might produce a lot of content that's not exactly the highest quality? Sure. None of us is inspired daily, so it's absurd to believe that you need to come up with a masterpiece every time. This is true of just about anything. Working at it even when you aren't publishing might sound silly. Why would you spend all that time if it might never see the light of day? Because it furthers your skill. It gives you practice until your creation reaches the quality level you feel comfortable publishing. This is my second go at this post, for example. I wrote a complete post on a different topic, didn't feel good about it, scrapped it, and started over. If you don't feel comfortable publishing something and it isn't what you want it to be, don't publish it just to publish it. When you put something out there with your name on it, it contributes to your brand (be it personal or company branding). Remember this when you fret over missing a regularly scheduled post. Still, if you go MIA for a long period of time because you simply aren't feeling it, the cold, hard truth is that your readers are probably going to forget about you. Out of sight, out of mind, and all that jazz. If that's becoming the case for you, take stock. Are you not posting because you truly haven't created anything of value in months, or are you not posting because you haven't felt like investing the time? Answer yourself honestly, and use that self-assessment when moving forward with your content development. What if it's not that you haven't felt like investing the time, but more that you haven't been able to find the time? This is common. Things happen, we get tied up in other projects, and blogging starts to slide down our list of things to do. If this sounds like you, try building some writing time into your schedule every week, whether it's once or twice for long periods of time, or every night for fifteen minutes. This regular schedule will help keep you writing and creating (remember, even if you don't publish all of your content, this will keep you in practice and keep the ideas flowing, meaning you'll start finding inspiration more often than not). If you can use this writing time to get ahead, look at what kind of publishing schedule you can work with. So maybe you can't publish a new post every single day. Big deal. But maybe you can publish once or twice a week. And maybe you can keep a few posts at the ready just in case you have a crazy busy week and want to keep your posting schedule. Tip: Get an app for your phone or tablet (I love Evernote), or carry a small notebook in your bag for ideas. I use Evernote when I'm out somewhere and a Moleskine notebook when I'm at home and I get a great idea for a future blog post. I can jot down the idea and some comments about it, and then I have a reserve of topics for those days when my mind seems to go blank. What it all comes down to is this: Be proud of what you create. When you're putting something out into the world with your name on it, make sure it demonstrates what you're capable of doing and shines a positive light on your brand. Sure, there are ways to maintain a schedule even when things happen that might otherwise derail you, and I've talked about a few of them in this post. But if you don't think your content is quite ready yet or you don't think it will provide as much value to your audience as you want it to, don't be afraid to break your schedule here and there. It's better to put out no product at all than it is to put out a low-quality product. Do you maintain a regular blogging schedule? How do you stick to it? Do you publish just for the sake of publishing, or do you break schedule when you've got a post that just isn't going to cut it? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments! image credit: johnstone fitness |
| The Immeasurable Benefits Of A Blog Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:10 AM PST
Squeezing every last bit of utility out of the dollar is necessary. All too often, it seems that marketing finds itself on the cutting room floor. Inbound marketing, in particular. Any inbound marketing strategy is highly dependent on a constant stream of original content. This content generally is found in a blog, which is disseminated through social networks, eNewsletters, and various other outbound channels. This is a very tangible benefit of blogs. Counting retweets and viewing open rates of emails are all well and good, but sometimes you need something a little less physical and a little more instinctual. Your blog is the fluid monologue of your corporate website, and your entire online presence by proxy. Services change, products change, personnel changes. Your blog can chronicle all of that. Your blog is the most flexible, adaptable and inviting part of your site. It can do so many things, including: Introduce Your TeamYour company is comprised of an eclectic, talented and enthusiastic group of professionals. Share their stories, their faces and their strengths. Your audience, believe it or not, is more interested in your team than the press releases you pump out. Create a personal touch with your brand, and your audiences will embrace it. There is no price tag on a comfortable business experience. Report The NewsAny successful business is no stranger to change. In these times of turbulence, change is coming fast and furious. A regularly updated blog can chronicle these changes and keep clientele up-to-date on the happenings of your company. A blog also succeeds where a traditional press release fails. Incorporate video or images to create a comprehensive viewing experience. Share Your PassionThe hardest to measure, but the most important of all, is the passion you maintain for your business. Whether you write, analyze data, sell, speak or wash dishes – the company wants - needs – you to believe in the mission. A blog is a vehicle for conviction. Perhaps the statistics aren't there to back it up, but a powerful, inspiring blog post can do more than just drive a little bit of traffic. It lets the audience know that this company believe in its product. A company can have a great bottom line, favorable returns and soaring stocks. It doesn't mean much if the people driving the company don't have faith in it. Blog away, my friends. If nothing else, no one will ever doubt your commitment. Jump start your online marketing efforts. |
| 24 of the Best Google+ Guides, Tips, Rants and Raves of 2012 Posted: 19 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST Will Google+ be a "Facebook killer" or just Google's next failed social network? It's certainly gaining traction, with over 500 million users now on board, already half of Facebook's total. Then again, the average Facebook user spends nearly seven hours per month on the site—compared to just three minutes for the average Google+user.
"Ghost town" or not, many experts agree that Google+ is here to stay, and it's valuable for b2b marketing, SEO, personal branding, and reputation management. So what makes Google+ special? What are the best practices for business use of the platform? How can an individual or organization most efficiently grow a following there? And will Google+ end Facebook's domination of social networking—or will it "break the Internet"? Find those answers and more here in two dozen of the best Google+ guides, tips, rants and raves of the past year. Google+ Guides and Tips5 Things Google+ Offers Brands That Facebook Doesn't by Sprout Insights Susan Gunelius outlines five social networking features unique to Google+, including circles (which enable you to "separate your customers from your colleagues and online influencers from your business partners") and hangouts (which can be "used for things like small-group webinars, question and answer sessions, and more"). Why brands will lose if they ignore Google+ by iMedia Connection Though he calls Google+ a "half-baked invention," Daniel Flamberg nevertheless advises that "savvy marketers should use Google+ these five ways," including experimenting with hangouts, expanding social assets and audiences, and optimizing branded search: "Link owned digital assets to Google+. Use the +1 and encourage your followers to do the same. Plant +1 badges on all your assets to take advantage of the Direct Connect tool that automatically brings customers and prospects searching in your category to your page." 6 Steps to Getting Started With Google+ by Social Media Examiner For marketers who are either still on the fence about Google+ or just haven't done much with it, Marc Pitman provides an excellent guide to the basics like filling up your links "While you're editing your 'about' page, be sure to pay attention to the 'other profiles' section…(consider adding) links to other social media networks, links to your business sites (and) links to special pages on your website." The First 5 Things You Should Do With Your Google+ Business Page by WindMill Networking Once you've finished with Marc Pitman's post above, Mark Traphagen presents a five-step process for taking your business presence on Google+ to the next level, starting with 1 four-item list on optimizing your page for SEO followed by upgraded the visual appearance of your page and filling your stream with quality content. 3 reasons Google+ is not a social network by iMedia Connection Lauren Friedman explains why she thinks Google+ is not a social network but brands should be there anyway–for example, for SEO purposes: "The best way brands can take advantage of Google+ is to amp-up their SEO. Each time a user clicks the +1 button, it helps with that brand's SEO and the content getting served to users above other content. Search results are personalized based on the +1s of those in your circles, and as a marketer, that changes the game. Search results are still based on Google's proprietary algorithms, but sites with more +1s will appear to be more relevant and thus ranked higher." 3 Successful Google+ Pages and Why They Work by Social Media Examiner Lisa Peyton highlights three examples of successful Google+ brand pages such as the NASA page, where "The active space and science community on Google+ may support speculation that platform users are mostly tech-savvy early adopters. This finding contradicts the fact that the TOP Google+ profile belongs to pop star Britney spears. However, her page garners less engagement based upon the number of followers than the top brands outlined in this article." Google+ for SEO? Don't Focus on Your Brand Page! by B2B Digital Marketing Contradicting popular wisdom, Eric Wittlake argues that "Google+ Brand Pages are not the ticket to SEO success. In fact, if you focus your Google+ efforts on your new brand page, you will miss the most important search benefits of Google+." He then outline three strategies he says are designed to improve search rank and traffic. 6 Reasons Why Adding Google+ to Your Web Presence & SEO Strategy is a Good Idea by iMedia Connection Krista LaRiviere of web presence optimization software vendor gShift Labs offers six reasons for brands to embrace Google+, among them fresh content ("Google+ is just one more place to publish your press releases, blogs, testimonials, case studies and news. The difference with Google+ is that your content, if found, will be listed at the top of Google personal results mixed in with traditional search results") and the fact that Google+ produces social signals which factor into Google's ranking algorithm. 32 Totally Free Google "Search Plus Your World" #SEO Resources by aimClear Blog Frequent best-of honoree Marty Weintraub compares Google+ to a dominatrix (it makes sense the way he writes it), offering short-term pleasure (search rank improvement) at the expense of long-term frustration. Still, he thinks it's worth the effort to chase the temporary bump and so shares an excellent list of nearly three dozen how-to articles from writers like Lisa Barone, Matt McGee and Stephanie Cain. Reputation Management: How Google+ Can Be Your Best Friend or Your Worst Enemy by Business2Community Contending that "PageRank, Google's ranking scoring system, is profoundly impacted by these (Google +1) votes," Danny DeMichele provides a simple four-step process for using Google+ as part of a broader reputation (personal or brand) strategy. 20 Google+ Terms and Definitions You Need to Know by Sprout Insights Susan Gunelius (again) presents helpful definitions of basic (e.g., "Chat: Using the Chat feature, you can notify people in your Google+ Circles that you're online and available for an online chat from within Google+") and advanced Google+ terms (such as "Data Liberation: Use this feature to download and backup the content in your Google+ Account, which is available through the Google+ Settings option [the gear icon in the upper-right corner of your screen when you're logged into your Google+ account"]). How Google's +1 Button Affects SEO by Mashable Keith Kaplan explains that although "The +1 has an indirect effect on your site's search rank. This does not mean the more +1's a link has, the higher rank it achieves in traditional search results," it can indirectly help with SEO by making a piece of content more likely to be clicked on and shared on other social networks—which does actually affect rank. How to Effectively Create a Google+ Following of 10,000 Engaged Fans by Search Engine Watch Eric Siu shares advice from Fraser Cain, publisher of the Universe Today space and astronomy news website, on how to build, maintain and engage a large following on Google+. Eric contends that Fraser's success, based on unique content and active network, belies the notion promoted by some (such as Austin Carr, below) that Google+ is a "ghost town." Build Your Google Plus Page Following with Topical Pages by WindMill Networking This tip from guest blogger Mark Traphagen (again) is almost too good to share. "What if you could create opt-in subscription lists on Google+? You can! Here's the wonderful secret: you can create a Google+ page about virtually anything, including a topic. It doesn't necessarily have to be connected with a brand name." He then details a "simple strategy for using Pages to create opt-in subscription lists about specific topics." Quick Tricks to Make Your Google Plus Business Page Sparkle by ZD Design Blog Again arguing against the "Google+ is a ghost town" thesis, Donnie Bryant here provides a handful of helpful tips for getting more performance out of a Google+ business page, from creating a short URL and maximizing the use of photos and video to encouraging sharing. The Marketer's Guide to Google Plus by KISSmetrics Zach Bulygo offers a highly detailed and richly illustrated guide to marketing on Google+, from the basics of business page setup and getting a verified name to optimizing your tagline, use of photos. Google+ author tag and the +1 sharing button. How to Use Google Plus for Personal Branding and Establishing Author Rank by WindMill Networking Neal Schaffer quotes Mark Traphagen (one last time), who calls Google+ a "powerhouse" because of its "tight integration into Google search. Google+ posts are easily indexed by Google search, and unlike tweets or Facebook posts, are treated much like regular web pages. That means a well-constructed G+ post (with a main keyword in the first sentence/title and a good amount of engagement) can rank well in Google search and, unlike other social media status posts, actually stay ranked for a long time," and explains why Google authorship is important and how to set it up. Google+ Rants and RavesGoogle+ Is Going To Mess Up The Internet by ReadWrite Jon Mitchell is not a fan of Google's latest social network and isn't afraid to say so. He writes, "Google tools used to enhance the Internet. But as Google ships 'the Google part' of its new Google+ identity, it's breaking the Web it once helped build," and then offers half a dozen specific reasons why. "Don't Be Evil" Tool — Backed By Facebook & Twitter — Shows Google's "Search Plus Your World" Can Go Beyond Google+ by Search Engine Land Danny Sullivan details the use and results from the "Don't be Evil" browser bookmarklet, stating that "The companies behind the tool feel Google's hasn't focused on what's best for its users with Search Plus Your World. They have a good point. But the tool makes this point better than all the debates that have happened so far around Search Plus Your Word, because it shows what Google could have done to better serve searchers, if it had wanted to." He also explains how some features of Google+ are part of the problem. How Google+ Is Encircling Your Brand by MediaPost Though he believes "Google+ is emerging as a great way for brands to connect directly with consumers," Gavin O'Malley also notes that a disproportionate share of interaction is driven by a few aggressive, early adopting brands on the platform, and points out "Google+ still has less than 1/100th the number of total consumers interacting with the top 100 brands that Facebook has achieved." Exclusive: New Google+ Study Reveals Minimal Social Activity, Weak User Engagement by Fast Company Austin Carr reports on the findings of a study which paints "very poor picture of the search giant's social network–a picture of waning interest, weak user engagement, and minimal social activity." Among te research findings from RJ Metrics, "Roughly 30% of users who make a public post never make a second one" and "Even after making five public posts, there is a 15% chance that a user will not post publicly again." The author concludes that Google+ "might indeed just be a 'virtual ghost town,' as some have argued." Think You Don't Need Google+ in Your Business? Think Again! by Rebekah Radice While acknowledging that Google+ has its shortcomings and that many marketers remain (not entirely unreasonably) skeptical about the platform, Rebekah Radice nevertheless offers half a dozen reasons to embrace Google's social network, such as the circles and hangouts features and the B2B networking value. With Google+ Communities, Google launches its own version of Facebook Groups by VentureBeat Tom Cheredar explains how Google+ Communities work and how this capability compares with Facebook groups: "There are a few notable (notable differences between Google+ Communities and Facebook Groups), including the ability to start a Google Hangout video chat with the community and sharing things specifically with G+ communities from any +1 button. That's pretty cool, and something that might actually attract people to use it over Facebook." Google+ becomes the world's social platform…with Community by Relevanza Writing that "While Google announced Google+ reached 500 million users, the bigger announcement by far was the roll out of Google+ Communities," Steve Hart explains what Communities are, how they work, what they can be used for, and why they are "a BFD." |
| The Mobile Retail Experience [Infographic] Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:55 AM PST Mobile apps are rapidly changing the way people shop. Shoppers are using their smartphones and tablets to compare prices, read product reviews, look for coupons, and track loyalty points. Today, smartphones impact 5% of all instore purchases. Check out the new mobile retail experience to see what the future of retail looks like!
This post originally appeared on SAP for Mobile and was republished with permission. |
| Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:53 AM PST Business owners constantly have to adapt their SEO strategies as Google are continuously updating their algorithms, most notorious being Panda and Penguin. Nevertheless SMEs are going to have to prepare for even more changes with the introduction of Google Author Rank. What is Author Rank? Google Author Rank is the measurement of authority of the people who write content on the web such as blogs and articles. Therefore search engines are not going to be just ranking websites on domain name and authority but also on the reputation of the person who writes the content. How does it work? Author Rank differs from traditional SEO as it depends heavily on social media. Firstly an author needs to create a profile on Google+. This profile will be linked to the content they write by using a code provided by Google. This code has to be included in the content so that it links back to the authors Google+ profile. Like Page Rank, Google uses a number of signals to determine Author Rank. The main factors will include the popularity of the content and the engagement it receives especially Google +1s. It is also important to note that the more an author writes on a specific subject, the higher their rank will be on that topic. Benefits of Author Rank The Google Author Rank results are highlighted as they contain a picture of the author and their Google+ circles which takes up more of that valuable search engine real estate. In addition to the results being more visible, it also gives more exposure to the other content written by the author as the user has the option to visit the authors Google+ profile. Where to start? SMEs should begin working on the Author Rank strategies now so that they can gain an edge over their competitors. Add People suggest the following 3 tips to help SMEs get started: Content is still king – SMEs should be providing high quality content that will interest their fans and followers so that that it is liked, shared and re-tweeted! Be relevant – SMEs have to stick with what they know best and write content that is relevant their business so that the gain a high Author Rank for their industry related topics. Learn to love Google+ – Google are putting more emphasis on it social media offering and it is playing an increasingly more important role to the world of SEO. Thus SMEs need to make sure that they are becoming more familiar with this platform and using it regularly. SMEs will need to pay attention to Author Rank as though it will not replace the current Page Rank system, it seems it will be playing a large role in the future of ranking algorithms. |
| Social Media Listening: 5 Steps To Develop Your B2B or Enterprise Listening Plan How Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:37 AM PST
Developing a solid end-to-end listening is important for your B2B marketing strategy because it helps to validate what is happening and what you should focus on in real-time! Here are six key considerations when developing and implementing your listening program: 1. Define the business goals of your social listening program. Your goals will vary based on your needs from your various marketing stakeholders that can include:
2. Develop your use cases for your listening. It is critical that you establish clear use cases for your social media listening program. Start with 3-5 cases that tightly align with your goals. I like to think of listening use cases as plays from a playbook. You need to ask yourself, "now that I have listened, how am I going to activate my next steps to help me reach my goals?" Key considerations for your use cases are:
3. Identify the key words to listen to. Identifying the key words is a job for your marketing strategist, analyst, SEO/SEM specialist and/or industry principal! A rigorous approach to defining the industry, solution, etc. keywords that align the business goal is key to generating usable and actionable insight. Think of the term "garbage in, garbage out". Securing these words should be lead by a strategist or analyst who is very specific with the keyword ask; i.e., defining the context of what is being done with the listening. 4. Secure your listening tool. There are many free and many better fee- and licensed based tools like NetBase. If you do not have a tool in your social media tool kit, your agency partner likely does! 5. Define the output format for the raw listening data. Work with your analyst and listening provider to create the raw-data delivery format. By defining a report format that aligns with the use cases, it will be easier to perform the analysis. While this step is not critical, it will help with the delivery speed of the report, especially if there are multiple supporting analysts. 6. Align your listening analyst to provide a report that aligns with the use cases and is easy to read! Since listening reports have "legs" in a B2B environment, there is much pass-along of these documents. If you sold in a listening program based on goals and use cases, make sure each analyst report aligns specifically to the use case! You may also find these blog post interesting:
What experience have you found that works with developing your listening program? Please share with us below? Or, if you have a direct question please contact me on MarketingThink.com or @GerryMoran on Twitter. Don't feel bound or forced into your current approach to listening program. I beg you to rethink your approach and move from fifty shades of grey to six solid ideas to develop a useful social media listening program. |
| Indian Brands’ Performance On Facebook (SocialBakers November Report) Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:20 AM PST 61 Million is total number of Facebook users in India and we are still growing on the world's largest social network, as per the latest data of November, 2012 provided by Socialbakers. However, the overall growth in the country in the month of November hasn't been strong compared to previous months. Socialbakers, the social media analytics company that monitors brands on social media has shared a Facebook report for the Indian brands for the month of November, 2012.
1. Top 10 Facebook brands by number of fansThe data of November, 2012 shows the same brands and no surprises in who is still leading. Tata Docomo tops the list and with a fan count that no one is nearby. The brand has more than 10 million fans and that is a commendable effort. Rest all other brands that still are in the mark of 5 million, also remain the same when compared to last month's data. Nokia India has increased a bit and come up the ladder. Rest there is no new face in the list which has been pretty much static throughout the year. According to Unmetric, the social media benchmarking tool, Tata Docomo figures remain the same for the month of November period but Vodafone Zoozoos had the highest growth in this period. In the last month, Vodafone Zoozoos added more than a million fans which was a 24.43% increase. In comparison to that Tata Docomo, increase in fan percentage was only 3.95% since it added 383K fans. One of the reasons of the higher growth rate of Vodafone Zoozoos is largely due to the ongoing campaign "Made for You" offers in its page. Not only the campaigns are targeted to the youth but are also very interesting specially targeting the non-metros. 2. Top 10 Facebook media by number of fansThe top 10 list of media pages again remains the same for last few months in terms of the names that have been listed here. India, the community page about the nation remains again at the top with 4M fans followed by MTV India, Save The Tiger, ZoomTV, etc. 3. Top 5 brand by post engagement rateA dynamic list that keeps on changing every month but then Join My Village, a NGO has been holding the top engager page for last few months. Even though the engagement has reduced by 15% this month, it is still the most engaging page of November. However, Nestle First 1000 days, the community page which we had reviewed previously because of its interesting concept has an increasing engagement percentage growth (140%). Apart from this, Greenpeace India also remains constant on the list but then the engagement level has dropped. This also brings us back to my old question – should every question on a fan page be addressed? I am yet to hear from Social Bakers on this. 4. Top 5 socially devoted Facebook brands
For November, the popular ecommerce brand Flipkart is the top socially devoted Facebook brand on Facebook. The response time on Facebook is 526 minute and the response rate of the brand was 73%. Unmetric's sentimental analysis also shows that the brand has been a happy place for fans too. Overall the vibes have been positive even though it is a ecommerce brand and that's a positive sign. However, the brand has been quite upbeat whenever there has been a positive content about the brand. Apart from Flipkart, it is quite good to see banks like HDFC bank featuring in the list along with other brands such as Samsung Mobile India, eBay India and Fem Fairness. 5. Most Engaging Post On Facebook For NovemberA new section that Social Bakers has added to its growing insights and a good data to compare which post drew the most engagement. Cricket is a religion in India and on Facebook, which is clearly evident in the two pictures which are from PlayUp Cricket out of the three top engaging posts on Facebook for November. So what do you make of this report? Do share your thoughts with us. |
| Durex India Spreads ‘Say No To HIV’ Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:05 AM PST Durex India, the Indian arm of the United Kingdom-based Durex brand of condoms, is running a campaign to spread awareness about HIV on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Durex, the condom brand owned by Reckitt Benckiser, is known for its creative, well-thought-out and out-of-the-box brand campaigns all over the world across media. Recently, on account of World AIDS Day on December 1, it launched its global social media campaign "#1share1condom" where Durex would donate one condom for a piece of information shared by its fans and followers about HIV. It set a target of 2.5 million donations which it has already surpassed. While the aforementioned campaign is a global one, Durex India has a campaign running by the name 'Say No To HIV' which is an extension of it. 'Say No To HIV' on Social PlatformsThe Facebook page of Durex India has a dedicated, fan-gated app for the campaign. Once you like the page you are taken to the app and greeted with the following:
You can pledge your support by clicking on 'Add Your Inches of Support' and follow the instructions. Once you are done with it, you get a chance to 'flaunt your support' by sharing about it or setting your cover picture with the obvious message. The content on the Facebook timeline is mainly about the campaign. The mix includes posts which comprise of trivia and tips about HIV and its prevention with a definite call-to-action. Apart from that, it includes videos uploaded on the YouTube channel of Durex India. According to When Did You Join Twitter, the Twitter account of Durex India was created on November 29, 2012 just before the start of the campaign. The content of the tweets is the same as the Facebook page content apart from occasional retweets from followers promoting the campaign. The official hashtag for the campaign is #BeNegativeSayNo2HIV which is used in most of the tweets along with #1SHARE1CONDOM in some of them. Durex India has got a decent, branded YouTube channel. There are 8 videos and all of them are associated with HIV awareness. While three of the videos have individuals pledging their support to the campaign, the others are related to their offline campaigns. At the time of writing, the channel had a total of 4743 views with 8 subscribers. How effective was the campaign?There is no doubt about Durex's commitment towards spreading awareness about HIV. A brand that raises the benchmark with every campaign has done a reasonable job with 'Say No To HIV'. The Facebook page which was formed a week before the campaign garnered fans at a rapid pace once the campaign kicked off. One of the reasons could be the viral features that the app has at every juncture. Plus, the call-to-action (1 share = 1 life saved) in every post might also have helped in spreading the word. The content on the timeline is relevant and informative. The app works without any problems and has a pleasing look to it. As mentioned above, the Twitter account was also created a couple of days before the start of the campaign and quite rightly there is nothing much to talk about the numbers. The content being the same as on its Facebook page didn't help the cause either. It seems that it didn't have a clear strategy with regard to Twitter. At the time of writing it had 49 followers only. And just like Facebook and Twitter, Durex India joined YouTube right before the campaign launch. The uploaded videos complement the campaign and highlight Durex India's offline efforts as well. In terms of numbers, the channel has an average viewership of 593 with a single comment. Hopefully, with time and more relevant uploads the average viewership would rise steadily, if not swiftly. Though Durex India has done remarkably well on Facebook so far it hasn't even come close to that when it comes to Twitter and YouTube. One of the things that went against it is lack of time to create a formidable presence before the launch of the campaign. Also, it is surprising to know that such a globally, socially-active brand like Durex didn't have an independent Indian presence. So have you pledged your support to this campaign yet? What do you think about Durex India's efforts on the social media front with reference to this campaign? |
| Google Answers Questions About The New Idea Of Negative SEO Posted: 19 Dec 2012 07:55 AM PST Is Negative SEO A Concern?If you were, probably rightly, worried about all the talk of the new "Negative SEO" from the standpoint that it could be used as an attack weapon against your site… Google's SEO Pro, Matt Cutts, has answered a lot of the questions, intentions, and concerns about Negative SEO. This is really good to know! Whew, thanks Matt for the sigh of relief! There's always going to be hackers, scammers, and other nefarious sort that will attempt to exploit things… but it's good to know that Google has it's finger on the pulse of preventing abuse. Can you just imagine the look on some scammers face if they tried to attack a site and ended up benefiting it! LOL Does this make you feel safer about your site's SEO? |
| Microcinema: The Next Social Media Star in China Posted: 19 Dec 2012 07:54 AM PST In China, businesses are growing big, but their marketing strategies are going micro: microblog, microchat, and the rising star: microcinema. Similar to other micro-tools, microcinema is low-cost, interactive, and fast to spread. And it's even better: 1. microcinema is visual-friendly like films; 2. Companies have more control over the content and audience they reach.  In 2010, Xiaoyang's microcinema Old Boys made its debut on youku.com and set the record with 12million views in 3 months. Since then, microcinema has welcomed its spring with over 3000 new microcinemas launched in China in 2012. Around the one theme "12 Signs of the Zodiac", there are more than three brands' series: tea brand Kangshifu(清蜜星体验), car brand Buick(追逐无限), and hotel brand Orange Crystal(桔子水晶). As a start-up, the Orange Crystal Hotel successfully increased its occupancy rates by 100%.  Acute companies are quickly catching up the microcinema trend. Here are some suggestions for the new comers. 1. Content trumps. Xiaoyang's two microcinemas, Old Boys and Winners, poled apart on their popularities. One reason is that Winners turned the focus from touching content to numerous Ads placements, which turned audience away. Memorable content always prevails commercials and celebrities in microcinemas. 2. Micro combo synergizes. Orange Crystal achieved the success not based on single video platform, but by combining microcinema and microblog together to maximize the buzz. The specialties of different micro tools synergize their mutual impact. 3. Take government relations seriously. The microcinema trend progressed faster in China than in the globe, which means regulations in China are also more developed. SARFT(The State Administration of Radio Film and Television of China) is intensifying the approval criteria for microcinema, which might be examined as strictly as films. Many brands set up government relations team especially for their microcinemas. (Picture source: madisonboom.com, chinawhisper.com, fashion.ce.cn, sina.com, blog.163.com) |
| How We Use Social: Highlights from the Social Media Report 2012 Posted: 19 Dec 2012 07:35 AM PST The annual Social Media Report by Nielson and NM Incite has now been published and it contains some fascinating insights into social media and internet usage, and how it has changed, over the last year. We've rounded up what we think are the most interesting points below (note data is from July 2011- July 2012 and is US only): We're still loving the internet, and show no signs of stopping
Mobile is still growing
Social networking dominates our online activity
The top social networks are the usual suspects, but others are closing in
We use social networking sites everywhere, all the time
We're still mainly connecting with those we know in the 'real world'
Dual screening is now the norm
Customer service online is more important than ever
We don't like social ads, but still engage with them
You can read the full report here. Do any of these stats surprise you? What are your predictions for next year's report? |
Make Deadlines, Don't Break Them
Here's a web history lesson for the week. Did you know that the first blogs were written by a college student in Pennsylvania in 1994? Back then, nobody called 
Manny Pacquiao has reach. Companies have reach on social media. 
One of the biggest stories from yesterday afternoon was Instagram's announcement of new terms of service. The story is still getting headlines this morning. Oftentimes these terms of service go ignored; people simply agree and get on with it, never taking the time to read them. But yesterday Instagram users took the time to read their new terms of service and harnessed the web to unleash their backlash. In this backlash we have a reminder of how instantly the internet can crush something it deems inappropriate or wrong.
Recently, I started logging into 
media gurus/experts/ninjas/mavens/whatever-they're-calling-themselves-this-week frequently encourage bloggers to write their little hearts out – as much as they can, and as often as possible. If nothing else, keep a regular schedule.
Many of this year's best posts about Google's newest social platform were written early in the year. Since then, though the user base has continued to grow, enthusiasm seems to have waned. While Marty Weintraub offers a more provocative metaphor below, it almost seems like Google+ is becoming the colonoscopy of social networks: everyone agrees it's vitally important, but few people really want to talk about it or spend any more time on it than absolutely necessary.
Social media listening is the new "black" when it comes to B2B and enterprise marketing strategy. However, there are fifty shades of grey when it comes to actually understanding and implementing a program. I like to explain a social media listening plan as a supply chain, where every link is a key part of the overall structure.
Another interesting set of data that Social Bakers had introduced 
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