23 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

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• Worst Things To Post On Social Media For Your Business
• Google+ Introduces “Communities”
• Are You A Victim of Social Network Overload?
• Social Media – It’s the Little Things
• The Launch of Google+ Communities Explained With Memes
• 5 Facts About WordPress Website Security
• Can Social Media Predict TV Show Votes?
• 24-7 Social Media Marketing
• ICICI Gets Youth To Make A Wish With iWish
• SET MAX Creates Facebook Game For Ek Tha Tiger Premiere
• 10 Tips to Maximum Engagement on Facebook
• The Friday#: Royal Heir + Texan Snowploughs
• Guns N’ Roses India Tour Engages Fans With #JoinGNR On Twitter
• How to Avoid and Manage Social Media Disasters?
• “Scale Is Sexy:” Global Conglomerates and Corporate Social Impact
• LinkedIn Company Pages: Your Secret Weapon
• How Penguin India Is Creating Pre-Launch Buzz For Rajinikanth’s Biography
• Mixed Picture for UK FTSE-100 Companies on Social Media – And How it Affects Their Share Price
• Offering Free Stuff via Social Media
• 6 Social Networks Marketers Should Learn to Ignore
• 10 Insights into the State of Social Media in 2012
• Komli Media Wants To Be The SoLoMo Ad Solution In Asia
• It’s Time You Considered Social Login

Worst Things To Post On Social Media For Your Business Posted: 07 Dec 2012 02:36 PM PST Creating posts on social media platforms for a business is part art form, part science. It is important to be professional and accurately portray the values of your brand and the goals of your business across your social media profiles. Never use your business profiles as personal profiles. It is wonderful that you feel like discussing a TV show you are watching or that you feel like drunk tweeting at 3 a.m.However, you should reserve those sorts of thoughts for your personal profiles, where your posts will not directly reflect on your business. I have witnessed small business owners and their interns make reckless posts across their social media accounts and lose followers because of it. For example, if you are operating a bartending school and you want potential students to take your business seriously, you probably should not post about clubbing and how crazy you are feeling at all hours of the morning, unless you want to draw in a target audience that sympathizes with those things. Instead, post content that is relevant to your business or your business's niche. Keep your appearance professional and relevant to your target audience. Never post solely advertisements. You want to use social media to connect with consumers and humanize your business. If you are only posting promotions and ads, these posts will quickly be viewed as annoying spam by your followers. Instead, post engaging content that your followers can relate to and interact with. Pose questions or interesting thoughts for your viewers to comment on. Post articles related to your business. Come up with creative ways to engage your followers while keeping all posts business-related. Not everything has to be an advertisement for your business. You already have the attention of followers. Now, engage with them to make social media into a truly profitable experience for your business. Never stop posting, and never contradict yourself. If you create a business profile on a social media site, are really excited about it for the first month and then get distracted by other marketing plans and lists of things that need to be done, this is bad. If you have developed a solid following, you do not want them to forget about you. Seeing frequent, interesting posts from your business is what will make users of social media repost your content and engage with your business online to increase your business's visibility and reach. If you stop posting entirely for a week, a month, etc., you are allowing your competition to reach your target audience while you are somewhere else, entirely. Social media is a perfect tool for you to reach your target audience where they already are. They do not have to click on any external websites or go through any extra effort to reach your business. All they have to do is read through their news feeds, and you appear to them. This is also important to consider when posting different content day after day, week after week. Posting too much content can be overbearing, so make sure you are optimizing your content to the particular social media platform you are using. (Ex: Facebook does not require as many posts as Twitter because of the different lengths of times posts will stay in peoples' news feeds on these different platforms.) But above all, keep track of what it is you are posting. If you take a stance on something, do not contradict yourself with a completely different thought on the same subject two weeks later. Stay consistent. What you post on social media platforms has the potential to be seen by large numbers of people and make or break your business's image. Do not mess it up.

Google+ Introduces “Communities” Posted: 07 Dec 2012 11:40 AM PST Google quickly rolled out "Communities" yesterday. "Communities" are Google's answer to Facebook and LinkedIn Groups – a place where like minded members can gather to discuss and share information and resources having to do with the theme of that community. To Find a Community 1. Log in to your G+ account 2. Among the navigational buttons on left-hand side of the page, you should see the new button for "Communities". Click it to get started. 3. From this page, you can "discover" communities that Google displays, search for a community of interest, or create a new community. To search, simply enter the appropriate theme or keywords in the search box and enter. To create a new community, click either the red button in the upper right-hand side of the page, or the white button in the Green "Get Together with Google Communities" box. 4. Decide whether your community will be Public or Private. If it is Public, you can choose to set it so that anyone can join, or so that perspective members have to be first approved by a moderator. Private communities can be made searchable so that people can find it and ask for an invitation, or can remain completely hidden from searches. Once you choose to make your group either Public or Private, it cannot be changed to the other at a later date – so choose carefully. Click on the blue "Create a Community" Button. 5. Complete the information about your group Choose a name Select an image for the group Pick a tagline Fill out the group description This information is all easily editable at a later time. Click on "Done Editing" 6. That's all there is to it! Send out your invitations, engage with other members, and enjoy! It will be interesting to see what impact Communities has on Google+. I think Communities are a great addition and will make regular interaction much easier and Google+ a more social and user friendly platform. Thanks for reading. Please join us on Google+ on the Internet Marketing community page!

Are You A Victim of Social Network Overload? Posted: 07 Dec 2012 11:34 AM PST Social Network Overload? I’ve seen social network overload before. I’ve been the victim of it. It’s not a pretty sight…I’m sure you’ve seen the signs of social network overload too. People glued to their cell phone while driving (have you seen these people?), making their bedroom a Foursquare check-in. Remember the lady falling into the fountain while texting? Or maybe YOU are the person who must, MUST, MUST check your Facebook and Twitter before you get out of bed on your phone? Hmmm? Any chance you may be suffering from a social media addiction? It’s hard to not laugh at people like the lady falling into the fountain while texting on her phone, but seriously, there is an element of social addiction that is creeping into the lives of people who love their smart phones and social media. But where is the line drawn between loving social networks like Pinterest and Twitter to over-the-edge “can’t live without” being on social networking sites every moment of the day? I remember those days while managing a half dozen clients’ social media profiles, from writing their blog content, managing their Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook page accounts…it felt overwhelming. But I wouldn’t give up social networking. I truly love connecting with people online and building relationships. Apparently I’m not alone when it comes to not wanting to give up my social networking profiles. It’s interesting that nearly 40% of people surveyed by MyLife.com would rather do any of the following over giving up their social network profiles: Wait in line at the DMV Clean the shower drains at the local gym Run a marathon Get a root canal Give up an hour of sleep each night for a year Read “War and Peace” Sit in traffic for 4 hours while listening to polka music Social Network Overload (Source: MyLife.com) Honestly, social networks are not going to disappear anytime soon. Social network usage continues to grow year after year. It was even reported by Nielsen’s “State of the Media: Social Media Report” that mobile social media is invading the bathroom. A third of Americans between 18 and 24 are using social networks in the bathroom. You can check out the full report here. Do you ever wonder where this trend is leading us? Will social network overload get worse? Will more people show signs of being addicted to social media? Will people be able to ever give up social networking? Would you be able to quit your favorite social network? What would you rather do than give up your social network profile? Anything?

Social Media – It’s the Little Things Posted: 07 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST Social media is a time suck. We can't deny it. That doesn't mean it's not useful, because it certainly is, but it is time consuming. Even if you're doing it right. Perhaps especially. Except Farmville. That doesn't count, unless your long term plan is to be the ruler of a virtual farm. Anyway, overlords with a seriously understaffed minion army tend to become so busy overlording, they forget it's the small things that make a difference. What are the little things, you ask, barely glancing up from your Twitter dashboard that would strike fear in the hearts of the gods themselves? Well, for starters, support other people. This can be retweets on Twitter, sharing links to a blog article on another person's blog, or giving them a random shoutout. There are many ways to support your virtual community. Don't forget the "thank you". I read some Twitter advice that states not to thank people who RT you because it looks "boring". Um, I disagree. I mean, if that is all you are doing, then yes, your feed would be rather dull. But the issue isn't with thanking someone (or a lot of someones). The issue is you not being active enough otherwise. Also, use their name. Of course you don't want to do this every time, but make an attempt to sometimes use names during interactions. "Thank you for the RT" vs. "Thank you for the RT, Jack". See how that tiny addition makes things all the more personal? Ask questions. Again, you don't want to ask everyone the same question every time. That defeats the purpose. However, a genuine inquiry can go a long ways in the world of automation and monitors. "Thanks for the RT, Jack! How are you doing today?" or "Thanks for following back! Another coffee fan! How do you take yours?" Remember to comment. Simply congratulating or wishing someone luck—genuinely, where appropriate—shows you aren't there just to amass followers. I didn't discover these "rules" overnight. I've always paid close attention to my social media, but I realized later it only went so far if I didn't take the effort to show I was actually there. I can't comment on everything, of course, but following these simple guidelines has greatly improved my personal interactions in the community. It's nothing I wasn't thinking or seeing before. I now just take the extra step to make it known. In short, don't get so caught up in overlording you forget to show you actually are paying attention. What additional step do you take, or wish others would take to make social media a better experience?

The Launch of Google+ Communities Explained With Memes Posted: 07 Dec 2012 10:25 AM PST Unless you were living under a rock, you probably noticed the launch of Google+ Communities today. If you missed it or didn’t participate, this is basically the sequence of events…illustrated with memes! Before the Launch of Google+ Communities   As Google+ Launched Communities       A Few Hours After the Launch Background: Everybody and their mother started setting up communities and inviting anybody they could find.  The result: A LOT of mindless spam.       How Does the Story End? Well, things are very rarely perfect on day one and Google+ Communities are no exception to this rule.  As the excitement dies down a bit, we can be sure Google+ Communities will begin to show their true utility. The silver lining on day one is this: Users are excited about what Google+ is doing. Users are engaged and active. Users are building relationships and micro-networks on Google+. The network, as fate would have it, is now showing significant signs of people being social with one another.  That’s a great thing for all of us who have been waiting! If you come across any more Google+ Communities memes, link them in the comments.  We could all use a good laugh every now and then.

5 Facts About WordPress Website Security Posted: 07 Dec 2012 09:30 AM PST The best WordPress website security you can buy is a good backup. It won't prevent your site from being hacked, but it will make recovery much faster and will help you avoid the worst case scenario—destruction of all of your data. If you don't have a good backup service, I suggest you stop reading this article right now and go find one. Then come back and read about all the ways to enhance your WordPress website security so that you never need to use your backup service. SQL Injection: The Main WordPress Website Security Threat The number one way hackers take over your website is using what is called a SQL injection attack. Simply put, this is when hackers find a flaw in your WordPress website security and use that flaw to directly inject Structured Query Language (SQL, pronounced sequel) into your WordPress database. Almost everything about your site is stored in a SQL database. That includes your posts, your settings, your static pages, your comments, and more. The only thing not commonly stored in the database are images and downloadable files—it's much quicker for your web server to transfer these files directly without going through WordPress. (However, the names and locations of these images and files are stored in your database.) If hackers can directly inject SQL code into your database, they can do anything they want to your WordPress. It's even more powerful than hacking your administrator account because they can use SQL to automate their takeover of your site. Many for-profit hackers who use SQL injection to compromise your WordPress website security will replace many of your links with spam links. Others will create a hidden directory on your site for use in phishing attacks. Non-profit hackers, often called script kiddies, will probably just "tag" your site as hacked by replacing the front page with an obscene image. Years ago I forgot to keep my WordPress website maintenance up to date and got hacked! One day I went to my site and found the homepage hyjacked and tagged. Of course I was hosting with Hostgator and they helped me get the site back under control. I learned a valuable lesson and this never happened to me again. WordPress Website Security Against SQL Injection The WordPress development team knows their software runs almost half of all active sites on the Internet, so they work very hard to make sure there are no security flaws which allow hackers to inject rouge SQL. However, every once in a while they do find a flaw (or they get WordPress website security reports from people like you that hackers have found a flaw) and they quickly work to fix it. When they have a fix, they release it as a free upgrade to WordPress. If you don't install this patch upgrade to WordPress immediately, you're inviting hackers into your website. That's because WordPress is completely free and open, so the hackers can download to the patch upgrade and see how it fixes the flaw—with that information, they can quickly create an attack that works against unpatched websites. The best WordPress website hosting companies automatically upgrade their hosted sites so you should always have the latest version of WordPress. But if you occasionally get warnings about outdated software, do your WordPress website security a favor and get a better hosting company which provides free automatic updates. Even Google sends you a message when your WordPress website is not secure. See the screenshot below. The High Price Of Cheap Hosting Website hosting companies keep prices down by hosting dozens or hundreds (or, sometimes, even thousands) of websites on each of their web servers. That's great for them—they make money—and great for you—it keeps prices down. But it can have one disastrous effect: hacking one site hacks all the websites on the same server. Imagine you're very conscientious about your WordPress website security. You do everything right. But then imagine somebody on the same server as you does everything wrong. Or, even worse, imagine a hacker buys a website on the same server as you using a stolen credit card. With direct access to the machine your website runs on, a hacker can often penetrate security in a few minutes or hours. At least that used to be the case. High-quality website hosting companies have beefed up their WordPress website security using virtual machines and other tricks which create partitions between websites. These partitions slow down the servers a little bit, costing the company more money, but they greatly increase WordPress website security for customers like you. Some companies advertise this service, but so few customers understand how it works that many companies don't bother telling anyone about it. If you want to find out whether your hosting company offers good security, I suggest you search Google for "____ WordPress website security". (Replace ____ with the name of the hosting company you use or plan to use.) If you see a lot of complaints, either avoid the company or give them a call to see what they've done to fix the problem. WordPress Website Security In The Cloud Before you start moving parts of your website into the cloud using services such as Amazon S3, FeedBurner, or Disqus, consider whether these companies will keep your data safe and give it back to you if you change services. A basic file hosting service such as Amazon S3 should be safe—especially if you setup a DNS alias. For FeedBurner, consider that your WordPress blog feed is probably the second most important part of your site after your domain name. Hundreds or thousands of people are subscribed to your feed and if your feed goes down or if FeedBurner (Google) decides to start charging a huge rate for your feed, you could need to start your subscriber list all over again. Again, you can mitigate much of the risk by using a DNS alias for your feed URL address. That way you can always move away from FeedBurner with a little technical know-how and (at most) 48 hours of downtime for the DNS change to propagate. But customer interface systems such as Disqus may tell you in their terms of service that they own all the comments submitted through them. That means they could one day hold your comments hostage unless you pay them a large fee. If your site depends on comments, this can be a huge problem. Even if your site doesn't depend on comments, losing all of your comments all at once because you can't or won't pay the fee is basically the same as when a hacker overcomes your WordPress website security and deletes all of your comments using a SQL injection attack. The only solution here is to read terms of service before you start using a service and consider what you'll do if that service disappears so you don't lose any WordPress website security.

Can Social Media Predict TV Show Votes? Posted: 07 Dec 2012 09:16 AM PST The final is nearly upon us, and after correctly predicting the last two week's worth of eliminations (Rylan Clark and Union J), we were feeling pretty confident that we had got this X Factor prediction lark down. By tracking the percentage of each contestant's buzz that mentioned terms associated with winning, we saw that the acts with the lowest association would be the next to be voted off. However, controversial contestant Christopher Maloney has thrown a bit of a curve-ball into our analysis, meaning we'll have to dig deeper into the data before placing our bets this time. The Story So far A little X Factor 2012 back-story, for those who don't follow: Liverpudlian contestant Christopher Maloney has caused controversy throughout this year's competition as many people feel that he is out-dated and not as talented as the other contestants. He has failed to win over the judges but has been spared from their vote as he has been kept out of the bottom two by the public. As a result of public votes, he has now made it into the final. This week he overtook the other two finalists (Jahmene Douglas and our previous favourite James Arthur) in terms of association with winning in online buzz. Can the least-talented singer actually win? Our previous hypothesis, based on data from last year's X Factor, was that a higher proportion of explicitly 'winning-related' mentions indicated a greater chance of success. However, the controversy around Christopher Maloney has caused a lot of conversation about him winning that does not fit last year's pattern. We've taken a closer look at Christopher's "winning" mentions, and broken them down by popular themes. The pie chart shows that at least half of the buzz about Christopher winning can be attributed to jokes, neutral comments about Simon Cowell's fear that he will win (reported in the press) and negative comments such as "if Chris wins, I'll never watch the X Factor again". 5% of mentions about Christopher winning say it would be funny to discredit the X Factor and even get the show cancelled. We've labelled the 38% of jokes "popular jokes" as these were widely retweeted (mostly about his Nan and her poor phone bill after voting him through single handed… aaw). We haven't exhaustively labelled all of the jokes, meaning that some of that 50% of general "winning" mentions is likely to contain less widely shared wit. Looking at this breakdown, it seems less likely that all this winning buzz is going to translate into votes and victory for Christopher Maloney. Shame. So who to pick? If we've ruled out Chris, we're down to Jahmene Douglas and James Arthur. These rivals are running a very close race in terms of association with winning (15% and 14% respectively). To pick between the two, we've written a search query to bring back mentions that contain voting declaration or intention (I've voted for, I will vote for, etc.). The chart below shows the relative share of "Voting" buzz for each artist over the past two weeks. If online mentions of voting are anything to go by, James Arthur has this one in the bag. Of course, anything can happen on the night: the online world does not completely represent the offline world. Just because more people are online talking about voting for James, doesn't mean there isn't an army of Jahmene voters who are less chatty in social media, and you never know how much door to door campaigning Christopher's Nan's been doing! What's exciting to us isn't so much who wins, but what this demonstrates in terms of how we can use social media to understand unprompted consumer attitudes, and start to understand how this might relate to off and online behaviour. Through detailed analysis of social data, we can provide our clients with meaningful insights that can really impact business decisions. PS – If Christopher Maloney wins, we're never watching the X Factor again…

24-7 Social Media Marketing Posted: 07 Dec 2012 08:10 AM PST A few weeks ago, my Managing Director sent me an eConsultancy blog asking the question 'does Social Media necessitate a 24-7 Social Media agency'? Get used to this… my prediction is that there's going to be an awful lot of talk about this over the next few weeks and months. Rightly so, it's an important point to make; the sort of point that ironically keeps Social Media Managers awake at night. Some agencies do offer this already. At 5pm UK time, the social campaign is chucked across 'the pond' to someone else to manage… Makes sense… or does it? Voice of the company Our MD was initially hesitant to launch a social arm, as he quite rightly asked the question, 'how can we be the social 'voice' of a company we don't know'? It's often overlooked, but that is the absolute essence of social media management. As soon as a client hands me over their login details, I am the voice of their company. I'm put on a stage in front of an audience I know nothing about, being heckled with questions, complaints, accolade and opinion (metaphorically obviously, this isn't a service we currently offer!). It's for this exact reason that I won't begin a campaign without first meeting the client and getting a real idea of who they are, where they've come from, and how they see the immediate future. That's just scratching the surface… it could take months to really understand the ethos of your client. Obviously, it's not realistic for me to spend weeks or months with a client before taking over management of their social, but getting clear objectives and expectations from them is essential to my work. Our social media questionnaire that we send to a client on day one of their contract is growing by the day. You have to get totally under the client's skin I have a notepad dedicated to each of my clients and am constantly making notes on them; profiling them. Each phone call / email / meeting will tell you more about the client and their company. An international IT company for example is going to have a different voice to a one-man-band selling bespoke jewellery. This has to be reflected on social platforms. My point is this; let's imagine I'm posting content for a client on Monday. I'm confident that I can represent the client's approach, character and philosophy because I've dedicated a lot of time to discovering this. At 6pm when I go home, I could hand over to a partner in the States and they are now the sole person responsible for representing a brand. They can't possibly understand the client requirements. I don't leave the office at the end of the day, I just put it in my pocket I can be at home having a glass of wine, knowing full well that that same heckling audience is sat in my pocket, on silent. It's a real tough one. I'm not paid to manage my clients in the evening, nor am I expected to stay up all night. I'm also not willing to simply hand over a client to a partner in a different time zone… So, what do you do? There's the obvious solution of scheduling content, but that's a 'one way' mechanism. What happens if someone engages with this content? Or any content for that matter? Currently, I've set up alerts on my phone and iPad. I have to be fairly ruthless and only deal with what I deem to be urgent engagement. But where does this stop? And, what is 'urgent' engagement? Some critics have argued that the solution is to transfer the management back in-house for the evening or weekend… Personally, I believe that if the client has outsourced social in the first place, they're unlikely to welcome a daily handover… similarly, would they want to work every evening and weekend? This topic deserves a lot more attention. I don't think there is an 'answer' per se. Perhaps I'm just being overly protective of my campaigns? Or… perhaps the answer is to post this at 6pm each day…? I'm being facetious… Here comes the cliché statement… 'Social doesn't close'.

ICICI Gets Youth To Make A Wish With iWish Posted: 07 Dec 2012 08:05 AM PST ICICI Bank Limited, India's largest private sector bank and the second largest bank in the country, has launched a new and exciting financial product for the youth called iWish. iWish is a flexible recurring deposit account but with a twist – you can share your goals on Facebook with friends and family. So, iWish not only offers the flexibility to choose when and how much to save to meet your goals, but by providing the choice to share your goals on Facebook, the bank creates a platform where your friends and family can contribute to your goals. The product has been designed keeping the youth and their aspirations in mind, hence flexibility of amount saved and the time has been taken care of. Unlike a traditional recurring deposit, iWish is flexible allowing you to save varying amounts at any time of your choice. To get started, you have to simply log on to your online ICICI account and visit the iWish page. Savings can start with a minimum of Rs 500/- and with a minimum duration of 6 months. ICICI has also begun promotions on social media channels like Facebook and YouTube. The Facebook community comprising more than a million fans is sharing the website's link giving detailed information about iWish. In case you do not like reading up information, the YouTube video at the bank's brand channel gives you a demo of iWish. It explains about the need for iWish and its benefits along with how to go about creating one. The sharing feature on Facebook is also flexible in that you can choose not to share your goals! A few Indian banks have evolved immensely on social media in this year, with ICICI bank showing promising signs. Aligned with the bank's strategy of 'Khayaal Aapka', iWish manages to gel with the huge numbers of youth, typically on the lookout for products with higher returns and flexible on time. It also helps that the product is integrated with Facebook making it even more favourable to the 18-35 years, social media savvy consumer segment.

SET MAX Creates Facebook Game For Ek Tha Tiger Premiere Posted: 07 Dec 2012 07:50 AM PST This Sunday, Salman Khan's 100 crore Bollywood blockbuster 'Ek tha Tiger' is all set to premiere on Sony Entertainment Television Network's MAX, the premium channel for a mix of Hindi movies, special events and Cricket, at 1 PM and 9 PM. The TV premiere has been creating a buzz on Facebook with an exciting game app called 'Ek tha Tiger' on the MAX Facebook page, where one lucky winner stands to win the iPhone5! The Ek tha Tiger game is interestingly designed in that it provides options to unlock levels and plays around with the number 9, matching with the premiere date of December 9. You need to 'like' the MAX Facebook page to participate in the game. Facebook and Twitter users will be given options between two tasks which they opt from. The 'EkTha Tiger' poster would be provided to Facebook fans in level 1. The fan needs to share it and approve the photo in the album. In keeping with the premiere date of 9th Dec, the fan has to gather a total of 9 likes, comments and shares, which would unlock level 1. Players who choose to play via Twitter need to use the hashtag #EkThaTigerOnMAX and tweet 9 things what they would miss to watch the MAX Television premiere of 'EkTha Tiger'. 75 participants will win prizes and unlock level 1. Once they have cracked level 1, a MAX QR code will appear on their wall as a photo, all they need to do is to use their smart phone to scan the code. A number will be given which needs to be entered in the app, which would lead them to the Tiger's Hall of Fame where they will need to enter their name and stand to win an iPhone 5. In addition to the game, it is interesting to note that the channel has been promoting the TV premiere quite extensively on the Facebook wall. A large number of Salman Khan fans and the Facebook community of MAX with more than 6lakh fans are two reasons to justify the game and buzz creation for 'Ek Tha Tiger'. Also, this is perhaps for the first time, that a movie premiere on television is being promoted with a big budget! Did you play the game yet?

10 Tips to Maximum Engagement on Facebook Posted: 07 Dec 2012 07:35 AM PST 1. Have a dynamic Facebook Cover photo. There are two ways you can use your cover photo: Direction, Promotion and Identification. Direction – this means to direct someone to perform an action for example "Download this song on iTunes' or "sign up now". Although this is against terms and conditions of Facebook some companies are still using this technique. To review what is allowed in terms and conditions of the cover photo please see the following blog post: Promotion- this means product or event advertisement. Remember this is sell-able space look a billboard. Want to access someone else's Facebook followers? Why not advertise on their cover photo? Identification – Brand recognition. Coca-Cola page does this very well. Their company logo appears 9 times in the cover photo. 2. Take time to say thank you Your community are on your social media journey with you so celebrate the little wins for example Reaching 100 fans or hitting milestones. You can say thank you to your fans by either recognizing a fan either every month or week based on their activity on your page. This will draw a crowd and soon they will all be joining the community and entering the lead nurturing process. Don't forget to also treat your community like a potential leads. Give them a VIP services whenever you can. 3. It is all about the timing What is the use of spending all that time creating smart Facebook content when you're fans or leads aren't there? Start looking at your "people who saw this" number under your published Facebook updates. Start to test specific times of the day to post your content and then to review whether these times are working for you keeping an eye on that number. This is a pro secret; don't tell anyone I told you. 4. Become a story teller It is the stories we tell about how we got to where we are that matter and not the destination. What is your story? Or is there a story you can follow over a couple of updates? Can you build anticipation and excitement? You can do this for the launch of a new product or event. Leave them on the edge of their seats wanting more. 5. Learn the art of news-jacking A wonderful term coined by David Meerman Scott which means to pick up the latest news stories and hot topics and post these to your wall. Your community will soon come to you for the latest info on particular subjects and the press will also take notice. This does take a while to get a hang of though so be patient and try, try again. 6. Do you love playing games? Your community are real people, so lets have a little bit of fun with them. Try these top questions: Caption This: Place an interesting picture on your Facebook page and then ask "Caption this". Be prepared to see your news feed fill up! Trivia: test the general knowledge of your community by posting up a trivia question. This always gets engagement and you can even make it industry related. Fill in the blank: "When I heard Diana died I was ______" This is obvious to your community what you are asking of them and it is a great conversation starter. Verse your community to a game: Pacman, the old Spice Game, if you are playing an internet arcade game then there are bets then your community is probably doing it too. So why not play with them. Have your staff post their scores to the platform and encourage a little competition. Spot the difference: it is a quick and easy game but one well worth it 7. It is not called Social Media for nothing Facebook has an ever changing algorithm but one part of it is if a person clicks on a lot of videos, then these are more likely to show up in their newsfeed. This is the same for photos. Remember we are in a time where Pinterest and Instagram are getting great notoriety and it is now all about the image. Try telling your story with a photo or why not show us the short film version. 8. Monitoring The real key to social media is to have a goal with what you are wanting to achieve with your community and then monitor that goal's success. This what your Facebook insights are in for. Try to choose an actual metric and then a deadline for each week or month and then monitor your progress. 9. Run a competition Facebook competition guidelines state that you cannot run a competition of your Facebook wall or timeline however you can direct people on your timeline or wall to click on app. Be sure to check the rules of your state for these guidelines. Don't make the competition too difficult or ask for information that you don't need. 10. If all fails ask them what they want There is nothing wrong with asking your community what they want to see on your Facebook page. Is it more photos and videos or is it more hard hitting news and articles. You will be surprise the amount of fans that will contribute to the conversation. Try and conduct this as a poll, it will be easier and more efficient.

The Friday#: Royal Heir + Texan Snowploughs Posted: 07 Dec 2012 07:10 AM PST This Week's Issue: The Sizzle: Texan Snowploughs. The Fri-Up: Royal Heir. The Sauce: Sugar Trumps. Your weekly round-up of the hottest stories worldwide, served with a slice of topical social media analysis and a dollop of Friday fun The Sizzle: Google to start charging small businesses for gmail Video game trains Texan snow plough drivers The 9 circles of social media hell (when it all goes wrong). Modern marketing shows the human side of brands Speak2Tweet gives disconnected Syrians a voice online Tracking ads set to jump across gadgets The Fri-Up: Royal Heir. Kate Middleton's first year and a half as a fully blown royal has been exhausting.. for all of us. The last 6 months have been particularly intense culminating in the early revelation of a highly anticipated new royal heir (following swiftly on the heels of new royal hair). Fortunately at Brandwatch, we have the facility to condense these moments, somewhat like a celebrity big brother's "Kate's Best Bits', in the form of a history graph below. Looking back at the Brandwatch wordcloud from July 2011, we see that the discussion centred around very specific cases rather than questioning the freedom of the UK press as a whole. Fig 1. History Graph for Kate Middleton Jun-Dec 2012 "Kate's best bits…." 1. 6th June: Diamond Jubilee concert – Kate and Harry appear in pictures jaded and hungover. 2. 8th July: Kate attends Wimbledon with sister Pippa (who gets more mentions) to watch Roger Federer vs Andy Murray. 3. 27 July: Kate attends the Olympic opening ceremony. 4. 30th Aug: East Asia tour announced Kate and William attend cycling events at the Paralympics. 5. 11th Sept: The tour of East Asia begins in Singapore. 6. 14th Sept: The Royal couple arrive in Kuala Lumpur as photos of Kate sunbathing topless in Provence emerge in the French press. 7. 18th Sept: French court bars further publication of the photos… in France. 8. 10th Oct: The Duke and Duchess open the New National Football centre greeted by various England players (their first outing since the topless photo scandal). 9. 28th Nov: Kate Middleton sports new fringe and pregnancy rumours surge. 10. 3rd Dec: Pregnancy rumours confirmed as Kate is admitted to hospital with acute morning sickness. 11. 6th Dec: Kate leaves Hospital pictured 'blooming' with a bunch of flowers in hand. So Kate's year has been a whirlwind with a lot of pressure from all directions on the new Duchess. Kate has carried herself immaculately and taught us all a lesson in terms of celebrity lifestyle: If anyone publishes topless photos of you, get pregnant immediately and you will be forgiven by the time the year is out. Nicely played, Kate and congratulations. The Sauce: Something for the weekend: Sneak peak Slow motion massive water ballons vs face… Fight! Sugar Trumps Hope you enjoyed the Friday#, have a great weekend.

Guns N’ Roses India Tour Engages Fans With #JoinGNR On Twitter Posted: 07 Dec 2012 07:05 AM PST "Join G N' R" the site proclaimed loudly and for a digital marketer there can't be a better CTA than that. With my teenage years spent listening to some of the Guns N' Roses numbers, it can't be better than this to have the band visit my own city Bangalore, as part of their India tour 2012! So, in the hope of some great experience I just logged in to the site. While I was logged in to joingnr.com and much away from the regular music sponsors, I found Lipton being their beverage partner both exciting and intriguing at the same time. And then a mention about a small game on the site that can give me some free passes. Just awesome! The microsite provides a Facebook login, so login with your Facebook ID and a small game about joining and arranging some broken video images of the 'Sweet Child O Mine' starts. With 5 minutes to their disposal, the one completing in the least amount of time will be declared a winner and a user gets 3 attempts. The players are being tracked in the leaderboard and currently we have a user having done it in 10 sec. Whew! Combined that with the Twitter #joinGNR campaign, we couldn't ask for more. This is a great campaign designed by Social Seety and the micro-site leverages the power of social media. It is indeed a great way for them to introduce Lipton's beverage partnership with GNR band and get people interested in the campaign. The campaign definitely scored by engaging with players even further by utilizing their Facebook presence. A cursory glance at the GNR India's Facebook page will give you a view of the number of fans. With over 41k 'Likes' on the page, you have a potential goldmine here and the amount of engagement generated would be 'wowsome'. Just a few snaps of their Bangalore arrival has generated more than 1k likes. For the Twitter campaign, it's not everyday that Gul Panag will tweet your hashtag, so when you see this tweet, consider half of your campaign to be a success. And to see the impression the Twitter campaign had created, just see the image below and you will know that the other half of the campaign is successful too. What I liked about the campaign? Obviously, the game microsite was a brilliant idea and having a social platform credential in order to leverage the players social reach was surely a winner. I consider Twitter hashtags to be very powerful and to see a brand understand it and leverage it was another brilliant idea. As you saw, the amount of impressions and reach the campaign could generate. The three features that stand out in this campaign are: 1. Gaming Microsite, 2. Facebook Credentials, and 3. Twitter Campaign. What could be better? Then again, the folks could have leveraged the social platforms even better and so few things that could have been added to get more people to play and engage. 1. While there were multiple posts about getting to the JoinGNR.com on Lipton Ice Tea's own Facebook page, there was only one mention about it on GNR's Facebook page. More number of posts there could have potentially generated higher engagement. Assuming that the page is managed by a different agency, there had to be some amount of push generated. 2. I did know that it was the 'coolest' game but I could never see the leaderboard or winners. A definite push could have been generated if the leaderboard was shared equally on Lipton Ice Tea's Facebook Page. While I have no qualms in sharing that I was mighty impressed by the gaming microsite, it's Facebook connection and Twitter hashtag, some more amount of engaging the fans could have been easily achieved by tweaking the content shares. What do you think? And, while you read the review and think, I hum away to the tunes of 'Sweet Child'!

How to Avoid and Manage Social Media Disasters? Posted: 07 Dec 2012 06:55 AM PST How to avoid and manage social media disaster? No companies in the world today will want to experience what we call, social media disasters. Social media disaster can affect both the brand reputation and potential business badly, due to the lack of trust and confidence among the customers. And the scary part is, social media disasters can happen anytime unexpectedly; and at a Speedy Gonzales pace catching brand managers with their pants down. When such disaster happens, the news will be spread all over the Internet and on social media within hours such that executives may not even have enough time to find a hole to hide. Avoiding Social Media Disasters   Hoping and praying that social media disasters will not happen to you is NOT realistc; or stopping everyone in your company to use social media is not going to help either. It is like crossing a heavy traffic road blindfolded. Social media is now everybody's (including your customers and employees) living culture. Hence, whether your company loves it or hate it, your brand got to instill social media in your work culture! Companies have a love-hate relationship with social media To avoid social media disaster, we need to understand the 3 Main REASONS why people complain on social media: Three Spicy reasons that tick people on social media 1. Bad employees' attitude Your employees might be very rude to your customers. These customers, feeling 'hurt' from the employee's rude attitude, may voice their grievances to their friends on social media. If they have screenshots or hidden video footage of their encounter with your rude employee, "good" luck to your company. In order to avoid this, companies should train their workers on consistently showing good customer service. If people feel good about your company's service, I do not see why they will complain. Think of ways to make your customers smile 2. Unhappy Service Experience This time, you have people voicing their unhappiness about your company service system. Nothing to do with bad employees' attitude but a lot to do with company to customers' communication and care for customers. These customers will usually feel unhappy when your company tend to push their problem aside or not prompt in the follow up. Ask yourself, are you following up with the customers closely? To avoid this, your brand got to improve on your product and service quality system such that before people complain, you ask for their feedback. Moreover, brands need to follow up with their customer fast. 3. Unhappy Employees Sometimes it can be your unhappy employees who started the whole social media disaster in ways such as voicing out their anger on the mistreatment or unfair acts your company have on them. This is the worst disaster as it can make people feel bad and lose confidence about your brand immediately. Well to avoid this, companies management need to go down the hierarchy to extensively communicate with the employees. Listen to their problems and propose how they can help them to solve their problems. Effective communication is the key to avoid this disaster. Effective communication means to listen, to agree and to come out with solution together You have done whatever it takes to avoid social media disasters. However at times, social media disaster may still happens and you need to know how to MANAGE it. Here are the steps: 1) Identify and find out the cause Quickly identify and find out the cause of the social media disaster. And then allocate the right management staffs to handle the situation. Companies could start by apologizing and then seek permission to investigate the matter further. 2) Isolate the cause away from the brand Learn to isolate the problem If it is bad customer service issue, apologize to the unhappy customer about the attitude of your staff and seek his or her permission for a second chance to serve you. If it is an unhappy service experience, acknowledge your mistake in lack of customer care, apologize and ask foe their second chance. If it is an unhappy employee problem, good luck! They will perceived that the problems as people's problem and not the brand's problem. 3) Let the unhappy customers/employees get to know more people in your company You should send more superior and management staffs to dialogue with the unhappy customer/ employee. When more people are involved, the unhappy customer / employee will feel that the company is actually concerned about their problems. And by knowing that more people in your company are there to help, the unhappy customer / employee may most likely give your company a second chance. 4) Solve "at the moment" disasters You got to settle problems quickly, if not, they will get worse. When problems are quickly settled, complaint will stop as well. So, it is very important for companies to respond immediately when these unexpected things happen. Do not tell people to wait because the longer they wait, the more distrust they would have on your brand. Companies should employ their employees in handling such "at the moment" disasters when they do happen. Respond fast when social media disaster happens. Photo Credits: www.crazytownmayor.com The Internet Always Remember Many marketers may think that massive advertising could "cover" the aftermath of a social media disaster and people will usually forget. However, it is not true at all. The internet always remember especially when things are left unsolved. So, companies should have their in house social media manager to train its staff on how to avoid causing social media disasters to the brand as well as how to manage social media disasters. With the power of social media, a moment of folly, ignorance or bad customer service can lead the brand to a lifetime of regrets.

“Scale Is Sexy:” Global Conglomerates and Corporate Social Impact Posted: 07 Dec 2012 06:44 AM PST With more than 300,000 employees in over 90 countries, HPis a large company by anyone's standards. This size and scale allows them to make an impact in a way that smaller organizations cannot. "Scale is sexy," says Caroline Barlerin, director of global community involvement in HP's Office of Global Sustainability & Social Innovation, who points out if all HP employees took advantage of the four hours of paid time off to volunteer the company offers every month, it would equate to more service than the Peace Corps. While she doesn't believe the company will single-handedly change the world, Barlerin is cognizant of the impact a company as large as HP can make through sheer numbers alone, as well as how it can lead the overall dialogue around shared value. The numbers are impressive: HP employees volunteered more than 1.4 million hours in 2012 to date, worth $80 million, which is a significant increase from the year before.  Yet, despite the high number of volunteer hours, the company is striving for an even greater number of participants in these programs, allowing it to further fine-tune best practices in employee volunteer programs, with a current focus on skills-based pro bono work. HP seeks increased community engagement through a celebration of its employees making a difference, and then telling those stories about how skills-based pro bono work and other community service activities are changing the world both internally and externally. The benefits of this promotion speak for itself: not only are more employees using their paid volunteer hours than in years past, more are getting involved in the skills-based pro bono programs that HP is so assiduously advocating. Employee involvement pays off in more ways than just additional volunteer hours clocked or more pro bono projects; it also pays off in stronger partnerships with nonprofits, a powerful tool for creating lasting community impact. In 2011, HP built its infrastructure to support these partnerships through 19 country gateways and now has launched 48 country gateways to enable employees to engage. This more than doubles the number of regions where HP and its employees are able to make an impact in a single year. HP leaders and employees are proud to speak of the company's ability to positively affect the communities in which it does business. When surveyed, nearly 90 percent of HP's nonprofit partners said that HP helped them to offer "higher quality services", "be more innovative" and most importantly, "serve more people". Further, the company has found that employee engagement increases when its people are given chances to volunteer. This engagement is even higher when employees are engaging in pro bono, skills-based opportunities. In fact, HP found that employees who participate in skills-based volunteer events are 59 percent more likely to feel that the company is a "great place to work". This underscores a core tenet of HP's community involvement: "We have a shared value approach at HP." says Barlerin. "Economic interest and social impact are not at odds with one another. We truly believe they should work in tandem." Indeed, one of the biggest questions going in the world of shared value is how to balance doing good with doing well. At HP, however, this is a nonsensical question as the two are not considered mutually exclusive. "People are going to volunteer," says Barlerin. "The challenge is figuring out how to harness that energy in a meaningful way that will make a tangible difference in communities. I want HP to be the example of how to do it. It has a multiplier effect upon the community, allowing us to attract and retain top talent and build a reputation in the marketplace," Barlerin notes. So what is HP's strategy for community engagement? Local knows best. "HP is a global company with global goals. It's not a simple matter of taking what we do in the United States and exporting it to China," said Barlerin. And while the company works around the globe, it tailors programs and opportunities to each location's specific needs. Some examples of how the company is changing communities include: An employee in Japan helped Doctors Without Borders to improve its IT security. This in turn helped the organization avoid security breaches that would interfere with its work providing medical care to war zones and disaster areas. Employees in Morocco helped teach high school students in Casablanca how to start their own business through Junior Achievement Morocco's Entrepreneurship Master Class. Employees in Mexico are teaching young people how to craft resumes and cover letters that will help them to find gainful employment and provide for their families. Employees in India organized HP Hackathons that brought together programmers and developers to quickly generate new solutions to old problems. HP employees are providing mentoring services to Global Health Corps (GHC) Fellows, an organization that promotes global health equity by connecting outstanding young leaders around the world with organizations working on the frontlines. The point is simple: HP employees are engaged in ways that align with the needs of their communities—from healthcare and education to sustainability and disaster response—as well as in ways that help showcase the power of technology to positively change lives. This process effectively engages talented professionals to make a tangible difference in the communities where they live and work and show how HP can provide viable solutions to everyday needs. "I'm shameless about asking people to step up and volunteer, especially when it leverages their skills in a new way," says Barlerin. Barlerin sees HP as just one company with a lot of leverage when it comes to the global conversation about volunteering and community impact. To be a part of this conversation, HP is involved with A Billion + Change, a national campaign to mobilize billions of dollars of pro bono and skills-based services from corporate America. HP Vice President and Deputy General Counsel David Bruscino will speak at the "Innovations in Corporate Service" thought leader summit in Palo Alto, a celebration of skills-based, pro bono volunteer programs. Companies pledging to A Billion + Change will come together to learn about the latest and greatest innovations in the world of service, the role of Millennial employees and collaborations between the public and the private sector. A Billion + Change already has secured nearly $1.8 billion in corporate pledges and 12 million hours of time and talent to pro bono programs. If your company would like to sign on to A Billion + Change, go to www.abillionpluschange.org for more information.

LinkedIn Company Pages: Your Secret Weapon Posted: 07 Dec 2012 03:45 AM PST Do you need a LinkedIn company page for your business? Or will a personal profile do? Being a freelance writer, editor and content person who has to be visible to be employed, I had spent a chunk of time on my LinkedIn profile, but never bothered with a company page. Then I joined the 30 Day Linking Blitz (#30dlb) on LinkedIn and heard people talking about the advantages. But where to start? What to put on it? How to get people to it? How much work to put into it? To find out I interviewed Des Walsh, LinkedIn specialist, social media strategist, speaker and coach, founder of the #30dlb, co-author of LinkedIn for Recruiting (email required) and 5 Simple Steps to Getting Started on LinkedIn (email required). Des reckons your business, large, small or an individual, should definitely have a LinkedIn company page – unless you are sure your target customer will not be there. But because LinkedIn recently redesigned company pages, many businesses are still feeling their way. "They put it up there, and they don't read what's possible, and they don't have somebody who sees it as a marketing opportunity. They see it as one more chore," says Des. "The race goes to the swift. Get in now and others will be catching up." 5 reasons to create a company page today 1. A company page is like having a free website "Your page is an amazing resource – a website where you can display all your products and services, where you can put up videos, where you can put up really nice pictures displaying your products, where you can put updates every day if you like, where you can change it at any time you like without having to go to a web developer and pay them money," says Des. And you don't need to be a Premium member. 2. A company page is great for search It's easy for your page to be found because LinkedIn has a granular, sophisticated search where searchers can specify detailed criteria such as business type, specialism, location and a certain radius. Des says: "People overlook that searches on Google regularly and often prominently often bring up a LinkedIn reference. It's another way to get your name out there." However, the search does not work well on a hyper-local basis. Searching pages yourself is a great way to identify competitors. 3. No need to be a registered company or incorporated body Individual services providers and small businesses can have company pages. You can have different pages for different activities. "If you were running two completely different businesses – take a tourist business and an online advice business – you could have separate company pages. There's just a bit more management involved," Des says. 4. Your content already exists It is fine to repeat the content you have on your web page or elsewhere online. Des says: "People decide what they want to see, they don't necessarily go where you want them to go." The first content to add is a description of your company. The second is information about key people – partners, employees etc. Their personal and professional profiles should link to the company page. Use the same SEO keywords you use for your website. Add updates (text, pictures, videos) about new products and services, customers , special offers and so on. Your aim is to have people follow your page so they see all of this. 5. Surprising types of business can benefit We think of LinkedIn as a B2B marketplace – but that doesn't limit its usefulness to professional service providers. Des gives the example of a gift basket business that generated sales by using keywords like 'corporate gifts' and putting up pictures of the baskets. Cafés and restaurants can benefit if, for example, someone has a posting to a new location and wants to find out what it's like. Convinced? Get your page up and running with these resources Basic Guide to setting up your company page from LinkedIn Learning Centre 5 Strategic Tips for Creating a Killer LinkedIn Company Page by Neal Schaffer at Windmill Networking Advanced Turn Your LinkedIn Company Page into a Sales Magnet by Frank Isca at Business2Commnity 13 Brands Using LinkedIn Company Pages Features the Right Way by Pamela Vaughan at Hubspot Questions for Des? Tips to share? Over to you in the comments.

How Penguin India Is Creating Pre-Launch Buzz For Rajinikanth’s Biography Posted: 07 Dec 2012 03:10 AM PST Here, we look at the online buzz creation for the first biography on Actor Rajinikanth slated for a launch on his birthday – 12.12.12. Awarded as Entertainer of the Decade by NDTV in 2011, Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth embodies all that is heroic and impossible for ordinary mortals to achieve. Stunts defying gravity coupled with the Superstar's charisma won him much acclaim, giving rise to a new genre of facts, popularly called 'Rajnikanth Facts'. This 12th December, the Thalaivar celebrates his 62th birthday, which is also the day when the most anticipated film book of the year, "Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography" by Naman Ramachandran is slated to be launched. In keeping with the Rajinikanth flavour, the publishers 'Penguin Books India' have created an interesting social media campaign using Facebook and Twitter, along with other forms of planned promotions, including retail tie-ups in the later phases. The publishing brand has created a dedicated Facebook page called 'Find Rajinikanth' but what is even more interesting is the Facebook game of the same name 'Find Rajinikanth'. The Facebook game will test the biggest fans of the Thalaivar and help everyone discover fun and engaging facts about Rajinikanth — which the forthcoming biography is full of. The 'Find Rajinikanth' game The game that is hosted on a Facebook app, operates on the premise that the evil Joker Ravanan has kidnapped the Superstar, and only Rajinikanth's legion of fans can save him! Find Rajinikanth Facebook game To play, you have to answer a series of quick fire questions about Rajinikanth's life and career that get increasingly difficult. Only the diehard fan who can answer every question correctly qualifies to have a shot at saving the Superstar. You can get started once you click on 'Play my game'. The timer begins a countdown from 10 while you take a shot at multiple choice questions. The game will throw you out the moment you give a wrong answer as you are not a diehard Rajini fan. But, do not despair as you can give it as many shots as you want by starting all over again. After all, you are a diehard Rajinikanth fan! There is an option to 'Invite Friends' once you finish the game or are thrown out, but I think there is an error in that. The 'Invite Friends' option pops up a window for sharing the game on your wall, instead of providing you the 'Invite friends from Facebook' feature. Buzz on Facebook and Twitter The first thing that struck me was that the Facebook page was categorised under 'Public Figure'! The brand new page started this December has close to 2500 fans with 460 as the number of people talking about it. The Facebook page insights revealed Chennai to be the most popular city and 18-24 years being the most popular age group, in the community. Content shared is exclusive to Rajinikanth fans with cool graphics depicting facts about the Superstar, all the while encouraging or challenging Rajinikanth's fans to save him from the evil Ravanan. The book has also created a fresh Twitter account this December called '@FindRajini'. The Twitter account has managed to garner a modest number of followers within a few days. Content shared is largely about #RajiniCan humour containing the distinctive Rajinikanth flavoured jokes, facts and anecdotes, along with asking users to play the game. Is this the beginning of exciting book launches? Well, from the looks of it, I believe we have stepped on a new era of exciting book launches. Penguin Books India had recently created a wonderful digital campaign to create buzz for Author Shobha De's latest novel 'Sethji'. The strategy involved weaving intriguing stories around 'Who is Sethji' with the help of social media platforms like blogs, YouTube and Facebook. Although it is strategically different from 'Find Rajinikanth', the common thread that joins both campaigns is the alignment with the book genre and user involvement. Also, 'Find Rajinikanth' has an interesting launch date. This is perhaps the first time in the publishing industry that a biography will be launched on the subject's birthday, especially one who has built an almost God-like status and following. The other thing that deserves a mention in the campaign is the graphic illustration of Rajnikanth Facts. The Facebook game is also a cool addition helping the campaign go a long way in creating awareness and memorable experiences for the community. Another interesting book launch by Penguin books, what do you think?

Mixed Picture for UK FTSE-100 Companies on Social Media – And How it Affects Their Share Price Posted: 06 Dec 2012 07:45 PM PST Earlier this week, digital strategy and analytics agency Sociagility emailed us their latest benchmarking report. The report examines the activity of UK FTSE-100 corporates in social media, and finds some interesting correlations with wider performance, including share price. A few of the highlights which particularly spoke to us include: Twitter gets tacked on to last decade's comms strategy Many companies just use Twitter corporately as a broadcast channel…with content consisting almost entirely of references to news releases….it could be a well thought out strategy but is more likely to be because someone in the Press office was seen to "get" Twitter…so he/she got it forever" This is a really horrible use of Twitter, fully deserving of a deduction of marks rather than a tick for being present on the channel, and the "it's got stuck in the press office" excuse may be kinder than the companies deserve. It's not "communicating" with journalists at all, really, it's just broadcasting at them as if it were 1998 and Twitter is a daily paper. Limiting Twitter use even to proper, thoughtful engagement with journalists would be bad enough, but spewing out press releases doesn't even get that good. Confusion and lack of interaction around LinkedIn Perhaps unsurprisingly, almost all of the corporates had a LinkedIn page. As it's difficult to tell whether these were autocreated by LinkedIn because of the size of the company though, the organisations have been marked on interaction instead. The numbers here are pretty woeful, with only 20% visibly active on the page. This seems a little more excuseable, though – LinkedIn's huge leaps in social functionality are relatively recent. It's taking many organisations a while to realise that things have moved beyond the static page / personal CV stage, and start making good use of the new functions. The try-hard sectors Comparative performance across sector groups shows that Pharmaceuticals and Energy (Oil & Gas) are outperforming other sectors by quite a margin. The Finance sector isn't doing so well with their corporate-targeted activity, which given their recent broad scale bad press is maybe surprising – or perhaps they just have bigger fish to fry right now. Social media performance related to company valuation The most headline-grabbing aspect of the analysis, however, is the confirmation of a statistically significant correlation between market capitalisation and certain social-media based metrics. So: The most valuable companies are the most effective when it comes to using social media. The reverse would also be true" (my emphasis). So, this could simply be a reflection of the larger resources available to the more highly valued companies – but this seems unlikely as none of the FTSE-100 corporates are exactly operating on micro-business marketing budgets. It could also be that an innovative and agile approach, strong use of communications channels, and financial success are linked. As a final note, the study focused on Corporate communications only. IE, that content targeted at investors, other stakeholders, the media and so on. We'd love to know what repeating the exercise by FTSE-100 entity, but looking at the aggregate of their consumer brands and related activity would show – is this purely about making a better impression (or even just getting positive messages across) to investors, or is there a wider value add? The full report can be found on Sociagility's site here.

Offering Free Stuff via Social Media Posted: 06 Dec 2012 07:30 PM PST Social media is a great way to connect with current and perspective customers and clients. For businesses that are looking for a way to increase their reach and audience on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter, if might be useful to offer some kind of incentive that can establish your credibility and give the customer a free perk for connecting with you via social media. There are a variety of things that can be given away, depending on your industry. While some of these may take time or money resources, they can be worth the cost in exchange for the additional online exposure. Free E-books or White Papers E-books are usually under 100 pages, whereas white papers are normally under 30-50, depending on the topic. Both center around giving exclusive and targeted information to the reader that they may not easily find somewhere else. Picking a unique or up-and-coming topic for an e-book or white paper can make it more popular. Offer it in PDF form as a free perk when someone follows your business on Twitter or likes the company page on Facebook. E-books and white papers can also be a good incentive for joining a company's mailing list or e-newsletter list as well. Free Graphics or Printables Offering exclusive graphics or printables can be a great incentive for creative-based businesses. For instance, Michael's, a craft supply store, recently gave away free mobile phone wallpaper for their text mailing list subscribers. In other instances, home design blogs or graphic design companies have given away free letterhead, to-do lists, calendars, clip art, social media icons, and more to their social media community. Coupons Coupons are a quick incentive that can be shared like wildfire. Many major companies have offered one free product in exchange for liking their Facebook page. Others have tweeted exclusive coupon codes on Twitter that only those who are looking at their profile or following them will see. E-books, white papers, and printables are great because they can be branded at the bottom of the page or graphic. This can remind the downloader where they got the item and if they share it, then the recipient will also know where to go as well. Before implementing any of the above promotions, be sure to check the terms of service and guidelines on all social media sites you are thinking about using. Staying in compliance with the rules can ensure nothing happens to your accounts. Original image courtesy of speedy2.

6 Social Networks Marketers Should Learn to Ignore Posted: 06 Dec 2012 06:40 PM PST I'm going to let you in on a little digital marketing secret. You don't need to build an active presence on every single social network. In fact, there are some you can outright ignore. The thing is, there is neither a list of social networks to ignore, nor is there a list of networks that you have to use. Different industries will get different benefits from different networks. What you need to do is look at each network individually and figure out which ones offer little value for you. You might be surprised by the results. Pinterest Pinterest is all about images. More than that though, it's about collections. Pinterest’s greatest marketing strength is the encouragement it gives users to create lists of things they like. Consumer products, fashion and travel all do really well here. B2B brands, insurance agencies, financial advisors and other non-consumer or intangible services will get little traction on Pinterest. You may be able to develop some traffic, but it is unlikely to be valuable or worthwhile YouTube YouTube is another often-ignored social network, mainly because few businesses think of it as a social network. They see it as a video playground with little real value. For some businesses, that may be correct. It's certainly difficult to build traffic with corporate videos. But, just because you're a business doesn't mean you have to make corporate video. Vlogs, video blogs, are really successful on YouTube and there will be growth in this area. If you can blog, you can vlog so any business can use YouTube to upload video. You should create a channel, but start it as a storage space for video blog posts first. If you have no video output, YouTube is the easiest of social networks to ignore, but think twice before you cross it off. Google+ The butt of so many jokes about social networks you should ignore, Google+ actually has a lot of key advantages over other networks. The ability to share among different groups make it ideal for sharing targeted content and the use of hangouts as broadcastable videos could create new marketing opportunities. The key advantage though is the first half of the name.  Social and search are moving closer together and Google will put more and more emphasis on it's own social network. For now, it is the social equivalent of a ghost town. It should be left to content creators and big brands; they have an opportunity to lead the way with Google+. Smaller consumer brands can try it, and it will pay to have a presence, but social is about fishing where the fish are. For now that isn't Google+. LinkedIn If you are a B2B company, LinkedIn is essential. If you aren't actively posting to LinkedIn, joining in-group discussions or making connections, you need to start. Building a strong LinkedIn network is already vital to B2B success and it will only become more important. It has a value for executives in other industries too as it is the most powerful personal branding tool available. But for consumer products or retail, it doesn't offer much value. When you're on LinkedIn, you're there as a business person, not as a consumer. Twitter Twitter is a great social media engagement tool. It's also an essential marketing tool for consumer brands. It offers the opportunity to talk to your market, to engage with them on all manner of topics and reward loyal followers. It's an essential tool for smaller brands, as it gives you a chance to get in front of consumers who normally see only the big guys. For big brands, it's one of two cornerstones of social engagement. The big social networks aren't essential for everyone though. Twitter is essentially a content sharing and curation tool for businesses. Every business should use it to share content, but building a real following requires more than that. It requires hourly, never mind daily, engagement. A commitment most brands can't make. If you're strong on content, and have time to engage, Twitter is ideal. If your brand has other selling points, you might want to use Twitter as a launch pad, but focus on areas where your strengths are better used. Facebook The other big social network that big brands have to use. For smaller to medium businesses, Facebook feels like a necessity. But it doesn't have to be. Consumer brands will be expected to have a Facebook presence, so you can't afford to be without one. That doesn't mean it should be the focus. Facebook is a social network first and foremost and most users treat ads as a nuisance rather than a natural part of their activity. Brands built on social activities have a natural advantage here. Other businesses have to work a lot harder to get traffic from Facebook, because users generally don't want to leave Facebook. It's relatively easy to build likes; it's difficult to turn those likes into traffic. Especially for niche brands. Just like Twitter, Facebook is great for mass appeal, but you should always focus on your strengths. If your strengths lie in images, video or business know-how there are other places you can go. To help your company get results from social media, SiliconCloud has created this Social Media Strategy e-book that will kick-start your company in the right direction. Download the Social Media Strategy E-book Now!

10 Insights into the State of Social Media in 2012 Posted: 06 Dec 2012 06:30 PM PST The smart phone is changing how we use and consume information. Add a dose of social media obsession and you have two powerful forces that are transforming everything. How we find information, learn, publish, express ourselves, do business and interact with other people is going through the biggest change in history and we don't know exactly where it is all heading. All we know is that is is exciting and it is making for a more open, intelligent and transparent world. The industry changing invention of the iPad has added another layer of change that has personal computer manufacturers worried about their growth predictions. The convenient and always on tablet is becoming a must have device that travels easily and lightly on the planet. Discovering recommendations for a great restaurant while travelling is no longer just left to friends and word of mouth but thoughtful strangers crowd sourced reviews on platforms and apps such Trip Advisor, Yelp and and the Alfred dining app. Nielsen have just issued a report that looks at what are some of the significant changes over the last 12 months with social media that are worth noting. #1. Time on Social Networks on PC's vs Mobile in 2012 The mobile is quickly becoming the place to access your social networks and it is now more than one third of all social networking time when compared to PC's in 2012. In the age group of 25-34 and 35-44 year olds, the amount of time on social networks now exceeds time spent on a PC. The figures also reveal that women are spending more time than males on social networks both on the lap, desktop and the mobile. #2. Top 10 Social Media Networks It is apparent that in the USA that Facebook has reached a saturation point at 152 million unique visitors with a decline of 4% in 2012 compared to 2011. Twitter continues to grow with 37 million users (up 13%). Of course the standout of the last 12 months is the growth of Pinterest at over 1,000 percent. Google+ is sometimes overlooked but with over 26 million users in the US and growth rate of 80%, it is a social network that shouldn't be ignored but seriously considered especially for its social signals and future potential. MySpace is the star of the non performers declining by 13%. #3. Time Spent on the Top 10 Social Networks on Mobile The transition to accessing social networks on mobile is obvious when you see that despite the drop of 4% in visitors to Facebook last year the time spent on Facebook is up over 80% on both mobile apps and mobile web. The top 5 performers on mobile web YOY (Year on Year) with growth rates over 100% are: Pinterest – 4,225% Tumblr – 162% Reddit – 153% Twitter – 140% LinkedIn – 114% #4. The Growth of Pinterest Pinterest is leveling off, but the launch of the Pinterest business page may help in continuing to drive growth. Its growth across mobile web, PC and apps is by far the largest compared to any other social network. #5. The Demographics of Pinterest Pintrest has piqued the interest of women much more than men and with 70% plus demographic share across the 3 access types, it is a platform that the fashion, food and female oriented categories should not ignore. The age groups that dominate are the 25 to 49 year olds. Also its role as a driver of traffic for online stores is already been shown. #6. How We Connect to Social Media The tablet is the big mover here up from 3% to 16% in just one year. The convenience and increasing user base of the tablet is the biggest influencer of this change. The PC has declined slightly from 97% to 94%. One small move to note but one to watch is the increase by Internet enabled televisions from 2% to 4% . #7. Where We Connect to Social Media The always on and connected anytime anywhere generation is obvious in this statistic. You just have to love the fact that for nearly one third of all people aged 18-24, that social media is accessed in the bathroom. I just wonder how many mobile devices have met a watery grave because of this habit! #8. Why We Connect to Social Media The number one reason to use social media is seeing what your friends are doing, mutual friends follows close behind and interested in keeping up with the the latest news comes in at third on reasons why we connect on social media. Interested to see that a person's physical attractiveness is a significant reason the male of the species connects at 14%. The ladies already know this one to be true! #9. Simultaneous Smartphone, Tablet and TV Use The impact of the tablet is noticeable on two levels. Shopping online while watching TV Accessing social networks while also watching Television Advertisers will need to take note of this trend and make it easy for clients to find either information or buy when creating television ads to tempt and tease the potential multi-tasking shoppers. #10. Twitter Drives Social TV Twitter as a real time news and event related social network has been apparent for years. The more recent trend of adding value to TV and socializing a previously passive medium has been building for a while. (I reported on this trend over 12 months ago). Social TV interaction is up over 27% in just 6 months. What Surprises You? Some of these trends are apparent and others are not so obvious. The implications are broad and far reaching and the impact reaches into how we market and advertise our brands and also includes how we design and build websites, online stores and blogs so that they are accessible on mobile devices. Apps are becoming widespread and are a convenient and quick way to obtain and create information and media and then share that on social networks in an instant. What surprised you with some of these facts, figures and statistics? Want to Learn How to Market Your Business and Brand on Social Media? My book – Blogging the Smart Way "How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media" – will show you how. It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog. I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 120,000. You can download and read it now.

Komli Media Wants To Be The SoLoMo Ad Solution In Asia Posted: 06 Dec 2012 06:15 PM PST "SoLoMo – Social, Location and Mobile is the way forward" has been the trend pitched by every guru in this space in 2012. Very few have been able to actually capture the entire space but Komli Media has been doing it handsomely in the entire course of 2012. Komli Media, APAC's leading digital media network which previously announced its premium ad inventory partnership with Facebook, later on revealed a similar kind of ad partnership recently with Twitter for APAC countries. And the latest sales partnership deal with Yoose, a global hyper-local mobile ad network, in a bid to strengthen Komli's existing mobile advertising services clearly shows its intent to strengthen its base in SoLoMo. So: social partnerships During the first half of the year, Komli Media was in the news for its renewal of Reseller Agreement with Facebook in India. The renewal also meant that Komli Media remains the only authorized re-seller of Facebook's premium inventory in India. Premium inventory or Premium Ads from Komli Media consist of : 1) Reach Block, 2) Target Block, 3) Regular CPM buy and 4) Logout Experience, as confirmed by Radhikarani Sengupta, Director – Sales Strategy, Komli Engage (India). Following this deal we saw marketers like Star Plus, Hindustan Lever coming forward and experimenting with the Premium Ads. Continuing with its strategy to occupy the social ad solution space, it was recently revealed that Komli Media secured an exclusive deal to sell the range of Promoted Products of Twitter in the South East Asia region. According to the deal, Komli will be managing all Southeast Asia sales for Twitter advertising products that would also mean to educate the markets about Twitter's products such as Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends. Twitter had been very quick to assess that countries like Indonesia, Philippines have the fifth and the tenth biggest user bases in this region. In fact the growing presence of the micro blogging platform had been one of the major reasons why it opened an office in Korea a few months ago. Not only for Twitter but this also gels with the ad firm's belief that Asia is the second hub of social network users after the US, since half of them are based out in Asia. A pretty obvious move by Twitter assessing the potential in the region after Facebook, Zynga and in an ad network which enjoys more than 4500 advertising partnerships with a reach of 90 million unique users each month across Southeast Asia after it acquired Admax Networks, one of Southeast Asia's largest advertising network providers, for an undisclosed price. Lo-Mo: location and mobile partnerships The dominance in the social ad space followed in the hyper-local mobile ad network space too. According to the news, Komli Mobile, a division of Komli Media has inked a sales partnership with Yoose to use its hyper-local and rich media services for Komli's clients in India and Southeast Asian markets. In other words, this partnership will allow Komli to run location-based targeted campaigns for its clients and since it already has partnerships with Facebook and Twitter, this also gives the ad network a smooth opportunity to integrate SoLoMo ad solutions. For example, a brand would be able to show mobile banners to entice a user when she is near the brand's outlet, then the brand has the choice to either engage her with some digital content such as play a video or download music, or click to buy or land her on a social media site that could further enhance the social experience. Further to this, Komli also claims that the partnership will help the company to tap network reach of 1.4 billion monthly ad impressions in India alone. And with the latest report on Internet Trends called '2012 KPCB Internet Trends Year-End Update' it has been revealed that there are 44 million smart phone subscribers in India as of Q4 2012, recording a 52% growth YOY, the deal couldn't have been better timed! But, it is not that only Komli is eyeing to have a bigger share but companies like AdNear, Nimbuzz and mobile operator Tata Docomo have also launched location-based advertising services. Nevertheless, for now with partnership deals with the major giants of the social world coupled with the Yoose deal, Komli Media is better positioned to integrate SoLoMo ad solutions for its vast client base in the Asian continent from 2013. Image Courtesy: Fastcompany.com

It’s Time You Considered Social Login Posted: 06 Dec 2012 02:40 PM PST At a high level, as digital strategists or online marketing professionals, we all have pretty similar goals: we want to drive traffic to our site, know who's visiting, and encourage the actions that lead to sales. Pretty straightforward, right? The challenge is that at many steps in this journey we ask website visitors to do something for us: fill out a form with their personal information and trust that we won't sell or misuse it. To illustrate, ask yourself (be honest): Have you ever left a site when asked to register or create an account? Have you ever left a site when you couldn't remember your username or password? Have you ever left a site with items in your shopping cart? Have you ever entered in false information when creating a new account? How many unique username/password combinations do you have? You know where this is headed – consumers have reached a point of password fatigue.  It's simply not possible to create yet another unique userAAname and password combination for every site requiring registration.  So coping mechanisms are employed, which just make our jobs harder. People jump ship. They simply leave your site (86% admit to doing so in the past according to third-party research). They leave products in their shopping cart (11% of shoppers do, according to Forrester). They lie and enter false information in registration forms (88% reported doing this) They re-use the same username and password combination (the average consumer has 7.9 unique combinations), which puts you and their data at risk. Social login addresses these issues Thankfully, as a result of the rise in popularity of social networks, there is an easy way to address these issues. Research reveals that 77% of consumers would prefer to have social login as an option to register.  By allowing site visitors to sign in using an existing identity from Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and more, you can immediately increase your conversion rates by as much as 50%. By making it easier for someone to sign into your site, you remove those obstacles that get in the way from the actions that lead to sales or engagement. Expedited registration means a streamlined checkout process for commerce site, or ease of commenting and sharing of content on media or entertainment sites. With social login, you're also building a healthy database with authentic profile data going beyond typical demographics. Think about the data held in a Facebook profile: interests, activities and friends. When people choose social login, they grant you permission to access this data that's likely to be more current and accurate than anything they'd leave in a form. With all of this data, you can build what every marketer dreams of: a full 360-degree view of your audience. This enhanced knowledge can be applied to your marketing programs to improve email campaigns, audience segmentation, messaging and much more. With access to this rich data, the significant impact of personalization you read about in case studies is possible.

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