Most progressive and “cool” companies and brands have embraced social media. They created a Facebook page, a Twitter account and even have a YouTube channel.



If they are real marketing pioneers then they may even have learned how to spell Instagram and know that “pinning” is not just something done by the grannies at the weekly sewing club.

The “geniuses” even know that “Vine” is not just something that grows in the fields of France that leads to much glass clinking, bad jokes and wild dancing.

So the power of social media has been identified to assist and even supercharge creating online brand awareness through the leverage of  ”crowd marketing” that is facilitated by customers and fans sharing your content.

The smart cookies even know that unique fresh content that is popular and resides on your website can provide better search results. Key terms that people use to find your product or service may even appear on page one of Google if your content and search strategy is integrated and honed.

That is gold for any brand.

The challenges

But despite the opportunities there are many challenges.

Creating great content takes time and resources and many organisations have started the journey with enthusiasm but have given up in desperation. They drew up the plan but realised it was a Mount Everest. Blogs were designed and launched but are now desolate and haven’t seen a published post for months. Twitter accounts were started but the tweets are missing and followers are few.

This is due to many factors such as lack of inspiration, the sustained effort needed and the persistence required.

I know what discipline, skill and passion is needed. For the last four years I have painstakingly built this blog on the back of content and technology that has taken me to the teetering edge of keyboard throwing, mouse hurling and laptop launching.

But there are some solutions emerging to help in the battle of content creation and being visible amongst the universe of half a billion websites and blogs.

A solution

For the last 18 months I have been involved in a journey to find a solution to those challenges with a company called Shuttlerock.

It provides a powerful easy to use platform that helps you easily create content that keeps your website and blog fresh, relevant and engaging. It enables your customers, supporters, staff and fans to interact with your website.

Here is a video overview of the concept of how the Shuttlerock software works.

Introduction to Shuttlerock from Shuttlerock on Vimeo.

It is a solution that builds great content for your domain and not just Facebook.  It drives views and engagement to the platform you own.

How does it work?

Shuttlerock is a white label photo and content sharing platform embedded on your website. It allows you to generate, curate and publish photos and stories. It means that your website is no longer one dimensional; it’s now multi-dimensional using customers, staff and partners and their social channels to bring your site to life.



What are the key benefits?

The platform was born out of the frustration of creating content, watching Facebook nabbing all the good photos and not being able to create engagement and content curation at scale.

Here are the key benefits that highlight how it it will assist you with the marketing of your business on a social web that craves fresh unique content.

• More high quality engagement leading to more sales. This is created by the generation of ‘real’ content from ‘real’ people. This “is” content marketing.
• Better interaction with customers AND their friends: a social platform on “your” website. And more control of the customer relationship, content and conversations.
• Creates an on-going source of fresh content which you can share to your company’s social channels.
• Higher search engine rankings. Search engines require fresh content and they rate the social conversations that Shuttlerock encourages.
• Helps you build a valuable email list of your customers and their friends

The key features

The ShuttleRock “software as a service” platform has some powerful features to help you tap into the power of your fans (if you are a sports brand) and followers or customers that love creating content, whether that is a tweet, a photo or other media.

Here are the key features.

1. Content board

It takes minutes to create a content board and you decide whether it’s open to the public or staff only, whether it’s open to voting or not and where it appears on your page.



2. Easily add photos to your site

It’s simple, two-step uploading from a range of sources. No more messing around with cumbersome content management systems or resizing images.



3. Search engine optimisation

Photos are renamed using pre-determined key words to help with SEO.

4. Automatic onsite content creation

Automatic content generation including the hash tags from Twitter, Instagram and Flickr and geotagging.

5. Mobile apps

Content collection doesn’t have to wait to be sent from your computer but content collection can be from a smart phone including Android and Apple.



6. Content publishing control via moderation

Moderation is provided which allows you to accept or reject photos, edit comments or change which board the image appears in before publishing.



7. Prompted sharing

Each time someone shares a photo your brand is centre stage and each share encourages people back to your website.



8. Update multiple social networks at once

You no longer need to chase several channels. Shuttlerock lets you update multiple social networks at once. Create a schedule of posts to your company Facebook pages so something is posted every day even when you have the day off.

9. Demographics and statistics measurement

Demographic information and statistics are presented in an easy to view graph for quick analysis.

10. Integration with 3rd party platforms

Integration with 3rd party platforms including Facebook, Mailchimp and Instagram.

11. Easily create and run a competition

The Shuttlerock content boards create a reason for your customers to send a message to their friends about your business – and drive them to your website.



Some results

The Shuttlerock platform has been added to the marketing toolkits of companies in a range of industries including sports teams, retailers, travel & tourism, real estate and many more.

Some results.

• Progear photography generated 770 shares in the first month getting their brand in front of 77,000 of their customers’ friends.
• Black Cat Cruises created 850 photos in 6 months and lifted their user sessions and online sales by 50% year on year.
• The Queensland Reds football team generated 233 images from 7 content boards in their first 30 days.
• Jucy car rentals increased their Google rankings for ‘Christchurch rental car’ from the second page of Google at #13 to page one at position 3.

View the Original article

Whether your company is just starting to dabble in social media or has a strong strategy it has been implementing for a while, you may want to know how other companies are navigating the social Web.

If you've ever wondered how many people companies hire to manage social media, how they measure success or whether you're the only ones getting help from interns, we have the answers you've been looking for.

We asked 2,714 communicators how their companies use social media in our Ragan/NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions survey, and Go-Gulf.com highlighted some of the findings in an infographic.

Here's a peek at what we found:

• Forty-two percent of companies have only one person who works on social media. Forty percent have two or three.

• Twenty-five percent of companies have interns help with social media.

• Only 5 percent of companies are highly satisfied with their social media campaigns.

• Almost 90 percent (86 percent) of companies measure social media in terms of likes and followers.

• The biggest obstacles to measuring social media are a lack of time (65 percent) and manpower (63 percent).

For more, check out the graphic below or download a free copy of the white paper.



View the Original article

The younger generation would rather watch a 2 minute video than read a page of text.

How do I know that?…because I asked them.

Last week I was standing in front of thirty young adults aged from 18 to 25 at the International College of Management and I posed the question.

“Would you rather read a blog article or watch a 2 minute video?”

Twenty five of the thirty put up their hand and said  ”video!”

This maybe not the scientific method preferred by mathematicians with PhD’s and avid students of statistics, but it’s fast and efficient and measures the beat of the street.

That crowd is not getting any younger and in fact they are becoming your mainstream audience as they move into management and create startups. You need to create content that communicates to that crowd.

This is a challenge for marketers and bloggers.

Sensory overload

Readers and younger viewers demand more titillation and excitement. Videos that entertain and content that contains more visual eye candy in high definition. Have you noticed that a 42 inch big screen TV is now no longer big enough. A 3.5 inch smart phone is sometimes seen as too small. We are heading into a mobile gadget world and now 5 inches is fashionable and demanded.

Sensory overload is a journey of diminishing returns, but you have to play the game. It is now essential to think color, visual and multi-media.

Monochrome and mono media is not enough anymore.

The game is multi-channel and multi-media.

What other media content should be on the menu?

Images, photos and infographics are some of the other key elements to content curation and creation that grabs attention and asks the question.

Is this interesting enough to share on my Facebook page or Twitter account?

Infographics are a media that attracts attention and flows across a social web. They started to gain more prominence about 2 years ago and have maintained an interest that sees them used in marketing campaigns and used to create blog attention.

What are the seven key steps to create an awesome infographic?

It starts with selecting a topic or an event that that you think people will want to learn or know more about.

Learn about the others below.


Infographic source: Graphs.net







































View the Original article

Brands that want to succeed on social media know the number of followers they have isn't as important as how engaged those followers are.

But engaging followers is no easy task.


You have to know what kind of content your customers like, and when they use various social media sites.

To help you out, an infographic from Fusework Studios offers a few general guidelines on how to get more engagement on Twitter.

For example, tweets sent on the weekend get 17 percent more engagement than tweets sent during the week. Wednesday and Thursday are the days with the lowest engagement rates.

Also, tweets with less than 100 characters see 17 percent more engagement than longer tweets.

Are you looking for more retweets? Just ask your followers. A tweet's retweet rate increases 12 times when you ask followers for a retweet. Only 1 percent of brands actually do this.

Check out the infographic for more:



 

Tweets are like the subject lines of your emails. A good email subject line is usually less than 100 characters. Use the same thought process when sending a Tweet, and in no time, you'll get over your fear of Tweeting.


Keep your business Tweeting professional so you project a professional image. You want to make your business Tweets interesting and compelling so people will want to follow you and click on the links you add to your Tweets, but you don't want to offend people with unprofessional behavior.

If you're still stuck, here are some ideas to help you create Tweets that your followers will enjoy.

This is the easiest and most obvious thing to do. You can find people to follow using the # Discover tab in your Twitter account where you can find Twitter users in any category under the Browse Categories tab.

You can start by ReTweeting and adding your comments to the Tweet. When you ReTweet a business leader's Tweet, people subconsciously associate you with the person, adding to your credibility. If you continually ReTweet another expert's Tweets and add value, often that person will reach out to you and start ReTweeting your Tweets.

Tweet breaking news. 

Twitter is the first place you find breaking news from around the world, whether it's related to politics, business, sports, or natural disasters. You can follow popular media outlets like @cnnbreak, @nytimes, or others, and ReTweet breaking events, or create new Tweets with links to their news items. You will be helping tell your Twitterverse about breaking news and people will know you're someone who keeps up with current events. You can also Tweet about breaking news in your industry, which will add to your credibility. Don't forget to add hashtags to your Tweets so people on Twitter who are not following you but monitoring hashtags will see your Tweets.

Be a curator. 

We all read articles about our industry and profession on the internet. As you come across interesting or controversial news stories related to your business or industry, Tweet a link to that article. In the Tweet, tell your followers what you liked or disliked about the article. Adding your perspective adds value for your followers.

You don't have to Tweet only articles you agree with. When you disagree with an article, let your followers know so they see where you stand on the subject. Disagreeing in your Tweet can lead to stimulating Twitter conversations with your followers, and the conversation will often expand outside your Twitterverse, expanding your following.

Help requests. 

One of the most popular uses of Twitter is to reach out for support. Every day people Tweet to find solutions to their problems. You can monitor popular hashtags or keywords related to your products or your industry and help people when they have questions. When you reply to their Tweets to help them, people will see you're an expert in that area. You can send links to webpages that can solve their problem or make suggestions in your Tweets.

You can also ask other Twitter users for help when you have a problem. You can Tweet something like, "Is anyone else having a problem with #Firefox crashing since the last update?" Notice how you can turn "Firefox" into a hashtag so nonfollowers will see the question and be able to reach out.

Evaluations, reviews, and opinions of products or services. 

When you're thinking about purchasing a product or service, you can use Twitter Search to see what others are saying about the product or service. You can join in the conversations by replying to their review of the product or ask them questions. When you purchase products or services, you can share your opinion with others on Twitter. Include a relevant hashtag so more Twitter users will see your review.

Promote your company. 

You can Tweet links about your company. Some of the most popular topics people Tweet about are:

• A new blog post
• Client acquisitions
• Press releases
• Jobs available
• Awards/recognition
• Events you're hosting and/or attending
• Discussions you're hosting on LinkedIn
• Special offers, sales, or discounts

By now, if social media isn't a critical element in your online marketing strategy, it should be. Having a presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can add value to your product, to customer service and ultimately to your brand.

But simply having an account and broadcasting company news isn't enough. To attract and keep customers -- and to build a strong brand online -- business owners need to be active on social media. They have to provide valuable information and engage with their followers.


Here are four things businesses should be doing on social media in order to grow the brand online:

1. Engage with followers and provide customer service.

Your customers are engaging with your brand wherever they are -- including over social media. Don't miss this opportunity to listen to what they're saying to and about you, and to provide the best customer service.

Why is this so important? Responding to customer questions and resolving issues over social media shows everyone who's following you -- and potentially anyone who is online -- that your company cares about its customers, potential customers and goes the extra mile for people.

Tools like Hootsuite and Tweedeck can be handy for monitoring mentions of your brand over social media. As for when and who you respond to, set the tone early. If you reply often, people will expect it. If you don't reply a lot, people will see that as well and might stop engaging with you as often.

2. Crowdsource ideas.
 
Use social media as a marketing research tool. Just as people can reach out to you, follow you and stay connected with you, business owners can do the same with their customers. Social media is a two-way street.

Say, for instance, you're getting ready to launch a new product. You can ask your fans and followers what they think about specific details like which colors they prefer or what types of features they want. Not only can you get real, valuable market research at no cost, you're involving the consumer in decisions. Asking customers for their opinions can help show that they matter, and when they see their ideas become a reality, ideally you create brand and product champions.

3. Keep an eye on the competition.

Remember the old saying: Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.

When it comes to business, it's good to know what your competitors and other companies in your market niche are doing. By keeping an eye on their social media feeds, you can learn a lot about a company -- what it is doing differently, what it's good at and what it's bad it. Use this information to implement things in your strategy that you might be missing such as contests, giveaways or forms of content that their followers respond to most.

4. Establish yourself as an industry expert.

Nobody can know what you know unless you share your knowledge. By sharing information like tips, advice and answering questions about your industry, you can position yourself as a valuable resource.

Develop a content-sharing strategy where you respond to questions daily, provide unsolicited tips and share your perspective on industry news. Over sites like Twitter and reddit, also consider scheduling events such as question and answer sessions. Let your followers know that you'll be hosting the session, set the date and time, and determine the theme or topic you'd like to discuss. Then let your followers know that you'll try to answer everything they ask.











































View the Original article

Twitter was never meant to be a social network. In fact Twitter started life as an internal messaging service for a podcasting company just over seven years ago.



But how things have changed.

On the social web we live on a diet of fast change and rapid media evolution. Twitter’s slow burning maturation often flies below the radar and Facebook changes such as the new timeline and graph search attract numerous blog articles, comments on Facebook and mass media attention.

Twitter has become a multi-media social network without anyone really noticing.

Are you just tweeting text?

Many of us are just using it for tweeting text and links and forget that you can increase engagement by including video, images and even Slideshare presentations that can be viewed within the Twitter platform. Twitter is hoping that we will use the network to share multi-media in new ways.They are even punting on changing the world of video marketing and communication by integrating their new 6 second video service called Vine into the Twitter ecosystem.

Twitter’s aim is to make video an acceptable marketing medium that is short, snappy and sharp, that cuts through the clutter just like they have done with the humble 140 character text.

Effective marketing is multi-channel and multi-media

The question is often asked “what social network should you be using?“. The answer is, “As many as you can manage and that time and resources allow where your target audience is hanging out”

Multi-channel marketing should be your goal.

Coca Cola knows this well and Wendy Clark the  senior VP-integrated marketing communications and capabilities at Coca Cola had this to say about effective marketing strategies in a digital world.

“None of our plans are simply social, or TV, or mobile or experiential. On the contrary, it’s the combination of owned, earned, shared and paid media connections“.

She went on to say

“No single medium is as strong as the combination of media”

To highlight this point she mentioned that for their Olympic campaign in 2012, Coca Cola used 60 different types of media!

In other words multi-channel  and multi-media combined are vital to create marketing synergies that have the potential to become viral.

Did you know this about Twitter?

Twitter has released some internal research that shows how multi-media rich its platform has become and also its increasing role as an effective buzz and engagement tool that can used by journalists, news organisations and  users to increase their Twitter followers and retweets.

#1. Tweeting more gets you more followers

For journalists who post a concentrated number of Tweets in a short time span, follower growth is 50% more than expected.

 

#2. You can send tweets with a text message

Twitter was born with mobile in its DNA and that is obvious from its 140 character limit that was designed around the texting constraints of  mobile SMS. When Twitter became embedded within Apple’s mobile operating system it reached a tipping point that has continued to cement its place as the the web’s go to channel for breaking news and quick bytes of information.

Twitter can be set up to integrate with your texting.



Not only can you send tweets with a text message but you can receive text messages when someone new follows you, your tweet is retweeted and even when your tweet is marked as a favourite.

Below is the screen you see when setting up your mobile for texts and Twitter. To make sure that you aren’t receiving texts all the time from someone new following you or retweets it may be best to turn most of these off.



#3. Tweets with media receive on average 3 to 4 times more engagement

Twitter started as mono-media but has evolved into a multi-media social network. Media can include videos, photos and even Slideshare that can be viewed within Twitter. Tweets with multi-media receive 300-400% more engagement than tweets without media included.



#4. Using more @mentions increases your follower growth faster

Twitter research of its Twitter stream shows news organizations that tweet 20% fewer URLs and 100% more @mentions grow followers 17% more than expected.



#5. Hashtags can increase engagement by almost 100%

According to research from Twitter, journalists using hashtags increased engagement by 100% and the increase was 50%  for news organizations.



#6. Retweeting more gets you more followers

Sharing more but letting them know via a retweet can get you more followers.

So use the retweet button.

Twitter found that journalists with above expected follower growth send 200% more retweets (3X) compared to journalists with below expected follower growth.









































View the Original article

Mistakes are a good thing if you learn from them and they don’t kill you.



Well, that is the common wisdom.

The reality is that mistakes can cost you your job, your relationship and significant dollops of money.

All of these are painful.

Social media provides a public platform that make stuff ups visible at velocity. Humiliation on a global scale is the downside of the social web.

Tweet some stupidity and you have the potential for a viral campaign of the very wrong kind that provides a new category of embarrassment.

Embarrassment at speed.

Public relations agencies have made a lot of money from advising companies on how to be ready or recover from a social media disaster.

So not engaging your brain before you post to Facebook or tweet on Twitter is a mistake that should be avoided at all costs when participating on social media networks.

So what should you do?

There are are some basic principles to keep in mind when you next punch out 140 characters to 200 million people.

• Think before tweeting
• Summon your commonsense
• Don’t drink and tweet
• Don’t tweet when angry
• Implement social media policies or guidelines

There maybe more but these will enable Twitter harm minimization that will help you retain your job, your business and your sanity.

What shouldn’t you do?

Here are 14 Twitter mistakes to be avoided to ensure that the boss values you on Monday morning, your wife still loves you on Friday evening and your career path is not hijacked by an insane moment.


Infographic source: Boot Camp Digital 











































View the Original article

The question that seems to be on everyone’s lips on the social media marketing team is “How can I increase the number of Facebook likes?”



This has led to tactics emerging to increase engagement by posting frenzied Facebook updates many times a day. Brand pages are offering incentives, bribes and tactics that look very much like begging.

Just to gain those precious additional likes.

The magic marketing goals often heard around the water cooler are 1,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 Facebook fans. Always numbers with many zeros.

It all has become a bit unseemly really.

Despite large fan counts being the social media managers holy grail, the core challenge on Facebook is that it is filtered. It is lucky if even 15% of updates such as photos, quotes and videos even appear in people’s Facebook timelines.

This filter on Facebook is due to censoring being applied by the social network called “Edge Rank”.
So the question that needs to be asked is this “Is a Facebook like worth what we think it is?”

The Twitter advantage

Twitter might seem a bit more wild west. But its advantage is that is not filtered. Every tweet appears in your followers streams.

This is something that the marketing team quite often forgets.

What is not appreciated by many is that it is easier to build a loyal tribe of fans on Twitter who are interested in your content and subject than it is on Facebook.

Maybe you should rethink your social media strategy?

Top tactics to gain more Twitter followers

So how do you get more Twitter followers?

• Follow people on Twitter. The law of reciprocation is what works with this tactic
• Have great content that links from your Twitter account. People will check you out and if your content is good on your blog or website then it is more likely you will be followed
• Engage with your followers on Twitter with retweets, comments and questions
• Make it easy for people to follow you on Twitter from your website by including a follow me on Twitter button that is obvious and near the top of your page

40 ways to increase your Twitter tribe

So you are still short of ideas? Here is an infographic to get you started.



Infographic Source: Twiends














































View the Original article

Social media marketing is simple in one sense. Create content that adds value and then pop it out to as many people’s eyeballs as possible.

That’s reach.

If you do it well then the crowd shares and it travels around the world at the speed of a click. Get lucky and it goes viral and those thousands turn into millions.

So, have you been spending time on social media and are looking for ways to expand your social media reach?

If you’ve been an avid user of social media networks, I’m sure you’ve heard all about the benefits and what it can do for your business. So I won’t be going down that road and “lecture” it to you.

Instead of doing that, I want to go straight ahead and share some tips and tricks that have helped build my social media reach.

1. Share useful content

Probably the simplest and most basic step – but definitely one that you can’t escape – is the need to share useful content. If you want to expand your social media reach you have to be writing and sharing great articles, blog posts, tips and tricks that add value to your community constantly.

When people find that you are helping to them solve a problem that they’ve been having or adding value to their everyday lives, they are more likely to not only subscribe to your blog and follow you, but they might also share it with their followers and fans and even talk about you in their blog.  Social profiles or blogs that are successful have one common similarity, which is each and every last one of them share valuable content for their readers.

Another tip to remember when posting content is that you must be consistent. You can’t be writing or sharing one day and disappear for the next month or two. You have to be consistent so that people would remember you and remember to visit your social media platforms to get their updated content.

2. Organize a social media contest

A social media contest is a great way to reward loyal followers, fans, or readers who have been following you for a while. It can be used to extend your social media reach too.

Social media contests can be used as a motivation for new audience to share or connect their social media profile and emails. Social media contest platforms like Binkd not only comes with an email-capture function where people would need to fill in before joining a contest, but it also comes with a share or tweet button to get people to share the contest.



And since your goal would be to get as many new contacts as possible, Binkd has made it so that, for Facebook contests, participants will be motivated to refer some of their friends and family as they would be able to get another entry when someone they refer decides to enter your contest. This means that when more referred people joins your contest, the more entries they earn.

For Twitter contests, fans would need to tweet to validate their entry helping your contest go viral and increase subscribers.

3. Guest Post

Guest posts (like this one) is an excellent way to expand your reach, it helps you to reach readers that you weren’t able to reach beforehand by tapping into an unfamiliar community.

My metaphor for guest-posting is like being invited to speak at a fully packed conference. Prior to the conference, not many people might know who you are or what you do but after your talk, people will know about you and will most likely want to know more about you and your business.

Buffer is a great example of a startup who have used guest-posts to increase their reach, customers and sales. Guest-posts alone had helped them increase their customer base to over 100,000 people in a year.

4. Learn how to maximize your marketing

Every social network has their little ways to maximize your marketing. Each social network have their strengths and functionality, and one of the mistakes most people do is post the same exact set of messages to EVERY social network.

Why is this a huge mistake? Because every social network is optimized differently. For example, on Twitter people use hashtags to increase reach, but nobody uses hashtags when posting on Facebook.

On Facebook, pictures work well to attract attention and expand reach. But people tend to overlook this and decide that it’s alright to post tweets with hashtags and link it to their Facebook status. Not only does it not work, the problem is they are posting the least effective type of content on Facebook.

Join Twitter chats

A Twitter chat is like a group discussion multiplied by 100! It’s a “chat” held during a particular time and day where Twitter users would get together to discuss a particular topic and share their own ideas, tips, and thoughts using a particular hashtag.

It’s also a great way to expand your social media reach and get noticed when not many people know who you are.

Following those who are on Twitter chats help you to follow relevant people in your market too.
There are many Twitter chats available out there. Here is HUGE list of twitter chats

6.  Use infographics

Here is a little secret that I learned on a webinar by Kissmetrics, it is no other than infographics! If you follow this blog closely, you’ll notice Kissmetrics uses infographics in their posts. They have used infographics to grow their blog and it has brought them over 2 million visitors.



Here are is a tip shared by Neil Patel in the webinar.

The topic of the infographic has to be unique and relatable. It shouldn’t be too basic as it won’t benefit the reader. Stats, facts and data is extremely important. How color affects purchases is an example of a great infographic. This infographic alone has over 10,000 social shares!

Building your social media reach takes time and a lot of commitment. You have to put in the hard work before you are able to reap the results but it is a small price to pay to be able to grow an amazing community behind you.















































View the Original article

1.Pheed

Pheed is available, for free, from the App Store. An Android app is "coming soon."
Image courtesy of Pheed


2. Sign In

You can sign up with your Facebook or Twitter accounts, or via email.
Image courtesy of Pheed


3. Subscribe

As part of the sign in process you have to subscribe to three channels. Unfortunately at this stage you only get to see usernames and images, but you can spend more time browsing channels once you've gone through the sign in process.

Image courtesy of Pheed


4. Your Channel

You can write a bio and add a background image to your channel...

Image courtesy of Pheed


5. Invite Friends

...Before inviting friends to join you on Pheed.

Image courtesy of Pheed


6. Friend Lists

You can also find friends via your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

Image courtesy of Pheed


7. Find Channels and Content

You can find new channels to follow by hitting the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of your screen.
You can also search for content from the same page on a keyword "hashtag" basis.

Image courtesy of Pheed


8. Settings

Tapping the person icon at the bottom of your screen will take you to your account.
From here you can edit your profile, find friends, change images, manage notifications and view your channel.

Image courtesy of Pheed


9. Manage What You Share

From the "My Account" page, you can also manage what you auto-share from the app.
If you click on "Share Settings" you can tailor exactly what kind of Pheed activity you want published to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Image courtesy of Pheed


10. Timeline and Filtering

You can view your Timeline by tapping on the house-shaped icon at the bottom of your screen.

This content can then be filtered by hitting the circle icon at the top, giving you seven filtering options. They are as follows:

All Content - displays all of the content available on the timeline
Block Remixes - blocks all remixes from appearing in the timeline
Text - displays all of the text pheeds available on the timeline
Audio - displays all of the audio content available on the timeline
Photo - displays all of the pictures available on the timeline
Video - displays all of the videos available on the timeline
Broadcast - displays current and previous broadcasts

Image courtesy of Pheed


11. Notifications

The speech bubble icon takes you to your "Notifications" page.

Image courtesy of Pheed


12. Sharing and Keepers

If you see a Pheed you like, you can "Love" it by tapping the heart icon, share it to other social networks or save it as a "Keeper." You can then view your Keepers from the "Your Account" menu.
You can also give "Pheedback" by commenting on Pheeds.

Image courtesy of Pheed


13. Remixes

Pheed calls reposting Pheeds "Remixing." You can "Remix" a post by tapping the arrow icon, this will then appear on your channel page.

Image courtesy of Pheed


14. Creating a Pheed

When you're ready to create your first Pheed, you simply tap the pencil and paper icon.
Pheeds can be text-based, which is the default compose option.

Image courtesy of Pheed


15. Photo Pheed

You can also create photo Pheeds by tapping the camera icon.
You can either upload images from your Camera Roll or take a new pic.

Image courtesy of Pheed


16. Video Pheed

You can make video Pheeds with the camcorder icon, either from saved video in your Camera Roll, or via your iPhone's camera.

Image courtesy of Pheed


17. Audio Pheed

And there's also the option to post an audio Pheed.

Image courtesy of Pheed


18. Copyright

Pheed is big on the issue of ownership of content. All uploaded content is owned by the user, Pheed retains no rights or ownership toward it.

Pheed offers a built-in copyright tool. As you upload a Pheed, hitting the "©" button will add a copyright notification and your channel name to the post..

Image courtesy of Pheed


19. Copyright Notice

You can see the copyright notice on this published photo Pheed.

Image courtesy of Pheed


20. Editing, Sharing and Deleting

Once you've pubished a Pheed clicking on the box at the top right with three dots in it gives you the option to share it to your social networks.

You can't edit a Pheed after it's gone live, so if you need to delete your post, this is also where you'll find that option.

Image courtesy of Pheed


22. Live Broadcasting

It's worth noting you can also live broadcast via the Pheed website.

Head on over to Pheed, sign in and click on "Create New Pheed."

The far right tab gives you the option to create a live broadcast.

Image courtesy of Pheed


21. Monetization

While most users will use Pheed purely as a social network, it should be noted there is the ability to monetize your content.

You can charge anything from $1.99 to $34.99 for pay-per-view live broadcasts, or $1.99 to $34.99 for your monthly channel subscriptions.

The Pheed revenue share program pays 50% of your channel's gross earnings a month.
To opt into this program, head to the "Your Account" page of the iPhone app and scroll down to "Monetize."

Image courtesy of Pheed


Have you sent your first "Pheed" yet? Launched late last year, Pheed is a new social media platform that lets you share text, photos, videos and audio. Propelled by teenage users, Pheed topped the App Store's social networking category in late February.

Though the company says the app is not just for teens, Pheed told Mashable the user base is 81% between age 14 and 25.

Pheed's popularity with teens was spurred by several influential teenagers on Twitter sharing that they'd discovered the app. First was Acacia Brinley, followed by Pia Mia, Garrett Backstorm and Colin Ford.
Both a website and a mobile app, Pheed is currently available for free online and via the App Store.

We've taken a first look at the iPhone app, giving you a quick guide to how to get started with the new social service.


































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