Gaining popularity on social media is only half the battle. How do you convert those "Likes" into paying customers?

According to data compiled by Wishpond, a maker of social-media marketing applications, 77 percent of business-to consumer (B2C) marketers have acquired customers through Facebook, while business-to-business (B2B) marketers have found more success on LinkedIn -- finding it a whopping 277% more effective than Facebook or Twitter.


For more on how social-media marketing helps generate business leads and ideas to stand out to potential customers, take a look at the infographic below.

Social media marketing is often seen as the quick fix for marketing your struggling business.



Obtain some Facebook likes, even buy some fake Twitter followers, tell customers you are the best company in the world in your blog articles and start blasting away. The cavalry will then show up on white horses and save the day.

The truth.
It takes time, effort and persistence.

The real premise of social media is adding value with content that engages your customers which inspires, educates, informs and maybe even entertains. This means forgetting about “you” and thinking about “them”

This means adding value to your audience by solving their problems with content that includes “How To” articles,white papers and ebooks on your blog and website.

Small businesses see the potential of tapping into Social Media. They come with different expectations that are built on the foundations of traditional marketing which include one way conversations, email blasts with only sales messages and  not willing to listen to negative comments.

Here are three common mistakes you should avoid with your social media marketing.

Mistake #1.  Delete unwanted comments

Some businesses think of social media as a free platform to broadcast commercial messages which will somehow go viral very quickly. Yet they have been slow to embrace this media due to one major concern.

The dreaded “negative” comment.

They are aware that this same channel can be used by the public to spread less desirable comments about the brand.

So instead of planning strategies that engage with the community, businesses have social media police on standby who are ever ready to delete unwanted comments or queries.

This is not necessary nor desirable.

Getting social is about making connections that would lead to further actions. That includes getting to know and listening to the views of your guests. It is in observing what your market likes, shares and comments that you get a better sense of what’s on their minds.  And these insights help you adapt your products and services to cater to their needs.

A business that only wants to receive positive comments is not ready to go into a deeper business relationship with your audience. Your brand will be perceived to be defensive or narrow minded and conversion cannot take place. This fear-base mentality does not attract raving or loyal clients.

I recommend instead that clients be engaging and respond to comments in a positive and timely manner, and turn every conversation into an opportunity that builds trust.

Mistake #2.  Auto-Post the same message on all social networks.

Many small businesses do not have the time to tend to their social media accounts. They want  a magic button that would post their messages across different social media channels and give them unlimited coverage.

I tell them this magic button does not exist.

I suggest instead that businesses focus on one or two platforms and take time to show up authentically to connect with their market. People hang around Social Media networks looking to chill or have a conversation. They do not respond well to robots that auto post messages from other Social Media channels.

If you would not say the same thing in a board meeting as you would in a social party, why then would you auto post the same message across different social media platforms?

By the way, hash tags look really ugly on Facebook.

Mistake #3. Blast first, control damage later

This is one of the most popular mistakes that businesses make. They want to broadcast emails with commercial messages to contacts without first getting their consent such as via an optin on their blog. Some would happily buy or exchange email lists so they can reach more people in a shorter time.

While businesses are aware that response rate in these cases will be low,  some are still willing to go ahead. Why? They see this as a quick and cheap way to get their messages into the mail boxes of thousands of people.

I tell them these mails may not never reach any inboxes let alone be read.

Businesses need to be reminded that their reputation is at stake and that relationships can be easily damaged with unsolicited emails. I spend a lot of time explaining the importance of permission-based marketing to potential clients.

Some would argue that since they are receiving this sort of mails they should be able to do the same.
But common practice does not necessarily represent best practice. I  recommend that clients ask for specific consent from prospects before sending any commercial newsletters. After all I don’t want my clients to be flagged as spamming.

Forcing messages onto others, even if you provide them with the unsubscribe link, does not show respect and will not give you the happy loyal clients you are looking for.

So how do you use social media for marketing?

Social Media Marketing is not about putting up a Facebook page or blasting email messages. It is an additional tool in your total marketing plan. To better understand what Social Media is and how it can help your business you’ll need to invest time in learning this or hire someone who knows how this thing works.

Work with the specialist so you don’t end up losing more in the long term







































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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.



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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.











































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Call it an epiphany: Social is officially mobile.

Several weeks ago, I was looking at the user data for one of the brands that I manage and one statistic stuck out more than others. Nearly 60 percent of the people who interact with that brand do so via smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device. I started checking other brands, and the numbers were all similar.


The majority of people interacting with our content were doing so from a mobile device.

Nielsen’s State of the Media: Social Media Report confirms that our brands aren't alone.

In 2012, the time spent accessing Facebook via mobile increased 85 percent, Twitter 140 percent, LinkedIn 114 percent, and Pinterest 4,225 percent. That’s a staggering increase. Forty-six percent of social media users say they use their smartphone to access social media; 16 percent say they connect to social media using a tablet.

Here are a five easy tips to help you optimize your social media content for mobile readers:

1. Be much more thoughtful about when you’re posting.

The average Facebook post gets 50 percent of its reach and engagement in the first 30 minutes of being posted, according to Socialbakers. It’s all downhill from there.

Start asking yourself: Where is my audience going to be in the hour or so after we post this? Is there an opportunity to capture them where they are at that moment and inspire action or tap into an emotion that you know a large number of your fans are experiencing at that time?

Don’t limit it to experimenting with when you post, either. If you have an assumption about where your audience is consuming your content (specifically, where they are on Earth), you can create some calls to action and inspire them to engage that way.

For instance, Instagram, where the mobile engagement is close to 100 percent, is great for this: “Show us what you’re doing now and how our product fits into that.”

2. Add value to the mobile experience -- which differs from adding value to the desktop or laptop experience.

The greater the distance you make your fans travel in mobile, the worse the experience becomes. No one wants to hop from one app to another—to another—to download your app that, let’s be honest, isn’t all that cool in the first place. On a desktop or laptop, people are more forgiving when it comes to bouncing around the Web. You have to be more respectful of the mobile experience.

Similarly, if you’re in the Facebook or Pinterest app and you click on a brand’s link, it’s going to send you to a website. Unless you’ve checked that link in social, you’re not 100 percent sure where you’re sending them. It might look great on your laptop, but on mobile it could look like a Geocities site and do your brand a huge disservice.

Keep your posts simple and undeniably specific to your brand.

3. Design for mobile first.

Keep your font sizes legible on your graphics. If you’re tapping through to a photo, you don’t want to have to zoom in on something just to read it. If you’re taking the time to design an asset, make sure you’re taking the time to design it so that mobile users can read it.

The default has been to design social assets for the desktop or laptop experience and back into mobile. Reverse that. Design for mobile, and it will back into the desktop experience.

4. Test different mobile platforms to understand the differences.

If you post a photo album on Facebook, you can’t click on the links that you've put in the captions of the individual photos if you’re using an iPhone or Android phone. However, those links work when you’re using most tablets. That’s good to know if you want to drive traffic in mobile.

Of course, that’s just one of the many quirks and intricacies when it comes to presenting social content in mobile. Understanding the user experience across devices is important in making sure your posts are accomplishing their desired outcomes.

5. Check your analytics.

Every brand is different, and every audience is different. Before you completely shift the way you’ve been creating and posting content, take the time to dig deep into your metrics and understand where your engagement is coming from. Certain demographics will use mobile more than others.

For the brand I mentioned earlier, males 18-34 had the highest instance of engaging with our content through mobile (nearly 75 percent). We were able to make some assumptions based on that and test some content around those assumptions.

Test, measure, analyze, optimize, rinse, repeat.

















This story originally appeared on PR Daily

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.















































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Blogging started as personal online diaries, Twitter popped up first as an internal podcasting platform and Facebook was born out of a frustrated date.

The journey of online publishing and social networks was never a grand plan but it is the evolution of humans playing on a web canvas that continues to surprise us with its speed, reach and role in influencing buying decisions, building trust and marketing personal and business brands.
A decade later the internet landscape is unrecognizable. We are all still learning about what works and what doesn’t.

A recent report on “Digital Influence” by Technorati Media provides some insights into the fast evolving landscape that provides some metrics on the digital landscape. It was created from information gleaned from over 6,000 influencers, 1,200 consumers and 150 top brand marketers.

Technorati Media has a reach of of approximately 130 million US unique visitors per month and has published reports in the past on the state of the blogsosphere.

Social media is a small part of digital advertising

The report shows that despite social media having enormous mind share it is only 10% of all digital advertising spending. It also reveals that online influencers such bloggers are not being included in marketing programs due to lack of metrics from the likes of Nielsen and Comscore and also the lack of understanding of the power they wield online.

1. Blogs have significant influence on purchase decisions

Blogs are one of the top online services to influence a purchase. When making overall purchase decisions consumers rank blogs rank third behind retail and brand sites.  Despite this inflencing power brands are spending very little on blogging advertising and marketing initiatives with bloggers.


According to the Technorati Media research it seems this has more to do with a lack of metrics and the fragmentation that leads to their complexity as a purchasable medium.

In essence it seems it is too hard for brands to measure and buy advertising on blogs.

2. More Brands are on Instagram than Google+

When it comes to a social media presence the top three choices are clear. Facebook at 91%, Twitter at 85% and YouTube at 73%. The rest all then fall below 50%. What is surprising is that Google+ despite its rapid growth and its 500 million plus users is still struggling as a choice and relevance as a  platform that brands believe adds value to their digital marketing.

 

Blogs have a significant place in the top eight being placed at 6th at 32% above Instagram and Google+.

3. Social is only 10% of the digital advertising budget

You would thinks that with all the noise online about Facebook and Twitter that it would be a big part of paid advertising. The reality is much different than the buzz.

The top 3 include:

• Display ads such as banner website advertising – 41%
• Search advertising such as Google Adwords – 19%
• Video advertising including YouTube – 14%

Total spending on social media advertising is only 10% across all social media networks with Facebook taking 57% of that pie. Blogs only obtain 5% of the overall advertising budget that is allocated to social.



What is interesting is that mobile is growing at 8%.

4. Over half of Brands have “earned” social media goals

Growing Facebook “likes is still the main objective for most marketers with website traffic, Facebook fans and Twitter followers following close behind. Brands are also placing major  earned goals against landing page visits, Retweets and comments.

Pinterest followers and repins are in the top 10.



What I do find surprising is how low the importance email has as an earned goal metric.

5. Brands aren’t taking much notice of Klout

When it comes to selecting which influencers to work with then the following metrics are the top four are:

1. Audience index from Comscore and Nielsen
2. Twitter 
3. Facebook
4. Basic blog statistics such as unique users and page views

Despite the only recent addition of Pinterest and Instagram to social media mind share they are in consideration as a an influencer metric.



Even though Klout,  Peer index and Kred are on the list they rank as less than neutral.

6. If you want to be an influencer you need to blog

Influencers have realized that to have their voice heard on a social web then they need to have a blog. The power of the reach and velocity of online publishing supercharged by social media cannot be underestimated.

A third of influencers also said that they have been blogging for five or more years.



7. Text blogging dominates on influencers blogs

Despite the rise and use of multimedia it seems that text is still the main communication media. The magic of the written word is not going away anytime soon it appears



8. Facebook and Twitter dominate where influencers get social

Online influencers have realised that to communicate and message online that the two social networks that are mandatory are Facebook and Twitter. This can be seen in the blue metric below that shows Facebook is published to once a week 83% of the time and Twitter sits at 71%.

The rest such as LinkedIn and Google+ are not above 30%.

The research also show that  Facebook and Twitter create the most referrals, the most shares and generates the most revenue.



9. The majority of influencers make revenue from blogging.

Despite nearly two-thirds of influencers making money from blogging for 80% it generates less than $10,000 per year in revenue. 11% make more than $30,000 per year and 4% make more than $100,000 per annum.



10. Banner advertising is the top revenue generator for bloggers

The top three by a large margin  include banner advertising in top position with text ads and affiliate programs at two and three. Sponsored content such as sponsored articles, product reviews and brand content round out the top 6.

The number of banner ads is an interesting metric with only 1% having more than 10.



Conclusions

The report also makes some relevant insights into what the influencers major pain points were when being approached by brands.

Here are the top three.

• Brands expect that the bloggers time is available for free – 68%
• Pitches by brands are sometimes irrelevant – 50%
• Brands don’t listen to the blogger/influencers ideas about what works for their audience – 38%

It also appears that lack of knowledge of the role and the power of online influencers and the lack of available and trusted metrics is making it hard for brands to justify spending advertising budgets on influencer marketing.

Maybe that will change as measurement tools mature and brands realize the growing power of online bloggers and influencers.































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Facebook unveiled its "new" News Feed Thursday, and while we won't know the full range of effects it will have on the pages of brands and publishers for some time, Facebook has provided a few clues to help administrators optimize their pages ahead of its rollout.

First, let's take a look at the changes. The new News Feed is cleaner, more visual and has more filtering controls. The size of photos and videos have been enlarged, making the quality of visual media more important than ever before. That's great news for magazines and other publishers with deep photo resources; for publishers that rely largely on Creative Commons or stock imagery, the challenge is greater.



In addition to larger photos and videos, Facebook has introduced a number of "sub feeds" to give users greater control over what updates appear in their streams. Users can opt to view updates from All or just Close Friends, only photo updates, only music updates, only updates from pages and public figures they follow (i.e., subscribe to), only updates from Groups and only updates from game apps. They can also view updates in reverse-chronological order.

While these changes could have a negative impact on publishers' pages, particularly if users opt to spend all or most of their time viewing updates from their Close Friends, Facebook insists it could be a boon as well, because users can switch over to the "Following" feed to get updates outside their friend circles precisely when they want them.



Beyond those changes, the look of the new News Feed is far more consistent across smartphones, tablets and desktops than previously. For a visual overview of the alterations, click through our slideshow, or check out Facebook's official overview.

Optimization Strategies

Publishers can make some changes to their content to take advantage of the coming changes. Here's a few recommendations:

1. Invest in high-quality, high-resolution images. High-quality imagery is more important than ever before. Photos now make up nearly half of all News Feed stories, according to Facebook, up from 30% just a year ago. That growth is likely to accelerate now that Facebook is enlarging the size of photos in the News Feed. Facebook recommends publishers use images with a width of at least 552 pixels. As a bonus, publishers no longer need to upload full-sized images next to their story links. According to one Facebook source, Facebook will now display thumbnail photos pulled from story pages at the same size as images uploaded directly to the News Feed. As such, it's important for publishers to upload thumbnail images with a width of at least 552 pixels on their sites.

2. Improve your cover photo. Publishers may have had little incentive to invest in a great cover photo until now because it never showed up in the News Feed. That's about to change. When a group of friends Like or otherwise interact with a Facebook page, that Page may be highlighted in the News Feed with its cover photo on display. As Facebook says, "Having an engaging cover photo that tells your or your Page's story is even more important to improve your discovery through connection stories."



3. Post about trending topics. News stories about a single topic will be highlighted in thumbnail-rich carousels in the News Feed, like the one featuring Taylor Swift stories, below. Thus it may be more advantageous to share trending rather than outlier stories on Facebook.



4. Share different types of media. If publishers want to have a presence in users' sub feeds — namely, their photo and music feeds — consider sharing more photos, and linking a company Spotify or Rdio account to Facebook.





























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Even with the huge emphasis placed on permission marketing lately, so many marketers still fail to understand that consumers don’t like to be yelled at.

The paradigm of interruption marketing went out the window long ago and, if you’re not careful, you’ll be going out the window with it.

It doesn’t matter if you’re selling cars, advertising a laundromat, or trying to bring readers to your blog — if your social media strategy is to push, push, yell, and push, you’re not going anywhere.

There are five unfortunately popular examples below describing the annoying pushing and yelling that still plagues social media. Are you using any of these tactics?

#1. Automated Direct Messages on Twitter

When someone follows you on Twitter, there isn’t an implicit agreement saying it’s okay to send them a direct message. Twitter isn’t an email list, it’s a conversation. It’s a conversation centered around the concept of giving before receiving. So, that automated DM requesting a LIKE on your Facebook page when you’ve done literally nothing valuable for that new follower is a bit greedy to say the least.

Sending an automated DM to every new person who follows you is bad Twitter etiquette and it’s plainly hypocritical when your Twitter bio brags about how your mantra for social media success is “engagement.”

There’s nothing genuinely engaging about an automated DM you send to every new follower. Don’t kid yourself: It’s beyond easy to spot them too — automated DMs read like an advertisement, have generic messages, and usually aren’t personalized. People catch on with ease. That’s no way to start a relationship with a new follower.

#2. Sending Posts Directly to People on Google+

I’m not sure why every feature on a new social network needs to be abused. As they say, “marketers ruin everything.” That’s a pretty dismal notion, but as a fellow marketer, I have to say we need to be very careful how we use the tools placed in front of us.

Simply because we have an opportunity to push our message to a wider audience doesn’t necessarily mean we always should.

Since Google+ has been growing in popularity, I’ve seen an increase in the number of people using the feature that allows you to share posts directly with people — this sends both a Google+ notification and an email to the receiver.

It’s not a big problem to use this feature occasionally, especially if you’re very selective with who you’re sending the post, but it has the potential to quickly spiral out of control. If you just had a major breakthrough and got published on Forbes or another big name blog, that’s awesome and you should let people know. On the flip side, you don’t need to directly notify people about every new post you publish. This will quickly get your account flagged as spam from a lot of people.

#3. Inviting Everyone and Their Mothers to Contribute to Your Pinterest Group Board

I haven’t seen too many complaints about this yet, but it’s a growing problem. I’ve been getting a lot of invites on Pinterest from random people asking me to contribute to their group Pinterest boards and let me say this:

No, I don’t really want to pin on your Pinterest board. I’ve never met you or had any interaction with you anywhere in the social media sphere.

Group Pinterest boards were definitely meant for collaboration, there’s no doubt about that. However, I doubt the creators of Pinterest envisioned users spamming invites to people who have shared no interactions in the past. If you have relationships with a group of people, collaborating on a group Pinterest board can be a great social media tactic.

The key is the relationship should already exist. If you want to collaborate on a Pinterest board with someone, at least introduce yourself first via a tweet, blog comment, or some other means. Yes, it slows down the process and spamming is easier, but you’re likely to get more people to collaborate if you don’t spam and you’re just being annoying otherwise.

#4. Using Hashtags on Facebook

This isn’t so much an issue of permission-based marketing as it is simply looking like you don’t know what you’re doing.

If you’re a social media marketer at any level and you’re using hashtags on Facebook, there’s a big problem. Of course, most people who do this will say they have their Twitter and Facebook accounts linked.

While I’m not a big fan of connecting accounts, I realize it have benefits in some cases. However, you should be very careful when cross-posting on multiple networks, because using hashtags on Facebook is a shot to your credibility as a social media marketer.

Apart from that, it’s annoying! Hashtags have absolutely no functional value on Facebook as they do on Twitter, Google+, or Pinterest and it really does irk some people when they see hashtags on Facebook. Perception is reality in marketing, so it’s in your best interests to protect your perception.

#5 Sending Mass Google+ Community Invites

This one is unfortunate, because I like to join new Google+ Communities and test the waters. I don’t mind being invited to Communities in principle. What’s annoying is being invited to Communities about pottery, parasailing, breeding rabbits, or climbing trees while holding a baseball bat between your teeth. Okay, those last two didn’t actually happen, but you get the point.

I decided to turn off community invites entirely about two weeks ago, because it just got out of control.

If you insist on inviting people to your Google+ Community, please take the time to target your invites to people who show at least some slight interest in the topic of your Community. For one, it’s simply good manners. For two, it keeps your account from getting marked as spam and subsequently suspended or banned.

What We Need Here is a Little Empathy

I understand we’re all trying to get our messages out there. We want people to see what we’re doing and we want them to love us. That’s a basic human desire and it can definitely be hard to tame.

Let’s pause for a second, though. As humans, we have the ability to step outside our own minds to a degree. We’re able to place ourselves in the shoes of others and feel what they’re feeling — that is the very essence of empathy and at the core of making ethical decisions.

Try this little exercise: The next time you’re sending an automated DM, community invite, email, making a Facebook update, or carrying out any other digital marketing effort, genuinely try to put yourself in the shoes of the person who will be on the receiving end of your message. If you were on the receiving end:

• Would you be annoyed by the message?
• Would you hit the delete button before even giving a second thought to the message?
• Would you want to continue building a relationship with the person who sent the message?

Relationships are built on trust and selflessness, not a constant ring of, “Give me, give me, give me.” Every detail matters in marketing, so I challenge you to take this exercise seriously the next time you’re preparing to send a message to others via social media.



































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The TweetDeck app is dead -- at least it will be soon.

The service, which Twitter bought in 2011, announced on its blog on Monday that it will discontinue its mobile and desktop versions, including the apps TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for Android, and TweetDeck for iPhone.


According to the TweetDeck blog, the apps will be removed from their respective stores in early May and will stop working shortly after that. The company also said it will discontinue support for its Facebook integration.

“To continue to offer a great product that addresses your unique needs, we’re going to focus our development efforts on our modern, web-based versions of TweetDeck,” the company said on its blog.

TweetDeck emerged as one of the more popular and useful tools for monitoring and tracking conversations on Twitter. It was free, and it was useful. Recently, however, it’s become less popular with social media managers. TweetDeck was stuck in a middle ground -- the average Twitter user doesn’t need a management tool, and brand managers tend to gravitate toward the more sophisticated tools.

However, if TweetDeck’s demise leaves you scrambling for a new social media management tool, here are a few of the top alternatives -- they’re not free, but they do offer a host of services that go beyond most free monitoring tools:

Better for social media publishing: 

HootSuite. One of the most popular Twitter management tools, HootSuite enables you to manage multiple accounts across multiple social platforms. Last September, HootSuite acquired another top TweetDeck alternative, Seesmic.

Sprout Social. Here’s another popular management tool in which you can schedule posts and get snapshot metrics. It’s not free, nor as cheap as HootSuite, but it’s customizable in ways that HootSuite isn’t.

SpredFast. This tool markets itself to large brands and caters to them, while Sprout and HootSuite could be just as effective if you were using it for personal account management.

Better for social listening/monitoring: 

Radian6 (now called Salesforce Marketing Cloud). Clients are often comfortable when their agencies use Radian6. It’s relatively easy to use, and empowers companies to clearly understand their place in social.

Crimson Hexagon. Looking for in-depth sentiment metrics to help you determine your overall social strategy? This is absolutely your tool. The depth of information you can mine from Crimson Hexagon is truly awesome.

Sysomos. Although Sysomos is less sophisticated than Radian6 or Crimson Hexagon, it is easy to use for quick monitoring around your brand. It’s better as an everyday tool than the others.




































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With the Oscars 2013 broadcast less than a day away, everyone's wondering who will win. Social media has an answer, and we've compiled the data into the infographic, below.

The Meltwater Group has been tracking social media for the past month, gathering information about the Oscar nominees from Twitter, Facebook, blogs, comments and YouTube videos. Researchers delivered data on the Oscars' top six categories.

While the actual names of the Oscar winners are safely sealed inside envelopes to be opened on Sunday night, the popularity contest that is social media offers hints at what might transpire.

During the collection of this social-media data, there's been one especially tight race: Best Picture. Until our last roundup of data gathered late Friday afternoon, the movie Lincoln held the top spot for Best Picture. However, Argo is now more popular among our respondents in the world of social media.

How accurate is this data? One indication is to see how Meltwater's picks did the last time we worked with the company, back in 2011. When it retrieved information about the three main categories — Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress — Meltwater's social-media sample predicted two of the three winners.

As a result, our infographic showed The King's Speech as winner of Best Picture (correct), James Franco as Best Actor (incorrect) for 127 Hours and Natalie Portman as Best Actress (correct) for Black Swan.

Armed with this 66% success rate, perhaps your Oscars office pool might be a little more accurate than it would have been.

So how about you, readers? Do you have any predictions for Oscars 2013? Allow me to be first: I've seen all nine Best Picture nominees, and I liked Lincoln the best — but think the crowd-pleasing Argo will win.


Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Dave B.





































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Pinterest's motto is that "no matter what you're interested in, there's a place for it here," but Austin Phillips has found this to be problematic for creative professionals using the service who want to find very specific content.

"I started talking with a lot of other designers and creators, asking 'Do you use Pinterest? Do you like it? And the overwhelming response was that they use it, but don't like it because it's too cluttered," Phillips told Mashable. "If you want to find design, photography or videos, you have to sift through recipes and other stuff you're not interested in."

With that in mind, Phillips and his wife Natalia decided to create a new social bookmarking site in their spare time geared specifically towards professionals who focus on "the visual side of creativity," like designers, photographers and illustrators. The end result was The Matboard, a website that launched publicly earlier this week after several months in beta.

The Matboard's mission is to inspire creative professionals with collections of ads, magazine designs, illustrations, infographics and more curated by a community of like-minded users. There are more than 2,000 items currently posted to the site, though a little more than half of those were selected and uploaded by Phillips and his wife. Like Pinterest, these visuals are presented in tiles, or "boards," organized into various categories and the site offers social integration with Facebook and Twitter. But the team has also made a conscious effort to move away from some of Pinterest's design elements, including foregoing having comments show up on top of each picture to reduce clutter.



"I didn't want it to be another Pinterest, that was never the intention," Austin says. In fact, he says he originally had the idea for the site four years ago (before Pinterest launched) while studying graphic design in college, but he ultimately decided to "put it on the backburner" for awhile. A few years later, Austin, a designer, and Natalia, who works in marketing, partnered with a programmer and bootstrapped development of the site.

In addition to serving as a source of inspiration, Austin says The Matboard will help creative professionals build and share visual portfolios of their work, similar to Behance. Going forward, he says the service will start to fine-tune what users see based on the styles of work that they typically browse through to ensure that they only see things that are relevant to them.

Images courtesy of The Matboard





































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Global revenues from social media are projected to hit $16.9 billion in 2012, a 43.1% jump over the previous year, according to Gartner.

The bulk of that will come from advertising, which will contribute $8.8 billion. Social gaming revenue is next at $6.2 billion and subscriptions account for another $278 million. The researcher predicts “moderate growth” for the segment in coming years, though Gartner declined to share specific figures.

The advertising figure appears to be in line with a similar projection by eMarketer, which predicts $7.7 billion in social media ad revenues for 2012 and $11.9 billion by 2014. The U.S.’s share of such revenues will stay at around 53% over the next couple of years, according to eMarketer, which does not have an aggregate figure for social media revenues.



To put the figure in perspective, the Interactive Advertising Bureau estimates that global ad revenues for Internet advertising were $31 billion in 2011. Display ads accounted for $11.8 billion. The IAB didn’t break out figures for social media advertising.














































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In my professional career, I have come across many different types of people, with different personalities, resulting in different communication skills and habits. Most of these people have found a way of connecting to other people in their own special way.

Some just run around business events and talk to everybody, others wait until other people start a conversation, some need to hold talks to have something to say, some have such an intriguing personality that they attract others just by being there… There are many different personalities and you will meet them all in your social media activities.

People are individuals and all behave individually, but once you have identified the basic personalities and their communicative habits, you can act accordingly. Here are some tips how to identify and connect to the basic characters in social media.

#1. The Shy

These people usually do not start a conversation, but wait until someone talks to them. In Social Media shyness is a problem, as you are fairly invisible if you do not take part in any conversation. The shy do not usually get in contact on their own account. To gain anything, they have to provide some reason for other people to notice them and to get in touch.

In offline networking, you can at least see the shy ones lurking in a corner (or so their stereotype would suggest). In online life, these people are harder to find. If they do not publish or communicate, the only chance you have got is stumbling across their profile. Hopefully, some of the keywords in these people’s resumes will match your search.

Takeaway: Be open to communication with The Shy, but do not waste energy to hunt them down. They will learn to come to you (and others) if they want to survive in social media.

#2. The Politician

The Politician jumps on every opportunity to communicate and interact. He or she comments on everything, to everyone, and gets in the mix in various heated and/or popular discussions – all while keeping his or her goals in mind. The Politician publishes great content, with the mission to engage and convert.

In social media, the politician has a large stage and seeks to reap the benefits from his or her widespread audience.

Takeaway: You will have an easy time finding the politician and connecting to him or her, as communication is the means to his or her survival. Followers of the politician should be aware – the author has a purpose and has produced content accordingly. You might have a harder time getting the attention of the ever-active Politician or nailing them to a deal, so make sure he or she sees the advantage in your offer to interact.

 #3. The Self-Promoter

The Self-Promoter takes part in social media communication and discussions solely with his or her own purpose in mind. Unlike The Politician, the Self-Promoter is not looking to have a dialogue; he or she is looking for a microphone. The Self-Promoter usually begins “conversations” with information about his products or services. After seconds usually gets his pitch out and asks you to buy something. No matter what the original discussion was about, the second sentence in his answer will always be about his own products or services.

Takeaway: The Self-Promoter will (most often) find you. The problem may be to avoid their incessant reminders or to get any useful information from them. If you want to interact with The Self-Promoter, be ready to listen and buy (as you will have a hard time being heard). Be careful not to write them off too quickly – The Self-Promoter might just promote something that is useful to you.

#4. The Helpful

The Helpful is always there to provide strong answers and positive feedback. They provide insightful information in their content, for which reason they are nice follow on Twitter. You will probably gain much knowledge and many useful links from their tweets. Nice to connect to, The Helpful is always willing to step in with answers and recommendations.

Takeaway: The Helpful is the ideal social media connection. You gain a lot from their knowledge and willingness to share. If you ever need their services, you will probably go to them with a good feeling and trust in their willingness to serve you without the fear of being used. If you have something to offer, the helpful will probably even be willing to help you get relevant connections interested in your service.

 #5. The Nagger

No matter what you post, The Nagger will find a way to point out your flaw (“It’s: too long, too basic, the wrong forum, the wrong time of day, too much information, too little information, I read about that yesterday, you posted somewhere else, too.”) From The Nagger, you can expect any kind of creative, negative comment without any real substance.

Takeaway: You will probably not seriously connect or engage in business with The Nagger. The Nagger is not an ideal business partner, as they will detect small problems with: your products, your services, your behavior, your money, your country – or whatever else they can find.

#6. The Direct

The Direct has a clear goal in mind: to obtain your contact information. There is little or no small talk with The Direct, as they will ask what you are up to and proceed to tell what they have to offer.

Takeaway: The Direct will target you if they believe they can gain something from your contact information. If you have a product or service that needs explaining, The Direct will (most likely) not listen long enough to engage. Keep your message to The Direct straight, to the point, and practice your pitch.

#7. The Entertainer

The Entertainer uses social media as a stage. Unlike the Self-Promoter or Politician, The Entertainer manages to add enough sympathy and entertainment to attract a following within the community.

Takeaway: Do not regard comments from The Entertainer too seriously; be open to their humor. Understand that while they may be eager to connect, it is not always simple to engage in conversation. Enjoy their feeds, but understand their motivations before business engagement.

#8. The Storyteller

The Storyteller is never shy of a good story: they produce great content, great narratives, and posses a sense of humility and openness Storytellers come in the form of content marketers and everyday users who have the knack for attracting audiences through their storytelling abilities. The Storyteller boasts a lot of ‘likes’ and comments.

Takeaway: Be sure to understand with which type of Storyteller you are engaging. Are they in it for the story itself, or do their stories relate to your business? While The Storyteller may teach you valuable lessons and entertain you, it may be difficult to divert The Storyteller from their own stories and get them to listen to your own.

 #9. The Friend

The Friend does not take part in social media with business in his mind. The Friend likes to communicate, talk, share and connect solely for the purpose of social interaction.

Takeaway: If The Friend is actually your friend – let the relationship be. However, if The Friend shows signs that their professional life relates to your business and is the friend of a friend or an acquaintance you discover – see if there is a way to engage on a business level. Once you figure out their professional motivations – and there is a match – working with them could be great fun.

#10. The Comedian

The Comedian is always after the laugh, even though his posts might not always be that funny. The mission of The Comedian is to be witty or inspire humorous interaction, even if they miss the point.

Takeaway: Be prepared to laugh and be entertained (or at least poked), but do not expect much more from them – especially on a professional level.

 Conclusion

There is not only one character sleeping in each of us, as our different parts intermingle. No matter which personality you claim as your own (it could even change depending on mood, life experience, stress level), you will have to deal with different characters in social media. Do not expect people to act and react in the way you would and you will avoid feeling any type of offense. Be open to these varying types of personal behaviors and remember that each have motivations, just like any other.

Accepting different personalities as part of the game will help you enjoy the social media ride.
Guest Author: Susanna Gebauer is one of the founders of the social publishing and content marketing platform exploreB2B. You can find more of Susanna’s content on her profile on exploreB2B. You can also find Susanna on Twitter.





























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