Social Media Marketing Channel

Mobile Marketing by the Numbers [INFOGRAPHIC]

2012-05-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

The number of Americans who own smartphones rocketed past the number who own basic mobile phones this year, and marketers have been expanding their mobile budgets at a similarly rapid rate.

One study estimated mobile advertising will be $5.04 billion industry by 2015.

HighTable, a startup social website for professionals, compiled data about the key factors in the growing mobile marketing space in the infographic below.

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How to Make Money with Content Marketing

2012-05-20T11:09:00.001-07:00

There’s been a lot of buzz this year around content marketing but no one is really talking about how to directly make money from a campaign.

If you want to generate revenue, it’s important to understand how information spreads on the internet. StumbleUpon and BuzzFeed recently teamed up to figure this out.

They found their most viral stories since 2007 were so popular because of cluster sharing. This means that the biggest hits were all shared lots of time among small clusters of friends instead of a few people broadcasting it to a large network.o figure this out.

Where is the best place to take advantage of cluster sharing? Studies confirm that email is still the most widely used medium for sharing information between small groups.

So how do you make more money with it?

1. Treat Your Emails Like Landing Pages

Each email should have a clear theme with a strong call to action.

Do you want to sell more of something?
Get more likes on your Facebook or Twitter?
Advertise a product?
Get a donation?

Whatever it is, you need to walk your users hand-in-hand to the finish line. Make it extremely obvious what you want your audience to do. Here is an example:

This streamlines the process and produces higher conversion rates.

2. Sell Your Own Services & Products

If you have a product or service that can be purchased online, email is the best way to advertise because there are no distractions and you have total control over the conversation. If you’re a blogger with a big subscriber list, create a membership plan where those who pay get ‘the good stuff’ and your public content is just for lead generation and getting the word out.

If your goal is more about gaining exposure than making money, consider a social payment option. This gives you the ability to ‘sell’ a product or service in exchange for a user sending out a tweet or Facebook update that promotes your brand which is great for getting the word out.

3. Sell Other People’s Stuff

If you have an reliable audience, you should be using ads in your emails. There are a few options here but one of the most interesting is LaunchBit, which directly connects advertisers to a network of email newsletter publishers.

Another route is affiliate sales. A couple of the more popular options are ClickBank and Commission Junction which both allow you to receive a commission for selling products for their vendors.

Final Thought

With any content campaign, the key is delivering value to your readers. Routinely providing useful and engaging material is the best way to keep your readers happy and get them to share your stuff with friends.
Email is one of the most under-utilized selling channels out there for content marketers.

It’s easy and if done correctly, a great way to increase your bottom line.

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4 Awesome Types of Successful Twitter Contests

2012-05-18T16:57:00.000-07:00

Using Twitter professionally for the past 3 years, I’ve seen my share of contests that were organized by both the bigger brands and smaller businesses.In fact, if you were to search with the phrase ‘RT to win’ on Twitter, you’ll find many interesting contests being held on a daily basis.

A Twitter contest is not only a great way to build buzz and increase brand engagement, but it also generates new followers and grows your brand presence.

There are even some who would suggest that Twitter contests are more effective at building engagement than any other online (paid) investments.

Clearly then, as Twitter grows its influence in social media, so too would the importance of Twitter contests.

There are several different types of Twitter contests.

1.Creative answer

In a ‘creative answer’ format, users are usually asked to answer a question from the organizers using a hashtag. The answers need to be as creative as possible, and the winners will be chosen by the organizers.

This format has been tried and tested in offline media over the years, where contestants usually have to write a creative answer within a certain amount of words (50 words, 100 words, 200 words, and so on). Twitter contest organizers have easily adapted this format, seeing that Tweets are already subjected to character limitations.

Here is one example:Back in 2010, KFC held a ‘creative answer’ Twitter contest. Winners were presented with a $20,000 scholarship by KFC. The applicants had to explain, in 140 characters or less, why they deserved to win and include the hashtag #KFCScholar in their tweets.To make this more relevant with the concept of advertising, we need to take a peek behind this $20,000 scholarship.

First let’s understand that the cost of this contest is the amount of scholarship. That’s $20,000. Then, throughout the contest, it was found that there were over 2,800 participants. So the average cost to gain 1 participant (or to gain 1 engagement) is $7.14! That’s not a bad amount to dish out in order to get 1 person to talk with your brand.

Amanda Russell (@arlp111) was the winner of the contest by tweeting “#KFCScholar Hey Colonel! Your scholarship’s the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success! Got the grades, drive, just need cash”.

Essentially, from Amanda’s perspective, she is being paid $142.86 per character by KFC. I’m sure other participants were not shy about joining this contest because they were given a chance to get paid for tweeting 140 characters @ $142.86 per character.

2.Sweepstakes

A sweepstakes is a contest where winners are chosen at random or through a ‘lucky’ draw. Sweepstakes can come in several different forms as well, namely:

1.Retweet to win

One of the most popular contests on Twitter. As the name suggests, participants are required to Retweet to stand a chance of winning. After the duration of the contest has ended, winners will be picked at random. It is one of the simplest contests to set up.

There are two ways that organizers can do this:

a.Manually

Organizers simply post a tweet on Twitter asking users to Retweet if they were to join the contest.

There are several downfalls of this, and one of the most critical ones is the organizers won’t be able to provide much information about the contest with the 140 character limitation on Twitter. Some organizers will have use their blogs, websites, or set up a new landing page to give more details about the contest such as the rules, the duration, and the prizes.It will be tough to pick winners too as organizers have to manually copy and paste the participants or use software like random.org to pick random winners.

Here is a contest held by the National Lottery @tnluk, their tweet have been retweeted over 3000+ times.

Another issue with retweet to win contests is that an entrant does not agree by any rules before retweeting or specifically agree to enter the contest and be bound by their terms. This can have many legal implications.

b.Application

Alternatively, businesses who want to organize a Twitter contest (inclusive but not limited to ‘RT to win’) can also use an application. Binkd, an easy-to-use platform for promotions, recently just launched a free Twitter contest application that allows businesses to set up a branded Twitter contest efficiently. Using the application, users can set up a landing page with their company logo, give more information about the prizes, and more information about the contest. The winner of the contest will be picked automatically after the contest has ended. By providing a dedicated entry form the legal implications of a manual contest is removed.

c.Follow to win

To get more followers, some businesses will ask participants to follow them to be included in the contest. All they need to do is to follow or retweet and follow. Winners will be randomly drawn after the contest has ended. Here is a contest held by @hairdazzle on Twitter.

Again, this bears the same legal implications as a manual Twitter contest.

3.Photo Contest

A picture is worth more than 140 characters on Twitter. For this type of contest, users will have to send in a photo and they will stand a chance to win a prize, usually in a form of a small gift or a voucher. Like the ‘creative answer’ contest, the winner or winners will be picked by the organizers. Here is an example of a contest: @LaTasca, a Spanish Tapas restaurant in the UK, recently gave away a £50 La Tasca voucher for the customers who have sent a Twitpic of their tapas.

KFC, who have had great success with their creative answer contest back in 2010, decided to innovate their contest format last year and chose instead to organize a photo contest. The contest prize was another $20,000. In this contest, users had to tweet a photo showing an example of their commitment toward education and how they are enriching their communities. The winner was Daniel Galuppo, who shared a photo of his trip to Vietnam, where he photographed orphans so that they can have a photo of themselves to keep.

4. Question & Answer

A question and answer contest is very straight-forward. Organizers of the contest post a question on Twitter and the winners would be selected based on either the fastest time it is answered by a participant, the most accurate answer, or through sweepstakes (if the organizer loses control of the contest and has no other way of selecting the winner)

While this is not the most innovative type of contest, if it is done frequently enough, it would help in ensuring that users continuously visit your Twitter account to check for random questions.

Twitter is a great platform to easily set up a contest, but there are also potential for users to abuse the contest such as creating several Twitter accounts to get higher chance of winning a contest. Hashtags could also be abused to make your contest look like spam.

As a tip, mentions of your account should be required in the tweet used for entering the contest. Twitter’s search does not guarantee that it will return every tweet with your search term, including hashtags, only mentions are all guaranteed to be returned .

A good contest needs to be prepared for everything and have clear boundaries, such as allowing users to join/retweet only once a day.

If your company is new in organizing a Twitter contest, it is highly recommended that you use an application instead because it will help in creating a strong foundation for your contest (which would help to ‘be prepared for everything’).

If you have missed it above, the Binkd free Twitter contest platform would definitely help you to build a quick and complete contest.

What about you?

What kind of Twitter contest do you enjoy entering the most? What Twitter contests have impressed you?
Have you run a Twitter contest that you would like to share.

Love to hear your stories.

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How to Turn Your Instagram Profile into a QR Code

2012-05-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

We live in world and a social web that is a whirlpool of innovation and creativity.

Every day via the blogs I read, the tweets that I glimpse and the emails that arrive in my inbox, I see an array of ideas that makes my head spin with amazement.

Who would have thought that an online pinboard would attract nearly 20 million people a month sharing photos. It sounds like an idea that could have originated after a few drinks down at the local bar!

That is a social media platform called “Pinterest“.

Who would imagine that a social mobile app that can be shared from your phone to Facebook and Twitter, would attract 40 million users a month in less than 2 years, have a library of over 1 billion photos and then be bought by Facebook for $1 billion.

That app’s name is “Instagram“.

Who could have dreamed that a social media platform that allows you to upload your PowerPoint business presentations ( 9 million to date) and publishes them on the web for all to see would attract 29 million unique visitors a month and be snapped up by LinkedIn for $118 million.

This is a social media site called “Slideshare”

Sometimes the simplest focused ideas are the best and those ideas are increasingly in the mobile and social innovation ecosystems.

The Social and Mobile Media Addiction

We live in a world where we are can’t get enough of our mobiles and social networks where we publish media in all its formats that continues to define us and displays our lives to the planet of 7 billion people.

A startup called scan.me founded by Garret Gee, Kirk Ouimet and Ben Turley in 2011, was based on the concept of simplifying the creation of QR codes using a mobile iPhone and iPad app.

The idea was to use simple online and mobile tools to give users a better option for scanning QR codes, and to offer a polished option for businesses that wanted to create those codes.

In its first 12 months Scan.me had 10 million downloads!

How to Turn Your Instagram Profile into a QR Code

Scan.me has just decided, for a bit of technological fun to create a ”ScantoGram” website that turns your “Instagram Profile” into a QR code.

Here is the Jeff Bullas ScantoGram which I created.

Stage 1: Scan to Gram

Scan to Gram has just been created and they recently did this at a company hackathon where they built out the super-super simple web app.

It allows a user to create a page with Instagram-ified QR Codes, which allow an auto-follow on Instagram.

As an example:

Say there are 15 Instagrammers whose content blows you away.
With Scan to Gram, you can create a page to share those 15 people’s content.
You’ll then have a site, (eg. scantogram.com/jeffbullas) that you can share with others, and that will be filled with Instagram-ified QR codes.
As you mouse over a profile the image flips and the QR code is revealed which you scan with your mobile scan.me scanning app.
Anybody who scans those QR codes using a QR code reading app will auto-follow the person on Instagram.

This website is a bit of fun but it provides an insight into what potentially can be done.

They have much bigger plans to take the technology to a new level of social engagement.

Future Stage 2: QR Codes Meets Social Commerce

This is where scan.me says it will get super-exciting. They are planning to marry QR Codes with social commerce.

They haven’t revealed anything more than that at this stage and their simple Scan to Gram example and it may get your ideas and creative juices flowing.

The Scan.me venture is being taken very seriously and is getting some attention from the big boys in Silicon Valley.

In February Google Ventures and Shervin Pishevar’s Menlo Talent Fund invested $1.7 million in Scan.me.
So take a mobile app, make it social add some media and keep it easy and you never know what may happen

I will bring you more of this as it happens

What about You?

Are you adapting to this social mobile revolution.

How do you think social commerce will evolve. We are seeing glimpses of how it is panning out on Pinterest.

How will a social commerce QR code ecosystem pan out.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

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Four Ways Content Marketing Builds on Thought Leadership

2012-05-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

Content marketing is now an integral element of public relations and is an extension of the notion of thought leadership. It varies the thought leadership approach in four ways:

1.It includes content not generated by the organisation

2.It can include content that is not necessarily ‘insightful’ or ‘high-end’

3.It broadens the range of issues an organisation might offer content on

4.It increases the number of organisational employees who might speak, or represent the organisation, on certain topics.

Whether these aspects manifest themselves in an organisation’s approach to content marketing will be entirely dependent on its communication and marketing strategies, especially its reputation management and branding dimensions.

The C word in content marketing

C = content. What’s it all about?

Beyond thought leadership, or not? The answer is yes. Not all content needs to be cutting edge, ground breaking etc. But it should provide value to the target audience.

It can help organisations cover the broad ground of their remit (or their brand) that might otherwise have not been possible due to resources. For instance, providing an insightful, helpful comment on valuable content relevant to target audiences and then sharing it can be a worthwhile activity.

By choosing some core pillars to provide original content on, then having a ‘satellite’ of secondary topics where a content curation aesthetic is applied, can offer organisations the opportunity to have their cake and eat it too.

Certainly, it can help communicate and engage with secondary target audiences where marketing and communication resources are not normally expended. A ‘reverse-flow’ positive impact on primary target audiences can be instigated, as the secondary target audiences become sharers and advocates of that curated information that received the imprimatur of the organisation.

And as word-of-mouth (WOM) now has social media through which to accelerate its ‘virality’, this momentum of sharing has even greater potential than it once did. Especially since the digital age has cultivated the behaviour of social sharing (digital gossip) amongst its netizens.

Branding and positioning in content marketing

The social infinity does not seem to have canvassed the aspect of content marketing that relates to positioning and branding in great depth. Important elements in this dialectic are the sorts of content that are embraced by an organisation and who, from the organisation, does the ‘speaking’.

Further elements include what role does content (and content curation) play in the broader content marketing context, are there any dimensions that are ‘off-limits’ and what is the rationale driving the content marketing plan?

Firstly, in regard to the content itself, each element of content that emanates from an organisational employee contributes to an organisation’s branding, positioning and, to a lesser but still potentially significant degree, its differentiation. Choosing these topics should be driven by the strategy; content topics should not be picked up randomly simply because they are ‘topics du jour’ and of immediate interest to target audiences (i.e. how do these topics relate to brand-target audience relationships?).

Secondly, in traditional command-and-control organisations and those that apply a similar authoritarian approach to their communication, it has been a CEO-and-damn-the-troops mentality. I don’t espouse this approach but, regardless of this, whatever approach an organisation takes will impact on how much content it can feasibly generate and curate.

From a pure practicality perspective, whilst thought leadership can be applied in a limited but still quite effective manner when adopting this antediluvian approach, it is simply not viable to apply it to content marketing:

•A primary reason for this is that content curation is more than just retweeting or otherwise sharing. There needs to be a qualitative value-add from the organisation to some degree some of the time (actually a lot of the time, but I’m taking the low [expectation] road here)

•Involving employees in content creation educates employees on their industry which, one would think, helps them contextualise their work efforts and give them information to get better at their job, increasing productivity

•Employee involvement increases commitment to their organisation – likely to increase productivity – and helps them become a stronger organisational advocate

•Utilising normal (non-marketing Martians?) minimises the need to hire additional marketing employees and can optimise financial investment into the program – increasing productivity.
The most interesting and challenging aspect of this dimension, however, relates back to who are those doing the curating and how is this contextalised within an organisation’s branding?

•What are they commenting on?

•What is the nature of their value add?

•Is there a comms or marketing employee facilitating all this curation, or is it the relevant individual doing it solo after, perhaps, some initial briefing and some guidelines have been set? This relates to the third point I flagged above.

Fourthly, and this is perhaps the most fundamental aspect, the rationales driving the strategy will determine all of those issues noted above.

The ‘personality’ of content marketing

One of the interesting questions about both content strategy and thought leadership is should it be refined and targeted to within an inch of its focus group-tested life, or should it be sprawling, multi-faceted and reflective of the tumultuous, fast moving environment in which most organisations exist – and which, in fact, mirror target audiences’ existences?

I suggest it probably all goes back to overarching communication strategy:

•the drivers of communication strategy

•what market research tells us what will engage target audiences and prompt them to enact required
behaviour (e.g. purchase, whisper sweet reputation-enhancing nothings in their contacts’ ears et al)

•perhaps, too, there is a unique emphasis or shading in the content that is delivered via various communication mechanisms

•branding/positioning/differentiation

•and what of the impact on content for each organisational spokesperson due to their own interests, preferences, knowledge, passions and the customer/target audience segment they are responsible for?

Whilst it will be the organisation’s brand/personality that dictates the answers to these points and queries, in general I believe there is room for both schools of thought – the refined and the rambling (i.e. humanistic) – to work hand-in-hand.

A focus on topics and messaging that is relevant to the organisation and engaging for target audiences seems a prerequisite. But, and this is important, to rein in thought leadership or any other content to within a narrow set of parameters risks the organisation being perceived as cold, calculating, self-centred and predictable.

About the author

This post is an edited version of an article in a free white paper, The Holy Trinity of public relations, produced by experienced corporate communication practitioner, Craig Pearce. The white paper is available as a free download for all email subscribers to his blog, Public relations and managing reputation. The white paper provides an overview of the strategic dimensions of, and practical implementation tips on, thought leadership, 3rd party credibility and strategic alliances.

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Facebook Approaches 500 Million Mobile Users – Infographic

2012-05-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

I do enjoy my cycling and it is a great way to keep fit, socialize and enjoy coffee all in one capsule of time.

It also is one way of refreshing the body, mind and soul from the the pressures of work and life.
Cycling though can be dangerous, with trucks and cars and other immovable objects threatening life and limb.

But there is a new and alarming epidemic and trend that is making the roads more dangerous and it is the addicted Facebook user checking their timeline on their mobile.

Luckily the police have realized this and in fact in Fort Lee, New Jersey in the USA they have started booking “dangerous” walkers who are not obeying the rules of the road“.

It certainly is about time because it would be embarrassing to report to my friends that I was injured cycling not from a hitting a bus but by being taken out by an over zealous and jaywalking Facebook user on their mobile!

Facebook Understands the Importance of Mobile

Facebook must have been talking to the police about this mobile addiction trend because they have just bought Instagram which isn’t even a social media website but just a mobile app (a mobile app that just happens to have nearly 40 million users).

Additionally Facebook has increased its focus on mobile in preparing for a mobile and social web that goes beyond the Instagram acquisition with the purchase of the Android photosharing app developer “Lightbox” as reported by Techcrunch.

Lightbox creates photo blogs from a users uploads and has been described as the “Lazy man’s Tumblr”

Now before you rush off and try and sign up to Lightbox, the acquisition is not the business or the app but only the team, as it will be closed down by June 15 and you will see its technology emerge as a Facebook mobile feature sometime in the future.

The other common element to take note of with both these acquisitions are that they are photo centric “apps”, because Facebook knows that photos are the highest engaging content on its platform (50% higher share rate than any other type of update on Facebook timelines)

The challenge that still remains for Facebook, is how they will monetize the burgeoning mobile space.

The Compelling Facts and Figures

One other compelling reason Facebook is aggressively chasing mobile users is that in the developed countries its growth is approaching saturation point.

In developing countries the use of mobile is predominant with telecommunications infrastructure being built around mobile technology instead of fixed.

This is evident with countries like New Guinea (78%) and Nigeria (81%) having some of the highest Facebook mobile penetration in the world.

54% Penetration of Facebook mobile (488 million out of 901 million users)
Android and Apple share the largest mobile platform usage at 19% each
iPad is 5% of Facebook mobile usage
The top 5 countries using Facebook mobile are USA, Indonesia and India followed by the UK and then Mexico

What About You?

How are you going to take advantage of mobile for your business. Do you have a mobile app for your online store. Is your website optimized for mobile?

Can people read about your brand and business on a mobile?

Look forward to hearing your stories.

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5 Insights on Facebook vs Pinterest in Driving Sales – Infographic

2012-05-11T03:43:00.000-07:00

Pinterest has been grabbing the headlines recently as its network approaches 20 million users per month.

In March, Compete.com reported that Pinterest had received 18 million unique visitors with AppData reporting that the visual social network had received a record 4.4 million daily active users on March 18.

There are reports that Pinterest’s growth is slowing but just like Twitter and Facebook, reports of its demise maybe slightly premature.

The Power of “Low Friction” Photo Sharing

Pinterest’s value to marketers is that it provides an easy to use platform for “pinning” images, photos and videos to your Pinterest account while also posting and sharing to your networks to Facebook and Twitter in the same process.

Pinterest reduces the effort and friction to share images on the social web which crowd sources your marketing and the spreading of your brand images.

This “low friction sharing” includes links back to the original sharing location. Online stores such as fashion, boutiques, homewares and gift stores can take advantage of this to drive commerce as their products are highly visual and more likely to be shared.

To understand the power of visual sharing, on Facebook research shows that photos are shared 50% more than any other types of updates. This is why Pinterest is so powerful.

The question though is, does it drive sales?

Does Social Commerce Work?

There are social networks and there is commerce and the popular thinking used to be that they don’t mix. In fact there have been stories circulating on blogs that Facebook is great for engagement but not good for sales.

In digging deeper that appears to be a misconception and social commerce is alive and kicking.

Boticca.com is an online boutique for unique jewelry and fashion accessories by top emerging designers from around the world and has been using Pinterest for quite a while, where it has pinned visually enticing images of its products arranged in categories (boards) with links to the product purchase page.

Boticca Pinterest Page

Their activity on Pinterest is sizable with 67 categories (boards) that average over 700 followers for each board with 2,869 pins (products). As the quality of the photos they have used for their online store is high definition then these HD images ensure that they are also compelling on Pinterest.

Pinterest is really a product catalogue linked to their online store behind every image.

Once you click on that link it takes you to the product on Bottica’s online store where you can continue to review the product further and then make a purchase.

Bottica Facebook “Page”

Bottica’s Facebook page reveals over 26,000 “likes” that also features a prominent Pinterest “Tab” which is powered by the Facebook Pinterest App.

This Pinterest Tab which is effectively the Pinterest site embedded in Facebook allows you to access the online store directly from Facebook. Omni-commerce is evident here. You can buy from Facebook, Pinterest and the ecommerce store.

It recently researched from its own store data which social network drove more social commerce. The results are fascinating and this is from a real store with real numbers.

The 5 Insights on Facebook vs Pinterest

Boticca traced the sales , average sales, conversions and engagement of 50,000 visitors from Pinterest and 50,000 from Facebook.

Here are 5 things Boticca learned about marketing on Facebook compared to Pinterest

Pinterest users spend more when shopping at $180 vs $85 by Facebook users
Pinterest users spent 65% less time on the site than Facebook
Pinterest influenced more sales (10%) than Facebook (7%)
Pinterest has a 51% lower conversion rate compared to Facebook
Pinterest acquired 86% new users vs Facebook at 57%

The Infographic

What about You?

Are you using Pinterest for your online store? Do you have images that you could be pinning to your Pinterest acount? Do you think it would help your online stores sales and spread your brand. Look forward to hearing your stories.

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How B2B Marketers Can Succeed on the 6 Big Social Networks

2012-05-11T00:23:00.000-07:00

It's easy to think of ways to use social media for B2C marketing. But many B2B marketers, while noting the importance of social media, have still struggled to find their footing in the social media marketing game. What are you supposed to do, throw Farmville sheep at your leads until they realize they do, in fact, need your product or service?

Alright, you probably haven't gotten that desperate, but MarketingProfs did shed some light on the issue earlier this week in its post about going B2B on social sites, and I think the topic deserves some serious attention. In fact, eMarketer reports that 52% of US small businesses don't feel they are marketed to by other businesses effectively, while 46% feel they're being "sold" to instead of "spoken" to. You know what a great solution for that problem is? Social media! You know, where you are "social" with people instead of pushing the hard sell?

So this post will break down how you can be successful on the 6 most popular social networks: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and Pinterest. Some won't be too much of a stretch for you, but I think you'll be surprised at the potential available with others!

LinkedIn for B2B Marketers

Did you know that LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter? If you're a B2B marketer, this certainly shouldn't surprise you -- of all the social networks listed in this blog post, LinkedIn provides the most natural transition into social media for many B2B organizations. That's because it's a social network made specifically for professionals! So to ease you into this B2B social media program, I thought it'd be best to start with the social network that has the most natural B2B applications. Check out these ways you can use LinkedIn in your B2B marketing!

1) Share your presentation slides. You already have tons of great content living in your various slide decks, and you don't have a lot of time to create new lead gen content. Why not add a call-to-action in those slides, repurpose them as lead generation content, and share it on LinkedIn? They've actually made it pretty easy for you to do, too. LinkedIn has a SlideShare app called SlideShare Presentations that lets you easily import presentations from your SlideShare account and share the content with LinkedIn members!

2) Get more visibility for your blog with an RSS feed. Visitors to your company page should be greeted with quality content from your business, and LinkedIn makes it easy by letting you provide an RSS of your most recent company blog posts. Use this to drive traffic back to your blog from LinkedIn!

3) Promote new content with company status updates. Your blog's RSS isn't the only way to get your content out to the masses on LinkedIn. Your company status update is a simple way to broadcast your latest and greatest content -- but for some reason, so many companies are neglecting to leverage the functionality. At HubSpot, we update our LinkedIn company status 4 times a day, each time publishing either a new blog post, or a lead generation offer. That way we can, you know, drive traffic to our website and generate leads. (Bonus Tip: If your blog runs on WordPress, LinkedIn has a WordPress app that lets you automatically publish the posts you publish on your blog to your LinkedIn profile, and instantly notify your LinkedIn network of the new post.)

4) Highlight your products/services to a targeted audience. LinkedIn provides dedicated tabs on your company page on which you can promote your products and services. I mean, that right there is one thing you should check off your social media marketing to-do list if you're not already leveraging the space. But you can take it a step further by creating different variations of the tabs and targeting them to your different buyer personas. That means you can adjust your messaging and value proposition for each audience, then target based on information like company size, industry, geographic location, job function, and seniority level! If you need help creating these targeted tabs, take a look at this blog post for an in-depth explanation.

5) Generate leads on your products/services tab. If targeting wasn't enough to excite you, you can actually generate leads on your products/services tab by creating clickable banners (called the Product and Service Spotlight) to fill the space provided. Or if leads aren't your primary goal, get creative! Create a banner that promotes your next event, or you could even work on generating more subscribers for your blog. You can also combine this with the targeting feature we just discussed to create up to three variations of the banner so you can achieve greater relevancy.

6) Email your LinkedIn Group members. If you're managing a group on LinkedIn -- perhaps you've established a group for your industry or trade like we've done with our Inbound Marketers Group -- you can send an email to those group members promoting your latest marketing initiative. LinkedIn allows you to send one email per week to your group.

7) Keep your blog fed using LinkedIn Answers. We've written an entire blog post about how to use LinkedIn Answers to improve your marketing; that's how cool the feature is! LinkedIn Answers is a place for people to ask and answer questions, which provides for great thought leadership opportunity and lets you network with industry influencers. Plus, you can promote your own content when answering others' questions, use the questions people commonly ask as topic fodder for your own blog, and even identify guest bloggers who can do some writing for you!

8) Conduct market research using LinkedIn polls. Did you know that LinkedIn has a polling feature? They do, and the best part of it is, it's so insanely simple to use.

Just type in your question, the answer options, the duration of the poll's run time, and hit 'Share.' You can even publish it to Twitter (which you'll certainly be using after you read about Twitter's B2B uses later in this post)! You can post these polls in your own LinkedIn group, or in another group for some seriously niche market research, provided they haven't restricted the functionality to admins only.

Pinterest for B2B Marketers

Okay, maybe LinkedIn was obvious for B2B marketers (though I hope you still got some new ideas to try), but Pinterest? What should I do, pin pictures of puppies and wedding dresses? How on earth does a B2B organization use Pinterest to feed its marketing machine? Like this.

1) Pin pictures of your product. Yes, even if your product is "boring." If you haven't taken a gander at General Electric's Pinterest boards yet, head over there for some inspiration! Not all of their boards are product-focused though -- they've actually done a great job leveraging user-generated content with their #GEInspiredMe campaign -- but they also have fun product-oriented boards like 'Badass Machines,' 'GE Garages,' and 'From the Factory Floor.' Showing their product in many different lights gives them the opportunity to gain market share with engineers, historians, and artists with their Pinterest boards, not all of whom would give two hoots about their brand in other circumstances.

2) Pin infographics, data, and charts. But my B2B organization doesn't have a product; we're service-oriented! No prob. Visual content is huge in marketing these days! If you're creating any sort of visual content -- infographics, data visualizations, charts and graphs, even industry cartoons -- you should create pinboards for them on your Pinterest account. For an example, take a look at HubSpot's 'Marketing Infographics' board on Pinterest. And yes, we are a B2B organization! (Bonus Tip: Be sure to add a Pin It button next to visual content on your website and blog, too, so your visitors can do some of your Pinterest social sharing for you!)

3) Pin covers of printed books and ebooks. If you're creating your own lead generation ebooks, writing printed books, or just want to promote great content written by others, you can pin the covers of those books to dedicated pinboards as well. If you're pinning ebooks, link the images to a landing page dedicated to that ebook so you can generate leads. If you're pinning written books, link the images to a page (like Amazon) on which a visitor could buy that book so you're actually generating revenue from your efforts.

4) Drive traffic to your website. With each pin, you have the ability to also post a link back to your website (or elsewhere, if you choose). That way, when someone oohs and aahs over a pin of your latest infographic, they can click back to your website to find it along with, say, the accompanying blog post you wrote when you published it. In HubSpot's own Pinterest experiments, we've found that having many boards with many pins is the best way to drive traffic back to your site. In a two week time period, a single pin only sent a bit of traffic to our site, but the whole of our pins combined sent tremendous amounts! Take a look for yourself.

5) Generate leads from pins. Because you're an awesome B2B inbound marketer (still trying to find the ROI in social, of course), you know all that pin traffic you're generating is useless if you don't actually convert it into leads. Luckily, you can generate leads from Pinterest, too! When choosing the link to associate with each pin, consider choosing a relevant landing page instead of just any web page. For example, we might pull a graph from our 2012 State of Inbound Marketing report, pin it, and then link back to the landing page where the report can be redeemed in order to turn that pin traffic into a lead. And if the image you're pinning doesn't have a landing page associated with it, be sure to include well-optimized calls-to-action on the page to which you're driving traffic to increase the likelihood that Pinterest traffic converts.

Twitter for B2B Marketers

From purely anecdotal research, Twitter seems to be a bit of a polarizing entity. Some have sworn their sole allegiance to the tiny blue bird, while others think the stream is cluttered, unwieldy, and totally useless. While I have my own opinions for my personal use, this is business we're talking about, and there is certainly tremendous potential to enhance your B2B marketing initiatives on Twitter. Let's learn how!

1) Grow your reach. Technically, all of these social networks will help you grow your reach. But Twitter is the easiest way to do it at a high volume, so instead of telling you about it for every social media network, I'm going to focus on it here. But you can apply these principles to every social network you use!

Think of reach like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon for social media. It's the idea that your content and influence extends beyond your first degree connections. Sure, they're part of your reach, but so are their connections, and even their connections' connections! It's important because it gets more eyes on your traffic and lead generating content, and gives you more street cred with Google's algorithm. That's right, the more people that share your content, the more authoritative Google believes you are! So follow others on Twitter, and several times a day tweet the blog posts you write, your lead generating offers, and other peoples' content. If you do this regularly, you will expand your Twitter reach and get more eyes on the content that makes your marketing successful. I guarantee it.

2) Ask employees to tweet your content. You can spearhead your company's Twitter marketing alone, or you can amplify the results by getting your entire company involved. This is how you can take Twitter reach to the next level. Let's use HubSpot as a case study. We encourage all of our employees to maintain an active social media presence. As such, an overwhelming percentage of HubSpotters are on Twitter. And you know what happens every time we, say, write a blog post? Hundreds of people tweet about it. And you know what that does? It gets their networks of hundreds and thousands seeing, reading, and retweeting that content, too ... and it takes a matter of seconds to accomplish. Starting to see the potential with Twitter, yet?

3) Grow blog subscribers. Since you'll already be tweeting about your blog content on a regular basis, why not leverage the power of Twitter to also increase your number of blog subscribers? Create a dedicated landing page just for signing up blog subscribers, and use Twitter to publicize the landing page, ideally after you've just tweeted some amazing blog content that helps you make your case!

4) Generate leads on Twitter, too! Yes, you can also generate leads on Twitter. In fact, we've written an entire guide to generating leads on Twitter, specifically for B2B organizations, too! Not only can you craft tweets with your lead generating offers and links to landing pages, but you can also customize your Twitter background with calls-to-action, and even monitor for competitive and industry search terms to find prospects that are looking for your solution in real time.

5) Host a Twitter chat. Although currently on hiatus, HubSpot has hosted several Twitter chats that help us generate leads, grow our reach, interact with our community, and expand our thought leadership. Twitter chats are virtual meetings on Twitter, held together by a common hashtag -- ours is #inboundchat, for example. If you're interested in holding your own Twitter chat.

6) Solve customer service issues in real time. Even if you don't want them to, people will use social media as an outlet to air their grievances. You can either be proactive about engaging in that conversation, or let the Negative Nancies control the conversation. We recommend the former. And Twitter is an ideal platform for this because it works in real time! Either set up a separate social media account dedicated to customer service, or simply monitor your Twitter account for problems that may arise, and quickly route them to the appropriate person for a resolution.

7) Use hashtags to generate buzz around live events. If you're hosting an event, use hashtags to communicate on Twitter so attendees can all engage in one conversation together. Not only will their networks see all of the buzz around your event (remember the concept of reach!), but your attendees will also be able to network, and you'll get real-time feedback from attendees about your event.

YouTube for B2B Marketers

YouTube doesn't always get a lot of air time in social media marketing discussions, perhaps because not all marketers are equipped with the ability to easily create high quality videos ... or perhaps because you feel like you have nothing to create a video about. While we understand these hurdles, there are still some great ways to use YouTube for those B2B marketers who do have the bandwidth to create video. If you're creating videos for your B2B marketing now, or you plan to in the future, make sure you leverage YouTube in the following ways to make it successful.

1) Publish case studies. You might have case study videos on your website -- we certainly do! Why not create a YouTube account for your company that features those videos, as well? Remember, videos show up in search results, too, and don't forget about who owns YouTube. Their name rhymes with Shmoogle.

2) Take product tours. Case studies aren't the only quality video content a B2B company can create. If you're a product-oriented business, you can also use a video to take your prospects on a little tour that's more engaging than simply reading some copy about what you create. And don't tell me it's too boring ... we create marketing software and found a way to shoot videos showcasing our product! And then, just like your case study videos, upload those bad boys to YouTube, and be sure to promote them via your other social media channels for maximum visibility.

3) Create how-to videos. But I'm not a product-oriented business! That's fine! Your prospects and customers still have problems then need solved, and questions they need answered. Be the person to do that via video! We do this all the time when we get questions that end up being really hard to explain in writing -- this video that shows you how to analyze Facebook Insights is our most recent example that required no special technology to shoot. Oh yeah, it also lives on our YouTube channel, and in two weeks has already received over 2,500 views (and counting). (Bonus Tip: To get more views for your videos, write a blog post that summarizes the content contained therein, and embed the video within the post!)

4) Optimize your YouTube videos for search. Like I mentioned, YouTube videos show up in organic search engine results. So if you're at all concerned with SEO (what inbound marketer isn't?), YouTube is an important part of your strategy. And there's a way to optimize the videos you upload to YouTube that will give you a leg up on your competition, too! Visit this blog post for the full YouTube optimization rundown.

5) And yes, you can generate leads on YouTube, too! I'm starting to sound like a broken record on this social media lead generation, aren't I? But many marketers really are surprised to learn there's lead generation potential on YouTube, and it's because it requires a little creativity. At the end of every video you create, include a call-to-action and landing page URL to direct visitors back to your website to redeem an offer germane to the subject of the video. You can also include links to landing pages in the video description section on YouTube, and if you want to put a little paid muscle behind your videos, experiment with CTAs using YouTube's overlay ads!

Google+ for B2B Marketers

I know I said Twitter was a polarizing entity, but maybe I should have reserved a little of that sentiment for Google+, too. Despite all of the hoopla surrounding the launch of Google+ brand pages last fall, many marketers have resisted spending time on the social network. We've even written a blog post evaluating whether it really is worth your time. But even if you're not a believer (hey, not every social network is right for every marketer), there is still plenty of potential for B2B marketers. If you decide to spend some time marketing your business on Google+, here's how you can do it successfully!

1) Livestream a Hangout! Just this week, Google+ finally started rolling out Hangouts on Air to everyone. That means you can easily hang out with up to 9 people using the video function on Google+, and you can livestream the hangout for all the world to see. How do B2B marketers get some leverage out of this? You're limited only by your creativity, but we also provided a great tutorial along some great ways to put it to use here, which include company announcements, webinars, industry expert roundtable discussions or interviews, virtual conferences, livestreaming in-person events, user groups, and Q&A sessions.

2) Use Circles to target your content. Many B2B marketers are reticent to join social networks because they don't want to bother people with content that isn't relevant to their entire audience. After all, you might have multiple product and service lines that overlap barely, if at all! But Google+ has helped remedy this with Google+ Circles. Circles allow your followers to identify what type of content they are interested in, so instead of blanketing your entire follower base with content that is only relevant to just a fraction, you can publish content to specific Circles that contain followers interested in that subject matter.

3) Get your content more visibility in search. Just as your YouTube videos can show up in organic search results, your content can also get much more organic search visibility using Google+, since Google started incorporating content shared on its social network into the SERPs. As such, you should add the +1 button to the content on your site so others can share it with just the push of a button, and begin sharing your content regularly via Google+ status updates to increase the likelihood you appear in organic search results for related search terms.

Facebook for B2B Marketers

I thought I'd leave the sheep-thrower for last.
Facebook: the one that started it all! It was once just for college students, then it expanded to the rest of Generation Y, and now your grandma is friend requesting you. And you know what? B2B marketers shouldn't be missing out on it! Here's how you can turn what started as a friend-to-friend social network into a business-to-business one.

1) Generate leads. If you read the entirety of this post, you shouldn't be surprised that you can generate leads on Facebook, too. Yes, you can publish links to lead gen offers to do it. But there's one method that's unique to Facebook that should also be mentioned! With the new Facebook Timeline rollout, while you cannot include calls-to-action in your cover photo, you can include them in the "Views & Apps" section of your page, right under the cover photo! Take a look at how B2B company Distilled did this on its Facebook page to help generate more leads. (Bonus Tip: You can also use this section to get more visibility for your blog or apps you've created for your business!)

2) Optimize for lead generation with pins and stars. When you do publish your lead generation content to your Timeline, get it even more visibility using pins and stars. Pins allow you to anchor one update to the top of your Timeline for up to 7 days, and stars have the effect of expanding the update so that it takes up more of your Timeline real estate, drawing more eyes to the lead generation offer. This not only results in more leads, but also more engagement from Facebook fans, which is crucial to getting your updates into users' news feeds, according to Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm.

3) Build an industry community. Now that you know how to generate leads for your business on Facebook, consider building an industry community to convert! The B2B community is full of people trying to be better, faster, and stronger than their fellow employees, higher-ups, and industry competition. Establish your Facebook page as the place to get the information that will help them do that. Publish educational content from yourself and others, publish new research (you can even publish those fancy charts and graphs you created for your Pinterest boards!), and pose provocative questions that will get your audience thinking and talking. If your Facebook fans recognize you as the go-to place for information in your industry, they will eventually become your customer or refer others your way -- because you're the best out there!

4) Use Facebook for networking. LinkedIn isn't the only social network that can help you expand your professional network. B2B organizations often rely on in-person events like conferences and trade shows to network with the right people, and Facebook's location-based services can make you even more successful in these endeavors. Next time you attend an event, promote your presence by checking in on Foursquare, Facebook Places, or your other favorite location-based service so others within your Facebook network are alerted to your presence. What a great way to not only stand out from the crowd, but also find others to connect with (many that you may have only spoken to through your Facebook Timeline until this point)!

5) Make use of Open Graph. You know when you see an update that says, "Bobby McGee read 10 Reasons Lady Gaga and Newt Gingrich Should Get Married on The Washington Post" and you are prompted to let an app access your profile before you can read the article? That's a result of Open Graph, which has allowed third-party developers to create apps that show a user's engagement with the app on Facebook. Develop an app of your own to get your brand more visibility on Facebook. You could create a customer testimonial app, a customer achievements app, a content library app to promote your amazing content, or even a free trial app to get customers using your product!

6) Create Facebook coupons. You may have heard that Facebook is testing coupons with ecommerce and brick-and-mortar businesses. If your B2B falls into one of those two buckets, soon you'll be able to not only create coupons for your customers on Facebook, but also leverage Facebook advertising to pay for more visibility for those offers!

I'm certain there are more B2B applications for marketing on each of these social networks; share your ideas in the comments!

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How to Stand Out in the Social Media Marketing Frenzy

2012-05-10T05:03:00.000-07:00

Social media has long ceased to be a setting for primarily “social” interactions and discussions.

Now social media platforms and services predominantly function as devices for businesses, entrepreneurs, and freelancers to market their skills on the web to a clientele that numbers in the hundreds of millions. Yes, the web is a marketer’s paradise, where the smallest idea can reach countless people in the amount of time it takes for you to tweet it.

But in case you haven’t noticed, the blogosphere is a big place, filled with entrepreneurs and ambitious self-starters who want to share their unique vision with the world. There might be a dozen small online enterprises specializing in selling supplementary educational apps to college students, all looking to be the biggest player in the market.

In other words, there’s some serious competition in the realm of social media.

You could have a solid and commercially viable idea, but if you don’t have the marketing savvy to harness social media, then you honestly don’t have much of a chance. You’ve got to find a way to stand out among the masses if you want to get anywhere in this business.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to offer the following pearls of wisdom in the hopes of boosting your chances at success through social media marketing.

Don’t shy away from the big and bold

Human beings, especially those of us who spend too much time on the web, tend to have short attention spans. This general impatience among web users has fostered the most distilled and concise marketing tactics ever devised, where whole campaigns rise and fall upon on the successes and failures of social media usage.

A cleverly designed infographic with a hard hitting topic paired with vibrant colors and easy to understand language may launch a graphic designer from obscurity to celebrity overnight. On the other side of things, an ill thought out Twitter campaign (think of the recent McDonald’s fiasco with the #McDStories) could backfire on you as soon as you launch it, completely reversing whatever momentum you had built.

The lesson here is simple: stick to big and bold ideas that can be translated into equally big and bold graphics, images, phrases, and titles. You want to grab your potential reader from the get go with the best that you have to offer, and that might mean taking a risk to stand out among your peers. If there’s some hot topic that other social media users might see as too controversial, be the pioneer and dive into it.

Explore all avenues of social media

Social media doesn’t just mean Twitter and Facebook. I know, I know: they’re by far the biggest players in the industry, they have the most users, and they’re the easiest services to make inroads with. Just because they’re the kings of the industry, that doesn’t mean that they’re the only viable social media services in your marketing campaign.

Tons of niche social media services abound, many of which probably go unnoticed by other web marketers who spend all their time tweeting and friending people. The enthusiasm behind Pinterest is just one example of newer social media services taking a chunk out of the figurative pie. Services like Spotify or Instagram, which have niches in music and pictures respectively, are other targeted social media tools that have massive potential for marketing campaigns.

Have the content to back up your pitch

Most importantly, be sure that you can deliver on whatever it is that you pitch through various social media platforms. I said earlier that you should aim for big and bold messaging in order to grab your reader’s attention—and I stand by that. But if you promise your readers the rainbow, you better have it waiting for them on the other side of that link in your tweet. Otherwise you run the risk of coming off as some spammy service that wants nothing more than a few more followers.

Of course, you don’t have to worry about delivering on your social media pushes if you have the content to back it up. Most people in web marketing take a great idea, test it, develop it, and then think of a way to market it to the masses online effectively. This is how it should be; you let the product speak for itself. You get in trouble when you think of a clever social media marketing scheme without anything beyond the pretty infographic or the witty tagline.

What about you?

How do you develop and execute a successful social media marketing campaign?
Do you use social media services other than Facebook and Twitter to get your message out there?
Let me know!

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New Google+ iPhone App Improves Pics, Elevates +1 Button

2012-05-10T01:43:00.000-07:00

Google just overhauled its Google+ iPhone app. Whereas previous updates had been primarily concerned with adding functionality (like video-chat “hangouts”), this time the search giant says it’s all about the “sensory” experience.

Google describes the Google+ 2.0.0.558 update (that’s really the version number) as taking full advantage of the mobile experience.

“We’re not interested in a mobile or social experience that’s just smaller,”
Google’s blog post reads. “We’re embracing the sensor-rich smartphone (with its touchable screen and high-density display), and transforming Google+ into something more intimate, and more expressive.”

The entire interface has been reworked from top to bottom. At launch, the app still takes you to your stream, but every post in that stream now puts photos front and center, with larger, crisper type on text. Importantly, text now overlays the top of photos, saving space. Instead of changing your stream with a swipe, you now tap the “All Circles” menu to change your stream’s view.

Click within a post, and the photo or video fills the post, with any accompanying text beneath, links in bold blue text. You’ll also the +1 button prominently in the top corner of any post — it stays there no matter how deep you scroll.

The profile and photos pages have changed the least, getting updated with the same fonts as the rest of the system, which appears to be some form of Helvetica.

The iPhone version is rolling out today, and Google says an Android update is coming within the next few weeks. No word on the mobile site, or whether the Google+ will ever get the full iPad-app treatment — though this “immersive” update seems a no-brainer for that platform.

What do you think of the Google+ update? Let us know in the comments.

1. Access Your Brand Page

Once you've set up your brand page, you access it through your personal Google+ profile.
On your home page below your name and avatar pic is a drop down menu.
Open this menu to see your page, click on it to access it.

2. Adding People to Circles

You can't add a person to a brand page's circles unless he has first added your brand page to his circles.
To see who has added your brand, go to the "Circles" tab and click on "People who've added you."
You can now add these folk into relevant circles.

3. Your Brand Page Google+ URL

Google gives you your brand page's URL on set-up, but if you need to find it again, click on "Get started" under your name and avatar on your brand's home page.
This takes you to a useful admin info page which includes a "Tell the world" section, under which you'll find your URL.

4. Remove Unwanted Tabs

There aren't many customization options for Google+ pages, but one thing you can do is remove extraneous tabs.

If videos and photos aren't relevant to your brand's page you can choose not to display them.

Go to your profile page, click "Edit Profile" in the top right corner and then click on either "Photos" or "Videos."

Here you can decide to hide one or both of these from view.

5. Connect Your Site to Google+

Google offers easy-to-use code and various G+ buttons so that you can link your site to Google+.

In addition to pointing people to your shiny new social space, this also means your linked site is eligible for Google Direct Connect.

To find the code and buttons, go to the "Get Started" option under your brand's name and avatar on your home page.

6. Lock Posts to Prevent Sharing

Google+ offers the ability to lock posts within a certain circle.

Before you share your post, click the drop down arrow underneath the four icons on the right.
Here you can "lock" the post so it can't be shared further.

Don't forget it's still possible for someone to copy and paste or screengrab the content though -- so it's more a way to send a "don't share this" message, rather than an infallible privacy solution.

7. Hide Your Follower Count

While you're building your brand's presence on Google+, you might want to hide your low follower count.
On your home page, click the "Change who is visible here" option.

You can now choose to hide how many people have added you to circles.

8. Add Useful Links

You can add links to your "About" page on Google+.

The good thing about this feature is that you have complete freedom.

Whether you're pointing people to other social profiles or flagging great sites, you can do it in your own words.

To add links, click on "Edit Profile" when you're on the "About" page and then click "Recommended Links" to open the edit options.

9. Use Circles

Google+ has given you circles. Don't be square -- use them.

Whether you're grouping people by location, interests or other relevant categories, you can broadcast your brand's message in a tailored fashion to relevant circles.

This will mean people are seeing content from you that is relevant to them, and will be more likely to engage with your brand.

To set up new circles, go to the "Circles" page and create from there.

10. Have Fun With Your Scrapbook Photos

The ability to display photos at the top of your profile page is great, and offers a quick, visual cue for your brand.

The photos that show up in this space are your first five Google+ "Scrapbook photos".

Have fun with this. Get creative and you'll make people smile as they land on your brand's page. They may even be tempted to add you to one of their circles!

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Obama Gets Huge Twitter Boost After Gay Marriage Support [CHARTS]

2012-05-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

1. @BarackObama

This tweet from President Obama's official account set off a chain of retweets, favorites and replies.

2. @AP

Mitt Romney was quick to use Obama's announcement as another way to differentiate himself with voters, as the Associated Press quickly reported.

3. @MikeBloomberg

New York City's mayor endorsed the president's endorsement.

4. @NancyPelosi

Outspoken Democrat Nancy Pelosi was also vocal in her support.

5. @TheEllenShow

Media personality and gay rights advocate Ellen Degeneres tweeted this message to her 11 million followers.

6. @DannyZuker

Some observers were disappointed that it took Obama more than three years in office to announce his personal support of gay marriage.

7. @nytjim

This Fox Nation headline went mini viral on Twitter.

8. @piersmorgan

Piers Morgan posted this message to his 2.2 million followers.

9. @CoryBooker

Newark's mayor Cory Booker was also supportive of the president's announcement.

10. @McCainBlogette

Meghan McCain, daughter of the man Obama defeated in 2008 to become president, also praised his announcment but qualified her support as well.

When President Obama became the first sitting president to declare support for gay marriage in an interview with ABC News on Wednesday, the announcement sent Twitter into a tizzy. Politicians, celebrities and media personalities all used social media to react. Some expressed unqualified support, some criticized Obama for dragging his feet on the issue and others debated the announcement’s actual significance (see gallery above).

But the news didn’t just excite the Twittersphere — it also gave Obama a huge popularity boost on the network. Mashable contacted the social media analytics firm Topsy to see how reaction to Obama’s interview played out on Twitter.

The chart below shows just how much of a positive sentiment infusion Obama got from his announcement, which came at just about noon Pacific Time. Topsy analyzes reaction to events according to a “sentiment score,” and says a generally positive reception scores between 2 and 3 on the chart. Tuesday night, after voters in North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, sentiment associated with his name sank below a score of -6, according to Topsy. But watch how it climbed to nearly 8 during Wednesday:

Shortly after Obama’s statement of support aired on ABC, his official Twitter account posted this tweet:

“Same-sex couples should be able to get married.”—President Obama
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 9, 2012

The message would be retweeted more than 30,000 times over the course of Wednesday afternoon. (This cool site shows how many retweets the message has gotten in total, with updates every minute.)

Twitter mentions of “Obama” spiked massively when his announcement aired as well. Check out this chart from Topsy, which breaks the buzz down nearly to the minute:

The term “North Carolina” was mentioned at a a peak of nearly 60,000 times in one hour after voters passed their gay marriage ban there on Tuesday night. But after Obama went public with an opposite stance on the issue on Wednesday, Twitter mentions of his name peaked to more than 192,000 mentions in an hour. Mitt Romney, who Obama will face in November’s presidential election, also got a nice boost in mentions after he reiterated his position against gay marriage following Obama’s announcement. This by-the-hour chart shows how Obama’s mentions peaked through Tuesday night and into Wednesday afternoon, as well as how he compared to other hot Twitter topics during that time span:

Did you follow Obama’s support of gay marriage today? What role did Twitter play in how you learned and processed the news? Share with us in the comments.

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20 Simple Ways to Boost Blog Subscribers

2012-05-09T22:23:00.001-07:00

It's not an uncommon scenario: Business bloggers get so caught up in the grind of churning out quality content on a regular basis, they tend to forget about some of the other fundamental factors that contribute to a successful blog. One of these factors is a growing subscriber base. You know, those dedicated blog readers that keep coming back to your blog on a regular basis? The people who consistently read and share your content with their networks?

Unfortunately, too many bloggers undermine the value of these loyal members of their blog's readership. But the fact of the matter is, the more subscribers you can get to opt into your blog the wider you can expand the top of your funnel, and the more people you'll have coming to your website. So if you haven't put a lot of calories into growing your blog's subscriber base, consider these 20 simple ways to attract more 'regulars' to your blog.

20 Simple Ways to Generate More Blog Subscribers

1) Clearly Display the Subscription Button/Email Opt-In Form

First of all, don't make it difficult for visitors to your blog to figure out how to opt in to your blog. Display a clear call-to-action module to subscribe to your blog, along with an RSS subscription button and a simple, one-field email opt-in form near the top of your blog -- above the fold. Don't make your visitors search through all the bells and whistles in your blog's sidebar to subscribe. Put it right in their face, and make it stand out.

2) Demonstrate the Value of Subscribing

If a visitor is new to your blog, they're likely going to need some convincing that it's worth coming back to time and time again. Just as with any effective call-to-action, you need to clearly demonstrate that value of subscribing to your blog. Explain what the visitor will get from the blog when subscribing. In the HubSpot blog's subscriber call-to-action, for example, we explain what the HubSpot blog covers -- "all of inbound marketing - SEO, blogging, social media, lead generation, email marketing, lead nurturing & management, and analytics" -- so visitors have a clear understanding of what they'll get from subscribing.

3) Create a Dedicated Subscription Landing Page

In addition to the subscribe module right there on your blog, create a dedicated landing page that you can direct people to via other channels such as social media, other pages on your website, PPC, or email. This way, rather than saying, "Visit myblog.com, then look for the subscriber option at the top right. You know -- right below the banner CTA," you can say "Visit myblog.com/subscribe to be the first to receive our latest blog content!"

4) Offer an Incentive for Subscribing

Do a push to boost subscribers, such as a dedicated email send or a social media campaign, and offer an incentive for subscribing, such as an exclusive ebook, download, or coupon. Set up a dedicated landing page, and reward anyone who subscribes via that landing page with the exclusive offer.

5) Promote on Your 'About Us' Page and Press Room Pages

Include a link to subscribe to your blog on other high-trafficked pages of your website such as your 'About Us' page and Press Room. These pages are likely to attract a lot of new visitors to your website, so use the opportunity to funnel them into your blog so they can learn more about you and read all of the awesome blog content you offer.

6) Add a Footer to Each Blog Article

To each of your blog articles, add a simple, text-based footer that acts as a call-to-action to subscribe to your blog -- like we've done to the bottom of this very post! If a visitor finishes reading an article on your blog and has found the content they read valuable, you'll capture them at the height of their interest.

7) Search Engine Optimize Your Content

An indirect way to boost subscribers is to drive more traffic to your blog. The more traffic you drive to your blog -- assuming you've also optimized your blog to convert visitors into subscribers -- the more subscribers you'll gain. Don't overlook the importance of search engine optimizing each blog article you publish. Brush up on your blog SEO, and target the keywords you want to rank for in search.

8) Leverage Social Proof

'Social proof' is the concept that people will conform to the actions of others under the assumption that those actions are reflective of the correct behavior. This third-party validation can be a very powerful motivator for your site visitors' and prospects' actions. You can leverage social proof on your blog to boost subscribers by highlighting the number of subscribers your blog has already accumulated, as we've done on this very blog. This makes blog visitors think, "Well, if so many other have already subscribed to this blog, maybe I should, too!"

9) Include a Subscription CTA in the Footer of Marketing Emails

Use your email marketing real estate -- whether it's within dedicated email sends or lead nurturing emails -- to encourage blog subscriptions by adding a simple, text-based footer CTA to the bottom of your emails.

10) Leverage Your Social Presence

Incorporate blog subscriber promo into your social media updates. Promote the dedicated subscription landing page you set up in tip number 3, and share it in updates for your various social media accounts such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Facebook. You could even create a dedicated tab on your Facebook page and collect subscriptions right within Facebook!

11) Make Blog Content Easy to Share

Let your readers do some of the work for you! Another indirect way to boost subscribers is to make the social sharing of your blog content as simple as possible. Add social sharing buttons to every blog post you publish (here's how), so your readers can easily promote your blog content to their networks and expand your blog's reach beyond your current fans, followers, and subscribers.

12) Guest Blog, and Include a Link in the Author Byline

Guest blogging can be a powerful link-building tool. But you can milk guest blogging opportunities for more than just the inbound links. Because other blogs can be a great source of readers who don't know about your own blog, you can use your author byline as a way to generate new subscribers.

13) Promote on Thank-You Pages

Thank-you pages are the pages your visitors get redirected to after they've completed a form on a landing page. As a result, these pages are prime real estate to encourage reconversions -- especially blog subscriptions! Add CTAs that compel your newly converted leads to also subscribe to your blog content. It's a great way to boost blog subscribers while also continuing to nurture leads.

14) Promote Within Other Content

Include blog subscription CTAs within some of your other content such as your ebooks, webinars, or other downloads. Just as with the footer at the end of your blog posts, this will enable you to capitalize on the people who are already interested in your content. If leads think the content they're already consuming is valuable, they'll be more inclined to subscribe to the other content you offer on your blog.

15) Hold a Contest

Do a push for blog subscribers using your other promotional channels, and treat it like a contest. Offer an enticing prize to a randomly selected subscriber who subscribes between the launch of your promotion and a designated date.

16) Commit to Content Quality

Face it: You're never going to convince readers to become a 'regular' if they're unimpressed by the quality of the content on your blog in the first place. Make a commitment to increase the quality of the content on your blog. As TopRank Online Marketing's Lee Odden says, you need to publish a "quantity of quality" in order to get a leg up on all the other blogs that are also vying for your audience's attention. Not convinced that quality content is that important? Read this post.

17) Be Consistent

The fastest way to churn your subscriber base is by failing to consistently publish content. Subscribers have an expectation of regularity, so if potential new subscribers don't see that you're regularly publishing blog content, they're not going to see much value in subscribing, and you'll lose some of the subscribers you've already worked so hard to attract. And publishing frequently can reward you with a lot more than just subscribers -- HubSpot's 2012 State of Inbound Marketing Report shows that the more frequently you publish to your blog, the more likely you'll generate customers from it.

18) Promote Blog Subscription in Your Personal Email Signature

Add a CTA and link to subscribe to your blog in your personal email signature, and encourage the rest of your company to do so as well -- particularly your sales team. Using the free tool, WiseStamp, you can also create a dynamic email signature that includes an RSS feed, which shows the title of your most recent blog article and automatically updates as new articles get published.

19) Do a Paid Push

Put some paid marketing muscle behind your subscriber push. Use PPC to direct traffic to your dedicated blog subscriber landing page, or leverage Facebook Sponsored Stories to drive traffic to the subscriber tab you created for your Facebook business page in number 10.

20) Use Full Feeds

To provide a full RSS feed, or not to provide a full RSS feed -- that is the much-debated question. If you're not hip to the difference, a partial RSS feed delivers just a snippet of the blog post with a link to read more on the blog, whereas a full RSS feed provides the entire post within the reader's feed aggregator. The full feed provides a more user-friendly experience, whereas the partial feed is beneficial in driving traffic to your blog itself. The problem is, many readers won't subscribe to your blog if you're only offering a partial feed, so while partial feeds save you some blog traffic, you end up losing subscribers and hurting user experience. While there are definitely opposing points of view, we recommend providing subscribers with the full feed.

What other things can you do to increase your blog's subscriber base? And ... ahem ... have you subscribed to this blog yet? ;-)

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64 Pinterest Marketing Tips and Tactics – Infographic

2012-05-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

I walked into an electronics store the other day and happened to pass the television department.

The 70 inch televisions with high definition flat screens were displaying videos so compelling that for a minute or two I just stood there watching images so sharp and mesmerizing that I just stopped and watched.

The vibrant colors and high contrast were almost hypnotic.

It was only ten years ago and a flat screen TV half that size was $20,000.

Now everyone has at least a 42 inch plasma or LCD screen and that is in the smallest room in the house!

The Visual Sharing Addiction

Reality television, lifestyle and cooking shows have taken food to new levels of visual and visceral appeal and taking photos of food and sharing them on Facebook or Instagram seems to becoming a standard activity these days.

Generation X and Y would rather watch a video or an infographic in small snack size bites of information than read a paragraph of text.

Several key factors seem to be driving this visual sharing revolution.

Broadband access whether it is fixed or wireless (images and videos no longer take hours to upload)
Social network platforms – that make it easy to upload images and videos in seconds
Smart phones with cameras (high definition is now the norm)
Apps that make it easy to shoot and share (Instagram)

This increasingly visual generation is creating opportunities for creative people to engage with friends, colleagues and customers using images and videos.

Pinterest has over the last 6 months, become the social network with buzz, which provides a visual platform that offers the ecosystem to experiment, play and trial images as a means of engagement and even selling.
It is even being used to drive people to landing pages to capture information and buy.

How do you use Pinterest to Market your Business?

Here are 64 marketing tips and tactics that you can apply to your Pinterest account to get you started and refine your strategies.

So How About You?
How are you using Pinterest? Have you even heard of it before? Are you finding it driving traffic?
Is it working for you? What has surprised you about Pinterest?
I look forward to hearing your stories..

View the Original article

How to Avoid Pinterest Wedding Angst

2012-05-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

So, the initial glow of engagement has worn off. Maybe that’s because you started discussing wedding budgets, guest lists and catering options. To make matters worse, you’re starting to view Pinterest not as a frilly paradise of inspiration, but as a barrage of nuptial media.

Step back from the edge, my friend, and consider our suggestions below. They’ll help put a little fun back in the process, and maybe even save your sanity.

If you’ve been holding back from Pinterest, fear not. It’s a great place to share ideas with your family and friends, and our tips can help you avoid pantone-color-swatch-tulle-induced madness.

And remember, social media should improve your life, not give you one more thing to obsess over. Committing the rest of your life to someone is stressful enough.

1. Cull Your Following List

No, you do not need to follow every old high school Facebook acquaintance who repinned your bouquet idea. If you do, you’ll end up with 50 of the same repins in your feed, or a million pins from boards you have absolutely no interest in.

If you’re still in the general idea phase, stick with people or brands that post a variety of content, and that are reliable. Or subscribe to individual boards — if all you need are table settings, you can skip the wedding dresses board altogether. The goal here is to tame the flood of information so you’re inspired, not overwhelmed.

2. Go Beyond Pinterest

Pinterest is arguably more useful as a place to store your ideas, rather than a place to generate them. With the “Pin It” browser extension, you can go directly to a site you know you’re interested in, bypassing Pinterest’s clumsy search function. After you’ve visited a site, check whether your favorite blogger or brand is on Pinterest and add them to your selective follow list.

3. Split Up Your Boards

If you’re using Pinterest as a way to store images and ideas for future reference, you’re going to want to be able to find them again later. Splitting up your boards is a great way to help with this. Instead of a general “wedding” board, trying having separate ones for different facets: table decorations, dresses, cake, invitations, flowers, etc. This will also come in handy when you want to share your bouquet ideas with a florist (or your grandma), your hairstyle options with your mom, or bridesmaid dresses with your sister.

4. Keep It in Context

Like any tool, the goal of Pinterest is to help you out, not make you crazy. Step away from the pinboards, if that’s what you need. Or quit following a user who only pins options outside your budget or taste. Remember, creativity comes from constraints — no need to torture yourself with budget-busting chair covers.

Take a moment to define your purpose in using Pinterest for wedding planning, and if you start veering from that, reel yourself back in. The real goal of wedding planning is to get married, however you choose to accomplish that. Pinboards are optional.

Got more tips for wedding planning sanity, Pinterest-related or otherwise? Share ‘em in the comments.

1. A Practical Wedding

Come for the pretty photos from real weddings. Stay for the blog run by Meg Keene, which features helpful advice from Team Practical on Fridays. It's particularly useful for non-traditional wedding suggestions.

2. The Perfect Palette

No, you don't need "wedding colors," but it's nice to have something to reference as you make decisions. Take a color you like and explore the possibilities. The website has more options if you run out of pins.

3. Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine

You can't talk about weddings and avoid Martha. With a wide variety of pins to suit just about anyone, you'll encounter lots of ideas without a lot of effort.

4. Minted

This paper goods company features independent graphic designers with options for every occasion. It's a good place to get a feel for what's possible in a wedding invitation, without getting overwhelmed at the stationery store.

5. Better Homes and Gardens

BHG has a wedding section on its website, but the Pinterest account is more general. This is helpful, actually. The dining, home decor and outdoor boards have a lot to offer.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Brasil2

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The Rise of the Mommy Blogger [INFOGRAPHIC]

2012-05-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

The mommy blogger has been around for several years now, but did you know the army of chatty, tech-savvy mothers was this large — and monied?

14% of all American mothers with at least one child in their household blog about parenting or turn to blogs for advice, according to a recent study by Scarborough Research. About 3.9 million moms in the United States identify as bloggers, but just 500 of them are considered to be influential among other mothers.

The average mommy blogger is 37 years old and 89% of mommy bloggers have kids between the ages of 2 and 11. They’re also socially conscious and are 85% more likely to have supported a politician based on an environmental issue, 88% more likely to buy eco-friendly products and 38% more likely to volunteer than the average mom.

Whether by dint of circumstance, hard work or both, mommy bloggers also belong to a pretty elite social set. The average mommy blog’s household income in $84,000 — $14,000 higher than average income for non-blogging moms. Moms who read or contribute to blogs are also 52% more likely to have college degrees than moms who don’t, according to Scarborough.

The online tax service H&R Block commissioned the infographic below to create a snapshot of the mom blog world and show who some of the field’s most successful writers are. Check it out below for the full picture.

Do you follow any mommy blogs or blog about parenting yourself? Let us know in the comments.

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10 Things You Didn’t Know About Klout

2012-05-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

Mark Schaefer teaches marketing at Rutgers University, blogs at {grow}, and is the author of the new book, Return On Influence: The Revolutionary Power of Klout, Social Scoring and Influence Marketing.

Love it or hate it, Klout and the social-scoring trend are hot. And there’s a lot that’s still unknown about the company that Fast Company just recognized as one of the most innovative in the world.

While researching and writing my book on Klout, I had exclusive access to the inner workings of the company and its customers. Here are 10 things I learned about it that you probably didn’t know.

1. Klout Founder and CEO Joe Fernandez studied English at Oxford University but never received a college degree, although he had more than enough credits to graduate. His first startup was making skate boards, a life-long interest.

2. When Klout went live in December, 2008, Fernandez manually calculated each Klout score.
3. The only person with a perfect 100 Klout score is Justin Bieber. Several celebrities have lobbied for higher Klout scores, including Britney Spears.

4. When Joe Fernandez first pitched his idea for Klout to the startup accelerator panel at South by Southwest in 2009, the idea was rejected because it was not business worthy. One of the panelists, Nova Spivack, later became the first investor in the company.

5. Klout has different influence calculations based on which social media platform you are active on. It also accounts for international differences in communication patterns.

6. A Klout influencer who receives a perk (a gift from a brand) creates an average of thirty pieces of content about that gift. About 80% of the companies who participate in a Klout influencer program sign up for a second one.

7. When Klout received its first round of funding, the first check went to the owner of the Klout.com domain name. Up until then the company was only found on Klout.net.

8. With tens of billions of hits to its API in a month, Klout has at least 500 times more traffic than its nearest competitor, PeerIndex.

9. Giving somebody a +K is a nice gesture, but it has no effect on a Klout score.

10. Klout’s first office in San Francisco was in the same building as Twitter.

View the Original article

11 Apps Every Marketer Should Download

2012-05-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

Apps are everywhere these days, and not just on your iPhone. Apps are all over Android, mobile devices, desktops ... even in your marketing software! And the functionality of these apps is ever-expanding, which is good news for marketers, because it means you can now download an app that does more than just fling angry birds at little green pigs. That's right -- now there are apps out there that make a marketer's life easier, and even make them better at their jobs.

As a marketer and fan of exploring new apps (although my colleagues might have a more emphatic name for me than "fan"), I wanted to share with you the apps that make marketers more successful at, well, marketing. Here are what I consider to be 11 must-have apps for marketers so you can really make a dent in your career!

1) Evernote

As a marketer, you are bound to think of your next campaign idea at an unexpected time: right before you go to bed, as you are about to step on the subway, or even when you're out with friends. So how do you make sure you don't forget your next lead generation idea? With Evernote, of course!

Evernote is a way to capture your notes while you're on the go. Not only is there a desktop application, but there is also a mobile application. As soon as you open either device, it will sync and update your notes so that you always have access to your latest information. The ability to constantly have a virtual notepad like this is so important for marketers who have to keep up-to-date on the changing landscape of marketing, and best of all, Evernote can be used on any device!

2) Dropbox

Dropbox is a fantastic tool for collaboration and file sharing; it's so simple! It becomes a folder on your hard drive where you can upload files and share them with others on your team. You can also download Dropbox apps on your smartphone and iPad so you can have those files on the go -- even when you aren't by your computer. But the best part about Dropbox is that you can keep files that are too large to send via email, and immediately give access to other members of your team. This app can also be used on any device.

3) GoDocs

Have you ever been on the go but needed to access your Google Documents to update something you simply forgot to change before you left the office? GoDocs is not an official Google app, but it still works really well to access your Google Docs. It sorts your documents by the last one that was edited and allows you to see the entire document. You can even upload documents right from your phone. If you're working on a spreadsheet with multiple tabs, it includes all of the tabs as well. GoDocs also allows for multiple accounts. This is available for iPhone and Android devices.

4) Trello

Trello is a collaboration tool for to-do lists. Each team member has a "board" where they list tasks they have to do, tasks they are working on, and tasks they have completed. Take a look:

Trello also gives users the ability to assign other team members to tasks on their list, and give deadlines and priority labels to tasks on your list. You can also have checklists within individual tasks and track your progress on completing those tasks.

Trello is both a website app and a mobile app. So when you are leaving work and want to know what you still need to complete, you can just grab your phone, open the app, and look at what your night or next day has to offer! This app is available on iPhone and Android devices.

5) HootSuite

HootSuite provides a social media dashboard that helps marketers post, monitor, and measure their social media tools. It allows you to schedule posts to Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ throughout the day, and even manage multiple accounts. Additionally, it provides analytics that are essential for marketers to be able to report and figure out how to increase their followers, traffic, and clicks. Similar to other apps, HootSuite can be accessed from your smartphone so you can continue to monitor and engage with your followers at any time. This app is available on all desktops.

6) GoToMeeting

Have you ever been on the train with terrible wireless but needed to call into a meeting or webinar? There is now a GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar mobile app that lets you do just that! It allows you to not only hear the presentation, but also see the presenter's screen. Instead of simply calling into meetings when you are not in the office, you can now see them right from your mobile device! This app is available on iPhone and Android devices.

7) Eventbrite

Many events now use Eventbrite to keep track of their registrations. You can buy tickets on Eventbrite, create backend reports, and track where your attendees are coming from. Eventbrite also has a mobile app that keeps track of the events you have registered for on Eventbrite, so you can easily access any of the information on their Eventbrite page. This will come in handy for people who don't remember when and where the event is and are already on their way!

Because HubSpot has seen the value in this app, we have created an app for our App Marketplace. It will keep track of who has registered for your event, your ticket sale progress, and import your registrants as leads into your portal so you can continue to have a relationship with them after your event. This is a great way to share some of the content from the event after it's over and keep in touch with your attendees. This app is available on iPhone and Android devices.

8) Statigram

There are some social media tools, such as Instagram, that do not natively offer reporting. But as a marketer, it's crucial to have analytics in place to measure your social media marketing performance. Enter Statigram!

Statigram provides analytics for Instagram, a mobile app that was recently acquired by Facebook and more and more frequently being used by brands in marketing campaigns. In addition to fun metrics to see what your most popular photos were and what filters were used the most, it also gives reports on the best time to post new photos, the average lifespan of a photo, which filters are triggering the biggest amounts of likes and traffic, and which followers are the most engaged. This app is available on all desktops.

9) Pinerly

Similar to Statigram, Pinerly measures activity on Pinterest. It helps find people who pin pictures that match your interests, helps identify people who have unfollowed you or you may want to unfollow, identifies popular pins that you may want to repin, allows you to schedule pins throughout the day, and provides statistics to show you what you are doing right and wrong. As a marketer, it's important to be able to schedule pins throughout the day to constantly engage your audience, and then measure the activity around your pins to determine whether or not you are pinning images of interest to your followers. This app is available on all desktops, and if you're new to Pinterest.

10) iReach

PR Newswire has always been the go-to tool for public relations professionals to send out press releases. However, putting a press release on the wire can be very expensive, and not always realistic for small marketing budgets. But HubSpot has an app in its App Marketplace that addresses that problem! For only $179, you can put a press release on the wire to a smaller segment of publications, but still over 1,000 websites including PR Newswire. We have used it in the past for big announcements with great results.

11) Zerys

Blogging and content creation is one of the most important components of inbound marketing, but all too often, it gets pushed to the back burner. The Zerys app provides a solution to this problem! Zerys allows you to post topic and title suggestions that you would like to have written for your blog, and then gets in touch with writers who want to help you write blog posts. You can then accept, request edits, or reject the content. It even helps you think of titles based on the topics you want to write about! This app is also available to HubSpot customers in your HubSpot portal.

What other apps do you use to make your marketing life easier?

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How Social and Mobile is the New iGeneration?

2012-05-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

In today’s digital world and social web I would be almost considered a dinosaur.

My generation grew up on personal computers that weren’t connected to anything but the power outlet and the laptops were the size of small cars.

I wasn’t brought up on a diet of iPods, iPhones and the Internet.

Today’s i-generation that is attending college and university have known nothing but Facebook, YouTube and Google almost since they were able to read and write.

The one year olds today are finding that the toy of choice is often an Apple iPad that makes learning and entertainment intuitive.

Digital devices dominate!

A Glimpse into the Future

So if you want to see what will be influencing tomorrow’s leaders, you need to look at what the college students of today are using to engage with brands, the devices they are using to communicate and the social networks they think are important.

Digital Media IX recently completed a study of 2,000 college students to try and discover what digital media, brands and devices are important.

Here are the top insights from that research.

1. The Top 6 Social Networks for College Students

It was no surprise to see the top three of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter scoring above 60% usage. Facebook at 97% continues as expected to be the defacto social network of choice for almost all students.

The study also revealed that LinkedIn is important for senior year college students as they start considering a career.

Pinterest is still a girl thing with 55% of college women using it with only 5% of men on the visual social networking platform.

What I found surprising was Google+ at over 20% with women counting for 60% of the participants.

2. How Students Engage with Brands

I wouldn’t be tearing down your website anytime soon if you want to engage with college students. It is still the primary digital platform that they visit to to obtain information. The Facebook page engagement is primarily limited to “likes” for entering a contest or to incentive.

Over 50% engage with a video, mostly through YouTube.

More than one-third of students download apps sponsored by a brand, high lighting the growing importance of apps and mobile in engagement.

Twitter, though the least popular was revealed to be a powerful marketing medium with those that “Tweet” influencing a broad group of friends which amplifies the influence.

3. Smart Phones

As expected the smart phone is the most important thing to carry around. What was surprising was the level of dominance the Apple iPhone has for this generation at 58% .

It also appears that the Blackberry (8%) has been usurped by HTC at 11%, with Samsung also rising in usage.

This survey reveals the power of the Apple brand for the younger generation.

4. Mobile Apps on Students Phones

In the survey college students identified 800 unique mobile apps but nine apps represented nearly half the responses (as listed below in the graphic).

The top three apps were Facebook, Twitter and weather. The rise of Instagram and Pinterest over the last 12 months was also evident.

As expected Sports apps were the favorite of men.

5. The Top 10 Digital Brands for College Students

The pervasive influence of Apple is on display for all to see here with it ranking in three of the top five digital brands.

DigitalMediaIX developed the DMIX ratio (DMIX/R) to provide understanding of brands and how they are influenced by the various forms of digital media.

Also factored in were Facebook “likes,” Twitter Followers, and YouTube Channel Views, weighted to reflect their relative importance.

What About You?

Do any of the results surprise you?

Could you use any of the information revealed to assist you with your marketing.

Look forward to hearing your feedback and comments.

View the Original article

Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week

2012-05-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

1. Pac-tivity

The Tupac hologram keeps turning up in our top 10. It is already famous on social media, but what about a movie career? This week’s number one is this Tupac #hologram parody, posted to Twitter by @RatchetPictures (950+ followers).

2. 9GagTweets

Which of these three looks most familiar? This popular image is by @9gagtweets (33.000+ followers). #9GagTweets

3. May Day

On May 1st, the Occupy movement and other protesters all over the world returned to the streets for #MayDay demonstrations. The events were well-documented by Twitter users, who posted thousands of pictures and tweets to the popular sharing platform. This picture, posted by @911BUFF (3500+ followers), displays the view over the demonstrations in Manhattan.

4. Skyline

This picture, featuring the skyline of Canton, Ohio, was tweeted by @djstone13. "#Skyline" was one of the #photoaday challenge subjects for this week.

5. Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday is a weekly returning event, which is all about recapturing memories and showing a part of your past with your followers on Twitter in the form of a picture. This picture, tweeted by 15-year-old actor Colin Ford (@colinfordactor, 35.000+ followers), displays Colin along with the Supernatural cast, "on the first Supernatural episode yearrrrs ago."

6. You Only Live Once

#YOLO is an acronym for "You Only Live Once." This picture of an apparently failed test was tweeted by @RatchetPictures with the caption: "Blame Drake. ‘The Motto (YOLO)’ is a song by Drake and rapper Lil’ Wayne. Kids, don’t try this at home (or at school)."

7. On fast forward

This popular image by @Justin1Derland (35.000+ followers) hardly needs an explanation.

8. Photo a Day

The immensely popular #PhotoADay challenges on Twitter are organized by blogger @FatMumSlim (9000+ followers) every month. The challenge consists of posting a picture of a predetermined subject to your Twitter account every day, from your mobile phone. The photo subjects for this month, displayed on this image, were released a few days before May 1.

9. All In the Name

@AndrewBloch (18.000+ followers, founder of Frank PR) tweeted this image along with the capture: “This sign at the doctors surgery made me laugh.”

10. Earless bunny

According to @UberFacts (over 1.5 million followers), earless bunnies have allegedly been found in China. Whether this picture is real or photoshopped is not clear, but the bunny's cuteness remains undisputed.

The upper echelon of popular Twitter pics this week dealt with cuteness, beauty and even some truth. And in between, there were reminders that all was not as it appeared.

As the new month began, protest pictures found their way to Twitter, and as the week progressed, comedy took over.

We certainly had no shortage of pictures from which to choose, sifting through 42 million to select this week’s top 10.

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Iran Lashes Out at Google Maps Over Gulf Nomenclature

2012-05-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

Iran is harshly criticizing Google for what it feels is a disrespectful omission in Google Maps.

The country’s government is angry because Google Maps does not label the body of water known in Iran as the Persian Gulf. Others refer to it as the Arabian Gulf.

A senior Iranian official blasted Google in a statement on Saturday, threatening that the company risks losing credibility in the Middle East.

“Google fabricating lies… will not have any outcome but for its users to lose trust in the data the company provides,” Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Bahman Dorri said according to Iranian news reports.

Before Dorri made that official statement on behalf of the Iranian government, resentment about the omission had been brewing among many of the country’s citizens, the BBC reported last week. Upset Iranians say that, up until a few days ago, Google Maps labeled the area as the Persian Gulf.

A Google spokesperson told the BBC that Google Maps does not label every place in the world, but could not provide another example of a major location going nameless.

The large body of water in question is connected to the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea. It separates Iran, to the north, from Saudia Arabia, the U.A.E. and other Arab countries to the south. It has long been known as the Persian Gulf, but in recent years some Arab states have sought to rebrand the waterway as the Arabian Gulf.

Google’s response here so far appears to be one of studied uninvolvement. Do you think Google should leave the gulf nameless, stick with Persian Gulf, or perhaps use both names? Let us know in the comments.

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8 Professional Tumblr Themes for Your Small Business

2012-05-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

Unfortunately, when it comes to your small business website, image is everything. How you present your company on the digital sphere is important, and as we’ve learned recently, people are searching for the word “Tumblr” moreso than “blog.”

More and more brands have migrated to Tumblr. The micro-blogging site has become a more serious platform for brands — whether it’s to show brand character, offer a peek behind the scenes, like we do here at Mashable or just to keep customers up-to-date on the latest from their storefront.

Some may feel slightly overwhelmed at the thought of juggling so many social media sites — why add a Tumblr to the mix?

First, you should know that it can be done. Tumblr recently made sharing to Facebook easier by integrating with Timeline. That’s a helpful step in your social media management’s direction. Tumblr has carved a niche for itself in embracing a more graphic and design-oriented aesthetic, which is a plus for your company if you’re looking to distinguish yourself in a more meaningful way than you can through a generic Facebook Page.

You should also keep in mind that there are more than 50 million blogs on Tumblr. That is a lot of people who could be looking at your site.

The best place to start is simply setting up a Tumblr — or maybe you already have one. After that, selecting a theme will help your site stand apart and look more professional. The great thing is you don’t necessarily need to spend a ton on a graphic designer or purchase a premium theme, although both of these options most certainly have their perks.

Don’t have the budget or the patience for a custom theme? Here are plenty of great free themes to choose from in Tumblr’s theme garden. Try to go with one that works with your brand and the utility goals of the blog. For example, if you’re looking to inform customers about what’s happening within the company, you’d be better off with a classic blog format. However, if you’re looking for something more visual, a pin-board style theme might be a better option.

Still feeling a little in over your head? We’ve round up eight classic, professional themes for your small business on Tumblr so you can become cutting edge with a simple or bold design.

What theme do you use for your professional blog? Let us know in the comments below.

1. Simple Things

This theme is a basic option for a business owner who wants a simple site, but also desires a more modern look.

2. Natural Elegance

By going with a darker background, text and images stand out, and your site looks sleek and contemporary. This site is used best when you're taking a graphical approach to your Tumblr.

3. Simplify

The name of this theme says it all -- simple. This is a great option for a business owner who is just looking for the very basics.

4. The Atlantic

This theme, stylized after popular news magazine The Atlantic, gives your site a newsy feel that's professional and customizable. It's a good option for businesses with more text-based posts, such as keeping customers up-to-date on the latest from your company.

5. Art She Said

This theme has a nice italic font that makes text stand out, and its clean, classic look will make your business' site look pretty sharp.

6. c/c/c/ theme

We really like how elegant this theme looks. It's classic, with a simple pretty font.

7. Content Focus 1.1

What's great about this theme is the fact that it has more than 60 interchangeable options for its appearance. You can switch fonts, colors and layout to match your company's branding.

8. Brickway

This theme lets you customize colors and the social buttons at the top give it a highly professional accent.

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How American Express Found Its Social Media Groove

2012-05-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

American Express went from virtually zero social media presence in 2009 to being hailed by Advertising Age as the “real winner” at South By Southwest this year.

How did AmEx do it? Leslie Berland, SVP of digital partnerships and development at the company, attempted to retrace the brand’s steps during a talk at Mashable Connect, and then dispensed a few social media tips on Friday.

Berland highlighted two major inflection points in AmEx’s social media marketing history: its introduction of Small Business Saturday and its promotion of Sync at SXSW. The former started with a “lofty goal,” which was to “start a movement,” Berland said.

Launched in 2010, Small Business Saturday was designed as a response of sorts to Black Friday, which comes the day before. The idea is to motivate consumers already in shopping mode to spend their cash at their local mom and pops. Berland says her aha moment with the program was realizing that it was a great fit on Facebook, where the SBS Page drew 1 million fans in three weeks. (It now has 2.8 million fans.)

That’s a respectable showing considering the brand only began focusing on social media in 2009, when it set up AmEx’s first Twitter account. Berland recalls that it took three weeks to come up with the account’s first tweet. No wonder she likens getting a large brand on social media to giving birth.

Berland’s coup de grace was this year’s SXSW promotion for AmEx Sync‘s Twitter tie-in, which appears to have captured the hearts and minds of much of the event’s attendees.

The effort, which introduced a program that offers cardmembers discounts for tweeting advertised hashtags, began before SXSWers even arrived. Berland secured 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi from GoGo to 80% to 90% of the flights to Austin, Texas, that included a plug for Sync. Then, once in Austin, AmEx offered 700 tickets to its Jay-Z concert. The concert became a major draw at the show, an outcome that reflects Jay-Z’s popularity as well as AmEx’s exacting standards as an entertainment partner. As Berland recalls, there was a long list of potential concert draws, but the brand was seeking someone who was both hip with the local crowd and popular nationally. (Justin Bieber was among those who didn’t make the cut.)

Though Berland’s talk included some trite advice (“Think like a startup”), she was more candid in her Q&A with the audience. When one attendee challenged her about her statement that “90% of our strategy is defined by the things we don’t do,” Berland said she meant, for instance, that it’s wise to resist the pressure to embrace all formats. “What I’m often challenged with often is a lot of ‘I want this, we want that’” she said, referring to internal pressure. However, “It’s not a ‘build it they will come,’ thing.”

Berland also said it doesn’t make sense to back a Facebook campaign with traditional media like print and TV ads. “If you’re running a program on Facebook, buy ads on Facebook.”

The contents of each bag given to Mashable Connect attendees.
Attendees Arrive
Mashable Connect attendees gathering in the hotel lobby.
Attendees Arrive
While Thursday didn't have a full day of activities, there were things planned for Thursday evening.
Attendees Arrive
In this photo from left to right: Mashable reporter Brian Hernandez, a Mashable Connect Guest, Mashable Community Assistant Stephanie Haberman, Mashable Reporter Sarah Kessler, and Mashable Features Editor Matt Silverman.
Attendees Arrive
On the right is Mashable's Marketing Manager Jennifer Diamond with another attendee.
Attendees Arrive
More happy Mashable Connect attendees.
Speed Networking
Attendees were invited to a speed networking session to get know other attendees the first night.
MashableConnect-Thursday028
You'd have two minutes to get to know the person sitting across from you.
Speed Networking
At the end of the two minutes, attendees got up and slid to the right.
Speed Networking
Second from left, Mashable U.S. and World Reporter Alex Fitzpatrick makes connections at speed networking.
Speed Networking
Attendees were able to meet almost everyone during the session.
Speed Networking
Mashable Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff listens during the speed networking session.
Speed Networking
At the sound of the chime, it's time to change seats.
Speed Networking Speed Networking
Mashable Community Manager Meghan Peters talks to another Mashable Connect attendee.
Speed Networking Speed Networking
It's always important to start with the handshake.
Speed Networking Speed Networking Thursday's Dinner
A lone smartphone a picture of the Mashable Connect Thursday dinner.
Thursday's Dinner
Guests proceeded into the dinner room, where they would eat and listen to a keynote from Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore.
Thursday's Dinner Thursday's Dinner
Mashable COO Sharon Feder addresses the Mashable Connect crowd with the help of Mickey Mouse.
Pete Cashmore's Keynote
Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore addresses the Thursday night crowd at Mashable Connect.
Pete Cashmore's Keynote
Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore addresses the Thursday night crowd at Mashable Connect.
Pete Cashmore's Keynote
The crowd listening to Pete Cashmore.
Pete Cashmore's Keynote
The entire Mashable staff in attendance gathers on stage with Pete Cashmore.
Thursday's Dinner
Some delicious looking dishes being served to Mashable Connect guests.
Thursday's Dinner
Mashable COO Sharon Feder laughing at Thursday's Mashable Connect Dinner.
Thursday's Dinner
Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore enjoying Thursday's Mashable Connect Dinner.
Thursday's Dinner Thursday's Dinner
Mashable U.S. and World Reporter Alex Fitzpatrick talks to another Mashable Connect attendee.
Thursday's Dinner Thursday's Dinner
Mashable's CTO Robyn Peterson, Sales Director Adam Berberich and founder and CEO Pete Cashmore share a conversation at Thursday's dinner.
Thursday's Dinner
Mashable Senior VP of Communications Stacy Green addresses the crowd during dinner.
Mashable Connect Sponsors

Buddy Media is the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, empowering them to build and maintain relationships with their consumers in a connections-based world. The Buddy Media social marketing suite helps brands build powerful connections globally with its scalable, secure architecture and data-driven customer insights from initial point of contact through point of purchase. For more information, visit http://www.buddymedia.com.

AT&T is bringing it all together for our customers, from revolutionary smartphones to next-generation TV services and sophisticated solutions for multi-national businesses. For more than a century, we have consistently provided innovative, reliable, high-quality products and services and excellent customer care. For more, visit http://www.att.com.

Barnes & Noble College Marketing (BNCM) helps brands thrive on campus. It is a division of Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, Inc. that operates more than 640 college bookstores across the country, serving more than 4.7 million students and faculty members. BNCM has the on-campus access and student understanding to deliver superior marketing programs for its brand partners. BNCM’s capabilities include: experiential and event marketing; product sampling, sweepstakes and promotions; digital marketing (social, email, web); on-campus advertising and postering; and programs targeting freshmen, graduates, alumni and athletic event fans. Visit www.bncollegemarketing.com.

Hiscox specializes in tailored insurance coverage for a range of professional services firms in industries like IT, marketing, consulting and more. Hiscox Insurance Company Inc. has been protecting clients for over 100 years and is rated ‘A’ (Excellent) for financial strength by A.M. Best.
We offer professional liability insurance, general liability insurance and other policies direct, either online or over the phone, with customized coverage starting from just $22.50/month.
Visit hiscoxusa.com/smallbiz for a fast, free quote now.

Webtrends powers digital marketing success. Webtrends is at the forefront of real-time digital marketing relevance and customer experience management through unified customer intelligence. Our industry-leading analytics across mobile, social and web enables marketers to optimize campaigns, maximize customer lifetime value and deliver highly relevant digital brand experiences in real-time.
Webtrends dramatically improve digital marketing results for more than 3,500 global brands including, in EMEA and internationally, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, HSBC, ASOS, Orange, T-Mobile, Microsoft, BMW, Toyota, Play.com, AllSaints, The Telegraph, and many more.
www.webtrends.com

Definition 6 is a Unified Marketing Agency that creates brand experiences that unite brands and people in motion. Through imagination, innovation and insight, we execute ideas that deliver continued value across all brand interactions. For more information, please visit http://www.definition6.com.

The Adobe Digital Marketing Suite is an integrated set of applications which allow businesses to gather customer insight and optimize advertising, conversion and retention efforts as well as the creation and distribution of content. For example, using the Suite, marketers can identify the most effective marketing strategies and ad placements as well as create relevant, personalized and consistent customer experiences across digital marketing channels, such as onsite, display, e-mail, social, video and mobile. The Suite enables marketers to automatically adjust to customer interactions and better maximize marketing ROI, which leads to a positive impact the bottom line.

http://www.adobe.com/solutions/digital-marketing.html

The leading resource for human resource and business leaders to explore and discuss the latest workforce and workplace trends including social innovation—providing the in-depth research and insights needed to adapt and take advantage of what’s next.
www.shrm.org

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Facebook Buys Mobile Discovery Service Glancee

2012-05-05T09:19:00.000-07:00

Facebook has scooped up another startup in its path toward mobile dominance. This time, it’s Glancee, an ambient location-based service that competes with Highlight.

From Glancee’s home page:

“We started Glancee in 2010 with the goal of bringing together the best of your physical and digital worlds. We wanted to make it easy to discover the hidden connections around you, and to meet interesting people. Since then Glancee has connected thousands of people, empowering serendipity and pioneering social discovery.

“We are therefore very excited to announce that Facebook has acquired Glancee and that we have joined the team in Menlo Park to build great products for over 900 million Facebook users. We’ve had such a blast connecting people through Glancee, and we truly thank our users for being a part of the Glancee community.”

Less than a month ago, Facebook acquired the mobile-based photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion, and the world’s largest social network has expressed its sights are set on mobile.

Glancee fits the bill. It was one of the hot passive location startups at SXSW this year, along with Highlight and Sonar.

Facebook’s just weeks away from an initial public offering. The company announced its shares would be priced at $28 to $35, putting the company at a valuation of $85 billion and $95 billion. Facebook did not disclose the terms of the Glancee acquisition.

How do you think Glancee’s service might change Facebook on mobile? Push notifications when you’re near friends? Would you like Facebook to be able to do that? Tell us in the comments.

What Is an IPO?

What exactly is an IPO? What are the risks to a company in going public? What are the legal requirements?

If you find the business terms and market lingo confusing, check out our explainer video, which breaks down an IPO in plain language.

Facebook launches with humble beginnings that most people have seen dramatized in The Social Network by now. It was a small social site backed by only a little money, and limited just to the undergrads at Harvard. Right out of the gate, Facebook turned down offers from an unknown investor and Friendster, each offering $10 million. This was, of course, when the company was still called TheFacebook.
Image courtesy of Flickr.

2005: Serious Interest

By 2005, “TheFacebook” was becoming more and more interesting to potential investors. They waved off bids from the likes of NBC, The Washington Post Group, and two separate attempts from both MySpace and Viacom/MTV.

Image courtesy of wwwes; Flickr.

2006: Microsoft & Yahoo Come Calling
Facebook became more legitimized as it moved into more colleges, and then expanded to the public. Microsoft signed a large advertising deal with Facebook, an event that began a long, positive relationship between the two companies.

Just a month later, Yahoo made a $1 billion offer to buy Facebook, but it was rebuffed after Yahoo’s stock dropped and the company had to lower to $800 million.

Image courtesy Ludovic Toinel; Flickr.

2007: Forging an Alliance

After a lucrative advertising relationship, Microsoft invests heavily in Facebook, putting in $240 million for 1.6% stake in the company. This raised Facebook’s estimated worth to $15 billion, after only three years of existence. Despite this, Zuckerberg said the possibility of an IPO is “years out.”

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, michalPuchala

2008: Valued at $4 Billion

In an interview with 60 Minutes in January, Mark Zuckerberg said there was no chance of a Facebook IPO that year. In August, Facebook gave itself a valuation of $4 billion, then began letting fully vested employees sell 20% of their stock based on that valuation.

Image courtesy of 60 Minutes.

2009: More Investment

Facebook gets $200 million investment from Russian Digital Sky, who bought 1.96% of the company with that. That investment raised Facebook’s valuation to $10 billion.

Two other estimates of wealth came out later in 2009 that lowered Facebook’s valuation, probably as more terms of the deal with Digital Sky became clear.

Image courtesy dborman; Flickr.

March 2010: Zuckerberg Talks IPO Rumors

Zuckerberg is still coy about an IPO, saying there is “no rush,” and proving that Facebook doesn’t need the money.

Image courtesy of JD Lasica; Flickr.

November 2010: Valuation Climbs

Trading on secondary markets suggests Facebook is the third most valuable web company in the United States. As private investors sold their stakes, valuations of the company soared as high as $56 billion.
Image courtesy Dan Farber; Flickr.

January 2011: First IPO Moves

Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies drop a massive $500 million cash infusion into Facebook, pushing its value upwards of $50 billion. According to USA Today, that valuation exceeds companies like eBay and Nike.

Facebook also launches an $1.5 billion equity offering through Goldman Sachs, letting some private investors buy a piece of Facebook.

Image courtesy of AMagill; Flickr.

June 2011: The $100 Billion IPO?

Reports circulate that Facebook’s IPO could exceed $100 billion, and that it might go public during the first quarter of 2012.

Image courtesy of Andrew Feinberg; Flickr.

January 2012: IPO Imminent

Facebook halted trading of its shares in secondary markets for three days starting Jan. 25, a possible indicator the company’s long-awaited IPO is coming soon.

Image courtesy J. Fudyama-Powers; Flickr.

Thumbnail image courtesy iStock Photo, youngvet

View the Original article

New Facebook Coupon Feature Helps Local Businesses Determine Social ROI

2012-05-05T07:39:00.001-07:00

Are you aware that, according to research from ExactTarget, 58% of Facebook users expect to receive discounts or promotions when they 'like' a business page? Well yesterday, Facebook started making it a lot easier for marketers to give the people what they want. And now brick-and-mortar local businesses have another smart reason to use Facebook. Coupons!

Yesterday, Facebook rolled out its new Offers product to all local business pages in the U.S. -- a feature that allows marketers to create coupons to share on their timeline. For free! Page fans can then share the offers with their friends, which can be redeemed at the local business' brick and mortar location. Previously available for a select group of brand page testers, TechCrunch reports that the tool is now accessible for all US local businesses on Facebook.

While the feature is only available in the U.S. for now, Facebook plans to roll it out to other countries in the future.

How to Create a Facebook 'Offer'

Before everyone gets excited, it's important to note that only business pages that are categorized as a 'local business' will have access to the new feature. In other words, in your page's settings, under 'Basic Information,' your page category needs to be set to 'Local Businesses & Places,' and an appropriate sub-category needs to be specified. This means that unless you're a local business, you won't have access to the new feature.

If your business is, in fact, a local one, then you'll find the new functionality right within the normal composer tool on your page's timeline. The first time you click to create an offer, a tour of the new functionality will launch.

And this is what the Offer editor will look like:

Anatomy of a Facebook Offer

A Headline: The headline is basically the main offer. Think of it as a call-to-action, and use strong language that clearly explains what the value of the offer is for the user. In the example above, for instance, the headline is "Buy one pair of socks, get another pair free." Facebook recommends providing a discount of at least 20% off or more for the best performance.
A Thumbnail: You can also upload an image with your offer, which is displayed with the offer text as a 90 x 90 pixel thumbnail. For best results, upload a square image that won't get cropped when Facebook resizes it to fit the thumbnail. Facebook also recommends using an image that represents the product/service you're promoting -- or people using that product/service -- rather than your company logo.
A Redemption Limit: You can choose to limit the number of coupons that can be redeemed by choosing a number from the dropdown, or you can make it 'Unlimited.'
An Expiration Date: You can also specify the day on which the offer will expire. Facebook recommends giving people at least a few days to find and claim the offer. This also allows you to leverage word-of-mouth promotion, since you'll be giving fans enough time to share the offer among their friends, and for those friends to claim and redeem it.
Terms & Conditions: This is where you can include more details about the offer. Facebook recommends making terms and conditions as simple as possible.

You can also preview and make changes to the offer before publishing it to your timeline. Facebook also recommends marketers alert their staff about the offer they're promoting and train them on how to handle redemptions. This way, there are no misunderstandings or confusion during the customers' coupon redemption process.

The User Experience

When you publish a Facebook Offer to your page's timeline, visitors of your page will be able to click "Get Offer" on the offer to redeem it.

Facebook will then send an email to the address associated with that user's account, which will contain information about the offer they've claimed. Users can then either print the email or show the email on their mobile device to staff at the brick-and-mortar business in order to redeem it.

Better Insight Into Facebook Marketing ROI for Local Business Marketers

The benefit of Facebook's new feature for marketers is pretty obvious. Now local businesses will easily be able to connect their Facebook presence with its return on investment, since Facebook offers will allow them to directly attribute certain sales with specific Facebook campaigns. This means local business marketers will be able to more clearly understand the value of a Facebook fan and, thus, the ROI of their Facebook marketing.

To get the most out of offers, marketers should leverage other Facebook tools such as pinning the offer to the top of their timeline to promote them organically, and consider Facebook advertising efforts such as Sponsored Stories to attract more attention to their offers.

What do you think of Facebook Offers? Will your local business take advantage of it?

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The Explosive Growth of Instagram – Infographic

2012-05-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

I was recently travelling through Italy and having an iPhone allowed me to share what I was experiencing in real time to my Facebook timeline and to Twitter.

The photo that you see on the right of the sea side town of Camogli is the evidence.
This didn’t require waiting to get back to the hotel room and using my laptop connected to a socket in the wall.

It was as simple as taking a photo using the app, hit the filter feature you want and select which social network to share it on and your photo is visible to the world and the web.

All it needed was a mobile visual app called Instagram.

The explosion of intuitive and easy to use apps is taking usability to new levels and is also a revealing glimpse of what the web may look more like in 5 years.

The Visual, Mobile and Social Web

Five years ago the web was highly text based and tied to desks and offices. Since the launch of the iPhone the emergence of apps and even more mobile devices such as tablets, the mobile revolution is having a major impact on how we use and interact with technology.

The last 2 years have seen some of the most explosive growth of software, ideas and billion dollar businesses in history with socialized apps and mobile devices leading the way.

The evidence:

Today on Facebook 300 million photos will be uploaded
Monthly mobile users on Facebook totals 488 million
Instagram is heading towards the 100 million users milestone in just 2 years

The social and increasingly mobile web is transforming how we share our our experiences.

Here is an infographic that shows how we are using Instagram and it also reveals how it has grown since its birth just 2 years ago

Courtesy of: Online Colleges

How About You

How is the mobile revolution changing how and where you use the web? Is it creating changes in your behavior?

Are you taking more photos? Are you sharing more on Facebook and Twitter?

What has been your best Instagram moment?

Look forward to hearing your stories and experiences.

View the Original article