Email newsletters can be a great way to share a variety of content with your fans and customers. If it’s a B2B company, the newsletter often contains links to articles, blog posts and industry news. But if you decide to include a link to a video, it might disrupt your normal layout. How can you drive visitors to watch the video while also ensuring that they don’t get lost in the process? Here are some tips to make your newsletter’s video stand out, using a newsletter campaign from La Boite Theatre as an example.

Choose an attractive image to represent the video.

It could be a screencap from the video, or it could be a great image that has to do with your company in another way. Whatever it is, make sure you choose an image that’s bright and attractive on its own to draw readers in and stand out from the rest of your newsletter content.

Illustrate the fact that it’s a video with a ‘play’ button.

Once you’ve chosen your image, make sure that readers know it’s affiliated with a video. Get a little creative and superimpose a stylized play button on top of it. Thanks to YouTube, play buttons have become the symbol to differentiate static images from videos, so tell readers it’s a video by using one. Adding the play button will also simulate a video site and encourage readers to click the image itself. To take advantage of this…

Link the entire image to the video itself.

Simulate the experience of YouTube or another video site by linking the entire image to the site or page where the video itself is actually being hosted. It could be your site, or it could be your YouTube page. For a more seamless transition, link the image to the video’s YouTube page, and it will begin playing as soon as the page is opened. The fewer chances you have of losing your readers in the transition from newsletter to video, the better.

Looking to convert your YouTube viewers into customers? Check out our guide for tips and tricks to boost your conversion.

You can tweet about your exciting new white paper all day long. The hope is that users will click on the link within your tweet to be led to a landing page where they’ll type in their email address and hit submit. It’s a multi-step process with many opportunities for visitors to lose interest and drop off. But what if you could cut the steps and get users’ information right on Twitter without requiring them to fill out a single field?

Twitter has introduced Lead Generation Cards, a new kind of expanded tweet that makes this possible. Brands can tweet about an offer, a white paper or a discount and thanks to the extra space allotted in card format, include an image as well as call to action button. When the user clicks that button, Twitter automatically pulls in the user’s handle and email address — it’s a no frills landing page built right into the tweet.

In the example above, Priceline tweets about a 10% discount. When I click to expand the tweet, I see a coupon-esque image, brief instructions and a “Sign Up and Save” button. I click the button and I’m done — the Twitter card now displays a thank you message and a few minutes later, I get the offer email from Priceline.

Twitter Lead Generation Cards are currently only available to Twitter’s managed clients, but will be launched for the rest of us soon.

With big-name brand hacks taking place across the socialsphere, Twitter’s announcement introducing its new two-factor login verification system was met with a sigh of relief. Although it promises to make accounts across the network more secure, some brand marketers are trying to figure out how it will fit in with their overall marketing workflow. Before you tick the box to enable login verification, here are a few things you should know.

Why should I implement two-factor verification?

Simply put, the two-step verification is an added precaution to protect your account. Because it requires users to sign in using login credentials and a SMS code, it makes it more difficult for hackers to gain access through tactics like phishing. The fact that the SMS code changes with every login session also adds an extra layer of security, should your phone or the code fall into the wrong hands.

How will this affect my daily Twitter workflow?

With every login session you’ll be required to enter a verification code that will be sent via SMS to the phone registered to the account. It will take you a few extra seconds to complete the login process, but it won’t interfere with your daily workflow otherwise.

How will this affect third party applications that I have connected to Twitter?

According to a blog post from Twitter Product Security Team member Jim O’Leary, this new step will not disrupt any connections you’ve made between your Twitter account and third-party applications.

Will this cause any problems for my team?

If your team is used to managing the brand’s Twitter account via Twitter.com, it will make it more difficult. Since every login session requires users to enter a SMS code sent to one particular phone, if they don’t have access to the phone, they won’t be able to access the account. If, however, they have access via a third-party community management app, like HootSuite or Sprout Social, they won’t encounter any issues. To ensure that your team has access to your brand’s accounts at all times, consider setting up an account and granting them access through a third-party app. Using third-party apps are a great way to protect your Twitter account, too, since team members create their own login information and never have direct access to the account’s.

How do I implement it?

Log in to your brand’s Twitter account and go to your Account Settings. Select “Require a verification code when I sign in.” Then follow the prompts asking you to add a phone and you’re all set.

Check out our guide to learn about some additional ways to protect your brand’s social accounts from hackers.

Photo courtesy of SimplyZesty.

Who else feels like an imbecile after years spent correcting those who pronounced GIF as JIF? Earlier this week Steve Wilhite, father of the Graphics Interchange Format, accepted a Webby Award for his popular animated creation. In place of an acceptance speech, he flashed a GIF on the screen that read, “It’s pronounced “JIF” not “GIF.” Mea culpa!

In response, the peanut butter makers released a GIF of their own, this time incorporating their logo — an endearing (if not obvious) newsjack executed by the condiment’s social media team. That single tweet received 1,867 retweets and 553 tweets and counting.

But as always with real time creative, that’s not exactly where the story ends (or rather, begins). Twitter user @tim_nolan was quick to point out that Jif snagged his brilliant idea. Nolan publicly pointed this faux pas out to the Jif social team via Twitter, and they wisely swooped back in with apologies and a gift basket.

For more examples of real time social media brilliance, check out the now notorious Oreo newsjack and College Humor’s lesser known play off the giant banana.

It can be frustrating trying to coordinate all the tasks you may need to do as a brand marketer. From content writing, to social updates, to blogger outreach, the variety of tasks you do can change from day to day. That’s why it’s important to have some kind of a system in place to help keep you in control, on time and on task. The service If This Then That has made it easier for users to complete simple and annoying tasks by simply putting a “recipe” in place. Although the recipes run the gamut from Flickr updates to WordPress blogs, there are a few in particular that you can use to boost your productivity and make your tasks a little less daunting or annoying.

Vine video upload to Facebook page

Get it here.

If you’ve launched your brand into the world of Vine, you can save yourself a little time by linking it with your Facebook page with this IFTTT recipe. As soon as you upload your Vine, it will automatically post on your brand’s Facebook page. Although it’s not necessarily a timesaver, it will help keep you more organized.

WordPress blog to LinkedIn update

Get it here.

This is an excellent recipe for B2B brands to take advantage of. With this recipe, any new WordPress blog that is assigned to a specific category will automatically be posted to your company’s LinkedIn page. It’s great for company news, and it’s also a good option for companies currently hiring (especially if you have a blog category dedicated specifically to career opportunities).

Starred Gmail creates Wunderlist task

Get it here.

If you are involved in a lot of email marketing, blogger outreach, or just fielding emails from interested third parties, a good way to keep on top of your email-related tasks is implementing this recipe. Every time you star a Gmail message, a Wunderlist task is automatically created.

Auto upload Flickr photos to Facebook

Get it here.

If you have multiple networks where you share brand-related photos, you can cut down your upload time with this recipe. Every time you upload an image to your Flickr account, it will automatically be uploaded to your Facebook, as well. Timesaver? Definitely.

Looking for more productivity and time-saving tools? Check out these four tools to help improve your work day.

Last week at Google Developer Conference I/O, the search giant introduced new and improved Google Maps. The new version is currently available by invitation only, and beyond show-y features that let users walk canyon trails and swim the oceans, they will now offer a number of more practical features including a redesigned user interface, full-screen mode, and the ability to filter search results according to top reviewers, Google+ circles and top results. Info cards will provide business information such as hours, ratings and reviews.

Users aren’t the only party that will benefit, though. Now search ads set with location extensions can appear directly below the search box and on the map itself, as seen in the example below. Ads directly on the map are annotated with a red circle icon with a white square inside.

Although it may seem easy enough, it’s not a simple task when it comes to creating a brand-oriented hashtag. If you expect to build any kind of buzz around it, it needs to be used consistently and by the right people. It also shouldn’t be created arbitrarily. Intimidated? Don’t be. Here are the three things a hashtag needs in order to be effective and usable for a specific brand/event.

It need to be short.

Thanks to Twitter’s 140-character limits, you need to have a hashtag that is as short and concise as possible. Keeping it short will give followers more freedom in crafting questions, responses and general posts that have to do with that hashtag, and it will give you (as a brand) more space to create your posts. It will also be easier for users on both sides of the brand to type, reducing the chance that tweets pertaining to the brand or event will get lost.

It needs to be easy to remember.

The easier it is to remember, the more likely the brand and your followers will be to use it. If it’s self-explanatory, then there won’t be any questions, and you’ll get more activity. Remember, a lot of people regularly access Twitter from their mobile devices. If it’s easy to remember, and doesn’t require users to copy and paste it, it’ll get used more.

It needs to be unique.

You need to create a hashtag that is unique to your brand and the topic/event that it’s associated with, but also one that people not affiliated or familiar with your brand will be unlikely to use. For example, the hashtag #interop is excellent because it is clearly tied with the expo of the same name and it’s not a hashtag you would expect to see the average non-Interoper using. #digitalmarketing, on the other hand, is a poor hashtag from a brand-specific standpoint because it’s too general and people that use it range from being digital marketers to disgruntled students taking a digital marketing course.

New to the world of hashtags? Learn the ins and outs of hashtag marketing with our guide.

Whether it’s a narrator’s quick suggestion to “find us on Facebook” or the Twitter logo in the bottom right corner at the magazine ad, it’s not all that uncommon for TV and print ads to mention, or at least hint at, the brand’s social outlets. That brings up an important question: Do consumers notice, or better yet act on these mentions? Or are traditional ads becoming so saturated with social callouts that we simply filter them out?

A study from Burst Media of 2,577 U.S. online adults provides some data to answer these questions.

The first conclusion is that about a quarter of online adults notice these social callouts in online banner ads, on TV commercials and in print ads. This question focused strictly on cognizance, not on any action such as actually visiting the social platforms. Social callouts seem to be significantly less effective in radio and outdoor media ads, and only about one in ten noticed the mentions.

• 27.2% notice brand-related social media assets in online banner ads
• 24.1% notice brand-related social media assets that appear in television
• 21.2% notice brand-related social media assets that appear in print
• 11.4% notice brand-related social media assets that appear in radio ads
• 9.5% brand-related social media assets that appear in outdoor media such as bus stop ads and billboards

Certainly in the advertiser’s eyes, these social media mentions are intended not just to drive awareness (“FYI, we have facebook”) but to drive some sort of online engagement. Fortunately in the audience’s eyes, social callouts from various media seem to be fairly effective in driving action. 60.9% of respondents who recall brands promoting their social media presence in advertisements say digital ads are either very effective or somewhat effective in encouraging brand interaction on social media. 58.7% say social cues in TV ads are very or somewhat effective prompts for social interaction with brands, and just over half (52.4%) say social cues in print ads are effective. 

We may be past the point of slapping a Facebook-linked QR code on every advertisement (at least we hope), but bridging traditional and social media can still be a valuable strategy for brands.

It’s easy to turn super fans of your brand into customer advocates, but it’s a much more difficult task when it comes to winning over the critical and disgruntled. In order to smooth over such a situation (especially when it starts to spill into the social realm), there are four steps you should take. They can help calm the storm, and even be enough to win over a customer who was ready to walk. Look below to see how T-Mobile is using these steps in its own social CRM strategy.

Be quick to respond

Timeliness is incredibly important when it comes to resolving a customer crisis. If a customer says they’re ready to walk, don’t assume they’re exaggerating. Be quick to respond to their complaint, question or concern, and ask for as many clarifying details about their situation as you may need. Depending on how sensitive this information is, you may choose to have them contact you another way.

Show you care with sympathy/empathy

There could be a list of reasons why the customer is complaining. Were they overcharged? Were they put on hold for over an hour with customer service? Once you have the details about their situation, show them that you care, that you can relate to what they’re going through and that you’re eager to resolve this problem for them. This is a situation where a pre-written copied-and-pasted speech won’t cut it. Be genuine and personal.

Say what you’ll do differently to make the experience better/offer resolution

Once you’ve gotten the whole story, let them know how you plan to help them solve their problem, and how this might be different from what they tried before. If they were stuck on hold for an hour trying to get answers, offer a live-chat option instead. If they were overcharged, tell them you’ll put them in touch with the billing department. Tell them exactly what steps will or should be taken next to help get them what they need or want.

Keep an eye out for positive feedback

It’s no easy task to get a genuine ‘thank you’ from an angry customer, so make sure you take notice of it when you do. You might want to keep track of them and even reach out to them at some point to offer a testimonial about how they thought the situation was resolved. Even if you don’t, let them know that you saw and appreciate their feedback.

You’ve turned your unhappy customers into advocates, now identify your super fans with our helpful guide.

Today Pinterest revealed an exciting new feature that will let brands and publishers pack more information into each pin. Before, when a user saw a pin they liked they had to click through to the brand’s website to get details. This new feature lets users see product specs, recipe details and other bulleted info directly beneath the pin.

What does this mean for brands?

This alters the dynamic slightly from “I hope this user likes my image and caption enough to click through to my website” to “here’s an image and a quick spec sheet on this product or content.” You might even say it’s taking pins one step closer to a traditional advertisement by layering information on top of that all-important visual element. So far, there are three main categories for the detailed pins: product, recipe and movie.

Product pins display pricing, availability and information about where to buy. Pinterest initially rolled this out to popular brands including Anthropologie, Etsy and REI.

Recipe pins include ingredients, cook time and servings. Examples from brands and blogs include Bon Appetit, The Kitchn and Whole Foods.

Movie pins have content ratings and casting information and are already being implemented by Flixster, Netflix and Rotten Tomatoes.

A small branded icon below the image indicates whether or not that pin has this new “more information” feature.