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Social Media – Part of Your Web Strategy?

By Robert Gibson in Featured

It depends on what you are trying to achieve with your site, but for many sites, the answer is increasingly ‘YES’.

Social media (mainly Facebook and Twitter for the purposes of this article) have become increasingly pervasive. Recently I read that one minute of every eight spent on the Internet, is spent on Facebook. If the purpose of a web site is to communicate, then identifying where other people are – is a good start.

A ‘No-Brainer’ for Charities

Charities web site Justgiving tells us that 15% of all people donating via the Justgiving site come via Facebook. Clearly, then, for a charity it should be a ‘no-brainer’ to set up a Facebook page and work on integrating it: both your web site and your Facebook presence should benefit from it. However, one shouldn’t underestimate the work involved in maintaining one’s presence. From my experience, with Tanzania Development Trust, I know that for a voluntary organization, resources can be an issue, particularly if it takes a while to build momentum. Can volunteers maintain the consistency and enthusiasm required to optimize a social media presence?

A ‘Must’ for Band, Gigs and Events

We have all heard stories of teenagers informing the world via Facebook of a planned party, with disastrous results! But it points to a truth: no sensible music event, festival or gig would dream of setting up without a Facebook presence. Bands and performers use social media to build a fan base and keep it informed of their plans and movements. It is fair to say that in these cases, social media leads the way, with the web site complementing its more ‘buzzy’, up-to-the-minute feel.

Customizing Twitter Backgrounds

By Gregory Stringer in Featured

You don’t have to be handicapped to be different, ’cause everybody’s different.

-Kim Peek

This article is part of a group of posts focused on optimizing ROI in Twitter use.

There are a great deal of Twitter users adopting a policy of consistent branding and positioning carried across from other Webspaces, e.g. Websites, eStorefronts, etc., by employing customized Twitter backgrounds. This would seem to be defined as best practice, as many marketers advise keeping the process of branding both homogenous and persistent transversely through availed channels.

Customized backgrounds lend an air of professionalism to one’s Twitter account. Also, followers tend to be encouraged when they see a touch of personalization and branding. By following these few easy-to-understand steps, you too can be the proud owner of an upscale, bleeding-edge Twitter site!

Several factors must be considered when creating a custom background (the following suggestions and instructions are based on the use of Adobe Photoshop and presume familiarity; if needed, the reader is referred to the Adobe Photoshop tutorials site.

Size

There are two sides of the background which can be customized; right and left (note: the entire background will be one image). By keeping the graphic content of the right side width at 210 pixels (2.917 inches), and the left at 217 pixels (3.014 inches), all branding elements should fit within these two distances from the edges; height should be kept at 809 pixels (11.236 inches). The entire customized Twitter background graphic should be 1439 pixels (19.986 inches) width by 809 pixels (11.236 inches) height. As this is a Web document, resolution should be 72 pixels/inch. The resultant branding message will then be visible in both the “new” Twitter interface as well as the current version. While the space above the feed could conceivably be utilized in the overall creation of the graphic, this could prove problematic. Nevertheless, adventurous designers may wish to toy with this concept.

Background color

The option available that can be used to match the customized background color. It can be found in the Twitter navbar (located at the top of the site) by accessing Settings > Design > Change design colors. When the Change design colors option is accessed, and background, text, links, etc., are chosen, a color selector is provided for the user. In the selector is a dialog box wherein a hexadecimal value can be entered. This value is easily determined in Photoshop, and by matching the values no difference will be detected between the customized background and that supplied via the Twitter interface, as inequalities in coverage may occur.

Sidebar color

By matching the sidebar color to that of the background color (process described above), the information provided by Twitter in the sidebar section, e.g. name, number of tweets, following, followers, et al., will appear to float freely (note: by using a white background color [hex value = #ffffff], the feed itself will float; selecting both background and sidebar colors as white will eliminate page bordering altogether – this is how the Grannelle Twitter site has been fashioned [when employing this method, the sidebar border {appears as a delineation between the feed and the sidebar} can be eliminated by changing the color value to white also, if desired]).

Text and Graphics

All data such as hypertext, phone numbers, etc., are part of the total graphic. They cannot be accessed, copied, or pasted. However, by providing matching information accessible from the sidebar, such as that supplied for the Bio and Web headings (found in the uppermost portion of the sidebar), constancy can be achieved. Repetition of use of the profile picture is also helpful for uniformity. Twitter text and link colors can be selected from the Change design colors preferences to accent those in the customized background, though care should be taken to use contrasting hues. Bear in mind that users experiencing color vision deficiency (color blindness) may encounter difficulty in distinguishing certain color selections.

Total File Size and Format

The total size of the file must be smaller than 800k. GIF, JPEG (JPG), and PNG file formats are acceptable.

While the customized Twitter background graphic can be tiled (repeated across the page), it is not suggested for this method.

Using Photoshop, simply create a document with the aforementioned measurements, building content for the left and right sides of the graphic and choosing background color. Include text information, pictures, and other desired images and illustrations. Adopting a consistently matching background color, create a new document, again with previously described dimensions. Copy and paste the left and right (merged) images onto the appropriate sides of the image. Save the final product. The finished background can be uploaded in the Design section, Change background image, following the same procedure as formerly instructed.

By playing with and trying out these ideas, users can have a polished and professional Twitter site!

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There is no sound, no cry, no voice in all the universe that can be heard until someone listens.

Gregory Stringer is a student of eCommerce, Social Media, and eMedia marketing. His blog, Grannelle’s Social Media, is a collection of articles dedicated to the scholarly study of Social Media and eNetworking. He is also founder, CEO, and CMO for Grannelle, an eCommerce outsourcing firm.

The Most Popular Social Networks and Who Is On Them

By Caitlin Rambo in Featured

How much time do you spend online?

According to a time use survey compiled by ComScore Media Metric, the average American spends 33.9 hours on the Internet every week. Depending on age and other demographics, this number can double! And for those lucky individuals whose occupations rely primarily on computers: the Internet commands their lives and they are never not connected.

Computers have drastically changed the technological landscape. The Internet has facilitated efficiency in a number of offline processes. We use the web to communicate with our family, friends and business acquaintances in real-time chats. Books and other multimedia are available for online viewing and instant download. We can even shop for gifts online – often offered at a deeper discount than in brick-and-mortar stores! The Internet has revolutionized the way that we live, as we now spend one-sixth of our lives in the digital world.

Exhibit 1: 100 Most-Visited Websites by category, according to Google Ad Planner

Where are We Actually Spending Our Time Online?

Google has compiled a list of the 100 most-visited websites in the United States. (Being the modest company that they are, Google has chosen to omit their website and statistics from the study.) These 100 websites are sorted into six categories: social networking, search engines, shopping, entertainment, business and software.

Death of Steve Jobs Fails to Break Twitter Record

By Kalena Jordan in Featured

We all heard the sad news yesterday that Steve Jobs, founder and visionary at Apple, had died at the age of 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

I heard it from a client who lives one mile from Apple headquarters and was awoken by helicopters over his house at 4.30am. But most people heard about it via social media. Within seconds of an official statement released by Apple, the first tweets started to appear.

“#ThankYouSteve for the magic you brought to people’s lives.”

“iSad. RIP Steve Jobs for leaving your mark on technology.”

“My iPhone made all the difference during earthquakes on 4 Sept, 22 Feb & 13 June – it found my kids & reassured my family #eqnz #ThankYouSteve”

“Life is the only thing Bill Gates has beaten Steve Jobs at. #ThankYouSteve”

“Steve Jobs changed the world. We have lost a true pioneer and American visionary #iSad #ThankYouSteve”

Twitter users started spreading the news of Jobs’s death, adopting #SteveJobs #iSad and #ThankYouSteve hashtags attached to their tweets. For the first few hours, the rate of Twitter activity about Job’s death looked like it was going to break the tweet per second record of 8,868 tweets per second, set after U.S. R&B artist Beyoncé announced her pregnancy at the MTV Video Music Awards in August.

Australian social media monitoring firm SR7 estimated that Twitter activity hit 10,000 tweets per second following the announcement:

“We’re awaiting the official Twitter data to be released, however, from the numbers that we’ve been monitoring through the day since the announcement it’s certainly been trending to break that record,” Peter Fraser, co-founder of SR7, told the news agency Agence-France Presse.

TwitSprout went even futher, claiming tweet activity reached 42,000 per second at one point.

But it was Twitter who finally revealed the truth. In a statement given to Forbes last night, a spokeswoman from Twitter said that their internal data showed a rate of 6,049 tweets per second. That’s faster than tweets following the death of Osama bin Laden (a little over 5,000 TPS), but below the 8,868 tweets per second that followed Beyonce’s pregnancy announcement.

But even though the death of the technology icon failed to break the all-time tweet record, Steve Job’s death *did* break Twitter temporarily. The site fell over for around 2 minutes under the weight of the heavy initial tweet load.

Apart from anything else, it’s an interesting insight into the growth of Twitter. Consider this: following Michael Jackson’s death in 2009 there were just 493 tweets per second being sent, yet this was still enough to crash the service.

As a final tribute to Steve Jobs and the impact he had, Twitter staff put together a fascinating infographic portrait, consisting of a visualization of public #thankyousteve Tweets, sent over about 4.5 hours yesterday.

RIP Steve Jobs.

“U” Turn Your Business Social Media Efforts

By John Casey in Featured

Let Uniqueness, Users and Usefulness PR Your Online Campaigns

“Let’s hire an intern or recent college grad to do our social media!”

For small and medium sized businesses this seems like a smart and cost-effective idea, mainly because many believe that social media is a necessary evil that the younger crowd “gets.” But, this plan goes in the wrong direction since social media is rapidly becoming the number one PR tool for businesses, and as such, requires a smart and effective PR strategy that focuses on the uniqueness, users and usefulness of the company.

The Case of “Love Simple”

Let’s take a look at the story of a small film whose own use of the three “U’s” translates successfully to a small/mid-sized business. “Love Simple,” a small, low budget film appeared at several festivals, received a nice review in the industry trade Variety, and then after rejections by film distributors to pick-up the film, it was about to run out of gas, until a social media campaign stepped in!

Unique

Twitter Secrets Revealed

By Derek Fredrickson in Featured

Twitter just announced a brand-new feature that I wanted to make sure you knew about. It allows people to have 1-click access to follow you on Twitter directly from your website which is a huge benefit for building your following with your network and establishing a great social media presence using Twitter.

I would definitely recommend setting it up on your website asap.

Speaking of Twitter, I want to share some of the behind-the-scenes strategies and techniques that I personally use with Twitter to build a huge network of loyal, engaging and responsive followers that allows me to consistently build my list and get new clients.

I’m going to make some assumptions that you are already aware of what Twitter is and how to do some of the basics like find friends, get followers, as well as send updates, replies, retweets, etc.

These are some of the more advanced “systems” I use for leveraging the most of what Twitter has to offer.

Friends (you follow) and Followers (follow you)

I always suggest connecting with like-minded people and those you want to connect with as much as possible. It’s pace, not race. Most number of friends or followers does not matter. Often those you follow (as a friend) will follow you back. Having said that, people ask me about auto-following back those who follow you. My thought is you don’t have to. Auto-follow is not an obligation, it’s a choice. There are many followers I have which I don’t follow in return and vice-versa. If you’re wiling to take the time and effort to manually follow back those who follow you, I’d suggest it (I personally do it.)

Direct Messages

I’m a huge fan of using DM’s to connect with my followers and friends. Sending a direct message is quick and easy and almost ALWAYS gets a response. Now, I’m very active and engaging on Twitter so people I interact with DM’s tend to be the same. But, it’s in some cases more effective and efficient than sending emails for things like making introductions and connecting.

Favorites

I use Twitter favorites all the time, marking other tweets as favorites that I want to read later. It’s kind of like email folders for Twitter. See a tweet you like with a link but don’t have time to read it now? Mark it as a favorite and carve out time later to refer back to it.

Lists

I have lists to help categorize and organize my Twitter friends. With 55,000 plus friends it’s hard for me to obviously read EVERY tweet that comes out – it’s insane. So, I use Twitter Lists to group relevant friends in buckets and then review those lists together. I have some for friends, brands, skiing and even locked (hidden) lists for things like competitors, prospects, etc.

Search

Twitter search is a great tool for finding content and possible connections (friends and followers). You can search by hashtag (#) and see relevant tweets to that topic or just do a general search for “Internet Marketing” and see all the tweets and conversation about that topic. From there, jump on in and get tweeting.

Applications

I use the following: Hootsuite and Twitter for iPhone. Hootsuite allows me to view everything in a browser which means I can do it from anywhere (any computer and from my phone). It’s great for viewing all the tweets in columns and then replying, DM’ing, scheduling and posting tweets. The Twitter for iPhone application is just flat-out the easiest and simplest application for a mobile device.

Now the most frequently asked question: “Derek, where do you get all your content and ideas?” Here are my secret sources (never revealed these before). Google Reader (I subscribe to a ton of blogs and content sites relevant to my niche). StumbleUpon and Digg for finding interesting and relevant content that my followers will respond to. ME! Yes, I do create most of my own content and tweets based on what YOU provide to me as feedback and content you’re looking for. So, trust your followers and give them what they want – they will love you for it!

I hope these Twitter Secrets help you in the Twitterverse and I can’t wait to see you out there.

Until next time – Learn It, Love It, Live It!

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Derek Fredrickson, Authentic Internet Marketing Specialist, is founder of the Authentic Internet Marketing System, the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to authentically market your business online, in record time… guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. videos and receive his authentic internet marketing articles on attracting more leads and converting more sales online, visit http://www.derekfredrickson.com.

10 Things That Will Make Your Tweets Pop!

By Dawn Pigoni in Featured

Every day we work at it: toiling away on our social media networks, doing what we can to reach our customers and broaden our client base. Twitter is one of the simplest platforms to use when reaching out to people, but you may not be tweeting to your best advantage. So, what can you do to make sure that people actually want to read your tweets and can get the most out of them?

Here are ten things that you should be doing with your tweets in order to make them stand out. The only way to reach out and grab the attention of your followers (and that of future ones) is to have some interesting things to say!

1. Be Unique

When you find an interesting article or video that you want to share with your followers, don’t just copy and paste the title into your tweet. Instead, try to put together your own unique spin on it and give them an idea of what is in store for them
when they click on the link.

2. Keep It Short

Twitter limits your tweets to 140 characters, which may not seem like a lot. But really, you’re not supposed to be writing a book here. Keeping it short lets you give only the necessary information without a lot of fluff. Try to keep your tweets to around 120 characters. That way, followers can add their own opinions when they retweet.

3. Think of Your Tweets as Headlines

When writing articles, the sure-fire way of getting readers is by having an attention-grabbing headline. The same goes for your tweets. Make them easy to read and catchy in order to induce your followers to reply or click on the added link.

4. Use Interesting Facts

People love finding out new tidbits of information. These can be random statistics about a topic that is related to your own business. Giving your followers an interesting fact will be more likely to encourage them to click on a link than a boring title.

5. Tweet With Your Own Voice

Don’t tweet like an automaton. Readers want to know that there’s an actual person on the other end of those tweets, so write as you would speak. This gives your tweets a hint of your own unique personality, which followers love.

6. Get Your Timing Right

In order for your tweets to get noticed, you need to make sure you’re publishing them when your followers are the most active. Take note of when you get the most replies and retweets. This is when you should be the most interactive with your followers.

7. Add Value

There are a wide variety of reasons that people use Twitter, from how to collect stamps to the newest techniques in web design. Whatever your reasons for using Twitter, focus on tweeting about those specific topics. When you concentrate on one or two topics, followers will see you as a valuable source of information.

8. Be Interactive

When it comes to your followers, think quality and not quantity. Get them to interact with you, ask questions, and make sure you’re responding to their own questions too.

9. Add Helpful Links

Since tweets are limited, including a link will allow you to share more information. You can include links to your blog, an article, or your webpage. Use your tweet field to include an interesting way to lure them in.

10. Get Them Thinking

Your tweets should always leave your followers wanting more. You want your tweets to be thought-provoking because that’s how you get your readers to stay connected to you and want to interact with you even more.

What works for you in your tweets? Do you have any extra tips for enhancing the Twitter experience? Share with us! We’d love to know what works for you!

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Dawn Pigoni – Social Media Virtual Assistant http://BeSocialWorldwide.com | http://Twitter.com/dawntrenee

The Social Media Marketing world is important to online businesses and I bring value to other companies by offering social media marketing assistance to those small companies that don’t have the time, knowledge or manpower to keep up with social media marketing.

Social Media Management: Quality Social Experiences

By Enzo F. Cesario in Featured

You’ve heard it before, here and probably elsewhere: Social media is about much more than exposure or coverage. Simply putting a friend request out and amassing a ton of retweets is not enough to achieve genuine social impact.

Now there’s some additional evidence that bears this argument out:

Does Google Use Data from Social Sites in Ranking?

In short, Google officials have said that while the search engine giant does use Facebook and Twitter as part of the input in determining a site’s SEO ranking, it is a very small, low-key part. It’s more of a modifier of other data than it is an actual contributor in and of itself.

But before you go slashing the budget to your social media marketing department, hear out these few issues that explain why this means more attention, not less, should be paid to social media efforts.

It’s Social, not Digital

Despite being in the online realm (insert all the stereotypes about the cold, impersonal Internet here), social media is all about the first word. Social interactions are about relationships, conversations and, above all, respect and trust. Violate a trust or fail to provide respect, and you gain nothing at all. You could even find yourself blackballed as your reputation flies out of control online.

The Uniqueness of Twitter, its Bite-Size Contents and Global Network Economy – A SPN Exclusive

By Warner Carter in Featured

Several decades ago, the concept of a global network economy was just an idea made for TV shows and sci-fi films. Nevertheless, no one thought that globalization could take place as early as today. Although fiction films then were a little advance in terms of foretelling how future structures, products, cars, and clothing would look thirty to forty years into the future, they failed to predict the possibility of economic globalization; empires and kingdoms created by their pens never had a touch of either globalized market or network economy. Most speculative and sci-fi film writers never thought that by this year, communications would play a big role in the formation of network economy.

Network economy, as defined by experts, stems from a key attribute where products and services are created through social networks operating on a large scale, which is only possible through a platform that connects different economies from different places, markets and industries.

Indeed, as science fiction writers portrayed it in their films, flying cars and gaudy metal suits were not the ones responsible for bringing the globalization to reality. We all know that it all started on TV, especially when cable TV enabled us to see shows they aired on the other side of the world, and then with the Internet, when email systems and social networking sites replaced air mails and telegraphs that once connected us with people abroad.

Now, we have social networking platforms.

Nobody thought of bite-size contents as an efficient channel to connect people and businesses. No one predicted that this platform would create a network that would bond trades and transactions, exchange ideas and knowledge, share daily thoughts and deeper philosophies across the globe.

Social networking sites’ creators are always honest when asked about their principal reason behind the creation. These sites are just created to connect people, to bridge the length of communication exchanges and bridge people from different places, but never did they admit that it was solely invented to fulfill the needs of the market and to create a conduit that will tighten the gap between businesses and industries. In short, social networking sites were simply fashioned to create a network, perhaps to provide easier ways of blind dating, establishing relationships and forming small organizations.

But even before social networking sites made its way in the market, the simple yet more rigid platforms like blogs, emails, and independent websites pioneered the emergence of network economy. These were the times when receiving spam mails, traffic and hits, or blog comments from other countries seemed magical, for having connection with people from other countries was not yet that usual like how it is today.

Although Facebook came five years earlier than Twitter, the latter made a bigger impact on the entire global market. In 2009, Twitter introduced the most simple yet most effective network exchange that would soon change the face of the global market. Unlike other social media platforms, it was created to deliver bite-size and short messaging updates as opposed to traditional long information exchanges done by earlier social media sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Twitter Simplifies It All

Since Twitter delivers bite-size messages, information quantity rises and dissemination becomes faster, which allows people to influence directly other people. A year after its inception, Twitter reached its peak when Hollywood celebrities began using it as a primary medium to interact with their fans and supporters. It also paved the way for other people who are non-celebrities to use the platform for business promotions and advertising. Since then, marketers have included Twitter in their own marketing strategies. Expert marketers believe that the “real global network economy” started here.

The special thing about Twitter is it glamorized the concept of reciprocity. Ordinary people can now interact directly and realistically to influential people they idolized. The mutual exchange between two parties “the follower and the followed” has become possible, which is very impossible to what Facebook and other social media sites had to offer during its early years. Moreover, this reciprocity has strengthened relationships between businesses and trades from different corners of the globe, for it connected markets, businesses, and industries far beyond size, capabilities, and market position.

So what is next after Twitter? Is it an invisible platform that would allow us to communicate with semaphores and Morse codes? Well, just ask your favorite science fiction writer. You can tweet him, I guess.

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Warner writes about SEO, Blogging, and Web Development. He works at Endless Rise who provides SEO Reseller Packages exclusively to SEO Resellers

The 10 Basic Rules of Social Media Marketing

By Allison Kahn in Featured

Social Media Marketing is the act of using social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) in order to promote a business.

Many companies will want to start their own social media marketing campaign and create a Facebook page or Twitter account. The problem with is they don’t have a clue on how to run a successful social media marketing campaign. Here, I have listed 10 of the most basic rules when it comes to social media marketing. Follow these rules in order to have successful accounts with Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The 10 [basic] Rules of Social Media Marketing

1. Update! I shouldn’t even have to list this as a rule, but many forget how important it is. You should try and update daily because when consumers visit your page and it has not been updated in over a month, they will assume it is inactive and decide not to follow your business. Also, they could easily go with your competitor because their page is so active they feel that business will give them better service. You do not want that to happen, so update your social media accounts regularly!

2. No pitching! You are not Billy Mays. Therefore, you do not need to yell at consumers telling them to buy your product or use your business. Social media is meant to connect, not pitch. If your consumers feel they have a connection with your company through your Facebook page or Twitter feed, they are more likely to use you over another business that does not make an earnest effort to connect.

© Copyright 2012 All rights reserved. Jayde Online, Inc.

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