If your business has already seen the value of the blogging, and invests in creating unique content each week, then Tumblr is definitely a social network to utilize for exposure.  If your business is considering a creating blog, but has not decided where to host it, then learn more about the features of Tumblr within this post.   Tumblr is a mix between Twitter and WordPress offering a less verbose form of blogging where users can post updates with text, photos, quotes, links, dialogues, audio, video, slideshows, and more.  Below are the basic features that are included when participating in this free micro-blogging platform.

Customizable Account:

• Design unique themes for your profile landing page to support your brand

• Configure an about page or description page with external links

• Create a unique url for the blog by re-directing to Tumblr

• Combine the use of Google Analytics and Feedburner for page insights

Publishing Options:

• Mobile and email applications

• Phone number to record audio blogs

• Ability to pre-schedule with a post queue

• Re-blogging (embedding other blogs into yours)

• Photosets and other apps for organizing content

• News Feed Syndication to both Facebook and Twitter

• Bookmarketlet tool for one-click sharing of external sources

• Contributor content with an unlimited number of people and audience members

Optimized Content:

• Uses url slugs and xml sitemaps for search engine visibility

• Uses tags and hash tags for trending topics

• Accepts high-resolution photos

• Can organize and share to specific groups/individuals

• You own the copyright for all content created

Just listing a few of the options available begins to describe the value this network offers a brand.  Over the next few weeks we will continue to examine and expand upon the features of Tumblr, and the ways to effectively use the network to blog for your business.

Google Play begins to rollout globally today offering a condensed source for content from the previous Android market and other Google products.  Digital content gets a new platform within Play, by combining a user’s Google music, e-books, android apps, and games into a single hub.  A user will be able to access all their content from any Android device (mobile/tablet), computer, and even TV simultaneously with the aid of the free cloud.  Social sharing has been taken into account as well, and each of these categories offers unique options to share products with friends.  Non-android market users can access Google Play via an existing Google account, or on the web at play.google.com.  Google condensing all of these features into one place, and promoting the sharing primarily within Google Plus, may help to boost the engagement levels within the social network.

“Share what you love” is the slogan being used to promote the social sharing aspects of Google Play.  It includes the ability to share posts about your favorite e-books, music, movies, games or apps to your circles on Google Plus, in an email, or via text message.

Sharing music on Google Plus will include the ability to listen or buy:

Sharing books can be done while reading from any page:

Watching a movie or reading an e-book can continue seamlessly across all of these:

To date, a few industry analysts have been hinting that Google Plus suffers from a lack of use by the over 10 million registered users.  With the implementation of Google Play, and the limited sharing available, it seems like Google is devising a strategy to boost interaction within Google Plus.  It also encourages users to be logged into their Google accounts from multiple devices, which can have an affect on how search engine results appear, and offer more opportunities to +1 content on the web.  Overall this change in the android market has many underlying benefits for all of Google’s latest products.

Foursquare is an LBS (locations based services) social network accessed from a popular mobile application - desktop available too - that can be integrated with a member’s Facebook and Twitter account.  They describe themselves as “a service that helps find where your friends are hanging out and offers tips from other users on what to do once you get there.” Around 15 million people worldwide have committed to over 1.5 billion check-ins with millions more being added daily.  Beyond just checkins, other tools for members like tips, photos, and a new integration with Garmin also aid in fan engagement. There are over 600,000 businesses using the Merchant Platform to connect with customers and generate traffic to their locations.  Both Merchants and Brands have the ability to create a business page, however the recommendations to follow focus on a merchant’s marketing strategy for Foursquare.

1.  Claim your venue. Sign up for an account and search for your location. It might be that a customer has checked into your venue, and you can claim it by proving that you own it. If you can’t find it or you are opening a new location, click “Add a new venue to Foursquare,” which is at the bottom of the page. Once all the information is supplied, your venue page will come up for you to claim.  Foursquare will ask you a few questions about the business and how you’d like to verify your ownership.

2.  Create a Special. There are seven types of specials to choose from to reward your fans for visiting your location to check-in, leave a tip, or share their location with friends.

• Swarm Special. A special is unlocked when a certain number of people are checked in.  This can be great for events or fundraisers sponsored by the merchant.

• Friends Special. A reward for when friends check in together. You can give a great referral package or offer something really special and specify how many friends need to be checked in, if someone is able to rally that much support to your store then they get the big reward.

• Flash Special. A special for the first X number of people who come at a specified time.  You can target times that are slower for your business to try and increase traffic or give the first x number of people to come a prize by a certain time, like in conjunction with a product release.

• Newbie Special. A prize for people who check in to your business for the first time.

• Check-In Special. A reward for every single checkin. Merchants can offer a free item or a discount off a purchase.

• Loyalty Special. A reward for a user’s third, fifth, tenth checkin to incentivize customers to return a few times to get the special. Loyalty specials can be recurring (”every three checkins”) or not (”on your third checkin”).

• Mayor Special. The mayor is the person who has checked into a venue the most. As such, he or she deserves a prize.

3.  Educate the Staff. You never want someone to redeem a special and show it to your staff, only to be looked at with a vacant expression. Be sure your team is prepared and can recognize a Foursquare special and offer the redemption. Once you create a special, Foursquare generates flyers for you to print -one for employees, and one for customers - to aid in building awareness for the special promotion.  Your staff can easily tell when a person has ‘unlocked’ a Special because the color will change from gray to orange on their phone. Another technique is to include a register code in the Special. Maybe have it say: ‘upon checkout tell us this discount code: ‘4sqSpecial’.

4.  Dashboard Analytics. The Foursquare merchant dashboard is full of useful information. Business owner’s can see when and how many people are checking in, along with details on the gender and age breakdown of those users and who the most frequent visitors are.

5.  Advertise That You’re a Foursquare Merchant. People might not be inclined to check in if they don’t know there’s a reward.  Foursquare will send you window clings for each location you verify and set up a special for.  Display them in your windows and print out signs to place next to registers letting customers know you’re on the network.

6.  Target Hot Spots. Look around your area for businesses that get lots of checkins and try adding tips to these venues that point people to your business or special.  Foursquare includes a feature that will point to nearby specials, but try to write a quirky tip like “we deliver to this hotel - even if you answer the door in your PJ’s” and possibly attract even more of those people already in the area.

Foursquare isn’t the first location-based social network to help you connect with friends using GPS via your mobile device, it is however becoming the most popular.   As an inexpensive solution for creating specials and generating buzz for your business, it’s a no brainer why so many merchants and brands already participate in this network.   For any additional questions you might have about Foursquare, there is a very helpful site here, or contact us today for a social media consultation.

Twitter has exploded onto the social media circuit in recent years. More and more companies are creating accounts and establishing a Twitter presence – to the point where it’s become a standard marketing practice. But, just like any other social media account you initiate, a Twitter account is not something you just create and forget about. To reap any benefit, it should be cultivated properly, starting with these basics:

• Optimize your page and tweets – Just as you would use optimized copy for your website, do so for your Twitter account by posting keyword rich tweets and profile information. Use target keywords on your profile page and make sure to use keywords in your Tweets.
• Optimize your Twitter Bio – This is an extension of the above rule. In search results, the bio section of your Twitter profile acts as the description metadata. You will want to make sure it is optimized to increase click-through rates.
• Link – You will responsible for most of your initial Twitter traffic when you first create your profile. Help your Twitter presence become popular by posting links to it on your main website and other social media channels. You should also include a link to your Twitter account in any new content you create. This will help your new account catch on with users.
• Link Back – This is an important part of having a Twitter account: it’s an avenue to build links to your other content. Make sure the URL to your main site is posted in your profile and tweet about any new articles or content you produce.

Most importantly, don’t lose site of Twitter’s real purpose: to act as a medium of interaction with your customers. Build up your Twitter account keeping the user experience in mind. When you create content for search engines and not for people, it will inevitably lose out.

As a community manager working with multiple social channels, it is a challenge to try and create engaging dynamic content, share it, and track it.  After establishing the branding voice (tone), I consider the content format and theme to determine what social media channel will be most receptive to the post.

Create a content calendar in Excel and organize the tabs for posts, tracking, and reporting.  In the post tab, include columns for:

• post date
• social channels
• post content
• post format/type
• category/theme
• tracking link

Creating a category column and adding a keyword to the theme will help identify the post content and aid in keeping messages fresh when you need ideas for future posts.  At a quick glance you can see over time how many videos, images, events, and other post types were shared. Frequency to the social channels and what was posted will become more visible as well.  By organizing the tracking and reporting tabs similarly, you will notice trends in the popularity of  post categories, and the results of how it was re-shared, so you can adjust accordingly when generating new content.

Many social media channels accept dynamic content formats. Focusing on what format the content is posted in will help narrow down the audience, frequency, and what channel to share it with.

• Links – always good to incorporate links from a variety of sources. A thumbnail preview in Facebook can highlight and hyperlink to a web page or article. Also, content that is too extensive for a post can be linked to another source. Social Media tracking should always be included and can be hidden by using a shortened link. 
• Videos – sharing from YouTube with another channel promotes within both communities. It is important to incorporate tags and descriptions to YouTube video’s because they can add SEO value to the content.  Don’t forget the length or size of the video maybe be limited by the channel you are posting too.
• Photos – mobile apps for certain channels tend to focus on photos, so use them as often as possible. Try to embrace tagging people/organizations/pages and include comments to enhance the reach and engagement.
• Slide Shows/Catalogs/Brochures – more professional content is better shared in a channel like SlideShare or Linked In, and then sharing the links with other channels to direct the right traffic to the content.
• Blogs/Articles/Press Releases – starting an account with Tumbler or Dig to share content is great exposure for more informational content.  You can also share the links to these with other social media channels to attract even more traffic across all channels.
• Check-Ins – although it’s a feature within a social channel, including reminders to check in can provide reporting data and better awareness of a physical location. Recently, Google+ integrated businesses on Google Places with the ability to offer Check-In Deals.

While maintaining involvement in multiple channels, a content calendar can provide a general guideline for post creation and help to maintain the branding voice.  The size of your audience should also be considered when selecting a channel.  If your presence on Facebook is larger than Twitter, then the main content stream should be shared with the largest audience first.  Keep in mind, posting is a trial and error process and you will learn from experience.  It is best to be diligent about tracking, monitoring and reporting on what posts are working the best for your audience to keep them engaged.  This will only help you to improve how and what you are sharing over time and in turn grow your social presence.

Do you already have a unique way of organizing your content?  Let us know!

YouTube activated a new channel design that drastically changes how the videos and information is being displayed. Utilizing a more marketable format for promoted videos and advertising, the design primarily changes the layout of the channel page by displaying information about the channel more prominently.  YouTube channels will all eventually be updated to the new design by March, 2012. Listed are the advantages for using the new YouTube channel design.

• Header – a sleek header design has a larger avatar/logo image and channel name, a subscribe button that turns green with a plus sign when rolled over, and the channel stats (subscribers and video views). The emphasis on the stats is great for a quick glance to gauge the channel’s popularity.
• Tabs – re-organized the navigation into Featured, Feed, and Videos.  Edit channel includes template options to organize how the videos, playlists, and channels will display on the Featured tab.  There is an option for selecting a featured video to play in the viewing area and the ability to remove advertising.  Your Feed tab will be updated by your activity on YouTube and you can choose to filter what is shared in the settings.  The Videos tab will display a thumbnail grid view with various sorting options for the videos on the channel.
• Search –a search bar has been added for finding videos specific to that channel. For channels that have a lot videos and users wanting to drill down into old content, this has been a long awaited, much appreciated add-on to the page design.
• Profile Panel – was located below the main video description but now has prime real-estate being positioned higher on the page and in left column replacing the previous video navigation.  This area first displays the channel description, URLs, social media icons (hyperlinked), and other details can also be seen, however you can select what you’d like to show via the edit button.   Featured channels can also be added to highlight partner channels or related channels to your field of expertise.

If you have a smartphone or tablet then you are already using apps everyday to perform any number of tasks from online banking to reading the news. If you have a Facebook account, you are probably using apps there, too. Apps in Facebook are the marketing tool for engaging and growing the audience of your company page. There are numerous Facebook apps available.  Below are just a few types of Facebook apps that you can develop or use to make your company page more robust. 

Integrate non-Facebook social media channels – other social media channels can be added as “tabs” to your Facebook page.  If you are posting to channels like YouTube and Twitter, you can combine that content on your company page via an app. Check out the apps that are available for YouTube and Twitter.  

Contests – apps for any kind of contest or giveaway can be custom developed, purchased, or found for free.  Consider using a fun app like the “fan of the week” app and reward the winner with a prize to keep fans coming back to your page.

Products – developers can create a shopping cart app that fans can access for exclusive deals or purchase directly from your online store without ever leaving your company page.

Contacts- gathering contact information can be as easy as adding a contact us form to your page.  Consider a “Request a Quote”, or “Sign Up Today” as a call to action for the title of tab for your app.

Customized – creating a customized app that fans can add to their pages for anything from trivia to coupons will build brand awareness and target niche audiences. Potentially this can generate new visitors when existing fans share updates from the app.

There are so many variations of apps that you can use within Facebook.  Many apps are free; making Facebook a one-stop environment with everything you can imagine doing online.  These powerful social marketing tools will continue to become more important when enhancing your EdgeRank.  With that in mind, what apps will you use to keep your audience engaged?

This is a question that many companies raise as they manage the day-to-day Facebook posts, tweets, blogs, etc.  It’s a full-time job for large companies, and for smaller companies it often falls to the marketing department to manage or “test” to see its effectiveness.

While measuring results of every single post isn’t always possible, many studies point to the fact that social media is in fact valuable for brands.

eMarketer recently published data from a study about the immediate and prolonged results of social media campaigns.  What they found is quite astounding.

• After exposure to a social media campaign, the likelihood someone would recommend a product increased to 61% (up from 39% pre-exposure to the campaign).
• One year after being exposed to the campaign, their likelihood of recommending a product remained elevated at 55%.
• An individual’s purchase intent after being exposed to a social media campaign increased to 69% (up from 38% pre-exposure to the campaign).
• A year later the purchase intent was still as high as 61%!

More about this study can be found here. This data clearly indicates the importance of social media marketing and the profound impact that it can have on word of mouth marketing (via recommendations) and purchase intent.

Your company should be participating in social media, if you’re not already.  And if you are already participating, you should be developing social media campaigns.  Too many companies simply post content on a daily basis, with little thought to their overall goal.  Social media campaigns should be created throughout the year to coincide with your other marketing efforts (online and offline).  You should focus on creating meaningful campaigns - ones that will be remembered and shared.  They could include giveaways, contests and/or user generated content.  Social media lends itself to engage with potential customers and companies should leverage this it to its fullest potential.

All too often, beginners in social media marketing treat their corporate accounts like a dumping ground for links. Of course, link building is an important part of any social media campaign. However, the concept of “too much of a good thing” certainly applies. Posting as many links as you can to your social media profiles can backfire quickly and cost you the attention of your audience.

In general, you have to be very careful to avoid being overly self promotional and focus on providing innovative and informative content to your social media channels. Excessive self promotion, advertising, and linking can undermine your company’s credibility and make your content seem “spammy.”

Your company website, product pages, and SEM efforts can handle your advertising. Successful social media campaigns are ones that engage users. Get others to talk to your brand and interact with your posts. By encouraging this interaction, you get the chance to learn about the thoughts and preferences of your consumers – which is invaluable marketing data. If you are having trouble creating content, have a look at our list of content ideas.

As you establish authority and gain more followers, self promoting or linking to your site’s other content is advisable in moderation – so long as it is relevant to the topic and/or channel to do so. Try to think like your consumer. If you think a status update is going to look like spam in a newsfeed – you’re probably right.

Introduction to WITI – Women in Technology International, with special guests Paula Gould @WITI and Amy Lipton @liptonaj
Thursday October 20, 2011

MoreVisibility’s Twitterchat (#MVCHAT) took place yesterday, October 20 with special guests Paula Gould and Amy Lipton from WITI which has promoted the inclusion of women in leadership roles in Tech for over 22yrs and hosts monthly local networking events.    The topics discussed included:

• Using social media for membership communication and recruitment
• A recap of the recent WITI Summit
• Current Hot Topics in the Industry

MoreVisibility is proud to be presenting a special webinar with #WITI next Wednesday at 3 EST “Are You Capitalizing on Google Analytics?”  Registration link: http://www.witi.com/center/webinar/2767/Are-You-Capitalizing-on-Google-Analytics/?/

MVCHAT is a weekly 30 minute discussion starting at 3:30 pm (EST) covering a variety of online marketing topics. Clients, advertisers, and online marketing enthusiasts are invited to participate in this rapid-fire conversation by following and including #MVCHAT in tweets. Read more about #MVCHAT in the news here.