Pinterest released a new page design for profile pages this week that will be advantageous for both piners and businesses.  The new design highlights the user profile in a large header and has added more connection options for a user to populate.  The board’s image preview has gotten an update, along with the ability to arrange the boards with a drag and drop feature, so you can organize what boards will appear above the fold.   They have also improved functionality by moving main navigation elements and activity to a single bar just below the profile header.

This is an example from a recent blog post with the previous profile landing page design.

This is the new profile landing page for Harrods after the design release today.

Profile Dashboard:

• New Profile Header contains social sharing icons and a new location icon that populates information provided in the profile settings.

• Activity with the boards and pins you create is now highlighted in a right side container.

• Stats/ Navigation of boards, pins, likes, and activity is now organized into a single bar below the header making it more accessible. The follow all (boards) button is front and center.

Board’s New Design:

• Name of board will show 22 characters before truncating the text and is hyperlinked.

• The board image is now using the most recent pin to the board as the larger thumbnail and then four smaller thumbnail previews of what is also pinned inside.  At this time you can’t adapt how this image is created, it is based on recent posts.

• The stats for the board are also clearly defined above the image, showing how many pins are available in each board.

• The large follow button below the image will follow only that individual board when selected.

Pinterest is making a more business friendly push toward offering more pronounced brand exposure with the new header design.  By also adapting the navigation on a page, it has created a more functional environment for members to interact with. They will find it is easier to edit, manage, and organize boards, and learn about other profiles, by easily noting the page stats and viewing recent activity of pins.   As more businesses start to become early adaptors of this social sharing platform, we will explore the campaigns and marketing strategies making it a successful endeavor for them.  If you haven’t gotten a Pinterest account yet, we recommend posting to accounts (Facebook/Twitter) requesting an invite from a friend/follower, rather than requesting an account from Pinterest - which can take weeks with no response.

Since the emergence of the first social network, photos and videos have always been an integral part of the experience and draw. It makes perfect sense that photo centric networks - like Pintrest and Flicker focusing primarily on images, but including videos too - would become popular.  Connecting the dots from the rise in Pintrest’s success, may have created a healthy competition in this market, which prompted Flicker – the original photo/video network - to update their user experience.   Whatever the result, we like seeing the increased activity in these networks, and predict that businesses will find additional benefits from interacting in this type of social network.  If you aren’t familiar with either network yet, below is a short summary for each.

Pintrest is not the “newest” social phenomenon on the block, but it is becoming the “hottest” based on growth and interaction.  It is a pin board of interests via images that not only can expose products for a Brand, but can also generate good outbound links to the compay website.   Using its own unique verb for flagging interests, people have been creating “pins” and sharing account invites – an exclusivity feature to create an account on the site - like crazy over the last few weeks.  In a blog last week, The State of Search created a compelling infographic about the usage of the site showing a 145% increase since the New Year.   Pintrest’s exposure is partially due to the integration of the social graph, enabling it to post network activity directly to a member’s Twitter and/or Facebook account.  Also, it recommends people to follow based on the friends from those accounts that are using Pintrest too.   Recently, there has been some cautionary hype in the media due to the privacy policy, so before setting up a “pin board” for your brand, make sure it is going to benefit company interests, rather than harm them.

Flickr has been around since 2007 and is the largest photo centric network to date, but was losing interest and member activity as a social network.  This month Flickr announced it will be making a number of changes in the coming months, beginning with a new photo stream design - Justified View - and a new uploading feature – Uploadr -  to create an improved user experience.  The Justified view releasing on Feb. 28th , will be eliminating all the white space and text in a user’s photo stream - similar to Pintrest’s  design - and showcasing larger images in a single viewing area that can be hovered over for more information/actions.   Markus Spiering, Flickr head of products, discussed these updates earlier in the month with Mashable, and explains that the main focus for these updates is to increase user engagement.   Businesses that already have Flickr accounts, will experience the new look first in the streams of the people already following them.

What it all adds up to is more sharing opportunities, links, and exposure for your Brand.  It has been said this style of design appeals to the passive internet user due to the ease in creating preferences based on visual appeal within their own account.  This could mean a new audience to target that might not be as active in other more robust networks.  As a Brand, the most important thing to address in any content situation is what you can create that will encourage interaction with the populace.  To create a strategy, first do some research inside the networks to help to establish who you want to create content for, and what types of images will be shared the most.

If you’d like more information on how to create a company account, content, or social media strategies for this type of network, contact us.

Facebook’s paperwork for its Initial Public Offering filled this month, has created some media buzz and speculation as to what the company will be doing next.  The IPO included stats like, “Facebook  had 845 million active users as of Dec. 31, with slightly more than half of those people, 425 million, using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to visit Facebook. An average day on Facebook sees about 483 million people logging into the world’s largest social network, an increase of 48 percent over the previous year.”, and other tid-bits that sparked a lot of ideas as to what to expect this year from the company.  In just the beginning of this year, Timeline was released for user profiles and will soon be made available for businesses too. If you haven’t been following all the media, here is a review of a few anticipated Facebook Updates in 2012 we think are important for businesses watch for.

Mobile App with Ads
The IPO alluded to mobile as a potential revenue source, and cautioned that the lack of mobile revenue could harm it, since nearly half of the users access the site on a mobile device.  According to Zoe Fox at Mashable, “Users of Facebook‘s apps — for Android, iPad and iPhone — may begin seeing ads as soon as early March, as the company looks to gain an addition revenue source before it goes public.”    Also, a new advertising method to expose ads to mobile users called, Sponsored Stories, was released in December of 2011, and embeds the advertised posts directly into the newsfeed of an individual’s profile.

Facebook Timeline for Businesses
On Feburary 29th, Facebook will be sponsoring an event for marketers where it is expected to announce the release of Timeline for Business Pages.  Timeline was recently released to profiles for all users and although it is getting mixed reviews, it offers a new experience for the site.  Timeline aggregates every Wall post in a profile into a chronological view that can be adapted, added to, and hidden away from view, changing the way information is accessed. Also, the new enhanced options for sharing with media partner applications directly in the Timeline.  Facebook VP-Marketing and Business Partnerships David Fischer said Timeline for brands would be “consistent” with the Timeline look-and-feel, but not a carbon copy.

What does that mean for businesses?
Marketers can use those mentions from user interaction, and give their brand wider distribution through sponsored stories. “Marketers want to promote stories about the things they’re affiliated with but don’t always own the apps,” said Gokul Rajaram, Facebook Ads director of product management, referring to apps from services such as Spotify, Netflix or Pintrest that allow users to share what content they’re consuming. “Now you can promote stories from any app about objects you own, not just from the page owned by the marketer.”  This will open a whole new way to target ads as well, based on what a user is listening to, reading, or watching when the ad is served.

Brands will have the ability to promote the history of their business by adding historical facts to the Timeline.  A large customized design in the profile banner can be adapted more often to promote the brand, campaigns and contests, or other relevant marketing to drive traffic to.  Unfortunately it’s rumored that Page Tabs,  which were once visible under the profile image, will now be condensed and hidden in a box at the top of the page.  Kunur Patel of Ad Age Digital suspects that the format change is to promote the use of the “Open Graph” apps and could put pressure on brands to develop their own apps using custom verbs other than “like,” in the same vein as Pinterest, which has a Facebook app that tracks when its users have “pinned” something.

As Facebook continues to expand, and gain the billions of revenue expected from the public offering, there will be new internal initiatives being added frequently to ensure that the revenue generated by the company will meet stockholder’s expectations.  That being said, we expect the advertising element within Facebook to continue to expand and add options for businesses to increase exposure and engagement with their fans.

What updates will you need to make in your own Social Media Strategy for the Facebook of 2012?

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.

This week a new re-desigen of Twitter has been slowly rolling out to the public.  The user experience will be getting an upgrade with the launch of Twitter’s enhanced profile page within both the desktop and mobile version of the site.  Four new tabs will give tweeters an enriched experience for following topics of conversation.  A profile landing page design allows for a custom banner area and re-arranges the users profile stats in an easy to locate top header. The Let’s Fly blog from @twitter stated, “What we’re announcing today is just the beginning. We now have a framework in place that we will quickly build and iterate upon to help users connect with whatever is meaningful to them.”    This means a better playground to attract more user engagement, making it a more viable channel for businesses to maintain a presence on as well.   Below is a summary of the features and images from Twitter.

User Experience Overview:

 

 

• Home – new design layout has changed to include tab navigation, view your Twitter stats, get suggestions on who to follow and see trending topics and Tweets you’re following all on one dashboard.
• Connect – a tab dedicated to mentions and interactions where you see who has followed or mentioned you, retweeted or favorited one of your Tweets. 
• Discover – a tab for following conversations and hash tags. This view complies content trending in your world based on recent popularity as well as your connections, location and language.
• Me – a profile dash board for viewing all things related to your tweets and information. Populate a bio that people can view at a glance, add a photo, share your location, and link to your web site or blog.
• Tweet – Upload photos to Twitter right from your mobile phone or desktop. Links to videos and news stories are embedded in your Tweets.

Twitter Background Re-Design:

If you haven’t see the new profile or landing pages it’s only a matter of time before you will.  As accounts are converted over, users will also have access to a new profile page background design.   Twitter background designs previously were very limited to only a left margin area. A new banner area under the profile stats header has been added and can give a business page more options for promoting.  If your business would like ideas on what to promote in that space and the best way to utilize and customize that new design area available, then please contact us for help.

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.

There are a lot of articles circulating about the benefits of mobile advertising. In fact, many companies and brands are embracing mobile advertising and seeing impressive results. However, the mobile advertising market hasn’t been cornered by one particular vendor and some are wondering if Facebook is going to join the mobile scene.

Facebook is recognized as one of the top social media sites. Plus, numerous businesses appreciate the advance targeting features that are available in Facebook such as demographics, interests, connections, etc. Some would like to use these advanced settings to reach the mobile market. This means businesses would already be prepared to pay Facebook to reach their respective audience. Another plus is that people use their cell phones to check on their Facebook accounts already, so it’s not like Facebook would have to entice anyone to go on their site via a mobile device. They also, have loads of mobile user data at their fingertips. According to an article on CNET, “Facebook already has access to data of a large mobile user base”… Facebook says nearly half of its nearly 800 million users already log in via mobile devices, giving the network momentum in a market estimated to be worth $630 million.” 

Facebook seems to be in a great position to join the mobile market, and despite rumors that they will be offering mobile advertising soon, Facebook has declined to speak about the matter.  Many businesses will benefit if Facebook gives them the ability to run mobile ads.  The ball is in their court to enable mobile ads and only time will tell how they’ll proceed.

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?

A quick look at several of the corporate pages on Facebook can reveal a number of sparse, even abandoned looking pages. Maintaining your corporate Facebook page with interesting content can be tough. But if you have good ideas, content will flow naturally. Here are a few tips you can use to liven up your Facebook page and connect with your users.

Giveaways: These are perhaps one of the most common types of consumer engagement for companies on Facebook. However, there are all sorts of twists you can add to them to stand out in people’s news feeds. Invite users to try and come up with creative captions to pictures you post, or have them submit a story about using your products. By asking your users to answer a call to action to be eligible for the giveaway, you have the opportunity to learn more about them and how to market to them.

A Company Exposé: Loyal customers will be keen to learn more about your company. Post “behind-the-scenes” photos and videos, share comments from employees, or talk about the founding of the company. Use your posts to tell a story. This will humanize your brand – making your company trustworthy, authentic, and relatable.

Industry Specific Updates: Being able to comment on developments in your industry helps establish you as a trustworthy authority. You can post:

• How-to guides
• Trivia about your company/industry
• Breaking news
• Third-party content (when relevant)
• Guest experts to speak about your company/industry
• Industry specific advice

Keeping a lively Facebook page is all about posting content that gets your fans to interact with you. By maintaining this type of engagement, you’ll have your finger on the pulse of what your target audience thinks of your brand and its products.