Archive for the ‘twitter’ Category

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Social Media Blog: Leveraging Social Media to Fight Extremism

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Interesting! A two-day London summit had social media activists from across the globe exploring ways to combat extremism using popular social networks. The event was organized by Jason Leibman who is the co-founder of the Alliance for Youth Movement and who stated that popular social networks like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter are critical tools to fight extremism.
  
He reiterated the point that we always tell our prospects and clients – which is that social networks provided a wider reach at lower cost and allow the spread of powerful messaging in an easy manner.

I found that there are many ways people are using social networks for political awareness. Twitter was used to protest Iran's censorship on the Internet, people in Nigeria are using their phones to help people learn more about the next elections, and we ourselves know that the biggest social media success story is our US president Barack Obama who systematically created an outreach that is unparalleled anywhere, through popular social networks.

So the uses for social networks continue to grow and surprise some of us. We, the hands-on practitioners of social marketing feel that it's time for a lifestyle change for businesses. Businesses need to embrace social media today because that's the only way we'll all be able to remain viable, current, and engaged.

 

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Posted in facebook, Free Speech, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: So Where Are You? Facebook & Twitter Ready to Implement Location Feature

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

As if the "bare all" online is not enough, now users can share their location with their friends online any time. Facebook says it will add a "friend location information" which will be introduced at a developer conference in April 2010. So what will this friend location do? Basically you can where you are when you updated your status with your friends.

Twitter plans to do just that with its geolocation feature in it's site soon, perhaps to beat Facebook to it?
 
So why is this "location" sharing so important that Facebook and Twitter are going live with it? And you know that others will follow suit, right?

Well, mainly because users can get localized news and find local people in their area. The power of this will help businesses seeking to do localized marketing.
 
But as I eluded to above with my "bare-all" comment, won't this geolocation create additional vulnerability for social network users? Criminal activity is growing on social networks so is it really wise for social networks to introduce a feature which will drive more criminal behavior?
 
When and how will social networks balance "access" with "safety"?

 

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Posted in facebook, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Businesses, are you ready for mobile ecommerce?

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Move over computer, you are becoming extinct; well at least slowly moving into oblivion as far as social networking sites go. Comscore, a company which reports web metrics found that 1 of 3 smartphone users accessed social networking sites through their mobile browsers. Facebook saw a 112% increase in mobile users and Twitter saw a 347% increase.

Comscore senior VP of mobile thinks that "Social media is a natural sweet spot for mobile since mobile devices are at the center of how people communicate with their circle of friends, whether by phone, text, email, or, increasingly, accessing social networking sites via a mobile browser."

The mobile social media access numbers reported by Comscore are staggering when you think about it. Over 25 MI Facebook users and approximately 5 million Twitter users logged in using mobile browsers.
 
Here's some food for thought for all business owners out there:

You know that mobile users aren't just logging into Facebook and Twitter through their mobile browsers. They're doing other browsing too; from buying quick ticket items to ordering food.

Are you ready with a "MOBILE" compatible website for these mobile users?

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Posted in facebook, Mobile Phones, Mobile Shopping, Social Media Marketing, twitter | 1 Comment »

Social Media Blog: Asian Companies Shy Away from Twitter & Facebook

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

79 percent of Fortune Global 100 companies are at least on one of the following four social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or a Corporate Blog.This according to Burson-Marsteller, a company that conducts studies on social media usage.

However, the same study found that Asian companies are shying away from Facebook and Twitter, focusing more on using local platforms that are used in their country or region. Those social networks include Mixi in Japan, CyWorld in South Korea and Baidu Spaces and Renren in China. These Asian companies appear to limiting their usage of Facebook and Twitter only to communicate with consumers in international markets. They prefer the local social networks for reaching their most targeted audience.
 
According to Burson-Marsteller, Asian companies are more concerned about time, money, and measurement of their social media involvement thus making their use of social networks much more conservative.

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Posted in facebook, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Department of Defense’s Social Media Policy Annoucement

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Ok, so better late than never right? I'm talking about the Social Media policy finally unveiled by the Department of Defense on Feb 26, 2010. And perhaps keeping the new way of communication in mind, Price Floyd, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, broke the news of the policy announcement on his Twitter feed.

So it appears that the military will allow it's troops to access popular social networking sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter from their "non-classified computer network" also known as NPRNET (for Non-classified Internet Protocol Router Network.)

This is huge people! Think about it, we're talking about the unbending, conservative military. Troops who wish to stay in touch with family and friends will now be able to do so and they'll also be able to share information with others who may be interested in what's happening with our military personnel stationed in remote locations.

The policy includes provisions to balance access with the necessary security measures to protect against malicious cyber and virus attacks. And naturally the policy also includes provisions to restrict access to pornography, gambling and hate-crime related sites.

As with all military policies, local commanders have the discretion to shut down the access to social networking sites. If a commander is uncomfortable with social networks, the troops will more than likely not be able to access the sites either which may cause unhappiness among the troops.
 

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Posted in Blogging, facebook, twitter | 1 Comment »

Social Media Blog: Want to Connect with Fortune 100 Companies? Find them on Twitter!

Friday, February 26th, 2010

The Global Social Media Check-up is yet another social media usage study released by Burson-Marsteller. The study shows that:

  • Globally, 65% of Fortune 100 companies have active accounts on Twitter
  • 54% have a Facebook fan page
  • 50% have a YouTube channel
  • 33% have a corporate blog. 

Overall though, only 20% of Fortune 100 companies, globally, are using all four platforms. Only 20%!!! What are they thinking? If they can do one or two, they can certainly do all four.

But the good news again is that Twitter is the platform of choice for 65% of them. So get yourself on Twitter and make sure you are focusing on balancing quality AND quantity of your Twitter participation. What I mean is be sure to have "Quality" content while you continue to build the "Quantity" or number of followers who will read your tweets.

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Posted in Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Twitter Updates

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Here's some new functionality soon to be found in Twitter – ability to view someone's profile without visiting their profile page. As the name suggests, Hovercards is a floating card which appears when you hover the pointer over a username or an avatar. Hovercards provides you the benefit of viewing information about a twitter user which helps you decide whether you want to interact with them further or not.
 
So, if you hover your mouse over a person’s name on a tweet in your timeline, the person's profile information, location, and whether you follow them or not appears in a hover card. There's also an option to follow, block, mention, or report someone right from within the hover card.

Hovercards

(Image credit: Twitter blog)

Twitter announced that "One way we've found these cards to be useful is to find out more about retweeted people and follow them right there. You can also see more information with an expanded view of the card."
 
I know that I will like this feature because sometimes I just want to see the person's profile and location without wanting to open a new browser window. And sometimes I just want to unfollow someone without going to their page to "unfollow" them.

In typical Twitter fashion, Hovercards will be rolled out in phases. I didn't see it available on my profile today so I assume I'm not in their "inner circle", lol. But hopefully soon……….

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Posted in twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Alterian Study Found Businesses Looking to Invest More in Social Media Marketing in 2010

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Alterian company's 7th annual survey in which 1,068 marketing professionals around the world were surveyed, found that two-thirds are planning a social media marketing investment within the next 12 months.

Over 67% of those surveyed identified Social Media as either "critical to success" or "increasingly important" and about  40% said they would spend about 1/5th of their traditional direct marketing budget for social media activities.

This makes a lot of sense right?

Social media provides direct, instant, global access to hundreds of thousands of people. So it makes me wonder when I hear people tell me that they are still relying on the yellow pages for their leads or when people give me "we're a local company" as their reason for not engaging in social networks.

Come on folks. Lets get real here.. Social media marketing is not just important to the viability and long-term success of your company, it is becoming IMPERATIVE.

Stay in front of your customers and prospects and remain in business or else……(you fill in the blanks).

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Posted in facebook, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Listen to the Pope! Pope2you.net

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Damn! Errr, I mean Wow!!!

I normally won't touch religious or political stories to blog about but man this I gotta share.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his message for the 44th World Day of Communications told his priests to become more web and social network savvy. He said "The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts…." The theme of the upcoming May 16th event is "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word".

Doesn't that sound totally like a business conference that you may have attended?

His Holiness goes on to say ""Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word."

Man! Not only that, the Vatican recently launched the "Pope2you" portal, offering a Facebook app, iPhone app, YouTube channel, and Papal videos.

So your boss not quite on the Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogging bandwagon? Ask him or her to read what THE POPE has to say. I'm sure he'll / she'll come around quickly.

Listen to the Pope, not just for world peace messages but also for increasing your reach and spreading your message using social networks!

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Posted in facebook, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Are you Twittered Out?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

So has Twitter reached its peak? I don't think so.

I agree that Twitter can be intrusive and I also know that some posts can be quite annoying. However, in my opinion too many people tweet without really engaging people. That's where they are missing the boat in terms of leveraging real-time networking opportunities in Twitter.

Twitter and Facebook have different usage criteria. I know that if I were to post a message on my Facebook status 10 times an hour, I'd be out of friends quickly. So in the video when it was mentioned that "Facebook is better" again, I felt that the perspective shared was not really business-focused.

For businesses, really Twitter is about creating "curiosity" through tweets and an interesting bio which can lead to a discussion, an investigation, a contact, and eventually a business transaction.

Remember the equation: Quality + Quantity

Quality means posting tweets that are insightful and engage readers where possible. 70% of these tweets should be focused on sharing business information and expertise in your field. 30% of the tweets can be exchanging personal messages, commenting on topics that may not necessarily be exactly in your field of expertise, and in general, just networking online to build a network of well-wishers.

Quantity means building "influence" through the followers that you build. These followers are the folks who will engage with you off and on to create extended visibility for you and your brand.

So what Twitter does better than Facebook is providing that "volume" influence which on Facebook is a bit more time-consuming and a bit limiting unless you are a brand like Starbucks or Pepsi / Coke.

So tweet away with heartfelt dedication cause tweeting ain't dead yet!

Posted in Social Media Marketing, twitter | 1 Comment »

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