Digital Strategy
The Washington Post turned to social media to get ahead of the real-time news cycle as details of a Capitol shooting emerged. Here’s how they did it –
1. Update website and social networks. The editors quickly updated the website to demonstrate they were aware of the breaking news – even though they did not have any details to report.
2. Source generation. Perhaps even better, they gave visitors an Continue reading “Washington Post uses social media for breaking news”
Public dissatisfaction with the pace at which mainstream media reports the news is once again being highlighted by the recent Boston Marathon tragedy. Twitter users turned the service into a media outlet and was perhaps the first to tell the world that a bombing had occurred near the marathon’s finish line.
Within minutes, the network also thrust Broadcastify into the spotlight – giving users Continue reading “Public rush to Twitter for real-time news of Boston Marathon tragedy”
Bravo! Facebook is finally rolling out its comment reply feature to all pages. This feature is scheduled to go live site-wide on March 25th, 2013 and is expected to make the social network more interactive.
With this new feature, page followers can reply to comments made by other followers, and those replies will be shown below the comments so it’s clear who’s responding to which comment. The most active conversations are shown at the top, and comments marked as spam are moved to the bottom.
Page administrators can now reply to a specific comment by clicking Reply under someone else’s comment – a plus for those who use Facebook for customer service and support.
Enjoy – and remember to activate the feature on your page, just go to-
Until next time, happy marketing!
If you are running a small business – say, a mechanic shop, diner, dentistry or hair salon, chances are people are talking about your business on Yelp. Over 30 million customers have written a review of a local business using Yelp and about 78 million folks check out those reviews every month. The site’s popularity is such that a search for a business by name could list it’s Yelp review even before the business’ own website.
Getting a positive (or negative) review on Yelp is not hard, but since a big chunk of Yelp’s 78 million monthly users are accessing reviews directly via their website or app, the challenge is getting your business at the top of Yelp’s search results. Here are five tips for improving your ranking on Yelp –
1. Get more reviews. Unless your business is the only one Continue reading “How to improve your search ranking on Yelp”
Thanks to Facebook, facial recognition technology is now a part of our everyday lives. Our subscription to being face-printed is almost seamless and without thought as we contribute to refining Facebook’s massive face-print database by uploading images to the social network and Instagram, then tagging the images with names of people we know. Marketers have not been left out of the fun. Businesses can now access face-print database systems procured by Facebook and some government agencies to target shoppers and offer them special deals when they walk into a store or are in close proximity.
Why are retailers using face-print for marketing?
According to independent researcher and consultant, Ashkan Soltani, the goal is to know Continue reading “Facebook, Face Recognition Technology and Marketing”
If you are running an organization that depends on the generosity of US Americans for funding, you’ll need to check out a study published by the Chronicle of Philanthropy that charts giving patterns in every state, city, and ZIP code.
There are many surprising facts in the study, here are our top 3:
1. The liberal north-east gives less than the assumed conservative mid-west. Salt Lake City, Memphis, and Continue reading “Where are the donors in the USA?”
Sponsored Stories is a great Facebook ad product – it allows businesses to publicize the fact that someone likes their page to that person’s friends and other Facebook users. And since peer influence is perhaps the most powerful marketing agent, this ad product has been a big hit for advertisers – but not so much for some Facebook users.
A class-action lawsuit was filed against the social network to protect the privacy of users who did not opt to have their “likes” used as marketing. According to the NY Times, Facebook Continue reading “Facebook Sponsored Stories Still Worth Buying”
According to the Wall Street Journal, GM is all set to slash their $10m Facebook advertisement budget to $0. Why? According to the company, Facebook is a good platform for engaging their clients, but not an effective network for marketing the company’s vehicles. That sounds just about right – since the network was created to facilitate person-to-person connection and engagement.
Selling ads is a relatively new Facebook product. Now that the company is public, I expect it to grow and improve rapidly in order to satisfy shareholders. While the network is a vast database cataloguing the personal lives and preferences of over 3 billion users, Facebook has failed to provide marketers with the level of access and diversity of product that would deliver shared success from advertising.
So how would you know if Facebook is not a good place to spend your advertising dollars? Here are three things to consider:
1. Long-term ads perform better than short-term placements
There are a lot of people on Facebook, but they are not there to click on ads. It takes a long time for users to view and then click on an ad. The longer your campaign run-time, the better the results will be.
2. Awareness or action – there is a difference
What is the purpose of your campaign? Continue reading “GM is pulling their Facebook ads – should you?”
On March 30, 2012 your Facebook Page will join Facebook Profiles in adapting the new “Timeline” layout. Here are 5 things to know about the new layout:
1. Your Page will feature a ‘cover’ image
Cover images should be sized 851 wide and 315 tall; smaller images will be stretched to meet this requirement – thereby distorting the image.
Your cover image should not include the following:
You can still creatively use your cover image to promote Continue reading “Facebook Page Moves to Timeline”