Google+ Events: This Week in Social Media
Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up-to-date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What’s New This Week?
Google Introduces Google+ Events: Google+ Events are “for all the moments that matter—before, during and after.” Google+ Events will sync with Calendar integration. You can also share photos in real time with Party Mode, and after the event you can see everyone’s pictures in one place in chronological order and with comments.
How Sony Became a Pinterest Rock Star
Callan Green, senior social media specialist at Sony Electronics, never thought she would want a pair of leather pants.
“But I saw enough pins on Pinterest that I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have to own them,’ and I went out and bought some.”
It was the fall of 2011 and she was discovering firsthand the power of Pinterest to drive sales.
The image-based, pinboard-sharing social media site launched in March 2010 is now the third-largest social network, behind Facebook and Twitter.
In March 2012, it tallied 2.3 billion page impressions to over 4 million unique visitors a day.
“We were all using [Pinterest] personally,” said Green of the social media team at Sony Electronics, “and realized the power of the platform to drive people’s interest in purchasing.”
8 Tips for Running Social Media Promotions
Have you thought of using social media contests and sweepstakes to build and engage your audience?
Previously I wrote How to Run a Successful Social Media Contest outlining some important foundational steps: be clear on your marketing objectives, know your audience, understand different promotion types and plan ahead!
If you’re looking to gain even more traction with social promotions, here are eight additional tips to enhance your next social media campaign.
Ensure Your Promotion Doesn’t Get You In Hot Water
It’s difficult to run a successful campaign if your promotion is blocked, removed or challenged in a court of law. So before we get to the fun part of marketing, there are a few logistical tips to keep in mind.
5 Ways Online Businesses Are Succeeding With Social Media
Marketing your online business through social media websites can be a great way to encourage engagement with your brand in a low-pressure setting.
However, getting started with this new type of media can be intimidating for some business owners.
Take a look at the following five examples of ecommerce websites that are succeeding with social media for ideas on how to use social media effectively.
#1: Use Facebook Apps Strategically to Guide Users
As social media expert Amy Porterfield mentioned in her recent “How to Use Facebook Apps to Improve Fan Engagement,” article on Social Media Examiner:
Since page admins can no longer designate a default landing tab (also referred to as the “default welcome tab”), businesses need to get more creative and use custom apps to direct Facebook page visitors to take action.
One example of an ecommerce website that’s taking this principle to the next level is ShoeDazzle, the discount footwear retailer, with its custom Style Profile app.
Once Facebook visitors grant access to the app, they’re able to complete the quiz to find their ideal style matches and are then redirected to specific purchase pages on the ShoeDazzle website, encouraging purchase decisions and eliminating the “tire kicking” that can occur with social media visitors.
How to Use the New Facebook WordPress Plugin: A Complete Guide
Do you blog?
Facebook has released a highly comprehensive plugin for WordPress.
With the new plugin, you can perform sophisticated auto-publishing to your Timeline and add many Facebook features to your self-hosted WordPress blog. (This plugin does not work on blogs hosted on WordPress.com.)
This makes advanced Facebook social sharing features accessible to everyone.
This detailed article tells you how to install and use this powerful plugin.
#1: Install the Facebook Plugin on Your Blog
From inside your WordPress admin dashboard, go to the Plugin section and search for “Facebook.” The Facebook plugin for WordPress should appear at the top of the search results.
Search for the word "Facebook" and the right plugin will be the first to appear in the search results.
5 New Twitter Features to Enhance Your Experience
Have you kept up with the new Twitter changes?
In an effort to dramatically increase overall user engagement, Twitter launched a number of very interesting new features.
And on top of everything, Twitter also has a brand-new logo.
After playing with the new Twitter features for a while, I have quickly grown very fond of them. Take a look yourself and see how Twitter can make your daily information intake easier.
#1: Find Out the Week’s Top Twitter Stories
After Twitter acquired popular email digest service Summify a few months back, they made a strong point that email is not dead.
Recently Twitter announced a brand-new feature. It’s a weekly email digest filled with great stories from your stream.
Or to put it in the words of Twitter’s VP Othman Lakari, you will get “the most relevant tweets and stories shared by the people you’re connected to on Twitter.”
When the first Twitter email hit my inbox I was very excited. What you’ll notice immediately is a list of the top five stories from your stream this week.
LinkedIn Pages Allow Targeted Updates: This Week in Social Media
Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up-to-date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What’s New This Week?
LinkedIn Targeted Status Updates Available to All Company Pages: You can now select a target audience for updates shared on your LinkedIn Company Page. You can specify your target audience by company size, industry, job function, seniority, geography and whether they are employees of your company or not. Targeted Status Updates were launched to select LinkedIn customers and are now available to all Company Pages.
Win Free Tickets: Blogging Fundamentals for Business
Want to win a free ticket to the largest online blogging workshop for businesses?
Social Media Examiner founder Michael Stelzner will be teaching a step-by-step course to help your business thrive with blogging.
And we’ve come up with a fun way to get you involved.
First, what is this event?
Blogging Fundamentals for Business is an online workshop that will empower you as a marketer and business owner to attract quality prospects, elevate your industry prominence and improve your sales with blogging.
3 Steps to Getting Started With Social Media
With so many social networks to choose from, how do you decide the best social networks for your company?
Not all networks are created equal; each comes with its own specific benefits, features and uses.
This 3-step guide will help you choose the best social networks based on your business, experience and community.
#1: Find Your Community
If you’re just getting started in social media and are weighing which platform to join first, search for your business on various networks to see if you’ve already got a community there.
Does your product have user videos on YouTube? Did someone create a Yelp profile for your restaurant? Are you mentioned on Twitter? Wherever you find your community is where you should start investing your time and resources.
7 Pinterest Tips for B2B Companies
Have you used Pinterest to promote your business-to-business (B2B) company?
Many consumer-facing businesses have had a lot of success promoting themselves with Pinterest.
A recent study by SteelHouse shows that “Pinterest Users Are Nearly Twice as Likely to Purchase Than Facebook Users.”
However, many B2B businesses are still wondering how to promote themselves with Pinterest.
Check out how these B2B businesses are using Pinterest. Try to replicate their techniques for your business.
Here are 7 tips for successfully using Pinterest for your B2B business.
#1: Use Infographics
Posting attractive infographics on your blog can be a great way to promote your B2B business on Pinterest. A well-designed infographic with helpful information can get you lots of pins and repins.
