2012 Trends: Social Media Metrics Take Center Stage

From the early days of the internet, the prospect of detailed metrics fueled the promise that online advertising could yield unprecedented insights about customer preferences and behavior. That promise has only partially materialized. True, online channels provide feedback that offline media cannot, but marketers are still grappling with how to make this input work toward the bottom line.

via 2012 Trends: Social Media Metrics Take Center Stage – eMarketer.

What Do Followers Really Want? Not An RSS Feed

So here’s are a few quick questions to ask yourself when posting to your feed:

Is this interesting? Goes without saying, but a hefty number of news tweets and FB posts are boring or to boring content. Save the headline rundown for the RSS feed and highlight only the best or most important to promote. That gives you more room in the timeline to interact without overwhelming streams with a list of headlines.

Does everyone already know? You can retweet, but don’t just repeat without adding value. What can you/your organization add? Solicit feedback on the topic from your followers and share that feedback.

Would I like, share, retweet or read this? If the answer is no, consider what you can do to make mundane more readable.

Would my mom care about it even if I didn’t create it? Because let’s be honest, your mom will “like” anything you create, but she’s also a proxy for the general public when it comes to whether pieces will resonate.

Did someone else have it first or say it better? Credit them!

How can I engage other followers or organizations in this post? It’s more than OK to reply to followers, and it’s OK to share what they or others you follow share. (Your organizations and you personally do follow people, right?! You don’t have to follow everyone who follows you, but you absolutely should follow people you find interesting and the newsmakers in your niche and community.)

Bonus: Does it involve cute animals or is it fun? It’s OK to be fun. Your followers will appreciate the well-selected smile.

via What Do Followers Really Want? Not An RSS Feed – 10,000 Words.

Pro Tip: Use Reddit To Find Story Ideas

Reddit is an Internet firehose, a repository of the good, the bad, the silly and the shocking.

Online journalists should make it a habit to look at Reddit from time to time. Not only can it be a great way to promote work, but there always seems to be a good story waiting there. Sometimes it’s prominent, and sometimes it’s in an obscure corner of the site. The fact that the site’s slogan is “the front page of the Internet” is telling.

While Reddit still has a niche audience, the stories that are popular on Reddit probably have some potential to be popular elsewhere. If the story fits your site, you should consider writing something similar.

via Pro Tip: Use Reddit To Find Story Ideas – 10,000 Words.

Here’s How People Look at Your Facebook Profile — Literally

The study used the webcams of 30 participants to record their eye movements as they were shown profile pages from Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Klout, Reddit, Digg, Tumblr, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Pinterest at 10-second intervals. What participants looked at on each page and in what order is recorded in the images below.

via Here’s How People Look at Your Facebook Profile — Literally.

How Online Reading Has Evolved in 2011

This time last year I wrote a post outlining how online reading patterns had changed over 2010. The habits and products for reading on the Web have continued to evolve over 2011. This year, for example, Google+ arrived on the scene and changed the way many people find and discuss topical articles. We also saw continued innovation in mobile and tablet reading apps.

In this post I identify two key trends in online reading over 2011, plus two main ways that our online reading habits have changed.

via How Online Reading Has Evolved in 2011.

How to Use Google Search More Effectively [INFOGRAPHIC]

Among certain circles my family, some of my coworkers, etc. I’m known for my Googling skills. I can find anything, anywhere, in no time flat. My Google-fu is a helpful skill, but not one that’s shrouded in too much mystery — I’ve just mastered some very helpful search tricks and shortcuts and learned to quickly identify the best info in a list of results.Sadly, though web searches have become and integral part of the academic research landscape, the art of the Google search is an increasingly lost one. A recent study at Illinois Wesleyan University found that fewer than 25% of students could perform a “reasonably well-executed search.” Wrote researchers, “The majority of students — of all levels — exhibited significant difficulties that ranged across nearly every aspect of the search process.”

via How to Use Google Search More Effectively [INFOGRAPHIC].