14 epic social media fails | Econsultancy
Whether you’re a small business with a solitary Twitter account, a mid sized agency using the latest monitoring tools, or a huge corporation with a multi-million dollar Facebook campaign , at some point, we all will make mistakes playing the social media game.
Just hope that you don’t crap out by making mistakes as big as the following…
14 ways to use Twitter to attract journalists | Articles
I spent 10 years as a reporter in the BT (Before Twitter) era. Now as a social media strategist and public relations professional, I’ve found Twitter to be my primary and most successful method of building and maintaining relationships with reporters. It’s brought my clients and I tens of thousands of dollars in free press coverage.
One public relations agency I work with even grew out of a connection made on Twitter. And that’s perhaps the main reason I advise every public relations professional to become a regular. Just like real life, you communicate with a large circle of professionals, but the bulk of the benefits come from just a handful of clients or connections you make over months and years.
I consider Twitter the tool that delivers tangible value in great gulps, so long as you commit to it for a year.
Skeptical? Here’s how I use it:
via 14 ways to use Twitter to attract journalists | Articles.
Social Media is a Waste of Time | Inc.com
If you are like most small businesses, you and your team are stretched thin. If you even have a team. All day long you are servicing customers, delivering products, managing finances and doing whatever it takes to keep your business up and running. The last thing you need is to waste time. But for many small businesses, that’s exactly what they are doing when it comes to marketing with social media.
The typical small business Facebook page is a ghost town. It might have some pictures of the business, a few posts about an event six months ago, and a handful of followers who joined when the page launched. On Twitter, there might be a couple posts a month and none of them are related to any customer question. The same is true for Foursquare. Groupon is like going to the casino: there’s a good chance you’ll come home with empty pockets.
It’s hard to resist the promise of marketing in social media. It’s personal, efficient, and it is growing at a remarkable rate. Your customers spend most of their media time on these sites and they are discussing product experiences and researching purchase decisions. But that doesn’t mean that every business should drop everything and start a Facebook page or a Twitter account. This isn’t like buying an ad in the newspaper or the Yellow Pages; You don’t just set it up and walk away.
To make the most of your social media marketing, you need to have a plan. Social media is about having an ongoing conversation with your customers, not droning on about your business while they ignore you. You have to put in the time to cultivate your existing customers and attract new ones. Yes, this will take a little more time and thought, but that’s why it works. If you “set it and forget it,” you are wasting your time. Guaranteed.
Here are six steps to make sure you don’t waste time in social media:
[Basics] How to build a Twitter following from scratch | Articles
If you’re a public relations pro, you’re probably familiar with a lot of the ins and outs of Twitter. So how can you use what you already know to get the most out of Twitter when you’re getting a new account up and running? Check out these tips to get started, and add your own in the comments below.
via How to build a Twitter following from scratch | Articles.
10 Facebook Timeline Designs That Will Blow You Away [PICS]
Facebook’s new Timeline design gives users a large “cover photo” space at the top of the page. We think this revamp is a great opportunity to get creative with your profile presentation.
via 10 Facebook Timeline Designs That Will Blow You Away [PICS].
Getting To Done: SEO Made Easy
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should be at the top of your Web publishing priority list. If Web surfers can’t find your site, they can’t read it, use it or share it with others.
One might think SEO is an arcane science that only a few experts have mastered. There is quite a bit to it, and there are times you might want to employ an SEO firm or expert to help you optimize your site. Often this is a costly solution that’s not feasible for individuals or small businesses.
SEO for Non-dicks
The key thing to understand is that the rules of SEO aren’t magic or arbitrary. They’re based on the goals of a search engine, which is to find relevant results. Relevance implies genuineness, and genuineness implies trust. So, shockingly, you should try to make your site’s content trustworthy, genuine and relevant. All of the rules have come about due to their utility in detecting those three positive metrics. Good SEO is a by-product of not being a dick on the internet.
Consider a few examples of tried-and-tested “SEO tactics”, and why they actually came about.
Embed iframe on FB … with HTTPS
How Do You Detect B.S. On Social Networks?
With lots of real news spreading like wildfire over social media, it is inevitable that false news spreads over Twitter too, and it does.
The Huffington Post‘s Mandy Jenkins and Regret the Error‘s Craig Silverman held a session at the Online News Association Conference here on Friday afternoon with the goal of preventing the participants from falling into a trap. (Slides from the presentation are available here.)
Yes, this is a real picture, but no it didn’t happen during Hurricane Irene. It’s a couple of years old.
One of Jenkins and Silverman’s bigge
via How Do You Detect B.S. On Social Networks? – 10,000 Words.