All advertisers on Facebook aim to turn users into customers. At the end of the day, marketing is about generating sales and making money, of course. But when you run ads on Facebook, it can be difficult to see to the end of the funnel. Often, advertisers get lost in the quantity of metrics and data available on Facebook and forget that their efforts shouldn’t stop there. Recently, Facebook has been actively adding offerings to make the platform more viable for Direct Response (DR) campaigns. This effort is a clear result of the increased sophistication of clients running Facebook ads. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column

The buzz around startup culture lately is all about "minimum viable product." It's the idea of creating a product as quickly as possible — in its most minimum viable form — so you can then make it better by adapting it to what your customers really want. It makes sense as a way to build things, but I think it has other implications, too. What if "minimally viable" was the way we looked at social media metrics, as well? After all, one of the biggest challenges we face in social media marketing is that there are hundreds of different elements we could measure. Sometimes it seems like w [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column

When it comes to social media marketing, many brands and organizations have staked claim to various hashtags. Yet by their nature, hashtags can't be owned. They can’t be wordmarked or copyrighted, either. The reality is that many hashtags are started organically, not by brands themselves but by their customers. Hashtags were once the sole domain of Twitter. Over the years, other social properties began incorporating them as well. Google Plus and Instagram recognize them. Earlier this year, LinkedIn started using them. And soon, they'll become part of Facebook as well. Hashtag Bombs Are S [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Social Media Marketing: Hashtags | Twitter | Twitter: Marketing

I hadn't seen my old high school pal in about 20 years. As we sat at a bar overlooking Grand Central Station in New York, he told me that he, too, was in social media -- something involving sentiment analysis. “Oh, sure,” I said, “many social media tools use sentiment analysis -- and it’s always a big topic at digital marketing conferences.” “No,” he said, “we analyze Twitter for changes in sentiment that might affect stock price. Then computer trading can kick in for transactions that might only be fractions of a penny per share.” Twitter As An Economic Predic [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Twitter

Crafting a content strategy for social media is just as important as developing a strategy for what is published on the company blog and website. Social media is one of the main megaphones that a company uses to create its overall online presence, which in turn shapes brand recognition and sentiment. Social media has developed to the point that it is now more than putting a message out online and hoping for the best. Because the users are smarter and have made social media a part of their lives, it is up to companies to make the most out of every post and update they publish. Social med [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Channel: Strategy | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column

Author and speaker Nancy Duarte has said that speakers must take their audience on a hero’s journey (YouTube video). In doing so, the speaker doesn’t assume the role of hero – the audience does. The speaker is the hero’s helper. Spokespeople for The Coca-Cola Company announced last year their ambitious goal of doubling the company’s overall revenues by the year 2020 (YouTube video).  How are they to achieve this monumental task, comparable to the doubling of a small country’s GNP? Their answer was storytelling in all of its many forms. In his latest book, What's The Fut [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column

Content marketing is one of the biggest buzz phrases of the moment, with many people talking about it as if it's a new phenomenon. The fact that The Guinness Book of Records will be 60 years old next year should put paid to that suggestion -- but so, too, should the creative work put out by Nike, which has consistently shown that great marketing is great content. And, they're still doing it now. PHOTOiD is a new mash-up Nike has created that allows you to use an Instagram photo to inspire a pair of personalised Nike iD trainers. It's built in HTML5, is lovely to look at, is intrinsically li [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column

Smart social media marketers know that some tactics are totally off the table. Spamming that Google Plus community with your off-topic links? That's a no-no. Auto-DMs to new Twitter followers? No way. Then there are tactics that aren't inherently bad, but you may not want to use them every day. Like pop-up ads, advertising jingles or re-targeting campaigns, these tactics can be just shy of annoying if used incorrectly, but often get the kind of results that make them irresistible to try. Let's call these "yellow light" social media tactics. When you come to a yellow light in traffic, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Google: Google+ | Pinterest | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Twitter

[caption id="attachment_38369" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo credit: caribb via photopin creative commons[/caption] My dad was proud of his new "Internet-smart" TV and wanted to show it off to me on St. Patrick's Day weekend last month. He showed me how he could log onto Facebook and view photos, update his status, etc. As he was showing me, all I could think was, "Would anyone really use this?” Judging by the time it took him to navigate to my profile, I concluded that surfing social media sites through a TV isn't ideal. But, he was excited because he could log into Facebook [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Twitter | Video

The last few years has seen the rise of what are known as "acqhires," where start-ups are bought for their talent and tech, rather than the product itself. The most recent and impressive example of this was the decision by Yahoo! to pay a rumoured $30 million to buy Summly, an app with less than a million downloads and its team of five -- led by its photogenic founder, 17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio. Whilst this will undoubtedly inspire any number of teenagers to develop their own app, it also highlights other trends around how content is being created and consumed, which will have impo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Twitter

SEO is not dead. As with all living things, SEO is always evolving. While many in the search community are witnessing and acknowledging the evolution, they cling to the notion that SEO only stands for "Search Engine Optimization." The concept of search dates back to the days of cavemen searching for food. So does social interaction and the exchange of information, which inevitably impacts how people search. It's time to add an additional meaning to the Three Letter Acronym of SEO and start teaching this to all the people with C-Level titles (COO, CMO, CTO, CFP & CEOs) in the world. The [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Internet Marketing Industry | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Word Of Mouth Marketing

As a wise statesman rocker once sang, the waiting is the hardest part. These days, that applies to Facebook marketing, too. We've seen a preview of what Facebook's Graph Search and new newsfeed will bring. Now, all that's left to do is wait. But, while we're speculating, pontificating and – well, waiting – here are 20 mostly painless, definitely necessary things all brands can do to get a jump start on whatever is on the way. No matter how you feel about Facebook, it's time to get ready. 1. Get On The List First and foremost, get a jump on the crowd by signing up for the early acce [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing Column

Social content curation has blown up in the past year, after a late start that began to show traction around 2007-2008. Pinterest continues to experience massive growth, with Wanelo nipping at its heels. Social media users have gotten smarter when it comes to sharing; many are no longer posting Facebook statuses about what they ate and are instead using social networks to share their passions, ideas, and content they love. Social Media Content Value For Brands The value of content for brands has been slow and time-coming, but businesses are beginning to realize it's not the fact that you [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Google: Google+ | Pinterest | Social Media Marketing Column | Twitter: Marketing

One of the biggest buzz-phrases of the past year or so has undoubtedly been Content Marketing. It's the perfect piece of jargon: it's rather vague, could have lots of meanings and is very hard to pin down. It's also, as an idea, really not that new at all -- after all, soap operas were so named because they had soap companies as sponsors and producers. But, all that notwithstanding, there is a very good reason that the idea of content marketing has gained such traction recently, and that it gives brands a story to tell, and consumers something to share. Most posts about content marketing [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing Column

She wasn't a marketer. She didn't optimize that infamous post on Facebook, or time it based on social media studies. Heck, she didn't even spell all its words right. She just knew Elton would die if she didn't get the word out, and that was enough. Late last month, a Jackson, TN, woman who runs a Facebook account devoted to finding homes for animals at the local shelter posted a new update. The story of the "gay dog" quickly spread, from Facebook to local media to Gawker to CNN to as far away as international news sites. "No one expected this one story to spread so far and wide, fr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column

If you were to invoke fairy tales in the world of social media, you might compare LinkedIn to Cinderella. While the step-sisters Facebook and Google Plus have been preparing for the Prince’s big party, LinkedIn has been quietly going about an incredible overhaul of its system and is building up a larger and larger user base. Many business owners and marketers are still thinking about LinkedIn as it was a year ago – a nice place to get a backlink for the business and a great place to build up one’s own personal brand. Surprise! Things Have Changed If you haven’t been paying a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn | Social Media Marketing Column

[caption id="attachment_32500" align="alignright" width="300"] image from Stock.XCHNG[/caption] This month marks the nine year anniversary of when Facebook (then known as TheFacebook.com) was first conceived and created by Mark Zuckerberg. Since then, Facebook has grown by leaps and bounds, currently supporting over one billion active users (as of December 2012) and over 618 million active daily users. Facebook's capabilities and layouts have undergone the most obvious changes over the last nine years, and the way that marketers have learned to connect with users has grown, as well. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Marketing | Facebook: Open Graph | Social Media Marketing Column

Last month, I talked about how the major social platforms are increasingly trying to tie people to their own services, no matter what that might mean for user experience. As if to prove me right, Facebook then had its very own Valentine's Day massacre, as well as launching a full-on competitor to Google, whilst Twitter released Vine, a service that seems very similar to a number of others already on the market, including the relatively successful Viddy. What's interesting here is that both of these developments highlight how these platforms are trying to create tools that, whilst not u [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing Column

You can't help but feel that little rush of jealousy when you see a just-average piece of content getting tons of shares, likes and tweets. What's that post got that yours doesn't? Your content is stellar, your infographics perfectly designed. So why aren't more people sharing them? The secret of getting your content shared by more people isn't always producing better stuff – sometimes it's making better connections or just thinking a little differently. Here are 15 strategies, tips and tricks that prove that point – use them to take your great content that extra mile. 1. Int [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing Column

For B2B companies, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social media channels available. In fact, our Social Media research of more than 5,000 companies has shown that LinkedIn is 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook and Twitter. But, with so many tools and micro-channels within LinkedIn, how do you make sure you’re getting the most out of your efforts? When optimizing your company’s LinkedIn presence, it helps to know how to choose the right tool for the right job. Should You Spend Time On Company Pages Or Groups? Of the many ways to communicate on LinkedIn, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing Column