Shhhhhh. It's still pretty hush-hush at the moment, but there's a new Twitter account that aims to increase awareness of activity from your "follow graph" -- i.e., the notable things that are happening in the accounts that you follow. In the process, it also opens the door a tiny bit on the idea of direct messages as a marketing/content channel. More on that in a bit. The @MagicRecs account is about as quiet as an account can be after Twitter CEO Dick Costolo plugged it on Sunday night, saying it's "a product of some great work by the team here. Follow it!" (Despite that, @MagicRecs still h [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Accounts & Profiles | Twitter: Marketing

Did Twitter unfairly take away Leonard Barshack's handle and give it to Central Idaho ski resort Sun Valley Co.? After using the Twitter handle @sunvalley since 2010, Barshack received an email from Twitter last year notifying him that a report had been filed declaring he was engaging in "non-parody impersonation" with his Twitter handle. The Associated Press reports Twitter claimed Barshack was violating their policy that mandates an account's profile information "make it clear that the creator of the account is not actually the same person or entity," as the subject of the impersonation. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Legal: Copyright & Trademark | Social Media Marketing | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Accounts & Profiles | Twitter: Legal | Twitter: Marketing

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

The season of marketing conferences is upon us, which provides opportunities to discuss Twitter marketing with brand-side and agency marketers from near and far. It was at one such conference, the famous SxSW, that Twitter debuted back in 2007. Now that six years has gone by, was Twitter still the talk of the show in 2013? Gemma Craven (@gemsie), the New York Group Director at Social@Ogilvy, suggested that with the recent launch of Twitter's new advertising dashboard, advertising API, the collaboration with AMEX, direct marketing tools for brands, and its prominence as a topic of many pane [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Twitter Marketing Column | Twitter: Marketing

The marketing technology company HipLogiq launched their newest social media software SocialCentiv at last month's SXSW Conference. Within 30 days after its launch, the company says more than 1,000 companies had become customers. Designed for small to medium sized businesses, SocialCentiv claims to help companies identify potential customers on social media sites like Twitter, allowing them to reply to social media conversations with location-based offers. When someone uses an offer, SocialCentiv emails a referral incentive reward to the new customer. The software also includes reporting op [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Marketing Tools: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: Marketing

Twitter has relaunched its Twitter For Business website with a new look, plus additional content that Twitter hopes will help businesses learn how to build a successful presence there. The how-to content is separated for new or advanced business users, and case studies are organized by size of business and industry. And, of course, there's plenty of information about Twitter's advertising options and how to get started with them. Twitter has also published a new video that, in my opinion, is the most effective messaging the company has offered yet for businesses -- not just why, but [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Social Media Marketing | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Marketing

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 [...]

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Twitter's all-out assault on potential advertisers continued today with the latest in a series of blog posts explaining the benefits of doing Twitter ads. Today's target? The B2B community. The company is touting how tweets can have an impact on B2B tech audiences, again using statistics from its recent work with Compete. In this study, Compete examined the online activity of more than 6,000 Twitter users as they visited more than 400 B2B tech sites in late 2012. Two quick snapshot stats: 59 percent of Twitter users visited a B2B tech site during the study period, compared to 40 percent [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Social Media Marketing | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: Marketing | Twitter: Statistics

The Baltimore Ravens just beat the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl XLVII in a game that came down to the final seconds. But online, the social network showdown belonged to Twitter in a dominating win over Facebook, Google+ and all other social networks. According to my count, Twitter was mentioned in 26 of 52 national TV commercials -- that's 50 percent of the spots that aired during CBS' game coverage. Facebook was mentioned in only four of those commercials -- about eight percent. Google+, which is reportedly the No. 2 social network in the world, wasn't mentioned at all. YouTube [...]

Related Topics: Branding | Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook: Instagram | Facebook: Marketing | Facebook: Pages | Features & Analysis | Google | Google: Google+ | Google: Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Hashtags | Statistics: General | Statistics: Social Media | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Marketing

Social media isn't solely about direct social results. There are many places on your website where social media may improve your search engine optimization (SEO) while helping your business grow its online presence. No SEO strategy can guarantee results, but these tips can help ensure that you have all the bases covered to take full advantage of the available opportunities. Alt Tags For Icons Alt tags for images are sometimes overlooked by website marketing managers, who are so focused on meta tags or the content of the site, that they forget the benefit other meta tags can bring. Adding [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook: Marketing | Facebook: Pages | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Twitter | Twitter: Buttons & Widgets | Twitter: Marketing

In 1886, a case was brought before the US Supreme Court: Santa Clara County versus the Southern Pacific Railroad Company.  The case was remarkable in that the Fourteenth Amendment was invoked, an amendment that was originally written in the aftermath of the Civil War to provide protection to former slaves. In this case, it was invoked to provide protection to corporate entities, establishing the notion that corporations would have the rights of individuals. During Occupy Wall Street, one of the rallying cries was that this protection must end. One notable poster stated, “I refuse to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Twitter | Twitter Marketing Column | Twitter: Marketing

Have you ever wanted to see Twitter trends for a certain location? Well, now you can see them for 200 locations total. This week Twitter announced the ability to see trends for more locations. This new feature allows a Twitter user to switch locations and see trending topics in that area. “Today, we’re bringing Trends to 100 more cities around the world including Istanbul, Frankfurt, Guadalajara and Incheon. With this update, we now surface the ‘most breaking’ news in more than 200 locations. To view Trends for different locations, just click 'Change' in the Trends section," the com [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Twitter: Marketing

Just over a month away, Marketing Land's SMX Social Media Marketing event comes to Las Vegas this Dec. 5 & 6. As part of our great agenda is a keynote from Del Harvey, director of trust and safety at Twitter. Del's talk is one any social media marketer will want to hear. She oversees all of what's considered right and wrong in terms of promotion on Twitter. Del also has plenty of good, practical advice for those looking to succeed with engagement on the service. Her keynote, Twitter Talks: How To Win Friends & Not Be Unfollowed By People (Or Worse), is on Dec. 5. You won't wa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Internet Marketing Industry: Search Marketing Expo - SMX | Twitter | Twitter: Marketing

You may not have noticed the link, but it's there in the footer of Twitter's home page if you're logged out: "Directory." It's a link to Twitter's unannounced user directory, an alphabetical collection of all Twitter account holders from A to Z that also includes profiles with non-Latin character names. Twitter launched the user directory "a few weeks ago," according to a spokesperson, but hasn't made a formal announcement about it. That's likely because it exists more for search engines than for Twitter users -- a topic that I cover today in my Search Engine Land article, Twitter’ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features & Analysis | Social Media Marketing | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Accounts & Profiles | Twitter: Marketing

If you're planning a campaign to stimulate word of mouth discussion of a product or a brand, one question likely keeps arising -- how influential is a particular person online? Is it worth reaching out to them? If you've been pondering how to measure or benchmark social media influence, several companies, including Klout, PeerIndex and Kred, are clamoring to assist you in identifying and connecting with influencers with high social capital ranking scores. Even if connecting with influencers isn't an immediate need, the boss might be asking for explanations of your brand's Klout score, [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Industry | Klout | Marketing Tools: Social Media | Social Media Marketing Column | Statistics: Social Media | Twitter: Marketing | Word Of Mouth Marketing

"He's makin a list, He's checkin it twice" -Santa Claus is Coming to Town, ‪Haven Gillespie People love lists. In the opera Don Giovanni, the licentious main character’s servant Leporello maintained a list of his boss’s conquests. As children, we might have been encouraged to make lists of what we wanted for our birthday, while our parents made lists of groceries to be picked up on the way home. And now that we need a book for vacation, we might even consult the best-sellers list. If you know your HTML, you’ll know that a numbered list is an ordered list, while a list sim [...]

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Twitter and NBC have announced a new partnership around the 2012 Summer Olympics, which begin this week in London. The partnership centers on Twitter's third "hashtag page," which will go live later this week at twitter.com/#Olympics. Twitter will have staff monitoring Olympic-related tweets from athletes, coaches, Olympics officials, NBC personalities and others and curating the best content surrounding the #Olympics hashtag on a single page. NBC will promote the page and the hashtag during its on-air coverage across each of the networks that is providing coverage, including in primeti [...]

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Having a popular social media presence is important, but many companies and organizations are now taking it a step further by also fostering loyal and active online communities within Facebook and Twitter. These online communities are passionate about a certain brand, product, cause, or industry and, when companies foster this passion by sponsoring an online community, it can continue to flourish. Find And Foster Existing Communities To find existing online communities that have an affinity with your brand or product, look to see where they have already been created. For instance, take th [...]

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

Social networks are unique in that they facilitate interaction with consumers in a common language and culture native to the platform. These channels enable the creation and organic spread of magnetic content that attracts rather than distracts a consumer in a participatory mindset. For brands, every Tweet, Like, or share is an opportunity to respond in real-time, amplifying positive sentiment or shifting negative perception. Promoted  Tweets and sponsored stories are accessible to consumers in the social context because they are in their native language. Companies like Intel [...]

Related Topics: Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Facebook | Social Media Marketing | Twitter: Marketing

Tweets are now more interactive with the addition of Twitter's "Expanded Tweets." The new functionality allows any Tweet that contains links to partner websites the ability to pull images, preview content, play videos and more, directly from the tweet: Another nice feature of Expanded Tweets is the mobile support. Users on the Twitter mobile client will see the Expanded Tweet just as if they were viewing on the web. Some of the partner sites included are: The New York Times The Wall Street Journal MSNBC's Breaking News TIME The San Francisco Chronicle BuzzFeed TMZ [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Social Media Marketing | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Cards | Twitter: Marketing | Twitter: User Interface