Social Media Can Do Your Work

When used correctly, social media can be an amazing tool for all types of businesses; but still, there are those ‘old-fashioned’ entrepreneurs out there who can’t trust Facebook, Twitter and the likes to grow their existing customer base.

 

According to the Pew Internet Study, the number of Facebook users in the US over 65 has reached 35% while in 2013, 43% of Americans of 65 years or older were using at least one social networking site like Istagram, Pinterest, Twitter or Tumblr, compared to 26% in 2010 or a mere 1% in 2008.

On Twitter, the 55-64 year age bracket has grown by 79% since year-end 2012, being its fastest growing demographic, while the corresponding numbers for Facebook and Google+ for the 45-54 year age group have leaped over 46 and 56%, respectively.

So why are there still businesses that insist to ignore those fast growing demographics? And why do they fail to target them when they know that these are actually the ones that have money to spend on their products?

Social media is not that complicated!

Here are a few more reasons which might convince you that using social media for business might actually not be such a bad idea:

Brand and Positioning
Strong online presence can only make your product stronger! By knowing your customer base, you’ll definitely be able to build a loyal following base on social media networks. And by doing this, you can only grow bigger and bigger day by day, strengthening your online and offline market presence.

Brand and WOM
Use word of mouth to pave your way into the digital world. When you know your product, you also know your marketing; and when you do your marketing right, people will be happy to talk about it on social media. Getting and monitoring feedback is key; it can actually help you improve your product and the way you do business.

Be Brave, Communicate!
Open communication on social media can be an invaluable business tool, if used correctly! Just think of the amount of information exchanged publicly between you and your current or potential customers! If your communication is genuine, you should only expect the same from your audience.

Dummy Run
You don’t have to be an expert to check upon your metrics or website analytics; don’t be afraid to start using Facebook Insights, which can help you measure your Facebook marketing and engagement efforts, or Google Analytics, which can give you significant information on your site traffic and where that comes from. See for yourself what is driving your ‘Likes’, check which status updates worked and which didn’t, and how your followers responded to that important update!

Bespoke Content
When you own a small local business, or your product ‘works only’ on a specific area, wouldn’t you prefer to be able to offer your services only to those that might actually be interested in or be able to use them? Twitter and Facebook provide the option to localise content and geotarget your posts – why offering an active ‘walk-in’ promotion to your followers outside your area? Just keep it local and relevant, and it will work!

Managing social media for your business definitely requires an integrated approach, and calls for a significant amount of time and effort in building brand awareness through pins and boards, posts, groups, podcasts, tweets and so on. Success of your social media strategy is solely based on your unique presence and your charming and engaging manner.

What do you think? Are you willing to give social media another chance?

Twitter experiments with new auto account

Twitter has quite a number of experiments within their social network. Most of these experiments involve something like 'internal applications' that permit different functions within the network. An illustration of these experiments is, Event Parrot, which notifies users about the most recent happening in the world through direct message or Magc Res, which is an engine that suggests followers relying on the user's contact list for propose minded people.

Twitter has initiated a new experiment, similar to the preceding experiment namely Internal Achievement Bird. This new experiment intends to send Twitter users a DM each day with statistics for each user account, i.e. any retweets, direct messages, report any mentions and other account activities.

Achievement Bird is developed and maintained by Google. It basically gives users notifications of any achievements that surround any of their content. This account seeks to replace the many external applications that supposedly achieve the same purpose. Potentially, this account is more useful for the users because unlike the external applications, it doesn't collect any data other than what it ought to.

At present, it is indefinite whether the Achievement Bird will turn out to be available to all users on Twitter as an alternative to external applications. Presently it is only accessible to confirmed businesses accounts. The other Twitter users will have to wait and see if the social network will decide to make the Achievement Bird available to everyone.

This account will send users e-mail messages when a user makes an "achievement" on a tweet. This means that the Twitter account will send email messages about how any certain tweet has been received by the other Twitter users. Despite the fact that the @AchievementBird account is confined, it has started getting a number of followers in the past few days.

Twitter's @AchievementBird is the newest in a string of experimentations in the form of an authentic Twitter account. Other experiments consist of @MagicRecs, which sends users recommendations of people they may be interested in following and tweets to examine. Another one is the @eventparrot, which sends out email messages about tweets on the latest news. Twitter begins these innovative features to a partial percentage of users as a test before they are released to the entire Twitter population. The social networking site has been trying out a number of experimental features on its website to encourage users and, in due course, bring in more funds. Twitter is sprawling behind Facebook with more than 231.7 million average monthly users and $168.6 million in income in the third quarter of 2013.

 

Twitter already suggests these same statistics by means of its ads.twitter.com platform, and also other services offer basic stats on tweets and account performance. It may be gambling that direct messages are the most suitable way to get this data to attracted users and recompense their daily undertakings.

Another experiment that the social network had tried includes the modification of the 'block' feature that allows individuals to cut all communication from specific troublesome users. The network decided that this alteration to its block feature was not in the finest interest of the users, repealing the new element just a day after it was launched.

The social media giant had brought in a revision to the block feature that allowed users to delete comments made by 'blocked' users on their Twitter timeline, but the blocked user would still be capable of following them and replying to their messages. According to the US Today, this fundamentally changed the status of the blocked user from 'blocked' to 'muted'.

This change was straight away met with fury (as well as a trending hash tag #restoretheblock), as users protested that the modification would allow the blocked users to cause trouble and bother to others on the site. This reaction is one of the reasons why Twitter decided to return the block feature to the social networking site.

In a blog post, Michael Sippey, the social networking giant's Vice President of products said that they have come to a decision to revert the alteration after receiving criticism from many users. They never want to set up features at the cost of Twitter users feeling less safe.

Sippey included that the social networking site will "explore features" to stop abuse on the site. Twitter also restructured its app for iOS and Android, presenting an easier messaging feature that now permits users to send photos.

The Twitter modification for iOS and Android furthermore gives its users the ability to move around to diverse timelines with an easy swipe, meaning Discover, Home and Activity can all currently be retrieve in one move.

The messaging feature was also adjusted for accessibility. It is now showed notably in the navigation bar at the base of the screen, instead of in the "Me" part.

Twitter's DM tool now lets users to view and send photos. Users can also observe these photos on twitter.com. The update to direct messages is the first noteworthy change to the feature since it was first revealed seven years ago. It was announced in October 2013 that any person following a user could send the followed user a direct message, but it reversed course abruptly after launching the DM change. Despite the fact that Direct Messages are still confined to a 140-character limit (same applies for tweets), it still comes out as an authentic messaging service. At around the time when the change to messaging was being done, there is still the rigid, well-established opposition within the social media society. Instagram on the other hand is also supposedly considering incorporating a private messaging feature.

Amidst current reports that Facebook will buy Bangalore-based Little Eye Labs, Twitter also seems to be prepared to make a splash in India, according to Tech Crunch. Facebook's competitor is "eyeing" Bangalore-based Frrole that sorts throughout the half a billion tweets a month to present insight about its users, with Tech Crunch's resources asserting that the companies are bargaining a way to make the purchase work.

Another experimental account of Twitter, called @magicheadlines, is expectedly associated to this effort, as it asserts to allow the user see where tweets are set in around the web.

Facebook Acquires Branch Media Team

Facebook has purchased another start-up namely Branch and Potluck. Branch is the startup behind Potluck, which is a link sharing service and the conversation service dubbed Branch. Josh Miller, who is Branch Media Team's co-founder, is the one who broke the news about the purchase it on Facebook. Financial details of the transaction were not unveiled, but The Verge attached the value at "around $15 million". The 10-person group won't have to change place as it will be creating a fresh conversations team in charge of creating Branch "at Facebook scale".

Branch is a smart and dynamic startup that has created a number of fun and functional internet products. Branch also initiated Potluck, which presents a great interface for talking about Web findings with colleagues. In recent times, the company made public via social media news sources a digital chatting service for the present workforce, Chitchat, as well as the 'Phone Tag' app that aims at making it effortless to connect with hard-to-reach buddies and family in a special way.

Branch Media puts forward two services: Branch, a policy for hosting and distributing invite-only conversations, and Potluck, a Web and mobile app that is intended to provide a platform for friends to talk about any interesting stuff they find online. Both are anticipated to continue working outside of Facebook.

Branch permits users have invite-only discussions around social content. Potluck promotes conversation by allowing users to partake links with pals and even strangers.

 

When co-founder Josh Miller announced it on Facebook, he said his team will be creating an innovative Conversations group, whose base will be in New York City. He said that the goal of this group would be to help people interact with others around their concerns. He also added that even if the products they form will be suggestive of Branch and Potluck, those services will remain to live outside Facebook.

His post is insufficient on details (he said he's presently on vacation and just posted because he was told that "the account was going to be disclosed"), but The Verge reports that the cost was $15 million.

Branch Media's shareholders consist of Obvious Corp, Lerer Ventures, SV Angel, Betaworks, and others. The startup reportedly was able to come up with an initial funding of $2 million.

What Branch is working on is still a complex problem regardless of the countless conversational platforms individuals have all around. The main problem particularly lies in finding how to include an intelligent conversation in a place that materializes to increasingly more value, speed, brevity and 'viral' content.

It's also right, however, that the company has struggled to build up an audience. It began as an invitation-only area that attempted to produce a space for bright conversation among well-informed sources about significant or appealing topics — so a conversation that started on Twitter, for instance, could shift to a Branch and increase further. But the platform has limited its prospective reach.

Mr Miller thought the idea of Branch was to reorganize online conversations given that they're usually flooded by many users in his 2012 Betabeat profile.

He incorporated a big 'thank you' to his shareholders. This included Twitter, which was founded by Biz Stone and also Evan Williams.

There are two distinctive things about this purchase:

Branch raised a sum of $2 million from some prestigious investors and one of them was obviously The Obvious Corporation which was formed by Twitter creators Biz Stone and Evan Williams.
Jelly, a just in progress on Q&A app by Twitter creator Biz Stone was the earliest to proclaim this news. A user asked this inquiry - "What took place [to] Branch? The company has been silence. Are they concentrating on the Potluck app now?".

It is sensible that Facebook would desire to obtain a startup much as Branch Media. It has made especially clear its purposes of developing into the pioneer in social conversations. Facebook announced last month that the company would prioritise concrete news above memes in the feed to create more real-time conversation.

The administrators of the company, and this group, will be a component of Facebook, but go on to toil in New York. The mission group of Branch Media Team is going to contribute to amending the selections users get. Miller and his group will be beginning with the group's conversations on Facebook, and will concentrate on developing products related to what had been shaped in Branch Media. The point of these is to assist users of the site to take part in a variety of discussions based on their personal concerns.

The reason why Facebook has bought the company is unknown for sure. The amount is also not known. While the company over the last two years has concentrated on generating products the current consumer will discover useful and insightful, Facebook has directed most of its attention on inventing products that monetise its uses. Who knows? With these two trends in mind, this could be the start of products that every user will be happy to pay for thanks to their usefulness.

 

Miller went on to include that: "Even though the products we construct will be suggestive of Branch and Potluck, those services will exist on remote of Facebook. A more considerate note and particulars to come soon yet I am writing this randomly from a mountain in Japan."

The attainment of Branch could mean that Facebook wants to improve on the methods that are used by its users to make discussions, and the social network will require a lot of assistance to make that happen. This is the initial step and we're fascinated in considering what happens next.

Nobody knows how much of the original Branch or Potluck will be seen in the outcome of the working together of these two companies. However, one thing is certain; if this is carried out successfully, the result will be a better user experience for Facebook users and massive exposure for products from Branch Media Team.

4 Effective Social Media Marketing Methods for Valentine's Day

Restaurants, retail stores and specialty boutiques know that Valentine's Day is a profitable time of year. In fact, IBIS World reported the average person spends approximately $134.08 on Valentine's Day festivities. The largest portion of that spending came from eating out, with more than $9 billion spent, followed by candy at $2.8 billion. Is your business ready? Get prepared for the retail festivities by ensuring you have a secure marketing plan that includes social media.

Remember: Each social network has its own etiquette, culture and style, so it's important to match your message to the medium. Follow these guidelines:

Facebook
Facebook pages make it easy to build user engagement for your brand by running giveaways, offering samples and posting polls. Hubspot reported on one company that leveraged their Facebook page for Valentine's Day in a clever and highly effective way: MegaRed tied together a free sample program to Valentine's Day by allowing Facebook users to request a heart supplement sample for the people they loved. MegaRed mailed both the user and their loved one a sample, and went a step further by tying the amount of samples they distributed to a charitable donation. In this example, the company took advantage of the holiday's theme and added a creative twist that tied in well with their brand.

Twitter
Salesforce Marketing Cloud found that 74 percent of Valentine's Day chatter on social networks was positive. Keep your Twitter messages positive and succinct, giving value to your followers by tweeting about Valentine's Day specials, top-selling Valentine's Day gifts or by providing an intimate look at how your company is celebrating the day around the office. Use Vine or Instagram alongside your Twitter campaign to help your message get across better than 140 characters alone can. Quick Vine videos of people receiving Valentine's Day gifts, and Instagrams of creative gift packaging help supplement your tweets.

Sharable Content
Looking to go viral this February 14th? Sharable content opportunities abound for this holiday, whether you're sharing posts on your Google+ page or publishing them on your company blog. Engage your readers about their Valentine's Day plans, offering to give out a prize to the most romantic or most unusual replies. Want to get a conversation started? Ask your readers what their funniest Valentine's Day experience was. Use hashtags to further promote your content and keep the conversations organised.

Pinterest
Promote a DIY or exclusive Valentine's Day recipe by creating boards for the special day that relate to your business. If you're a gourmet food store, for example, create a board with the most romantic dinner recipes, taste-alike restaurant recipes and perfect wine pairings. Sell craft supplies? Post a selection of interesting and easy Valentine's Day crafting projects to make the day special for the entire family. Add in gift guides for couples, kids and more, and keep relevant tie-ins to Valentine's Day throughout your boards.

Relationships with your audience on Social Media

Are you an online social networking freak? If yes, it’s not too surprising. People's inclination towards social sites is on the increase, which means it's never been easier for businesses with a social media presence to attract and interact with their social savvy customers. Social media is a tool that has revolutionised the way in which businesses provide information, promote their services and engage with their target audience.

Most businesses start out their social media strategies by simply posting their latest updates/features on their Facebook page or Twitter account. They usually post regularly but without any idea of how best to tailor it to suit their audience. This can be a waste of content as without an end goal in mind, the social media strategy has no direction.

The solution to this stumbling block is to be more interactive and engaging with your audience. A good question to ask is 'how can we be more captivating to this particular audience?' People will not find you interesting if all you are doing is trying to sell yourself. It's a good idea to constantly evaluate your social media strategy and to tweak it appropriately.

People love to read interesting information, yes! But they also love it when a businesses listen to their needs and opinions. So begin with asking them questions and take note of the positive and negative responses.

Another good idea is to encourage voting polls on a certain topic which requires feedback from the audience. Also small giveaways can work, whether it be in the form of a simple ebook or a sample of the product you sell. This way user’s trust is gained by the brand. And there are a lot of other ways to increase interaction such as building relations with influencers via twitter. Remember, don’t respond to criticism or messages with the same standardised custom message, make it personal!

Once you have secured enough faith in your customer’s mind about your brand, then you can surface with your content strategies as now you have perceived the taste and interests of your target audiences. The moral of the story is you should share only 20% of the information/assets about your services on social media and the rest should be fun, interactive posts that suit your customers interests.

This kind of relationship keeps the users content and assured.

Why CMO's Need to Join the Social Media Conversation

Social advertising spending will reach $11 billion a year by 2017, up from $4.7 billion in 2012, according to a BIA/Kelsey report released last year. This explosive growth will be driven by increased spending on advertising formats native to social media, such as video and mobile marketing, which will reshape traditional display ads into forms suited for socially-engaged audiences. For chief marketing officers and PR professionals, this trend will require breaking away from the one-way communication paradigm associated with traditional TV advertising and news, and embracing a new approach to broadcasting where audiences are active participants in the conversation.

Social TV Advertising

Last year, Nielsen began including TV-related Twitter conversations in its traditional ratings system, with the results revealing how dramatically social media has expanded television advertising's potential outreach. Twitter conversation about live TV grew 24 percent year-over-year between the second quarters of 2012 and 2013, expanding to 19 million unique people and 263 million tweets. Results showed that for every person tweeting about a live show, fifty more were following the Twitter conversation. This multiplier effect vastly extends the outreach of TV ads beyond their initial audience to viewers' social networks, making it imperative to factor the potential for follow-up sharing into ad concepts.

Television's social turn reflects how stationary TV screens are becoming increasingly integrated with their mobile counterparts on multiple fronts. In a broadband age, consumers who used to receive television, computer, and phone services as separate items can now compare TV and internet providers who offer bundled packages delivered over the same wireless network. Digital media players such as Apple TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, and the forthcoming Amazon Firetube enable broadcasts to be shared between devices, according to The Verge. Ad producers are exploiting this merger of media by designing formats such as Vine videos that can play on both traditional and mobile screens, inviting home audiences to share conversations with remote friends, as Adweeek reveals.

Viral Promotional Content

The rise of Vine videos illustrates how social conversations about multimedia content are driving viral campaigns. Mashable explains how the Harlem Shake fad, one of the top YouTube phenomena of 2013, showed how encouraging audiences to get into the video production act could push content distribution to viral proportions. Mobile users were also eager to share photos and graphics with their friends, propelling Instagram to expand its audience by 66 percent in 2013 and come within a percentage point of Twitter's market share, according to Pew research. Conversation-generating content is proving a winning formula for maximizing audience outreach.



Discussion-driven Search Engine Rankings

Social conversations are also weighing into search engine marketing. An annual Moz study found a strong correlation between Google +1 button endorsements and search engine rankings. Analysis indicated that +1 endorsements have a ripple effect, resulting in content sharing that creates organic backlinks. Experiments by media companies such as the Los Angeles Times and Huffington Post have found that embedded Facebook comments can give content a comparable boost. For PR professionals, generating social discussion is becoming increasingly vital for staying relevant to the marketing conversation.

Social Media Marketing what to look out for in 2014

Social media has become a massive part of our day to day lives. It is also a key tool when it comes to marketing your business and its products or services. Businesses across the world big and small have been taking advantage of social media to engage with their customers. We are going to to take a look at some of our predictions for 2014.

Image: http://bryandigital.wordpress.com

The Micro-Video Takeover

The revolution has already started with the increase in popularity of social networks such as Vine, Instagram and Snapchat. In a fast moving world the 3 minute video has been killed off by 6 seconds of fireworks. The rise of these networks has led to more real time video sharing, where people are creating and sharing direct from their smartphone meaning you could be anywhere doing anything and able to share a video. These 6 second wonders are sure to change the startegy of most videos going on social media now.

Pictures means success

Brands that have used images to share content have huge success with some brands saying that Pinterest and Instagram have actually increased revenue by 5%. This will continue in 2014 and can only get bigger with the likes of Pinterest becoming very important power players rather than being a female dominated network. This is already proving true with Pinterest being the fastest growing network but it also provides greater traffic as well than anywhere else.

Google+ will come into its own

Google+ has always been seen to be chasing the pack but 2014 could be the year that people start to see the full potential of Google+. Google+ currently has the 2nd highest monthly users and that can only increase, on top of this it also has a bigger ownership in terms of of search power. As more and more people begin to use Google's products users will find that they are using Google+ more as integrates all interactions in one place across all Google products. Google authorship will also become a major part of its rise as it will play a huge part in Google's new ranking algorithm.

Social Media is a must if you want to survive

While social media is a big marketing tool at the moment in 2014 it is going to become essential for every business not to just have but be using to engage and promote their brand with customers. Many are seeing how the positive influence of social media is increasing traffic, creating more leads and gains in revenue. Businesses will realise that they will need some knowledge to make sure they take advantage of social media so training or management of a business social media accounts will be needed.

The best social media platform for brands in 2013

A recent study reviewed different brands on social media that had more than 25 fans, abd it looked at the 4 most popular platforms; Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram. The study, carried out by SumAll, revealed that Instagram came out on top, for being the best platform for brands.

SumAll is an analytics tool which analyses over a 100,000 businesses on social networks, checking over 290 billion actions a year. “With increases in fan/follower engagement nearly three times that of other networks studied, Instagram is the clear winner for 2013”, SumAll CEO, Dan Atkinson, said. From here, it sounds as if you have a physical and visual product, you should be on Instagram. Otherwise, you'd be missing out on important brand awareness and revenue.

From the study, you can see that Instagram created more new followers in 2013. Brands which were on Instagram have seen on average a growth of 7% on engagement and new followers. U.S brands on Instagram have also said the platform had created an extra 5% in revenue as well. But this wasn't only isolated to the US brands in the UK have found that Instagram has caused nearly a 4% rise in revenue.

However, Instagram isn't the only platform that is solely with the likes of Tumblr and Pinterest being very popular, with Pinterest being the fastest growing network in 2013 and also being the best network at driving traffic to your desired destination. So next year we could be left with a different leader. It justs shows the popularity of theses picture platforms and how well they are doing.

Many critics will then look to Twitter to see that certain brands have millions of followers and post near enough every hour of the day with a mixture of different content from headlines to photo's. This is where it could be the downfall of Twitter, as many users see their favourite celeb promoting a specific product. From here they will now know that this celebrity is endorsing this product and sending the same message out to a huge amount of followers, however, 9 times out 10 these celebs have been paid to promote that product. Which is something everyone will know.

Platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest have created organic engagement which everyone can see it's not fake, which again makes brands even more popular as they are perceived as being well liked by the public.

So, whatever happens in 2014, in 2013 we have learnt that visual stimulation is a great way to create awareness for your brand. However, you may have different preferred platform for your business. The best way to get results is to experiment until you find out what works best for your brand. This could be posting a different range of content, or something specific. Using several platforms or just using a few. The only way to find out what works best is by trying everything.

How Accountable Are We For What We Post Online?

Social media has leveled the playing field. The days of shouting your anger about the injustices of the world aimlessly into the wind, without any accountability for the content of your words are long gone.When a single post can reach millions of people almost instantly, the person behind the post is largely responsible for the emotion caused by it. Accountability for the content of your words is no longer just for the celebrity, politician, musician or writer; it is for the average citizen to have to consider.

The world of football stood united in March 2012, in support of Fabrice Muamba after his heart stopped for 78 minutes, with the trend ‘Pray4Muamba’ attracting messages of support from all corners of the globe. However, not all tweets were of a positive nature. After coming home drunk from a night out, student Liam Stacey took to twitter to post abusive and racist messages. Within ten days, Stacey was convicted, sentenced to 56 days imprisonment. Some have argued that the length of this punishment is too severe in comparison to similar events; six days earlier Joshua Cryer was convicted for deliberately racially abusing ex-Footballer Stan Collymore, but was spared a jail sentence.

  

Publicising the anonymity of a victim of rape is carries the maximum punishment of a fine, which in November 2012 is just what nine people received. Ched Evans, a striker who played for Sheffield United, drew a large following due to his talents and celebrity status. When he was convicted of rape in April 2012, many took to twitter in outrage to name and abuse the 19 year old victim, in deference to their fallen hero. Her name appeared in over 6,000 tweets, with nine people receiving fines for their role in denigrating the victim, being fined a paltry £624 each.

 

On the other side of the courtroom, the identity of the two women who allowed their children to be abused by Ian Watkins, the front man of rock group Lostprophets, have been protected. At a glance, this appears to be an unnecessary injustice to protect two criminals who committed heinous and sickening crimes. This view was taken by Peaches Geldof, who posted their names on twitter after finding the information ‘on several websites’. However, since the injunction was actually to protect the infants involved, she could face legal action, even though the information was easily available (the Courts and Tribunals Service themselves published the names by mistake).

False accusations can be incredibly damaging to the reputation of an individual, and when such an accusation takes the form of printed word, it is called libel. November 2012 saw the release of an inflammatory BBC Newsnight documentary, incorrectly implicating an anonymous “Senior Conservative” in committing child abuse. Within hours, a social media witch-hunt gathered momentum, suggesting Lord McAlpine as the subject of the investigation. Sally Bercow was amongst the celebrities to stoke the fire, asking her followers ‘Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *innocent face*”. It soon emerged to be a case of mistaken identity (the victim had later been shown a picture of McAlpine, then realised his error). After being defamed, McAlpine sought to recoup and repair his reputation by entering into legal proceedings with people of influence (the 20 twitter users with 500 followers or more) who incorrectly implicated McAlpine, donating the compensation to various charities.

The ‘Joke Trial’ of 2010 was another example of a throwaway comment being examined. Paul Chambers, frustrated with cold weather affecting his travel plans, wrote:

This soon led to Chambers’ arrest and subsequent trial, where he was found guilty and ordered to pay £985 in total. He also lost his job because of the trial. After the following appeals and with public support from celebrities such as Steven Fry, it was ruled there was no ‘menace’ in his comments, therefore the conviction was quashed.

It is no doubt that we live in an increasingly documented, logged and scrutinised society, and it has become easier to prove and convict those adjudged to have committed offences via communication. It remains to be seen whether current legal documentation is relevant to today’s social media users, or if new rules and regulations are needed to be implemented to protect the free speech of the author.

Different Posts for Different Folks: Finding the Right Voice for Social Media

When it comes to building and maintaining your brand’s identity, one of the most important components is the voice you use. A brand’s voice can create an image that is equally authoritative, energetic and professional; it can still be infused with a bit of personality, too. Working together, these four traits make your brand easier to understand remember.

Another important component of a brand’s identity is its social media prevalence. Social media affords businesses the opportunity to communicate one-on-one with customers through wall posts, tweets and blogs. This constant communication facilitates conversation between brands and their audience, making your business less like a business and more like a friend that customers can rely on.

It’s clear that a brand’s voice and social media presence are intertwined. Once you have a handle on your voice, it might seem that posting on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn would be a no-brainer, but beware: there’s a formula for using each site to your brand’s advantage. Below, you’ll find tips and examples that show how to harness the power of each site — and how to make posts pop with the right voice. 

Facebook

There are plenty of tips when it comes to setting up your business’s Facebook profile, but what happens after that? The best voice to use on Facebook is one that elicits conversation amongst those who follow your page. Because people scroll through their feeds in an attempt to find something new, engaging and interesting, a lively debate is the best way to bring viewers to your page.

The social media team at 12 Keys Rehab has created a prime example of an interactive Facebook page. Rather than post articles or facts regarding drug and alcohol rehabilitation, they pose questions to their followers such as, “What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?”; a particularly poignant question for those who might be recovering from self-harm. Not only do they post thought- and comment-provoking material, they often respond to their guests’ posts, creating a voice that’s informative, professional and extremely caring.

Twitter

It’s possible that people scroll through their Twitter feeds even faster than they do their Facebook feeds, and, for that reason, your voice has to be as engaging as possible. A quick punch — you’ll only have 140 characters to get your point across — is all it takes to grab someone’s attention.

One company that’s nailed its Twitter voice is Tory Burch. Perhaps it’s because a social-media team doesn’t deliver the brand’s tweets: the designer herself sits behind the keyboard. Burch revealed that she tweets to her fans because it makes things more compelling when responses are off-the-cuff, conversational and, most importantly, real.

LinkedIn

Your voice on LinkedIn requires a careful balance. On the one hand, you should post things that promote your company; on the other hand, it’s important that what you share piques the interest of potential candidates. To do so, it’s important not to talk only about your company’s strong suits. Instead, the website itself suggests posting a mix of pieces that reflect your company’s values. These are often insightful pieces that can generate conversation but simultaneously always paint a clearer picture of your brand’s identity. The rest of what you post should be directly about your company, but remember that your voice shouldn’t be used to talk only about yourself.

On Any Site

Of course, there are several other social media sites and blogs that you can use to promote your brand. Whether you use Facebook or Blogger, Twitter or Pinterest, there are several overarching truths when it comes to the voice that you use:

· Use the same voice across every medium. It will make you seem inauthentic if you’re formal on LinkedIn and casual on Twitter.

· Move quickly. Social media trends shift at a moment’s notice. Make sure that what you share is relevant and up-to-date, or your followers will think you’re not really in touch with what they expect to hear from you.

· Be human. Save formality for a business meeting—your social-media voice should always be a real, conversational one. Take advantage of this by communicating conversationally with those who follow you. Avoid social media jargon in your posts.

· Think before you post. People get annoyed by over-sharing on social-media sites. Make sure you post sparingly. If those posts are thoughtful and thought-provoking, they’ll certainly stand out.

Custom Timelines on Twitter

Twitter have launched custom timelines! And everybody is very excited about this new personalisation and freedom to do exactly what YOU want with YOUR page. The social media released he update on the 12th of November and boast of how it is a 'entirely new type of timeline - one that you create'.

 

Image: http://socialmedialondon.co.uk/

Twitter have now given us a way to become a little more individual on their site with this alteration. If you are a fan of Facebook, and like their set up, you will love the new options you have on Twitter. Not only can you change the look and 'feel' of your page; you can filter what you want and don't want from your timeline and newsfeed.
Once on Twitter and you begin following countless numbers of people it can all get a little overwhelming. The 'new tweets' number keeps growing and you feel like you can be missing something really important to you.

This is why Twitter have decided to give its users a little more power to personalise their news feeds and pages. I feel it is a genuine approach from the company to allow their users to feel more individual on the site.

Let's be honest we customise everything; our desktop backgrounds and screen savers, our phone covers, laptop bags... the list goes on. Our love to make ourselves individual in the physical world is one thing; but now most of us live online - we crave for it there too. We saw last week, the changes Google+ have made to their timelines to keep people interested - I feel this may be a knock-on effect throughout social media.

 

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One of the pioneers of this new look Twitter was American celeb Carson Daly; he is currently a host on The Voice and the Timeline you can see above is his page for just that. Here, you can follow his interaction with the show, his opinions, tweets, pics and anything he has retweeted. A great example and celebrity endorsement to spark some interest.

So we are all looking and trying out the new timelines and overall I feel its a good idea. Its always good to keep moving and adapting within social media, and like Twitter do very well, listen to their users. Keeping your users happy will keep your site strong and the Twitter brand it arguably at its peak in the social media market.

The only aspect of this, though, is that Twitter serves a purpose for any array of people. It is fast paced and information driven, it was always more about who we follow than what our page 'says' about us. Personally, I do not want Twitter to become Facebook. I know this sounds drastic and we are a long way off but as said, things move fast online and if it becomes just another site... with a profile pick, cover photo and wall - I think I may shy away from it.

But, currently, I feel the change is a positive one - just enough customisation to give users an excuse to play around with the site and become more involved with it. Twitter, I'm sure, will be monitoring how their users will react and adapt from there. I am excited to see even more changes in the future - but not too many!

How do you feel about Twitters Custom Timelines?

Become a social media leader - 5 top tips!

Thinking of becoming a social media 'leader'? Need ideas and help as to help launch your business or your blog into the public domain? So how do you keep a happy and successful online presence? Whatever you are using it for, there have been 5 top tips created to help you out.

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Twitter is one of the biggest and most influential sites social media has to offer. But shockingly, a third of users that are registered do not even use it. This is very likely down to the fact that they don't know how. This is not uncommon.
Now, once you are set up and have the basic idea of how the site works it really is about getting out what you put in. The 5 top tips for successful social media are below:

Filter what you say online. We’ve all heard the stories about how a few keystrokes can end a career. To avoid foot-in-mouth on Twitter, I filter all my tweets through this rule: Would I be comfortable if The New York Times attributed what I’m tweeting to me? I never approached Twitter with the idea that it would be an ultra-confessional stream of consciousness. Treating my Twitter stream as if I’m on the record with a journalist gives me a good guide about what is and is not appropriate to share. It’s not to say I don’t have fun and share personal stories, but putting each tweet through that filter helps me assess before hitting the tweet button.

Set aside some time. Let’s be honest: we all are incredibly busy. So how do I find the time? Every day, several times a day, I set aside a few minutes to check on Twitter. Some days it’s three minutes and some days, when big events happen, it can be a lot more, but if Warren Buffett and Bill Gates can find the time that certainly says a lot. With the app on my phone, I can do a quick scan between meetings or respond to a message while waiting in line. When you invest time in Twitter, you quickly start to see the rewards, mostly in real-time conversations happening all over the world. No one expects you to be Nick Kristof or Lady Gaga overnight.

To what end? Know why you are getting on Twitter first. Do you want to be seen as a subject-matter expert? Have a strong voice in your industry? Gain a million followers? Keep up on the latest news and trends? With your goal in mind, cultivate a stream full of people and content you find interesting. Mix and match your passions. Make sure you participate in other conversations to help better understand your audience and the medium. One of my favorite organizations is TED; it has started so many incredible conversations. Link to other people, add value to their conversations with your thoughts and opinions. Read what they talk about, click through to the articles, track the conversations and share with your followers. Having a goal or a reason for being there will help you organize your time.

Ask for help. When I was ramping up, I realized some of the best and the brightest social media minds (many of whom are in universities or are interns) were around me, so I asked them for advice. They gave me great context, questions and dialogue. Even on Twitter, tell your followers that you are still learning; you will get more than a few expert opinions.

Use it as an internal communications tool. Twitter allows me to hear from colleagues all over the world every day. I hear about everything from their challenges and triumphs to their commutes. I get a chance to learn directly from them what they think with no filter. And they know that I’m listening. It’s one of the best internal communication tools that I have.

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These top tips are indeed useful and will get you on your way if you want to make some headway in the social media world. But please remember they are not short cuts and only work if you tailor them to your own cause.

Do you find these top 5 helpful? Any more you could suggest?

Is social media ruining University?

Facebook was originally created to link university students online; it was set to be an online sharing service within one university. Then it linked to another, and then another. There was a time that without being a student you could not use this service, as we see that changed long ago and now it is what it is. But is social media ruining the university experience? And if so, how and why? Within social media, you are the biggest weapon, it is a very responsive medium to our wants and needs so why is there this possibility of it spoiling something it originally aimed to enhance?

 

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This multi-faceted argument will be viewed differently dependant on what demographic you are in. We all hear the older generation saying that they did not have the luxury of the internet for research or were able to type and edit their work so easily but is the change such a bad thing? Technology has always been designed to help and I feel if it makes for a quicker and easier research period it should, by rights, enhance any written work. A wealth of information at our finger tips should simply be making for a better education.

Alas, this may be an extreme idealistic view. When it comes to studying, if you have internet, there are no ends to the amount of procrastination that can be performed... and again usually from the sources that at the start we created to help. Social media sites.

This world of social media is so powerful; it infiltrates all aspects of our lives. Now social media is big in the business world and a few years ago educational institutions seemed to shy away from the idea of it; seeing it maybe as unimportant and trivial. And now, every university has its own Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram etc. which can be good, as always, for exposure and global interaction.

 

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I feel there is an argument also, that it may be opening the doors of communication but it is closing our ability to have private lives. When joining a university you want to gather as much information as possible and where do you go? Online. Every single time. The art of conversation, even via email, has been lost here.

Also, within social media, we become one set person and with the more friends and colleagues we interact with, we must keep this standard high. There can be an invasive tone to social media on a personal level and my advice would be to keep the two separate. It is one thing your Mum seeing you getting drunk on a Tuesday afternoon via a picture on Facebook, and it is another if you are supposed to be in a lecture. And some universities, like employers, have integrated policies regarding this into their mission statements.

Going to university is about learning, in may senses, and we are very fortunate to have such easy access to information. Also having the ability to communicate in this way is incredible. There are obvious ways that social media can ruin the university experience; but there are also many ways to prevent this... or opt out all together. Using the service for what it was initially created for is the simplest way to get the benefits of it; use the fun stuff too but just be careful!

Do you TweetDeck?

TweetDeck has been around for a while but it still does not seem to be getting recognition. But what exactly is it? And why do we need it? I have done a little research and found out why Twitter feel the need to branch out, what this means for them... and what is means for us.

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Twitter themselves claim the app helps give flexibility and insight to their already hugely popular social media site. The also say it is for their 'power users'; I am unsure if this is a great move. The whole concept, I feel, has been slightly alienating to people who use Twitter lightly.

We are all aware social media is growing, long gone are the days of it simply being about communication. It now focuses on business strategies, marketing, competition and in such a fast paced and open forum.

It is incredible how many people use Twitter now, and other sites, for free marketing or market research. In business, it has become a very powerful tool, and it must be remembered it is evolving all the time.

As much as business professionals can use social media to boost their business; social media can use them to boost theirs. And this is exactly what is happening with Tweetdeck.

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So above, this is how it looks on an iPhone, as you can see there is the new idea of 'columns'. It is promoting our busy lifestyles and giving us a simpler way to balance life and work. Lots of customising can be done and as you can see it can be made to look very personal to you. It has the ability of scheduling Tweets and you may have unlimited accounts.

This could possibly be a very good idea, if you need to use it. Again I am questioning their choices with how they marketed the new product. The change of colour for example, yellow and black, is a little alarming and not colours we usually associate with social media. As mentioned earlier as well, they are targeting their 'power-users' which seems a strange and exclusive way to describe what essentially is many of their clients.

TweetDeck may also run into problems with competitors. Already there are at least 5 alternatives; HootSuite, UberSocial, TweetCaster, MetroTweet and TweetBot. And as this is a relatively new idea I think people are going to shop around.

I am unsure if TweetDeck and similar apps are going to be as prominent as the companies are hoping but I can see why they are exploiting this area of the market. Everyone likes something new, especially if it is useful, and this is both.

My advice is not to be put off by the idea it is only for high flyers of the business world. If you use Twitter all day and have more than one account then try it out.

Twitter on the market…

Today, arguably the biggest and most popular social media company went to market. Twitter, the hub of information and gossip, is now one of the highest trending topics. Operating for over 7 years with its current 230 million users it is at its peak... but still it has been yet to make a profit.

Although more of an online service than business it has finally come into trouble financially. In the third quarter of 2013 its losses rose to $64.6m, this has tripled since its last loss. Clearly Twitter had to make some big decisions and so this is where they are at; good news for them is that they were reported to have been able to raise the value of each share before going to market, due to demand. Right now, each share is selling at $26 each; and they have 70 million of them to sell.

 

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Co-founder Evan Williams is still the largest shareholder with 10%. But who else is buying?

Speculatively, a lot of the people who are putting their money forward for this are really focusing on Twitters worth online; how it has made itself indispensible in today’s online market. It offers something that people feel they need right now and it does not seem to have any direct competitors anywhere near its league.

The people who believe in this have most likely been monitoring Twitters progress and potential market worth for a long time. Predictions into its futures may well pay off for those who put their money where their mouth is and it is these serious stockbrokers who will be taking their risks today.

The projection looks good and their predicted value is set at $18 bn, possibly set to rise. By the end of the evening we will be looking at something that could potentially be incredibly beneficial for the people who took interest.

 

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A good comparative model of course would be Facebook. In May 2012 Facebook made itself available on the stock market and similar concerns were hatched but again nothing could be definite. You can understand why these businesses must adapt and for Facebook it was generally a success.

Twitters actions can be compared to this former model but like social media itself, the stock market changes instantaneously. Twitter have opted to use the New York Stock Market, unlike Facebook, and a trial was set up for them. All the provisional work has been put in place but it’s a testy place to be, and now no longer in their hands.

The forbidden word ‘advertising’ is hanging just a little above this entire issue but nothing seems to have been confirmed. As it is still early days I feel Twitter are going to have to roll with the punches and see what happens now.

  

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If you want to become a shareholder of Twitter they are on ‘NYSE’ trading under the name of ‘TWTR’.

Do you do your companies social media or do you use a management company?