Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

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Most Valuable Follower Is Active

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

Yesterdy this column wrote about Twitter’s coming new analytic tools. The social media agency should be excited about those, but Tuesday saw the launch of a helpful tool that is for free and run by a third party. Most Valuable Follower is an app created for fun. The app will show the top five followers of a Twitter account and hos large their follower base is.

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A feed that has 5,000 followers is a healthy and popular feed, but it only reaches a very small percentage of the Twitterverse. Measuring how many followers those followers has opens up the Twitterverse in new ways. That is preceily what this app allows the social media agency to do. There is also an opportunity to tweet congratulations about the MVF. Some brands can use this mention as a way to build a desire for more followers, akin to FourSquare’s mayorship.

While MVF does not offer a very important tool in the arsenal, it helps some. It is also emblematic of what makes twitter so valuable. There are numerous third party apps out there which when combined can provide some useful ananytucs for the digital marketer.

Who is Your MVF?

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Posted in Twitter, social media | No Comments »

Greystripe Updates Its Mobile Ads To Be More Social

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

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Greystripe, a leading mobile ad network, announced two new advertising units Wednesday which will makes its mobile ads more social and lucrative. These new units are called Ad Boosters. It is not yet known if the boosters can be applied to the same ads or if advertisers must choose between them. The first booster is geared for vertical industries allowing the advertiser to insert buttons for certain actions into the ad. The obvious application is a button within a retailer’s ad that allows the user to locate nearby stores. The button can have any design, usually the company’s brand, and its functions can vary.

The second ad booster allows for integration of the ad with social networking platforms. As of now the supported social networks are Facebook, Google+, Twitter and YouTube. The two new boosters can be applied at the bottom or within the ad itself.

These ad boosters join a lineup of boosters already offered by Greystripe. Advertisers already have the ability to add buttons for other actions, such as call the advertiser, coupons offered, buy or download more information. Greystripe does provide bundles at reduced prices geared for certain industries.

Mobile advertising is what’s hot these days and with the expected surge in mobile devices after this holiday season mobile advertising will become even more lucrative. The digital agency can use Greystripe’s new innovations to improve or even to begin mobile advertising. Greystripe’s advancements will also push other mobile ad networks to make more improvements.

Social Ads

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Internet Advertising, Mobile, Mobile applications, advertising | No Comments »

Take Your Twitter to the Next Level

Friday, June 17th, 2011

By now most of you are using Twitter for business purposes. It is a universal tool that can have a profound affect on your brand image and brand loyalty if done correctly. And like many new media tools, Twitter is still growing and evolving. It’s potential as a tool for business has yet to be reached. Here are some of Twitter-centric tools that will help you take your corporate Twitter management to the next level.


Twellow: This is the unofficial “yellowpages” for Twitter. With over 30 million people registered on this directory, it gives you access to a large portion of the Twitter user base. This resource allows you to search for users based on interests and location. If you own a small business this is especially useful as you will be able to connect to local organizations, businesses and potential customers.

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SocialMention: This is a great site that makes monitoring your online presence much easier. This free tool is simple to use and   allows you to search the web for your brand, or keywords and see the discussion across all online media. In addition you can set up alerts so they will send you updates whenever your brand, or specific keyword comes up in conversations online.

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Hootsuite: This is another priceless tool to make monitoring your brand on Twitter a breeze. Not only does this site allow you to update, and monitor several Twitter accounts on one page, but you can set up custom feeds, each with their own set of keywords and every time someone tweets with those words, it posts to your page. This makes it easy to see what people are saying and respond in an expedient manner.

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Those are just a few of the tools out there that help you make the most of Twitter and take your social media marketing to the next level. These will surely help for now, but be sure to stay tuned as new, and better, resources are surfacing all them time.

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Twitter, social media | No Comments »

Businesses Need to Better Utilize Twitter

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Data shows that Twitter users are quite likely to ask questions but not to direct those questions with an @ or a hashtag. Many of these users are asking for input from their followers or from businesses. Six out of ten Twitter users wish businesses would answer questions over Twitter and data also shows business replies are as trustworthy as replies from regular users.

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This is a high burden for businesses. Monitoring Twitter usage is relatively easy when people use the hashtags or the @ sign. Monitoring Twitter without those tools requires much more time, but the payoff seems entirely worth it. The digital agency needs to incorporate this into its brand monitoring portfolio. It would also be a wise move to incorporate a method of Twitter contact into an advertising campaign. Maybe some users do not use the Twitter tools (hashtag, etc.) because they are not sure about the appropriate use of those tools. The digital agency can incorporate that education as a means of increasing affective communications.

E Marketer: Twitter Users Want Businesses to Answer Them

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Facebook, Linkedin, Mobile, Mobile applications, Social Harbor News, Twitter, advertising, social media | No Comments »

Children’s Exposure to Digital Advertising Is Increasing

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

The news that 7.5 million children under 13 were on FaceBook reached near scandalous proportions last month. That number, however, is not at all surprising given new data recently released about children’s online behaviors. 30% of children 3 and younger spend some time each week on online. That number increases as the children grow older. 90% of children between 6 and 8 are online at least some.

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Photo: MonitoringSoftwareBlog.com

While there are laws making data collection of children more difficult there are ways the digital agency can capitalize on this changing demographic. Advertising which appeals to multiple age groups can be effective and also does not require data collection. While children are increasingly online, the parent is never far away and advertisement that is child friendly and yet appealing to parents is important. Data shows parents are still the main influence of children’s consumptive desire, even though children are increasingly spending more time on social networks.

E Marketer: Young Children Consuming More Digital Media

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Posted in Children, Facebook, Mobile, Mobile applications, Twitter, advertising, online children, social media | No Comments »

Demographics of Online Coupon Use Are Changing

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

A new report by Morpace shows the use of online coupons will continue to grow in nominal numbers, but who constitutes those numbers is slowly changing. Estimates don’t predict much change in the percentage of internet users adopting online coupons. 2009 saw 44% of internet users using them and 2013 predictions put that number just shy of half. With the growth of internet usage, however, that percentage bump will be almost 20 million people. Of the 2011 47%, 33% of those people have previously purchased a Groupon.

Groupon

Photo: AllThingsD.com

Groupon is clearly the darling of online coupon vendors, but the fundamentals may be changing. Normally Groupon caters to the small business, which is great for the digital agency. However, larger firms are now beginning to experiment with daily deal vendors including, but not limited to, Groupon. This changing daily deal partner may have the adverse effect of crowding out some smaller businesses.

Online Coupon Graph

Photo: EMarketer.com

Not only is the daily deal partner changing, but so too is the demographic of users. Normally the Groupon market is mainly married women, akin to regular coupons, making more than $50,000. The largest single group to visit Groupon in January 2011 was over 55. The digital agency has often neglected this older group because of the lack of digital integration in their lives. That assumption seems to be changing, and it may be changing precisely because of economic savings offered by digital integration.

E Marketer: Groupon and the Deal Revolution

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Posted in Business Social Networking | No Comments »

A New Twitter Competitor

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Sina Weibo is a Twitter-like service that is currently available only in China. In China it is huge and the plan is to move the service into English speaking venues with Sina English. Budweiser is already on board and one of the few differences between Sina and Twitter is geared to marketing. One of those differences is Sina content is also linked to its portal, so links to longer content can still create exposure for advertisements. The main marketing advantage is the layout. Videos and pictures are displayed below the tweet-like message, Sina also operates on 140 characters messages, so viewing the content is easier.

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Photo: PennOlsen.com

Even though this service will make itself more of a marketing platform, digital agencies should remain cautious. Consumers are notoriously cautious about gumming up their processors with another app that offers a redundant service. To answer the redundancy question, Sina supporters point to the explosive growth Sina has had in China. However, Chinese affords more communicative potential in 140 characters than English does, and the inline display advantage is also mitigated by using apps instead of visiting the web page. The good news Sina does offer the digital agency is competition. Twitter will now have external pressures to develop, especially the in the realm of the pro-marketing differences that Sina offers.

The Wall: Can Twitter still be beaten? Chinese rival to launch in the US

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Mobile, Mobile applications, Twitter, social media | No Comments »

Twitter is Still An Attractive Advertising Platform

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

There are two types of advertising that reach Twitter users. Twitter offers some advertising within a user’s feed, but these promoted tweets are infrequent and usually cater to large firms with deep pockets. Then there are the advertisements users see on the app delivering the Twitter stream, whether it be an app or on the Twitter.com website.

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It’s the apps which has caused the latest noise. Tweetdeck is arguably the most popular Twitter client and Twitter just purchased it. Tweetdeck had been in negotiation with other potential buyers, but Twitter won out. Tweetdeck can account for creation of 5.5% of all Tweets generated. In March Tweetdeck users were generating 1 billion tweets each week. That is a lot of exposure. Now digital agencies can tap into that exposure when making an advertising deal with Twitter. The reason Twitter bought the app is because when users use Tweetdeck they are not exposed to the ads on twitter.com. That division has been solved by this acquisition. Advertising with twitter will now be even more profitable.
Tweetdeck and Twitter

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Posted in Business Social Networking, social media | No Comments »

The Dangers of Social Media for Business

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

Social Media, and Digital Marketing are two great ways to expand your brand in whichever way you choose. They allow you to reach millions of people with ease, target your message directly to those you know are listening, and deliver, to them, a far more approachable advertisement. In addition, if used correctly, Social Media sites are great to get to know your customer, and give your customer an opportunity to get to know your business. It can be used by employees to promote the company, or by owners to make themselves more accessible to their customers.  This allows businesses to build relationships and establish loyalty. This all sounds great, right? Well, if you notice a few lines back, I added the phrase, “if used correctly”. This seemingly innocuous phrase, when disregarded, can have consequences. If misused they can have the opposite effect, and can reflect poorly on yourself of the company. When using sites online like Twitter, or Facebook, it is important to recognize what it is your doing.

I was reading an article this morning on Mashable that was talking about the government subpoenaing Twitter records of several people of interest. They were interested in, not only their tweets, but also their private messages. The person they focused on was WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and his employees. They were planning on scouring their private messages to see if they had collaborated, in some way, to illegally release over 2,000 classified documents that they got their hands on. Apparently, due to the current legal system, Twitter was forced to oblige, and hand over the records. There is some loophole that allows these things to be accessible to the government. It would be logical to assume that your private Facebook messages or blog posts would be accessible too.

Now, I say all that to say this; be smart. If you are working for a big company, or if you own your own business, just know that everything you put out on the web has your name on it. If you have a department that handles all of your Social Media, make sure they are posting quality content. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, if you don’t already have them, to establish Social Media guidelines for your company. There are steps that can be taken to ensure that your Social Media usage is nothing but positive, and maybe it’s time to think about taking some of those steps.

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Posted in Social Harbor News | No Comments »

Social Media Improves Customer Service

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

In Joe Jaffe’s new book, Flip the Funnel, he explains why customer retention is the new acquisition. And why shouldn’t this be the case? In any low level college marketing or advertising course you learn that it is much easier and less costly to retain existing customers rather than trying to acquire new ones. It’s also common sense that someone who has purchased a product or service before is more likely to purchase again than someone who has never purchased that product or service before. So where many companies are focused on getting new customers you should be focused on making sure your loyal, existing customers are happy. As the old saying goes, “A person who has a positive experience may tell one friend; a person who has a negative experience will tell ten friends.” This is where social media comes in.

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In today’s age of Twitter and Facebook, people who comment about experiences with companies do not just tell a few friends, they let all of their Facebook “friends” know and tell all of their Twitter “followers.” Those people may in turn retweet that information to all of their followers or friends and so on. So, in the case of a negative experience this could prove very bad for a company if it does not hear of the situation. This could happen to a company who focuses most of their budget and effort on acquiring customers through mass marketing channels. Whereas if you budget for internet marketing you can monitor social media and be alerted when your products or company are mentioned. So, if you see a negative Twitter comment, you can act on it by contacting the customer and resolving the issue before it gets out of hand.

Social media should also be used to build relationships with customers. Create a digital community and reward loyal customers. Good customer service can turn many customers into brand loyalists who feel emotional connections to the product. Customers who feel connected to a product will not only promote that product but will also come to its aide in hard times. “We need to encourage and engage in dialogue by providing our customers with multiple ways to contact us at will,” says Jaffe. By improving the customer experience you will improve sales and the brand image as a whole.

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Posted in Customer Serivce, Facebook, Social Harbor News, social media | No Comments »

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