Yet again the Facebook IPO is dominating social media news this week, but I’m not going to delve into that.  I’ve found some great stories on using visuals in social media, Facebook advertising, writing great email copy and some interesting Linkedin stats. Have a great weekend.

Flickr and Pinterest partner

The big discussion around Pinterest over the last couple of months has been about copyright and attribution.   The concern that Pinterest users were inadvertently breaching coyright was addressed for the first time recently when Pinterest released a piece of code that when added to a website prevented pinning.  Photo sharing site Flickr was one of the first to implement this code on copyrighted and unsafe images leaving those with a creative commons licence to be shared.

This week Flickr and Pinterest have moved closer together.  Now you can share to Pinterest easily from Flickr keeping the original attribution of the image meaning the original owner of the image will get credit for it.  I imagine this will be just the first of many partnerships that Pinterest will forge as these are issues that will not go away.  For more on the partnership and the benefits to Flickr here’s a great article from Read Write Web.

Linkedin buys SlideShare

I’ve always been a big fan of SlideShare.  It’s a really strong B2B tool that connects users via presentations.  If you haven’t used it yet it’s really worth checking out.  I don’t upload much there any more but find it a great tool for researching topics.  If your target market is an international one it’s a great way to reach people outside your regular networks.  One of the reasons I joined SlideShare was because of it’s Linkedin integration.  It’s possible to display a SlideShow on your Linkedin profile using the application.  This is handy for people like me who may wish to offer teasers of courses, share slides from a speech and it’s even more useful for those who work within a visual industry.  It’s a fantastic way to showcase your portfolio.  The news this week is that it has been bought out by Linkedin, this is an aquisition that seems to make sense.  I would consider SlideShare a B2B social network not just a presentation sharing site, so the merger with the biggest B2B social networking site seems obvious.  Read more on the merger here.

Facebook organ donor initiative

Facebook launched a new feature this week that allows users to announce that they are an organ donor.  It’s easy to add to your Timeline (you will need to be converted to Timeline for this to work). Just go to your Timeline, choose ‘life event’ from the status menu.   Choose ‘Health & Wellbeing’ and organ donor from the subsequent menus.  It then prompts you to add more info and asks you to officially register with the appropriate organ donor registry.

For more on why Mark Zuckerberg is so passionate about organ donation read this article from The Next Web.

Facebook advertising – A quick and easy guide

I’m often asked about Facebook advertising, although it’s not something I specialise in I am always interested in the latest developments.  Facebook recently added some options to their self serve ads.  If you are thinking of using Facebook advertising or haven’t had success with it in the past this excellent article from Social Media Examiner walks you through the options and shows you the kind of ad’s that work well.

Email marketing – Writing great copy

With so much emphasis being put on networks like Facebook it can be easy to forget one of the most effective online marketing tools.  The email newsletter.  I’ve been researching this area recently for some courses I’ve run and I’m often surprised at how few companies seem to utilise them.  It doesn’t matter if you’re creating a beautiful HTML newsletter or simply sending a text email the copy is central to it’s success.  This article from HubSpot gives great examples and suggestions that will increase your open and click through rate.   It certainly has me thinking about how I can refresh my email newsletters in the future.

The rise of the visual social network

You really can’t have a conversation about social media at the moment without Pinterest coming up.  Facebook seems filled with meme’s and images, the new Twitter interface makes it easier for us to view photos and Google+ always reminds me of a rich content version of Twitter.  Images have become central to social networking but how and why did this happen?  I remember less than a year ago creating memes and them being quite unique amongst the other content I was seeing, now they’re everywhere.  This great Infographic and analysis shows the speedy rise of visual social networking and proves that we all need to be thinking visually in order to encourage more engagement.

Linkedin 4x better for B2B leads

Not really a surprising headline but I thought it was worth sharing this story.  Anyone who uses Linkedin on a regular basis is probably aware of the potential leads that can be generated.  I for one always find it the best network in terms of effort v the number of leads I get.  It seems I’m not alone as this short but statistic filled article shows.  So if you are still overlooking Linkedin, or not investing time in it and if your target market is other businesses I’d take another look.  The article itself links to some really handy resources to get you going.

And from Spiderworking.com this week

Cool tool that helps you promote events via Twitter

This weeks cool tool was Twivite that allows you to create an event page that integrates with Twitter.  It’s quick and easy to set up. More here

How to bring online relationships offline

It’s a bit of a bugbear of mine but I hate it when people to refer to ‘real people’ as being people you don’t communicate with online.  This week I looked at how bringing online relationships offline can be a successful way to build both personal and business relationships.  All the people I know are real! More here

Finalist in Social Media Awards

It’s not often I get to blow my own trumpet but I’m delighted that this blog has made it to the finals of the Social Media Awards for Best Business Blog.  I’m listed against some great blogs including those from my co Blog Awards Ireland organisers Lorna Sixsmith (for Write On Track) and Beatrice Whelan (for Sage Ireland’s blog).  The competition is fierce but I’m sure it will be a great night whoever wins.

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This week we are going to share with you our three favorite Irish Facebook pages.  All three of these inspire us to make our page better and we hope they will do the same for you.  All three are also retail business pages, next month we will look at some great Facebook B2B pages.

1. Hairy Baby

My customers must be getting tired of me constantly referring them to Hairy Baby but it is a truly great and successful page.

What they do right

• Post interesting content that encourages interaction – Just for fun Polls & questions.
• Polls for market research.  Hairy baby often ask their customers to collaborate on a new T-shirt idea.  This makes users feel that they have some ownership of the brand and of course are more likely to buy the product when it is launched
• Not all business. Most of the hairy baby posts are not about selling T-shirts, they are aimed at encouraging interaction and it’s working judging by the number of comments they get.
• Accent.  All Hairy Baby posts are written in an Irish accent which is genius!  Their t-shirts are targeted at an Irish or ex-pat Irish market.
• Letting the customers have their say – The wall is set to allow posts from fans and the page.  What better way to showcase what your customers are saying about you.
• Fun.  Hairy Baby updates always make me smile!

Click here to Like the Hairy Baby Facebook page.

2. Puddleducks

Another page that anyone who has seen me speak in the last year will have heard me talk about.

What they do right

• Aim content at their target market
• Invite participation – they encourage people to post pictures of their children wearing Puddleducks products onto their wall.  This not only encourages interaction but also helps spread word about the page across Facebook.
• Giveaways – Monthly giveaways with the prizes always being relevant to their target market.
• Cross platform promotion – A recent childrens art competition was promoted through Facebook, Twitter, the Puddleducks blog and the Pix.ie photo sharing site.
• Not all business – lots of good links to other events and sites that would be of interest to families with small children.
• Letting customers have their say – look at the Puddleduck’s wall and you will see lots of great comments from customers.
• Fun- Splashing around in puddles is fun and this is a message that Puddleducks successfully promote.  Again their updates make me smile.

Click here to Like the Puddleducks Facebook page.

3. Champion Sports

A familiar high street brand with an excellent Facebook presence.

What they do right

• Posting valuable content to their target market.
• Invite participation – They’re ‘Anyone but France‘ campaign has attracted 417 people to sign the ‘pledge’ so far.  Again this spreads the word about Champion Sports across Facebook.
• Not all business – lots of good links to videos and content about sports fan with the odd special offer thrown in.
• Giveaways – in conjunction with their website they run competitions.
• Fun – The ABF campaign mentioned above and most recently a recreation of the Hunky Dory ads with a less trim model is enough to make you smile.

Click here to Like the Champion Sports Facebook page.

The four things that these pages have in common:

1. Valuable content
2. Encouraging interaction and participation
3. Not all business
4. Fun

All great tips to bear in mind when planning your Facebook campaign.

Of course we think our Facebook page is pretty good too!  You can Like Spiderworking.com on Facebook by clicking here.

Each week we are featuring one of the Work The Web workshops here on our blog.

This weeks featured workshop is ‘Owning Your Own Website’

Who is this workshop for?

This is not a course for nerds or technophiles – it is a course for the common or garden business person who wants to understand and appreciate the technology behind one of their greatest sales tools – their website.

This weeks video blog from Spiderworking.com concentrates on the free tools which you can use to monitor Twitter.

These tools help you:
1. Monitor what is being said about your industry and Brand.
2. Help you find people of interest to follow.

The three tools featured in this video are:
Tweetbeep
Tweetscan
and
Tweepsearch

In my last post about shortening links I mentioned that alot of people accessed twitter through third party software.

As you can see from above I’m loving Hootsuite at the moment but here are some links to other solutions.  Feel free to enter your favorites in the comment box below:

Tweetdeck

Tweetie

Hootsuite

Every time Facebook changes it’s layout it upsets it’s users and this latest version is no exception. But I believe that it can be good for business fan pages and it can help you establish a bigger and better fanbase.

For more videos on social media and how it can benefit you subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Has Twitter increased traffic to your website?

Has Facebook had a positive effect on your bottom line?

Has Linkedin helped you forge new business contacts?

Has social media enhanced your business or brand in any way?

If the answer is yes we want to hear from you.

We’re putting together a series of blog posts featuring businesses that have found success through social networking online. If you have a tale to tell we would love to hear from you.

If you would like your business to be featured become a fan of  Spiderworking.com on facebook and leave a short synopsis of your story here.  We will be in touch for further details.