We talk a lot about competitions on Facebook but Twitter can be a great tool for a competition. The promotional guidelines are looser and it’s easier to reach a mass audience. This weeks cool tool helps you manage your Twitter competition, it allows you to see entries, prompts entrants to share it via Twitter and can choose a winner for you. (I’m waiting for my Twitter competition to close to see how this works). It took me around 10 minutes to set up a basic competition but you may need a little longer to add your own privacy policy and terms and conditions.
To get started visit the Binkd website and sign up for a free account. Free accounts allow you to set up a free Twitter competition so after signing up scroll down the options until you find Twitter contest.
Next you will need to name your contest, set the dates and times for start and finish of it. You need to visit each tab on the interface to complete information.
- ‘Twitter’ connects the application to your Twitter account, and allows you to compose the tweet you want entrants to send.
- ‘Prizes’ allows you to describe your prize, categorise it and upload a photograph or image of it.
- ‘Terms’ allows you to add the T&C’s of your contest, e.g. no cash alternative, one entry per person and your Privacy Policy e.g. we won’t share your email address etc.
- ‘Design’ allows you to add a header image if you wish to brand your page more strongly.
Now you’re ready to launch your contest. I’ve created a test competition here that just runs for one day. You can see the page below.
Once someone enters they are prompted to Tweet an automated tweet to tell their followers about the competition.
I’ve played with lots of Twitter competition apps in the past and even tried to manage them manually, this one beats all of them hands down for simplicity. I’m dying to set up a real Twitter contest now so keep an eye on my Twitter account over the next few weeks for details.
If you set up a Twitter competition using this app I’d love to see it so do leave your links below in the comments.
One of the features I like the most on the new Twitter is the ability to preview images and videos right there on the feed. I’m more likely to expand an image than click it. With links and articles this problem can escalate. How do you know if it’s worth your while to click through and read? That’s where this weeks cool tool comes in handy. Embedly is a browser extension – an application that attaches to Chrome, Firefox etc. – that allows you to preview any piece of content on Twitter before you click.
Now when you visit Twitter you can see the option to ‘expand’ each individual post, revealing a quick preview of any link attached to it.
If you use Instapaper there is an option to add the story to your account to read later. This is a great little tool and I can see it improving my Twitter experience, because I can see what I’m getting into before I click I anticipate that I will discover lots more great articles and blogs.
So now it’s up to you to give it a try. Let me know how you get on.
This weeks cool tool is a really handy app for promoting an event on Twitter. It’s easy to set up and you can have a homepage for your event, linked to your Twitter account in minutes.
There’s lots of great features including the ability to link the Twitter idents of event organisers and sponsors, adding your event #tag and encouraging those who RSVP to share the event via Twitter. I really like that it makes it easy for people to help share your event without too much effort.
To test it I set up a Twtvite for our up-coming KLCK Bloggers meetup in May. You can view the event page here.
Next enter the information about your event. You’ll need to add your Twitter account, the event title and a short tweetable explanation. Underneath add a more detailed explanation. You can also choose a customised url (web address) for the page. I chose www.twtvite.com/klckmay2012
The next step is to add event organisers and sponsors via their Twitter accounts, these are displayed on the event page so it’s a great way for people to find out a bit more about the people behind the event. It’s also a great way to showcase sponsors.
Next add venue details and date and time. Try and add a full address for your venue as Twtvite will add a map to your page.
You also have the option to add free or paid tickets for the event.
Before you publish your page you have the option to add a banner image and a photo or a video to it. This isn’t essential and if you skip this step the big grey panels disappear when you activate it.
Once you’re happy with your design click ‘Activate’ at the top of the page and your event will go live. You’ll be prompted to tweet it straight away.
Here’s what the finished event page looks like
I really like this as a quick and easy solution for spreading the word about your event. If you set up an event using Twtvite I’d love to see it so do leave your links and comments below.
Hat tip to @Jangles for alerting me to this great app.
This week we look at Google Glass, how the UK government plans to monitor social media accounts and Twitter suing TweetAdder (amongst others). I’ve also found some great articles on how we view the new Timeline pages, an interesting Facebook marketing strategy from ‘The Avengers’ movie and how memes work.
Google Glass
Here’s that video that has been popping up all over my social networks this week. This is how Google sees the future of the internet… viewed through glasses. And they can’t be far wrong, mobile internet usage is still on the rise and a more integrated device seems to be the next step. Of cours if you read William Gibson books back in the day this will seem like old news!
Twitter sues 5 companies for encouraging spam
This is an interesting story. I’ve never really been a fan of those automated applications that will follow and unfollow people for you. Sure they are an easy way of getting followers quickly but I don’t think you can beat getting them organically, building a strong and trusted network of followers. I also don’t jsut unfollow someone because they don’t follow me back. I pick and choose who to follow because they share great stuff, or add value to my Twitter stream, if they don’t follow back their value doesn’t decrease. However I know some people do find these services useful so it’s with interest that I read that Twitter are suing five companies, one of which is TweetAdder, because they encourage spamming. This article tries to determine why.
UK Government to monitor social networks
The governement in the UK is in the process of putting together legislation that will allow them to access social media and social media data from ISP’s. The internet service providers will have to collate the information for the authorities. This is clearly a worrying development and infringes on the privacy of British citizens. It’s being hailed as an anti terrorist measure but the worry is that a more autocratic government could abuse this information. More here.
Using Memes to encourage social media engagement
You can’t have missed the recent flood of memes on Facebook, all my friends seem to be sharing pictures and quotes, my newsfeed is full of them. This is a huge opportunity for marketers. If you can create a great sharable image your page data travels with it on it’s journey accross Facebook. Memes are not a new thing, remember the dancing baby from Ally McBeal? For more on memes and using them effectively check out this great read from Mike Lewis on Social Media Examiner.
How Facebook users really see your Timeline
A fascinating study on eye movements analysed exactly how people view the new Timeline brand pages, and there’s some surprises there. Users don’t really look at your cover image, they don’t care about your custom apps. However they do notice when friends interact with your page. So this is good news for those of you working hard at encouraging engagement. For more on the survey and tips on how to use the results to your advantage read more on Read Write Web.
Marvels The Avengers lets Facebook choose where it will be screened
Quite an innovative campaign from the new Marvel Avengers movie. It’s choosing the cities that it will be screened in first by the number of Facebook fans from that city (US only). A clever idea but it is noted that by default you are likely to have the most fans from the biggest cities… so it’s no surprise that the first five chosen were; Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Hueston & Miami. Read more about the campaign on All Facebook.
Pinterest for the healthcare industry
Probably not the first industry that springs to mind when you think about Pinterest, but this informative post from self confessed Pinterest addict Marie Ennis-O’Connor could persuade you. She takes you through the benefits of the network and how to use it to promote and market your business. Great tips for any industry not just healthcare.
And from Spiderworking.com this week
Add your latest blog post to your email signature with WiseStamp
This could be a really handy tool if you are trying to build blog readers. It allows you to input your RSS feed and displays the link to your latest post at the bottom of all your emails. More here.
And we’re delighted to be featured in the Tweak Your Biz digest of links about engagement in social media. If you’re looking for more weekend reading it’s worth checking out ‘The Holy Grail of Online Engagement (In 15 Steps)‘ by Christina Giliberti
Don’t forget, if you have a great social media story that you think we should include in this roundup leave the link in the comments.
Finally something new has come along to eclipse the Facebook Timeline business pages. Yes the new iPad is what has been filling my feeds this week. There has been other news however and below is my pick of the best blog posts I’ve read this week. Sorry I couldn’t squeeze all your suggestions in.
Twitter and mobile advertising
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Twitter introduced promoted tweets. Twitter purists (myself included) were worried that ad’s would kill the network but so far they seem to fit in quite well. This week sees Twitter up their mobile advertising offering, allowing targeting of mobile customers specifically. This, and Facebook’s decision to display advertising on it’s mobile app show how seriously companies are taking the mobile web. Read more here on the Venture Beat blog.
Happy Birthday Twitter
Twitter was 6 years old this week. It’s amazing to think that something so young that started as a SMS service is now such a big part of so many peoples lives. It’s changed the way that news breaks and it’s given us all the opportunity to converse with people and businesses that were inaccessible to us in the past. I’ve done business on Twitter, debated on Twitter, made real life friends on Twitter and I’ve only been on it since January 2009! Here’s an app that will show you how long you’ve been on Twitter. And here’s a great article from Bernie Goldbach who’s been there since the beginning.
56% of Facebook pages have less than 256 fans!
For those struggling to build their Facebook community this could be good news. If you’ve more than 256 Likes you’re in the majority, well done! And that’s not it, there’s plenty of other interesting statistics in this infographic from Recommend.ly. Also revealing is that the second biggest page type is local businesses and that 82% of all pages only post 5 times a month! Read more here.
13 brands using Linkedin business pages
I often feel that Linkedin is one of the most undervalued of all social networks. But according to Hubspot in this article Linkedin is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook or Twitter. If you feel that you’re not getting full benefit from Linkedin read beyond the stats to discover how to maximise your business page profile. This is something we’re currently working on at Spideworking.com.
Hiring Interns via Facebook
What an innovative way to hire an Intern, and just in case you’re worried, the job on offer is a fully paid Summer position. A marketing company called Fast Horse is asking Facebook to choose someone for the job. Applicants upload their submissions to a Facebook app and the applications are voted on by the community. More here. Would you trust your Facebook fans to choose the right person?
Facebook Timeline icons
If you are still in the midst of redesigning your Facebook page before it’s converted to Timeline at the end of the month this free icon set may help you. They can be used to customise your app tabs and all the basics are there. I called them ‘not beautiful’ on Twitter during the week (and was caught out by the designer) but they are functional and well designed, perfect for anyone who wants something quick and easy to make their page look good.
Re-arrange your Pinterest boards
Pinterest is still a hot topic and if you are using it for business it’s worth having a look at this post from Write On Track. It shows you how to re-order your boards so that some appear more prominently. This is a great way to highlight seasonal offerings, special offers or a particular board you want to draw attention to.
This week I finally got around to answering one of the most common questions I get asked. How do you get more Likes to your Facebook page? I’m sure I’m missing a few so do leave a comment if you have a great tip to share.
Still Facebook’s new business pages dominate my feeds, however there’s been an abundance of interesting and amusing stories this week. Last week I brought news of the big Simply Zesty acquisition, this week it looks like Mashable is being scooped up too. There’s concern about Twitter data being released to the authorities in NYC, a fascinating article from an ex-Google employee and something to get you in the mood for St. Patrick’s day.
Mashable acquired by CNN?
I’ve always been a massive fan of Mashable, it is THE social media blog to read and even though I may have whinged about a fall in quality of posts over the last year or so it’s still a fantastic resource. It was when this news broke that I discovered that Pete Cashmore, the man behind Mashable was a born and bred Scot. Looks like the celtic nations are leading the way in social media blogging! Read more about the alleged acquisition here.
Twitter Data & Occupy Wall Street
One of the greatest achievements of Twitter has been bringing together people and telling the story of revolutions. Much of the Arab Spring has been reported via Twitter and other social networks and it’s one of the things we boast about. However the rise of the Occupy movement has begged the question about whether our own (or US) authorities are happy with these freedoms. Not for the first time Twitter has been subpoenaed to release data about some Occupy Wall Street protesters. It’s also a stark reminder that we are never anonymous on the Internet, comments can always be traced back to us. More here on Read Write Web.
Will Google+ be the undoing of Google?
I’m still a fence sitter as far as Google+ goes. However I do believe (maybe wrongly) that the network was set up as a Facebook killer. In my head it isn’t a rival to Facebook, it’s another social network, a wonderfully constructed tool but it lacks activity. Even when Facebook users annoyed by yet another change threatened to leave for Google+ en masse it didn’t happen. What is frightening is that Google seem to be banking everything on G+, they are changing their search algorithms to make them more social, although this really means to prioritise G+ results, in fact everything they do now seems connected to the social network. Google do one thing wonderfully, better than anyone else and that is search, Google is the best search engine in the world and it’s my worry that Google+ could ruin this. It’s always good to know there’s someone out there with the same opinion and that’s why I found this article by ex- Google employee James Whittaker fascinating. Definitely worth a read.
What we like and don’t like on Twitter
I love this crowd sourced post from Sian Phillips on Tweak Your Biz (formerly Bloggertone). She has collected tips directly from Twitter users who tell us what they do and don’t like. Two of my favourites are :
@elainerogers I dislike when people mistake lack of rapport for disagreement, and immediately react negatively
And
@ballymountaccs Like the immediate reaction to a question, comment or conversation
This really is everything you need to know about Timeline for Business pages
Mari Smith has to be the undisputed queen of Facebook. And this wonderfully helpful article means she’s in no danger of loosing her crown. Full of brilliant easy to follow information, when I shared this on my Facebook page people were asking why Facebook couldn’t explain it this well!
10 must have WordPress Plugins
From Jeff Bullas’s blog this is an up to date list of great WordPress plugins. Some of them I’m not mad about, the ‘Hello Bar’ for example, I’m not sure if it’s a knew jerk reaction but I wouldn’t want something that ugly at the top of my website, and ‘Sexy Bookmarks’ refuses to work with many templates. However there are some brilliant ones, I’m not sure how I lived without All in One SEO and W3 Total Cache is a must have now that Google seems to place importance on page load speed.
Social media and the Irish language
Because it’s nearly St Patrick’s day, I’m giving you two links for my final story. The first from The Sociable looks at how Irish is being used in social media. An interview with Niamh O’Sullivan, projects executive with Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge discusses how people are using it and how the Irish language can be promoted via Facebook, Twitter etc.
And finally here’s a short video from Star Translation Services that tells you how to ask for a pint in Irish this St. Patrick’s Day. Hopefully the bar man will understand you!
And from Spideworking.com this week
We’ve been away on holiday so just one blog post for you this week. I’m working on a mammoth post on how to get more Likes on Facebook but you’ll have to wait a little longer for that!
Beat Facebookers Block with Post Planner (But I didn’t try, here’s why)
Would you be happy giving your credit card details to a Facebook app? I wasn’t but was disappointed as it looked like such a handy tool. Read more here.
I don’t like football (soccer), I know this is a contraversial opinion but there it is. It can also be frustrating having to avoid Twitter when I’ve missed an episode of the Apprentice, if I look I’m bound to find out who’s been fired before I get a chance to catch up.
That’s where this weeks cool tool Slipstream comes in. Simply download it and it will add to your browser (chrome, FireFox etc). Once downloaded sign into Twitter and it appears on your sidebar.
Now when you hover your mouse over a Tweet you see a new ‘hide’ option. Click on this and you get the choice of hiding all tweets from a user or all tweets containing a specific #tag or both.
Once you have hidden a #tag it appears in your sidebar and it’s easy to unhide it again. The only downside I can see is that if you use multiple computers and multiple browsers like myself you will need to install it on each one.
With the European Football Championships coming up I’m delighted I’ve found this in time! What #tags will you be hiding? Tell me in the comments below.
I was reminded of a great Facebook tip for driving more fans and engagement whilst watching a video hosted by Mari Smith recently. It was her final tip that reminded me that this was something that I really don’t do enough of. The tip came up again at the KLCK Bloggers Meet-up on Monday. So what was this top tip? It’s a simple as sharing your Facebook Page posts directly to Twitter and asking for feedback. But how do you do this?
You can automate this process but I’ve just disconnected this feature for Spiderworking.com. Why? Well when I looked through my newsfeed I found that the posts looked automated, they often clashed with similar posts I was making on Twitter and it prevented me from personalising these tweets. So today I’m going to show you how to link to a specific Facebook post manually. It’s really easy, it will bring you more engagement and as people have to ‘Like’ your page before commenting or posting it will also bring you more Fans.
1. Click the timestamp underneath the post you want to share
2. Copy the complete link from the address bar of your browser
3. Shorten the link by pasting it into a service such as www.bitly.com
4. Paste the link into a tweet asking for feedback
You can use this same method for finding a direct link to a specific tweet or Google+ post too.
It can be easy to get carried away with community size when we embark on a social media campaign. How many Twitter followers do we have? How many Facebook Likes? How many YouTube subscribers? And community size is important, however it’s not the most important thing.
Building a valuable community takes time and although there are people out there who will attempt to sell you thousands of Facebook fans or Twitter followers, the relevance of these bought communities is often low. Bought Facebook fans often have no interest in your product or service and come from outside your target market or geographical target. As you are not relevant to them your updates will be or little interest so their value is virtually 0.
It is possible to be successful in social media without massive fan or follower numbers. Take a look at this recent case study from ‘Old Farm’ published on Bloggertone. I’d even suggest that it’s possible to be successful in social media without having your own presence on Facebook or Twitter (although I don’t recommend this). All you need to do is create compelling content that is easy to share.
Sharing is the lifeblood of social media, it is ultimately what will secure your success.
Here’s an example. Your new Faeboook business page has 50 Likes. You upload a photograph that is amusing, topical or of real interest to your 50 fans. The average person has 130 friends on Faceboook and it’s likely that some of those have similar interests to them. If one fan shares your post it has not only reached your 50 fans but also that fans 130 friends . Total reach = 180. If 10 of your fans shared that would be 1,350. And each time one of their friends shares it on, that’s another 130 people reached. Now of course not all of your fan’s friends will see that update and some of their friends will already be fans of your page, but you get the idea.
The same formula can be applied to Twitter and even if you don’t have your own presence if you make your blog or website easy to share you still have the potential to reach social media users.
So how can encourage sharing?
Good content
It’s been a bit of a social media adage that ‘Content is King’. For people to share your content you must have content and it has to be compelling to your target market. Think about what information you have that they need and blog, or share your thoughts on Facebook or other networks.
The more relevant or topical that your content is the more likely your community is to share it. For example the videos I create that attract the most views are tutorials on new social media features as they are released. Today I’m late blogging because I’ve been busy screen grabbing and talking people through the newest Facebook news feed updates.
If you become synonymous with good content then people are more likely to read and share your posts in the future.
Share buttons
If you have a blog make sure you’ve made it easy to share. Adding Twitter or Facebook share buttons or plugins as well as something like ‘Add This’ means that your community can share your content with one click of a mouse.
Share content from others
Be generous with others and share good information, links and tips that they create. When possible credit the original poster. This will buy you good will and also establishes you as a generous person. These qualities will give you social media Karma making people keen to share your content too.
Get to know people
It’s important to build relationships with members of your community. Engage as often as you can and build a rapport with people. Others are far more likely to share your content if they feel they know you.
Ask for the share
Today I saw a beautiful photograph on Google+ with the tag line ‘please share this if you like it’ so I did. However if that user constantly asked for the share I’d be less inclined to do so.
Asking people to share or RT your content will spark people to do just that, there are some interesting statistics on how adding ‘Please RT’ at the end of a Tweet will increase your RT’s. Asking too often is a mistake that lots of people make, eventually your followers will get annoyed and could stop sharing all together.
How do you encourage sharing? What encourages you to share content? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
At some moment on Monday night I flipped. I follow Chris Brogan on Twitter and Google+ and a tweet sprung onto my newsfeed.
“Starting to really dislike the 140 character limit after years of advocating it. Conversations are so choppy here.”
Before I give you my reaction a bit of background
I have to admit one of the things I’ve enjoyed about Google+ is watching it evolve, watching early adopters whose opinions I respect discussing the new network, and discovering how it works. Chris Brogan for one hung up his keys at Facebook and moved lock stock and barrel over to G+. These people were finding new ways that Google+ would work and sharing them with their followers.
After a while it became apparent that Google+ was not just a potential Facebook rival but also a Twitter rival, the stream was reminiscent of Twitter and you have the ability of following people who don’t follow you back. There was nothing amazingly different about Google+ but it was taking the best bits of other social networks and improving them. And therein lies G+’s strength.
With a massive user base that grew at a rate that must have struck panic into the heart of Mark Zukerberg I was beginning to think that perhaps it could eclipse Facebook and do so much faster than I’d originally anticipated. However this has yet to happen. There are members all right but few are active and my feed is still dominated by a few power users.
When G+ was launched I avidly created content specifically for it, I routed out my best photos, made specific videos and found links just for sharing there. To me if I was going to be a success with Google+ I’d have to discover what to post and how to differentiate what I was doing there to what I did on other networks. My community and potential target market are very much ensconced on Facebook and Twitter so leaving them like Chris Brogan did wouldn’t work for me.
As time has passed I have posted less and less. I dip in everyday to have a look at what’s going on and sadly I now break my golden rule. “thou shalt not post the same content to Facebook and Google+”.
There are some people on there whose streams I find entertaining. There are some great photographers and seeing photos in the timeline is definitely one thing that G+ has over Twitter. There are also the social media peeps. Chris Brogan, Mari Smith. They post great stuff and I love reading it but I hesitate before commenting. Why? Well firstly the volume of notifications. Yes I can mute a post but really my trips to G+ are swift and stopping to mute stuff on the way seems unnecessary. The notifications that someone else has responded to the post would be fine if there was a conversation going on but each commentator seems to act individually, they are communicating with the original poster but not me and not the others who have left comments. This is how it works on Twitter but surely G+ gives us the platform to converse. I myself am guilty of this. I leave a comment based on the original post and the first few comments I see. Real conversation can spring up on G+ but usually it’s on the content posted by less influential users. I’ve participated in small scale conversations on both my own and other users posts.
I guess part of the reason for this is the curse of celebrity, Twitter has given us unpresidented access to celebrity and this has carried forward to Google+. The problem being that Twitter is filtered so we don’t all see @replies of adoration aimed at high profile users, sadly on Google+ we do.
So with all those users I still see my feed dominated by celebrities or power users, I see some of my contacts struggling with G+ or like me just throwing the odd link up here and there. It’s partly my fault, I’m not leading my community over to G+, I’m not encouraging them the way others there are and unless I, and people like me, make a better effort Google+ can not succeed.
So my reaction to Chris Brogans Tweet was
“@chrisbrogan G+ isn’t ready for the masses yet.. us with smaller communities are finding it harder.”
As if to endorse the sentiment of his original tweet I’ve had to post over 800 words to explain my thoughts.
I’m not sure I disagree with Chris Brogan’s point of view as such I’m just not there yet and neither is my community. It’s almost as if due to his loyal community base he’s been able to take the express train to Google+ adoption where as I’m still on the steam train, we stop more often on the way though and hopefully we’ll pick up passengers on route.
What are your thoughts on Google+? Will you pledge like me to try harder? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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