The sun has been shining this week in Ireland and traditionally that means that many of us step away from our computers and embrace the outdoors. I guess it’s not as simple as that anymore though. With so many handheld devices that we use to access the Internet people are happily tweeting and Facebooking from the beach, from the park and from their holidays. Of course this mobile trend has been one of the big talking points around the Facebook IPO, if you bought stock don’t panic Facebook ad’s will be coming to the mobile web soon. Not such good news for users perhaps but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
This week I’ve found some good reads about Pinterest, some beautiful email marketing and we’ll be looking at why GM really pulled their Facebook ads and the new Bitly re-design.
GM Wanted to ‘take over’ Facebook pages
In the lead up to the Facebook IPO car manufacturer General Motors announced that they would be pulling all their Facebook advertising as they felt it wasn’t delivering sales. There was a lot of talk and speculation about the move at the time. Some pointed at GM’s less that inspiring Facebook pages, some said this was proof that Facebook advertising didn’t work. This was no blow for Facebook either, GM spent millions on Facebook ads every year and the announcement before the IPO must have had some effect on the floatation. This week it has emerged the reasons behind the decision. It seems that GM wanted more than the traditional advertising options offered by Facebook, they were not happy with the options on offer and wanted ‘page takeover’, this would involve far more intrusive ads for user. More here.
Bitly re-design
I’m usually quite positive about change, I realise that change is often hard because we have become accustomed to the way things work but if we are to progress it is necessary. However, when I logged into Bitly.com earlier this week and saw that it had changed I wasn’t happy. Like lots of people I use Bitly not just to shorten links so they will fit into tweets but as an effective measurement tool. It’s good to know people are clicking my tweets and Facebook posts even if they don’t comment or share, it’s a good way to find out what sort of content people want. So what’s the problem with the new design? First and foremost it’s harder to use, it’s not just that not everything is where it used to be but it’s at least one more click to shorten a link, it takes longer to do it and once you have viewing stats isn’t as intuitive as it used to be. I understand what they are trying to do and I like the idea of a combination bookmarking site and link shortening site but this design is too complicated and will put people off. I’m still persisting with Bitly but if you want an alternative this article from All Twitter offers some great alternatives.
Tweets that Twitter won’t let you send
Did you know that if you share a two word Tweet starting ‘get’ on Twitter it disappears? Seemingly it’s a throwback to the days when Twitter was just a text service. It’s hard to picture Twitter this way now, by the time I’d joined Twitter it was a full web version. Here’s a full list of things you can’t Tweet and more on why.
Beautiful email marketing
There was a time when people declared email marketing dead. Not any more, surveys have shown that it is still the preferred way for many to receive offers and news about your business. If you need some inspiration for your next e-shot you couldn’t go far wrong looking at these examples picked by Hubspot. There’s one to fit any kind of business or mail out style here. My favourite has to be the cycling one… but cycling is one of my passions.
Ways not to measure your social media success
This year has seen a real focus on measurement and quite rightly. If you or your staff are going to devote a large portion of your time to using social media you need to know you are getting a return on that investment. It’s not nearly as hard as you might think but getting the focus right is important. It’s not enough just to count the number of Likes or Followers you have, you need to find a way to equate what you are doing with a goal. That’s why I picked this interesting article from The Sales Lion to share with you this week. 10 misleading social media metrics. Worth a read, it may even change the way you use social media completely.
Creative Pinterest marketing
Almost every week I must mention my astonishment at the rise of Pinterest and it seems the rest of the social media world is with me. I’m using it, I know people who are passionate about it and one thing is for sure, we can’t just ignore it. I’m always on the look out for creative uses of Pinterest and I find this article from Jeff Bullas fascinating. I particularly like the idea of a behind the scenes board, a great way to personalise your business and something I must have a think about for Spiderworking.com.
Don’t feed the Trolls
It’s always important to think about what you will do if you are attacked on social media. In most cases you will try and resolve any issues, it’s a great way to showcase your customer service and to promote yourselves as a caring brand. There are some exceptions however and Trolls are one of these. I’m not talking about the Trolls that sit under bridges, an Internet Troll is someone who posts something to provoke a reaction, very often if you respond they will come back with another unreasonable retort. If this happens this is the time to end the conversation, engaging with them will just provoke more unusual behaviour and can escalate into something that will cause you a lot of time and pain. In more simple terms… never feed the Trolls.
And from Spiderworking.com this week
Manage Your Instagram Account from The Web
This is a real must have tool for all Instagrammers. Statigram allows you to manage your account from your computer, lets you view stats and even allows you to add your feed to your website or Facebook. Definitely worth checking out. More here
Facebook changes
This week saw Facebook finally introduce post scheduling and the long awaited 5 types of admin.