It’s Friday night and although Spring should be in the air it feels like winter just hit us in Athy, so I’m wrapped up in a blanket waiting for the fire to light choosing which 7 articles I should share with you this weekend. I’ve chosen a great critique on Facebook and the dilema faced by small businesses, a cool video made when Blackberries were the coolest phones on the market and PC’s took up half your desk, some great example s of brands being personal on social media and way too many links about Facebook.
The Major Problem Facebook Needs To Address For Brands Right Now
There have been numerous articles written on the folly of Like and Share competitions on Facebook, my heart still sinks everytime a spammy photograph hits my news feed, as another competition promises I could win an iPad if I would just spam all my friends too. This post from Simply Zesty looks at it from another perspective, we used to think that social media levelled the playing field, small business had the same opportunities as big business, but this has changed. When our posts start to loose their reach small business can’t afford to pay so running an illegal contest may seem like the only solution.
Twitter In Plain English
Time seems to move so fast in the digital world. Or maybe because I’m getting older. I’ve been teaching a lot of workshops recently and I find it hard to restrain myself from talking about how Twitter used to be. The changes have happened so slowly over time that if we landed on the old Twitter, or the Twitter of 4 years ago it would surprise us how much has changed. Do you remember when you had to go through that whole cut and paste thing to ReTweet someone? Maybe that was a good thing, now that we can RT with the click of a button maybe we value the posts we share a little less, but that’s a discussion for another day.
This video shot in 2008 is a quaint reminder of a time before the iPhone and iPad but still very relevent today. Sadly they won’t allow me to embed the video here so you’ll have to click through to YouTube to watch.
Facebook Offers Effective In Boosting Reach & Virality
This week someone asked me if I think Facebook offers work, I couldn’t give an answer. I did try them out when they first appeared and found them succesful, I haven’t however set any up recently for myself or clients. I wondered if it was like ‘questions’ that were hugely succesful when they were launched and have since tailed off in popularity? According to this study, reported on by All Facebook they are effective in boosting brands reach and virality.
It doesn’t however answer the big question, are people redeeming offers or do they just claim and forget.
The Problem With Facebook’s 20% Text Rule
The new 20% text rule for Facebook advertising has taken effect and people are seeing their ad’s getting rejected left right and centre. I’m seeing lots of frustrated people venting on Twitter and even Jon Loomer is finding it difficult to swallow. The problem is that the rule isn’t as straightforward as we may have thought. If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about all is explained by Jon here.
Great Examples Of ‘Boring’ Businesses That Act Like Humans
One area that small businesses have the upper hand on social media is personality. As most small businesses are run by one or two key players it is easy for them to inject the personal touch into what they do. Larger organisations need to work harder at it and it takes lots of planning to get it right. As usual Hubspot have pulled together some great examples in this post. I particularly like how General Electric are tackling Pinterst.
You Are Who You Say You Are – Building A Brand Identity
This post ties in rather well to the last one. Almost all businesses should think about their brand personality. Even a small business may have a number of people updating their social media sites and it’s important that your brand remains consistant in all it’s communications both off and online. This post from The Next Web addresses the first steps you need to take when developing your brand identity. It makes interesting reading.
4 Ways To Succeed With Your Pinterest Brand Page
Those of you who follow this blog on a regular basis will be aware at my pledge to embrace Pinterest in 2013. I’ve still not been brave enough to convert to a business account yet but I’m almost there. This post on Jeff Bullas’s blog is a good guide for beginners like me. You’ll see another Pinterest tip I picked up during the week below.
And From Spiderworking.com This Week
How To Find Out If Your Website Is Being Pinned To Pinterest
As promised here’s the Pinterest tip I picked up this week.
How Are You Doing On Facebook?
This weeks cool tool is a fun way to get some headline stats on how well you are doing on Facebook. Likealyzer takes a few minutes to evaluate your performance and recommend how you can do better.
How To Find Out If You Are Getting Negative Feedback On Your Facebook Page Posts
When the edgerank algorithm changed at the end of last year the negative feedback that you got on Facebook posts, that could be someone hiding the post, marking it as spam or unliking yuor page, started to effect who sees them. But how do you know if you are getting negative feedback? I made a quick 1 minute video to show you.
Guest Blogging – The How, Why and Why I Don’t Very Often
Guest blogging and accepting guest blog posts yourself are both valuable. I look at the benefits of guest blogging, how to prepare to write one and how to ask someone to write for you.
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