Tag: Facebook

Google and Twitter Get in a Catfight, and This Week’s Other Hot Stories

What a week. Just as everyone was finally settled back from their holiday time off, Google went and woke people up when it announced it’d be integrating its struggling social network, Google+, more actively into its search engine. Not surprisingly, this sent a ripple through the social media world. Suffice it to say, some folks (particularly those at Twitter) were less than pleased, and a war of words began.

But not everyone was fighting. (Phew!) Love was in the air elsewhere as more proof was revealed that social media and mobile go together, and two big players in the email space came together.

Read on to learn about these stories and more in our weekly news roundup. [Read more...]

How Do You Measure Social Media Marketing Success?

“What should we expect for results?”

This is one of the first questions people almost always ask whenever I talk to small businesses and organizations about getting started with social media marketing.

Well, that’s a really tough question to answer. For one thing, marketing a business or organization on social media is a great case for what your mother probably said to you as a kid:

“You’ll only get out of it what you put in.”

Or in business terms, there’s no ROI if there is no investment, whether it’s an investment of time, thought, or energy.

Success starts with an investment

For those who do invest in the process, success comes in all shapes in sized and is different for every business.

Here are three examples of social media marketing success, without using any fancy monitoring tools or even spending hours and hours with Facebook Insights. [Read more...]

Signs You May Be a Bad Social Media Marketer

There’s a lot of debate these days about what it means to be a “good” social media marketer.

Every expert seems to have his or her own opinion.

Does it mean tweeting or posting to Facebook a certain number of times each day? Does it mean posting a certain type of content? Does it mean you can’t pre-schedule your posts and tweets? Or does it mean having a certain number of fans or followers, or a high Klout score?

The definition of what makes a good social media marketer seems to be different for everyone. And in fact, there’s a lot of “best practice” advice available — you can find it here on this blog, in our Learning Center, and on our Social Media Quickstarter, for example.

What about “worst” practices?

An easier (and more amusing) question to answer may be what not to do on social media. Perhaps that’s why when I asked a few of Constant Contact’s own social media experts to name their biggest social media pet peeve, they jumped at the chance.

Are you looking to be a better social media marketer? Our advice is to stay away from the following “worst” practices: [Read more...]

Hotmail Adds New “Graymail” Features, and This Week’s Other Hot Stories

This week, most people were buzzing about the holidays and making sure they were ready for Christmas and Hanukkah with all their presents bought, their tree and menorah lit, and their preparations made for some well deserved time off.

But those who were keeping an eye on the marketing world had plenty to talk about as well. Hot topics included the addition of Sponsored Stories into Facebook users’ news feeds and two new studies that showed Google+ users (what few active ones there are) are not following brands’ pages in large numbers.

Speaking of “hot” topics, Hotmail rolled out its much-touted “Graymail” features, which are intended to help users manage their overcrowded inboxes.

What were the takeaways from this week’s big news stories? Read on. [Read more...]

Is Social Media Ruining Our Minds? And This Week’s Other Hot Topics

Surprise, Facebook Page administrators … The social network has just increased your workload. Hooray!

But hey, at least Timeline is finally live for everyone, right?

Want more social sharing to generate leads? A new study shows what content gets shared the most. Speaking of content, content, content … corporate marketers are shifting their spend to — wait for it — branded content.

But it may not matter, since according to another recent study, social media is ruining our minds. Yikes! What a week it’s been.

Please enjoy the following stories of interest for this week ending December 16, 2011. [Read more...]

You’re Invited to Have an Early Look at Social Campaigns

As my wife and co-workers can tell you, I am not always the most patient person. When I learn about something cool, I like to tell everyone I know about it. It’s one of the reasons I love social media, because it allows me to share what I love with so many more people so easily.

Today, I am beyond excited to tell you that we have begun an invitation-only roll-out of our new social media marketing product, Social Campaigns, which is designed specifically for small businesses and organizations. We’ve been working on this product for quite some time, and think it’s pretty awesome. Is it totally done? No. Is it something we think you’ll get excited about in its current form? Yes.

What the heck is the Social Campaigns product all about? Simply put, Social Campaigns is a new product designed to help small businesses and organizations get more fans and more business from their social media marketing. That means you can run real marketing campaigns that live on Facebook, are promoted to all of your social networks and email lists, and are trackable in our reports. It’s super easy to get started, and our templates make it easy to look professional the first time someone visits your Facebook Page.

You probably have a couple of other questions, right? Let me answer them: [Read more...]

Twitter’s Changes Help Brands, and This Week’s Other Hot Topics

This week, Facebook and Twitter both released new features, though in the case of Facebook, it was in a limited release. Mark Zuckerberg finally let his site’s highly anticipated Timeline feature loose… but only in New Zealand. Meanwhile, Twitter’s new features seem to acknowledge that hashtags and constant @ing have made the social network less than intuitive for newcomers. New Twitter brand pages aim to make the site more attractive for businesses and organizations.

End-of-the-year predictions are also starting to emerge, with people pointing at cause marketing in particular as an emerging trend that could explode in 2012. It seems people like to shop at businesses that do good things for the community … Imagine that!

We cover these stories and more in this week’s breakdown of hot news topics. [Read more...]

Why Do People “Like” You on Facebook?

Looking around at the articles, blog posts, guides, and eBooks about Facebook, they all seem to focus on the same question of “How do I get someone to ‘Like’ my Page?”

While getting people to Like your Page is certainly important, many of these how-tos fail for one business or organization and work great for another.

How are you supposed to know what tips will work for you? Start by asking yourself the question, “Why would people Like me?” and let this determine the techniques that will work for your individual situation.

The reason people do business with you ties directly to the quality of service and the perceived value of their interaction with you.

Did you know those are the same reasons people will chose to Like you on Facebook? Of course, being Liked is not a given — 78% of us only Like 10 brands or less. But it can be valuable: According to Syncapse Corp., a Toronto-based social media management software provider, a customer who Likes you is worth $136.38 more than one that does not.

The reason why someone would Like a business or organization on Facebook may be a little different for everyone, but there are some constants that can help you identify your own why: [Read more...]

What Happens After Someone “Likes” Your Facebook Page?

It’s seems like everyone is obsessed with how to get “Likes” for their Facebook Page these days.

Yes, “Likes” are important because when people “Like” your Page, they’re giving you a powerful form of permission. They’re saying they want to hear from you on Facebook.

This keeps your business or organization top of mind.

But “Likes” are only one piece of the puzzle.

What happens after the “Like?”

The truth is, what you do with those Facebook fans is what really matters. The more engaged your audience is, the more success you’ll find with getting comments, getting people sharing your content, and getting people to spread the word about who you are and what you stand for. [Read more...]

Facebook Shares Negative Feedback, and More Hot Stories

It’s been two weeks since we last checked in on the week’s top stories and trends.

In that time, Facebook Insights has gotten, well, more insightful.

We’ve also had the trio of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday all contributing to the country’s bottom line. That’s making people busier than ever, so many of us are looking at the end of the year and hoping we can take some time off.

A recent poll asked business owners what happens on social media when they take vacation. Those stories and more — is Google+ really showing signs of life? — are what we’re buzzing about this week. [Read more...]