Latest Social Media News

I selected this piece by Patricia Redsicker for Social Media Examiner for two reasons -

**It's a great review of Lee Oden's new book Optimize: How to Engage Your Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing 

**The book is timely and relevant it's about optimizing content for customer and user experiences, rather than for search engines which is becoming increasingly important

Here's what caught my attention:

Chapter 1: Setting the Stage for an Optimized State of Mind

**Use words that matter most to your customers in titles, links and body copy in order to inspire your readers to take action

Chapter 9: Content Isn't King, It's the Kingdom - Creation vs. Curation

**mix curated content with original content. In fact,  curating is a great way to extend your own site, but only in addition to—not instead of—your original content

So many great tips on types of content to curate, here are just a few:

**Content created by influential people who are important to your target audience

**Aggregating the best comments from your own or others's blogs

**White papers, ebooks and case studies

**Tips, how-to's and best practices

Chapter 11 Social Networking Development - Don't Be Late to the Networking Party

**Listen, participate, create optiized content and understand the triggers that will inspire sales or referrals

**It's important to know which specific social networks are relevant to your customers

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

Read full article here: [http://tinyurl.com/cycs5g4]

This piece was posted by Loren Sorenson for Hubspot, I selected it because as she says "If you aren’t prepared for the visual content revolution, you may be left in the dust.

Not convinced? Let's take a look at exactly how visual contentis positively contributing to marketing strategies -- it may just give you the push you need

"Learn why visual content is a critical part of your content creation strategy.

Here are some highlights:

**People remember only 20% of what they read

**83% of learning is visual

Condenses and Explains Large Amounts of Information

**Today, there is too much information on the Internet you have about 3 seconds to catch someone’s eyes so they'll consume your information.

Gives Your Brand an Identity

**Visual content draws people in, letting viewers better understand your brand's identity

Drives User Engagement

**If you've ever read a book with a child, you probably know they find pictures more interesting than words; but are adults really that different?

Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/Ifujbp]

I selected this wonderful piece by Michael J. Fern of Intigi because it reinforces the importance of curation and has a lot of great insights.

In this article the author refers to Robert Scoble,who has built an enormous following on several social networks by curating and sharing the latest news about technology and startups.

He says that just like Scobleizer, startups should use curation to catapult their online presence and influence.

**Curation is a useful approach for all companies but especially for startups:

Here's what especially caught my attention:

**Thought Leadership

If outsiders view your company as a key source of  industry informataion, you will quickly build your brand recognition as well as develop trust and goodwill among customers.

**Hub of Information

By being first to market as a content curator in your space and by hosting curated content on your website, you can quickly rise as a primary destination site for those interested in your industry.

**Collections

By creating a bundle of articles, images, videos or websites that relate to a specific them and keeping it updated, this “guide” can become an important resource for social media marketers.

**Content with Commentary

Using 3rd party articles and adding your own point of view you can build a dedicated following. He refers to Daring Fireball, a blog that has built an impressive loyal following of 30,000

One Takeaway: 

**Successful curators often employ several of these approaches in addition to producing their own original content

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/zTGY37]

I selected this piece was written by Chris Sietsema for convinceandconvert blog because the post plus the infographic lays out a very clear and concise plan to create your content marketing strategy.

**Whether you're creating or curating content, this is something I think is very useful. This is why I rescooped this from my content marketing, social media and beyond  topic.

Here are a few highlights from the article:

He compares selecting and producing content to what he calls "bricks" and "feathers".

Bricks are referred to as research reports

**are larger content productions such as research reports, events, white papers        .

    video series, mobile apps, etc

**have the potential to make a larger splash when executed and promoted correctly.

Feathers are comprised of simple text and photo content published via popular social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, etc.

**Less intensive than bricks from a production budget standpoint, feathers are created consistently to maintain an ongoing stream of communication between a brand and its audience.

The infographic shows you how to discern what content to use and illustrates the how, what, why and when to use it.

Curated by Jan Gordon covering, "Content Marketing, Social Media and Beyond"

Read article and see infographic here: [http://bit.ly/A6NhFb]

This article and infographic was posted by Ted Nguyen for his blog.

Intro:

One of the most pressing questions whether you're new to social media or a social media maven is: What's the best way to post information or share content to optimize your reach

Compendium, a content marketing firm conducted a study of more than 200 companies to determine how social media professionals may optimize their engagement with both business-to-business-to-consumer conversations.

What they found is consistent with what Ted Nguyen has experienced and he has demonstrated that he clearly knows what he's doing

Here are some highlights:

"My experience in sharing more than 21,000 tweets and Facebook posts to my more than 82,000 Twitter followers and Facebook friends is consistent with the study’s findings"

.

**I recommend the hours between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Pacific Time) or 1 to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time) are the best times for Twitter and Facebook to optimize social engagement engagement.

**I find that tweets shared earlier in the week do better than those sent later in the week. I also have discovered that Facebook posts do best Wednesday early afternoon.

**if you look at Ted's social shares, they run around the clock. he tries his best to engage with people in real time or near real time.

Selected by Jan Gordon covering: "Curation, Social Business and Beyond" 

Read article and see infographic here: [http://bit.ly/VG0xGL]

Infographic by DKNewMedia

Survey by Compendium

I chose this infographic and article from Blackbaud because it helps you go from social media to social business. It was written for non-profits but it definitely applies to any business as well.

By understanding how to evaluate people by their degree of influence and their ability to help change behavior in others can be invaluable to you and your organization.

**It's also important to use this information to understand how you and your organization fit into this mix. They say knowledge is power, once you have a clearer picture, you can shift what you're doing and take your business or cause to the next level for greater results.

Intro:

"Understanding the Value of Your Social Media Influencers: How to Identify and Empower Those Who Can Engage an Entire Community!

(Download the White Paper Today!)"

Here are some highlights:

**Learn how to use the information your consitiuents are sharing to attract more people to your mission, campaign.

**Learn how to analyze your database and assign social scores to engagers that represents their ability to interact with and influence others across their online networks

**Based on the social score you assign to these individuals, you can then segment them into one of four categories, each of which plays a diferent role on social networks, relevant to your business

Here are the categories:

Key Influencers - They have a powerful impact not only the people they know but also others they don't know. Their posts are widely spread and shared by more people than many other people

art

Engagers - These people have well-established social networks and are strong influencers of people they know personally

Multichannel Consumers - They enjoy keeping up with social media conent and occasionally participate. Their influence is not a dominent part of their persona

Standard Consumers These engagers read and watc updates more than they create new content or make comments. They are more influenced by family and friends.

Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

Read article and see infographic here: [http://bit.ly/N4a2Km]