Latest Social Media News

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"

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**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

Via janlgordon

This piece and infographic is from Adam Vincenzini on his blog.

 

I selected this article because it's another way for you to find key influencers and these tools will help to narrow your search

 

Here are some highlights:

 

Instead of focusing on the subjectivity of this process (and how this insight is deployed) Here's how you can use a combination of free tools to narrow your search.

 

Where do online influencers operate?

**They are active everywhere:

 

     Most popular are:

     blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Online

     communities, discussion boards

 

Assumptions:

 

**Influencers are active on Twitter

**Influencers operate some for of blogging hub

 

Focus on the intelligence you can glean from Twitter initially then verify this initial sweep with blog (or relevant hub) data

 

The initial steps involve:

 

1. Search by keyword

2. Search by location

 

3 tools useful in the process: The first two you can also search by location:

 

**followerwonk.com - then run this through another influencer tool -   

     tweetlevel to give it even more relevance (this isn't fool proof)

**locafollow.com

**twingulate.com

 

There are more suggestions in this piece having said that:

 

**No matter how hard we try, a 100% fool proof influence rating is near on impossible because influence is not a science, it can't be.

 

** this can help narrow things down, significantly

 

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

 

Read full article here: [http://tinyurl.com/7humubp]

Via janlgordon, Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com

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]

Via janlgordon, ABroaderView, roberto toppi

This piece was written by Belinda Stinson for Jeff Bullas's blog

 

Jan Gordon: My commentary

 

This is one of the suggestions that was mentioned in tis article but I can't stress this enough, it should be #1

 

After you've discovered who the right influencers are, always look for ways you can sincerely contribute to them that is meaningful, then find ways to leverage the relationship and make it a win/win for both of you. 

 

Intro:

 

 "if you want to grow your business, you need to know who the influencers are in your field, learn from their expertise and build a productive professional relationship with them".

 

Why leverage influencers?:

 

"Influencers are hubs of information, they have many followers who respect their recommendations and opionions and being featured by them sends a powerful amount of targeted traffic your way - It's good old fashioned word of mouth recommendations on steriods"

Here are a few ways to discover influencers that I personally do myself:

**Twitter Lists - Twitter is a great untapped resource for finding influencers and keep track of what they are posting

**Groups and Forums - These are valuable sources of information.

**Podcasts and webinars - This is a great way to find key influencers - whether it's through interviews, presentations, information products of their own or curated information by others

Here are a few ways to build relationships that I've found very effective in finding influencers in my industry:

 

**Connect through the social media platforms they use

 

**Share the posts that are of value to your audience, retweet & quote their content, share, comment and like their Facebook posts

 

**Help promote what they are involved with, including charity causes, seminars, conferences, publiations and promotions

 

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

 

See full articles here: [bit.ly/Nw9xqY]

Via janlgordon

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]

Via janlgordon

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]

Via janlgordon

One thing most social networking services have in common is the inability to do something creative with your posts.

 

is there any social networking service out there that allows styling in the approach that word processors use? Well yes there is! As a matter of fact, one of the newest and most rapidly growing sites is actually doing just that.

 

Google+ has some “brackets” that you can use to style your posts, however it seems most people don’t know about them.

 

**There are 3 ways you can style your posts, and Simon Heyes put them together together a small guide for you all.

 

Selected  by Jan Gordon covering "Google+ Watch"

 

Read article and see full infographic here: [http://bit.ly/HYLUU8]

Via janlgordon