Articles in ‘Social Media’

• Are Facebook Apps driving new traffic?

  by Webfusion in Social Media on February 17th, 2012 Post a comment

  Just when you begin to think that maybe Facebook isn’t for business, they seem to find a new winning element.

  The latest wave of media apps built and launched via Facebook’s Open Graph Thursday look set to follow the success of the Washington Post Social Reader and The Guardian‘s social news app which have both been driving traffic, increasing engagement and helping the media giants reach new demographics – have you noticed them popping up consistently on your timeline.

  The latest set of apps include Huffington Post (technically launched in November 2011) and Mashable, already big points of call for news for many, but now even easier to track from within Facebook. The interesting thing is the change to the sharing experience. With default settings the share is automatic, no need to click anything more than the headline of the story you want to read, before it is shared with your followers. The show-offs in us love it, and the first set of stats back that up.

  Since the launch of the first wave of apps last year Yahoo News has seen 25 million people choose to opt into its Social Bar and the app now has some 2 million daily users. The Guardian‘s app has been installed 5 million times and with 50% of users ages 24 and under, has had a massive impact on the demographic reach of the UK-based newspaper.

  With news paywalls still in the balance, the success of these first Facebook sharing apps may see more and more news outlets looking to follow. With news so readily available, the share of the branded news is the aim, so spread the word and show value to advertisers.

  Are you using any of the new media apps?

• Teaching by YouTube

  by Webfusion in Social Media on December 20th, 2011 Post a comment

  YouTube has a new version of its video-streaming service aimed at pleasing pernickity teachers. YouTube For Schools blocks the vast majority of YouTube videos, showing instead only educational clips so no sneezing kittens or extreme stunts.

  YouTube claim that students can learn from more than 400,000 educational videos that fall within the educational remit and include those  from well-known organizations including Stanford, PBS and TED. There are several YouTube specialists also operating in the field like Steve Spangler Science and numberphile and with this latest initiative you can be sure there will soon be many more. Schools are also given the opportunity to customize their YouTube for Schools experience by selecting what videos are viewable within their school network

  In a blog post, product manager Brian Truong said, “We’ve been hearing from teachers that they want to use the vast array of educational videos on YouTube in their classrooms, but are concerned that students will be distracted by the latest music video or video of a cute cat.”

  With many schools already blocking YouTube access from within their networks, the video giant will be hoping this move will tempt some institutions to re-enable the site for students.

  Here’s YouTube’s own promo video
  

  Can YouTube operate on a dual-content level?

   

   

   

• Facebook making more referrals

  by Webfusion in Business trends, Social Media on December 2nd, 2011 Post a comment

  Whatever the promise, the reality of the value of Google+ for small business compared to Facebook was highlighted this week by a study from Net Applications. Their latest findings suggest that not only does Facebook dominate the social networking field in terms of numbers but also in terms of return for business. According to their figures, almost two-thirds of web referalls from social networks during the month of November came through Facebook. By comparison, Twitter and new kid on the block Google+ made insignificant contributions.

  Showing its growth as a serious competitor LinkedIn showed more than three times as many referrals as Twitter, but importantly Facebook was so dominant it does suggest that changing peoples’ attitudes to move from one social network to another is going to be very difficult.

  What are your own findings?

   

   

• Social Media is for life not just a campaign

  by Webfusion in Social Media on November 18th, 2011 Post a comment

  Everybody in business nowadays thinks they have tobe on social media. It’s true it can have massive benefits for your business, but it can also be massively detrimental to your business if you don’t use it right.

  If you treat social media like a spare tyre, as and when you can be bothered, it will do your business and brand much more harm than good. Social media is about being reponsive and responsible, it is about interaction and positive action, you can’t get away with leaving it for weeks, days or even hours. If you launch with a social media arm make sure you give it the resources it deserves and demands to properly serve it.

  One step towards that is to set a daily and weekly routine. Social media is most effective of course when you are reactive to changes in the news, or questions from your customers, but in order to reach the stage where that will be effective you first need a solid base, building up followers and serving them on a regular basis.

  We don’t claim to have all the answers but the following may form a good basis for those starting out in the social media sphere or those looking to realign what they do:

  1. Check your social networks at the start of the day and the end of the day.
  Make sure you act upon any questions, queries or complaints too.

  2. Run google alerts daily to email you
  When you received the emails with mentions of your website, brand and products and check through them- if somebody is talking about you you need to know what they are saying and be able to act quickly and appropiately.

  3. Keep a note of your brand advocates
  People who talk positively about you are well worth keeping track off. With Twitter you can  favourite any positive posts and also build lists so you can keep a better eye on what they are saying.

  4. Add regular content
  How often really depends on your project, but weekly is probably the bare minimum. It can be a comment, blog, photo or video, but it needs to be something your followers can interact with. Social media is all about engagement and interaction with your followers.

  5. Keep track of your traffic
  There are statistic tools built into the likes of Facebook and countless tools you can sign up to track twitter and your website visitors, just make sure you are using something and paying attention to those stats. If a particular day brought in much more traffic, it pays to know why, so you can possibly try to replicate it.

  Just 5 quick tips, but important as at the very heart of every successful business nowadays lies social media, and while you need not be a social media guru for success you do need to do these basics correctly.

• Free Facebook ads for Small Biz

  by Webfusion in marketing, Social Media on September 29th, 2011 Post a comment

  Facebook is to invest $10 million into a new scheme that will mean free advertising for small businesses.

  Facebook Marketing Solutions is part of a partnership with the National Federation of Independent Business and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ans is se to roll out during the next few months.

  From the start of 2012, Facebook will then be giving each qualifying business at least $50 of free advertising on the Facebook platform.

  As the social network aims to convince more businesses that Facebook has a benefit for them, they are also promising a stackof free resources and information to help businesses market themselves via Facebook.

  Mobile reps will be despatched by Facebook to get out there and meet with small business owners in person. The existing Facebook self-service ad platform is best set-up for small advertisers making this the obvious target market to expand sales.

  The reps will have their work cut out for them however. Recent studies suggest 64% of small businesses think social media is unnecessary.

• Do you YouTube?

  by Webfusion in marketing, Online Business, Social Media, Tech News on August 1st, 2011 Post a comment

  If you’ve dabbled but never really got to grips with how to best use YouTube, then now may be your opportunity.

  YouTube have launched the first edition of the YouTube Creator Playbook. It is designed to give partners and creators important tips, best practices, and strategies that will help build audiences on YouTube.

  YouTube say they will keep the Playbook (downloadable as a PDF) updated as new features are released and the servive evolves and shows a very strong commitment to ensure that YouTube continues to grow but also maintains a consistent high quality amongst the top channels.

  Worth a look even for the curious and a must for anybody looking to use video as a marketing tool.

  Have you been inspired by the YouTube Playbook?

• Internet Explorer 6.0? PHP4? Not if you’re blogging

  by Webfusion in Social Media, Tech News on July 21st, 2011 Post a comment

  The blogging community have not always been the fastest to respond or update to the latest software. Experienced bloggers are often a bit-geeky and seem to even like making life more difficult for themselves for the sake of being loyal to their old favourites. Switching blogger software is possible but rarely done, so as expected there have been a few grumbles from the blogging fraternity over the latest WordPress release.

  WordPress 3.2 (‘Gershwin’) enjoyed over 330,000 downloading  the upgrade in the first 24 hours earlier this month (Have you upgraded?) but owners Automatic, promoting it as ‘lighter and faster’ have been a little bit quiet about some of the lack of compatibility the new version suffers from.

  3.2 has lots of nice new features. The new default theme ‘Twenty Eleven’ runs powerful HTML5  designed to keep WordPress powered sites looking cutting-edge and there is also a full-screen writing mode to allow you to concentrate on writing.

  Yet, some of the back-end changes have cut compatibility dramatically. In version 3.2, WordPress no longer supports PHP4, nor versions of MySQL prior to 5.0, plus if you are using Internet Explorer 6.0 you can no longer use the admin console.

  That’s an interesting decision given that many bloggers are some of the most die-hard, committed to tried and trusted software and operating systems, but the reasoning is, if users haven’t upgraded their browser they are not likely to be upgrading their WordPress install either.

  Have you tried 3.2? What are your thoughts?

• Google +. Are you in?

  by Webfusion in Social Media, Tech News on June 30th, 2011 Post a comment

  Google’s selected few were this week invited to take part in the latest social media project from the online giant: Google PLUS.
  So positive was the uptake, we were told, Google had to close the system to new sign-ups within days – it is a test project to be fair. Yet, ironically the very might it seeks to take on, Twitter, then became alive with various back-doors and bugs as to how those already in, could sign up their friends, and so the network grew.

  The idea behind Google + is to share and discuss status updates, photos and links as you would in Facebook but within a more intimate group. ‘Circles’ as they are called are the focus – colleagues, best mates, sportsteam teammates etc – and to help there is even group text messaging and video chat facilities. In looks, it has the appearance of a clinical Facebook – lots of white space, simple links, nothing too fussy.

  Google claim it is more like real life – you have more control and more privacy. Yet from our own first look and the thoughts of others, that all seems a gray area. There’s been an interesting set of ‘bugs’ to get new people signed up – were these really bugs or were they deliberate holes left there to encourage the network to grow virally. COuld this be Google’s very own social media experiment? Is this the online equivalent of The Truman Show? Could all the users trying to get to grips with Google’s new offering be unwittingly part of an online documentary about the way humans use social media? Have they given us a toy and are watching how we use it to get an insight into how to create the ultimate web / networking tool?

  We will have to wait and see.

  Have  you had an invite to Google +? What are your thoughts?

• Why a picture can tell a thousand words

  by Webfusion in marketing, misc, Social Media on June 2nd, 2011 Post a comment

  The rise of the QR code has not been as swift as many had predicted. They have been successfully used in Japan (their country of birth) for many years, but it is only now with the uptake of smartphones that people are beginning to see their worth.

  Even last year’s Calvin Klein ad, was seen as something of a novelty rather than a ground-shift, but all the indicators now suggest the QR is about to go big.

  QR codes (short for Quick Response) first appeared in Japan. Created within the Toyota group back in the mid 1990′s originally as a way of scanning and identifying contents and parts at high speed, the spread of smartphones in the populated country has seen them used in just about every possible advertising market. Yet, only in the past 12 months have marketeers elsewhere really jumped onboard their usefulness.

  A matrix barcode, the uptake of smartphones mean more and more people have the ability to read them at home, in the office or on the move. A unique identifier, they can be used to embed text or almost any data but their main take-up in recent months has been to pictorialize a URL.

  Read the rest of this entry

• Micro-blogging on Macro rise

  by Webfusion in misc, Social Media on May 19th, 2011 Post a comment

  Tumblr has been around since 2007 but in the last year or so has made a massive in-roads into the social-networking sphere as particularly the younger generation flock to take advantage of its micro blogging functions.

  If you’ve not seen Tumblr before it’s kind of Twitter meets a blog. A short blog that can often consist of re-blogging what you find elsewhere. It’s the kind of stuff that many now use Facebook for, posting their favourite YouTube videos and the like, but Tumblr is more out there in the open internet, broadcasting to the world and creating a few personalities of its own.

  Others have described it as text meets email which is another fair comment, but however you see it or others see it, nobody can deny that Tumblr is on the move up. Back in July 2009 it recorded monthly page views of 250 million. Earlier this month it recorded 250 million page views in one single day!

  

  The success of the platform is its ease and personal nature. Few see it as a business tool, it is probably too informal for that, but we recall people saying the same about Facebook just a year or so ago. The popularity of Tumblr is rooted amongst creative types. It allows you to show flair and an insight into your personality that other networks perhaps have more constraints over.

  Yet, the success of Tumblr means companies are at least taking an interest. At the moment this appears to be mainly publications and news sites like The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Rolling Stone magazine, where their profile sits more comfortably with the existing Tumblr user base, but expect more and more corporates to give it a try as they push for the social media lead.