Tactics for Social Media

Tactics for Social Media

Social media marketing has become an incredible power in the world of online
marketing. And why not? With an estimated 65% of Americans reporting that
they utilize social media sites, these types of networking hubs have become
the perfect place to reach out to any type of audience you wish to target.

Social media sites also allow businesses, big and small, to show a more
personal side of their brand. These sites open up different avenues to
creatively reach current and potential customers. Many brands put their own
videos, photos, articles and even coupons on their social media sites to
encourage engagement and boost sales.

However, each of these sites feature different ways to reach out to a broad
audience. In order to properly utilize this area of SEO, social media
marketing must be approached in a smart and strategic way. Some of the top
social media sites include Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Depending on the
type of business you run and the overall goal you have for your social media
campaign, not all of these sites may perfectly help you convey your business
message and overall philosophy. Below are some brief outlines of what types
of marketing campaigns each of these sites works best for, followed by some
helpful tips to boost engagement on each specific social media site.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking site that allows companies to create "Pages"
to represent their brand. With the semi-recent transition to the timeline
format, Facebook brand pages read almost like a yearbook of accomplishments
for the company. Facebook is ideal for companies that are looking to create
a more personal and open relationship with their clients. Many companies
post photos and videos of new products, employee events and updates to their
page. Facebook also allows brands to host contests and conduct polls.

Tips for Engagement

1. Post at the Right Time of Day - Studies have shown that more people are
active on Facebook during the weekdays. Many studies have also shown that
posting between 11am-4pm EST is the most effective.

2. Ask a Question - Status updates that ask for the opinion of your fans
typically illicit more likes and comments. People like to share their
thoughts and feel that they have an influence on the brands they love.

3. Utilize Visuals, but Keep it Simple - It's important to not just make
posts that are purely words. Relevant photos, videos, and other graphics
have been shown to increase fan engagement. But it is important to keep
these posts simple. Fans tend to become less engaged if you post multiple
photos in a row, so choose wisely, and give your fans time to enjoy each
unique post.

Twitter

Twitter is a 140-character playroom for celebrities, brands, politicians and
many others to express their thoughts and promote ideas in a quick and
simple way. Twitter gives you the ability to design a personal page with a
photo, 140-character biography and complete control over the background
wallpaper. Twitter's simplicity is why so many people use it to quickly
catch up on news from friends, their favorite companies and even their
horoscope. Twitter is ideal for companies that wish to share quick links
back to their website or blog, promotions, and reach particular groups or
people through the use of hashtags and direct messaging.

Tips for Engagement

1. Pay Attention to Hashtag Trends - When you are exploring your Twitter
homepage, pay special attention to the lower left hand corner of the page.
There you will see a small list of terms marked with a "#" and labeled
"Trending Now." These terms are called "hashtags" and they are used to group
together tweets sent out on the same topic. Be sure to pay attention to
these and when you see any that pertain to your business, include them in a
Tweet with a link back to your website.

2. "RT to Support!" - The "Retweet" is a great way to increase engagement
and gain more followers. When someone "retweets" something you post, it
becomes visible to all of his or her followers, and it can continue to move
from there. Adding "RT to Support" or some other variation like #RT or
#Retweet will help encourage others to retweet your post and therefore lead
to more retweets and visibility for your brand.

Google+

Google+ is an interesting combination of professional and playful. In some
ways, it works like Facebook, allowing you to provide status updates and
post on your friends' pages. However, it has some other features unique to
Google+ that allow it to be used as a purely professional resource as well.
With Google+ you can separate people into different groups making it easy to
create targeted messages based on who you want to see them. Google+ is best
for companies that wish to target different types of people and also for
those looking for a social networking site that combines playful and
professional.

Tips for Engagement

1. Use the "Circle" Feature - This feature allows you to group people on
your friends list and send specific marketing messages to them.

2. Comment Often - Be sure to engage with others. When someone shares an
article pertinent to your industry, thank him or her and share the link on
your own page. Hopefully they will return the favor.

3. Be Sure to Checkout Hangouts - Different brands will host video chats or
"live-streaming hangouts" to help connect better with fans. Attend often and
consider hosting your own.

By utilizing these social media sites for the correct purpose and in the
right way, you can significantly impact your online marketing goals. Knowing
the direction to go in will help you work smarter, not harder and put you
far ahead of the competition.

my motto is "Keep it simple" and "don't leave anything for tomorrow that can
be done today."

If you have any questions or comments please contact me.

Regards Gerald

Website: http://www.webcraft.ws
E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws
Twitter: WebcraftGuru
Facebook: Webcraft Guru


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Learning From Facebook's Mistakes

Learning From Facebook's Mistakes

Observers of Internet trends often pronounce that privacy is a fiction and
that it is futile to try to reclaim it. Whether that perspective is correct
or not does not matter when faced with a Complaint issued by the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC). The Facebook Complaint and Consent Order recently
issued by the FTC provides valuable lessons for how to stay out of the FTC's
crosshairs. Internet attorneys, businesses, consultants and advisors should
study what the FTC views as deceptive in order to make necessary adjustments
to business plans and operations.

In the U.S., there is no federal law that requires a website to have a
privacy policy. However, California requires any website that collects
personally identifiable information from California residents to have a
privacy policy. Therefore, in practice, based upon the California law, most
websites would be required to have a privacy policy. As far as the FTC is
concerned (which operates on the federal level), there is no absolute
requirement to have a privacy policy, but if a website does have a privacy
policy, failure to comply with the policy will be considered a deceptive
practice in violation of the FTC Act. As will be explored below, the FTC is
not shy at splitting hairs, in search of deceptive practice claims.

Below is a discussion of some of the more significant and relevant claims of
deceptive practices alleged by the FTC Complaint. It should be noted that in
the FTC Consent, Facebook denied all allegations.

1. Facebook privacy pages offered options to restrict profile information to
"Only Friend" or "Friends of Friends". However, even when such options were
selected, Facebook often still provided profile information to an
application that a Friend was using on their Facebook page. Such information
included a user's birthday, hometown, activities, interests, status updates,
marital status, education (e.g., schools attended), place of employment,
photos, and videos. Even though Facebook allowed users to restrict this
access through other pages, Facebook nevertheless represented, according to
the FTC, either expressly or by implication, that access could be limited to
"Friends" or "Friends of Friends" on the Profile Privacy Page, and did not
indicate that further actions would be required to restrict access to
applications of friends.

LESSON: As seen by the above claim, a disconnect between the Privacy Policy
and the technical personnel implementing strategies can result in a claim by
the FTC for deceptive practices. Furthermore, statements in a Privacy Policy
must be vetted to verify that they do not claim, or appear to claim, a
higher level of privacy than is actually provided.

2. In November, 2009, Facebook changed its privacy policy to designate
certain user information as "publicly available" which change applied
retroactively to information provided by users prior to the change. For
instance, many users selected privacy settings to (i) restrict profile
information from applications used by a Friend, (ii) restrict their Friends
List, and (iii) restrict access to profile pictures and pages from users
using the "search" function . To implement the privacy changes, Facebook
required each user to click through a multi-page notice, known as the
"Privacy Wizard." According to the FTC, the Privacy Wizard did not disclose
adequately that users no longer could restrict access to the
newly-designated publicly available information via their profile privacy
settings or that their existing choices to restrict access to such
information via these settings would be overridden.

The FTC alleged that the Privacy Wizard, either explicitly or by
implication, indicated that users would have "more control" over their
privacy settings, above the prior settings. Which the FTC claimed was not
the case. Facebook did not adequately explain that the new changes overrode
prior settings as to name, profile picture, gender, friend list, pages, or
networks. The FTC claimed that Facebook's failure to adequately disclose
these facts, in light of the representations made, constituted a deceptive
act or practice.

LESSON: Changes made retroactively to prior privacy settings without
informed consent, amounts to an unfair act or practice. The FTC requires
that (i) material changes to a Privacy Policy be conspicuously disclosed,
(ii) users affirmatively opt-in to material changes that affect personally
identifiable information previously collected, and (iii) material changes to
Privacy Policies be explained clearly and truthfully. As a note, the
simplest way to obtain affirmative consent is the next time a user comes to
the website, he or she is directed to an explanatory process and given the
option to consent to the new changes.

3. The FTC Complaint states numerous examples of statements from Facebook
that even though non-identifiable information is shared with advertisers so
that they can provide advertisements targeted to the particular user,
personally-identifying information is never provided to an advertiser
without prior consent of the user. However, the FTC noted that if ads were
clicked, then Facebook would provide to the advertiser a unique ID that
Facebook assigns to each user. Apparently, advertisers could use the ID to
identify the person. Then they could match criteria that they had selected
for serving ads to that person. (e.g., if the ad targeted 23-year-old men
who were "Interested In" men and "liked" a prescription drug, the advertiser
could ascribe these traits to a specific user), plus the date, time and ad
visited. Over time additional traits could be identified.

LESSON: This Claim is the easiest to understand and comply with. Personally
identifiable information can only be disclosed as set forth in a Privacy
Policy or in a manner otherwise consented to by the user.

BOTTOM LINE: Privacy Policies must be carefully drafted, and be clear and
accurate. Management and technical personnel should review and confirm the
contents of the Privacy Policy. Privacy Policies should be regularly
reviewed to verify that procedural or technical changes are reflected in the
Privacy Policy. Material changes to a Privacy Policy that affect previously
collected personal user information require affirmative consent from the
users. As a result of the FTC Consent, Facebook is now subject to detailed
scrutiny and reporting for the next 20 years. It's important to keep up with
changing Internet laws.

If you have any questions or comments please contact me.

Regards Gerald

Website: http://www.webcraft.ws
E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws
Twitter: WebcraftGuru
Facebook: Webcraft Guru


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Understanding Social Networks

Understanding Social Networks

You know you should listen to your customers and you are aware that social
media has been the new way for people to express their opinions about
products and services. But what are the platforms available and what are the
differences between each one of them? Here is a quick guide for you:

FACEBOOK

What it is: It is the most popular social network with over 800 million
users. People usually build profiles to keep in touch with family and
friends. Lately it has been used by businesses as a marketing tool. On
Facebook people can send and receive messages, chat online, post pictures
and share links and videos. They can also "like" a page. There are six types
of pages: local businesses, companies, products, artists, entertainment and
community. Facebook offers many options to interact such as the Wall, photo
albums, comments space and the "like" button, where people click if they
like the comment or post. If users don't like something or someone, they
have the option of blocking the person's updates or deleting the person from
their profile.

What do you need to know: Facebook is a great way to generate customer
loyalty and there are many ways to do it. But because it's a very personal
network, people don't appreciate when businesses overload their pages with
information or un-wanted promotions and they usually block the pages if that
happens. The best way to increase interaction is by sharing useful content,
asking customers' opinions and giving quick answers - Facebook users really
expect you to reply A.S.A.P. In other words, show you care about them and
they'll care about you.

Vocabulary you need to know:

Wall - page where people post and receive comments;

NewsFeed - page where Facebook shows the users what is going on with friends
and pages they like. It shows popular posts first and then most recent ones.

TWITTER

What it is: It is a platform that shows real-time updates. On Twitter you
can choose which updates you want to see and you can also use the search
engine to look up other people's updates on a specific subject. Businesses
can use Twitter to inform about their products and services and to see what
people are saying about them. Twitter was created in 2006 as a texting
program and grew to be the only real-time information platform in the world.

What do you need to know: Twitter is a great way to spread the word about
your business. People sign up for it to get news before anyone else - so
make sure you post there first. Many times, news was on Twitter before it
appeared on big media channels such as CNN. Twitter updates can be only 140
characters long.

Vocabulary you need to know: Twitter has a very particular vocabulary. Users
are called Tweeters and are divided in two categories:

Followers - people that see your updates, and Following - people that you
choose to see updates from. Also, the updates - or the things you write -
are called tweets.

FOURSQUARE

What it is: It is the first location based platform for mobile devices
(smart phones, iPods, iPads). It is not as popular as Facebook and Twitter,
but it has been growing fast. People use it to "check-in" at places and to
show their friends where they are. They can also leave comments and reviews
about the place they are at.

What do you need to know: Foursquare offers many tools to attract customers
to your venue and it is a great opportunity for a business to grow loyalty
and to get new customers. Facebook has a similar feature (Facebook Places)
but FourSquare lets customers write reviews right away and search for places
nearby. Businesses can use FourSquare to give away coupons, prizes and
virtual badges, making the whole experience feel like a fun game. The
platform offers a dashboard (a data report) where you can see when and how
many people went to your place.

REVIEW WEBSITES (Yelp, Google+, Urbanspoon, TripAdvisor, Superpages, Yahoo!
Local, MerchantCircle)

What it is: Websites that provide information about a business, including
location, hours of operations, amenities and customer reviews. Each website
has different features but they are all very similar in content.

What do you need to know: Review websites are really important for
businesses. Google revealed that 97% of customers look online for a new
place to go. And they are influenced by other people's opinion. So make sure
you monitor every website and respond to each bad review you get with an
explanation. Customers really appreciate it when a businesses' owner takes
the time to do it.

GOOGLE+

What it is: It is the newer social network out there. It's still in beta
phase (a testing period) but it promises wonders. There has been a lot of
talk about Google's new platform but the network was opened to the general
public in late September/2011. It is very similar to Facebook but it's
evolved around Google tools.

What do you need to know: Nothing yet. Google+ just launched its Business
pages and while big brands and professionals are crazy about it, customers
are not there yet. Keep one eye on it too. It could become a powerful
network once it incorporates all Google services.

If you have any questions or comments please contact me.

Regards Gerald

Website: http://www.webcraft.ws
E-mail: gerald@webcraft.ws
Twitter: WebcraftGuru
Facebook: Webcraft Guru


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