Mashable Announces: Unfazed by Facebook, Google Rolls Out Social Search Globally
Posted By Jared Cook:
Here is a recent post from Mashable, written by Stan Schroeder, about Goolge expanding their social search feature to 19 more languages.
Unfazed by Facebook, Google Rolls Out Social Search Globally
Google will roll out its somewhat controversial Social Search feature to 19 more languages next week, the company announced on its official blog.
Launched in October 2009, Social Search is a feature that combines regular search results with publicly available data created by your friends’ social media activities.
Your “friends” are quite loosely defined and include people in your Google Talk friends list, your Google Contacts, people you’re following on Buzz and Google Reader and other networks you’ve linked from your Google profile or Google Account. Google can also find your friends on public networks such as Twitter and Facebook and gather the data from their public connections as well.
The feature was recently the subject of controversy, as Facebook hired a PR company to push negative stories about Social Search in the press. Facebook claims that Google’s practices raise “serious privacy concerns,” and it’s unhappy with the fact that Google can use Facebook data for its service without Facebook’s permission.
For the most part, Google has stayed silent about the issue, although it’s noticeable that in its latest blog postabout Social Search, Twitter is mentioned three times while Facebook is nowhere to be seen.
Social Search should be available in 19 languages next week, with more languages on the way. Check out a video overview of the feature below.
Thank You to David Day from ithinkbigger.com for Featuring Valerie Jennings’ article: Promoting a Green Brand
Posted By: Jamie Sutera, VP of R&D
Thank you to David Day from ithinkbigger.com for featuring Valerie Jennings’, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing, article: Promoting a Green Brand.
How to drive a key message without greenwashing.
By Valerie Jennings
Most businesses that are focused on sustainability are doing the right thing for the right reason. These businesses also want to share their efforts with consumers without looking too self-promotional.
In April 2008, a corporate sustainability study sought to determine the greenest eco blogs, websites and other social networks.
The research scored more than 100 green websites for recommendations on which blogs, websites and other communities were the “darkest to lightest” green. This scoring model is not new. In fact, in 2008, Experian announced the greenest (most committed to the environment) to the brownest (very little concern for the planet) consumer markets.
Both of these projects required reviewing corporate green behaviors, attitudes and other forms of promotion to get the word out that green was important to companies. The lessons learned through these types of studies by national brands and large corporations can be applied by small businesses in promoting their own green efforts.
Key Lessons in Marketing Your Greenness
-Be truthful, and you don’t have to worry about greenwashing (i.e., making misleading claims or promoting superficial environmental efforts). Use disclaimers, be honest and use your brand to advance education, awareness, media exposure and promotions. -Use social media to promote green messages, connect with green bloggers, tweeples, social networks and press.
-Reach out to the Earth Day Network.
-Marketwire, a PR distribution platform, works. Green reporters research subject matter experts online for article sources. Use this tool to connect.
-Measure success via Google search results, media coverage, Twitter followers, blog traffic, contests, Web video views, Facebook likes, e-mail opt-ins and leads.
-Reach out to green bloggers who are appropriate for your brand. The most green or most liberal environmentalists may not want to hear about a medium-green product, company, service or expert.
-Stay focused on where the key listeners are around the product. Use blog or PR research to speak with the appropriate reporters and engage the right community.
Learn from the ‘Big Guys’
Proctor & Gamble has made a continuing commitment to greening its corporation. Its website has a long list of eco goals, but the reporting is still lax, difficult to read and challenging to evaluate.
The best online green results from a major brand, on the other hand, are from Coke. At a green conference several years ago, a presentation by Coke’s VP of marketing was packed with data, published timelines to make an impact on cutting back on Coke’s water usage in developing countries, information on their execution plan and ways they were working to get the plan moving. Coke’s website still has the goals published, and the results from the past few years are available. Go Coke! It appears Coke has decreased its water usage every year since it launched its sustainability plan.
Follow Coke’s example and share your green goals, timelines and progress with consumers by posting on your website. Promoting your green efforts is another way to differentiate your company from the competition.
Valerie Jennings is CEO and founder of Jennings Social Media Marketing, a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results. Valerie@jenningssocialmedia.com // Twitter: @valeriejennings //www.facebook.com/jenningssocialmedia //www.linkedin.com/in/jenningspr
Facebook Drives More Traffic Than Twitter
Posted By: Kerry Phouthavong
Facebook has quickly been emerging to surpass Twitter in driving traffic to their website. Facebook users have been driving traffic to many of the top news sites, making it evident that Facebook’s corporate strategy has been what is differentiating themselves from other competitors, including Twitter. A recent article on mashable.com, written by Sarah Kessler, includes statistical data and more on the significance in increasing traffic.
The study looked at Nielsen data from the 25 news websites with the highest number of unique monthly visitors. About 35% to 40% of traffic to the sites came from links on other sites, as opposed to readers typing in a URL directly or clicking to another page on the same site.
Unsurprisingly, Google dominated this referral traffic. On average, the company’s search and news products accounted for about 30% of all clicks. But Facebook also referred a significant percentage of each site’s audience.
The Huffington Post was boosted the most by Facebook referrals, which accounted for 8% of its unique visitors. The New York Times derived 6% of its traffic from the social network.
For all its success at breaking news, Twitter did not have the same effect. The site with the highest percentage of traffic from Twitter, The Los Angeles Times, could only credit the micro-blogging platform with 3.53% of its traffic. Twitter referred a much smaller percentage of traffic to other sites in the study.
Part of the discrepancy between Facebook and Twitter referrals is their disparate user bases. Facebook has more than 500 million users while Twitter has 200 million accounts— many of them inactive.
The Royal Wedding Breaks Record for Live Streaming
Posted By: Jared Cook
Here is a recent article from Mashable, written by Adam Ostrow about the recent Royal Wedding breaking the record for live streaming.
Royal Wedding Breaks Live Streaming Records
The Royal Wedding has already taken over trending topics across the web, and we can now report that it has broken at least one record: concurrent viewers on Livestream.
The company says that its livestream of William and Kate’s wedding topped 300,000 concurrent viewers at 6 a.m. ET on Friday morning. CEO Max Haot tells us that he expects “at least 2 million” unique viewers by the time the broadcast is done. Livestream partnered with the Associated Press, UK Press Association, CBS and Entertainment Tonight for its coverage.
Akamai reports that the event broke broader live streaming records as well. A representative for the company — whose network hosts some of the web’s largest news sites — reports that “concurrent live streams of Royal Wedding on Akamai surpassed the 1.6M peak set by World Cup in June of 2010.”
However, the event does not appear to be the biggest news event in web history. While the 4.6 million page views per minute reported on the news sites Akamai delivers content for this morning surpass the total for Barack Obama’s presidential election victory, they fall well short of the 10.3 million page views per minute record set last June when a World Cup qualifying match and the longest Wimbledon match in history took place simultaneously.
Jennings Social Media Marketing Office and Staff Photos on CNN iReport
Posted By: Jared Cook
Recently, we uploaded some pictures of the Jennings office and staff on CNN iReport.
Here was our message to iReport
iReport —
Hi CNN,
Thank you for this great opportunity to share our office with your viewers.
We are located in the Kansas City metro area. Here are the names of the individuals in the pictures, who work at Jennings Social Media Marketing (www.jenningssocialmedia.com).
Valerie Jennings; CEO and founder
Jamie Sutera; VP of R&D
Jared Cook: VP of marketing
Ben Parks: senior VP of Web design and development
Micah Pratt: social networking R&D
Mikimoto: office dog
Here are the pictures. Enjoy!
Facebook Tests Deals Program in Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego & San Francisco
Posted by: Jamie Sutera, VP of R&D
According to an article from http://news.cnet.com, Facebook launched its social-buying program today. Facebook Deals offers members local deals they can buy and also share with their friends on the network. The test launched in Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco, but may be expanded to include other cities.
Facebook Begins Testing Social-Buying Program
Facebook announced this evening it is ready to begin testing its new local deals offering–the social-networking giant’s effort to cash in on the feverish interest in social buying.
Users in the five test cities will be able to learn about offerings through e-mail and notifications, by clicking on the Deals tab on their Facebook home page, and through their News Feed when friends like or buy a deal.
Facebook is working with a passel of other deals sites in the venture, including Opentable, Gilt City, Tippr, PopSugar City, Plum District, ReachLocal, Zozi, Home Run, KGB Deals, aDealio, and ViaGoGo.
With 500 million members, Facebook brings a sizable user base in its challenge for dominance in the deals market, which brought in $873 million in revenue last year and could bring in $3.93 billion by 2015, according to a projection from consulting firm BIA/Kelsey.
Chief among those competitors is Groupon, which has been riding meteoric growth with half-price massages, discounted restaurant meals, and travel bargains. Chicago-based Groupon, with 60 million users and more than 39 million deals sold in its two years in business, is expected to beef up its muscle with an initial public offering later this year.
Twitter Looks To Buy TweetDeck for $50 Million
Posted By: Micah Pratt, Social Networking R&D
Twitter has recently been in talks to buy TweetDeck, a third-party client of Twitter that allows users to connect with contacts across a variety of social networking sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more. According to an article by Chris Taylor on mashable.com, Twitter does not know the exact number of TweetDeck users, but believes it includes the most obsessive power users in social media.
Twitter In Talks To Buy TweetDeck [REPORT]
Twitter is in talks to purchase TweetDeck Inc. for $50 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
TweetDeck is one of the most popular third-party Twitter clients, available in desktop, iPad, iPhone and Android versions. It displays your Twitter news feed, @mentions and direct messages, along with your Facebook feeds — all on the same screen, all updating in real time. TweetDeck can also support updates from MySpace, LinkedIn and Foursquare.
The 15-person company, based in the U.K., has never revealed how many users TweetDeck has. The number may be small — but it is also likely to include the most obsessive power users in social media.
Jennings Social Media Marketing Commits to Replacing Toxic Cleaning Products: A Billion Acts of Green
Posted by: Valerie Jennings, CEO & Founder of Jennings Social Media Marketing
Each year companies, consumers and media organizations promote green awareness for Earth Day. This year, the Earth Day Network (EDN) is promoting A Billion Acts of Green to secure a billion commitments to the planet by 2012. The campaign is known to be the largest environmental campaign service in the world; striving to build commitments by individuals, corporations and governments in honor of Earth Day. This is an easy way of anyone to participate in the environmental project. Please make a commitment to the earth. Thank you to the Earth Day Network for its hard work!
Go to http://act.earthday.org/leaderboard to join the project.
Mashable Reports That GiftRocket Allows Giftcards To Be Accepted Anywhere
Posted By: Kerry Phouthavong
GiftRocket is providing consumers with a faster and newer way to send gift cards to friends and family. A recent article on mashable.com, written by Sarah Kessler, helps explain what makes this new startup to be more convenient than the ordinary tangible gift card that we’ve all been accustomed to.
The article states that GiftRocket’s version of the gift card is place-specific, but not in the traditional sense. It allows gift givers to send gift cards to anyone via email for any thing — such as drinks, skydiving or a spa day — at any venue, regardless of whether the retailer sells its own gift cards.
Here’s how it works: the giver picks a place in a specific region, as sourced from Yelp’s business listings, via the GiftRocket website. Let’s use Peet’s Coffee in Marina Del Rey as an example. The gift giver then builds the GiftRocket by filling out a few key details like amount ($20), recipient name (Scott) and email, and a personal message. Finally, the buyer pays for the gift with his credit card.
Our lucky recipient, Scott, is notified via email of his new gift. The next time he visits Peet’s, he can press “redeem” on his smartphone (no app required) to cash in his gift card. After verifying Scott’s exact whereabouts, GiftRocket will approve the request and automatically deposit $20 in Scott’s PayPal account. Scott’s next lattes are on the house, theoretically.
The GiftRocket idea, which slightly overlaps with the likes of Gifi from Venmo, was big enough to win Graham over. Now, the founders have a chance to demonstrate that their fun gift card alternative can grow into a viable business.
Sincere Thanks To Philip Gesue, VP of Real Estate Development of Orient Express Hotels, Inc., For An Amazing Testimonial For Jennings Social Media Marketing’s Work in St. Maarten
Posted By: Valerie Jennings, CEO & Founder of Jennings Social Media Marketing http://www.jenningssocialmedia.com
Thank you Philip Gesue, vice president of real estate development of Orient Express Hotels, Inc., for selecting Jennings Social Media to promote the Arts in the Plaza Festival in St. Maarten. We greatly appreciate the wonderful opportunity to work with you and the Orient Express Hotels group in New York.
The Marketwire press release, posted on msnbc.com via marketwire.com, stated that the project included viral Web videos which Jennings Social Media Marketing directed, produced and viralized; search engine optimization; viral Web press releases; media outreach; and consulting. Gesue said, “We selected Jennings Social Media Marketing for their specialization in the social media marketing arena, in particular viral media campaigns. They spent a tremendous amount of time brainstorming with the team, working remotely in St. Maarten filming the artists, consulting and offering guidance. I know that Valerie Jennings has been involved with viral media since the beginning of the trend and knew how to deliver the right product on time and on budget. My experience with Jennings and her staff was great and I recommend them highly.”
Jennings Social Media Reviews Video Interview: Guy Kawasaki Talks With Mashable at SXSW
Posted By: Jamie Sutera, VP of R&D
I would like to share this video regarding well-known author, venture capitalist and former Apple luminary Guy Kawasaki.
At SXSW 2011, Guy Kawasaki sits down for an interview with Mashable’s Christina Warren. In the wide-ranging discussion, he talks about his new book,Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions, and points out useful tools he’s discovered at SXSW this year. Along the way, he talks about his two different stints working with Apple, musing about what might have happened if he had stayed with the company (http://on.mash.to/eILzqG).
Thank You to Angle Bush, Radio Host of Your15Minutes Radio, For Interviewing Valerie Jennings, CEO & Founder of Jennings Social Media Marketing, in Celebration of Women’s History Month & International Women’s Day!
Thank You to Angle Bush, radio host of Your15Minutes Radio, for including Valerie Jennings, CEO & founder of Jennings Social Media, during a panel discussion: “Blueprint for Success” with Diane Hansen and Pam Brossman on International Women’s Day in celebration of Women’s History Month (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/your15minutes).
Listen to show:
Here is a partial transcript from the radio interview –
Angle: Valerie, tell us about the beginning of your journey.
Valerie: I started my company when I was 24 and will have had the business eight years this June. It has definitely been difficult starting at such a young age because there were some things that I had to learn and overcome, from being a female business owner to starting at age 24. I will say I had a ton of support from the community and Johnson County, Kan. There were a lot of people who invested time in working with me and it really helped me advance my career as a business owner. To both the men and women who really supported and talked about the success that we had with our clients early on, I just want to say thank you for being so supportive in those early stages and now to all of the wonderful companies we work with today, almost eight years later. It has been a lot of dedication and commitment not only on my part but everybody that works here, which is a pretty small social media marketing and pr firm. There is so much to be learned no matter what age you start your business at. There are some unique challenges when you launch that early in the game.
Angle: So you have gone through some things being 24 with people probably misjudging you like ‘she is only 24’
Valerie: Yes, that is probably fair.
Angle: One of the buzz words that many business owners are hearing at this moment is branding. We had a show on branding, discussing the book by Mr. Damon John, “The Brand Within.” I want to know from each of you, how important is branding and what does branding look like for each of you. When a client comes in and says, ‘I have a business but I don’t have a brand. Right now I’m an item. I haven’t gotten into the branding stage just yet. What do you do to assist that client that has not built their brand and is just starting out?
Valerie: It is incredibly important because without a brand you don’t have a message. There is not a story to share with your audience. There are all kinds of aspects that you need to review when building a brand and one of them is search engine optimization. What I mean by that is somebody jumps on Google and researches either the owner of the company, the product, the service they better find information or that organization immediately. It shows people in about 30 to 60 seconds if you have a brand presence and that you are dominating the search engines on either your company name or the owner of your company.
We spend a lot of time looking at the brand and most of the companies we work with do have a brand that’s been created and in existence for a while. Every now and again there is a startup that comes through here and we talk about how they are going to build up their brand. One of the first steps is to make sure you reserve all of the social networking sites for your organization on YouTube, Twitter Facebook to make sure that nobody else takes it down the road, or that a competitor takes it. That does happen and we see the brand hijacking going on. So once you have your brand going, protect the brand and cherish the brand. You can shift throughout the course of your company and change directions with branding and reinvent the brand. There are a lot of things you can look at overall it is such an incredible component. From a story telling standpoint and a marketing standpoint that brand has to be solid so you can understand how to advance your company farther down the road.
Angle: What in starting your business overall do you wish you knew then that you know now.
Valerie: I think overall it’s a resources concern. It’s one of things that you have to look into multiple components to building the business. I started when I moved into the Kansas City market and I really didn’t know anybody. I wish I would have a little bit better database of connections of people I trusted. I wish I would have been able to call on people who had established businesses that could have been trusted advisors. I felt like I was fumbling a little bit in the beginning because I just didn’t have those resources to call upon people and lean on them. I feel completely blessed to have those types of relationships now and there are so many people that I can call up anytime and I feel super supported. I think that is such a hard thing for many business owners who feel like they are going through this alone and if they don’t have those relationships or resources it can be really scary.
Angle: Last thing I want to know, tell me Valerie, what is your blue print for success. We want to know, how do you become successful when you are pursuing your passion.
Valerie: It’s commitment overall. It’s so hard to stay focused on everything that you want to accomplish. You have to look at the bottom line. If this is what you want then you have to be committed to it and that sounds like a generic response but I just have to tell you that it’s the most important thing to any business owner. If you don’t like what you are doing then you have to change it.
Listen to the Interview: with Valerie Jennings, Diane Hansen and Pam Brossman on International Women’s Day!
Thank You to Maureen Kedes, Radio Host of PR Insider, For Interviewing Valerie Jennings, CEO & Founder of Jennings Social Media
Posted By: Kerry Phouthavong
Thank you to Maureen Kedes for interviewing Valerie Jennings Friday on PR Insider. During the interview, Valerie discussed how she started Jennings Social Media Marketing by transforming it to a more non-traditional way of approaching PR. Although she still incorporates the standard components that make up for a typical public relations company, Valerie embraces her work more through social media and the art of online storytelling. Here’s a brief transcription of the interview.
Maureen: Today I have an expert on the show in social media storytelling. Her name is Valerie Jennings, Founder and CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing.
Maureen: Tell us how you started before the birth of social media?
Valerie: My background is as a journalist. I was a print reporter and I did some on-camera work. I worked on the government side; I did some public affairs, media outreach. I got more training on the traditional side. Even though I’m not a senior entrepreneur, I started my business at the age of 24. I did give us a huge boost from competitor’s standpoint. When I first started the business, it was traditional PR–pitching, press releases, media coaching, prepping for interviews, and looking at what’s going to sell.
Valerie: We experimented with a PR Web and we used a a lot of search engine optimization to capture the story; what was interesting and what was going to drive traffic.
We’ve continued to expand what we do, and we still do a lot of traditional. But we’ve maintained the social networking side as a way to penetrate some of the traditional aspect. For example, we have a great blog post; we’re a great video to produce for a client. We’re going to maximize that on the client’s Twitter site on a social media press release on Facebook, whatever it is. So we talk about success in an exclusive client list, and we’re really looking for companies that have amazing stories. We try to figure out what is a possibility and we figure out what is trending. As a journalist, if people aren’t looking for it, why would they be paying attention?
5 Tips to Maximize Revenue From Your Landing Pages
Posted By: Kerry Phouthavong
For some businesses, it might be difficult to seek out solutions as to why they aren’t generating as much revenue as they expected. Author and consultant Mikal Belicove, from entrepreneur.com produced a helpful video which offers tips that can maximize revenue for your landing pages.
- Align your source message to the message that’s on your landing page
- Make your copy short, sweet, and to the point, (it’s not a sales letter)
- Have a strong call to action
- Use a light background color
- Don’t ask for too much information
Make sure the source that is driving traffic page to your landing page, the message from that source is aligned with the message that’s on that landing page. There’s nothing worse than getting to a landing page because of a promise for something and not being able to find that item.
For businesses and startups, it’s more ideal to 8 seconds or less to get somebody to do something.
Make sure the call to action is visually stunning and present on the page. There should be no question on anyone’s mind on why they’re on that page. They are there because you want them to do something. Also, don’t be afraid to ask.
Don’t make people feel like they are inside of a cave when they get to your site. Dark colors are out and light airy colors are in. Make sure you are using color to your advantage. You may need to do research and identify what colors customers in your space are going to identify with.
Be very careful with how much you ask for. It’s fine if you ask for their name, email, their zip code, etc. If you’re going to ask for their buying demographics, their age, and their income, you’re starting to add obstacles. Establish a dialog with that customer before you dive too deep. Fulfill the promise that the landing page offers, which is to deliver a white paper, give them a call back, etc. Engage them enough to produce an effective relationship where you can ask them those more in-depth questions.
Where Twitter Trending Topics Really Come From
Posted by: Kerry Phouthavong
Trending topics on Twitter can assist marketers or business owners in targeting a certain audience about a particular subject. In a recent article by Ben Parr from mashable.com, he explains how HP’s Social Computing Research Group’s study on trending topics helped to show where the topics really come from and why they are so important.
The article states that HP’s research analyzed 16.32 million tweets on 3,361 different trending topics between September and October 2010. HP discovered that Twitter’s Trending Topics algorithm cares more about the specific subject and reach of a tweet than who tweets it or how often it’s tweeted. Around 31% of trending topics are retweets and 72% of those retweets come from mainstream media outlet like @cnnbrk or @nytimes. The Telegraph, ESPN, @breakingnews and The Huffington Post all made the list of top retweeted users in at least 50 different trending topics.
“What proves to be more important in determining trends is the retweets by other users, which is more related to the content that is being shared than the attributes of the users,” HP concludes in its research report. “Furthermore, we found that the content that trended was largely news from traditional media sources, which are then amplified by repeated retweets on Twitter to generate trends.”
HP concludes that traditional media still starts the conversation around the most-discussed topics in social media, not the other way around.
8 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Use Twitter
Posted By: Kerry Phouthavong
In a recent article written by Scott Gerber, on mashable.com, he analyzes if business owners are using social networking sites in a way that is beneficial. Gerber asks a panel of entrepreneurs how business owners can best utilize Twitter to their advantage. Here’s what they had to say-
- It’s a Social Tool
- Avoid Insecurity Work
- Engage Your Followers
- Autoresponder
- Provide Value and Get Software to Help
- Provide Relevant Information
- Be Personal and Interesting
- Twitter Etiquette
Twitter is an amazing tool to market and really interact with fans and customers. It gives you real-time conversation with them, but if you don’t interact and answer questions people have, it’s a complete turn off. There is a reason that it’s a ‘social media’ tool and the key word is ‘social.’
“Insecurity Work” is when you compulsively check your e-mail, website traffic, blog comments, etc., and it’s poison. Limit the time you spend on Twitter each day to less than a half hour. Remember: You don’t need to @Reply every single person that mentions your brand.
The best tip for using Twitter to market to customers and fans is to not market! The best companies on Twitter create conversations with fans and become “followers” of their lives, making their product embedded into their daily lives.
Set up an account at socialoomph.com so that when people “follow” you on Twitter they get a direct message regarding your website. The goal is to drive traffic to your desired website.
There are two goals you should have when using Twitter to market to customers: Establish yourself as an expert and deliver relevant valuable content. Post tips, advice and guidance that will help your potential customers.
Twitter is a brilliant tool to push information out to your customers and fans, but it is important to remember that Twitter is not about self-promotion. Be sure you’re engaging your customer base and starting a dialogue. Create genuine interaction and work to distribute information relevant to your customers.
Seventy to eighty percent of your tweets should be informational, fun or personal in nature, and only 20 to 30% should be commercial. Retweet interesting links, useful articles and photos taken from your cell phone.
First, understand that quality always trumps quantity when it comes to social media. Second, follow Twitter etiquette: listen, be relevant, mind your brand, engage, and give more than you get.
The article states that most small business owners have no concept about how to use Twitter effectively. Many entrepreneurs simply produce and promote useless spam, while others over extend and over engage. To tweet or not to tweet? That is the question on many business owners’ minds.
Jennings Social Media Marketing Press Release: Social Media Marketing Entrepreneur Valerie Jennings Named Friday Girl TV’s 2011 Woman 2 Watch Posted on Yahoo!Finance.com, MSNBC.com & Businessweek.com
Posted by: Jamie Sutera, VP of R&D
Jennings Social Media Marketing press release regarding Valerie Jennings’ recognition as one of Friday Girl TV’s 2011 Women 2 Watch was recently posted on Yahoo!Finance.com , MSNBC.com and Businessweek.com. The article reviews Jennings as a change agent, entrepreneur, community activist and an all around phenomenal woman.
Read Valerie’s interview with Friday Girl TV: http://fridaygirltv.com/blog/2011/02/02/woman-2-watch-valerie-jennings/
Twitter Launches ‘Connections,’ Its Own Version Of Facebook’s ‘Mutual Friends’
Posted by: Jamie Sutera, VP of R&D, Jennings
Twitter has created ‘connections,’ their own version of Facebook’s ‘mutual friends.’ In a recent article from techcrunch.com, written by Alexia Tsotsis, explains that even though Twitter has experimented with the feature before, the change is a permanent step towards developing a more useful Twitter social graph.
The article states that Twitter has collapsed its “Followed By” and “You Both Follow” features into one area called “Connections.” This allows you to see what users you have in common with other Twitter users. While you still can’t see the number of users you have in common, you can see a complete list of mutual follows and people you are both followed by when you click “more.”
Twitter’s Carolyn Penner says, “By exposing accounts that you and another user have in common, you will now know how those accounts are connected to other accounts you already follow. As a result, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions about which accounts to follow.”
Franchises Are Embracing the Possibilities of Social Media Platforms Like Facebook to Extend Their Brands
Posted By: Kerry Phouthavong
Franchises have been embracing social media platforms as an opportunity to help extend their brands. In a recent article, written by Jason Ankeny in entrepeneur.com, he explains the significance in using social media for franchises.
The article states that among franchises active in social media, 45 percent tell Franchise Business Review they’ve leveraged tools like Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter to boost brand awareness, and 24 percent are pursuing new customers. But 11 percent are looking at social networking as a way to recruit franchisees.
“Social media is a part of every marketing campaign we have. We have a presence on various social networking sites, and many franchisees have their own sites as well,” says Christie Wells, customer experience and communications manager for Häagen-Dazs Shoppe Co, a gourmet ice cream business in Minneapolis. “These are awareness opportunities for us, and we’re using them to get the word out there that we’re looking for franchisees.”
“The heart of the social media opportunity is that we’re continuing to get better at building a dialogue with our fans. We can understand what they want and what they don’t want, and respond in ways consistent with our brand equity,” O’ Reilly of Einstein Bros says. “Consumers are smart and they’re savvy, with opinions that need to be respected. Social media is the best way to keep them engaged.”
The 5 W’s of Twitter Marketing
Posted by: Jamie Sutera, VP of R&D, Jennings
Now that many social networking sites have evolved, Twitter is capturing interest. A recent article, written by Eric Tsai from designdamage.com, explains the 5 W’s and 1 H of Twitter. These tools will help businesses know why to Tweet, who to Tweet, what to Tweet, when to Tweet, where to Tweet and how to Tweet.
- Why Tweet
- Who Tweets
- What to Tweet
- When to Tweet
- Where to Tweet
- How People Tweet
People love to use Twitter to update their personal or professional lives as well as to comment on a relatively wide range of topics.
Why people follow people?
Another interesting data from Dan Zarrella’s research reveals a list of names you can call yourself to get more followers than the average Twitter account. These names are ‘founder’, ‘expert’, ‘official’, just to name a few. People naturally like to follow authorities that “appears” to have some sort of influence.
Despite its popularity, Twitter has yet to go mainstream. But it’s still interesting to see who is using Twitter to identify the demographic should you decide to focus on this channel. There are actually a much higher percentage of African Americans and Hispanics use Twitter than whites.
The interesting part of it is that Twitter seems to self-segregate around topics and issues with different ethnic groups. So instead of bringing people together in new and innovative ways via technology and Internet, people are more divide as a result.
What should you tweet? Well, it really depends on why you’re using Twitter for what purpose. Needless to say that in marketing “everything is a test” so make sure you are sending out interesting, relevant tweets that communicates value.
If you’ve done email marketing, you know the importance of timely delivery. It’s about being at the right place at the right time and this applies to Twitter as well. According to HubSpot’s report, the best day to tweet is Thursday and Friday while the best times to tweet are 3-5 pm as well as 9–11pm Eastern Time.
Again like the W for “what to tweet” time to tweet serves as a good foundation to start sending out your well crafted tweets. Keep in mind that it doesn’t mean you won’t get retweets or clicks during off peak hours, you just have less traffic to engage with but it also means less competition.
Similar to how often you check your emails, how Twitter users check their tweets also reveals the fact that half of the Twitter users never check their streams which means there is a high chance that they simply won’t get to read majority of your tweets.
Much like the diversity we see in who’s tweeting, the location of where people are tweeting is relatively proportional. Location can be a key piece if you’re business requires foot traffic such as retail stores, restaurants or if you’re selling to a specific geographic. Its just another metric to keep your eyes on and overtime you may see a trend developing that’s worth conducting another split testing.
According to Twitter’s own blog post “The Evolving Ecosystem,” 16% of all new users to Twitter start on mobile now. Besides Twitter app for mobile devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry being the most popular ways to access Twitter, third-party apps make up 14% of all unique Twitter users.
If you want to build a long term relationship with your customers, focus on relationship not just triggering the buy button. And Twitter is another great platform to cultivate that relationship.
Why are you interested in using Twitter in marketing? Why do you believe you’re better invested there than in other channels of marketing?
At the end, social media is just push marketing with the ability for the other side to push back.
