03 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Best Practices, Content Marketing, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LInkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, Yelp, YouTube

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Best Practices, Community Management, Engagement, Facebook, facebook page insights bug, LinkedIn Insights, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Online Marketing, Pinterest, Twitter

How long should my tweet be? Or my blogpost? Or my headline?

I ask this question a lot. It seems that others do, too. Our first take on coming up with the ideal length of all online content proved quite useful for a lot of people.

I’d love to see if I can help make it even more useful.

Along with all the best tips on optimal lengths for tweets, blogposts, headlines, and more, I’ve added a few additional lengths to the list—the ones that came up most often in the comments of the last post, like SlideShare length, Pinterestlength, and more.

And to make it just as easy as possible to consume all this information quickly and easily, we partnered with our friends at SumAll to place the data and insights into a fun infographic. Check it all out below.

If you enjoy the snazzy look and helpful info in this infographic, SumAll published a companion infographic (in a super cool, printable pdf format) over on their blog.

For the free, print-ready infographic, visit the SumAll blog.

SumAll is one of our favorite social media tools. They do social media tracking better than anyone we’ve found—all your data, all in one place, for free.

Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll find in the downloadable, printable version of the infographic.

The data-backed findings for the optimal length

It seems like people love to be told what works best. They love to have a starting point.

And that’s what these ideal lengths represent: starting points. We wrote a bit on the topic of how to implement data into your social media strategy. Do you take best practices like these ideal lengths as gospel truth? Not quite.

Take these as best practices, as jumping off points, as ideas to iterate on.

Put them to the test, and see what is right for you.

The optimal length of a tweet — 71 to 100 characters

Not only does this length give you enough room to share your message, it also provides room for someone who retweets you to add a message of their own.

If you’d like to get ultra-specific with exactly the optimal length of a tweet for your specific Twitter account, you can find this by running the numbers on your Twitter analytics. We wrote up instructions on how to find your ideal tweet length by graphing it vs. engagement.

For the Buffer account, our sweet spot is between 80 and 120 characters.

Until you test and discover the right length for you, stick to the 71-to-100 character guideline.

What makes this length optimal? Tweets at this length get more retweets. They also have higher reply rate, retweet rate, and combined reply/retweet rate (these latter of which shows engagement per followers).

Where’d this data come from? A pair of studies have found the 100-character mark to be the sweet spot for tweet length. Track Social studied 100 major brands (Oreo, Zappos, ESPN, etc.) for a 30-day period in the fall of 2012. Buddy Media studied 320 Twitter handles from major brands for two-and-a-half months at the beginning of 2012.

The optimal length of a Facebook post – 40 characters

Shorter seems to be better on Facebook.

Maximum engagement happens at 40 characters (so, too, does minimum quantity, meaning that a vast minority of Facebook posts hit this 40-character mark). And engagement slowly wanes the longer you go.

An 80-character post is better than 100-character post.

A 40-character post is better than 80.

The upside to such a small window is that sharing a Facebook links lets you fudge a little on the amount of text in your update. Links show the title and description of a post, along with the update you type.

And how much can you fit in a 40-character window?

Here’s a post that landed under 40 characters (26 to be exact).

What makes this length optimal? Posts at this length tend to receive higher like rate, comment rate, and combined like/comment rate (stats that include a comparison of total engagement to number of Facebook fans.)

Where’d this data come from? A pair of studies have each found that shorter is better on Facebook. A Buddy Media study of the top 100 retailers Facebook pages during a six-month period in 2011 is one of the most-cited sources. Also in 2011, BlitzLocal studied 11,000 Facebook pages over a seven-month period.

The optimal length of a Google+ headline – 60 characters maximum

Google+ updates often take on the appearance of blogposts with bold headings up top and a body of text below. These top headings are the ones you’re best off optimizing. And 60 characters is as long as you should go.

What makes this length optimal? It’s the maximum length for a Google+ headline to span one row before breaking to a second line.

Where’d this data come from? Demian Farnworth of Copyblogger tested out the length with posts on the Copyblogger page. He found that bold headlines could reach 60 characters before additional words would be bumped to the second line.

The optimal width of a paragraph – 40 to 55 characters

Before researching this one, I seldom thought about the width of my paragraphs. Readers might not think much of it either, but usability studies and psychology suggest that they notice it nevertheless.

What makes this width optimal? At this width, the content appears simple to understand, and readers feel they can comprehend the subject matter.

Where’d this data come from? Derek Halpern of Social Triggers synthesized a pair of research studies to arrive at the 40-to-55 character recommendation. The studies he cited include a 2004 meta-analysis by Mary C. Dyson of the University of Reading and a 1992 study from a team of Netherlands researchers.

The optimal length of a domain name – 8 characters

What characteristics do some of the best domain names have in common?

is short
is easy to remember
is easy to spell
is descriptive or brandable
does not contain hyphens and numbers
has a .com extension

Length, in particular, can be a tough one to nail down as dot-coms get snatched up so quickly. If you can’t secure the dot-com of your dreams, there are more and more websites going the route of .co and .io.

What makes this length optimal? This is the most common domain name length for the Internet’s most popular websites.

Where’d this data come from? In 2009, Daily Blog Tips conducted an analysisof the top 250 websites in Alexa site rankings, counting words and characters that appeared in each domain name.

The optimal length of a hashtag – 6 characters

What makes this length optimal? The 6-character hashtag recommendation comes from a handful of Twitter experts and is cited by Hashtags.org, one of the leading sites on the data and usage of hashtags.

The optimal length of an email subject line – 28 to 39 characters

How does an optimal subject line look in the inbox? Here’s a sample from my Gmail.

Clearly, there are a ton of different ways to approach writing a subject line, and length is equally as important to test as the rest of the elements. If you’re looking for a place to start your tests, the optimal length of 28 to 39 characters is a good bet.

What makes this length optimal? You may see a slight uptick in open rate and click rate at this length.

Where’d this data come from? A 2012 study by Mailer Mailer looked at 1.2 billion email messages to identify subject line trends.

The optimal length of an SEO title tag – 55 characters

SEO titles are the titles of your webpages and blogposts that show up in search results.

If you want this …

… instead of this …

… stick with the optimal SEO title length.

What makes this length optimal? Google search results tend to truncate titles with an ellipsis (…) if they go beyond the 55-character mark.

Where’d this data come from? In March 2014, Moz analyzed 89,787 titles in search results pages.

The optimal length of a blog headline – 6 words

I absolutely love good headline advice, which is why this bit is such a fascinating learning. On the Buffer blog, we tend toward the biggest, boldest headlines we can come up with. Could it be that the smaller, six-word headlines do best?

vs.

What makes this length optimal? Our eyes tend to pick up on the first three words of a headline and the last three words.

Where’d this data come from? KISSmetrics author Bnonn cites usability research that confirms scanning of headlines. Also, Jakob Nielsen ran usability testing in 2009 based on the idea that readers typically consume only the first 11 characters of a headline.

The optimal length of a LinkedIn post – 25 words

The results on optimal LinkedIn length depend on whom you’re targeting. Are you trying to reach out to businesses or consumers?

One of the few studies on LinkedIn length—a 2012 report from Compendium—pulled statistics for each type of business: B2B and B2C. Here’s what they found.

What makes this length optimal? The results in the Compendium study tend to focus on clickthroughs as the basis for recommending best practices. It’s safe to assume an ideal length of a LinkedIn post would be based on clicks, too.

Where’d this data come from? In 2012, Compendium released its findings on a study of 200 companies on social media, looking at business-to-business and business-to-consumer best practices.

The optimal length of a blogpost – 1,600 words

We recently ran a blog content audit, and one of the results of the audit was some insight into the ideal length of Buffer blog posts.

1,600 words makes for a good guideline to get started.

We’ve found that 2,500-word posts tend to do best for us.

This reinforces the need to check these lengths against your own data. And if you’re just starting out, it might be smart to start off with 1,600 words per post and adjust from there.

What makes this length optimal? At this length, you can expect readers to spend the maximum amount of time reading your content. Total time on page is highest at the 1,600-word length than any other length.

From the Medium study:

7-minute posts capture the most total reading time on average.

Where’d this data come from? In December 2013, Medium published the results of its time on page analysis for blogposts on its network.

The optimal length of a YouTube video – 3 minutes

How much time do you get to tell your story in a video? How long until someone loses interest and clicks over to the next link? These are big questions for video marketers who compile their content with timestamps in mind the same way bloggers compose with word count.

What makes this length optimal? This is the average video length of the top videos on YouTube.

Where’d this data come from? In 2012, ReelSEO counted the length of the top 50 YouTube videos and found the average duration to be 2 minutes, 54 seconds. Google researchers from the YouTube team confirmed the ideal length to be three minutes as well, according to an interview with Clinton Stark.

The optimal length of a podcast – 22 minutes

Podcasting has become more and more a part of content marketing strategies for brands big and small. There are sure to be additional studies that come out on best practices for publication and promotion. In the meantime, optimal length is a good place to start. Keep things 22 minutes or shorter.

What makes this length optimal? The 22-minute mark is when an average user disconnects from a podcast.

Where’d this data come from? The data is reported from Stitcher, an online podcast streaming service.

The optimal length of a presentation – 18 minutes

Famously, the 18-minute mark is where TED Talks max out their presenters. Anyone who shares must stay under 18 minutes. Here’s why.

What makes this length optimal? This seems to be the upper limit for how long a person can pay attention before losing focus.

Where’d this data come from? Author Carmine Gallo, who has written on the history of TED Talks, cites scientific research from Dr. Paul King of Texas Christian University as well as insight into how the brain processes new information (and expends energy while doing so).

The optimal length of a SlideShare – 61 slides

You’d think that SlideShare best practices would be cut-and-dry. My research wasn’t quite so clear.

The 61-slide recommendation comes from HubSpot’s Dan Zarella who is well-known for his in-depth and accurate research on social media. From a data-backed perspective, 61 slides seems like a safe way to go.

Per HubSpot:

We can only speculate about why this is true, but it may be owed to the fact that SlideShare is a site mostly used by professionals who are likely seeking data-focused, meaty presentations with a lot of depth. Don’t be afraid to get detailed in your SlideShare content, and load your presentations with lots of data. Unlike YouTube, where shorter content tends to be more successful, SlideShare users welcome comprehensive content.

Here’s the breakdown of number of slides per presentation and SlideShare views, courtesy of Dan.

Beyond the data, there is a bit of opposite advice that many hold as a best practice: Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule.

10 Slides
20 Minutes
30 Point Font

It’s a system that a lot of people swear by. Is it right for you? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s by testing.

What makes this length optimal? Slide decks of this length get more views on average.

Where’d this data come from? In 2010, HubSpot’s Dan Zarella shared results from his social media research, pointing to this optimal length.

The optimal size of a Pinterest image – 735px by 1102px

Curalate found that vertical images, featuring an aspect ratio between 2:3 and 4:5, receive 60 percent more repins than images with a more vertically-skewed aspect ratio.

Combine this with the best practices from the folks at Canva who recommend a starting point for Pinterest image templates at 735 pixels wide by 1102 pixels tall and—bang!—you’ve got your ideal size, backed by data.

What makes this size optimal? At this size, you can expect more likes, repins, and comments.

Where’d this data come from? In June, Curalate analyzed over 500,000 Pinterest images posted by brands. Their findings also included recommendations for faces, hue, texture, brightness, color, and more.

Bonus Pinterest tips:

As for the optimal length of a Pinterest description (maximum is 500 characters), Dan Zarrella found that 200-character descriptions are the most repinnable.

A great use for the description is a call-to-action. Brandon Gaille found that pins with CTAs receive an 80 percent increase in engagement over those without.

Conclusion

Hopefully you’ve found some good insights from this experiment. Definitely use data like this as a starting point for your own testing and iterating. What’s right for many others in terms of best practices might not be exactly what your specific audience needs.

It sure is nice to know where to start, though.

How do these optimal lengths feel to you? How long are the social media updates that you send?

Shared via By Kevan Lee @Buffer Social

Image sources: Track Social, Compendium, PlaceIt, Hubspot, Dan Zarrella

Twitter for Marketing and PR – A Comprehensive Cheat Sheet

05 Monday May 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Twitter

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Advertising, Best Practices, cheat sheet, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Online Marketing, SEM, Social Media, Twitter

witter offers a social network and microblogging service that is the go-to place for real-time rumors, news, customer complaints and service. All messages or “tweets” are capped at 140 characters, which enforces brevity and clarity of thought.

It’s also the originator of the hashtag, at least in its modern sense and usage. Twitter is in the process of rolling out a major profile redesign, with a greater focus on photos and content cards.

The People

Twitter claims to have 18 percent of all Internet users as account holders. Its users tend to be city dwellers (20 percent). The numbers drop to 14 and 12 percent in suburban and rural communities respectively. Users are usually younger adults, and they’re more likely to access the site on a mobile device (60 percent).

The Challenges

Twitter is rapid-fire copy. To stand out, brands need to consider clever wording and visual media. The new profiles will dedicate significantly more real estate to the header photo, offering brands additional space for creative imagery.

The Tips

1. Optimize your bio. You could fill your bio with hashtags and humor, but if you intend to use Twitter for business, your bio needs to be a miniature version of your LinkedIn profile. You can be funny but make sure to share essential information about who you are, what you do, and where to find you.

2. Set up searches. If you want to turn conversations into conversions, you have to monitor mentions of your brand as well as relevant and competitive keywords.

3. Don’t forget the hashtag. If you want to track tweets and conversations, use a hashtag. It not only lets conversations be found more easily, but also allows you to measure your Twitter efforts.

4. Use Promoted Tweets. If you want your message to reach more people, you’ll have to pay to do it. Two tips for Promoted Tweets: define and target your audience and don’t run your promotion for too long. If you need to run it for an extended length of time, find different ways of stating your message.

5. Implement Twitter Cards. You can share Vine videos or attach images to your tweets, but if you want to provide a richer experience, you’ll want to delve into Twitter Cards. By adding some HTML to your website, any tweets of your content will include applicable visual media.

6. For Twitter’s official guidelines, go to Twitter for Business.

11 Tips To Double Your Twitter Followers

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Twitter

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MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Social Media, Trending, Twitter

Twitter plays by its own rules.

It has kept it’s 140 character limit despite the jokes , the pressure to change by many of its followers and the demands to be more like Facebook or Google+.

It is is misunderstood by many people who throw stones at it from the sidelines. Despite the knockers it has kept true to its initial design and constraints that don’t seem to fit it into an online world that is about bigger being better.

This succinct reporting has made it the channel of choice for breaking news. Twitter is now often seen popping up on the television screen as viewers interact with a show. The character limitation demands means it lends itself to one liners that are often humorous, pithy and sharp.

Twitter has enhanced the art of comedy and the throw away quip.

Why should you bother increasing your Twitter followers?

Increasing your Twitter followers does have some distinct benefits for business and brands. Here are three worth mentioning

It increases brand awareness. What business doesn’t want that.
Distributes your content wider and faster. This can improve link building to your website and hence improving your organic SEO
Drive traffic to tyour blog or website. This can lead to more leads generation and sales.

So how do you double your Twitter followers?

The average Twitter account has a 126 followers and has tweeted 307 times. Doubling that number isn’t hard if you implement some of the following tips. And you can do much better than that if you apply a little focus and discipline.

Make sure your profile and “Bio” (which is limited to 160 characters) is to the point and attracts followers in your niche. Check out Hilary Clinton’s Twitter Bio in the infographic below.
Tweet more often. Those with 15,000 plus tweets have between 100,000 to 1 million followers
Use hashtags. This will expand your tweet visibility
Schedule and automate tweets with tools like Hootsuite and Socialoomph.com
Follow people in your niche or industry. Especially those with substantial numbers of followers on Twitter.
Retweet the content of influencers and let them know with the @mention
Join in Twitter chats or start one of your own a regular basis
Find new followers that share your interests by using tools like Tweepi
Twitter is not an inbox but a stream so you need to keep your followers engaged by tweeting valuable content for your target audience
Learn from the best. Check out Anton Perlkvist does it with @Fun and @Googlefacts
Promote your Twitter account “everywhere

For some more tips check out the infographic.

Source: WhoIsHostingThis? on Visually

What about you?

How do you use Twitter? Is it still an enigma? What have you found to be an effective tactic to gain more Twitter followers?

Look forward to your insights and stories in the comments below. Want to learn how to make your blog and content contagious and increase your Twitter followers?

My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.

It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.

I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 223,000.

Download and read it now.

Author:Jeff Bullas Jeff Bullas RSS Feed View full profile This article originally appeared on Jeffbullas’s Blog and has been republished with permission.

Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.Read more at http://www.business2community.com/twitter/11-tips-double-twitter-followers-0803260#ir7KjIsha6x2z2iT.99

31 Twitter Tips: How To Use Twitter Tools And Twitter Best Practices For Business

22 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Twitter

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Best Practices, hashtags, Twitter

For as long as I have been doing social media marketing, I have wondered what the value of Twitter is for sales and business. Everyone knows the indisputable value of LinkedIn for B2B sales, marketing, , and entrepreneurs in general. But Twitter is finally gaining traction in B2C?

This article shares some of the latest Twitter strategies, tactics, tools, and best practices.

GETTING STARTED

1. Decide your purpose. Why are you using Twitter?

Some Twitter users utilize the social media site to build their company brand or generate leads. There are bloggers who use the platform to share ideas and articles and to see what others are writing about. Some people check Twitter for news, while others want to see what celebrities or friends are up to.

Defining your purpose will help you decide who to follow and what kind of information to share.

2. Focus on your passion. There are millions of Twitter users tweeting thousands of pieces of information every second. It is easy to get overwhelmed by and lost in the noise. Rather than trying to soak it all in and repurpose everything, focus on your passion.

Don’t be a jack of all Twitter subjects and a master of none. Tweets surrounding your passion are going to be stronger. Plus, you will attract users who have similar interests. If you don’t focus, you will attract meaningless followers, if any at all.

3. Define your brand. Once you have zeroed in on your purpose and passion, decide how you want the Twitter world to view you.

Do you want to specialize in one subject to attract a targeted audience? Or do you want to be more general, tweeting about numerous topics? Do you want your tweets to be funny and casual or very professional? Is your goal to be a thought leader or celebrity? This will give you direction on who to follow and what to tweet.

4. Determine your strategy. Is your strategy tocommunicate?

If your goal is to influence, promote or sell, your strategy should be communication based. You are going to want to attract attention. To attract attention, you are going to need to tweet, direct message, engage with other users and focus on getting information out in the Twitter world.

Is it to listen?

If you are using Twitter to keep up on news, learn, provide customer service or perform market analysis, your strategy should be to listen. You are going to want to decide who will provide the content you’re interested in and follow them. You will also want to learn how to utilize filtering tools, including hashtags and Twitter lists.

5. Learn how to use Twitter. Reading this article and articles like it is a good first step. However, to really learn how to utilize Twitter, you’re going to need to get your hands a little dirty and roll up your sleeves.

Go to Twitter.com, and create a free account.
Learn Twitter terminology. When you post something, it’s a tweet. When you repost something from another user, it’s a retweet or RT. Trending topics, or TT, are topics discussed by many users at a given time. You can Favorite a tweet by clicking on the star. That is a great way to recognize someone for sharing your content.
Explore. See who is on Twitter and what people are tweeting.
Engage. Follow the guidelines in this article and become an active user.

6. Grab your name, brand or persona. (@KenKrogue)

When you are signing up, you will need to decide your Twitter name, which is how people will tag you in tweets and ultimately how you will be known on Twitter. Mine is my name, @KenKrogue. If you can’t get your own name, add your passion or function like @KenKrogueSells or something. My company address is @InsideSales. Choose something that fits you or your business.

7. Take a good picture. Use a close-up headshot of yourself or a logo of your business. This image will show up on your profile page and next to any comment you make on Twitter. You want people to recognize you. Make sure the image is clear and well-lit, with your face in the center. (Or you can be off-center, like me, if you are a little different.) You want to avoid having other objects beside you in the picture.

If you are using a logo, try not to make it too wordy, or it will not be readable at the small image size. Your image can be formatted as a jpg, gif or PNG. The size limit for upload is 700KB. Twitter reformats the image for the profile picture and the smaller image that goes next to comments.

Changing Your Profile Image. To change your profile image, click on the gear icon located at the top of the page, and select “edit profile.” Next to “Photo” select “Upload photo” from the drop down. Upload your photo from your computer.

8. Find your keywords. Use the Google Keyword Tool (now Keyword Planner as of Aug 26) to find the keywords that make up your industry or market. Remember to divert a river, don’t dig a well. In other words, tap into existing traffic rather than generating it from scratch. It is better to know about keywords than even about hashtags, because a hashtag is a keyword or a “theme” that can help amplify your exposure.

9. Research and identify your #hashtags. Hashtags are a tool to make words more searchable. To create a hashtag, place # before a word. Hashtags allow Twitter users to tap into a Twitter-wide conversation. Discover the trending conversations, and decide which ones you want to be included in. This will also help you connect with users who have similar interests.

Use a maximum of two hashtags per tweet. Hashtags are a useful way to get your tweet out to people who are actually interested in its main subject, but too many hashtags in a single post can be overwhelming.

#Hashtags can be a #useful #tool, but this is #toomany in a #single #tweet. #annoying #overwhelming

Five Tools to Help Research Hashtags:

Twitter Toolbar: You can search terms, keywords and people by entering them into the toolbar at the top of the page on Twitter. For example, if you are in sales, try searching #sales and related keywords you have identified using the Google Keyword Tool. If you want to see tweets surrounding a certain topic enter that term into the search bar, and it will bring you to all related tweets. For example, if you wanted to see tweets related to the Inside Sales Virtual Summit, enter #SalesSummitinto the search bar, and all tweets tagged #SalesSummit will show up.
Hashtags.org: Hashtags.org provides research to help businesses improve social networking strategies.
Topsy
Twitter Reach
Social Mention

(3-5 are social analytics tools that can provide analysis of your tweets and hashtags.)

10. Wordsmith your profile with keywords for search and fun facts for people. Once you have decided why you are using Twitter, what your target audience is and gone through the initial setup, now you want to show up in search. Include keywords in your Twitter profile.

11. Publish your Twitter ID in your other media. I post my Twitter ID (@KenKrogue) in my email signature, at the bottom of articles I write and anywhere else I think applicable. This lets people know I’m on Twitter and helps them find me. A great way to grow your following is to start with people you know and connect with them in various ways.

BUILD YOUR NETWORK

12. Check out Twitter Tools like TweetAdder or Tweepi to target who to follow or who you want to follow you. The best way to build your network is to target your content specifically to those who would be interested in following you and make it really interesting and valuable.TweetAdder or Tweetpi are perfect tools for this. Check out How to Build a Targeted Twitter Tribe of 100,000 on Jeff Bullas’ blog. Two other useful tools are Twitonomy, which provides analytics, and Twtrland, which offers up social intelligence.

13. The follow-first rule: I follow you then (hopefully) you follow me. This is by far the most common way to get followers. Twitter puts limits on how many users you can follow. Here are the guidelines: “Every account can follow 2,000 users total. Once you’ve followed 2,000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow. This number is different for each account and is based on your ratio of followers to following; this ratio is not published.”

14. The favorites-follower rule: I click ‘favorite’ on your Tweet, then you follow me. This method helps you gain targeting following by first finding Tweets that match your interests and targeted keywords. Then you click ‘favorite’ and often they reciprocate. This takes more time, but gives you a much higher quality and engaged following.

15. The offer-follower rule: You follow me, I give you something: information, ebook, etc. Make sure to give away something that your target audience will value. Make it easy for people to claim their reward.

16. The fan-follower rule: You follow a celebrity, they tweet you about them. You follow a celebrity types to keep up on their tweets. Twitter helped this process a lot by featuring the Twitter address of famous people in the Twitter registration process.

17. Choose your lists: Twitter lists allow you to listen to relevant conversations, identify influencers and filter out the noise so you can focus on the people and topics you care about.

18. Two ears and one mouth rule: Listen (and research first) before you speak. It is much better to listen about twice as much as you tweet if you want a strong following that is engaged and targeted to your purpose and passion.

19. Listen with Topsy. Topsy.com is a Twitter search engine that let’s you see if anyone listens or cares. Let’s you see the latest Twitter results in the past hour, day, week, 20 days, month or all time — with a cool trending graph. Also, be on the the lookout for a great social media tool called TinyTorch. This premier tool enables you to easily find relevant social content in your industry.

20. Use Tweetdeck or HootSuite to listen to the conversation about you, your company, or your industry. Serious listeners step up to Radian6, what is now the saleforce marketing cloud.

START COMMUNICATING

21. Create and tweet great original content that fits your purpose. Create content that is informative and entertaining. Write about industry news, especially if you’re in a position to break the news. Stay on top of trends and provide commentary that adds context. If somebody releases groundbreaking research in your industry, write about this research. But don’t just regurgitate it. Use your own expertise to explain why this research is important. Show others in your industry how they can apply it to their work.

Use a combination of short-form content, like tweets, and long-form content, like blog posts, to establish yourself as a thought leader.

22. Summarize and curate great content that fits your purpose.

Share facts, insights and statistics in 140 characters or less. Try to keep your tweets to about 100 characters to leave room for links and hashtags and to increase the likelihood that somebody will retweet your content. Use your Twitter lists to curate relevant content. Set up keyword searches to track content by keywords.

23. Spend your time on really great headlines with keywords. Your headlines have the greatest impact on how many people share and read your content.

Here are some proven headline formulas:

Lists: Headlines with numbers in them consistently perform well. Example: 7 Undeniable Reasons People LOVE List Posts.
How to: “How to” titles promise a benefit to your readers. Example: How to Use Sales Data to Increase Sales Productivity.
Target a Shark: Refer to a shark, which can be an important company or person in your industry. This allows you to feed off the shark’s popularity to call attention to your content. Example: What Steve Jobs Can Teach You About Startup Success.
Include Keywords: If you want to be known for sales motivation, make sure to include that keyword phrase in your headlines. Example: 6 Insanely Useful Sales Motivation Secrets.

24. Keep tweeting — Resend tweets with different angles. Some social media experts (Guy Kawasaki for example) recommend that you send the same tweet four times to cover all four U.S. time zones.

If you want to mix things up, here are some different angles you can take:

Use statistics to show significance: 90% of your sales come from 10% of your list

Address tweets to the individual by including the word “you”: Why You Should Focus on 10% of Your Prospect List

25. Alternate tweets by time of day and day of week. Social media scientist Dan Zarrella says that the best time to tweet if you want to be retweeted is on Friday at 4 p.m. EST. That’s based on aggregate data he has analyzed for millions of retweets. The engagement levels on your Twitter account may vary based on your industry and other factors.

Use the Buffer App Tool (one of my favorites) to schedule your tweets. Test different days and times. Monitor engagement by using Buffer’s Analytics tab. Identify patterns among your Twitter followers. Schedule your tweets for your optimal days and times. >Don’t overlook weekends. Some Twitter users see higher engagement over the weekend. But the only way to know is to test and monitor your results.

26. Bridge Twitter with other media. Create a dynamic experience for your Twitter audience by including different types of media, such as images and videos.

Here are some tools you can use:

Twitpic: Go to Twitpic.com, create an account, upload photos and easily share them on Twitter.

Yfrog: Yfrog is another popular photo-sharing service.

YouTube videos: Simply paste a YouTube video URL into a tweet. Your followers will be able to view the video right in their Twitter stream by clicking on the “View Media” link that appears in your tweet.
AudioBoo: Use AudioBoo to share audio files. Once you have an account, sharing an AudioBoo link is super intuitive.

Twitter is a very passive media, but great to build awareness and start conversations. I recommend bridging to more assertive media like email, Chatter, LinkedIn, phone conversations, and live meetings. Live meetings are the most assertive, and work great at common events like Trade Shows, etc. Use Twitter to bridge to more assertive media as soon as you can.

27. Retweet great content. When you see something worth sharing in your stream, retweet it. This means that you are sharing somebody else’s Twitter content with your own followers. Retweeting somebody else’s content accomplishes two things:

It helps you make friends with other influencers on Twitter.
It shows your followers that you’re an active member of your online community.

Retweeting is simple. Here’s how:

Click the Retweet button on any tweet. This will publish the original tweet in your followers’ streams. The tweet will appear exactly as it did when it was first tweeted, meaning it will appear to come from the person who originally tweeted it. A message will appear at the bottom of the tweet telling people that you retweeted it.

Retweet the old-fashioned way. When viewing a tweet, click Reply. Copy and paste the original message into your tweet box. Place the letters RT in front of the original tweeter’s Twitter handle, or @ sign. Click Tweet. The post will be published in your followers’ streams as if it came from you. Many users prefer this method of retweeting because it’s better for building your own brand.

28. Send direct tweets as a great form of communication. Direct tweets are one-to-one messages as opposed to one-to-many. So, these tweets are more personal by nature. Use direct tweets to build strong relationships and to communicate important messages.

There are two types of direct tweets:

At-replies: Send an at-reply to another Twitter user by hitting the Reply button on any tweet. Type your message into the box that pops up and click Tweet. Your at-reply will show up in this person’s Interactions stream, which means it is more likely to be seen than a regular tweet. Just remember, your at-reply will also be visible to the public as part of your general Twitter stream.

Direct messages: If you don’t want anybody but the intended recipient to see your tweet, use a direct message. Click on the gray gear icon at the top of your Twitter profile. Select Direct Messages and create a new message. Once you submit it, it will appear in the recipient’s inbox.

29. Use great #hashtags. Hashtags categorize your tweets, which makes it easier for others interested in your topic to find them. Turn the keywords you want to be known for into your hashtags. Create a hashtag by placing the # symbol in front of your keywords. For example, #insidesales, #sales and #salesdata are popular hashtags in the sales space. Remember the rule though: divert a river, don’t dig a well.

Find existing hashtags with lots of traffic by searching for them using the Search Bar at the top of your profile. View a list of related tweets by clicking on a hashtag inside a tweet.

Make a hashtag for every event and presentation you do. #salessummit was our hashtag for our big Virtual Sales Summit. It already had lots of existing traffic (divert a river.)

Put your hashtag right at the bottom of every slide in your PowerPoint to make it easy for people to see it and tweet while you are presenting.

30. Leverage your tweets in Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs. Share your Twitter content with your audience on other networks by re-posting your tweets on Facebook and LinkedIn, when appropriate. You also can embed a tweet into your blog or website. Click on the date in the upper-right-hand corner of a tweet. Then click More and select Embed Tweet. Copy the code and add it to your blog or website.

SEE IF IT’S WORKING

31. Check where you stand on social media tools, like Klout.com, Peerindex.com, Kred.com, Wefollow.com. Your influence on social media matters. The higher your score is, the more influential and relevant you are to others in the social media realm. One of the most popular tools is Klout. Quickly set up an account on Klout to see your score from 1 to 100.

Hashtag Best Practices:

21 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Twitter

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Best Practices, hashtags, Twitter

Effective brand-generated hashtags, on the other hand, are designed for action. The best brand hashtags not only reach an existing group of people who are already interested in a specific category, they give those people a reason to talk publicly about the brand. Here are some best practices that every brand should implement.

#SelfControl.

Keep it to 3 tags or less per post on any social channel or you’ll look like a spammer. If you think you need more, write a separate tweet or post.

#Relate.

Don’t hijack a popular trending hashtag to get attention—especially one with any whiff of controversy– unless you can find a solid connection. Remember when Entenmann’s decided to get glib with #notguilty during a high-profile murder case? Coffee cake won’t fix that faux pas. On the other hand, there are no hard and fast rules to trendjacking. It can be worth the risk—like Google’s global greeting card for the #RoyalBaby or JELL-O’s controversial but buzzworthy #FML hijack. The bottom line? If you’re going to trendjack, do your homework, be prepared to handle backlash, and monitor, monitor, monitor.

#GetSpecific

Think of general hashtags like #donuts or #donutshop like general search terms. Yes, they will put your company’s post in front of the masses, but they don’t really improve your connection with the people willing to talk about your brand. A specific made-by-you hashtag, however, is more like a targeted ad campaign. Promote #DonutsForDinner and your existing fans will collectively deliver a whole world of brand-specific content to their own networks (read: soon-to-be fans of yours). Whether it’s an Instagram gallery of strangers’ donut meals or a long list of Tweeps upping their caloric intake with your tasty product, the conversation is 100% about YOU.

#SearchTermSavvy

Think beyond your brand for a minute. If a consumer clicks on your gym’s #LetsGetSweaty hashtag, what else will they see in that list? And does that help or hurt your brand? Find out before you tag, not after.

#DoubleCheck.

And then look at it again. See if someone else can catch a red flag you’re not seeing. We’ve seen some grand hashtag mishaps that happen in a hurry, including Susan Boyle’s recent international record release and an unfortunate mixup that left readers wondering if it was Cher or Margaret Thatcher in the morgue. #susanalbumparty or #nowthatcherisdead anyone?

#KnowYourDarkSide

Don’t ask the public to join in the conversation if you have reason to believe they might run toward the opposite goalpost. McDonald’s asked the Twittersphere for their dining experiences– #McDStories– back in 2012, and they didn’t get glowing recommendations. Who saw that coming? Everybody except McDonald’s. Even your most loyal fan won’t cover for your brand’s shortcomings. Play to your strengths, period.

#Readability

Keep it short, memorable, and easy to spell. Think #OpeningAtAmys vs #amysartgallery. Capitalization is your friend (just ask Cher and Susan Boyle), and the social media universe gives bonus points for hashtags that can be used in a sentence.

#CallToAction

Hashtags only work for brands when consumers use them, so you’d better tell your fans what to do with yours. Do you want feedback on a product? Asking for content? Seeking advocates for a cause? Holding a contest? Give them a reason to use what you’ve made. With the right call to action, your hashtag is a conversation starter that can earn you a spot in social feeds around the globe; without direction, it’s nothing more than a misplaced pound sign.

What Characters Can A Hashtag Include?

17 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Hashtags, Twitter

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Best Practices, hashtags, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Online Marketing, Twitter

I have posted something similar way back when, but as the use of Twitter and hashtags has, like most other social media channels grown over the last couple of years, it is worth posting again.

Now I make no claims to being a Twitter/Hashtag expert, far from it. So in lieu of actual hands on information, I have gathered the best information I could find on the subject. So a special thanks to the folks at Hashtag.org for helping a girl out!

A hashtag is simply a phrase or keyword that is preceded by a pound (#) symbol and used by the micro-blogging community to create a thread of conversations around a specific theme or topic.

The purpose of the hashtag is to categorize topics, bring ideas together, inspire exchange and encourage others to join in. And because the conversations under hashtags, or any other part of the social networking community for that matter, are not regulated, micro-bloggers have more freedom to express what they want.

This is why hashtag usage is very popular in the likes ofTwitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+ and other social networking platforms that read hashtags. You can find a list of the most popular hashtags at certain times atHashtags.org.

Limitations on Hashtag Characters

Length

You only need to add a # before a word to make it hashtag. However, because a Tweet is only limited to under 140 characters, the best hashtags are those composed of a single word or a few letters. Twitter experts recommend keeping the keyword under 6 characters.

Use only numbers and letters in your keyword. You may use an underscore but do this sparingly for aesthetic reasons. Hyphens and dashes will not work.

No Spaces

Hashtags do not support spaces. So if you’re using two words, skip the space. For example, hashtags for following the US election are tagged as #USelection, not $US election.

No Special Characters

Hashtags only work with the # sign. Special characters like “!, $, %, ^, &, *, +, .” will not work. Twitter recognizes the pound sign and then converts the hashtag into a clickable link.

Don’t Start With or Use Only Numbers

Hashtags like #123 won’t work, so don’t use only numbers. Similarly, #123yo doesn’t work. But numbers are great for recurring events like #conference2012 or #SXSW12.

Be careful with slang

Slang words can mean different things in different countries, so be very mindful about the words you use. Effective hashtags are those that are concise, direct to the point and very relatable across cultures.

For a hashtag to serve its purpose and generate a following, don’t pepper your post with more than two hashtags. Overuse is annoying and defies general social media etiquette. You don’t want to be accused of being a hard seller, don’t you?

Read more are about hashtags in Why Use Hashtags?

How To Add Instagram Pictures to Tweets Instead of Just a Link

13 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Twitter

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Tags

Best Practices, Trending, Twitter

Instagram Pro Tip: How to display Instagram images within Twitter.

Twitter no longer displays the actual Instagram image, only a link, due to the rift between Facebook and Twitter.*

However, you can use IFTTT to circumvent this issue.Here’s how:

Use the Instagram “any new photo” trigger and the Twitter “post a tweet with image” action. Voila!
Here’s a link to the recipe: https://ifttt.com/recipes/94957

Here’s what the tweet will look like using IFTTT:

You will not need to use a special hashtag and you do NOT need to share from the IG app. IFTTT does all the work, automatically.

*The best explanation of the politics behind the rift is explained in Wired: It’s all about Twitter cards. Twitter cards are little pieces of metadata that publishers (Instagram, Tumblr, The New York Times) can attach to the things they push out onto the Internet. A Twitter card lets the publisher describe the item — be it a photo, a news story, or a video — and embed it into tweets. This is a system Twitter set up that any publisher can use. But in 2012, Instagram decided to stop supporting Twitter cards, choosing instead to direct everyone who wants to view a user’s photo to the Instagram website. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom said the decision was made because the Facebook-owned company wanted better control over how and where users photos are displayed. It makes sense, but it doesn’t hide the fact that Twitter and Instagram are competitors and probably not the best of friends. Whatever Instagram’s motive, as Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said, “That’s their prerogative.”

Conclusion

Do this, you won’t regret it. Pictures are much more likely to be retweeted. One caveat: If your end goal is to send Twitter followers back to your IG account, stick with the link only method instead of this IFTTT hack.

Twitter Advanced Search – Find those hidden gems

19 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Advanced Search, Twitter

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Advanced Search, Best Practices, Marketing, Online Marketing, Twitter

Twitter is a torrent of information. And those tweets just go whizzing by on your timeline!

Posted in Social Media By Ashley Faulkes On December 18, 2013

So with all the noise on Twitter, how do you find the information or people you are looking for?

Well luckily for us, Twitter has provided a simple tool and some powerful tricks to help you find the exact things you are looking for.

Let’s take a detailed look at Twitter Advanced Search and how it can help you.

Twitter Advanced Search Interface

Doing searches using the advanced search interface provided by Twitter is actually pretty easy.

This is what it looks like:

You have four sections which you can fill out and help you find the tweets you are looking for.

I will break it down for you and provide some examples to help you understand how it works.

Words Section

The first is the Words section, which gives you lots of options for narrowing down your search.

Example 1.
If you wanted to find all the tweets containing blogging and fitness but not involving pilates.

Just put blogging and fitness in All of these words
Put pilates in None of these words

** Beware: These tweets will have both blogging AND fitness in them. If you want tweets with blogging OR fitness, use Any of these words

Example 2.

If you wanted to find all the tweets on blogging OR writing and including the topic weight loss.

Just put blogging and writing in Any of these words
Put weight loss in This exact phrase

** We put weight loss in this exact phrase because we want tweets with these words written together (otherwise it could be weight and loss but anywhere in the tweet)

Example 3.

If you wanted to find all the tweets on blogging and fitness but not only in French.

Just put blogging and fitness in All of these words
Choose French from the Written in list

Example 4.

If you wanted to find all the tweets on blogging and social media during the South by South West Festival in 2013 (#SXSW13).

Put blogging in All of these words
Put social media in This exact phrase (ensures you get these words together)
Put #SXSW13 in These Hashtags

People Section

This section is a lot easier to understand. You can add in the Twitter handles of people you want to find tweets:-

From these accounts
To these accounts
Mentioning these accounts

All you need to do is type in a twitter handle or handles (eg. madlemmingz, justinbieber) into the field that does what you need.

Places Section

Because tweets are sent from a specific location, Twitter can help you narrow your tweets down to an area.

Simply type in where you want your tweets to come from.

For example, if you are a physical business in Seattle, you might want customers near you – just type in Seattle and fill out any other relevant fields you need to find the tweets.

**Note: If you need a more accurate location, you can use Geocodes. There is more detail on this further down in this post – click this link if you want to jump to that.

Other Section

This section seems a little crazy, but it is actually quite helpful.

The attitude fields (positive, negative) help you find tweets where people are happy (or not). So you can use it to find people with problems your business can solve.

For example, if you want to find people struggling to lose weight, just check the Negativeattitude field, and then type in weight lose in the All of these words field.

Similarly, you can find people who are asking questions, or only find retweets. All by checking the appropriate field.

Twitter Advanced Search – Power Tips

The Twitter Advanced Search Interface is great, but sometimes you want a more detailed query.

That is where the following section comes in handy. It shows you how you can do the same queries as above and more.

And another benefit is, you can do it easily from the main Twitter page by just typing into the search field at the top.

Some of the extra possibilities you get include:

Date Range Searches
Location searches with a radius and Geolocation
Filters (specific content types)

The table below shows you the type of search, how you would do it, and the types of results you will get.

Search Type	Example	Results
Exact match	“blogging tips”	Tweets containing exactly this phrase ”blogging tips”
OR Search	blogging OR writing	Tweets containing “blogging” or ”writing”
AND Search	blogging AND writing	Tweets containing “blogging” and “writing”
NOT Search	blogging -tips	Tweets containing “blogging” and not“tips”
Question	blogging tips?	Tweets containing “blogging tips” in a question
Since a Date	blogging since:2012-12-25	Tweets containing blogging tweetedsince 25th December 2012
Until a Date	blogging until:2012-12-25	Tweets containing blogging tweeted until 25th December 2012
Near a Place	near:San Francisco	Tweets sent near San Francisco
Near a Place Within a Distance	near:San Francisco within:15mi	Tweets sent near San Francisco within 15 miles
From a User	from:madlemmingz	Tweets sent from madlemmingz
To a User	to:madlemmingz	Tweets sent to madlemmingz
Positive Attitude		Tweets with a postive attitude
Negative Attitude		Tweets with a negative attitude
Hashtag Search	#bloggingtips	Tweets sent near San Francisco
User Search	@madlemmingz	Tweets sent containing @madlemmingz
Filter by Language	lang:de	Tweets sent in German (de)
Filters	filter:links	Tweets sent containing links – or (retweets, replies, images)

**Languages: This is a list of common two letter language codes for language filtering

Examples Using Twitter Advanced Search

The above list of search possibilities might seem a little confusing, so I thought I would explain a few of the less obvious ones.

1. Searches based on Attitude

Twitter has found a way of determining if tweets are positive or negative, and by using these symbols in your search you can find these kinds of tweets.

One great example of this is if you as a marketer are trying to find people with a specific problem which you can help them solve, and perhaps lure them to your website.

Let’s say you are selling a guide on how to lose weight fast: why not search for people who are having trouble losing weight?

Search: can’t lose weight 😦

2. Searches based on Location

If you run a business with an actual store in the center of Seattle, then you are probably wanting to connect with or find customers nearby.

This is where Twitter location search comes in handy.

If you are selling nutrition supplements for adding muscle fast, you could search for people near you tweeting about this.

Search: can’t gain muscle near:Seattle within:15mi

3. Searches based on Specific Locations (Geocodes)

Location search can be a bit hit and miss with Twitter, so using Geocodes is your best bet.

I know, it sounds confusing, but just popover to this site and type in your address to get your Geocode.

Then, use the “Copy x,y” and add it (plus a search radius) to a search like this:

geocode:43.913723261972855,-72.54272478125,100mi

To break this down – it is the Latitude, Longitude, Search radius

This website has some great examples to show how you would use it in real life

And you can head over to this post on Twitter location search to see how to do it on TweetDeck, Hootsuite etc.

3. Searches based on a Question

This is a great way to find people who you might want to interact with.

For example, I stumbled across someone the other day (not actually using search, but by chance) who was asking if anyone knew how to migrate from blogger to wordpress?

If you offered this service, it could be something you are looking for with a search like:blogger wordpress migration ?

3. Filtering specific content types

Filtering is one of the things you can only do with this type of search.

Simply type in the word filter: following by any of the following types of content and you will only find tweets with this content in them:

retweets
replies
links
images
videos

For example, if I wanted to find all images related to Justin Bieber (some people’s favourite person): Bieber filter:images

Summary

There is alot of power in Twitter search, and it can really help you find people who need your help or services.

Combine the right kinds of words and filters, and you will be finding the people or tweets you need in no time.

Try out the Twitter Advanced Search Interface to begin with, but if you want more power and freedom, learn the special words and just type them into the search bar as you use Twitter.

Reblogged by permission: Posted in Social Media By Ashley Faulkes On December 18, 2013 Photo credit: CarbonNYC via photopin cc

If you would like to read more by Ashley follow him on : http://madlemmings.com/2013/12/18/twitter-advanced-search-find-hidden-gems/

10 Surprising Social Media Statistics That Will Make You Rethink Your Social Strategy

05 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by leonidesignoryblog in Facebook, Google+, LInkedIn, Mobil Web, Multi Channel Marketing, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Best Practices, demographics, Facebook, Instagram, MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING, Online Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media, Trending, Twitter, YouTube

If you’re managing social media for your business, it might be useful to know about some of the most surprising social media statistics this year. Here are 10 that might make you rethink the way you’re approaching social media.

1. THE FASTEST GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC ON TWITTER IS THE 55–64 YEAR AGE BRACKET.

This demographic has grown 79% since 2012.
The 45–54 year age bracket is the fastest growing demographic on both Facebook and Google+.
For Facebook, this group has jumped 46%.
For Google+, 56%.

Those are impressive numbers against the prevailing idea that social media is “just for teenagers.” It certainly points to the importance of having a solid social media strategy if these age brackets fit into your target demographic.

Rethink it: Keep older users in mind when using social media, particularly on these three platforms. Our age makes a difference to our taste and interests, so if you’re focusing on younger users with the content you post, you could be missing an important demographic.

2. 189 MILLION OF FACEBOOK’S USERS ARE “MOBILE ONLY”

Not only does Facebook have millions of users who don’t access it from a desktop or laptop, but mobile use generates 30% of Facebook’s ad revenue as well. This is a 7% increase from the end of 2012 already.

Rethink it: There are probably more users accessing Facebook from mobile devices than you thought. It’s worth considering how your content displays on mobile devices and smaller screens before posting it, particularly if your target market is full of mobile users. Of course, make sure to make sharing to social media from mobilemore straightforward.

3. YOUTUBE REACHES MORE U.S. ADULTS AGED 18–34 THAN ANY CABLE NETWORK

Did you think TV was the best way to reach the masses? Well if you’re after 18–34 year olds in the U.S., you’ll have more luck reaching them through YouTube. Of course, one video won’t necessarily reach more viewers than a cable network could, but utilizing a platform with such a wide user base makes a lot of sense.

Rethink it: If you’ve been putting off adding video to your strategy, now’s the time to give it a go. You could start small with simple five-minute videos explaining what your company does or introducing your team.

4. EVERY SECOND TWO NEW MEMBERS JOIN LINKEDIN

LinkedIn, the social network for professionals, continues to grow every second. From groups to blogs to job listings, this platform is a rich source of information and conversation for professionals who want to connect to others in their industry.

Rethink it: LinkedIn is definitely worth paying attention to. In particular, this is a place where you may want to focus more on new users. Making your group or community a great source of information and a newbie-friendly space can help you to make the most out of the growing userbase.

Make sure you share consistently to your LinkedIn company page and profile by, for example, scheduling your posts.

5. SOCIAL MEDIA HAS OVERTAKEN PORN AS THE NO. 1 ACTIVITY ON THE WEB

We all knew social media was popular, but this popular? Apparently it’s the most common thing we do online. So next time you find yourself watching Kitten vs. Watermelon videos on Facebook, you can at least console yourself with the fact that the majority of people online right now are doing something similar.

Social media carries more weight than ever. It’s clearly not a fad, or a phase. It continues to grow as a habit, and new platforms continue to appear and develop.

Rethink it: Putting time and effort into your social media strategy clearly makes sense in light of these stats. If you weren’t already serious about social media, you might want to give it a bit more of your time now.

6. LINKEDIN HAS A LOWER PERCENTAGE OF ACTIVE USERS THAN PINTEREST, GOOGLE+, TWITTER AND FACEBOOK

Although LinkedIn is gathering new users at a fast rate, the number of active users is lower than most of the biggest social networks around. So more people are signing up, but they’re not participating. This means you’re probably not going to have as good a response with participatory content on LinkedIn, like contests or polls, as you might on Facebook or Twitter.

Rethink it: If you’re hoping to get people involved, think about which platforms are best for that. Looking at the latest Twitter statistics and Facebook statistics, these platforms might be a better place for your contest or survey, while passive content like blog posts or slide decks might be just right for your LinkedIn audience.

7. 93% OF MARKETERS USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BUSINESS

Only 7% of marketers say they don’t use social media for their business. That means there are lots of people out there getting involved and managing a social media strategy. It’s becoming more common to include social media as part of an overall marketing budget or strategy, as opposed to when it was the outlier that no one wanted to spend time or money on.

Rethink it: If you’re struggling to make your strategy work, or you just want some advice, you don’t have to go it alone. If 93% of marketers are using social media for business, you can probably find someone to give you a hand. Plus, there are lots of blogs, videos and slide decks around to help you out. Be sure to find the right social media management tool for you to stay on top of everything.

8. 25% OF SMARTPHONE OWNERS AGES 18–44 SAY THEY CAN’T RECALL THE LAST TIME THEIR SMARTPHONE WASN’T NEXT TO THEM

It’s pretty clear that mobile is a growing space that we need to pay attention to. And we’ve all heard the cliché of smartphone owners who don’t want to let go of their phones, even for five minutes. Well, apparently that’s not too far from the truth. If 25% of people aged 18–44 can’t remember not having their phone with them, there are probably very few times when they’re not connected to the web in some way.

Rethink it: While you can reach people almost anytime, since they have their smartphones with them almost always, this also means you can interrupt pretty much any part of their lives. Don’t forget that having a phone in your pocket all the time isn’t the same as being available all the time.

9. EVEN THOUGH 62% OF MARKETERS BLOG OR PLAN TO BLOG IN 2013, ONLY 9% OF US MARKETING COMPANIES EMPLOY A FULL-TIME BLOGGER

Blogging is clearly a big focus for marketers who want to take advantage of social media and content marketing. This is great, because blogging for your business has lots of advantages: you can control your company blog, you can set the tone and use it to market your product, share company news or provide interesting information for your customers. With only 9% of marketing companies hiring bloggers full-time, however, the pressure to produce high-quality content consistently will be a lot higher.

What a lot of people struggle here is how to write the best headlines for your articles, when the best time is to publish posts and lots of other blogging questions that arise when people are starting out.

(Of course, not all marketers work at marketing companies, but the stats are still interesting–how many companies in any industry can afford to hire–or already have–a full-time blogger?)

Rethink it: If you don’t have (or can’t afford) a full-time blogger for your business, be aware that having a content strategy that requires consistently posting on your blog will mean a lot of work for your marketing team and/or other team members in your company to keep up that volume. This can work, it’s just important to realize how big a task it is to run with a full-time content strategy without a full-time content creator.

10. 25% OF FACEBOOK USERS DON’T BOTHER WITH PRIVACY SETTINGS

We’ve seen a lot of news about social media companies and privacy. Facebook itself has been in the news several times over privacy issues, Instagram users recently got in a kerfuffle over changing their terms of service, and the recent NSA news has seen people become more conscious of their privacy online.

But despite these high-profile cases of security-conscious users pushing back against social networks and web services, Velocity Digital reports that 25% of Facebook users don’t even look at their privacy settings.

Rethink it: Assuming that all of your customers are thinking along the same lines could be a big mistake. Especially if you’re basing that on what you’ve heard or read in the tech news. Remember that your customers might have very different priorities than what you expect.

Your social media strategy really comes down to what your goals are, and who your target customers are, but it doesn’t hurt to pay attention to the trends happening across the web. Hopefully these stats will help you to identify trends that will affect your strategy and adjust accordingly.

This post originally appeared on Buffer, and is reprinted with permission.

leonidesignoryblog

~ socially savvy design

Tag Archives: Twitter

31 Twitter Tips: How To Use Twitter Tools And Twitter Best Practices For Business

Hashtag Best Practices:

Twitter Advanced Search – Find those hidden gems