Tulane students studying communications get together with Eric Hess to discuss internships and careers.
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26
Mar 12
Pinterest, the Social Network Women Love!
You certainly might have heard about Pinterest these past few weeks. It is the new trendy social network! Pinterest has quickly become one of the top five referring traffic sources for several apparel retailers.
The concept behind Pinterest is simple: it’s a virtual pinboard. You find things you like on the web or from your own photos and pin, organize and share them to your board.
You can also follow other people and see their pin’s board on your “home” Pinterest page.
A Pinterest’s board
What is getting the attention is the amazing growth. At the start of 2012, Pinterest’s daily user count was 810,000. Six weeks later, it was at 2 million!
The most interesting fact is that most of all users are women. According to Inside Network’s AppData tracking service, 97% of Pinterest’s Facebook fans are women.
A Pinterest’s home page
But why does Pinterest appeal women so well?
First of all the visual aspect is definitely a part of the answer. It’s important to remember that women are the strongest consumers, so it makes sense that a something driven on a visual board would strike a chord with them.
The second thing is about the content. Trend in creative communities such as home decor blogs, homeschooling blogs, DIY blogs, food blogs, as well as fashion blogs and those are definitely places where lots of women get together virtually.
Let us know if you are on Pinterest and if you are a man or a woman?
13
Feb 12
Using Social Media to your Law Firm’s Advantage
Social Media has become a buzz word for many corporations. However, law firms tend to approach social media as a networking platform with a sense of trepidation because of a very reasonable fear of violating the rules of ethics. Rachel Zahorsky, a legal affairs reporter for the ABA Journal explains the reason lawyers are so hesitant to adopt social media as a marketing strategy: “Varied and outdated ethics rules in regards to online communication, as well as numerous examples of cases put in real jeopardy because of prosecutors and judges posting on Facebook or jurors twittering mid-trial, only fuel a general tendency in the legal profession to distrust new technologies.” However, there are a number of ways that lawyers and law firms can use social media to their advantage, without worrying about violating any ethics codes.
- Become the expert in your field: Collect and aggregate news stories relevant to your field. By using Twitter or by blogging, lawyers can exude a sense of expertise by informing the public of cases or new statutes that are within a particular field. Once you establish this, people will begin to come to your site for more information.
- Never solicit clients from your followers: Social Media networking is like real world networking. You are not going online to find random people to become your clients. You are creating an image for your firm as the thought leader in your industry. Instead, try forming relationships with other lawyers and law firms outside of your field. Those other lawyers and law firms that are in your network can refer clients to you when they know of someone who needs your particular services; and they will, once you present your firm as that leader in the industry.
- Do not give legal advice online: Again, you should remember to treat social media as though it were the real world. You would never give a person advice who was not your client. The same principle applies online. However, you can still share opinion on legal issues. Just make sure you are clear that it is an opinion and not legal advice. Adding a disclaimer to your blog or Facebook posts can help you avoid this problem.
- Use all forms of Social Media: Some lawyers experience less than satisfactory results from Social Media because they are only on one platform. You should consider using Twitter, Facebook and blogging together to create your online presence. People enjoy using all forms of social media to get their information, and you should be the one who gives them their legal updates on all available platforms.
1
Feb 12
Why Your Business Should Have A Social Media Policy
Did your mother ever tell you to think before you speak? Have your friends told you to wait a few minutes before sending a heated message to a significant other? How about your teachers telling you to watch what you put on the Internet? You should heed this last piece of advice because our words have a way of coming back to bite us. Once you post something on the Internet, it’s out there for the whole world to see. And unlike the notes you used to pass in school, these words can’t be crumbled up and made to disappear. The concept of social media perpetuating our words is at the center of numerous debates because no one knows how to handle that information. Social networking is still pretty new, and the majority of businesses don’t have policies or rules regarding social media as a business tool, even if it’s already being used in that capacity.
A CNN reporter, Octavia Nasr, used her Twitter account to express her lack of respect for a recently deceased Hezbollah leader. Nasr identified herself as a CNN reporter on her profile, as well as in her username. The public was outraged. Nasr tried to apologize, stating the limited character restrictions (140 characters) led her post to be misinterpreted, but the damage was done and she lost her job. Gilbert Gottfried was the voice of the Aflac duck, but was also publicly fired after he posted offensive tweets in the aftermath of the Japanese Tsunami. While the majority of things Mr. Gottfried says can be construed as offensive, some say he was fired because Aflac was very involved in the aftermath of the tsunami.
These events could have been prevented if there was a social media policy in place for both employers and employees to follow. Businesses can better protect themselves by clearly outlining what material is and is not appropriate to be associated with their brand. A proper policy will also prevent situations where an employee posts something he believes to be harmless, but is considered offensive by his employer.
Finally, businesses should make sure they have a social media policy to comply with the FTC’s guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising, as they cover a lot of scenarios in the social media realm. As for mixing personal opinions while representing your company, it’s best to keep them separate, at least until you get your own social media policy.
To read the complete guide from the FTC click here : http://ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf
To read the complete Federal Trade Commission Act, click here: http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/FTC_Act_IncorporatingUS_SAFE_WEB_Act.pdf
11
Jan 12
Fast Equity Through Social Media
Not too long ago we told readers about a new trend of businesses using Internet communities to generate advertising ideas and media, or crowdsourcing, and today we would like to introduce you to crowdfunding, an idea that has been directly inspired by crowdsourcing. What crowdfunding is in essence is the practice of a collective group of people pooling their money together to support or fund ideas, efforts, or businesses started by other people, usually over the Internet. Funded projects range from filmmaking and artistry to helping start-ups and small businesses get off the ground; and while some efforts are strictly fundraising, the majority of crowdfunding projects involve the “investor” getting something back in the end. A well know crowdfunding site, Kickstarter.com, funds creative projects through donations with donors receiving rewards such as products or services. Sites like Cameesa and Catwalk Genuis have fans investing and involving themselves in the creation of a designer’s new line in exchange for a share in the profits. Even sites like Crowdcube enable investors to invest small amounts of money in start-ups in exchange for real equity and a chance to build their investment portfolio. There is a new site for every product and every angle but the up and comer everyone is talking about right now is Wahooly. Wahooly is in the business of helping start-ups gain users by offering stakes in the start-ups. However instead of asking for monetary donations, users are asked to promote the start-ups through their social media sites and platforms. The program is designed to appeal to those who are immersed in social media and consider themselves influencers. The process of dividing up equity between users is competition based, so your stake in the company will increase or decrease depending on how hard and often users work to promote their chosen start-ups. Considering the continuing rise in the already overwhelming amount of people that use social media sites, this seems like a great way for start-ups to gain widespread exposure and a great way for people to make money while doing things they were already doing before. Wahooly is a start-up itself and hopes to officially launch in January with 200 startups. Currently they have 41 start-ups on board and a growing base of 16,000 users.
4
Feb 11
The Road to Success is Paved With Familiarity
Today’s post comes inspired by this article posted through Technorati.
According to the article by John Egan, brand familiarity is the number one driver of visits to retail sites. It’s no great mystery why this is. If people are talking about your product, people are aware of your product. That’s it. Start a discussion, be responsive, and be an advocator for your product or service. Once people start to recognize your brand name, you’ll see this statistic kick in. Here are a few simple steps to jumpstart the discussion.
Facebook and Twitter are not platforms for creating a sale. They can, however, increase awareness of your product and get people talking about it. It is at this point that your job as a marketer is to become an active part of this discussion.Answer questions customers have, send out interesting tidbits of information you find, do anything you can to be a resource to your subscribers. When it comes to social media, be preemptive about your product but also appropriately responsive.- Selling is a more organic process. People simply don’t click on sidebar ads, or Facebook ads, and go straight to buying your product. When you make your product or service appear organically and tailor the road to purchase with more specific keywords, reflecting increased buyer intent, you make it that much easier for the customer to find and choose your product. In today’s world of Google AdWords and such, this process is a whole lot easier than you might expect.
- In some instances you can combine social media with organic marketing to create a community around your product. In other words, make it easy for people to find other people talking about your product. This in turn will encourage discussion about your product, at which point you can jump in and become an active part of the discourse.
Simply put, marketing has evolved. Don’t let your customers think you are trying to shout a message at them as loud as possible until they get it. Let communication be two-way, and eventually your best customers will also be your greatest advocates.
22
Dec 10
What can we expect in 2011?
The movement of social media in our society has exploded over the course of a few short years. If we really think about it, only six years ago Facebook was launched, which was the birth of a new social media phenomenon. Facebook is visited by over 400 million a month and is a means used as an effective marketing tool for businesses. Now there are thousands of social networking sites out there. You can find them based on different niches in order to best suite you or your business. For example, Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace are pretty open to all types of social networking. ActiveRain is popular for real estate agents, 43things is a site targeted to connecting those who have goals they want to accomplish, and there is Flickr that is used to share pictures. While the list can go on and on, most should research which sites are likely to benefit them or their company effectively.
With the New Year approaching, it’s exciting to think about what can be expected in 2011. I took some time and researched what we can expect from social networking in the upcoming year.
First, integrating social media on to specific websites is something companies are beginning to do, and something we will see much more of. The idea of social media marketing was very helpful to those with low budgets and looking for free, valuable marketing. Being “found” online has become essential and these tools have made that possible. Now that we are seeing budgets increase a bit more, some spending will be done to take social media to the next level-enhancing the functionality of these sites directly to the business website.
Email and social media will assimilate. Developing an email database has been a top priority for most businesses and has proven to be a strong strategy. However, as email open rates continue to decline, some marketers are left watching this powerful resource diminish, wondering how they can rejuvenate their audience. Social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter offer a better way to create a more regular and sustainable dialogue with consumers– the trick is to understand how to migrate consumers across from your email database to these platforms.
Also, social networking will be more readily available than ever before. With the smart phones, which have already been a hit, paired with IPods and Android tablets, people will be “reachable” via social networking and the internet. A little intimidating huh? As 2011 begins, the move towards virtualization, mobility, and internet applications at your fingertips at all times, you will have no excuse not to participate in the social media world.
9
Dec 10
Why Do People Always Want to Separate Social Media and SEO?
Cameron Chapman recently wrote an article on instantShift.com explaining why we should focus more on social media and less on search engine optimization (SEO). SEO involves techniques that improve your website’s ranking in organic (i.e. unpaid) search listings for Google, Bing and other popular search engines. Chapman writes, “More often than not, people aren’t using search engines to discover new content online. Rather than using Google or Yahoo! to find information on a topic, users are asking their Facebook friends and groups about whatever information they need.” He further explains how people are using social bookmarking sites, blogs and Twitter to research and find new information.
Social media is undoubtedly important for any business looking for an online presence, but social media and SEO aren’t mutually exclusive. SEO encompasses all unpaid methods for improving a website’s visibility and pagerank in search engines. Social media creates back links for your website (a major part of link building and SEO), drives targeted traffic to your business/site, and is mostly free. So in a way, social media is another facet of SEO.
SEO techniques are often used to promote social media accounts. Say you decide to start a Facebook fan page or Twitter account for your business. How are you going to gain fans and followers? Facebook has over 500 million users. Twitter has 190 million users (via TechCrunch). How are new customers that have never heard of your business going to find you? You may be okay if you have enough contacts on social networks, but what if that’s still not enough? Keyword optimization (a huge part of SEO) can help your social account get found on search engines like Google, which became the largest source of online traffic last year. Greater search engine presence brings more people to your Facebook or Twitter page. Businesses should consider an SEO campaign before undertaking social media, so that your business has a recognizable brand that customers will seek out on social media.
8
Oct 10
Quick Hits: Facebook’s New Privacy Features
Looking for a clear, comprehensible explanation of Facebook’s new features announced earlier this week? If yes, then this is your guide. Facebook’s three new features include:
- Download Your Information: this enables users to download everything they have ever posted to the site (e.g. photos, status updates, wall posts, etc.)
- Applications You Use: this is the dashboard you keep hearing about. It allows you to monitor what applications you have used, how said apps use your data and what data they use, the last time the data was accessed, and what permissions you’ve granted to these apps. You can also control the information the apps can access and delete them easier.
- Facebook Groups: this allows users to share certain content with select people, rather than share to everyone listed as a friend. For example, if you want to share pictures of your Saturday night with your friends but not necessarily your boss or your parents, you will find this feature invaluable as you can list exactly which people have access to the pics.
6
Oct 10
To Maximize Your Blog’s Potential, Sample These 3 Concepts
Blogs have become an essential part of a company’s PR, but with so many people blogging, how do you make yours standout? It’s important to note that good content is always the key to promoting, well, anything. But a cleverly worded title can give your blog an edge.
Jay Baer wrote an excellent blog explaining what made his top blogs popular. By examining the titles of his top 25 blogs, he found that each one had characteristics similar in other titles. Among them he found:
- Listing and numbers can increase the hits on your blog. Saying “4 Reasons Twitter Can Help Your Business” as opposed to “Why Twitter Can Help Your Business” helps readers digest the content of your blog. They know to concentrate on four different, easier to manage sections of your blog with the first title. The second generic title may overwhelm them since they can’t anticipate your blog’s content. This is especially true when your blogs cover more complex topics.
- The word count of your blog title makes a difference. Only 5 of Baer’s top 25 blogs had 6 words or less, and 17 of the top 25 had between 7 and 8 words in the title. Yes, this is the classic “correlation does not mean causation” scenario; adding more words does not guarantee more blog views. However, it’s possible that a more descript blog title draws more attention than one vaguely titled.
- Consider the words you use in your title. Using imagery or more powerful, emotion-provoking words (Baer used the words dangerous, killing, fallacy, and crushing in some of his top blogs) captures people’s interest. People give the same advice when giving resume advice: don’t be boring. Stand out.