25 Hot NYC Startups You Need To Watch. SoMe: Tales From A Social Media Expert, A Documentary Project by Loren Feldman. Instagram Popularity Animation. How to Defeat the Social Media Skeptics in Your Company. For those trying to get a social media campaign going in their company, they’ll often have to deal with naysayers that question the value. Former Kodak CMO Jeff Hayzlett says dealing with the non-believer is all part of “running the gauntlet.” He believes it so strongly that he even wrote a book with the same title that promises to teach people how to push forward with their social media dreams. Hayzlett spoke with Bryan Elliott on Behind the Brand about what it takes to engage audiences, and how to explain to those number crunchers that social is valuable.
For one, he said talking about return on investment is overhyped. “I say to them, ‘What’s your return on ignoring?’” Hayzlett said. “If you’re engaged with your customers, and you have an operation that is doing what it’s supposed to be doing, then you’re going to make money.” Hayzlett said at this point, not engaging via social media is just a way to lose money. “Get engaged, start doing it. More Recent Episodes of Behind the Brand: Everything to Teach Your Employees About Social Media. Who needs an expensive social media consultant when you can train your employees in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn best practices yourself?
This Mindflash infographic breaks down the types of social media users you'll find in your company — the digital native, savvy technologist, reluctant user, digital newby and digital contrarian — and how to approach training each of them. This guide also highlights an important fact: 76% of companies do not have a clearly defined social media policy. Whether or not you have an explicit policy, make sure you're aware of the way everyone in your company represents your brand. What do you think its most important for companies to teach their employees about social media? Share your best practices in the comments. Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, narvikk. To Follow or Not to Follow: Should Small Businesses Follow Everyone Back on Twitter? This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Marketers know that Twitter is a valuable tool used to reach out to thousands of customers. But it's not just the output of content that's valuable — the people and other businesses you follow on social media are of equal worth. Unless your account is private, you have no control over who is following you (unless you block them). However, you personally select your followers. But as a business with thousands of followers, is it wise to follow every single person who follows you? SEE ALSO: How to Turn Social Feedback into Valuable Business Data "Don't fall into the trap of something I call a 'courtesy' follow — that is, following someone that has followed you out of a desire to appear grateful," advises Sheena Medina, community manager at Fast Company.
How To Tap Facebook Fans To Signal Search Engines. Consumers look for social signals created by their peers or opinions posted online for recommendations about brands, products and services, and the search engines are taking note. Both Bing and Google have updated their search engine algorithms to now include consumer-generated content, such as social signals. Since the content is created by consumers, it is more relevant, and ranked higher in search engine results. In addition, Bing and Google are now serving personalized results based on the data aggregated from consumers’ social graphs.
People searching on Bing are now served results that include information or likes their friends have shared on Facebook. Brands looking to stay top of mind with their consumers must implement social initiatives that drive consumer-generated content, or social signals, around their brands. Social referral programs, by nature, tap into the consumer desire to share information and content with peers, resulting in consumer-to-consumer marketing. How Small Brands Can Look Big On Facebook Timeline. Facebook Photos: The Key to a Successful Social Media Campaign. Matt Handy leads the social-local-mobile practice and Social PIX team at Brand Networks, a leading Facebook Preferred Developer and Ads API Vendor.
Brand Networks engineers social, local and mobile experiences to amplify stories for the world’s most liked companies including AMEX, JetBlue, Diageo and Starbucks. While Facebook marketing strategies shift with every new iteration and development from the network, one thing remains the same: The stories that jump out from our Timelines and News Feeds are told with photos. If you doubt the relative importance of photos, take note of the only permanently anchored module on the new Timeline pages. This is clearly a strategic decision in light of our increasingly visually-oriented consumer culture. The role photos play in creating engaging content cannot be understated: Showcase Your Fans With Products Verizon Wireless has pulled off a storytelling trifecta that combines photos, fans and product into a powerful brand story.
Study: Twitter Can Help Predict Winners and Losers on the Stock Market. Do You Ever Actually Use QR Codes? I really like QR codes as a concept, and honestly, I feel like they aren't really used creatively enough. The most widespread use I see is on ads, and they let you... open the ad on your phone... Sure this adds video and sound, but why would I care? The pertinent information should already be in the ad. It seems most used in A.) getting a lot of text to your phone and B.) starting apps with specific variables (like logging into a wifi network, or jumping to an app you read a review for online, etc.). I think they need three criteria to be useful. A.) B.) be placed in areas where you would have the time and inclination to take out your phone, start an app, and take a picture. C.) Possible ideas, (and even these aren't great, I'm not that creative) 1.) on a menu that opens a Paypal app for splitting the bill 2.) 3.) places where you might wait link to funny movies on youtube (bus stops, etc.) keep the link the same, but update the content it links to. 4.) 6.) 7.)