Social Media News, Facebook Integrates New Gender Options on Profiles

Facebook took the social media world by storm last Thursday after announcing that people who use the site in US English can now customise their gender options.

Users can now procure the labels 'transsexual', 'intersex' and 'androgynous'. This move by Facebook ensures that people can be referred to as they wish, and socially liberates some pockets in society that previously have not had a voice in the online world.

As well as adding around 50 different terms for their options, Facebook have also made it possible for users to alter their profile when it comes to direct referrals.  A user can now be referred to as he/him, she/her, or even they/their. This is certainly a massive step in the world of social media networking as more and more people across the globe are using sites such as Facebook and Twitter, it is essential that these companies cater for even the smallest pockets of society.

The social media giant posted a message on its diversity page hailing the decision made: "while to many this change may not mean much, for those it affects it means a great deal".  The company also said it worked with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender activist groups before solidifying a final list of gender options.  This demonstrates another sound move from Facebook, who by reaching out to groups who are usually kept in the public dark, have now catapulted these groups into the watching eye of the Internet.

Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation welcomed the changes online and stated "over the past few years, a person’s Facebook profile truly has become their online identity, and now Facebook has taken a milestone step to allow countless people to more honestly and accurately represent themselves".  This gratitude towards Facebook was echoed on Facebook's diversity page by current users, but with jubilation also comes queries from other quarters, and this unfortunately opens the door for others who use popular social networking sites as a platform to discriminate.  There have been early signs of this as some have sarcastically requested a dictionary in order to look up some of the gender terms.

Despite this, the majority have reacted positively, and for anyone who wants to change their gender information Facebook offers these instructions:

 - Go to your Timeline (which we sometimes refer to as your profile).

- Click Update Info at the bottom of your cover photo.

- Click Edit in the top right of the section you’d like to change. (The new gender options are only accessible within an autocomplete drop-down menu, so you have to begin typing to see them appear.)

- Enter your new info and click Save.

With plans to expand these new options, it seems that Facebook is looking ahead to a new diverse online world, and it's about time. These changes will indeed create debate amongst people in forums and on Facebook itself, but if there is a positive end result, which allows people to confidently express themselves as who they consider themselves to be, then it represents a step forward in society. In a subject that is regarded as touchy by some, Facebook should be commended in their bold effort to establish themselves as the company that liberated the cross-gender masses online, and it will now be interesting to see whether other big companies will follow.

In a nod towards their relationship status "it's complicated", Facebook may well have expanded its already 1 billion plus target range, through diversity and equality.

5 Ways to Grow Your Twitter Reach

Are you struggling to grow your Twitter following?

Do you want more people to see your updates?

If you’re a small business, it can take a while to build up your Twitter followers and that can be frustrating. You may wonder how other companies grow quickly and how you can replicate their success.

In this article you’ll discover five ways to jumpstart visibility for your Twitter profile and tweets.

#1: Follow Twitter Basics

Before you do anything else, be sure you understand a few Twitter fundamentals. You can increase your tweet exposure with just a few tweaks:

• Don’t start tweets with @username. Starting a tweet with @username restricts its visibility to only you, the person you’re tweeting and any mutual followers. Your reach is automatically cut short!
  

  Starting a tweet with @username limits your reach.
  

  
  

  Here’s an example of a tweet crafted to put text before the first @username to give this tweet a wider reach.

  
  
• Don’t use more than three hashtags in any one tweet. Too many hashtags in a tweet makes it look spammy and reduces your tweet’s shareability.
• Don’t over-tweet about yourself or your products. The 80/20 rule applies on all social platforms. The 80/20 rule means you spend 80% of the time interacting with and promoting others and 20% of the time promoting yourself and your products.
• Provide as much value as you can. Listen to your followers and the people you follow. What are their pain points? How can you solve those? When you share relevant, interesting tweets (without over-promoting), people see you as an expert and may recommend you to others as an important resource.

#2: Promote Your Twitter Profile Everywhere

Use your other social profiles to tell people about your Twitter handle. Add your Twitter username to the About or Contact sections of Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and any other social profiles you use.

On your website or blog, be sure you have social sharing buttons to make it easy for readers to tell others about your content.

Configure your social sharing button to auto-populate your Twitter username when someone shares an article.

Plugins make it simple to install and customize sharing options and expand your reach by adding via @yourusername every time someone tweets content from your site. This simple customization gets your Twitter handle in front of hundreds of users you may not have reached otherwise.

#3: Cross-Promote Your Giveaways

Giveaways always drive more traffic, visibility and engagement. Take advantage of that by creating a Q&A giveaway that requires entrants to give their answers by tagging you on Twitter and using a specific hashtag.

Extend visibility of your Twitter profile by cross-promoting campaigns using hashtags.

The hashtag is easy to track and ensures you don’t miss part of the conversation. Requiring users to tag your @username ensures a wider audience sees your handle. Be sure to engage with any users who respond or use the hashtag—it’s just good etiquette and you’ll reach even more people.

When you’re ready to promote your giveaway, post the question to all of your social accounts. Start with the platform that has the most engagement, then share across your other social profiles. Don’t forget to share on Twitter!

#4: Interact With Niche Influencers

Whether you’re offline or online, networking is a tried-and-true method for extending your reach. If you haven’t started networking on Twitter, now’s the time.

If you’re truly listening on Twitter, you’ll be able to tell who the influencers are in your niche—those are the people with whom you want to establish a relationship. Remember, the influencers don’t have to be national in scope, they can be important locals as well (e.g., the newspaper editor or local newscasters).

Start a Twitter conversation with a few of the influencers in your niche and add as much value to the conversation as you can. The more interesting you are, the more likely it is that an influencer will respond to or spread your message.

The Fort Collins, CO band @FierceBad has a modest 683 followers, but has established a relationship with the amazingly popular @newbelgium (New Belgium Brewing, also in Fort Collins). When Fierce Bad released a new video, New Belgium Brewing tweeted it out to their 187,500 fans—quite a bit bigger audience.

Influencers can attract huge attention for you on Twitter.

#5: Find Allies in an Online Community

If you think you’re alone in trying to build Twitter exposure, think again! There are lots of communities for people just like you who want to network.

These communities are generally built around niches, so it’s easy to find one where members share your interests. Shared interests mean it’s easier to find good content to send out to your followers (remember the 80/20 rule!). Since sharing is usually (but not always) reciprocal, you’re benefitting too.

Most online communities are free to join and welcome new members with open arms. Here are 10 communities you can join to increase your exposure on Twitter:

• BizSugar
• Blokube
• DoSplash
• Klinkk
• Inbound.org
• List.ly
• ManageWP.org
• Social Buzz Club
• The Writers Social
• Triberr

BizSugar posts have a Tweet button and the tweets from this community can add up.

You’ll find that many serious marketers have a strong presence in multiple online communities like these because they realize the overall value. Joining the same communities allows you to connect with those influencers (and expand your Twitter reach) on a larger scale.

Conclusion

Whether you’re starting a brand-new Twitter profile or you have an established profile that’s struggling to develop a larger following, you can increase Twitter exposure.

Make sure you’ve got the basics down, then move on to connecting with influencers, sharing interesting updates and joining relevant communities.

What do you think? What’s been your biggest challenge with getting exposure on Twitter? Do you have advice for others? Let us know in the comments.

Top 10 Social Media Marketing #FAILS of 2013 [INFOGRAPHIC]

Let’s face it: Sometimes the best way to learn is from the mistakes of others.

As businesses and agencies continue to develop social media strategies, the list of campaigns that have blown up in certain brands’ faces grows longer.

Of course, social media mishaps can sometimes get more press than the social media programs that actually work as they were designed to. Just look at 2013′s strangest social media strategy — the faked Chipotle Twitter account hack. Meanwhile, an actual Twitter hack on Burger King’s account gained the fast-food chain hundreds of thousands of followers this past February.

Well, 2013 had its fair share of companies that created a stir in the social media world. From choosing the correct platform for your campaign to quelling your rage before posting to thinking about all the consequences of promoting a live chat,  there’s plenty of  important lessons to be learned from each of these high-profile fubars.

The infographic below presents 10 of the best (worst) social media fails of 2013.

Image: masters-in-marketing.org

Facebook Drives the Most Traffic to Publishers, Beating Twitter and Reddit

There's no beating Facebook when it comes to driving traffic to publishers. The world's largest social network directed 10.4% of traffic to websites this past September, according to data from 200,000 publishers.

Coming in an unexpected second place, Pinterest drove the second-most traffic to publishers with 3.7%. The photo-sharing website drove three times as much traffic as Twitter, which clocked in at 1.2% in September 2013.

Created by Statista, the chart shows the amount of traffic driven to publishers by eight social networks; it is based on data from Shareaholic.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Image: Mashable composite: iStockphoto, murattasci and hugolacasse; Wikimedia Commons

Why It's Important to Stay Active on Social Media

Facebook and Twitter are always there. You can pop in and check your accounts, disappear for a couple of weeks, and when you come back, everything is just how you left it, people carrying on the global conversation without you. What you're not seeing, however, is what your silence is costing you in followers and potential customers. Here are some reasons why it's important to stay consistently active on your social media accounts.

1. It makes you look reliable. Like it or not, if you only post on your social media accounts every once in a while, and are lax about replying to tweets and Facebook messages, people will make assumptions about your customer service ethic. If you can't even be bother to respond to tweets in a timely fashion, why should they believe you'll respond when they have a real need to speak to you?

2. It keeps your followers from getting bored. There's a balance to be achieved with posting frequency on social networks. On one hand, you don't want to spam people, but on the other hand, you do want to look like you're there and participating in conversations. If there are huge gaps in your timeline, people will start to wonder why they bother following you at all, and many will unfollow.

3. It reminds people that you exist. Not everyone thinks about your company all the time, but being active on social media keeps you on their radar, and gives them a gentle reminder that you're still around, and still eager to help them with whatever they need. This means that when it comes time for them to make a purchase, your company name will be fresh in their mind.

If you're going to participate in social media (and you definitely should!) it's better to stick with a couple of networks that you know you can keep up with, rather than signing up for every network and spreading yourself too thin.There's only a finite amount of time you can commit to social media, so use it wisely, and make the effort to participate enthusiastically and regularly. You'll definitely notice a difference in how people respond to you, and that in turn will translate into more shares and retweets, better interaction, and of course more followers, which is what everyone wants. How much time per week do you devote to social media marketing?

Do you notice a difference when you don't keep up with it regularly?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8061346

Instagram, Twitter or Facebook Advertising – Which Is Best for Brands?

With last week’s announcement that Instagram advertising is coming in the near future (first through a limited test among U.S. users), brand marketers have taken notice. There will soon be a new way to reach the 150 million Instagram user audience. Ads will roll out with a small number of brands on both the Instagram website and mobile app with a focus on enhancing the user experience with ads.

An Instagram blog post explained the upcoming advertising launch to users as follows:

“Our aim is to make any advertisements you see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands. We want these ads to be enjoyable and creative in much the same way you see engaging, high-quality ads when you flip through your favorite magazine.”

Instagram users will also be able to hide ads they don’t like and provide feedback on those ads.  Let’s hope that the Instagram team will take many of the lessons its parent, Facebook, has learned about advertising to deliver a strong offering to advertisers that its user audience accepts.

Not only is Instagram joining Facebook in building an advertising platform that will generate revenue, but the announcement comes at the same time news of Twitter’s initial public offering hit the streets. In the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing from Twitter, the company revealed that it has 218 million monthly active users. Yoree Koh and Suzanne Vranica of The Wall Street Journal explain that this is significantly less than the 1.5 billion active monthly users that Facebook boasts. That 218 million Twitter user audience represents 22% of U.S. Internet users according to Forrester Research, but that’s very small compared to the 72% of U.S. Internet users who check Facebook at least once per month.

Koh and Vranica also explained in their article that Twitter advertisers don’t believe an audience of 218 million users is big enough to invest in Twitter advertising. Today, Twitter usage peaks during big events, and the rest of the time, it’s dominated by a small group of power users. Many advertisers are waiting for Twitter to find better ways to increase engagement among wider audiences and to encourage them to log in more frequently.

These shortcomings make most consumer brands choose Facebook first. Of course, Facebook advertising has its own long list of problems, but today, it’s the social network that most brands prioritize. Is it truly the right place for those brands to invest ad dollars or do they just think they have to be there because the Facebook user audience is so big and the site is so popular? For brand marketers, the problem becomes trying to explain why they’re not advertising on Facebook to executives.

So which is best for brands—Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook? The answer is, there is no single answer. Every brand is different, but advertising on Facebook because that’s where 1 billion people are doesn’t mean the investment will drive a positive return. The Super Bowl gets massive viewership each year, but that doesn’t mean every brand should advertise during the big game. If you can create a highly relevant offer and release it at the right time and to the right audience on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, then invest. However, as with all marketing investments, if you can’t generate the needed ROI, it doesn’t matter if there are 1 billion users, 218 million users, or 100 users. 

This Week in Social Media

Mobile ad spending takes off, Facebook grabs a decent share of it, the first short film shot only on Vine, Twitter acquires Trendrr for social TV measurement, unintentional risks of cloud sharing on personal devices in the workplace, another Facebook privacy policy update, Kevin Spacey teaches us a thing or two about the future of content and more, it's This Week in Social Media.

A roundup of relevant links affecting our industry.

Each week at Ford, I compose a newsletter that includes a series of links about current events and trends in the worlds of technology, social media, mobile, communications and marketing in order to keep the wider team up to date on changes, newsworthy items and content that might be useful in their jobs. These are those links.
If you have additional links, sources or ideas that might be helpful, I'd encourage you to add some via a comment below or tag me in Google+. And if you’re on Flipboard, you can get these links by subscribing to the This Week in Social Media Magazine, which is now available on the Web.

Industry

• Trend: brands buying advertising around earned media about themselves.
• The latest CMO Survey from Duke's Fuqua School of Business has been released. Some highlights include a continued plunge in spending on traditional advertising, a leveling off of digital spending, and a lack of quantitative metrics to demonstrate the impact of marketing spending, the pressure of which 2 out of 3 CMOs are feeling from boards.
• Mobile ad spending is growing: by 2017 it will account for about 36% of global digital ad dollars.
• Want to get into the mind of a college student? As with many things related to college,they're apathetic about following brands. The challenge for brands of course, is how to break through the lack of attention and lack of interest without going overboard.

The Platforms

• Facebook is releasing a new feature that allows multiple users to upload images to the same album. Great possibilities for events, reunions, launches and more.
• We were always told "you're judged by the company you keep." Well, it still holds true:your Facebook friends may affect your credit score.
• Google and Facebook account for almost half of the UK's digital ad spend andFacebook has seen big gains in global mobile ad market share. 

• Two interesting ones on Twitter: how many Twitter profiles does your brand need?In short, it depends on how you're using it. But even so, it's likely that your brand is tweeting too much and not taking time to speak with (not broadcast to) fans.
• Twitter has acquired social TV startup Trendrr to track conversations across media.
• Medium may be the most interesting new platform that you haven't heard of. Or perhaps you have, but you're still wondering, "What is Medium?"
• A recent update of the Instagram app allows users to straighten their photos. But why?
• Instagram is acquiring video-sharing app Luma, thus allowing filters to be added to videos.
• Sina has released WeMeet, a competitor to WeChat; here are some first impressions.
• While it may be seen as lots of "lite" content, Tumblr content has a longer shelf life than on any other social network - largely because of the reblogging feature that allows it to live on.
• Airbnb is making the world's first film shot entirely on Vine; the film will premiere on the Sundance Channel on September 12 and submissions can be found atHollywood + Vines. 

Measurement / Metrics / Big Data

• While the use of services like DropBox, Google Drive and iCloud are commonplace with personal devices, the use of these for company data could be putting those data at risk. Particularly of note, with so many Millennials using tablets and smartphones for both personal and work purposes.
• The Virtual Chief Digital Officer interviews Katie Kaine on her book Measure What Matters. One of the main takeaways for digital is to measure outcomes, not outputs - that is, actions taken, attitudes changed, behaviors altered, rather than simply likes or followers.

Legal / HR

• Good news for brands, bad news for app developers: Facebook no longer requiressweepstakes and contests to be conducted through third party apps.
• A new update to Facebook's privacy policy allows the social network to analyze your profile picture and more.
• Related: Facebook will pay out $20 million stemming from a class action lawsuit about privacy breaches in its Sponsored Stories product.

Content

• As branded content becomes more important, so too does attracting, retaining and leading writers; Contently has three basic tactics for wrangling writers.
• Virool is taking video content to the next level by helping connect brands and publishers to put the most relevant content in front of viewers.
• Content marketing is continuous storytelling. Michael Brito helps under stand how to actually do it. 

Bookmark / Read / Watch Later

• Steve Garfield's success in social media isn't only about his savvy angel investments. It has to do with his entire philosophy, which boils down to building trust by adding value - not by selling.
• One of the most inspiring thought leaders out there is Avinash Kaushik, who writes Occam's Razor. While he publishes new pieces only every three weeks, they are always insightful and inspire deep thoughts from his readers. His latest is See-Think-Do: A Content, Marketing and Measurement Business Framework. He challenges marketers to think of customers in different stages of consideration and map the audience to those stages.
• Just for fun: 10 sites renamed for the reasons we visit them 

Commentary

Without a question, "House of Cards" on Netflix last year was one of the most groundbreaking pieces of content we've seen. Not because it was a great program but because Netflix broke the mold of television shows being released week after week at the pleasure of the networks and decided instead to release all 13 episodes of the season at once.

"We must observe, adapt and try things to discover appetites we didn't know were there." - click to tweet 

This didn't happen by accident. In the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture a the Guardian Edinburgh Television Festival, Kevin Spacey gave an impassioned speech about the future of content at the entertainment industry based on his experience in shopping around "House of Cards." In this 45 minute-long lecture (and it's worth every minute to watch) he clearly lays out the opportunity for the entertainment industry (or any content-heavy enterprise) to change the future of viewership. Part of the assumption was that the old model of producing a pilot can be put behind us as we now have access to audience preferences, data about their viewing habits and more. 

Spacey said:

"Clearly, the success of the Netflix model, releasing the entire season of 'House Of Cards' at once, proved one thing: the audience wants the control. They want the freedom. If they want to binge, as they've been doing on "House of Cards" and lots of other shows, then we should let them binge."

But this goes beyond the scheduling model. It's fundamentally about realizing that customers and viewers don’t care about the inner squabbles of companies and the way the companies see the world; they want content in every conceivable format. And if it means watching a movie on a streaming service, a television show on a table, or a YouTube video on a television, it doesn't matter what we call it. When they view those shows, it's no longer by appointment and the "water cooler" conversations are no longer happening the day after; they're happening virtually, digitally and socially in real time.

The consumer has the ultimate control. The sooner we realize that and break down the old models of doing business that don't serve them, the better off our industries will be. Really, watch this video when you have a moment.

The Social Media Frontiers Tweetionary

Due to the 140 character constraint put on tweets, users have to be imaginative with their wording when composing their messages. The easiest way to edit down a tweet is by using shorthand for any words you use. Twitter users have created their own recognised shorthand so that composing tweets can be quicker and easy but, for the uninitiated, it can sometimes be hard to follow. For those relatively new to Twitter here’s our Tweetionary, giving you a few useful definitions so that you can better follow the conversation.

@: The ‘@’ symbol is used before a user’s name when they are mentioned them in a tweet. Clicking on the name will then bring up their profile.

#: The hashtag symbol is used to highlight specific words or phrases that are part of a larger conversation.

^: The caret sign is placed before the initials of a tweet sender if the tweet is sent from a company account, showing users which individual actually sent the message.

CX: Shorthand for ‘correction’.

DM: Shorthand for ‘Direct Message’.

Fail Whale: A whale carried by little birds posted on Twitter when the site is down.

FF: Shorthand for ‘Follow Friday’, a weekly event where people encourage other users to follow them by following them in return.

MRT: ‘Modified Retweet’, a retweet that has been changed slightly, generally to fit within the 140 character limit.

OH: ‘Overheard’ a way of retweeting without giving credit to the original tweeter.

RT: Shorthand for ‘Retweet’.

TFTF: ‘Thanks For The Follow’.

TT: ‘Translated Tweet’, used to denote a retweet that is not in its original language.

Twaffic: Twitter traffic.

Tweeps/Tweeple: Twitter users, often used to refer to someone’s followers.

Tweeter: A person who tweets.

Twittersphere: Everything in the Twitter universe.

Is there anything we’ve missed? What would you add to the SMF Tweetionary.

3 Ways to Find Great Content to Share on Twitter

Twitter is all about sharing. It started with sharing "what you were feeling" at a specific point in time and it has evolved into a platform where everybody seems to share everything from the mundane to the exciting. Even pictures, videos and audio files.

If you are a big company. You can't tweet just about anything. You can't tweet about how much you loved that thing your favourite singer wore on that event. You have to share something relevant to your followers.
Although it is quite obvious that we should create new and informative content for your followers. You should also remember that curating content (which should also be relevant and informative) is equally important.

So how can you find good content to share on your feed? Here are some steps you can take to reach that goal.

#1: Know your audience
The first step is pretty simple and self explanatory. In order for you to find what you can give to your audience, you have to first know what they want. There will always be a common interest between you and your followers and you have find that out in order to provide something relevant to them. There are a lot of ways to do this but sometimes the simplest "What do you want me to tweet about?" question is good enough for some.

#2: Use tools
You don't have to do everything manually. Good for us, there are already hundreds of tools out there we can use to curate content. What you need is an excellent aggregation tool to collate all content for you. There are a hundred tools out there for you and you need to find that perfect fit for you. Remember that some functions may be present in some while others might be better on one thing compared to the others.

#3: Analyze Data
If there is one very important step you should not forget then it will be with regards to data analysis. Remember that you are pretty much checking what your followers love and which posts get more engagement from them. You should take note which articles get more retweets, favorites and clicks. You should gather these articles and try to see what separates them from the others. Is it the timing? The topic? The author? After you realize what makes it different, capitalize on that and dominate.

The Internet will never run out of good content to curate. It will never run out of new ideas to be shared. It will never ever run out of people hungry for knowledge. Use this to your advantage and you will get yourself a very good following on Twitter.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7912342

Selling on Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC]

With people spending a significant amount of time on social networks, companies are also flocking to the different available platforms. This is as simple as businesses going to where people are, hoping these people will listen to their message and eventually buy products.

This infographic from Top Web Design Schools says, however, that not all social media platforms are created equal for marketing to audiences.

Nonetheless, 79 percent of marketers say that they have integrated social media into their traditional marketing activities. Furthermore, 86 percent of marketers say that social media is important for their business.

What, then, are the social networking platforms used by marketers?

“Companies use a wide range of types of social media, from Facebook to Pinterest, but Facebook is still king of social media,” the infographic notes. Twitter with 80 percent followed by LinkedIn with 70 percent.
Next on the list is blogging which has 58 percent of marketers saying they use the platform. This is followed by YouTube, the video sharing juggernaut by Google. Another Google property, Google+, is next with 42 percent.

Google+ is followed by Pinterest at a close 41 percent. There are more platforms used including photo sharing platforms (e.g. Instagram – 18 percent), social bookmarking (e.g. StumbleUpon – 10 percent), podcasting (5 percent), question and answer sites (4 percent), and daily deals (4 percent).



Meanwhile, when it comes to single most important platform, marketers overwhelmingly choose Facebook when asked (49 percent). Next are LinkedIn (16 percent) and blogging (14 percent) followed by Twitter (12 percent).

The infographic notes that 4 percent of marketers say YouTube is the most important social media platform for them. 2 percent choose Google+ while Pinterest, forums and others all got 1 percent.

When it comes to reasons cited by marketers for their use of social media, increasing exposure takes the lead at 89 percent. This is followed by increasing traffic (75 percent), providing market insight (69 percent), developing loyal fans (65 percent) and generating leads (61 percent).

Other reasons include improving search rankings (58 percent), developing business partnerships (54 percent), reducing marketing costs (47 percent) and improving sales (43 percent).

According to this infographic, 62 percent of companies that spend 40 or more hours a week using social media earn new business through their efforts.

Just six hours a week can make a difference as more than 92 percent of marketers indicated that their social efforts increased exposure for their businesses.

At least 61 percent of businesses with 10 or fewer employees agreed that social media reduced marketing expenses while only 38 percent of businesses with 1,000 or more employees said so.
However, only one in four marketers can directly measure return of investment for their social efforts, the infographic says.

Learn more including what the future holds and how much each popular social platform increased their usage from the Top Web Design Schools infographic below.

Facebook Introduces Hashtags

Facebook now supports hashtags, allowing users to find and follow popular and topical conversations on the site.
Two of Facebook’s key rivals in the world of social media, Google+ and Twitter, have already incorporated hashtagging into their sites. Facebook affiliate Instagram, the photo sharing app, has also had hashtags for some time, so it is no surprise that Facebook has finally introduced them.

Microblogging site Twitter revolutionised the onsite search format by introducing hashtags early on in its development, allowing users to easily find and follow conversations, despite the amount of data published on the site every second.

Due to its early adoption of hashtagging, Twitter is now where users go to find out about the top stories and breaking news from around the web, and even around the world: Facebook have introduced hashtags in an attempt to compete with Twitter in this respect. According to the announcement post on the Facebook Newsroom page, people are already discussing popular television on the site:

During primetime television alone, there are between 88 and 100 million Americans engaged on Facebook - roughly a Super Bowl-sized audience every single night. The recent "Red Wedding" episode of Game of Thrones, received over 1.5 million mentions on Facebook, representing a significant portion of the 5.2 million people who watched the show. And this year's Oscars buzz reached an all-time high on Facebook with over 66.5 million interactions, including likes, comments, and posts. 

However, up until now there has been no “simple way to see the larger view of what's happening or what people are talking about”. Hashtags are only the first step in Facebook’s plan: the social media giants intend to roll “out a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people, and topics”.

According to the announcement post, hashtags allow users to:

• Search for a specific hashtag from your search bar. For example, #NBAFinals.
• Click on hashtags that originate on other services, such as Instagram.
• Compose posts directly from the hashtag feed and search results.


Users can still control who sees their posts, even if they contain hashtags, which does limit the service slightly. However, hashtags may encourage users to post public content more frequently, increasing user interaction beyond their friendship group and liked pages.

Hashtags will also help increase brand interaction. Without hashtags, users were limited to seeing posts by their friends, the pages they had liked, and the pages their friends had liked – as well, of course, as any promoted posts. With hashtags, users are more likely to see posts from outside their immediate circle, but just as likely to see posts which interest them: it is the user, after all, who has to click on the hashtag to view the conversation, displaying a willingness to actively engage with the content.

Facebook has published a post on the Facebook Studio pages, advising marketers how they could and should be using hashtags to promote their brands. Here is what the company believes marketers need to know about the new feature:

• If you are already using hashtags in an advertising campaign through other channels, you can amplify these campaigns by including your hashtags in Facebook advertising. The same creative best practices on Facebook still apply – compelling copy and photography that is in the brand voice works best.
• Any hashtags that you use on other platforms that are connected to your Facebook Page will be automatically clickable and searchable on Facebook.
• Like other Facebook marketing tools, hashtags allow you to join and drive the conversations happening about your business. We recommend you search for and view real-time public conversations and test strategies to drive those conversations using hashtags. 
• Hashtags do not impact your distribution or engagement in News Feed on either desktop or mobile. We recommend you continue to focus on your existing campaigns to drive your most important business objectives.

In the post, Facebook has also gone into more detail about the features they intend to release over the next few months to help drive conversations on the site, revealing that trending hashtags are in the pipeline. There is as yet no word on whether hashtags will be monetized or not, but if they are, it will presumably be in a fashion similar to Twitter’s Promoted Trends.

Do you think hashtags will work on Facebook?       

Twitter Has Retired API v1

Today, Twitter finally retired version 1 of its Application Programming Interface, replacing it with version 1.1.

A number of Twitter apps will become obsolete due to the update, including a few that are Twitter owned, such as TweetDeck.

Most Twitter app developers have already moved onto version 1.1 of the API, which was released in September last year. However, a number of smaller apps have been unable to make the transition due to usage restrictions imposed on them.

A small set of clients, who were “replicating the core Twitter experience” (according to a post on the Twitter Developers blog), were limited to 100,000 user tokens, making monetization almost impossible.

Twitter actually originally announced that version 1 would be shut down in May, but they extended by just over a month to ensure that version 1.1 was ready.

The update to version 1.1 is unlikely to affect any major Twitter apps.

Does this update affect you?

Twitter Updates Apps And Increases List Maximum Size

Twitter has updated its iPhone and Android apps, making tweeting an “easier and more seamless experience”, according to the announcement post on Twitter’s blog. Twitter has also increased the maximum number of lists a user can have from 20 to 1,000.

It is now easier to add photos to tweets thanks to a number of improvements Twitter has made: users can now share photos by simply clicking on the photo icon to the bottom right of the tweet. Also, when a user adds a photo to a tweet, it will be visible in its entirety, not just in cropped view. Twitter extols the impact of the improvement in their post:

“With fewer steps needed to share photos, you can more easily share what’s going on in your life and quickly return to marveling over that gorgeous sunset.”

When a user composes a tweet, their username and avatar will appear, just as it would when the tweet has been posted. It’s also easier to switch between accounts now, by simply tapping on the corresponding avatar.

Twitter has listened to the requests of Android users and made notifications “richer”: Android users will now see more information about their interactions within the Notification Drawer. iPhone users, meanwhile, will notice that there are no borders around their timelines.

Twitter has also greatly increased the number of lists that users can have, from 20 to 1,000. Each list, meanwhile, can contain 5,000 separate accounts, up from 500. Twitter announced the update in an @TwitterForNews tweet yesterday.

Twitter lists are a brilliant tool for any business, as they allow users to categorise and easily track conversations, or even secretly monitor the competition.

What do you think of Twitter’s app and list improvements? were you hoping Twitter would increase the list size?       

10 Tips On How To Use Twitter For Your Online Business

Apart from Facebook, there are very few other social media networks that are as popular or more popular than Twitter, and with its 500 million users, it is of extreme importance to your online business. Twitter is a lot more than just witty tweets, it is a very powerful tool that you can use in boosting your business if you make use of the following tips:

1. Building your brand on Twitter. When learning on how to start an online business, one of the things that you need to bear in mind about Twitter is that it is a very efficient tool for building your own brand. Open an account and put your brand logo or image as your profile and build up a strong followership in no time with superb tweets.
2. Marketing campaigns. By making a very good use of a social media platform like Twitter for your online business, you can monitor the success or otherwise of the marketing strategies that you are using. Using Twitter analytics is the best way to do this.
3. Making instant announcements about your online businesses. One thing with is that once you make a tweet, it is instantly seen in real time by all your followers. It is not like some other forms of conventional advertising in which you have to wait before announcements or notices of your online business are published.
4. Organizing contests: As stated earlier on, Twitter goes way beyond just tweeting. You can also organize Twitter contests about your online business. In doing so, you get positive reviews and third parties assist in spreading the message.
5. Answering customers' questions. Do not just use the hashtags for nothing. Make use of your corporate Twitter account to attend to your customers.
6. Networking. While on Twitter, you can leverage it to your benefit by networking with others in your online business, especially those who have recorded great successes.
7. In order to achieve all of the above, you need to ensure that your tweets are catchy, relevant and beneficial. Do not make tweets that are totally irrelevant or even clearly unrelated to the service or product you are offering.
8. Also, to get the kind of results you want for your business by making use of Twitter, follow all the rules of conduct that have been stipulated by Twitter. Do not post beyond the daily limit or engage in activities that can get your account closed.
9. Building your identity. One very good thing that comes with Twitter is that if you follow all the steps that have been outlined above carefully, you end up building a very good identity for yourself and your products.
10. Follow the right people. No one will take you serious if all the people you are following are nothing but misfits, gangsters and others who connote nothing but negativity in the society. Remember that a business is all about integrity. Follow people who are responsible role models in the society. That will be a plus for your online business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7745029

Twitter Amplify Promotes Brands Across Multiple Screens

Hot on the heels of the micro-blogging site’s most recent marketing tool, the lead generation card, Twitter has introduced another new feature to help brands advertise online: Twitter Amplify. Twitter Amplify takes advantage of the multi-screen viewing activity of many Twitter users by showing commercials before sporting clips posted in real-time during tournaments, games and events.

Real-time multi-screen promotional content has featured simultaneously on Twitter and television channels for some time, ever since it was revealed that, as Glenn Brown affirms in the announcement post on Twitter’s advertising blog, the “vast majority of the online public conversation around TV currently happens on Twitter – 95 per cent”. In fact, a number of studies have shed light on the correlation between television viewing figures and Twitter conversation, including one conducted by Nielsen earlier this year.

Brands have quickly realised that by coordinating their advertising across both television and social media channels, they make customer and fan engagement far more likely. Brands have identified that the least intrusive way to advertise across multiple screens is by promoting popular content:

ESPN and Ford Fusion led the way, bringing football fans Instant Replays in Tweets during every college football bowl game. During March Madness, Turner Sports, the NCAA, AT&T and Coke Zero followed suit, offering fans Real-Time Highlights of hoops action throughout the tournament. And now, during the home stretch through the 2013 Finals, the NBA is pushing the best Rapid Replays from TV, through a Tweet, to your mobile phone thanks to Sony Pictures, Sprint and Taco Bell. 

Sports fans often turn to Twitter to catch what they might have missed, or talk with other tweeters about what they are watching. Twitter Amplify helps brands become part of the experience, and perhaps even part of the conversation. The commercials are only ever a few seconds long, similar in length to a Vine in fact, but there is extra promotional content – banners, calls to action excetera – bordering the main video clip to ensure that the promotion’s message gets through.

Twitter has been testing Twitter Amplify with a number of its partners for a month or so, but primarily with sports broadcasters. Now, Twitter has partnered up with other broadcasting companies in an attempt to increase the scope of Twitter Amplify, such as BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel.

Twitter believes that the new partnerships will improve what is already a great feature:

We think these types of two-screen sponsorships are a win-win-win. Users receive spectacular, timely content that rounds out their TV experience or reminds them to tune in. Powered by Promoted Tweets, broadcasters reach new audiences and open up new business lines. Brand advertisers get, for the first time, an integrated cross-platform tool for reaching the social conversation wherever it happens. 

There is a full list of Amplify partners in the announcement post. If you want to partner up with Twitter and get a piece of the Amplify action, contact the company at amp@twitter.com.

Will Twitter Amplify make you engage with branded content more?

Retwact May Solve Twitter's Misinformation Problem

Even worse than the pornbots and trolls, one of Twitter's enduring drawbacks is that there's no reliable way to issue corrections with the service. The flaw drew a truckload of attention in the wake of the Boston bombings as self-appointed detectives — fueled by Reddit — made all kinds of invalid allegations on social media. But the tragedy involving the Tsarnaev brothers is simply the most extreme case of what's a very ordinary problem. Virtually all reporting has become an iterative process, subject to revisions in real time as new knowledge becomes available.

Some journalists have called for Twitter to build a corrections function involving the same code it uses for retweets and favorites. So far, Twitter has given no indication that it plans to do so, which has led one independent developer to build his own solution. And until something more polished comes along, it's not a bad option.

The tool is called Retweet Retract — or Retwact, for short. Built as a side project by Stonly Baptiste, a software developer at the Pennsylvania-based company independenceIT, Retwact tries to contain the damage (and shame) that comes along with spreading information that later turns out to be untrue.
Here's how it works. Once you've given it permission to look at your account, the app culls your five most recent tweets that have garnered retweets.

Click on one of them, and a little green radio button fills in. Down below, you can tap out a hand-written apology or send the correction as-is. When you publish the notice, it goes from your account to all your followers. Meanwhile, Retwact's own Twitter account (@Retwact) reaches out with an @-mention to the first 100 people who retweeted your (incorrect) tweet.

The link above takes you to a side-by-side comparison showing both the older, incorrect tweet as well as the newer, corrected one.

Baptiste told me he hacked the tool together in a "sleepless" 48-hour session, using resources he'd never worked with before such as OAuth and the Twitter API. That was after he'd posted the idea to the social news aggregator Hacker News, where it got promoted to the front page within an hour and received upwards of 1,500 requests for Retwact to be built. (Twitter, are you listening?)

Retwact isn't perfect. If you tweet often, you can only use the service to correct something you tweeted minutes rather than hours ago. And Retwact can't detect manual retweets of misinformation — just the ones produced when you click Twitter's own retweet button.

Baptiste said he plans to keep working. He's considering adding a feature that will delete the original, misinformed tweet altogether while still preserving the text on the correction page. That means there'll still be a record of the mistake, but other users will no longer be able to spread it around.

Baptiste promises to improve the app until "A) People stop using it, or B) Twitter (or someone else) offers me a lot of money for it."

Mashable composite, images courtesy of Flickr, NASA and Twitter

Vine App Coming to Android 'Soon'

The popular iOS video-sharing app Vine will be coming to Android in the near future, according to its founders.

The Verge is reporting the app — which Twitter launched in January — will bring the ability to create and share six-second GIF-like looping videos to Android "soon."


Vine has also submitted at app update to the Apple App Store for a feature that lets you tag friends in videos, the report said.

The news comes just a few weeks after the company introduced the ability to embed Vine videos (at full 600 x 600 resolution) on any website.

The platform has gained popularity over recent months. It's been used by musicians and brands to promote products, news stations to get out news, job applicants and even by the White House. Of course, Vines are also acceptable for sharing with friends how you make dinner and what you're doing in your free time.

What other features do you hope to see from Vine? Let us know in the comments below.

Image by Mashable, Nina Frazier