How Many Social Networks Is Too Many ?

Blogging takes a lot - creating awesome content , designing , moderating comments , commenting on other blogs, guest posting , … And social media is just a part of it. There are over 200 social sites (at least according to Wikipedia ), but does this...

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# Hashtagology 101: How to Use Hashtags in Your Social Media Content

It took a while, but Facebook finally succumbed to the hashtag in June 2013. Now this humble little symbol can connect conversations on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest.

Its impact on modern culture — even on our language — is so large that the American Dialect Society declared “hashtag” as Word of the Year in 2012.

But try explaining hashtags to someone who has never used them — it isn’t as easy as you might think. So welcome, class, to #Hashtagology 101. Settle down and open your textbooks. Please stop talking in the back — after all, that’s what the hashtag is for.

 

 

# Hashtagology 101: How to Use Hashtags in Your Social Media Content

A Hashtag History

In 2007, Twitter was a fast-moving stream of disconnected 140-character comments. It was possible for anyone to search Twitter for keywords, but whereas many tweets may contain the same keyword, not every tweet was about that keyword.

Some users brought order to this chaos by adopting a system from Internet Relay Chat networks — the hashtag. This began merely as a way for users to label tweets with a particular theme, group or topic.

In 2009, Twitter updated its system to make hashtags clickable, returning a search for all tweets containing the term. What started as an informal work-around among users became an integral part of the platform.

However, the hashtag has evolved into far more than a labeling system.

 

The Hashtag and Language

When someone tags a tweet as #FirstWorldProblems, is she making it easy for you to find all the whining, post-modern middle classers in one click? Or is she using the hashtag as a self-referential comment on her own tweet?

Ending a tweet with #FTW (“for the win”) is far more about adding a shorthand punch to the air than it is about grouping celebratory tweets into a single conversation.

And people intentionally create new hashtags every day that make no sense beyond that one specific update. These are not mistakes. People are using hashtags to add extra layers of meaning to their messages.

A hashtag can convey irony or sarcasm, suggest emotion or mood, pose an answer to an implied or rhetorical question, or even directly contradict the actual tweet. The effect can be humorous, provocative, informative, or mysterious. And it can do some or all of these simultaneously.

Just think about that for a moment. A new form of punctuation has joined our language, the use of which can enhance or transform the meaning of a sentence. That’s pretty mind-blowing.

The hashtag packs so much extra information and implied meaning into so few characters that it’s easy to see how it could only have risen to prominence on Twitter.

Social media word games are a great example of this multi-layered meaning. For example, #OneLetterMissingTV serves not only to label the conversation for people to follow, but provides the instructions for the game: Suggest a TV show that would be quite different if just one letter were missing. (My favorite is “Tar Trek: The ongoing adventures of a group of council roadmen” from @LeeAHarris.)

No wonder some people can be confused by the various nuances of this linguistic marvel. However, if your marketing involves social media content, you need to be fluent in the language. Misinterpreting a message or using hashtags incorrectly can make your brand seem as out of place as your uncle’s inappropriate dancing at a wedding.

 

When Hashtags go bad

Just like domain names, hashtags suffer from the same problems that arise when any sequence of words is run together without spaces.

Margaret Thatcher’s death in April 2013 provoked a huge amount of online discussion. She was a highly controversial and polarizing figure in British politics, so it wasn’t surprising for one of the most popular hashtags to become a trending topic:

#nowthatchersdead

If you live in the United States and read that sequence of letters, Margaret Thatcher may not pop into your head. You certainly wouldn’t be alone if you thought it actually read “#Now That Cher’s Dead.”

Confusion for many fans, and I’m sure a pretty weird day for the superstar singer.

Choosing the right hashtag is crucial if you don’t want to lose control of the message or, worse, invite ridicule.

Someone in British singer Susan Boyle’s PR agency obviously thought a hashtag promoting her new album launch would be a good idea, and #SusanAlbumParty would seem to make sense.

That is, until the lewd bum jokes started under the hashtag #susanalbumparty.

Always run your hashtag ideas past fresh eyes to spot these traps.

 

Marketers and Hashtags

Hashtags present a fantastic opportunity for content marketers to identify social media conversations relevant to their business and get their content in front of the right people.

Always check the hashtag first to see how much activity it receives, the sorts of content people share, and how well (or otherwise) such content is received. Not every conversation is welcoming to marketers. Is brand content shared or ignored? Or criticized? It’s advisable to only use a couple of hashtags in a post, so choose wisely.

However, resist the temptation to intrude too heavily on any conversation. It’s no more appropriate to spam hashtag followers with offers or self-serving content than it is anywhere else. Interaction still matters, so don’t post and run either. Posting to a single group too often or repetitively can turn a community against you, so it’s best to avoid using hashtags with bots and automated systems.

Hashtags are also the glue that holds many cross-platform competitions and campaigns together, making it easy for followers to submit content to be aggregated and displayed elsewhere.

However, always remember that the hashtag belongs to the community, even if you created it yourself. You can’t censor or control how others will use it, so be sensitive to situations that could fuel a hashtag backlash.

Qantas discovered this in 2011 when it launched a social media competition with the hashtag #QantasLuxury in the middle of a controversial union dispute. At its height, 51 tweets per minute were sent containing the hashtag. The vast majority ridiculed or criticized the airline, creating a highly visible and wide-reaching PR disaster.

 

Hashtags #FTW!

Used well, hashtags can be immensely powerful marketing tools. But as the wise uncle of Peter Parker once said, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Like any tool, we should treat them with respect, care, and plenty of consideration. Above all, the power of the hashtag should never be underestimated. This once rarely used character on the keyboard is rapidly becoming one of the mightiest punctuation marks in history.

This article originally appeared in the February 2014 issue of Chief Content Officer. 

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6 Random Tips for the Most Popular Social Media Platforms Right Now

How many social networks have you signed-up for?

Chances are if you are marketer you have an account on Twitter, Facebook and hopefully also Google Plus and Pinterest. Right now those are the four “hot” networks and the best places to promote your brand and your content.

But of course saying that is easier than actually doing it.

The fact is not everyone succeeds with those networks and not everyone makes the most out of the time they spend there.

Sometimes you might get the big picture and understand how it all functions, but you might be missing the smaller details. The latter can more often than not be the missing piece to the whole puzzle. A piece without which nothing happens.

And with today’s post I will try to show you some of those elusive pieces that will help you complete this social media puzzle. In the below paragraphs I have covered six social media tips that cover namely the four social platforms I mentioned above.

Let’s get going, shall we!

6 Random Tips for the Most Popular

Social Media Platforms Right Now

 

1. Enable the Follow Feature on Facebook

Previously I suggested that promoting via a Facebook page rather than a personal profile is the way to go. But then again it seems like Facebook is constantly trying to limit the reach of posts, shared from a Facebook page.

And because I have been noticing a decline in the performance of my Facebook page, I decided to put some effort towards my personal account (which I’ve been neglecting quite a lot actually).

The best thing I could think of was the follow feature that enables others to get your notifications without you having to be friends.



I activated the follow feature by clicking the gear-like button, selecting Account Settings, going to the Followers tab and ticking Turn on Follow.

Once you’ve done that, the next step is to copy the code (found on the same page) and paste it where you find appropriate on your blog. Or if you’d like to customize the Follow button, you can use the code from THAT page.

NOTE: I’d advise you to place the button in the About Me widget (which is a must by the way), right below the short bio. Just see how I did it.

2. Follow the Ones Who Retweet the Influencers on Twitter

An interesting strategy I’ve been testing recently involves adding bookmarks to the Twitter accounts of some of the influencers in my niche.

By influencers I am referring to people with not only a lot of followers, but also with a high authority. In other words individuals and companies who tend to receive a lot of mentions, retweets and favorites.



The idea is simple. Every now and then I will go through the accounts I have bookmarked in my browser and follow some of the tweeps, who have retweeted or favorited some of the influencer’s recent tweets.

I currently have bookmarked around twenty accounts, so I only go through the latest 2-3 tweets per Twitter user. Doing so ensures that the tweeps I will follow are actually active, which makes for a better chance of them following me back.

There are three factors when choosing who to follow:

The first one is the username they use – is it a real name?

Second is the profile photo – does it look genuine?

And third comes the number of followers – is it between 200 and 3,000?

The key here is NOT to overdo. I am currently utilizing the strategy just twice a week and follow between a 100 and 200 Twitter users per session. In the end of the week I do get at least 70-80 new ACTIVE followers. All of this has recently resulted in my tweets getting retweeted and favourited more often than normally.

3. Pin Your Google Plus Posts for Additional Exposure

It turns out that Google Plus and Pinterest work pretty good together. Recently whenever I publish a new post and share it on Google Plus, I also pin it to a special Pinterest board that I have set up.

Why not directly pin from my blog you’d ask…

Well because when I cross-share from Google Plus, when my Pinterest followers see the post and hopefully click on the image I’ve pinned, they will first be redirected to the Google Plus story for the post. That way they will also be given the chance to plus one or reshare the post after they read it, thus giving me additional exposure.

Okay, now how do you go about it?

The first step is to add the Pinterest Pin It button to your browser. Here’s a download link for Chrome and one for Firefox. The extension will allow you to pin images from any page that you are currently browsing.



Second step is to click on the timestamp of the Google Plus story for your latest post. That way you will open up only that specific story in a new URL.

Thirdly once on that page you need to click the Pinterest button that you just added to your browser, select the image from the post (yes, don’t forget to add an image to your post!), add a short description and pin it to your Pinterest board.

4. Retweet New Content from Your Facebook Page

Here’s another way to cross-promote your content and get more social shares along the way…

This time we are talking about combining Twitter and Facebook. The process is quite similar to the one I explained in the above paragraph. When you publish a new post on your Facebook page, you can share the Facebook story for the post on Twitter again by clicking on the timestamp of the post.

The first benefit is that you can get more people liking the story on Facebook, which will mean more visibility for the story in other people’s streams. The second benefit is that you can actually get a lot of new fans that way. With the help of this approach I got my first 300 or so fans some months ago.

NOTE: With the Buffer plugin (only Chrome version as of now), you can easily schedule the Facebook stories of your choice for sharing on Twitter at a later time.

5. Don’t Forget to Use Formatting and Hashtags on Google Plus

As of now Google Plus is the only social platform that allows you to add formatting to your posts. And that feature is there for a reason. I’d strongly advise you to always format the descriptions you write if you want more people to pay attention and as a result comment, plus one or reshare your posts.

Here’s a really cool guide (created by Simon Heyes) on how to format your Google Plus posts:



Aside from formatting, another thing you should consider is hashtags. While on Facebook hashtags not only don’t work, but they actually shrink the exposure of published stories, on Google Plus it’s exactly the opposite.

What I would advise you is to always include 2-3 hashtags right at the end of the descriptions for your Google Plus posts. Of course in order to make the most out of them make sure they are actually relevant. While writing the hashtags you will be given suggestions, based on what is popular. Best would be to use some of the suggested hashtags.

6. Use the Sticky Post Feature on Triberr

Triberr is currently one of the best ways to multiply your social media shares and the sooner you sign-up, the sooner you will start bringing more social traffic to your posts.

So what is Triberr?

Triberr is a place where you can join and create the so-called tribes – communities with members that share similar interests. Whenever a member of the tribe has a new post, that post gets imported to Triberr for all other members to share it on Twitter and other networks.

But anyway, even if you are active on Triberr, have you made a post of yours sticky?

What this feature does is it allows you to sticky your latest post at the top of your tribal stream. That way your post will stay right at the top of the stream in all your tribemates for the five days it is active.

What this means for you?

Almost double the shares and a lot more traffic. With more people noticing and reading the post, you will also get new invites to other tribes, expanding your reach even further.

A sticky post costs five bucks so it’s quite a bargain right now.

So how do you create a sticky post?

Final Words

That’s pretty much it. I really hope you found the tips I shared in the above paragraphs useful!

Now I would really love to hear your two cents!

Have you enabled the follow feature on Facebook? Do you cross-promote your content? What other tips can you add up to the list?

Please take a minute to share!

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Wondering how to make the most of Pinterest? Want your pins to yield more followers and help increase your traffic? Use the following tips to Get More Bang Out of Pinterest and see better results from the time and effort that you put into this popular social media tool.

 Get More Bang out of Pinterest

Consider the demographic you want to reach.

The first step in getting more bang out of Pinterest is simply making sure your audience is there. Pinterest users are overwhelmingly female. According to Pew Internet, women are much more likely to use the social media site than men.  Your audience's age also matters, as most Pinterest users are under 50 years of age.  Moms are more likely to frequent the site as well (Nielsen). If your audience isn't already using the site, getting traffic from it will be like pulling very stubborn teeth.

Let's say your audience is on Pinterest. Your next step is making sure the site is a good fit for your niche. Fashion, food, interior design, and crafts tend to do well on this site. However, you may find that your niche has just as much potential. The more representation your niche has on Pinterest, the larger the audience you will likely enjoy.

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Pinterest Promoted Pins Announced by Pinterest Founder

Pinterest founder Ben Silberman announced last week that Pinterest would start experimenting with promoted pins – What this means for internet marketers is more opportunity for you know what ? Guess what it is ?  Monetization.  Just like you can promote ads or promote posts on Facebook and you can promote tweets on Twitter. Soon you will be able to promote your pins on Pinterest.  The Pinterest Team is being very careful about the way it is using it site to monetize because it doesn't want to upset its growing population of users. They are being super sensitive to do it in a way that is non-obtrusive. It’s not an easy thing to do - to monetize site with ads or promoted posts/pins/tweets etc and still be loved but Pinterest is up for the Challenge.  Continue reading about the future of Pinterest - Pinterest Promoted Pins

Pinterest Promoted Pins

Announced by Pinterest Founder

First, here is what Ben said:

"Just over a year ago, my wife and I welcomed our son into the world. Since his first day, I’ve been pinning fun things we can do together, right now while he’s still little and later when he gets older. I know many of you do the same. Pinterest is where you keep your wishlists, vacation plans, dream home ideas, and other things you want to do soon and in the future.

That’s why for us, it’s so important that Pinterest is a service that will be here to stay. To help make sure it does, we’re going to start experimenting with promoting certain pins from a select group of businesses.

I know some of you may be thinking, “Oh great…here come the banner ads.” But we’re determined to not let that happen. While we haven’t figured out all the details, I can say that promoted pins will be:

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Join CashUnite Free - Launches Oct 14 2013 WorldWide - Revolutionary New Way To Make Money Using Social Media

The biggest opportunity with a  New Revolutionary of earning through Social network. It allows people to from across world to get connect with each other where you can share videos, photos and chatting plus earning too.. as well you can get access to all social networking site at one place i.e Cashunite. Including of google+, Facebook, Linkedin, Youtube, Myspace and many more

Join CashUnite Free

Launches Oct 14 2013 WorldWide

Revolutionary New Way To Make Money Using Social Media

 

What is MultiSocial?

Many of us have multiple social accounts, from facebook to twitter to pinterest to tumblr to Google+, etc .  More and more time is being spent on these sites. If anything, it’s becoming very hard to keep up with all the various interactions.

CashUnite is a ground-breaking platform,  allows you to be MultiSocial at one platform! Being MultiSocial:

• Gives you the ability to interact with numerous social networking sites from just one place!


• Allows you to stay in touch with friends and family across all your social accounts;


• Helps you manage your social accounts and use these accounts more effectively;


• Creates more impact for your business; send messages across all your social accounts in just one click!


• will revolutionise the way we communicate forever...

 

 

Compensation plan

 

 Owners and Team CashUnite

The More Friends you Invite the more you Earn 

Start Inviting your friends from all your social groups, Facebook,Google+,Twitter, Facebook groups

Once it Launches Oct 14, 2013 the whole world will know about CashUnite as it will make Social Media History and if you are already involved in a network marekting opportunity you should see the potential to earn money and getting your whole network interested in such and oppportunity.

One of my leaders told me one day to me, Dear "There are no shortcuts for Success"

The more you are ready to take Challenges the more you are near to Success

See My Previous Post on CashUnite to learn more

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25 Mistakes To Avoid on Pinterest ( Pinterest Don'ts for businesses and marketers )

Pinterest is one of the hottest growing new social media networks for small businesses and nonprofits having grown faster than any other network prior to it. At the time of writing this post in Late 2013 this highly visual platform rakes in 2 1/2 billion monthly pageviews from its 70 million users monthly. Statistics show that Pinterest users also buy more of the items they encounter in pins than items on Facebook, and spend 70 percent more money when they arrive at your website from Pinterest versus non-social referrals. But how can you successfully use this Pinterest channel for your small business or nonprofit without screwing it up ? Whether you are still trying to figure out what Pinterest is all about or haven't fully embraced the social network, there are things you DON'T want to do on Pinterest as you get started or more involved. To help you begin pinning your way to success, assembled is a list of 25 mistakes to avoid on Pinterest:

25 Mistakes To Avoid on Pinterest

( Pinterest Don'ts for businesses and marketers )

 

1. Not including your business information.

The first step in getting started on the right foot on Pinterest is to create a profile that is full of details and represents your business. Upload a clear, easy to recognize logo for your profile picture and use your business name as your profile name. Put your company's website and what you are all about in the description.

2. Forgetting to link to Facebook and Twitter.

If a customer is interested in your brand on Pinterest, they’ll likely want to follow you on Facebook and Twitter too. Make sure they can do so by linking to these social networks within Pinterest’s “Account Settings.” Make it easy for them to follow you on other networks

3. Failing to complete your profile.

When you have a business account, you can select your “business type,” add your location, verify your website, and create a short “About You” section for your profile. Completing your entire profile is important for SEO purposes and helps you look more professional.

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The History of Social Media ( Free InfoGraphic )

So I would like to kick off this Tuesday morning by sharing an infographic I found online (from an unknown source - all I know is that it was brought to us by RedPepper). As you will see in this infographic below " The History of Social Media "  it all started with E-mail and it wasn't email like we do it now with graphics, html, and other elements embedded.

Some people online today may be too young to remember email in it's most primitive form (myself included) but I do remember growing up with only 3 Internet providers which were AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve. AOL was my first experience using Social Media. AOL was King of Social Media for a long time from the days of dial-up to then DSL to then using an existing cable connection . I also IRC chat, social media sharing using Napster, then Kazaa, now it's all bittorrentz.  Back in the days everyone expressed themselves by making their own homesites using Geocities then it was myspace, migente.com (for latinos) and there was also Blackplanet.com and AsianAvenue.com and now we have even more emerging networks everyday like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest, Blogger, Wordpress, Triberr, .

This infographic is in fact no complete history but it is a very good recent account of the larger networks still in existence for the most part ( It's missing like Google + which most people still don't understand how to use and other social media sites that are in the top ten like did you know Tagged was recently #9 and Orkut was # 10.  See full list of top social networks And what of the Social Bookmarking Sites like Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg, Diggio, and others like those.  Well that is for another infographic I guess.

" The History of Social Media "

( Free Infographic )

Click Pic or Click here to Enlarge

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Pinterest Marketing Basics - Pinterest 101

The ease at which you can share photos and images with others is a huge boom for companies marketing online. It lets you record and increase the visibility of your blog posts, company / special events, industry news, conferences, webinars, user groups and more. Prospects and customers love visual content, so make sure you are consistently using images in your marketing mix. Why are photos king? Read the Pinterest Marketing basics to see top reasons why you should use photos and images as part of your marketing campaigns.

Pinterest Marketing Basics

• Appeals to Emotions: Visual content appeal to the viewer’s emotions in a way that text is unable to. Thanks to the  simplicity of photo and image sharing applications, text is an afterthought.

• Creates Intimacy: Photos help open the personal side of your company. Now customers and prospects can relate to your brand message via photos—without a plethora of emails.

• Engages: Photo and image sharing applications provide the perfect opportunity for your business to engage customers in a fun way through contests and other image-centric campaigns.

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15 Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites - July 2013

Top 15 Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | July 2013

Here are the 15 Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites as derived from eBizMBA Rank which is a constantly updated average of each website's Alexa Global Traffic Rank, and U.S. Traffic Rank from both Compete and Quantcast. "*#*" Denotes an estimate for sites with limited Compete or Quantcast data. If you know a website that should be included on this list based on its traffic rankings please comment below!!

Before we begin with the list, if you are uncertain what is Social bookmarking then check out my post on What is Social Bookmarking? 

1 | Twitter
15 - eBizMBA Rank | 250,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 30 - Compete Rank | 5 - Quantcast Rank | 9 - Alexa Rank.

Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 7/1/2013

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