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Is Anti-Social Media On the Rise?

This year will make a decade since Facebook was launched and social media usage has skyrocketed, but is social media turning us anti-social? Parents who were unhappy about their children’s texting habits in the early 2000’s would be appalled by today’s society of Instagraming, Tweeting, FourSquaring and Pinteresting fiends across all age ranges. However, the pendulum may have swung too far, and it seems that parents aren’t the only group fed up with obsessive social media behavior.

There are many signs that we are entering an age of ANTI-social media.

Many corporations and industry leaders have voiced their advocacy for more human interaction through traditional media. Coca-Cola invented the Social Media Guard in the sarcastic commercial pictured above, which blocks people from the ability to see their phones.

Dentyne used print and commercials to encourage more “face time” by comparing human interaction with social media actions in an ad.

Professionals working within the social media industry may even capitalize off of the anti-social tendencies of those who are active online. Here are a couple of examples of how.

Cloak

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and FourSquare aid this new mobile application in locating where you are. Cloak asks you to login to one of your social media accounts, which pinpoints where you are on a map, along with the locations of other friends who are also logged into Cloak.

The app is advertised as a way to avoid people that you do not want to run into. You can set alerts that warn you when certain users come into a selected radius of you. Couldn’t this also be used as a way to stalk people? Guess that wasn’t a catchy advertising pitch…

Self Control

This app allows you to choose time periods when you do not want the ability to access specified apps or programs at all. This could be used to stop yourself from checking your email, playing games, checking Facebook, etc. A screenshot of the app is below, followed by their honest answer on how to stop the app when it is activated. The interest in this app shows that people want to be detached from their online world every once in a while but might need a little help to disconnect.

This discussion will continue on for years, but has social media gone too far? Check out the signs.

May 8, 2014
Gmail Reveals Its Hottest Secrets (Part 2)

I wrote a blog post about a week ago about several hidden, secret features in GMail. Most of that was about organizing your inbox. This post is more about the secrets and great features you can use as you are writing emails. Let me know if you have any additional helpful features in the comments below!

(numbers 1-5 in part 1 of this series)

6. Canned Responses

Do you find yourself composing the same email several times a day? If so, you should enable canned responses. Canned responses are drafts or email templates that you can save in your settings when you go to compose a new message. They will not show up automatically, so you need to go to the Labs in the settings of GMail, and enable this feature. There will be an arrow at the bottom right of a new message, and that is where you will find the feature once it has been enabled. This saves so much time for me and my colleagues, so I highly recommend it.

7. Reply from the same address the message was sent to

If you have multiple email addresses you use in your workplace, it’s important to make sure that you reply with the appropriate email. When I compose an email, I have to switch the email address of who it is coming from (which also changes my email signature). However, you can automatically set it so that when you press reply on an email thread, it replies from the email address the original email was sent to.

8. Undo Send

Have you ever forgotten to include something in an email? Attach something? Sent an email to the wrong person? Misspelled something? Addressed the wrong person? (that one’s really bad)!

THIS SETTING IS A LIFE SAVER!!

It can be enabled under the General settings. You can select how long you have to undo a message once you press the send button. I have selected up to 30 seconds, which is the longest time possible. Once you send an email, you’ll get a notification at the top of your email account saying you can undo send or see the message you just sent. Please note that this is the only place where you will be able to undo the send. If you archive the message, click to your inbox, or somewhere else within GMail, the undo send option will not be available.

9.Boomerang

Boomerang is a great tool to use for scheduling emails and following up with people. Often, I work late nights, but I don’t want to send emails that late mainly so the person who receives it won’t know I work until 9:00 at night. I can compose an email and schedule it to be sent anytime in the future. You can also set it to “boomerang” back into your inbox if someone does not reply or open the email you sent. You also have the ability to manage and edit any of your scheduled messages. Boomerang allows you to schedule or return up to 10 messages per month. If you find yourself needing it more than that, there is a subscription available for purchase.

10. Rapportive

Rapportive is a feature that shows information about your contacts right in your inbox. They “combine what you know, what your organization knows, and what the web knows,” to display this information in the right sidebar of your email. I like this because it’s an easy way to connect with those people on social media (ie: put your great stalking tendencies to work 😉

May 6, 2014
Social Media, You Don’t Have To Be A Wizard

Your Audience

You know your target demographic. If you don’t, social media should be the last thing on your mind. Properly addressing your demo group is essential in establishing a relationship with your followers on any social media platform.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is used to directly target potential customers with relevant information, and eventually provide them with opportunities and incentives to become active customers. Proper SMO should also give current customers incentive to provide positive feedback so that others view your brand as trustworthy.

Your Message

For professional organizations, like law firms, business consultants, or industrial suppliers, news and advice are likely the fastest way to become a trusted voice amongst your demographic. Provide information your clients can use, “Tips to protect your rights,” or “Break through in industrial oven designs.” Be a voice of insight at the forefront of your field.

If your target is the general public you need to be both friendly and local. Plus, direct social media interaction is key. If you post about an upcoming event in town, keep an eye out for responses on your Facebook feed or from your Twitter followers. Be aware of comment chains on your feed; respond to comments in an upbeat and positive way. Generally resist the urge to comment outside of your own page in regard to individuals (it can be viewed as overreaching or unprofessional).

I know it sounds obvious but social media should be social and light hearted, so any sales efforts should be low pressure if they occur at all. A more effective strategy is to create interesting internal blogs, (then spread them through social media) so that you increase traffic to your page, which increases the chances of a conversion. You may not go viral but you can still reach your audience.

May 5, 2014
5 for Friday – New YouTube Feature, Ads on Reddit and more!

1. Advertising on Reddit is easy with this guide -Moz

For those of you unfamiliar with the site, Reddit.com is a social site composed of user submitted images, text posts, links, news stories and more. Reddit is a huge community with roughly 115 million unique visitors. This site offers low cost ads with high potential to engage users and even go viral. Advertising on Reddit requires different tactics than on other sites, though. Ads are treated like any other content, meaning “Redditors” have the ability to vote your ad up or down, affecting its visibility. Your voice and overall strategy on Reddit must be handled differently than on other sites. This handy guide gives a lot of great advice to help get your business started.

2. Google Bulk upgraded to allow multiple administrators -Blumenthals

Google+ is finally getting a much-needed multi-admin feature! Corporate Google accounts can now create listings for all of their locations and then authorize separate Google accounts as admins. The bulk upload tool hasn’t been embraced in the past, but demand from SEO companies and business owners finally convinced Google to update their bulk upload backend as well. With an upgraded account, a single corporate account can manage up to 10,000 locations with full control. This is going to make social media management much easier for business with multiple locations!

3. When is best time to make your social media post? -Hubspot

Scheduling your social media posts well can actually make a big difference in how many people see them. Web traffic to these sites change greatly depending on the day of the week and time of day. There is no set calendar that is best for all social media sites; people use them all differently. Facebook yields high results during weekday afternoons while Pinterest has increased traffic on the weekend. Check out this handy infographic for details on the best and worst times to reach out on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Tumblr and Google+.

4. Youtube allows users to add 3-second intros to their videos -Mashable

This post is short and sweet because the subject is pretty simple. Youtube has a new feature allowing users to add a 3-second intro to all of the videos on their channel. This feature is valuable for creating a distinctly branded channel. Viewers can begin to identify your videos easily based on the consistent intro. Currently the only limitation on these intros is that they may not be used for advertising or sponsorship purposes.

5. Foursquare moves their check-in feature to new app: Swarm -Search Engine Land

Foursquare, in a bold move, is removing their key feature, “check-ins.” Checking in will now be done on their new app, Swarm. Swarm will focus on the social aspects: checking into locations, finding friends, and even being able to chat to people you know nearby. Foursquare will continue to exist with a focus on discovering local businesses and serving as a competitor to Yelp. The success or failure of this division could determine the future for this company.

May 2, 2014
5 Google+ Page and YouTube Tips Your Boss Wants To Know

In the office I am often asked to help with doing things in Google that turn out to be fairly simple tasks but are often hard to figure out. For example, creating a custom YouTube channel URL is fairly simple to do, but the place you make this edit is not the most obvious to find. So, I’m going to walk you through 5 Google tasks I am most commonly asked to help with.

1. Change the Name of a G+ page

Sometimes we’ll bounce around for several minutes looking for where the settings tab or options part of a page is just to change one tiny detail. In the case of changing the visible name of your personal G+ page or the the listed name of your business, a quick and easy way to make the edit is through the front end of your Plus Page while logged into your account. All you have to do is click your name! From there a popup will appear allowing you to edit this field. It’s important to note that you’re not allowed to do this as many times as you’d like with your personal profile page though. You can change your profile name only up to 3 times in two years.

When changing your personal profile name you’ll see this warning about frequency:
“People change their names infrequently in the real world, so Google+ limits how often you can change your profile name.”

2. Make Community/MapMaker Edits to G+ Local Pages

The most common community edits we need to make to a listing happen when we’re just starting out and the listing we want to claim is owned and/or verified by someone else. The process for requesting ownership of a listing can be a lengthy one, and in the meantime you may want to update your business information from the front end. To do so, simply navigate to the Contact Information section of the businesses Plus Page under the About tab. Then click “edit details” in the bottom left corner of the Contact Information box. The next page is the Map Maker editing screen that allows you to not only submit edits about the contents of the listing, but to also report a listing as a duplicate or closed location and report reviews that don’t belong.

3. Link/Verify A Website

We’ve recently discovered an issue when linking a business’s site to a Plus Page. After having the code added to a business’s website for linking to the Plus Page, you have to go back into G+ to make Google search for and verify that the code is on the site. You probably wouldn’t have encountered this had you done the entire process of adding the code to the site after getting it from Google, but often it’s a matter of getting the code and giving it to your developer to put on site. So in this case, you’d want to make sure to go back to where you got the code and click “Test website” in order to tell Google to check for the code. This can all be accessed from the front end of your Plus Page by clicking “Link website” under the Links section of the About page.

4. Add or Edit Managers of a G+ Page

Adding a manger to a Google Plus Page can be helpful for many situations. Businesses often want to have someone help with social media posting but don’t want to just give that person all of their login information since that is often linked to personal Gmail inboxes and the like. As with editing the name of a page, adding a manager can be done more than one way from within the account. I, however, find that the easiest and quickest way to do it is by going to settings from the home drop down in the top left corner when logged into Google Plus. Then, simply navigate to the Managers tab on the top left to access the manager permissions editing page.

5. Create a Custom YouTube Channel URL

You knew this one was coming based off of that intro, didn’t you? So, from the top right drop down menu of YouTube, click “YouTube settings,” then “Advanced,” and finally “Create custom URL.” It’s that simple but not exactly the most intuitive place to look for it, given the many other options in YouTube.

I hope at least one of these steps was helpful for you, if not all of them. Let me know in the comments below what you think!

April 30, 2014
The Secret Life of Gmail (Part 1)

Part of my everyday is sorting through ~150 emails, which can be quite taxing if you don’t have a good system in place. We use GMail for our email system at SI. I know most small businesses probably have their email system already figured out, but if you don’t, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND using GMail as it has lots and lots of great features that make emailing less painful. I have learned some great tricks offered within Gmail- far too many for just one blog post. This first post is about organizing and archiving your email account. Part two will be geared towards writing and scheduling emails. I hope you find this helpful!

1. Priority Inboxes

Priority inboxes are a great way to organize your inbox if you have trouble figuring out what’s important and what is actually relevant to you. This setting is very customizable, and you can set the number of emails you wish to see or have visible per section. I have mine set up as Important and Unread, Important, and Everything Else. Important and unread is exactly what it says- all messages that are marked as important or all messages that are unread. Important is everything that I have read and marked as important, but I haven’t necessarily responded to or handled the particular issue yet. Everything else is compilation of things I just need to file away or delete (because they’re not applicable to me).

2. Important Arrows

These are great in combination with the Priority Inbox. If you use these, Google will start to learn what is and is not important to you. It will learn to sort them in the priority inboxes accordingly. When I get an email in my Important and Unread, Google knows to put it there because it has the important arrow. If I receive an email in my Important and Unread section that is actually not applicable to me, I uncheck the arrow. That way, the next time I get a similar email (with that same subject or from that same person), Google puts it in my Everything Else inbox. It works the other way too- if I see something in my Everything Else Inbox is actually important, I put the important arrow with it, and Google moves it into my Important and Unread Inbox. It learns these habits over time, so your Inbox for the most part really does become organized.

3. Filters

Do you find yourself receiving emails that you don’t ever need to read or open? We get emails from our CRM system all the time, but I never look at them because, frankly, I receive way too many other emails a day that are much more important. So, I have set up a filter so the emails I receive from that recipient are automatically filed away into my “CRM” folder. They never actually show up in my inbox! To set up a filter, go to settings, filters, and then create new filter at the bottom. You can perform a search function by email recipient addressed to you with a certain subject line, etc. You can set it so GMail will either automatically apply a label or archive it into the folder you have identified. This will save a lot of filing time if you have emails similar to this coming to you everyday.

4. Unread Messages Icon

This is a Lab in the settings. If you’re like me and you leave your email open all day in a tab (I know I shouldn’t, but hey- we all have our vices), you can enable this feature so you can monitor your email as you are working on other tasks. My recommendation is if you get more than 10 new messages, you should probably hop back over to your email just to check and make sure nothing SUPER important needs to be tended to.

5. Mute Button

This is a great feature that you can use to mute conversations if they keep popping up in your inbox. I get a lot of emails that are not related to me, so I often put a “Not Mine” label on them. If that same conversation pops up again in my inbox, I’ll see the “Not Mine” label on it, realize that it is not for me, and press the mute button. This will make it so if anyone else responds on this email strand, the conversation will no longer come to my inbox, but it will stay filed away in its folder. BRILLIANT STUFF HERE!

April 28, 2014
5 For Friday – Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, Oh My!

1) Twitter Profile Redesign is now available to everyone!

-Twitter

Do you have the new Twitter layout for your profile? If not, you may be behind the times. Twitter recently updated their profiles with a new, user friendly look. This design is pretty similar to what many people are used to seeing on Google+ and Facebook. They are in the process of rolling out the profile redesign to all Twitter users.

2) Are Your Fans Interacting with Your Brand on Social Media?

– Mashable

The look of your graphics and images supporting your social media updates carry a lot of weight. If they’re not appealing to your followers, they will fall flat when it comes to engagement. Mashable shares some insight on the various types of images that can boost interaction amongst your fans.

3) Google Offers New Ways to Market Apps in Search, Display, and YouTube

– Marketing Land

Many app creators struggle to get their product noticed, downloaded, and used by consumers. Google is now offering various unique ways to market them in AdWords via search, display, and YouTube. Read this article to learn details about all of the exciting new features available to app marketers.

4) Facebook Mobile is Killing it! Is your brand on Facebook Yet?

– Bloomberg

If your brand is not spending at least some of its marketing dollars on the social media giant, you are probably missing out on a major consumer base. This article from Bloomberg tells us that nearly half of the world’s internet population is logging into their profiles, at least, once a month. This mean almost a billion people a month are logging into the mobile app alone!

5) Pinterest Announces the Launch of a Visual Search Engine

– Buzzfeed

Pinterest is launching a new “Guided Search” for its mobile users. It takes user’s broad search and prompts them to narrow it down with pictures in related sub categories. This very informative article from Buzzfeed explains, in detail, the specifics of Pinterest’s new guided search.

April 25, 2014
Social Media, Your Personal Red Carpet

Coined ‘Fashion’s Latest Muse’ by the New York Times in September of 2013, it’s no secret that Instagram has been the leading source of social media in the fashion industry for quite some time. Naturally, marketers and retailers alike have picked up on this trend, using Instagram as the latest and greatest promotional tool. But what makes the difference between a chic social media campaign and a total tragedy? Let the experts guide you with five basic rules to live by:

What Are You Doing?

Although social media is all about promoting your products, there is something more important to promote….your brand. No one wants to follow an Instagram that solely pushes this season’s must haves. Yes, it’s all about fashion. But people want to know what makes you tick. Where do you hang out? Where do you dine? It’s no coincidence that Rag & Bone, True Religion, Hudson, J Brand, Free People, Joie, Stuart Weitzman, Jimmy Choo, Harpers Bazaar, Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, We Wore What, and Lookbook were all at the major music festival #Coachella this weekend. And what instapost got the most attention? With 41,872 likes, Free People takes the lead with this shot of Australian fashion blogger Natascha Elisa, who by the way, isn’t sporting a look by Free People. Helping other like-designers get press to support the Free People way of life: How’s that for lifestyle branding? #Genius.

We Can Still See the Background…

One question: Where are you taking your Instagram photos? Wherever it is, please remember that your audience can still see what’s going in the background of your post. Your Instagram can only look as professional as it’s location, so if you’re guilty of taking all of your pictures in a dressing room, it’s time to change your ways! Taking the extra few minutes to find a scenic location will go a long way, I promise. And it doesn’t have to be a runway – go to the street, or into a room with great decor. Fashion blogger Danielle Burnstein, known for her blog We Wore What, is a perfect example of taking great street shots. Here she is pictured on a city street, in front of a wall with only a few posters and some graffiti behind her. But with the few pops of color and great lighting, it makes for an amazing background. This is probably why she is followed by major designers like Alice + Olivia, Tibi, J Brand, Theory, Jimmy Choo, Stuart Weitzman, and Kurt Geiger.

Let Me Take a Selfie

While the infamous ‘selfie’ is sometimes a must in order to properly display an outfit (sans the duck face), remember that the focus is on the product…not the person modeling them. There is a reason that professional models are very thin. Models are meant to be background, they are there to display the clothing or product, and not to distract from them. That being said, models are a critical element to any campaign. Clothing never looks the same on a hanger as it does on a person. The viewer needs to see the fit of the garment, as well as know how to style it. There is an entire Instagram account that puts this rule to the test called Up Close and Stylish. The stylist (and model) posts ‘selfies’ daily, however she chooses to remain entirely anonymous. She has never shown her face to the public, only her outfits. And how many followers does this mystery fashion lover have? As of right now, she has the attention of 898,000 viewers, with the majority of her posts getting well over 20,000 likes.

All Things Beautiful

The fashion industry strives to create beauty in the form of wearable art. And as art lovers know, there is inspiration everywhere. Do you see something absolutely gorgeous that makes you smile? Share it! Whether it’s a garden in full bloom, a picturesque park, or an amazing presentation of food – we appreciate the post.Take it from the Instagram guru’s at Alice + Olivia, who are known for their unbelievably colorful and whimsical pictures. They recently posted this bouquet of flowers, which caught the attention of 5,761 viewers, so it’s safe to say the public responded.

Use Your Tools…Wisely

There are some great tools on Instagram for fashion designers, bloggers, and retailers alike. The video tool is great for behind the scenes clips of photo shoots, or taking your favorite outfits and turning them into a montage. Of course it’s always popular to do a video recap of all of the looks you’ve put together at the end of the year…but personally, I prefer the sneak peeks. It’s also easy to credit someone within Instagram (designer, stylist, brand) whether it’s via tag or hashtag. But please – easy on the hash tags. No one likes an over enthusiast blowing up their Instagram with #unnecessary #borderlinespam #hashtags. Let the creativity of your post speak for itself. Yvan Rodic (of Face Hunter) spotted model Ash Walker making a statement on subject….

April 21, 2014
5 For Friday – Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend

1. SEO 101: Getting the On-Page SEO Basics
– Search Engine Journal

This article provides a ground-floor explanation of some of the basic, on-page SEO elements. Though this article may not seem useful for experts, this article takes into account that the rules for SEO are always changing. A refresher to update readers on what’s changed slightly and what’s stayed the same can help a new site get started and an old site get freshened up. The article also offers some useful tools to help with implementing the basics it suggests.

2. Fix These 5 Email Marketing Missteps
– Mashable

Emails are such a normal part of our daily lives that we forget how to treat it during marketing campaigns. This article describes 5 problems that are commonly found and offers solutions to overcome these issues. It’s important to use whatever tools we have on hand when it comes to marketing, and email is no exception.

3. How to Identify Non-Ranking URL Page Types Using Google Site Search
– Search Engine Watch

The author provides the benefits of using Google’s site search in order to identify and find “valuable indexation metrics” for non-ranking page types. Though the author doesn’t state that this should replace crawling a site, he does state that there are useful details to gleam from a slower and more in-depth study of a site.

4. Marketing 101: How to Create a Successful Influencer #Marketing Plan
– Search Engine Journal

Reaching your target audience means enlisting the help of people with a good voice in the industry, known as an influencer. The article provides a definition of influencer marketing, as well as the benefits that can come from it. There are also a few simple ways suggested in designing the marketing strategy, reaching out to influencers, and keeping them with you. The author also puts emphasis on making sure to have something to offer when reaching out to influencers. Anyone with a steady audience and a good voice does not need or wish to offer any favors for free.

5. 6 Changes We Always Thought Google Would Make to SEO that They Haven’t Yet
– Moz

This article gives an interesting insight into the Google changes and updates that experts have expected, but haven’t seen implemented yet. The notes are sensible, and when it comes to changing SEO rules, it’s extremely important to try and stay ahead of the game and to figure out the path that Google is trying to take search.

April 18, 2014
Why Your Ads Fail: The Secret To AdWords Data

Within the past decade or so, it’s no surprise that everyone is hopping onto the data bandwagon. To businesses big and small, across all industries, it’s all about collecting data, data, data. However, while we focus endless efforts on collecting and analyzing data, we often lose sight of the reason why.

This is especially true in the world of online marketing, and in this case, online marketing through Google AdWords. If you’re running a PPC campaign, you know that AdWords provides a plethora of data and reports from all the typical metrics. From impressions, clicks, cost per click etc. to where your clicks are coming from, the day of week, the time of day—the list of metrics goes on. That’s why finding actionable data is like finding a needle in a haystack.

However, there are three simple data reports that can provide instantly actionable insights.

1) Search Term Report

The first report is the Search Term Report/Search Query Report. This report can be found under the “Keywords” tab. Select “Details.” Then select “All.”

This report is useful because it shows the search terms that people are actually typing in and searching for. This data can inform your decisions in creating new campaigns, new ad groups, finding negative keywords (keyword searches you don’t want your ad to show up for), and even give you ideas for your content creation strategy.

2) Auction Insights Report

The second report that’s useful is the Auction Insights Report. This report can be found under the “Campaigns” tab, under the “Details” section. Select “All.”

This report is useful because it shows how your campaigns, ad groups, and keywords are performing compared to your competitors’. It compares your impression share (how often your ads show up), your average position etc. with that of competing campaigns. Understanding what your competitors are doing, can better inform your bid decisions, how you design landing pages, and more. Remember, your competitors in the physical world may not necessarily be your competitors in the digital world.

3) Conversion Time Lag

The third report that’s useful is the Conversion Time Lag Report. This report can be found under
“Tools” (at the very top navigation bar). Click “Conversions,” then “Search Funnels” (on the left side of the page), then “Time lag.”

This report shows how long it takes for people who’ve clicked on your ad to convert. Based on your sales cycles, this can inform the number of touchpoints you need with your customers in order to drive them down the sales funnel. Depending on the time lag, you can then decide whether or not to reach out to your customers through a remarketing campaign, a content marketing campaign, an email marketing campaign, or through social media and how often you should do so.

In an online marketing environment where there’s a lot of hay, hopefully these three reports give you three useful needles in your haystack.

April 16, 2014