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Tag: social media marketing

  • 12 Worst Social Media Mistakes of 2012 (And How to Avoid Them)

    2012 was truly a year of phenomenal social campaigns by many national companies. However, with the good came plenty of bad. Here are some of the year’s worst campaigns, and how you can avoid these gaffes in your own businesses’ online marketing.

    Screen Shot 2012-12-27 at 12.12.27 PM 12. Kansas City Chiefs
    A disappointed fan tweeted at the Kansas City Chiefs in September, calling the owner greedy and unethical. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, the fan took a screenshot of the offensive direct message he received back and posted the message to Reddit, where it went viral within hours.

    The main takeaway from this blunder? The customer (or fan) is always right, and you are never speaking for yourself when representing a brand on social media.

    Screen Shot 2012-12-27 at 12.25.05 PM

    11. Progressive Auto Insurance
    The auto insurance company faced a huge Twitter backlash this year after a popular blogger released a post titled “My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer in Court”. Instead of responding to their detractors, the company replied to every tweet with the same robotic response. This, of course, attracted even more negative attention on the social media network.

    Our lesson: if you’re going to respond to negative comments or tweets, take the time to personalize the replies.

    10. Southwest Airlines
    Southwest accidentally overcharged thousands of customers in August. While they acknowledged that their site had experienced some “technical difficulties,” they failed to note that many customers were going to have multiple charges on their credit card statement. Angry patrons took to their Facebook page, where many left displeased comments after being unable to get through to the company via phone. Southwest did not address any of these complaints, and then updated their brand cover photo, which many viewed as insensitive in the midst of an unanswered crisis.

    Be proactive: You should remove any regularly “scheduled” posts during a crisis — angry consumers don’t want to see that you have time to update your status when you haven’t fixed their problem.

    Screen Shot 2012-12-27 at 12.06.52 PM9. American Apparel
    Although they weren’t the only brand to send insensitive messages in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, they are the only one who failed to apologize for their hurricane puns. They sent out a nationwide sale email that included the phrase, “In case you’re bored during the storm,” and was only available in affected states.

    What more can we say? It’s never a good idea to make light of a national disaster in order to move product.

    8. Chick-Fil-A
    The chicken company came under fire in early 2012 for its anti-gay campaign donations. Protesters took to their Facebook page, where thousands left angry comments and disappointed messages for the company. Instead of responding to the comments with their brand page, they allegedly created a fake Facebook account to comment on each attacker’s post. This technique was outed pretty quickly, and viewed with scorn by many.

    How can you avoid this? Don’t make fake profiles! It is far too easy to be tempted by this scheme in today’s digital society, but it is generally quite easy to spot a fake Facebook account.

    Screen Shot 2012-12-27 at 12.15.43 PM 7. KitchenAid
    A common theme in Twitter gaffes this year involved accidental tweets. KitchenAid profusely apologized for its tweet making light of President Obama’s grandmother’s death, but the damage was done. A better question is why anyone would hire someone to manage their brand’s online identity who abbreviates the word “before”.

    Learn from their mistakes:  Keep politics off your company’s account, and make sure you are hiring competent, careful employees to manage your social media channels.

    6. National Rifle Association
    The NRA’s social media strategy seems to have been updated to going dark recently, but earlier this year they faced plenty of criticism. The gun advocates tweeted “Morning Shooters – Happy Friday! Weekend plans?” the morning after the Aurora, CO theater shooting. The tweet drew tons of ire from the press, and may have lead to their silence following the Newtown, CT shooting earlier this month.

    Protect yourself from controversy: Make sure your social media team is aware of national happenings and in touch with local news.

    5. Hitman’s Disastrous Foray Into Social Gaming
    Square Enix’s hyper-violent, edgy Hitman game series has been a huge money-maker for the gaming giant, but their attempts at capitalizing on Facebook gaming proved to be a complete failure on every level of content QA. The Hitman social media game included a variety of motivations for placing a “virtual hit” on your friend, with crass and juvenile reasons such as “her muffin top,” “her small tits,” or “his tiny penis.” Apparently blasting your friend in the face with a sniper rifle just isn’t enough of an insult.

    Our (obvious) takeaway? Including blatant misogyny and insulting content in your endeavors doesn’t make you look “edgy” — it just makes you look like a jerk.

    Screen Shot 2012-12-27 at 10.12.38 AM 4. Olympic Games
    The Olympic committee applied Rule 40 to every aspect of athlete’s lives this year, including Twitter. Athletes stirred up a huge controversy on the social networking site using the hashtag #WeDemandChange2012 over their right to represent brands during the Olympic Games. They argued that they received no compensation for participating in the games, while the organizers got rich off official endorsements. It raised great debate about censorship, and athletes’ right to use social media as they pleased.

    Learn from the Olympics: it’s impossible to censor your opponents on social media channels.

    Screen Shot 2012-12-27 at 10.30.58 AM3. Toyota Camry
    The car giant kicked off the year with a Super Bowl campaign intended to get users to tweet with the hashtag #camryeffect. Unfortunately, their campaign centered around sending spammy tweets back at anyone who used the hashtag, encouraging them to enter a contest to win a free Camry. Their accounts eventually got suspended by Twitter, which drew even more attention since they had already been verified on the social network.

    Our lesson? Even legitimate contests can easily look like spam and offend users. Don’t use organic interaction on your channels as a way to push sales.

    2. Celeb Boutique
    The online clothing retailer tweeted a promotional bit this year using the hashtag #Aurora, which they mistakenly thought had to do with their clothing line. Unfortunately for them, it instead referred to the tragic shooting in a Colorado theater.

    Don’t tweet blindly: This could’ve been easily avoided if their team had simply researched the hashtag before using it.

    Screen Shot 2012-12-27 at 12.42.24 PM 1. McDonald’s
    This year’s worst social media campaign came from the fast food giant, whose #McDStories hashtag was described by Forbes as being a “bashtag”. The twitterverse jumped at the chance to use the branded hashtag, but not to promote the company, but rather to ridicule its food and company principles. Tweets such as “Dude, I used to work at McDonald’s. The #McDStories I could tell would raise your hair” were everywhere on the social media network, and the hashtag is still being used negatively almost a year later.

    Know your brand’s reputation: Encouraging consumers to share stories involving a company that already gets a lot of negative press is probably not the best idea. Stick with campaigns that inspire positive interaction, rather than open-ended tweet requests.

    There you have it, the 12 worst social media gaffes of 2012. Fortunately, there are ways to bounce back even after the worst mistakes. See any that we missed? Let us know in the comments!

  • Taking the Twit Out of Twitter: How To Bounce Back From A Gaffe With Grace

    We’ve touched on the importance of having a good Twitter handle, but just as important is the content of your tweets. While in the past you could expect to be chastised for a misspelling or typo in the classroom, social media platforms like Twitter now make your mistakes public in a way that they weren’t before — and people of the Internet are far less forgiving.

    Twitter blunders can range from comical misspellings on your personal account…

    to accidentally tweeting from an employer’s account.

    Or it could include the posting of insensitive and/or offensive material.

    By the time you realize the mistake (or, as is usually the case, the mistake is pointed out to you), it’s often too late. In a day where followers are aplenty, you often can’t simply remove the gaffe and pretend it never happened. It’s already been viewed and possibly shared by any number of people.

    The best way to avoid these mistakes is obviously by proofreading your tweets, especially if you are acting on behalf of a business. One missed letter could change the entire meaning of a tweet (or even prompt followers to click on an unintended link). Whether you’re representing yourself or a brand, it’s important to put your best foot forward, and it all starts with attention to detail.

    However, if you do find yourself the object of Internet ridicule, there are a few things you can do to smooth over the situation. First, know when to own it. A simple misspelling might not be worth drawing more attention to, but if you accidentally share a bad link or were unintentionally (or intentionally, for that matter) offensive, then you might owe your followers an apology. Feel free to keep it short and sweet: like anything involving Twitter, brevity is key. If offensive material is in the mix, make sure to explicitly detail what you’re doing to remedy the problem and provide a sincere apology (and for Pete’s sake, not a “sorry you were offended” style one).

    Finally, keep up your sense of humor. Whether you accidentally tweeted that you love the smell of your boyfriend’s colon or you simply never learned the difference between you and you’re, have a laugh about it. Besides, it’s likely that you’ll be able to return the favor to the follower who pointed out your blunder at some point in the future anyway.

  • Google+ Communities Storm Into the Social Media Scene

    Google Plus communities, the newest section of the social networking site (often referred to as G+ for short) are meant to bring people of similar interests, work experience, or hobbies into one place. These communities can be created by anyone with a G+ account, opening up a whole new vista of networking and sharing potential for users.

    The communities are designed for users to have a forum to share similar ideas, thoughts and beliefs and promote discussions amongst peers. The pages themselves can be made open to the public, restricted to certain users or undiscoverable by anyone not personally invited. They are also controlled by a moderator. Community types vary: users have the ability to create general communities such as “People Who Love Food” to more specific versions like “Vegans Rule.” They can also be industry- or location-specific, like “Lawyers’ Association” or “Lawyers of Southeast Louisiana.”

    According to Social Media Today, there are several beneficial aspects to a G+ community:

    • No Edgerank: updates reach 100% of users
      • Companies don’t have to pay to promote posts in G+ stream
    • The content posted in the communities can be picked up by search engines
      • Facebook does not have public search engine and the content posted is not searchable
    • Google provides authorship to G+ users
    • Businesses engaging on Google+ may potentially rank higher

    Sounds enticing. But don’t be so quick to dump your Facebook social media campaign yet. G+ Communities could be very beneficial to a company that wants to reach 100% of their followers without having to pay to do so. But, how many followers do companies actually have on G+ compared to Facebook, and if they are on G+, how many are actively using it? Google+ has 500 million users and only 235 million active users compared to Facebook’s 900 million, but how much time do they have to spend to be considered active? According to a study by comScore, the average G+ user only spends 3 minutes a month on the social network compared to the average Facebook user, who spends around 7 hours a month.

    Facebook is still the king of social media and remains the place users spend the most of their Internet leisure time — but it’s not a bad idea for companies to expand their social media strategies to G+ and create a community for consumers to interact with their brand. While it’s disappointing to see Google, the innovation giant, reinventing the wheel, there are a few advantages to Google Plus communities that make them worth your attention. Let’s just hope that the social network’s next move will be something that we haven’t seen before.

  • SI Social: Hitman Social Media Game Shows How To Do It Wrong

    Social media is a fairly new medium, so it’s no surprise that people gaffe from time to time when they try to execute it right. Of course, there’s a varying degree of severity between “Whoops, I posted the wrong link!” to “Oh my, I’ve done something so bad that I need to dig a hole and crawl in.” You might expect the latter from individuals or smaller companies, but when a big company slips on that level, it comes as a bit of a shock. And that is just what happened yesterday when the enormously high profile video game publisher Square Enix tried to use a Facebook game to promote their newest title in the Hitman game series.

    Since the game itself depicts the adventures of an assassin, the Facebook game in question was a social device that allowed you to “put a hit” on friends. That’s already a little weird, but with the right comedic twist, I can see the potential for it. However, the faux pas came in the form of a drop down box that allowed you to specify the reason for the hit. The list included PC-unfriendly motivations such as “her muffin top” and “her bad hair,” but took the cake with “her small tits,” which is not only inappropriate language but sexist as hell to boot. Men weren’t left out of the insult war either, as “tiny penis” was also an option.

    As expected, social media exploded over the app — in exactly the opposite way that Square intended. The app was pulled within hours, apologizing and they issued a statement saying they did not mean to offend their audience. The campaign was created by Emmy-award winning ad agency Ralph, who apparently don’t that cruelly making fun of people before shooting them in the face with a sniper rifle is much of an objection given the game’s “mature” audience.

    Epic fail doesn’t even begin to describe the debacle here. While the newness of social media has made it a necessity for businesses to figure out how to connect with their consumers, it also means a lot of wandering into the creative unknown — which can yield stellar results or a landmine of bad PR. I keep trying to wrap my brain around how anyone greenlighted this thing, and no matter what angle I come at it from, I still can’t get a handle on it. Kudos to Square-Enix for reacting with lightning speed, removing the app less than an hour after it appeared, but how did it even get that far in the first place?

    If you are trying to think of ways to use Facebook to engage your client that are cool but not over the top, it’s best to have a checklist handy. “No racial, ethical, or sexist slurs” is probably a great place to start, followed by “know your target audience.” In this case, sadly, the target audience MAY have found this app funny, as the 2011 demographicfor gaming shows that 53% of the people playing games are between the ages of 18-54. In other words, lots of teenagers that might not think twice about picking on a classmate for physical flaws. Sexism in gaming has recently drawn huge amounts of criticism over the rampant and violent misogyny that the medium and its consumers have tacitly encouraged for years. The fact that the company was willing to put their seal of approval on such a blatant example of juvenile asshattery shows that they’re tragically out of touch with the contemporary climate — not to mention ignorant of the disastrous PR effects on a brand that wading into these issues can provoke.

    What do you think about Square Enix’s slipup? Can you think of any other social media disasters that have caused you to facepalm at the speed of light?

    (Image via Kotaku.)

  • Medium: Twitter’s Founder Develops WYSIWYG Blogging

    mediumAs an avid Tweeter, I’ve been excited about the launch of Medium since I first learned about the new site this summer. The promise of a service that bridges the gap between the 140 characters I already love and a more traditional blogging platform is one that excites both my passion for social media and my desire for a more directed writing channel. A traditional blog often seems like an exercise in futility for your average writer, but a system that is designed specifically for uncovering interesting posts — optimized for quality, rather than popularity — is one that I can certainly get behind. Medium founder Ev Williams took to the platform this week to discuss his new service’s functionality, and how editing and writing will work in the system.

    Ev describes the service as truly a “what you see is what you get” interface, as opposed to the creation vs. preview mode favored by so many other blog publishing systems. I’ve used both Blogger and WordPress extensively for blogging and I can tell you with certainty that neither system comes even close to presenting a seamless WYSIWYG interface. The frustration that arises when you click “Preview” for the tenth time while attempting to align a photo just right is one that I am sure all novice bloggers are familiar with. The idea of eliminating that frustration entirely is immensely appealing.

    Screen Shot 2012-11-28 at 1.48.00 PM Medium seeks to do more than just make blogging easier: it aims to reinvent digital publishing altogether. Beyond the aesthetic wonder of being able to edit the exact page you will publish, the service offers up a flexible range of post styles — you can publish just photos, just essays, or somewhere in between. My inner 13-year old envisions meaningful lines from my favorite songs attached to beautiful photos, and my slightly more rational (and significantly more jaded) 20-something self wants intelligent and argumentative pieces about why airlines should charge for carry-on luggage. Ev utilizes both of these styles in his own Medium collections, with topics ranging from “This Could Be Better” to “When I Was a Kid”. The options are virtually endless.

    The platform was recently released to all Twitter employees, which hopefully indicates that they are moving toward letting more users into the beta platform. There has been no official launch date released yet, but as they add increased functionality and grow the user base, Medium will hopefully be ready for a universal launch in the coming months.

    What do you think of Medium’s aims? Will they successfully revolutionize the digital media and blogging industry? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

  • Instagram Web Profiles Bring Nashville Filter to the Masses

    Screen Shot 2012-11-07 at 1.25.38 PMPhoto sharing service Instagram announced the release of brand new web profiles for all users last week, some two years after the launch of its iOS app. Although this is big news for your average Instagrammer, the addition is also a major breakthrough for businesses who use the app for photo editing and social sharing. The new web profiles have already begun launching, and the majority of Instagram users can expect a new profile featuring their photos within the coming week.

    Not only does the new functionality improve a business’s ability to monitor and respond to comments on photos, it also adds the ability to direct users on other networks to follow your account. Previously, it was difficult to encourage fans to follow your account within the app-only software because there was no easy way to find individual profiles without manually searching. The new web profiles add the “Follow” function directly on each individual profile, which allow businesses to link easily to their page and improve their reach. This new feature will also allow customers who do not have Instagram accounts to see your photo stream without downloading the app.Screen Shot 2012-11-07 at 1.26.12 PM

    The web profile layout is extremely similar to Facebook, with one major exception: no news feed. In order to view a user’s profile, you have to manually go to instagram.com/[username] or click a direct link. It seems likely that there may be some sort of “explore” or feed feature in the future, but as of right now it can only be used to directly visit pages. You can click on user profiles of people who comment or like your photos, which would allow businesses to follow back people who interact with their brand.

    Screen Shot 2012-11-07 at 1.59.51 PMThe new design also includes a follow button on individual photos, so Instagram users can easily add other users to their feed from photos sourced elsewhere, such as Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. I’ve already seen some businesses showing off their new web profile pages on Facebook, with links back to the page for maximum follow value. The integration of that button should help increase Instagram follower counts significantly for many business pages.

    All in all, the new design seems destined to help more users reach your business page, and will hopefully lead to increased interaction for your Instagram photos. With a little self-promotion on other social networks, Instagram profiles can now easily reach wider audiences, and showcase your brand’s identity to more potential customers. Has your business gotten a web profile yet? Check it out, and let us know what you think!

  • Pinterest For Business Has Arrived! 7 Reasons To Jump Onboard

    It’s finally here: the much anticipated Pinterest for Business.

    Chances are, for the past couple years you’ve been hearing all about Pinterest, its popularity explosion since 2009, and the fact that you, as a business owner, need to get on it… yesterday.

    Pinterest for BusinessUntil now, a business on Pinterest had to use the same profile format as yours and mine. There weren’t many tools available, and there was no way (until recently) to verify your website. The terms of service actually prohibited commercial use of the site, but that didn’t stop some of the world’s biggest brands from capitalizing on the phenomenon. From Whole Foods to the Smithsonian, big brands and smaller scale bloggers alike are making the most of Pinterest.

    The Pin It button was put to use on sites like Allrecipes.com and within 3 months, 50,000 recipes were pinned by users, resulting in a 900% increase in clicks on Allrecipes’ Pinterest-shared content.Pinterest E-Card

    With the announcement on Tuesday of the long awaited Pinterest for Business, Pinterest is not just acknowledging the thousands of business already on the site (and breaking the rules). The Silicon Valley start-up has also opened its arms to an entirely new realm of e-commerce possibilities. Pinterest is declaring itself as a champion for companies (large and small), working to make the site work for them.

    Features and opportunities now offered with Pinterest Business profiles include:

    • New business terms of use
    • The option to convert an existing profile into a business account
    • Name the account with a business or brand name rather than a first and last name
    • Website verification badges (which we heard about back in October)
    • New widgets for more seamless integration on business websites, including the Profile Widget and Board Widget. Easier to use guides for creation are also available for the Pin It Button and Follow Button.
    • The opportunity to receive updates on future products and services (which will hopefully include analytics)
    • A best practices guide containing examples and step-by-step instructions for making your account successful
    • Case Studies based on business already successfully using Pinterest to drive traffic and new business
    • Guidelines for using Pinterest logos and trademarks in your own marketing materials


    To date, Pinterest has raised $138 million, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Heck, my mom’s even on it. With more and more business likely to jump on the bandwagon, many are now posing inevitable questions such as “How long until the now free-to-use site begins to sell ad space?”

    So what is it about Pinterest that’s so appealing to businesses and users? Some of the following reasons might help you determine whether or not your business should sign up:

     

    1. Pinterest is the fourth largest traffic driver to websites in the world, surpassing Bing and Yahoo as reported by shareaholic.com.
    1. Pinterest is the third most popular social network on the web (behind only Facebook and Twitter), according to Experian’s 2012 Digital Marketer trend report.
    2. If you’ve got something to sell, chances are you want to be on Pinterest. Nearly ⅓ of Pinterest users have an annual household income of $100,000 or more. Most (68.2%) are female, and a majority of users are age 25 – 34 years.
    3. Trouble ranking organically? Pinterest pages have great authority with Google, providing an opportunity for a business to compete in rankings where they might not normally be able to outrank a competitor. Each click on a Pin from your site drives traffic right where you want it — your site!
    4. The number of active Pinterest users and unique visitors keeps on climbing. Pinterest became the fastest site ever to hit 10 million unique monthly U.S. visitors in history. The once exclusive, invite-only website is now open to anyone with an email address, Facebook, or Twitter account, opening the door to those who may have been intimidated by the exclusivity or simply lost interest during the wait period.
    5. The visual focus is addicting (to users). Pinterest users spend, on average 98 minutes per month on the site, behind only Facebook and Tumblr.
    6. Users always have access to Pinterest. The company provides a browser plug-in, mobile and iPad apps that make content on ANY site pinnable.


    Our mission at Search Influence is to help small businesses succeed online. Pinterest’s visual appeal and addictive nature make it the perfect opportunity for a small business to grow, instead of being lost in the noise of a more trafficked network like Facebook. On Pinterest, it’s not the number of followers or fans you have, but the quality of your content that makes you successful. I don’t know about you, but some of the best products I’ve seen came from small or local businesses just trying to get it out there.

    Pinterest for Business might be just the thing you need to get your product seen. Do you plan on signing up? Tell us about how it goes in the comments.

  • Top 5 Things I Learned About Politics on Facebook

    Obamaloney in the 2012 Presidential Race
    Obamaloney: 100 percent fact free! (Source: http://leevandenbrink.blogspot.com/)

    At some point during the endless presidential election of 2012, you probably shared a political opinion on Facebook that you were wholly unqualified to advance. Facebook is one of those great and terrible places where totally uninformed people can share their feelings with everyone they know. There’s just no room for actual rational argument on Facebook — at least, that’s the biggest thing that I’ve learned during this past election cycle.

    Here are five other things I learned about politics from reading my Facebook feed:

    Everybody has an opinion, and you better not disagree with it.

    Did you study political science in college? Do you have a degree in economics? Do you even know anything about the tenets of national socialism? No? Doesn’t matter.

    Facts and emotions rarely align, especially when social media is involved. Your aunt, uncle, grandmother, high school classmate, co worker, and friend from the coffee house all know that they are absolutely correct. If you want to remain Facebook friends with any of them, the best thing to do is do not engage when they proclaim that a vote for Romney is a vote for the Lizard People, or that President Obama is going to sell the entire country to Lithuania.

    Just smile and back away while not making any sudden movements.

    Sometimes it’s legitimately difficult to tell if someone is joking.

    I enjoy a well formed joke just as much as everyone else. I think it’s incredibly funny that Republicans took to referring to anything Obama said as “Obamaloney,” specifically because it reads as “Oba Maloney.” I came very close to writing a killer post about how everyone should leave my good old uncle Oba Maloney alone.

    But then I realized I was opening myself up to anyone who could possibly interpret the obvious hilarity in a way that I hadn’t intended. That unwritten post probably would have ended up with as many comments from people choosing to expound on the truthiness of the President’s latest statements as from people who enjoyed the scintillating wordplay on my part.

    Seriously, Oba Maloney. That just cracks me up.

    When people say they are moving to another country on Facebook, they probably should.

    Do you bloviate endlessly about the heinous misdeeds of those big bad meanies on the other side? Do you attack and browbeat anyone who opposes anything you hold to be true? Do you think women need to use birth control each and every time they have sex, and that having a prescription for birth control automatically makes a woman a prostitute? (Okay, that last one is optional.)

    If this is you, then you probably woke up this morning wanting to no longer be an American. And you probably said something to that effect on Facebook. To that I say: okay, cool. Send me a postcard.

    It really doesn’t matter what your opinion is.

    You are not a unique and special snowflake. You are not influencing anybody’s vote in any way. There is simply not a single scenario wherein one of those mythical “undecided voters” chose one side over the other because of a well-placed status update.

    You have every right to express your political opinion on Facebook. I just want to let you know that it doesn’t matter. The people who agree with you may like it, and the people who disagree with you may remove you from their newsfeed. You will not, however, have any impact on the Electoral College at all. Sorry to burst your bubble.

    Your friends hate it when you talk about politics on Facebook.

    Seriously. This is always, always, always true. The only people who are worse than the self-appointed Facebook pundits are the idiots who shake yard signs at drivers in the middle of busy intersections on election day.

    The bottom line is, while Facebook is a tool for personal networking, it’s no venue for political discourse. By keeping the commentating to yourself, you can avoid a whole lot of headaches and maintain your personal brand. Now that the election is over, let’s all find other things to talk about and fight about on Facebook. Like how Mickey Mouse bought George Lucas. Please?

    My name is Steve Maloney, and I approved this message. Now go share it on Facebook.

  • 5 for Friday – Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

    Brands That Understand Marketing on Instagram – Mashable

    Much like Pinterest, businesses are slowly but surely beginning to utilize Instagram as a marketing tool. By encouraging your customers or your fan base to be actively — and creatively — involved with your brand, you can engage them in a unique and effective way. Whether you have a clothing brand or a restaurant, this is a great example of how Instagram can boost your social media campaign with user-generated content.

    Pinterest Makes Top 50 Website List – Search Engine Journal

    Speaking of Pinterest, the social media site has secured a spot on comScore’s top 50 most-visited websites list. In addition to its phenomenal growth over the past year, the fact that registration is now open to anyone (no invite needed!) has certainly helped with Pinterest’s latest visitor boom. And with the holidays right around the corner, it’s likely that we’ll see even more traffic from shoppers in the coming months.

    5 Reasons Why Visual Content Needs to Be Included In Your Marketing – Social Media Today

    In case the two previous stories didn’t convince you, visual content should absolutely be a part of your marketing strategy. Images affect people differently than words. They are easily shareable on social networks, and they can quickly capture the interest of your audience. Carefully chosen visual content can engage your customers and connect with them in a simple, effective way. Are you incorporating images in your marketing efforts?

    Apple Drops an iPad Mini on Rivals – The Wall Street Journal

    The iPad Mini was announced this week, and Apple will begin taking orders for the device today. Lightweight and super thin, it measures 7.9 inches diagonally, but has a lower screen resolution than the iPad. At a pricey $329, it’s significantly more expensive than other 7-inch tablets on the market, but hardcore Apple fans could be happy to pay up. Will you be adding it to your wish list?

    Google Takes Street View Tech Into the Grand Canyon – Wired

    Google Maps has captured images of locations using cars, snowmobiles, and even tricycles, but their latest effort to map terrain that is unreachable by traditional methods is really ambitious. The Trekker, a backpack version of the equipment used on Google’s Street View cars, is now being used to map inaccessible sites. This week, the backpacks journeyed into the Grand Canyon. What will Google’s Street View engineers think of next?

  • 5 For Friday — Links, Stories & Posts For Your Weekend

    • Ranking the 100 Most InDemand Employers Using LinkedIn Data [INFOGRAPHIC] – LinkedIn

    In pulling professional data from their 175 million users, LinkedIn creates an infographic to display which companies are most attractive to potential job candidates. Software and technology dominating the top 5 positions, with Google taking the lead and Apple placing second. Makes you wonder if job candidates are willing to stick it out in hopes for landing their dream job with the top dogs of tech!

    • 5 Important Post-Penguin Guest Post Prospecting Questions – Search Engine Journal

    With Google’s most recent algorithm update, many have noticed an impact in their SEO efforts and rankings. However, having a well optimized link building approach may include guest posting or blogging. As guest posting is still imperative in SEO, SEJ explains how finding niche blogs, relevant topics, and having quality content can help your SEO in a place of Penguin!

    • 5 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Engagement – Social Media Examiner

    Promoting your brand or company on Facebook allows you to not only to engage with your demographic, but also reach potential customers. Check out Social Media Examiner as they explain the right time to post, best character count for posts, appropriate URL length, and the most engaging content to better interact with your fans!

    • Why the iPod Still Matters to Apple – Mashable

    Apple’s most recent launch of the iPhone 5 has all the Apple lovers flocking to the closest metaphorical orchard. Now the Mac bigwigs are the spotlight on one of its older products. On Wednesday night, Apple launched a new campaign featuring the redesigned iPod. With the iPod initiating the re-positioning of the brand over 11 years ago, Apple won’t be fading this product out anytime soon. Turn it up!

    • What’s The Best Time of Day To Send Emails? [Infographic] – Read Write Web

    Between newsletters, online marketing updates, and the countless emails we receive in a day how can we guarantee the recipient is actually reading our emails? This infographic illustrates when emails are opened the most, and shows at what times throughout the day people are engaging in their emails. Don’t stress if you forgot to send that email out at 5:15 PM — data shows it may be best to wait til tomorrow!