strategy
5 Tips For Your Foursquare Explore Social Strategy
If you haven’t claimed your foursquare profile yet, you might want to get on that asap! If the fact that the site’s database has 1.5 billion check-ins logged into the system isn’t enough of a an incentive, then perhaps knowing that foursquare has gone “search” online with their newest feature Explore with the website garnering 1 million unique visitors per day already could entice you.
By claiming your foursquare profile you can personalize it to suit your business and take advantage of integrating this platform into your social media (geo-location) strategy. In addition to checking-in, claiming badges and mayorships, now users can search for locations, deals, and places on their desktop using the Explore feature. Some people don’t like having a Foursquare account on their mobile phones and “checking-in” all the time, but would like to use this feature to see where their friends are checking-in and what they recommend. Foursquare Explore allows you to go online and search without having to use the platform as a check-in tool. It is useful for the end user to go through the 15 million tips that are gathered on the site already when deciding on where to go and what to eat… or drink!
Here are five tips to include in your strategy in order to ensure increased visits from Foursquare Explore to your company’s profile page:
- Regularly monitor your foursquare account. Review check-ins, comments, and tips to see what users are saying.
- Use QR codes to encourage check-ins, tips, and submissions.
- Promote Foursquare ads to encourage check-ins.
- Include sentiments and adjectives in your foursquare ad strategy (i.e. romantic, Friday, sweet, summer, wine list, etc…)
- Use keywords when posting deals on your foursquare account to help with search queries.
Happy searching!
Maryam
@socialmaryam
Tags: badges, explore, foursquare, geo-location, SEO, social, strategy, tips, visitors
What If…Your Twitter and Facebook Posts Were Deleted After 24 Hours?
What if … a new feature was introduced where Facebook Wall posts and Twitter tweets were automatically removed after 24 hours?
If you did not post anything new in a 24-hour period, your Facebook Wall and Twitter profile would be empty, showing just a blank page. If you’re managing a Facebook Page or a Twitter account for your company or client this would be a big deal. It’s equivalent to having a company website with no content.
Would this give you more incentive to publish content more frequently?
This hypothetical scenario isn’t very far from reality, considering the effective lifespan of the average Facebook post is 22 hours and the lifespan of the average Twitter tweet is 1 hour.
It’s a balancing act. Publish too infrequently and you’ll gain minimal benefit from your social media profile. Publish too frequently and you risk annoying your followers.
Keep this in mind the next time you are developing a digital strategy. Is your publishing frequency maximizing your impact online?
Victor
Digital Strategist
Photo Credit: JanetR3
Tags: facebook, lifespan, strategy, Twitter
What the Heck is Pinterest and Why Should You Care?
Quick. Take a stab at naming the top ten social sites.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn… these ones come easily to mind, but it may surprise you to learn that Pinterest also makes the cut. Coming in at #10, it’s clear that Pinterest is gaining traction fast. It may be time to sit up and notice it, if you haven’t already been lured by its slick and glossy look.
What the heck is it?
The name explains the essence of what it’s about: ‘Pin’ items of ‘interest’. It acts like a virtual pushpin board for things found around the web. Users can create multiple boards, each dedicated to something of interest to them. For example, a board for travel, a board for recipes, a board for home decor. You get the idea. It’s social bookmarking, revisited & refreshed.
Although still in invite-only mode, in just one week alone last December (2011) Pinterest is said to have attracted 11-million visits. It’s growing at an incredible rate, seeing a 4000% jump in traffic from just six months ago. Monthly visits are said to be averaging 3.2-million.
The website is most popular with women aged 25-44, accounting for 58% of the userbase in the past three months (Experian Hitwise). Here are some thoughts on why those who like it, like it a lot. Indeed it must be onto something when it starts spawning copycats.
So why should you care?
There is a business case for participating on Pinterest. It is reported that Real Simple magazine is getting more referral traffic from Pinterest, than from Facebook. From a business perspective, there are many opportunities for building a fan base, building awareness for products, and getting more traffic to your website, but you need to go about it the right way. Pinterest states very clearly there shall be no blatant promoting and marketing on the site. So what can you do? Some ideas are expanded on here, but I think one truth for gaining traction as a business on Pinterest is to have smoking hot photos of smoking hot products. This will inspire members to pin them on their boards, and thus increase the exposure of the business through the image. (Images link back to the original site)
So there you have it. Some pretty compelling reasons to consider Pinterest as a serious player in your ongoing online strategy.
Erin
Tags: facebook, pinterest, strategy
What If…There Was a 2-Tweet Per Day Limit?
Have You Ever Wondered “What if…?”
I believe innovation, inspiration and imagination begins with someone asking “What if…?”. Sometimes, when we’re in the midst of creating a digital strategy, implementing a marketing tactic or developing creative content, we conform to familiar ideas, paths and practices. But, what if we took a step back and challenged the current norms and limits in today’s online environment? Maybe, just maybe, we can create a spark that will set ablaze the next big success in digital strategy.
I will begin a series tackling the idea of “What if…?” I hope you will come along.
What if…Twitter allowed users to publish only 2 tweets per day.
For some users, publishing 2 tweets per day is already a lot to manage. For other users, it’s a huge restriction. This 2-tweet per day limit will likely affect the serial tweeters and the notorious spam bots the most.
Twitter is filled with a lot of noise. Some people try to manage it by only following back a small number of users, using hashtags to organize tweets or by using the search function to find desired information. Others simply give up on using Twitter.
But if Twitter introduced a 2-tweet limit per day, the noise would be drastically reduced. Here’s why:
- The quality of tweets by legitimate users should increase because they will have to think carefully about what they tweet. For example, “Do I really want to use up my quota and talk about what I ate for breakfast? Or should I save my last tweet of the day in case Google announces they are taking over the World?”
- Spam bots that plague Twitter will also be limited to the amount of spam they can generate in a day.
Limits, when used effectively in an appropriate context can help shape people’s behaviour. By creating scarcity, tweets become that much more valuable.
What do you think about a 2-tweet per day limit on Twitter?
Victor
Digital Strategist
Tags: noise, strategy, tweet, Twitter, what if
Mind the Gap-10 Tips for Coordinating Service Providers
Last week, the Globe & Mail published an interview with Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm. In the article, Mr. Edelman is quoted as saying, “That which is advertising, that which is digital, that which is PR is all converging.”
The need for collaboration between disciplines is a favourite topic of mine. It seems obvious that bridges are needed to span the divide between web design, SEO, digital strategy, PR and advertising. However, we’re not there yet. Many businesses still rely on multiple suppliers to manage their communications plan and web presence. That means disparate companies with different skill sets, philosophies and agendas are often paddling the same boat.
Here are 10 few tips to help businesses get their teams rowing in the same direction.
1. Convene A Group Meeting. Get the key players from each of your external suppliers and internal communications department at the table for a group meeting. If it’s not possible for everyone to be together, use Skype or video conferencing so everyone can see each another. It’s less likely for suppliers to feel threatened or to create a “bad other” scenarios when they can see and get to know your other vendors. That may mean your ad agency, PR firm, web design team, SEO, PPC, copy writer and marketing manager being in the room. Keep the atmosphere upbeat and set a deliberate tone of collaboration. Often these firms work in isolation. If that’s been the case, use the meeting to launch a new approach.
2. Establish clear, realistic, and measurable goals for the overall online and mobile strategy. Encourage the input of everyone at the table and before the goals are solidified, ensure you have buy in from each supplier. If there is a vendor that doesn’t get the plan or is interested in starting a turf war, turf them. Noone’s got time for a team that can’t play nicely with others or lose the “but that’s not the way it used to be done” attitude.
3. Establish clear, realistic, and measurable goals for each component of the online and mobile strategy. Examine each objective to ensure it supports the overall plan.
4. Clarify the roles and deliverables for each supplier (internal and external). Map them out in a rough org chart like this one. Examine the overlaps / potential gaps between roles.
5. Appoint a Quarterback. Identify a project lead (may be internal or external). The individual must be a “doer,” respected by each of the players, someone with strong project management and superlative communication skills. It should go without saying the lead must be a person you trust, who will give you the straight goods.
6. Develop Communication Protocols. Create a communications distribution list. Figure out what info needs to be shared with the group (e.g. weekly/monthly Google Analytics analysis) and what requires limited sharing (e.g. billing is likely to be a private matter between supplier and client). Copy everyone on the email and phone list.
7. Set up Metrics. Establish how each element will be measured and who will collect, analyze and report on the data.
8. Hold Regular Meetings. Set up regular meetings (weekly or monthly) to review findings and adjust course. Group calls are fine, but meet in person once a quarter, if possible.
9. Refine the team. Add and subtract suppliers until you have the right mix. The whole should be greater than the sum of the parts.
10. Celebrate the successes! All suppliers like to be told when they are doing a great job. All the better if the positive outcomes are the result of your suppliers working together. Reward the collaboration and build on each success.
One day, it is likely there will be fewer specialists at the table. PR teams may also have proficiency in social media. Ad firms may be expert in PPC ads, tracking and analyzing metrics. Web design firms may also offer mobile app design. However, even then, it will be important to create clear roles, meaningful objectives, and measurable results.
Have fun out there.
Best,
Moyra
Tags: collaboration, goals, metrics, skype, strategy
