Archive for August 2012
Great Tech Divide: Man vs. Woman
Here is a great perspective on the Great Tech Divide: Man vs. Woman.From the perspective of a marketer, this is great information to understand the different gender segments and how to best appeal to nuances of tech-savvy men and women.
Logitech Unveils Washable Keyboard
Anyone with kids, or perhaps a job where you eat at your desk, knows that food and keyboards don’t mix. In fact, they can get pretty sticky and crumb-filled if you don’t clean them regularly. Besides using a gas duster or wiping it with an electronics-friendly cloth, there’s no easy way to thoroughly sanitize your keyboard.
Enter Logitech‘s Washable Keyboard K310, unveiled on Wednesday. It has the familiar layout of the Logitech keyboards you may already use, but this one can take a dip in water. You can rinse it in the kitchen sink or wipe it with a wet cloth. Not only can the keyboard be submerged up to 11 feet, it dries easily, too.
The keyboard can handle plenty of washing and use, according to Logitech. Characters are laser-printed and UV-coated, so they don’t fade after a cleaning. Holes in the back of the keyboard let water escape easily, and air enter, to dry every part. The keyboard is also simple to set up: Just plug it in, and you’re ready to work.
It’s compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
The Logitech Washable Keyboard K310 is expected to be available across the U.S. starting in August for a suggested retail price of $39.99. It will be available in Europe this October.
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25 signs you work in social media
So I tapped some of my brilliant colleagues for help coming up with these signs that you work in social media:
1. You go out for drinks with your co-workers and spend the first 10 minutes looking at your phone to check how your brands’ posts are faring.
2. You’ve sent an all-company email asking everyone to follow or “like” your client.
3. You find yourself excited when one of the “stars” of “Sixteen and Pregnant” retweets your content to her legions of followers.
4. You find yourself saying things like, “I spend all day on Facebook, but I can’t remember the last time I checked my personal account.”
5. You get really annoyed when people use hashtags on Facebook.
6. You get really annoyed when people don't know what "hashtag" means.
7. You feel for Oreo’s page manager right now.
8. You “like” about 500 Facebook pages of brands you would never use or associate with.
9. Made-up words like "shareable" are part of your daily vocabulary.
10. You were elated when Facebook launched its Pages app, allowing you to manage your brands’ pages from anywhere.
11. You were devastated when Facebook launched its Pages app, allowing you to manage your brands’ pages from anywhere.
12. You consider yourself completely qualified for a career in customer service.
14. When you think of “engagement,” a future wedding is no longer top of mind.
15. You’d never date someone who still uses MySpace.
16. And thanks to Chrysler’s 2011 Twitter crisis, you have horrible anxiety about installing a brand’s account on your mobile device.
17. You fantasize about having physical altercations with the people who post “first” in the comments.
18. There’s nothing that upsets you more than improper use of your/you’re.
19. Based on your brand page’s spam, you should have been visited by some girl’s ghost and a deranged clown or two several times over.
20. Man or woman, you write like an excited teenage girl sometimes and you just can't help it.
21. Sometimes you absolutely NEED to write in caps … for emphasis.
22. You don't just use exclamation points—you abuse them!
23. You know about every pointless holiday ever conceived from building your content calendars, yet you can't remember your best friend's birthday.
24. You've engaged in conversation with a "brand champ" more than your family members in the past two weeks.
25. Your Instagram account is nothing but pictures related to the brand you manage.
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7 Creative Ways Nonprofits Can Use Social Media to Drive Donations
1) Twitter Live Feeds and Conversations
You might be surprised at how many people are using Twitter as a news source. According to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, 39% of Twitter users said most of the news they got on Twitter was material they wouldn't have read elsewhere. As a nonprofit, you can have influential Twitter personalities, such as the CEO, report straight from volunteer sites or even the main office about all the exciting happenings. Sharing updates like these allow people to feel connected with an actual event ... even if that event's happening halfway around the world. And you know what? Those followers tuning in to the live feed are most likely the same crowd that's willing to donate to your cause.
One creative way to steer them towards donations is by tweeting links to your charity’s donation landing page and letting them know how their donation makes a difference. Every time a donation is made, you can tweet back at the donor and explain to them the difference they have made to your organization and its cause.
For example, Charity Water, a New York based nonprofit committed to providing clean drinking water across the globe, informs donors of the difference their contributions make and encourages people to share the wonderful feeling of giving on social media.
Let your donors know how many mouths their money was able to feed, and it will put into perspective what they were able to accomplish with a quick gesture of kindess. And acknowledging their support, especially on social media where all their friends can see it, makes them feel special!
2) Use Facebook to Tell a Story
While Twitter is great for short bursts of information, Facebook is the place to tell stories. A great way to engage those who like your Facebook page is by providing them with a place to share their own stories, and comment on yours. On the Make A Wish Foundation Facebook page, for example, there are several pictures, names, and stories of children who have been touched by the foundation's efforts. People are moved by what they read, and express their love by commenting, liking, and sharing various posts. It's this bond with your organization that's critical to establish to drive donations -- and it's why storytelling plays a key role ... because establishing an emotional connection takes time, and context.
As a nonprofit, you can also pick the most moving post on your Facebook page and have it featured as "Inspiration of the Week." You can even use Timeline's new pinning feature to expand the visual real estate of the post on your page and draw even more of your fans' eyes there. The Make A Wish Foundation facebook post below is an excellent example of a charity using story-telling to generate donations through hope. And since Facebook pages allow organizations to create donate buttons, there's no reason not to try experimenting with it!
3) Pump Up With Pins
A Pinterest study from Shareaholic reported that 21% of users have followed through with a purchase after discovering it on Pinterest -- that might be a social media investment worth investigating for nonprofits trying to drive donations, eh? You can get started by creating pin boards (we have 28 creative pinboard ideas for you here if you're looking for ideas) with images that relate to your cause. For example, Habitat for Humanity pins pictures of volunteers building homes across the globe, as well as fliers for upcoming volunteer opportunities and country-wide movements like National Mandela Week. Or you could mimic their approach of inspiring people -- you know how important it is to feel moved to donate -- through boards like their creative "Quotes."
You can even upload pictures of the items you "sell" to drive donations, like bracelets and bands (a la Lance Armstrong's popular yellow Livestrong bands) and other merchandise from your organization. To ensure donations, include URLs to landing pages in the "Edit" section of your pins (not the description section lest you be flagged for spamming), and follow the people who repin posts from your board to nurture your relationship.
4) YouTube User-Generated Content
Some people love to be in the limelight -- channel that into donations through some YouTube campaigns! One of the most successful brands to ever create a YouTube campaign was Dove (not a nonprofit, I know, but this was for a great cause!), when they asked women to upload videos explaining their definition of "real beauty." Thousands of women responded instantaneously, 6 of which were chosen to participate in a national broadcast campaign. Though your cause will be based around your charity’s specific needs, the goals for any campaign like this are the same -- inspire people to be actively involved in your cause by sharing their thoughts through user-generated content.
If you don't already have a YouTube account for your company, set it up; all that content needs to be uploaded to one central location. Have people send their videos to you, and upload videos on people's behalf -- this not only allows for some quality control, but also lets you capture email addresses when submissions occur through a landing page! I see some donor nurturing in your future ;-) And don't forget to include calls-to-action in those videos so those watching can donate to your cause, too!
5) Educate Through Google+ Webinars
You know who is an expert on your organization? You, probably. You do work there and all.
Combine your knowledge and passion for the work you do to host a webinar on Google+ that gets attendees as excited about your organization as you are. These webinars can be information sessions that teach people about an important cause, coupled with information about how to get involved in that cause. Take Ted Talks as an example. In his talk about vegetarianism, Graham Hill provides the audience with a call-to-action in the last minute and asks them to consider changing their eating habits to improve the environment and their own health. And since this was preceded by an inspiring yet informational speech, the audience members were all more likely to follow through.
Whether your nonprofit’s call-to-action is donations or a more time-intensive CTA (like a change in lifestyle or request for their time investment), having time to tell your story helps make a more comprehensive and inspiring case for your cause. And if you decide to record your webinar, you can use it as a donor-generating content asset to keep new donors in your pipeline coming back for more.
6) LinkedIn Happy Hour
We’ve heard it a million times before -- it's all about who you know. And LinkedIn is a pioneer in leveraging social media to let you socialize with the "right" people. So, how can nonprofit organizations use LinkedIn to get in good with potential donors? Make use of one of LinkedIn's most awesome (though underutilized) features ... LinkedIn Events.
With nonprofit conferences such as the National Conference on Volunteering and Service and the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network National Leaders Conference, people clearly want to get together to chat about their nonprofit work, and the folks that are serious enough to go to events like these are serious enough to be using LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s Event tab makes creating these literally a breeze. With a few clicks, your nonprofit can create and share an event with your connections. In addition, with the 'Find Events' tab, other companies interested in attending can find your event and attend -- getting you exposure to a new group of potential donors. If you're not sure how to get started using LinkedIn Events, read our blog post on the subject!
7) Host a Social Media Contest
People love competition, they love prizes, and they love social media. Enter the social media contest. Who can make the best video on YouTube to explain your organization's cause? Whose can tweet using your event hashtag the most? Who can pin the most inspiring photo that gets the most repins? Who can find the QR code you've hidden in local hot spots? Motivate your audience to get actively involved with your nonprofit, and they'll amaze you. In fact, the incentive could even be a donation made in their name to your organization. Or you can ask people to raise funds indicidually to determine the winner of the contest. Those most dedicated to the competition will definitely share their hard work with everyone around them, and ask for donations from their individual networks on behalf of your nonprofit.
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5 Reasons Why Auto-Posting Makes No Sense
- You can’t “Like” a status update on Twitter. You can retweet, you can reply, but you can’t “Like.” Why are you telling people to do something they can’t do?
- You can’t click on a hashtag within a tweet on Facebook. You can’t RT a tweet on Facebook, so why are you telling me to do that?
- It doesn’t provide any value to your followers in those separate spaces.
- It’s lazy and it makes you appear uneducated on how social media actually works. Sure, it’s easy for YOU to set up an auto-post (set it and forget it!)…but what do your fans/followers think?
- It reinforces the fact that you are simply using these social networks to “broadcast messages” - and even worse, you won’t even take the time to customize those “broadcasts” to at least fit each social network, using the appropriate language and tools specific to that network. You could AT LEAST do that.
- [BONUS REASON thanks to the suggestion of my fellow social pal Casey] You can’t tag Pages or People when you are sending a tweet to Facebook.
It’s 2012 people! Haven’t we moved on from this lame practice yet? In the end you will get in what you put out. If you don’t invest resources to build relationships on Twitter, your account will never see it’s full potential. The same goes for Facebook. Sure you can do it…but don’t you want to do it right?!
The Do’s & Don’ts of Pinterest
Pinterest is one of the fastest rising social media platforms. It attracts both bloggers and non-bloggers alike. Recently, brands have hopped on an have begun using it to promote their goods. It’s similar to Tumblr in that it shows the viewer hundreds of gorgeous photos. It’s a virtual eye candy store.
Recent studies have shown that Pinterest drives more traffic to sites than millions of Google+ users. That is one huge boat that we all need to be getting on. Hopefully, it won’t sink.
Just like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest has certain rules of use. Not the ones that are in the sites guidelines but more like an unspoken code of conduct.
DO:
- Make sure to follow other Pinterest users from your particular industry.
- Follow Pinterest users that have similar interests.
- Choose Pinterst users that are in your target audience, people that would benefit from your brand.
- If there are infographs that are related to your brand, use them. If not, have them developed and start pinning them. Infographs are big on Pinterest.
- Make sure to repin others pins, particularly those who are in your related industry.
- Use your business name for your account.
- Fill out the About You section that appears under your photo so that your followers know…about you.
- Get creative with the board names. Have fun with it.
- Feel free to pin videos!
- It’s ok, go ahead and Pin your own stuff. See “Don’ts” for what not to do with that.
- Always add a description to your pins. Make sure to change the descriptions written by others to make yours unique.
- If your selling something, add the price to your pin. That’s OK, you CAN do that.
- Consider hosting a Pinterest party to create your brand awareness.
- Have your Pinterest settings repin everything to your Twitter and Facebook. They become more of an annoyance to those who follow your timelines.
- Create boards strictly for your own business. It presents itself too spammy and too self-promoting to do that.
- Use your brands Pinterest account for personal pinning. Just like Twitter and Facebook, personal accounts should be completely separate.
- Use Pinterest if your brand isn’t quite compatible. For instance, if you are a dealer in nuts and bolts, you might not gain followers due to fact that Pinterest users are there looking for the pretty. But, if you are a shop that creates brilliant floral displays, then you’ve found the perfect platform for your voice.
- Pinterest is fun and it’s so visual that it creates a big, time suck black hole. So, my last piece of advice to you is…use caution when entering the Pinterest realm because you may never leave.
Tag :
pinterest,
social media
8 Tips for Using Facebook Scheduled Posts
#1: How to Schedule Your Posts
Scheduling is easy—just follow these steps:
Write your post as you normally would. You can attach photos, add links, add YouTube videos, add tags to other pages and events or just include regular text.
In the lower-left corner of your post, click on the clock symbol as shown in the screenshot above. You can now add the year, month, day and time you want the post to go out.
Notice that you can also backdate your posts to supplement your Timeline if you wish (more on that later).
You can schedule your post up to 6 months in the future (more months are shown, but if you select more than 6 months out, Facebook won’t accept it). You can schedule the minutes at 00-, 10-, 20-, 30-, 40- or 50-minute marks of the hour. So if you need a post to go out specifically at 2:15 pm, you cannot set it.
You can also add language and location targeting in your scheduled posts, just like you can in your regular posts. Just click on the Public icon and make the necessary adjustments.
Once you have everything set, just click the blue Schedule button. Voilà ! Now just remember to circle back to your posts later after the scheduled time to watch for follow-up comments!
#2: How to Find and Edit Your Scheduled Posts
To see what you have scheduled and make any changes, just go to your activity log by accessing the admin panel at the top of your page (if you don’t see the admin panel, click the red admin panel button in the upper-right corner), then click Edit Page, and Activity Log. You then see all of your scheduled posts.
If you need to edit your scheduled post, the only thing you can change from here is the time, unfortunately. To edit the text, you must cancel the post and redo your scheduling. To cancel or change the time, mouse over the upper-right corner of the post in the activity log.
#3: You Can’t Schedule Everything
You can schedule links, photos, status updates and videos (although I found scheduling a video to be a bit buggy). You can also schedule a YouTube video link, which will attach as it normally does in your posts.
You can’t schedule some of the other types of posts as you can normally do from the publisher, such as photo albums, posting of events, questions, offers and milestones.
#4: You Can Backdate Your Posts
You can schedule things in the past. I’m not sure why you would want to use the backdating feature other than to fill out your Timeline a bit. But if you have a significant event that you want to post about in the past, I recommend a milestone post instead.
The interesting thing about backdating is that the post does go out into people’s news feed immediately and then is shown at the appropriate place on your Timeline.
#5: Scheduled Posts Won’t be Automatically Tweeted
If you have linked your Twitter account to your Facebook page by setting up www.Facebook.com/Twitter so that everything you post on Facebook gets tweeted (yes, we know that it’s not always a great idea but sometimes it isn’t terrible), be aware that your scheduled posts won’t go out to Twitter.
So if you rely on your Facebook page to supplement your tweets and you move to more scheduled posts, you will have to schedule your tweets with a different tool.
#6: Scheduling Posts Can Bring about More Engagement
What can you expect when you schedule posts? It depends on your baseline right now with your Facebook page—how often you are posting, how engaged your audience is, what you are posting and other factors.
One thing that scheduling can do for you is allow you to post more regularly and increase your posting without spending all day on your Facebook page.
Randi Thompson of How to Market Your Horse Business (and an active member of our Social Networking Clubs) tried an experiment where she upped the number of posts by using scheduled posts on two of her pages.
On her How to Market Your Horse Business page, she went from posting 3 times a day to posting every 3 hours and 5 times a day. Then she had another page, Horse and Rider Awareness, where she was not posting regularly at all. She tried scheduling 3 quality posts per day. Here are her results over a 5-day period.
Now of course this is not a comprehensive study. And this could be done without scheduling posts. But the point is that scheduled posts can make things easier for you so you can batch your work, know that things are being posted at the times you want and you can get on with other parts of your business. I encourage you to try some experiments with scheduled posts on your page and see how things work for you.
And again, make sure you circle back to these posts to follow up on comments!
#7: Scheduled Posts are not Identified or “Punished” in Facebook
When you post from a different scheduling tool such as HootSuite or BufferApp, people can see that you’re posting through a different tool. But Facebook’s scheduled posts are seamless.
Using a different tool to post to Facebook is not all bad. Sometimes it’s much better to save yourself a little time and get the post out with the tool you’re using rather than not post at all.
But Facebook has been known to show posts using third-party tools a little less in the news feed or collapse them. As of this writing, I believe third-party tools are faring well in Facebook. But we all know how Facebook changes.
#8: Scheduled Posts May be Coming to Personal Profiles
The option does appear to schedule a Facebook post on personal profiles, which may be a good thing for people who are using their personal profiles to talk about business. But as of this writing, I could not schedule anything into the future, only for today or in the past.
Not everyone will see big changes by scheduling posts. You still have to deliver engaging Facebook content. But what scheduled posts can do is free up some of your time by allowing you to batch your social media posts into blocks and give you more time to focus on your business.
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Tag :
facebook,
social media
