@BasilPuglisi

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Social Media Topics

A look at StumbleUpon [INTERNSHIP]

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StumbleUpon is an interesting social media website that provides you with all different kinds of content. You can personalize your own Stumbleupon page to your own interests. This will give your own home page that is personalized to content and stories that you might be interested in. StumbleUpon recommends to you stories and content that interests you. Not only do they offer graphics, but they offer recipes, inspirational stories, videos, the latest fashion, and more. When you are browsing articles and other content, you are given the choice to like or dislike the content. By doing this, this allows your content to be even more narrowed down to the things you like. It’s like exploring the internet that’s specifically made for you.
To browse, simply press the “stumble” button in the top left corner of the screen. Every click is like a new adventure to come across. One click you can see the majestic beaches of Italy, and the next click could be teaching you how to make a rainbow cheesecake. Stumbleupon offers many fascinating features.  Besides liking content that interests you, there is content that can educate you. The settings in Stumble Upon are so definitive that you can change your interests at any time. If one day you’re interested in baking and the next you’re not, you can delete it and add your newest fad.
StumbleUpon gives you the option of sharing the content with your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and your LinkedIn connections. This will benefit any individual, small business or large corporation. Sharing engaging information with colleagues will lead into a conversation and allow you to exchange your ideas. Make sure the content that you are sharing is relevant. This will benefit you in the long run because it will be much simpler to communicate on a common ground. For example, if you are a toy manufacturer and you want to reach out to toy stores; you will want to share content on why the toys you generate are the best.
StumbleUpon is a great social site for those that are trying to break into the digital space, especially when you consider that social media success is often measured in terms of influence or those that can talk about more than themselves. StumbleUpon can help those new to digital content find stories and share things that complete their personal or professional interests. StumbleUpon helps provide great content that’s relevant to your individual persona and lets you share it.
With 25 million users, StumbleUpon seems to be on the right track towards popularity. They are working hard and fast to become a household name. It is a fun way to see the internet specialized just for you. It’s also a good way to open up conversations and share common interests with your peers.
Sources

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

Twitter [INTERNSHIP]

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It is clear to see how Twitter can be part of our daily lives. Some people feel the need to keep their followers updated on their lives, and some people use it to educate people. The good thing about twitter is that there is a personal use, and a business use. Twitter allows people to engage on all different kinds of levels, from fun random facts to hard breaking news.  This social site makes it easy to connect and stay connected with everyone around the world.
At times, Twitter can be like one big chat room. Twitter chats can be initiated by a common hash tag. Chats are not private, so everyone can say what people are talking about. This can be a good thing because it can be used as a business tool. A great advantage to non private chat rooms can be onlookers checking out what you’re talking about. For example if you are talking about a specific or topic, you might be able to segway into your new retail business by explaining  what you offer how it solves that need and perhaps some cool deals. Onlookers will see this and be informed about your business and you may gain a new group of followers. Use the twitter chat to your advantage. However, treat Twitter like a social event not a sales floor, talk about the things around your product or service before you even mention something that’s for sale.
In order to chat with people on a certain topic, hash tags (#) are the way to go. For personal use, when someone wants to talk about the recent political debate on twitter all that person has to do is hash tag a keyword. For example, you might want to use “#politicaldebate” or even “#presidentialdebate”. This will allow users to engage with people besides their followers.
For a business use, one might want to get their company’s name out there. A good idea for the business is to tweet something about their business that will appeal to people and hash tag their company’s name. To even go a step further, you can hash tag keywords that describe your company and their products or services. For example, if a new car dealership opens locally, a good idea is to hash tag the town they are located in and hash tag keywords like the type of cars and offers.  If a business owner believes they have a great idea, twitter is one of the ways to put it out there and test it. Just like anything else, make sure your topics are about issues, stories of solutions, tweets that just talk at the public tend to do poorly compared to ones that are there to start or participate in a conversation.
Twitter has great marketing potential. Your twitter page is a spinning image of you. You want to come off as professional as you can. Your twitter background and avatar are canvases that allow you to be personal and reflect yourself on the page.  For personal use you want to use this space to describe yourself. It is a proven fact that people make judgments within a second. The same goes for a company trying to brand themselves on twitter. Making their page unique and constantly updating will stick out in people’s minds. The twitter bio allows users to describe who they are and what they do. For personal and business use, overlooking the twitter bio would be a huge disadvantage. This is the time where you should be personable and make someone want to be your follower.
An easy way to gain and keep followers is to produce content. Not just any content however, but content that is interesting, educational, and appealing to a wide variety of people. You want to reach a wide range audience, so make sure that your content isn’t directed to just one group of people. Producing constant content will keep your twitter “alive” and gain followers daily. When there is content, there is feedback. With a single hash tag you can grab a worldwide audience. Feedback is important for any business because it tells you to either continue what you’re doing, or improve on a certain aspect. Good feedback can be an advantage for your twitter because other people can see that people like your content. However, there is always bad feedback. It all depends on how you handle the bad feedback that will allow you to come out once again stronger on top.
Twitter has become part of our daily lives. It would be a company’s huge disadvantage if they didn’t use twitter to brand themselves. Twitter is a great marketing social media site. It is easy to use and interact with people from all over the world. Once you figure out a keyword to represent yourself or your company, you’re sure to succeed on Twitter.
Sources:

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

How Can Pinterest Help your Retail Store

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When brands like JCPenny, The Gap, Honda, McDonalds, and Banana Republic make it to Pinterest, you know that Pinterest means business. And it does, although Pinterest was not intended to be a business venture, but like other social networking sites, it has found a niche. It is rapidly growing and provides a visual delight to its visitors, and now features a platform for businesses and retail stores to display their products.

Pinterest for Retail


Well it’s no secret, Pinterest is pretty. It is a visual delight and provides that ultimate virtual experience of window shopping. Your retail store too can become a part of the ever growing retail community.
According to the 2012 Social and Mobile Commerce Study released by Shop.org, Pinterest users follow an average of 9.3 retail companies whereas Facebook users only follow 6.9. This is reason enough why more and more retail brands are making sure that they keep up with the new trends in e-commerce. And you can do the same, here’s how:

1. Product Marketing

You can put pictures of your products which link back to your websites. Pinterest has a high click through rate, so pinning those pictures will lead to visitors, who may find your product appealing enough to visit your website to make a purchase. Even if a visitor does not intend to buy the product but finds it visually appealing, chances are he or she would re pin it, which will market your product free of cost.

2. Know what’s Trending

By following your followers or even your competition you will know what’s trending. Especially in case your product is related to fashion e.g. clothing or accessories, see what’s making the news and pin pictures which relate to it. For instance if a certain celebrity is trending or a certain color or silhouette then pin or re pin pictures of your products that reflect those trends. By following your followers you will also be able to get a better idea about their tastes and preferences. It will provide that much needed feedback and insight into your customers or potential customers tastes.

3. Picture Perfect Sales

Any sale via the web requires serious selling techniques, with Pinterest it’s the visual tactic. And it has been known to work. So even if you do not sell products but services, then pin pictures that relate to it. For instance if you are an event management company then pinning  pictures of your completed projects or pictures that display themes or ideas will attract potential customers.

4. Links

Don’t forget to link your website with Pinterest with a “Find us on Pinterest” link on your website. Also link your website with other social networking sites, especially Facebook and Twitter, this will let your pins then appear on the newsfeed of those sites. This will mean more traffic and will attract customers from other social networking sites too.
Pinterest is only 2 years old and it already has millions of users and a profitable retail presence. So it’s about time that you jump on the bandwagon and make the most of it.
Pantelis Vladimirou is the Co-Foudner of Webarts, which is using Pinterest and other Social Media as part of its Cyprus Digital Marketing strategy for its clients.

10 Ways to Use Foursquare for Business

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Foursquare is a location-based smartphone application which offers check-in service to customers, marketers and businesses alike. You can use this mobile application to check-in to venues and share with your friends where you are, and obtain info about those places.  Based on your updates, the application might assign you merit badges. It’s an interesting social concept for consumers and at the same time, a strong business tool that can be potentially used for creating brand awareness and profits. Hence if you want to leverage your business, this platform platform is worth looking at for several reasons. To do this, you’ll have to understand how it works. There are 10 ways to use Foursquare for business. To help you get an idea about promoting your own business through this platform, there are a few tips discussed below.
How to use foursquare for business
To begin with, check your business on Foursquare. If your business is not there, add it and then, claim it on the listing. Connect your Twitter account with the listing. This process is quite simple. Once this is done, you can proceed further to use Foursquare for business promotion. In this endeavor, following things can be done:

  1. Create interesting deals to draw in customers. Deals can easily be created if you have claimed your business on this platform. You can give special discounts to those users who checks in to your business, for instance – announce to give 10% off on one’s next merchandise shopping. However, just ensure that your deals are special and creative so that new customers get attracted and keep coming back to you.
  2. Design reward-based programs on Foursquare for loyal customers to retain them. If deals help you draw new customers, rewarding those who are regular visitors to your business is useful in winning their loyalty. It can create a bond between your customers and the business and entice them to come back to you. Your reward-based programs should be smart and intelligently devised, for instance – a program asking one to check in 5 times in 15 days and win a surprise gift.
  3. Use Foursquare to collect demographic details of your customers. Through this platform, you can know the average check-in rate of a customer, his/ her age and gender, check-in timings and where he or she is sharing the check-in details – on Facebook or Twitter.
  4. Another interesting way to use Foursquare for business promotion is to get feedback from your customers about your business. Customers can leave their comments or tips about a particular venue they visit. You can use their feedback to bring improvisation in your business.
  5. Foursquare is a powerful medium to advertize your business for free. When you claim your business and optimize the listing by adding authentic contact details and website, you increase the chances of promoting your business across various social networking sites which are used by millions.
  6. If your business doesn’t have a physical presence, you can use Foursquare to set up a page instead of claiming a venue. Foursquare page is not much different from a Twitter page. Those who follow your business on Foursquare can obtain information about you from there.
  7. You can enter a partnership with other brands which are physically present to derive optimum benefit. For instance if you are a book publisher, join hands with a local bookstore to increase the reach of your business.
  8. Design Foursquare event at your venue to boost massive check-ins and brand consciousness.
  9. You can encourage your staff to join Foursquare and check-in at your venue there whenever they report to work. This will also help spread awareness about your business among their friends and followers.
  10. You can also share useful tips on Foursquare to engage with your customers and thereby, attract their attention to your business.

These are few ways to use Foursquare for business. You can use these and other innovative techniques as well to make success out of your business.
Edoardo Piccolotto, is an Internet Marketing and Strategic Consultant that provides specific strategy advices to business that want to use internet to generate new business opportunities. Follow him on twitter @epiccolotto.

Nine Steps to Becoming a Twitter Chat Pro

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Beware. They’re all around you, lurking in the shadows of The Twitteverse. No, I’m not talking about vampires that communicate in 140. The subject here is Twitter chats. And, believe me, they can suck your blood. Once you join in one and learn something new, or feel hashtag camaraderie warming up your typing fingers, you might find yourself devoting hours to these online discussion groups. Some people participate in several at once, revelling in the fact of Twitter jail (yes, when you tweet over 100 times an hour, Twitter will knock you out for a while), displaying all their “alternate” handles, such as “@TwitterjailAngie” or “@TwitterchatPete.” But no need to get out your garlic and silver stakes. Twitter Chats can be entertaining and useful when you know how to work them.
1. Find a chat that’s right for you. Perhaps the best way of joining a chat is to follow your Twitter pals. Around 8 or 9 p.m. ET any night of the week (including Fridays, but not so much on Saturdays) you might notice several of the people you follow ending tweets with #cmchat or #craftychat. Click on the hashtag and see what people are saying. Ah, #cmchat is about country music, led by Jessica Northey (@JessicaNorthey) from Tuscon, AZ and Nashville, TN. #craftychat is, well, about crafts and led by Maria Nerius (@favecrafts). One of the most popular chats, #blogchat, is run by Mack Collier (@mackcollier), who claims to tweet with a southern accent. Some chats, like Carolyn Burns Bass’s popular #litchat, attract people during the day, several times a week. (MWF, 4 p.m. ET: Well, lots of writers work at home and are on the computer anyway.) Others go on all during the day: #USGuys (and 3 p.m. ET on Mondays) and #smgirlfriends (and 12 noon – 1 p.m. ET, M-F). There’s also a widely circulated Google Doc (Twitter Chat Schedule http://bit.ly/ChatSched), originated by Robert Swanwick (@twchat) that now lists nearly 750 chats and grows daily.
2. Use a tool to help you follow and participate. Marking a column with a hashtag you want to follow is easy enough with Tweetdeck or Hootsuite, but several third-party Twitters tools have been developed specifically for chats. Many people use tweetchat.com. The site asks you to sign in with your Twitter handle. Then you enter the hashtag you want to follow. You can adjust the refresh speed so that the tweets move at a rate you can read. You can also retweet, favorite and reply — if you can keep up. TweetGrid enables users to follow the hashtag, the host and the guest. Some chat hosts use Twebevent (www.twebevent.com); topics and/or questions appear on the side of the chat stream. (The twebevent website is another place to check for chats.) Meanwhile, if you would like to follow a chat using what looks like a PInterest board — and displays links in the tiles — sign onto www.sees.aw and you’ll be amazed by this:
Check out this great list of Twitter Chat tools put together by Kevin Mullet (@kmullett), using List.ly, a new curation tool. http://list.ly/list/1Jr-twitter-chat-and-hashtag-tools?feature=mylist
3. Learn the format. While some chats are pretty much free-for-alls, or “open-mikes,” most moderators ask questions numbered Q1, Q2, etc., and the participants then answer the questions putting A1, A2 before their tweets. Here’s an example of a #pinchat — a chat about Pinterest run by Kelly Westhoven Lieberman, Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET. Notice as host she asks a question. Then her guest, Chobani yogurt, a brand with a magnificent Pinterest boards, answers.

4. Always introduce yourself the first time you speak, and if you’re new to a chat, listen in for a while before you start tweeting. Generally, as soon as you tweet, “First time here,” lots of participants, and the host too, will tweet you back, “Welcome.” And they mean it. With Twitter chats, the more the merrier. If you’re a newbie, watch the tweets. Notice who speaks with the most authority and who gets retweeted the most. When you do join in, begin by manually retweeting (Tweetchat and Twebevent automatically cut and paste a tweet when you click on the retweet button rather than throwing out an auto-retweet of the kind you find in Twitter.com) something smart that has been said and placing a comment before it. Soon people will be talking to and retweeting you. (Hootsuite enables you to “quote” tweet, again making it easy to add a comment before your retweet.)

5. Begin by retweeting good ideas or interesting comments. The same rule holds true in a Twitter Chat that applies to Twitter as a whole: A RT is valuable currency. It gets you noticed; it gives you a chit in the back and forth of social media. You could RT something the host or guest has said: Retweets are the currency of Twitter, and Twitter Chats too.
6. Watch all the sidechat. You might find something exciting. Most sidechat during Twitter Chats reflects people online catching up with one another. Or sometimes people talk a bit of nonsense.This happened awhile back when Chobani yogurts was explaining their pinning strategy: Yes, guilty as charged. I was off-topic and not really minding my Twitter chat manners. Still, you can find great stuff in a side chat, such as a discussion about white hat vs black hat SEO during a conversation about a new tool — great for people who thought they’d just be learning about a tool, but end up getting an SEO lesson as well. Or look at the tweets below: not too long ago a new chat, #NostalgiaChat, arose from a few side comments during #toolschat. #Nostalgia Chat, hosted bye @BekiWeki (Becki Winchel) and @JoeBugBuster (Steve Case) gaining in popularity, is trying out the Sunday night 10 p.m. ET slot.
7. Thank your host. This isn’t just a matter of social media manners. Chat hosts are normal people who read their @ mentions. I thanked a host, and next thing I knew I was a guest on #MediaChat talking about finding your Twitter style. Here’s someone thanking @MackCollier, who hosts #BlogChat, one of the most active weekly chats.
8. Follow people you find interesting on the chat. As you get comfortable with a chat and tweet more, you’ll find that many people start to follow you. Some will drop off within the next 24 hours if you don’t follow back — Twitter-bot behavior that real people looking for new followers mimic. Check your new followers, however, against the transcript of the chat. Many hosts will tweet out the URL for the transcript, or you will often find a FB group related to the chat where the link to the transcript is posted. (Hashtracking is a favorite tool for transcripts, though new ones are popping up, and many chat hosts, and hosts and participants are using storify.com to capture the conversations.) If you notice someone who has consistently tweeted interesting comments during the chat or has made you laugh or otherwise engaged you, follow him or her. Use the same strategy you would to get anyone to follow you: retweet, engage, repeat. Even when fellow chatters don’t follow you back, you may find them worthwhile follows since the information they provide during the week may be as good as their chat tweets.
9. Power to the Women! Quickly eyeball any Twitter chat, and you’ll see that the male/female participation has a lot to do with the topic. #Pinchat has a lot of steady male participants, but most of the people there are women, reflecting its female demographic. Similarly, the #Toolschat group seems to skew male — but there are plenty of women there talking about online tools every week, and the most frequent host, Kelly Kim (@Twylah) is a woman. A recent column on CNN points out that women in business are flocking to Twitter chats for real time advice. If you have any doubts that women are playing a significant role in social media, spend a bit of time in a chat. But woman or man, once you start participating in Twitter chats, your tweet volume will increase, but so will your followers (and probably your Klout, Kred and Peer Index scores). Regular participation in a Twitter chat will make you part of a “hashtag community” — tweeters who come together around a subject marked by a #. You may not be conversing with these people face-to-face, but you will be meeting new people and making new friends.
Linda Bernstein has written hundreds of articles for dozens of magazines and newspapers, writes the blog GenerationBsquared and teaches social media at the Columbia University School of Journalism. Follow her on twitter @wordwhacker
 

Why LinkedIn? [Internship]

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                In today’s economy, students and young professionals share a common fear. Their fear is whether or not they will find a job. With the presidential debate currently going on, the candidates for president are constantly promising to make new jobs. This does nothing but make the current students worry that there are no jobs now and may not be any in the future. Fortunately, there are online tools that can help graduates and undergraduates worry a bit less. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking site. It is said to be the best investment you will ever make in your career. It is used by individuals and businesses for networking, job searching, hiring, and much more.
                Recently, I have started an internship with the company Digital Ethos. They have asked me if I was signed up with the website LinkedIn and were shocked when I said I was not. Immediately I signed up after receiving their reaction. I could see how important LinkedIn was right away. LinkedIn is a great way to establish your identity on the web. With 175 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is clearly a striving network that helps individuals and small businesses to large corporations.  With LinkedIn, you can exchange ideas, knowledge, and opportunities with a broad network of professionals. Your LinkedIn account is the first impression someone gets when they google you, this can be a huge benefit if your LinkedIn account is up to date and well put together. Your LinkedIn page can either make you or break you.
                Signing up for LinkedIn is easy. You simply put in your full name and your email address. From then on, LinkedIn gives you step by step instructions on how to get your account up and running. This includes indicating where you are currently employed and what type of job. Another cool feature of LinkedIn lets you indicate what field you are in. It also asks you where you have been employed in the past and for how long. This can give your future employer a general knowledge of where you worked and what your skill-sets could be. Your education also holds a section on your LinkedIn profile, which can include when you were in high school and in college. If you haven’t graduated from one or the other, it lets you select your anticipated graduation year. LinkedIn has a section called “Summary” which lets other users quickly learn about your background and interests. There is a different area for your skills and expertise which helps potential employers find you when they are searching for a specific knowledge-base. Recommendations on your page can carry a lot of weight.  It lets your colleagues, clients, or suppliers speak on your record. Recommendations are just like reference part of your resume. You’re “snapshot” is like your web based business card. It includes your name, location, education, recommendations, education, past positions, and links to your website. Use this space efficiently and you’ll be sure to catch someone’s eye.
                These days, it is so crucial for not only graduates, but undergraduates, to get their foot in the door of the career world right away. It is very important for young professionals to use LinkedIn for many reasons. Young professionals don’t have a lot of experience, so LinkedIn helps them by providing an answers section. This allows a wide variety of professionals to answer any question you might have about your field or any type of field you may be interested in. Asking and answering questions also helps you build your online visibility. This is essential to making your way to the top. This generation of young adults is said to be the “Digital Native” generation since most, if not all, of their life was spent in front of a screen. LinkedIn lets them continue this sort of lifestyle and it makes it a lot more comfortable to be more productive on the network. Young professionals have little to no experience in the work force. LinkedIn gives them a realistic outlook on their field of interest. You should never let one job define your field. With over 175 million members worldwide, it is easy to network and see all kinds of different sides of your field. You can also check out your fields leading players. You can see how they got to where they are by seeing where they went to school, what they studied, what skills they developed, what groups they belong too, and to whom with they are connected. This will help you obtain a better grasp on your anticipated field you want to join.
                The people who are part of your network are called your connections. A connection can indicate that you know the person well or that they are a trusted business contact. In order to become a connection, you need to be invited and accepted. LinkedIn doesn’t support people in adding somebody that they don’t know. When you want to send someone a connections request, LinkedIn asks how you know this person. The options include colleague, classmate, friend, business partner, and I don’t know said person. If you chose “I don’t know said person”, LinkedIn will not allow you to add them. If you chose any of the other, it will ask for the persons email address.
                LinkedIn narrows down your connections into three different categories. They are first degree, second degree, and third degree connections. First degree connections are the people that you have directly connected with because you or the person sent an invitation that has been accepted. Second degree connections are the people who are connected with your first degree connections. You can contact them through something called an introduction. You may ask your first degree connection to introduce you to your second degree connection. Since you probably don’t know your second degree connection, an introduction from your first degree connection would be the only way to connect with them. Finally, your third degree connections are the people who are connected to your second degree connections. If you want to become their first connection, you have to ask for an introduction. An introduction usually sounds like, “Dear Mr. Smith, Let me introduce you to Mr. John from Company X.” LinkedIn shows you which connection a person is by placing an icon which says either “1st”, “2nd”, or “3rd” connection.
                LinkedIn offers a feature called “groups”. Being a member of a group lets you engage in one on one networking between group members. An advantage is that you can send lnmail for no fee. As a member of a group, you can discover the most popular discussions in your professional group. LinkedIn groups also allow you to follow the most influential people in your groups by looking at the Top Influencers board to see all their group activity.
                Looking for a job on LinkedIn is said to be a whole lot easier than going door to door hoping they are hiring. If you know what company you are interested in joining, simply search for them on LinkedIn’s search bar. The company will have their employers listed and you can network with them and see what they did to be able to work with the company. Eventually, you will be able to establish them as a connection. On the other hand, if you have no idea what company you want to work for, you can search a keyword, job title, or location. Even though the search is much broader, you will still get a general knowledge of what you are looking into.
                It is clear to see that there is a lot more to LinkedIn than just looking for a job in a newspaper. Connecting with people and getting your name out there can also contribute to your success on LinkedIn. If you use your LinkedIn profile correctly, it will become a huge benefit for you in the job marketing world.
Sources:

 
The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

Top 5 Social Media Moments Of The 2012 Olympics

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The 2012 London Olympics will not only be remembered for its spectacular venues and amazing athletic performances, but also for the effect of social media on all aspects of the games. Twitter, Facebook, and other online social media were predicted to explode with content during the Olympics, but no one could have foreseen the direct impact these sources would have.
The following are five of the most significant moments that were directly attributed to the presence of social media during the 2012 Olympic Games:
1.  Greek Olympian Barred from Olympics for Racist Tweet
Greece’s top female triple-jumper, Voula Papachristou, was barred from the Olympics by the Greek Olympic Committee because of what they called: a “tasteless” tweet. Her tweet was posted on July 23, 2012 (right before the start of the games) and said: “With so many Africans in Greece… At least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat home made food!!!”
The outcry from Greek social media was immediate and angry. Most of the responders wanted her kicked off the team, including the coalition government partner, Democratic Left. The Greek Olympic Committee responded by expelling Papachristou from the team.
Papachristou did send an apology tweet two days later, but it was too little too late in the eyes of the country – the damage had already been done.
2.  Opening Ceremony Outrage
The London opening ceremonies had a lot to live up to after a spectacular show put on in Beijing. There was so much riding on this that leaders in London felt compelled to give their opinions to the world. The day after the opening, an English political party minister, Aiden Burley, tweeted that the ceremony was “leftie multicultural crap.” Prime Minister David Cameron was asked to comment and he said that it was an “idiotic” thing to say.
A lot of the criticism of the Opening Ceremony was directed at the American broadcast. The hashtag “#NBCfail” became extremely popular after the airing. British journalist Guy Adams was so disappointed in the broadcast of the ceremony that he tweeted out the email address of NBC Olympics president, Gary Zenkel, and encouraged people to email him their complaints.
3.  Twitter Comments Lead to Arrest
The British athletes had more than just the usual Olympic pressure on them. They were performing in front of the home crowd with the reputation of the nation on their shoulders. British diver Tom Daley is one of the best in the world, but during the men’s synchronized 10m platform event he did not have his best day, and the team from Great Britain finished fourth.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, Tom Daley then received a Twitter message saying that he had let down his father. Tom’s father Rob died in May 2011 from brain cancer. The 17-year-old boy who sent this tweet was then arrested on suspicion of malicious communications (think about how full the prisons would be if this law was enforced regularly for Twitter comments).
4.  The Fab Five
Some of the biggest moments on social media were supplied by the American female gymnasts, known as the “Fab Five.” Jordan Wieber was expected to compete for individual gold, but had a disappointing first day. She was able to get past the let down and help them win team gold. After her gold medal in the individual all-around, the whole world was tweeting about Gabby Douglas. Unfortunately, it was not all positive as enough people were tweeting negative comments about her hair that it made national news.
McKayla Maroney was expected to win gold in the vault, but after she fell on her second attempt she had to settle for silver. This did not sit well with the young gymnast and she made disgusted faces during the medal ceremony. A few people got the idea to photoshop the image of Maroney on the medal stand into pictures of famous moments with the caption: “McKayla is not impressed.” If she is a good sport about it, she might be able to combine the popularity of the meme with merchandise and turn a bad situation into a profitable one with the right type of small business shopping cart software.
Surprise star of the team, Aly Raisman, accidentally sent what was supposed to be a private tweet out to all of her followers saying that she was going to a club with the male gymnasts. She quickly deleted it and put out a new tweet about going to bed early, but it was too late.
5.  Lochte’s Mom
The American swim team made a lot of news during the Olympics. Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time, the women showed dominance and a youth movement that should carry over into the next few Olympic Games, and Ryan Lochte came away with five medals. But the story that really took hold in the world of social media was an interview Ryan Lochte’s mom gave where she told the world that her son doesn’t have long relationships, he has “one night stands.” Lochte quickly stated that he was sure his mom meant that he just goes on a lot of first dates, but the Twitter world was already buzzing.
Obviously, social media is still a relatively new phenomenon to the Olympics, but it is definitely here to stay. So if future Olympians take any lesson away from the 2012 London Olympics it should be to remember to re-read all of their tweets and if there is any question they could be taken the wrong way, just hit “delete” and nobody will ever know.
Daniel Brown covers celebrity news and sports from his hometown of Los Angeles, CA.

Free Twitter and Facebook Tools for Social Media Management

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In a previous blog post titled Twitter Tools You May Not Be Able to Live Without, we covered several tools that could quickly become vital management elements in your social sharing toolbox. However, that post was just a month short of a full year ago and in the digital world, we know things progress quickly. There have been some new tools presented that may offer management options that simply were not available a year ago. Here are a few tools you may want to add, rearrange, or organize your social media management toolbox around.

Commun.it

Commun.it is a revolutionary tool that was designed for individuals or businesses that have a need to connect with their fans, followers, or consumers with a more efficient user interface than previously similar tools.

c/o successshowto.com

Manage Twitter Accounts Easily

Commun.it handles the ominous task that diving your followers into appropriate categories can be when your account begins to amass a larger following than is easily handled manually. It can divide them into helpful categories that can help users be more direct with their specific messages for different types of followers.

New Leads – Commun.it’s system can help users find new leads to follow by locating any who mention your site or retweet one of your messages through a currently disconnected fan or follower. Anyone not in your current network who shares your content should show up on Commun.it’s user-friendly dashboard with one-click options to follow, retweet, reply, or favorite their posts.

Engaged Fans – These are the followers you will already have a fairly high level of connectivity with based on the number of direct messages between you, replies to your posts, mentions or retweets.

Influencers – Although you are unlikely to know it without the help of Commun.it, your list of influencers will have shown some previous level of communication with you in the past. Gaining allies in those who have already been supportive of your shared media in the past is quite the easy task with Commun.it’s helpful and suggestive dashboard features.

Supporters – Those who are already among your followers and have the tendency to happily retweet or otherwise share your messages or content via linking. Although supporters do not often engage directly with you, they are a highly valuable commodity on any Twitter account.

Commun.it also shows users the level of engagement with any given follower. The dashboard features will display how many replies, retweets or direct messages have been exchanged between the followers account and your own. In many cases, users can miss out on those highly valuable exchanges and fail to follow those who engage them directly by sharing content. Commun.it will even show you those who have shared your posts without mentioning you by name or @mention.

Check out how BuildMeAnEmpire is utilizing Commun.it as a Twitter tool to help find leads for your business.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb_Hd-cRFXA]

Crowdbooster

Crowdbooster can make managing your social media accounts incredibly easy. Easy to integrate with Twitter and Facebook, Crowdbooster allows users

to really get in tune with how social media and sharing is working for them or their businesses. Using Crowdbooster will help users understand how effective Tweets or Facebook shares are faring on the world wide web. Crowdbooster has a user-friendly graphical interface that displays graphs that allow even the business owner with little knowledge of analytics a basic understanding of how their content is being accepted, shared, and otherwise promoted.

Take a look at this video below to get a closer look at Crowdbooster.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QcSjnhr7LGU]

c/o forbes.com

Crowdbooster allows users to:

  • Manage multiple accounts on Facebook and Twitter to gain a more robust view of marketing efforts on one centralized tool.
  • Gain deep insight into their audience by engaging and interacting with those who have the most influence in your sphere. Using these insights will allow users to build on and maintain brand awareness for their products or services.
  • Understand and gain follower and fan growth. Learn how tracking long-term engagement on your social media platforms can give you the knowledge and experience you need to learn to drive more growth to your current community.

Crowdbooster does so much more, so if you are looking for a great user-friendly system that manages social media smoothly, it is definitely an option worth looking into.

Author:

@BasilPuglisi is the Executive Director and Publisher for Digital Brand Marketing Education (dbmei.com). Basil C. Puglisi is also the President of Puglisi Consulting Group, Inc. A Digital Brand Marketing Consultancy that manages professional and personal branding for Fortune 500 CEOs, Hedge Fund Managers and Small Business Owners.

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Revolution of Social Data [Infographics]

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Marketing has evolved from mass media to social media, broadcasting to curating and now demographic data to social data. What is social data and why is it important to marketers? Social data is anything and everything collected from social network profiles and behaviors i.e. logins, sharing, gender, interests, age, etc…
Companies understand the value in social media. According to the Social Media 2012 Industry Report by Social Media Examiner, a significant 83% of marketers believe that social media is important to their business. Companies work hard socializing and driving traffic to their websites. However, what most companies don’t realize is that they can unearth the vast amount of data contained in the online social footprints that their consumers leave behind. Utilizing this data to maximize marketing output and increase ROI is called Social Data Strategy.
The following diagram illustrates the role that social data plays in the marketing strategy process.

Download a PDF version of the above Infographics.
With the right tools to collect, analyze and take action; social consumer intelligence can have an impactful effect on businesses. It might inspire a new product, help with the messaging of a radio campaign or simply help communicate to customers in a more meaningful way. See more examples in my blog 4 Examples of Driving Marketing Strategies with Social Login Analytics.
Andreas Weigend, Professor at Stanford University and former Chief Scientist at Amazon identifies this time as a Revolution of Social Data because it “fundamentally alters the relationship between buyers and sellers” forcing marketers to think differently. At the foundation of a social data strategy, Weigend states that a marketer must:

  1. Address each customer as an individual, not as a target.
  2. Design campaigns to encourage social sharing.
  3. Recognize how social data influences decision making, everything from how to create and sell products to how you acquire and lose customers.

The social data era is upon us! How will you leverage it?
Your turn! Do you see social data playing a role in your marketing decision-making?
Author:
Lanoba provides easy registration for website users by giving them the option to log in to your website via their existing social network accounts such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, among others. Lanoba captures permission-based profile & behavioral data, then aggregates, stores and presents it in powerful analytics helping drive ROI through targeted marketing campaigns. Follow Lanoba on Twitter @lanoba.
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Using Social Media for Brand Awareness

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Cost-effective and powerful, social media is changing the way companies network. That’s because many businesses today are finding that connections made on sites like Facebook, Twitter and blogs are allowing them to better communicate with customers, more effectively draw in new leads and, over all else according to a July 2010 survey, increase customer awareness of their brand.
How does this work? How can you leverage the power of social networks to expand your brand’s influence and reach? Check out these five practical ideas!

  • Know Your Brand. Before you can promote your brand, you need to have a solid understanding of what it is. Ask yourself what distinguishes you company from others, what you offer that no one else does, what makes you valuable. Then, find a way to promote those benefits across all your marketing materials, from your logo to your website to your Twitter profile, in order to communicate a strong sense of your brand.
  • Establish a Solid, Branded Web Presence. Your website is your single most important online branding tool, the place where all your other marketing tools will direct. With a strong Web presence, your company has a resource that means better search rankings for increased traffic, increased leads and higher conversion rates.
  • Go Where Your Audience Is. A big part of being able to effectively reach your audience is understanding who they are. Is your audience active on Pinterest? Instagram? Facebook? Go where they are and join their conversations in order to expose them to your brand—and to enhance your scope of influence, offer something that meets their needs, whether tips, answers or links to helpful resources.
  • Connect with Online Influencers. Identify the people in your industry who are most influential and work to build relationships with them. Follow them on Twitter, respond to their posts on blogs and Facebook, email them when you have something valuable to say. By connecting with these influencers, you help expand your company’s reach.
  • Keep at It. A strong social media presence isn’t built overnight—in order to develop a loyal following, you have to earn it. Be consistent about posting on your social profiles so that users come to trust and respect your contributions; if you don’t, you run the risk of harming your reputation rather than helping it. If you can’t keep up with a profile, it’s better not to start it.

What do you think—could social media be a game changer for your brand? Take advantage of these tips to watch your presence expand!
Author:
Shanna Mallon is a writer for Straight North, a leader among Chicago marketing firms. She writes for clients in various B2B industries, from merchant processing solutions to Kevlar welding gloves. Check out the Straight North blog! @straightnorth
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