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Social Media

Why Social Media Is Worth It For Most Doctors

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Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably been told many times over that you need to be on social networking and content sharing sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube, Quora, and Pinterest.  With nearly a billion users on Facebook, hundreds of millions on Twitter, and over 8 years worth of video being uploaded to Youtube every single day, there’s no question that the world is connecting through these channels.
But as a professional, is blogging, tweeting, uploading videos to youtube, answering questions on Quora, or posting pictures on Pinterest a good use of your time?  Can social media be used to grow your brand and your practice, or is it just a way to socialize, procrastinate, and enjoy a few laughs?
While there are certainly those who view social media as a novelty or passing fad, the reality is that social media is no longer just about connecting with friends or uploading pictures of your recent trip to Italy.  Social media is becoming a place where people go to get real information.  It can allow you to build a relationship with existing patients, connect with other professionals, and build your brand.  A strong social media presence can make you a go-to source of information, which can translate into new patients and more revenue.

While Not Immediately Measurable, Social Media Can Offer A Significant ROI

Some critics have criticized social media marketing for not having a return on investment.  While the ROI of social media may not always be immediately measurable, physicians who dedicate themselves to providing interesting, useful, and timely information through social media will almost certainly see a tangible benefit down the line.
While it’s certainly possible for doctors to make tweets or blog posts that have no immediate impact on their bottom line, it’s been proven over and over again that offering interesting, valuable, and helpful insight through social media and building an audience will result in new patients.  While this ROI may not be measurable over a day, a week, or even months, it can certainly result in significant growth and revenue over time.
While some short-sighted pundits may ask “why should I get involved in social media if I can’t measure the ROI?” – to quote Gary Vaynerchuck – “what’s the ROI of your mother”?   Gary Vaynerchuck is one of the leading experts on social media and deservedly so – he grew his family’s $3 million dollar discount liquor business into a $60 million dollar juggernaut largely through social media involvement.
The point Gary Vaynerchuck makes through this famous quote is that – just as a mother’s love and attention may not have an immediate impact on a child’s success over a day, a week, or even months, sending out a few tweets or throwing up a Facebook page won’t have an immediate benefit to your bottom line.  Yet, there’s no question that unconditional attention, dedication, and care will have a massive impact down the road.  Even if the ROI of social media can’t be measured directly, plenty of doctors have experienced significant growth in their practices by slowly but consistently building their audience through consistent involvement in social media.
Even if the effects of Social Media outreach may not always offer a direct, measurable ROI, the long term results of engaging people with thoughtful, helpful dialogue is immeasurable towards the long term growth of your practice and your reputation in the community.

ROI Is Not The Only Benefit Of Social Media For Physicians

While social media marketing can be a great way to grow a practice, for physicians, being involved in social media goes beyond ROI and marketing.  It’s a way to get news quicker than any news outlet, it’s a way to get new perspectives and opinions, it’s a place to open up new dialogue, and it’s a place to share your own knowledge.
For physicians especially, social media goes beyond marketing and attracting new patients.  What is the value of being accessible to your patients?  What’s the value in connecting with colleagues, experts, and sharing your knowledge with the community?
If the reasons above aren’t sufficient to convince you that it’s worth your time as a doctor to get involved in at least one social media channel, here is a quick summary of some of the ways social media can benefit physicians:

  • More visibility on search engines
  • Visibility through social networks
  • Communicate with and build up relationships with existing patients and potential patients
  • Doctors can address common questions online and save actual clinic time for more specific concerns.
  • Build an audience and authority which you can leverage to grow your practice and personal brand
  • Keep up to date in your field by following leading experts and exchanging knowledge through social channels

Social Media Is Not A Fad

As with any new technology, there will always be those who dismiss social media as a passing fad or a bubble.  Critics made the same assertions about the internet, e-mail, e-commerce, and blogging.  While you certainly don’t have to be active on every new social media or content sharing website that comes around, at the end of the day, social media is here to stay.  Ignore it at your own peril.
By author Richard Orban. Richard is mostly interested in writing about medical related topics, home improvement and various topics relating to these niches involving business. In this article he’s writing on behalf of Lenses Online, the number one source for lenses online in New Zealand. Follow his occasional rants on twitter @richardorban.

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.

Seth Godin’s “All Marketers Tell Stories” [Internship]

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                Seth Godin made a valuable point when stating, “Marketing is about spreading ideas, and spreading ideas is the single most important output of our civilization.” Godin has made several other valuable points in his book, “All Marketers Tell Stories”. He focuses on a person’s “worldview” which is someone’s own rules, values, beliefs, and biases. Even though it is very tough to change someone’s worldview, it is possible with the correct kind of marketing.
                Worldviews are both beneficial yet tricky at the same time. Worldviews are the reason why our world is a diverse place. However, it is hard for a marketer to target so many people with different points of views. According to Godin, “Worldviews are the reason that two intelligent people can look at the same data and walk away with completely different conclusions.” Marketers have found a way “around” worldviews that allow them to still market their products or services. Marketers tell stories. “Consumers are used to telling stories to themselves and telling stories to each other, and it’s just natural to buy stuff from someone who’s telling us a story. People can’t handle the truth.” Seth Godin was one hundred percent right when he wrote this in his book. People cannot handle the truth, and they will do anything to go around it. In order for a marketer to truly succeed, which doesn’t happen often according to Godin, there are five steps that they need to follow.
                The first step in Godin’s “All Marketers Tell Stories” is “their worldview and frames got there before you did.” He explains that the world is full of all kinds of different people with different worldviews. If everyone was the same, marketing would be a piece of cake. However, that’s not the case. Marketers need to make their advertisements accustom to everyone and their different values, biases, and assumptions. Frames are also part of the big picture. They are elements of a story painted to leverage the worldview a consumer already has. If a marketer frames their story in terms of a person’s worldview, they will be heard and noticed.
                The second step Godin points out is “people notice only the new and then make a guess”.  He makes a great comparison to ideas and viruses. Viruses can spread through a community by jumping host to host. Scientists study how a host interacts with the virus. The same thing goes for an idea; ideas can spread through a community person to person. Instead of seeing how a host and virus interact, we try to understand how our brain responds to the ideas and inputs we encounter.
                The third step is “first impressions start the story”. People make judgments within a fraction of a second. A marketer needs to grab the attention of their audience as soon as they start telling the story or else they will lose the persons attention. A marketer should always start with something exciting and interesting, not boring. First impressions are always key.
                Godin’s fourth step in his book is “great marketers tell stories we believe.” First, you have to believe in your story, or else you will not come off believable. Sounding confident and knowing what you’re talking about will draw in a bigger audience. The story sells the product and pleases the customer.
                Finally, the last step is “marketers with authenticity thrive.” Godin said, “If you commit to a story and live that story, the contradictions will disappear.” No one likes a phony person because then no one will take their time to listen to your advertisement, or even buy your product or service. When a marketer is authentic, it shows, and people will stop and listen. People like hearing stories when it involves a shortcut, money, safety, fun, and belonging. These are all factors of their worldviews, and Godin said persuading someone to switch their worldview is the same as making him admit he was wrong. People hate admitting that they are wrong, and therefore will not listen to your story.  
                In the end, it doesn’t matter whether something is actually better or more efficient, what matters is what the consumer believes. As a marketer, it would be impossible to be noticed without studying your audience’s various worldviews. Products and services have gotten more and more complex, so there is a lot of teaching for marketers to do. Seth Godin’s “All Marketers Tell Stories” is a step in the right direction when you want to succeed as a marketer.
Sources:
http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591841003/permissionmarket
http://digitalethos.org/a-day-at-google-new-york-opinion/
 
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.

3 Tips to Effectively Market Your Real Estate Website

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The key to marketing a real estate website is in knowing what your prospects are searching for, what sites they frequent, and how they use the web to communicate and gather information. Consider the following 3 tips to effectively market your real estate website:

Proper Domain Selection

The first step is choosing a domain name that will either capitalize on your brand name or target web searchers based on keywords. If you already have an established brand that is locally recognized you’ll want to make it easier for existing clients and prospects to find your site by registering a domain name that contains the name of your agency.
On the other hand, if you’re able to get your hands on a rare, yet highly valuable geo-targeted domain name (i.e. – FloridaRealEstate.com) then this option should be considered over all. Some firms choose to register multiple domains in order to maximise search traffic.

Competitive Analysis and Keyword Optimization

A great way to figure out what keywords you should be targeting in your site content and marketing efforts is to utilize keyword research tools and services like:

  • Google Adwords Keyword Suggestion Tool
  • Keyword Discovery
  • Wordtracker
  • Spyfu
  • Compete.com Analytics

All of the above resources will help you determine which keywords your competitors are using to generate the most traffic. Once you’ve built a list of keywords you can focus on outdoing the competition by publishing more content and contributing genuinely useful information. In addition to filling your real estate website with quality content, you should also start focusing on becoming a thought leader in your industry by spreading your outreach around the web through…

Blogging and Networking

Investors, property buyers, and other agents use the web to build their contacts and educate themselves on a regular basis. Research the leading real estate blogs and attempt to establish your own authoritative presence by becoming a reputable guest author.
As a real estate professional you’ve probably heard the phrase “It’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know that matters.”  With the ability to quickly contact ideal buyers and accommodate the needs of a large network of sellers you can maximise your yearly commissions by increasing the volume of transactions you facilitate.
Start by joining Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Learn the ins and outs of social networking, and consider the advantages of outsourcing the management of your campaigns to professionals that can optimize your output.
Joseph Tollett is a real estate professional and experienced blogger who currently conducts research for IronMonk Solutions, a well-known SEO firm with headquarters in New York. Click here to read their blog.
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What is Inbound Marketing? [Internship]

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            Inbound marketing is a way of making yourself or your company easy to find and drawing people to your website by producing content that appeals to your visitors. The term “inbound marketing” was coined in 2005 by HubSpot’s Brian Halligan because he believed that traditional marketing was becoming less effective. Inbound marketing includes content like blogs, enewsletters, and the social media network. Inbound marketing is far more favored by businesses than outbound marketing. Outbound marketing includes content such as spam, telemarketing, and fliers.
            The whole concept of inbound marketing is to get the customers to find you, instead of you reaching out to them. It can be broken down into five stages. One, attract traffic; two, convert visitors to leads; three, convert leads to sales; four, turn customers into repeat higher margin customers; and five, analyze for continuous improvement. A company can attract traffic to their website by blogging, for example. Updating your blog more frequently will attract more visitors to your website and revenue traffic. Announce your website via email, and across the social media networks like Google+ and Twitter to garnish social and search traffic. Email everyone you know about your new website, lead with content and the word will travel. Share it on your social media websites. Include keywords that will draw your targeted audience in. Then, you want to make sure that the material on your page is what the visitor is looking for. Your goal is to make the visitor a customer. After your visitor becomes a customer, make sure they will come back by sending them an enewsletter and keep your page updated with things that will attract them to buy again. After you went through the four steps of the process, you want to analyze everything that you have done and make sure you are doing everything you can to satisfy your visitors, followers, customers.
            In order to make inbound marketing completely effective, you want to give your customers your marketing information, and a little something else. This provides a value above and beyond what they are looking for, which creates a value to the customer experience. For example, if you’re a gardening or landscaping company, write a little side story about your home garden and how you personally take care of it in the newsletter. The three key phases are “get found, convert, and analyze”.
            Inbound marketing can be effective if the communication is interactive and two-way, unlike outbound marketing which is one-way. One way to create inbound marketing is by being found on search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, etc. This is a type of inbound content because someone who is looking for something specifically related to you will go directly to your page. By creating valuable content on your website, your website will rise in organic search results. By rising in organic search results, it will benefit you tremendously because the closer you are to the search engines first page, the more visibility you are gaining for your website.
You can try and get your website higher in the organic search result by pay per click (PPC). PPC is an advertising model used to direct traffic to a certain website. Every time someone’s ad is clicked, the advertiser pays the website owner or publisher. Another way to rank higher in organic search results is to make a well put together press release that is filled with information that your targeted audience will click on when they search on a search engine. Don’t use keywords that are commonly used by your competition; be more creative when it comes to keywords.
            A recently new field that inbound marketing has found its way to is the social media network. Social media sites are the most visited websites on the web. When marketing on social media, identify your target audience. Once you have a targeted audience, think about keywords this audience might use to search to find sites like yours. Facebook for example, has seen a steady increase in its search bar for businesses. A basic principle of a social media site is like using a forum, if there is no activity going on you will leave. To make sure that this doesn’t happen to you on your website, fill it with lots of information and useful content. Finally, another way to use the social media network for inbound marketing is to give your “community” something to talk about. For example, if you own a fitness company and you are now selling a new workout machine, tell your social medic community. This is the “network effect”, when your community creates a “buzz” about what you were talking about, it will bring in other users.
            An easy way to get information out about your business or product is to advertise where they are already going. For example, by putting “like us on Facebook” on your company’s website, this will draw people to your Facebook page where you can advertise all about your business, products and services. Another way to generate inbound marketing is to host contests. By letting your visitors and or customers take an online survey about their experience with your website, offer a chance to win a prize if they take the survey. Also give them the opportunity to go through an easy-to-do sign up for newsletters offering them coupons and sneak peeks into the future.
            Inbound marketing is far more effective than outbound marketing. You can prove this just by asking if you have deleted spam mail without reading it. Spam mail is an example of outbound marketing. Since social media is huge growing field, there should be no question as to why inbound marketing is so effective. In the end, it’s all about finding a new way to generate interest, and inbound marketing is the new way to generate interest and visitors, followers, customers.  
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.

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.

Back to Basics: Why Facebook? [Internship]

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Facebook is an important utility in digital communications that helps people connect with friends, family, and coworkers. Facebook can also make networking a whole lot easier. Statistics show that in July 2012, there were 955 million monthly active users. Approximately 81% of the monthly active users are located outside of the United States and Canada.
 From the start of Facebook, the founders wanted it to be free for everyone. Facebook seems to be the dream place for a company or business to showcase their products, services, and links to their own website for no cost.  Facebook is a great way to brand your name or your company. It lets you share information via text, picture and video. The network also allows feedback on whatever you are offering. Nearly 80,000 sites are using Facebook Connect. By doing this, sites are making personal social graphs portable so they travel along online. It is said that one of the best ways to find a new job is through a friend. Therefore, keeping up with coworkers and the business through Facebook is very important.
Facebook gives you many different options to stay in touch and keep connected with your cliental and future clients. For example, if your company has a big event coming up, Facebook lets you share this by creating an event and setting it public. Since it is a public event, people on Facebook who aren’t even your friend or “fan” can see this and RSVP. Networking is also key. When you register for Facebook and start adding friends, your name, company or brand will be out there, which can create additional exposure and generate interest in connecting. By constantly updating on your page, it will keep your friends or fans connected and waiting for more. If you want the connection to be valuable then make sure what you are sharing is interesting and relevant. Facebook is busiest during the weekdays in the morning. Morning posts have a 37.9% more user engagement than afternoon posts, meaning if you post in the morning you are more likely to have more feedback than if you posted in the afternoon. If you are one of those people who are constantly on the go and can’t be glued to their computer, apps such as “HootSuite” and “Tweetdeck” allow you to schedule the release of messages.
With 955 million users, it shouldn’t even be a question to get involved with Facebook. Facebook can benefit you and your business tremendously. The fact that even other countries are close to surpassing the United States with active users is mind blowing. One would say that Facebook is the easiest way to network and get your businesses name out there. Facebook has made it very simple to organize and design your business page.
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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