Promoted Tweets Based on Real-Time Signals

This week, Twitter rolled out their latest ad platform feature – keyword targeting in timelines. Advertisers can now target Promoted Tweets to users based on keywords in their latest Tweets and the Tweets they recently engaged with. The good news is that this enhancement does not result in more frequently displayed Promoted Tweets, so it’s not intrusive to users.

Targeting users based on real-time context signals affords the ability to show more relevant ads. Further targeting is offered based on options such as geographic location, device and gender, with options to use keywords as either phrase match or unordered keyword match.

While testing this ad option, it’s important to monitor and gauge the sentiment of your Promoted Tweets campaigns to optimize its effectiveness.

How do you think your business could leverage these types of ads? Please leave your thoughts below in 140 characters. : )

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Image credit: MDGovpics

#Hashtag – Buy Something on Twitter via Amex

Twitter and American Express now have a new partnership that allows users to buy products via a #hashtag.

The way this works is fairly simple. Amex cardholders must “sync” their cards with their Twitter accounts. After you tweet the specified #hashtag to purchase a product, Amex will send a second tweet with instructions on how to send your confirmation tweet. Once you send your confirmation tweet, your credit card is charged and the product is shipped to the address you have on file.

From a business perspective, anything you can do to make the purchasing process easier for the consumer, is a good idea. Time will tell if this initiative will catch on, but I think it just might depending on how compelling the offers are.

Security is my main concern with this new payment method. How can you be assured these tweets are not opening you up to being hacked? I think it would be smart for American Express to address this topic sooner rather than later.

What are your thoughts on this new offering? Please leave your comments below.

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Small Business Disaster Preparedness in the 21st Century

Would you know what to do if your business was affected by a natural disaster tomorrow? Do you have the communications channels and plan in place to take action, or would you simply panic and stop the presses? Many small business owners can’t afford to be closed for even one day. Social media is not only a marketing tool, but it can be a lifeline in today’s modern society.

Recent natural disasters have taught us many things about how interwoven technology is in our 21^st century world. Hurricane Sandy was the first widespread natural disaster in U.S. history that showed us how our social networks can help us and our businesses survive and thrive in the wake of a crisis.

Examples abound both during and after Hurricane Sandy about people and businesses reaching out on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to get help and offer relief. Nonprofits like Invisible People used Twitter to reach out to homeless shelters and gather its resources to help obtain generators and food for the less fortunate. An animal shelter that posted about structural damage to its facilities on Facebook got 30 volunteers to come out and repair the damage. Over a dozen restaurants in one city banded together to provide Sunday night dinner for its community and used Facebook to spread the word.

Making a plan now for your procedure during a crisis or emergency situation can mean the difference between survival and greater loss. Obviously, safety and family come first for both you and your employees. Once everyone is secure, have a plan for working off-site, accessing the Internet and staying abreast of the latest information. Many federal, state and local agencies have social media accounts that will be updated frequently to help you stay informed. If you’ve built out a couple of social media channels for marketing purposes, you can also keep your customers updated and let them know when you are operational and available for support. Note, however, immediately after a natural disaster is not the time for promotional messages, but it can be an effective way to bridge your company and your community during difficult times. So what are you waiting for? Go make your plan!

Twitter Announces New Targeting Improvements for Promoted Tweets

Twitter recently announced several new targeting improvements to Promoted Tweets. These targeting features include three different matching options, negative keyword targeting, bulk importing tool (allowing you to use exported keyword lists from other search advertising platforms), and the ability to automatically match your Promoted Tweets in search to relevant and related trending topics.

If you are testing Twitter ads for your business, it is recommended to test these new features. In the end, the objective of these tools is to make your ads more relevant in an effective manner. Utilize these tools to optimize the campaigns you are running.

To learn more about these new product offerings, check out Twitter’s blog post for details.

Twitter advertising is still fairly new. Have you tested Twitter ads for your business? What has been your experience so far?

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image credit: Rob Ellis'

Instagram Declares War

For those who may not yet have heard, Instagram has cut support for Twitter cards. What does that mean? It means that now hundreds of thousands of Instagram photos will stop properly displaying on Twitter. It seems a huge step backwards from the accessibility and happily synchronized social media services that we, the users, have become accustomed to. Instead of making things better, Instagram has purposefully made things worse.

But why? It seems that the decision might be tied to Facebook's Instagram purchase - and Twitter is a large and growing rival for the social media giant. Teens are leaving in mass exodus for Twitter now that they have to be Facebook "friends" with their parents, grandma, and boss - and Twitter offers a new social sphere that isn't yet completely dominated by adult control. In addition, Twitter has been working on its own set of photo filters - ones that could rival Instagram.

Only one question now: will there be a social media war in the near future?

The Mystery of Hashtags Revealed

I’ve been asked a lot lately about hashtags, so I thought I’d put together a brief tutorial for those of you out there scratching your heads at the phenomenon of adding a pound symbol (#) in front of a word or phrase. What does it mean and why should you care?

The hashtag first became used in popular culture on Twitter as a way for users to categorize or group messages together and as a way for their tweets to be found more easily in Twitter search results. To create a hashtag, simply add the pound symbol (#) before a key word or phrase that you want to highlight. For example, if you are a retailer and you’re having a big sale on shoes, you might use #ShoeSale in your tweet to help get found by anybody looking for a shoe sale. (The capital letters don’t have an effect on search, but it makes the words easier to read). As Jeff Bullas points out in his blog, “hashtags are like Twitter SEO.”

At the same time, you can find other people who are talking about your product or industry by doing a hashtag search of your own. You would simply type your keywords into the search bar to find anyone who is talking about #shoes and join the conversation. Many events and conventions designate a hashtag that attendees can use to find other Twitter users who are attending the same event, and people who cannot attend may still follow along what is happening by following the hashtag. Televised events now have hashtags that are broadcast to viewers so everyone can be part of the same conversation, such as the Democratic National Convention (#DNC2012) and Republican National Convention (#RNC2012).  If you do a search in Twitter for these hashtags, a list of tweets showing these topics will come up. Often, hashtagged words that are very popular become Trending Topics.

Hashtags are not just limited to Twitter anymore. Other social media platforms, such as Pinterestand Instagram, have also picked up on using hashtags as a way for users to categorize their content and to make searches easier – both to find what they’re looking for and for others to find them. How are you using hashtags for your business? Have you had success in creating your own trending hashtag? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Twitter Announces Changes to Header, No More 3rd Party Image Apps

Twitter made some changes this week that were met with less-than-enthusiastic fanfare from its estimated 140 million active users. The big news is the new profile, which allows you to update your header photo above your tweets with a Facebook Timeline-like image. A recent post by Marketing Land gives a step- by-step tutorial on updating your Twitter header. In addition, a photo stream will now appear below a user’s most recent tweets on iPhone, Android and iPad.

The changes seem to be mostly aimed at mobile users, and as one twitter user pointed out, “who uses the web interface anyway?” According to Twitter’s blog, your background image on Twitter.com will still be present, but the new header is supposed to enhance the user experience, and supports simplicity and consistency on iPhone, Android and iPad, which seems to be a goal of Twitter and leads us to the next big change.

At the same time the new header announcement was made, Twitter dropped its thrid party image hosts from its official apps and launched new versions of its own iOS and Android apps. This has left a bad taste for many users who feel that Twitter is turning its back on those companies that helped make the platform bigger and better, as evidenced by the comments below this Mashable article.

Have you updated your Twitter header? Send us a link to your profile and tell us what you think of the changes. 

@TodayShow updated its header in time for Twitter's big announcement, which was made on their show Tuesday morning

Twitter Gets Political

With the election coming up in November, social media has been welling up with politics. Romney and Obama are both running Facebook ads along with traditional TV segments, and users of social media are throwing down their opinions like MMA fighters at a UFC tournament. Twitter is the latest to get in on the game, rolling out their new Twitter Political Index, a slightly less scientific Gallup poll that relies on tracking the millions of tweets of its users for candidate names. While Twitter is so far predicting an Obama win, it must also be taken into account that Twitter users tend to be younger with democratic leanings, which doesn't accurately reflect those who actually do the voting. If Twitter predicts the presidential election's outcome correctly, do you think this will change the way that social media influences polls and statistics? Do you approve of this political leap taken by Twitter, or do you think Twitter should keep its nose out of national elections?

Visit Mashable to see the fun graphs that Twitter has come out with.

Social Media and the Summer Olympics

Social media is set to play a big role in the 2012 Summer Olympicsthis year, with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube leading the charge. During the last Summer Olympics in 2008, the most popular social media sites of today were just getting their feet wet, and the number of Internet users has increased from 23% to about one-third of the world’s total population, according to Mashable.

Olympic rings on display in Cardiff, Wales

A recent Mashable article made an interesting comparison of the status of each of the three top sites in 2008 to where they currently are in terms of users, functionality and growth. Some of the other top social media networks like Google + and Pinterest were not even around during the last Olympics. And while many people will surely be sharing tweets and videos throughout the summer games, some fraudsters will also be trying to get in on the action.

Phishing and ticketing scams have already been reported and social media users are urged not to click on any links in alerts that seemingly come from these sites. Instead, go directly to the site by typing the URL into your browser, and those lucky enough to score tickets to the Olympics can visit the “Ticket Checker” on the official London2012.com website to verify their authenticity.

How do you plan to use social media during the 2012 Summer Olympics? What events are you most looking forward to watching?

Image credit: rovingsheep

The Future of Social Networking

For me, reading Twitter and Facebook in the morning is equivalent to reading the morning paper in the 80’s.  I can catch up with local and global news, entertainment and even the sports section in less than 30 minutes. The first thing I saw this morning was an urgent call from a trusted source (Mashable) to change my LinkedIn password amidst claims of a major leak by a Russian hacker. And this comes after recent “reports that its iOS app potentially violates user privacy by sending detailed calendar entries to its servers…”

After changing my password, it got me thinking about the state of social media today. Although still evolving, the world of social media is often overwhelming and convoluted with all its integration, mobile capabilities and privacy issues.

Photo credit: socialmediahq

Facebook stock basically fell on its face after a much-hyped IPO and now there’s a question of whether or not Mark Zuckerberg engaged in insider trading. To add injury to insult, a new study that came out yesterday claims that engagement on Facebook has fallen with 35% of users spending less time on the site, and also that 4 out of 5 users are not influenced by ads run on the site.

And then there’s my favorite, Google, which has been putting all their eggs in the G+ basket. It’s not that I have anything against the flailing social network. It’s just that I think it came too late to the party and hasn’t differentiated itself enough. The only people I know that really use it are those in the social media industry. But if Facebook does fade out, G+ could be perfectly positioned to take over if it can hold out that long.

I think that most people do love to feel connected – not only to their friends, but to the rest of the world. Social networking is here to stay. What do you think it will look like and how will it evolve in the years to come? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Facing Customer Service Issues in Public

Does your company use social media as an opportunity to handle customer complaints, or does it try to sweep negative comments under the rug? Like it or not, Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets have become a place for people to publicly air their grievances. Those companies that embrace public customer service are going to be much better off in the long run than those that resist or try to ignore these powerful communication vehicles.

In the past, customers might criticize a product or tell about a negative experience to a handful friends. Now, the whole world can know at once when something has gone wrong. (Think Alec Baldwin tweeting about his own bad behavior on an airplane – and badmouthing the airline).  There are plenty of examples of companies falling prey to one customer airing their dissatisfaction to thousands of Twitter followers or Facebook friends, but there are also great case studies about the right way to handle these oh-so-public customer complaints.

Dell was one of the first companies to use Twitter as a customer service channel, and it really improved their reputation. They have a Twitter profile @DellCares that is dedicated to customer service as evidenced by the bio: Dell's Social Media Outreach Team. 24x7 Global Support. We are here to listen, help and provide proactive info to our Customers.

Facebook recently launched private messages for Pages. Although not a completely public channel, administrators have to be ready to handle these messages, or it could turn into an ugly public conversation. Review sites like Yelp are ripe with both positive and negative customer experiences, so it’s important for companies to be aware of what their customers are saying about them online. Having a strong reputation management strategy can combat some of the negativity that is bound to plague a company at one time or another. However, providing great customer service up front goes a long way towards preventing some of that negativity.

The bottom line: public customer service is not something your company can decide it wants to do – it’s going to be out there no matter what. Embracing social media as a legitimate forum for customer service and putting systems in place to handle customer service in public is your best bet.

How does your company handle complaints that are made via social media? We’d love to hear your stories in the comments section.