Foursquare Shifts Focus to Localized Search & Recommendations

Have you visited the Foursquare website recently? As part of Foursquare’s effort to monetize their service, they have unveiled a new prominently featured search box on the homepage. You may notice its striking resemblance to the classic Google search box, which may very well not be a coincidence. A former Googler is on the team that has been working on improving the Foursquare algorithm and the overall search experience and as a result, they have unveiled this release.

This new search box functionality is for logged out users. Now Foursquare.com will provide lots more value to the logged out user than ever before. They have collected intelligence over the past 2 years, spanning from check-in data, lists, likes, dislikes, tips etc., which have all been factored into the search results. And for the app users, all of the standard rich features are still available – no changes to your experience whatsoever.

Does Yelp have some competition to be concerned about? As Foursquare moves further into the local search and recommendations realm, it sounds like they will be taking on Yelp head-on.

Do you see this direction working for Foursquare? Or, do you think they will always be seen as an augmented reality check-in service?

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

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents: Instagram for Brands (Today!)

In the latest edition of the Room 214 POV series we explain why Instagram is a perfect opportunity for brands to connect with a highly engaged community. 

We go over the main features, provide examples of successful initiatives, and give you tips to make your community a success.

Click here to register for FREE (10-17-12 at 12:30pm EST)http://bit.ly/regbrands


About Room214:
Room 214 is a leading social media agency that focuses on three core areas: 1. Business Intelligence: social media research and monitoring 2. Program Management: search and social campaign planning and execution 3. Application Development: custom Facebook, mobile and dashboard applications From funded start-ups to Fortune 100, we help companies engage customers, humanize their brands and build upon what works. If leadership in your market is the goal, this agency should be your agency.
Click here to register for FREE (10-17-12 at 12:30pm EST)http://bit.ly/regbrands

Facebook PPC Ads that Kill

Facebook’s pay-per-click (PPC) is still considered fairly new. Nonetheless, we’ve been playing in it long enough to put together some best practices for marketing on Facebook. These tips will help you get an edge over the competition in Facebook’s advertising platform:

1. A picture is worth a thousand words – Although Facebook ads allow for a small image, it is very easy to blend in with all the visual stimulation happening on a person’s page. We recommend using bold, bright colors to help your ad stand out. Red or orange is good – stay away from blue or white, which are Facebook’s colors and acts like camouflage.  You can also add a bright border to your image to make it pop out from the screen. Always keep the image (and the ad itself) to a singular focus. Trying to fit too much into one ad will definitely limit your ROI; besides, you can simply create another ad with different information. 
2. Get to the point – As any marketing professional knows, your ad copy should be geared toward your target audience. Since these ads are so brief, focus on benefits and include a call to action – the stronger, the better! We’ve also found that mentioning the company name works quite well. Remember, you only have 90 characters for body copy, but sometimes less is more so try writing only 40-70 characters and test your ads.
3. Hit a bulls eye – Targeting your ads is obviously important, but this feature is continuously changing on Facebook, so we suggest you learn about all the different targeting options and stay up-to-date (hint: we often post updates on this blog.) We also recommend that you turn on the “show social activity” feature, even if your ad goes to an external link. We call this “passive word of mouth” and you can see how it shows up in the example below. 

 Do you have any other tips for creating a successful advertising campaign on Facebook? Please share your ideas in the comments section below.

New Strategies for Your Mobile Playbook

As you may have already noticed, I place a lot of importance on having a mobile strategy for your business. Interacting with your customers via mobile in some form or fashion is inevitably going to be a part of your business’s future. Mobile is a critical component to the overall success of your marketing strategy.

Google has released an update to the prior Mobile Playbook that includes new strategies on mobile creativity and ROI. The two main areas of focus expanded upon examples of compelling mobile creative and measuring the real ROI of mobile and its associated impact on a business.

The Playbook also features case studies covering the 5 mobile conversion types. This consists of mobile web, from apps, phone calls, cross-device and in-store. Using the “mobile web” conversion type case study as an example, TicketNetwork’s mobile site was designed with two critical components at the forefront – speed and simplicity. Four months after launch, ticket sales from mobile grew by 184% due to their efforts to build a mobile site that made the purchasing process easy for the consumer.

You can find the updated Mobile Playbook here. What mobile conversion type have you experienced the most success with?

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

Image credit: mroach

'Cascading Content' Social Media Strategy for the Busy Professional

Every business owner and professional at this point should at least know that social media is vital to a healthy business. However, not every busy professional has the time or money to dedicate to social media – or so they think. Jay Berkowitz of Ten Golden Rules has created a model called ‘Cascading Content’ that provides a simple social media strategy for any company or individual. The infographic below illustrates the concept:

Click image to view larger

Think of Cascading Content like a waterfall: you must start with a full pool, or in this case, a main piece of engaging content, such as an article, press release, video or presentation. You add this main content to your website (it’s great fodder for the search engines) and then break it up into smaller bits that are digestible by the different social media sites. For example, the long version of this blog post is an articlethat is posted on the Ten Golden Rules website and has also been sent out in an e-newsletter. Once this blog is posted, I will write brief posts for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, G+ and, since we have a cool infographic, I can even post it on Pinterestwith a link back to the full article.

There were three articles that were written for the e-newsletter and posted on the website, so I can follow this process for all three articles. Although this should not be the only content in your social media channels, Cascading Content is a quick and easy way to stretch the great content you do have over several weeks to populate your social media channels and engage your audience. And remember, people like to get their content in all different ways – some prefer reading a blog post like this one while others would rather receive an email or follow a page on Facebook. With the Cascading Content model, your content is available in whatever format your audience chooses to see it.

How do you manage your social media currently? Have you ever tried anything like Cascading Content or would you follow this model? Tell us about your experiences in the comments below.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents: Managing Time Effectively On Tumblr

Tumblr might be a small-time social platform tool, but it's a major microblogging solution for those looking to save a little time with their online messages. What is Tumblr? What is microblogging exactly? In this webinar, you'll learn more about Tumblr and how to effectively manage your time with yet another successful social networking site. Are your online efforts really reaching the potential audience your brand deserves?

lick here to register for FREE (10/10 at 12:30pm EST)
http://bit.ly/tumblreg


About Matt Wooddy:

For the last five years, Matt Wooddy has used his social wizardry to completely turn around the presence of over 200 Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts. Clients have included Discount Tire, Prick Magazine, Motorsporting, Art&Ink Publications, CustomUSB and more. Understanding that social media is more than just a place to promote your brand, he uses personal interaction and entertaining messages to improve the branding and interest of any given company. Matt has also provided content and copy edited for several nationally and internationally published alternative lifestyle magazines.
Click here to register for FREE (10/10 at 12:30pm EST)
http://bit.ly/tumblreg

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.