Mashable's Social Media Day Celebrated Worldwide

Saturday, June 30^th, is Social Media Day! What is Social Media Day, you ask? It’s a movement started by Mashableas a way of acknowledging the digital revolution in all its glory. This is the 3^rd year in a row that Social Media Day is being promoted as a worldwide Mashable Meetup. It’s also an opportunity for social media enthusiasts connect in their local communities to discuss social media and tech in person.

While some people believe that social media creates more isolation in a disconnected world, these Meetups are a way for people to deepen relationships within their communities. It also helps people form new relationships that may not have happened before sites like LinkedIn and Facebook made online networking possible. 

The Mayor of Tampa, Florida recently declared June 30^th Social Media Day, joining many other cities around the world. To find a Meetup in your area, check out http://www.meetup.com/Mashable/or watch this video for more information about Mashable Meetups. 

There are approximately 408 communities hosting Meetups for Social Media Day with 4,072 members. Will you be attending a Social Media Day Meetup on Saturday?

Popping on Pinterest and Facebook

Want to make your posts pop and get attention from your fans and followers? Do it with an image. Here are some marketing strategies for your images on Facebook and Pinterest.





 Facebook

• post images with motivational or inspirational text on them
• post humorous images and memes relating to your industry
• post brightly colored images that grab attention easily
• post a question with your image to make it more "sticky" and encourage comments
• post multiple images at once in an album to attract more curiosity to the images that can't be seen without clicking

Pinterest

•   post longer images; they get more attention
• use photos that pop, even when they're small
• make captions when you have something interesting and relevant to say about the photo
• infographics get a lot of attention, so consider creating one to get more attention on Pinterest
• link all of your images to a relevant page on your website

What have your most successful shared social media images been thus far? Do you have any top tips for images on Facebook and Pinterest to grab your audience's attention?

Counting on Humor to Create Consumers

Have you ever heard of an "Explainer Video?"

Explainer videos or “explainers” are powerful marketing tools that deftly use humour to engage audiences while communicating a company’s value proposition. - Lumeo Inc press release

That's right - you can easily boost conversions, engage audiences, improve SEO, and kick off a viral marketing campaign with a video like this. 50% of internet users regularly watch humorous videos, and if you get creative with your content, yours could be one. To get some ideas, watch this fantastic commercial by the Dollar Shave Club and read this TechCrunch article for more ideas on how to get started.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents: Mixing Business with Pleasure in Social Media

Are your social accounts pleasurable for your friends and fans? Are you really giving them something to connect with, or are you just making the necessary updates to stay a relevant business on Facebook, Twitter and Google+? If you're not sure how much pleasure you're using in social business, you may want to visit this webinar for a brief update.

Click here to register (6/27/12):
http://bit.ly/pleasureregister
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. 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. 

Click here to register (6/27/12):
http://bit.ly/pleasureregister

Do You Want To Be A Google Power Searcher?

Are you ready to geek-out just a bit?

Did you know that Google Search includes lots of features for search shortcuts? For example, you can type in a calculation in the Google Search box and it will provide you with the answer at the top of the search results page. No additional calculator needed!

If you want to learn more about all of the useful tips and tricks that Google offers, check out their new course called Power Searching with Google. The course’s purpose is to empower its users with specific techniques to find what you need and answer your questions faster.

This new course will begin on July 10, 2012 and I am very pleased to hear that you can take the classes according to your own schedule within the two-week allotted window.

Visit Google’s Power Searching website for more information and to register. Registration is open from June 26, 2012 to July 16, 2012.

Are you interested in this program? I registered as I’m always up for timesavers. Why wouldn’t you want to get what you need out of Google more efficiently?

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

Image credit: rdenubila

Crafting a Successful Facebook Campaign

It's more important than ever to keep your fans engaged on Facebook, so here are some hot tips to keep your Facebook marketing campaigns rolling along smoothly:

1. Create a series of Facebook-only specials. Sephora did it, and it might work for you, too.
2. Ask questions with pictures. Statistically, photos attract the most attention from fans, and the question will get them engaged.
3. Plan your posts out before you put them up - then schedule your updates to happen when you want them to with this neat app.
4. Try out new Facebook promoted posts. You may like what you find. They're more affordable than an entire PPC campaign and get your voice heard by fans.
5. When you post photos on Facebook, post more than one. Post an album, in fact. Research shows that this gets you more clicks because people want to see the rest of the photos from the post.
6. Boost your brand by rethinking your Facebook cover photo. Strong visuals tend to boost sales.
7. Read this great article on Facebook engagement. Then get out their and start interacting with your fans online

Insights on Ways to Improve Facebook Page Engagement

Dan Zarrella, The Social Media Scientist at HubSpot, created a useful infographic on how to get more likes, comments, and shares on Facebook. I encourage you to check it out as you will discover insights that are meaningful for testing with your Facebook Page.

Below are a few highlights that I want to bubble up to the surface:

• Day of the Week: Posts published on Saturdays and Sundays receive a higher like percentage than those posted during the business week.

• Self-Relevance: In contrast to other social media platforms, posts with a high number of self-referential words (i.e. “me”) tended to get more likes.

• Hour of Day: Content posted later in the day (Eastern Time) gets more likes and shares. Likes peak around 8pm while shares peak earlier, around 6pm.

Although this infographic was developed based on data from more than 1.3 million posts published on the top 10,000 Facebook Pages – I still recommend you “test” for your specific business. Even though many of the stats may apply across several industries, that doesn’t mean it will also apply to yours. Moreover, it’s critical that you leverage Facebook Insights to really dig into your community’s engagement behaviors.

What useful nugget of information did you draw from this infographic?

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

Image credit: owenwbrown

The 3 E’s of Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]

Ten Golden Rules is jumping on the Pinterestcraze with its first infographic, or “information graphic,” as a web marketing tool. For this foray into the graphics space, TGR’s CEO Jay Berkowitz created a visualization of his “3 E’s of Social Media.” Utilizing a mix of cartoon-like images, photos and text, the 3 E’s are illustrated and explained for easy reference and recall. The final test will be to see how quickly and thoroughly this graphic spreads through the web via Repins, Likes and Retweets. Graphics are extremely popular these days with new sites like Pinterest and apps like Instagram gaining millions of users in short amounts of time. Infographics in particular are a visually appealing tool for disseminating statistics and concepts in an easy-to-digest manner. Have you used infographics to market your business? Use the comments section below to tell us about your experience.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents: Social Media Success Stories Webinar - 6/20

We can discuss social media techniques and strategies all day long, but putting these theories to the test doesn't always worked as planned. How do you know what really works for your type of business? Join Jay Berkowitz, founder and CEO of TenGoldenRules.com, as he presents a mindful presentation that includes real examples of social media programs and how they can help generate positive ROI in your business. 


Click here to register (3/21/12 at 12:30PM EST):http://bit.ly/paidtrafficregister


About Jay Berkowitz:

Jay Berkowitz is an author, an educator, an International keynote speaker and an award-winning thought leader. A senior online marketing professional with over twenty years of marketing experience, Mr. Berkowitz has managed marketing departments for Fortune 500 brands: Coca-Cola, Sprint and McDonald's Restaurants, and he has developed online and offline strategies for AT&T and leading health and fitness website eDiets.com.

Mr. Berkowitz is the author of The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing Workbook, the Founder and CEO of www.TenGoldenRules.com, a strategic online marketing consulting business based in Boca Raton, Florida. He is the host of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Podcast, an Adjunct Professor with the University of San Francisco Internet Marketing Course and he has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, The Business Journals and he was interviewed on FOX Business TV.Click here to register (3/21/12 at 12:30PM EST):http://bit.ly/paidtrafficregister

New LinkedIn iPad App with a Fresh Design

A couple months ago, LinkedIn launched a new iPad app. I didn’t download it right away, but as I continued to hear more and more about the app – I decided I had to check out for myself what all of the buzz was about.

LinkedIn has 150 million users with more than 22% of LinkedIn traffic coming from mobile devices, up from 8% a year ago (CNN). Their mobile platform is the fastest growing consumer service on LinkedIn. As a result, the iPad app was born.

What’s my first impression of the app? It has a beautiful design and was built with usability front and center.

The home screen starts with three paths:

1) Updates: Get a snapshot of your professional updates, news, and information all in one place
2) Profile: Access your profile, connections and activity dashboard with a quick swipe
3) Inbox: Send and receive your LinkedIn invitations and messages in one place

Built with HTML5-based mobile web technology, the app supports the new iPad’s Retina display affording a very elegant design experience. For example, you will notice the “updates” feature is similar to Flipboard – allowing for content to be easily digestible to the eye.

Another main feature of the app is its calendar syncing capabilities. The app allows you to pull in details from your Google Calendar or Exchange Calendar.

Of course, there always tends to be a few areas that need improvements with newly launched apps. So far, the main concerns that have surfaced includes: inability to edit your resume, the lag time you experience when you have a significant amount of connections, and limitations with the management of groups.

Overall, I feel this app makes strides in engaging the professional on a more regular basis. LinkedIn has done a good job in consolidating the experience – read timely news, check your calendar, and know what your peers are up to – all in one place.

What is your first impression of the app?

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

I Have a Dog Grooming Business; Can I Work with Ten Golden Rules?

Before today, most small business owners who wished to work with an agency would hear an answer they didn’t like – either it was cost-prohibitive or the agency lacked the scalability to work with smaller accounts. As a sign of the times, Ten Golden Rules is changing all that with new online marketing packages specifically created for small and medium-sized businesses that want to harness the power of the Internet to grow their businesses.

As a business owner, finding time to keep up with the ever-changing world of Internet marketing can be challenging. From Social Media to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising to creating a competitive website, navigating the online world can be confusing if not a bit overwhelming. With these new services from Ten Golden Rules, you can now have access to the processes developed for larger companies, like hospitals and universities, without breaking your budget.

Simply visit the website and click on the service you’re most interested in. The entire process is automated for convenience and efficiency, and draws on almost a decade of knowledge from in-market testing and today’s best practices.

Do you do any of your own Internet marketing for your small or medium-sized business? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Social Media Training & Influence

If you could train your entire workforce to be proficient at social media, would you? Digital Royalty says yes - it's a company that's rolling out a social media training program for other companies.

"Digital Royalty University offers customized education programs including strategic and tactical social media training for all individuals within a company. It’s important that every department understands how social communication channels impact their area of business. This new phase allows us to also begin providing education to small and medium sized businesses, in addition to large corporate brands, as we continue to automate our curriculum comprised of more than 100 training modules." - Amy Martin, CEO

While neither the Mashable article nor the blog post comment above get more specific on exactly which platforms are covered, it's clear that grassroots influence of peers and colleagues is of great marketing value (a value which could be exponentially increased depending on the scale of the company involved.

What do you think? Would you want to purchase company-wide social media training for your organization? Are there any other benefits you can think of?