Very useful tip if your job involes a lot of social media for Twitter and Facebook

Are you fed up with being limited to 140 characters on Twitter? If you are someone who needs to post updates about a company, product, event, or anything else, it is very hard to say what you need to say in 140 characters....especially if you need to post about it often but want to say it in different ways. Well I have your solution. I'm sure a lot of you know about this, but I'll bet a lot of you don't know as well. This tip can also be useful even if you don't have to use social media for work and just want it for personal use. Well, if you want your followers to see longer posts, there is a way to link your Twitter page with your Facebook page so that they can see the entire thing instead of it being cut off.  I can't tell you how many times I spent hours on Hootsuite because I was posting multiple things to Twitter and Facebook together and then when I save it, it cuts off everything I just wrote at 140 characters..and then I have to rewrite them all again!

Here is the solution...go to this website http://www.wikihow.com/Link-Facebook-to-Twitter and follow the directions. It's that simple! You just need to authorize the app with Twitter and then once you post something longer than 140 characters onto your Twitter and Facebook pages from Hootsuite, it will automatically leave a link to that Facebook post so that it doesn't have to cut it off! This is going to be a life saver to many people, and it definitely is to me! So spread the word!

When are Facebook users most active?

Even though this article is a few years old, it is extremely helpful to know if you are working in the Social Media biz...especially since many people don't know this.

The biggest takeaways:

• The three biggest usage spikes tend to occur on weekdays at 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET.
• The biggest spike occurs at 3:00 p.m. ET on weekdays.
• Weekday usage is pretty steady, however Wednesday at 3:00 pm ET is consistently the busiest period.
• Fans are less active on Sunday compared to all other days of the week.
  
  
  Not only is it useful to know this stuff if it's your job, you also have to think about your audience and the season. If you have targeting younger kids who have Facebook and Twitter and it's also Summer, you have a better chance of reaching them during the day since they don't have school and have nothing better to do than be on their phones and constantly looking on Facebook or Twitter. 
  If your audience is older than 25, chances are no matter what season it is, they will be working 9-5 jobs...but also, it depends if it's their job to be on social media sites during the day, in which these spike periods can be useful. If not, then also posting before and after work with scheduling using Hootsuite, for example, can be very helpful.
  Again, this information is good for anyone in the biz and very useful to know..so I suggest you read this article and pay attention to your audience! Don't make it a one-way conversation..engage your audience and listen to them!
  
  
  http://mashable.com/2010/10/28/facebook-activity-study/

There's a new player in town

Chromebook is finally here. I just saw the commercial yesterday and read an article today, and I am very excited for it. If I could get a new laptop right now and pick anything I wanted, I would probably want a Chromebook. First of all, I hate Macs. I don't see what the huge deal about them is. They still confuse me and I don't understand why they have to be so incredibly different from PCs in the way you do things. I will never have a Macbook.

Second, I love Chrome. Even if I'm using a computer at school that doesn't have Chrome on it, I will download it as the browser and use it. I hate Internet Explorer (I think we all do) and don't know why computers still have it as the main web browser anymore. At least choose Mozilla over Internet Explorer! But even still, I like Chrome so much better. It's so much easier to use than the other browsers, it's faster, smarter, and I think just better in general. If Chrome can be such a good browser and Google such a great company, I have no doubt that Chromebook will be very popular and a great laptop.

Reference: http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/18/the-time-has-come-for-chrome-os-in-the-home/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

Twitter activity affecting concerts' live streams

Well, social media has done it again. They have found a way to engage their audience in such a unique way that I am impressed. This upcoming weekend, the band Vampire Weekend will be playing on Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival. And they're planning on streaming the show on YouTube for its digital viewers. Not only do the viewers get to see the show online without having to leave their bedroom, but depending on how often they tweet during the show with the hashtag #AmexUnstaged, they can unlock online-only access to an encore by the band backstage. 

What a great way to get even more people talking about the band and the show. Normally, only the people who were actually at the concert would probably be able to tweet about it, but now they're offering a way to drive even more engagement and interact with their followers. This is such a great idea for spreading the word about the different bands and artists that are doing this. Kenny Chesney also did this during one of his beachside concerts in that depending on how many tweets viewers sent would determine the number of songs he would play in his encore (not 10,000 songs for 10,000 tweets, but more tweets means more songs--aka a 9 song encore). 

They wanted to make sure they had something special for the digital audience, which I think is a great idea and in the future will have even more people talking about whatever subject is involved. For Usher's concert, they had viewers send in digital avatars of themselves for a chance to be virtual back up dancers. There is so much potential with social media for the future, and I'm excited to hopefully work in the Social Media Marketing world and participate in some of these amazing ideas. 

Source: http://mashable.com/2013/04/28/vampire-weekend-concert-live-stream-steve-buscemi/

Mobile Marketing Tactics

In light of our recent discussion in Social Media Marketing about Mobile Marketing, I figured this would be an appropriate time to talk about mobile marketing tactics, since, from what we learned, advertisers are not doing the best job in this category.

1. Know what you want your mobile prospects or customers to do next.

• So many people are using their mobile devices as their way of accessing the internet, engaging with others, and for games, so make sure your customers know what you want them to do because they're going to be on their phones...be sure to communicate with them!

2. Develop mobile content that enhances your product. 

• What do your customers care about most? Find out what will deliver value to them and make sure you offer that to them!

3. Focus on the one or two things for which mobile users will use your site.

• Make your mobile site easy to use since mobile users are usually just on for short periods of time, or "snacking," so be sure fulfill their needs as efficiently as possible.

4. Tell stories that hook your viewers and set up the action.

• Tell stories to engage your customers and use videos to draw them on, such as on Vine.

5. Craft videos to ensure viewers see at least half of your content. 

• 25% of YouTube videos are viewed on mobile devices, and 40-60% of viewers don't want the entire video, so make sure that what you need to say is at the beginning and try to entice them to click out to your other content.

6. Create content that works within bandwidth limitations.

• Make sure your consumers can access your information

7. Measure more than the mobile impressions. 

• Track mobile impact in terms of mobile website, apps, in-store activity, cross device use, and calls

Final Four Weekend

The Final Four was this weekend, with the final game ending tomorrow between Michigan State and Louisville. I could not think of a better way to spend my weekend than I did this weekend. I was able to be a part of the Social Media Street Team as a volunteer and help out on Friday and Saturday. Not only did they give us about $100 worth of Nike gear to wear while we worked that said Final Four Atlanta 2013 on it, but I got to spend two days listening to some great bands in the beautiful weather. 

I got to pass out free t-shirts, hand out Bracket Town tickets, get people to do crazy stuff for me like push up contests, beer chugging contests, funny photos, dance contests, and an arm wrestling competition. I was taking videos and pictures all weekend and had an absolutely amazing time. I could not have asked for a better way to spend my time or work. Even though it was tiring, it was such a rewarding experience and got me really excited for when I graduate and can hopefully do more things like this in the future for my job. 

How do you keep up??

These days, there is just way too much stuff. Too much stuff on the internet, too many websites to visit, too many news channels to read and watch, too many social platforms, and just too many people to talk to. How do we keep up with it all? It's hard to stay on top of things because so much can get in the way of what we're doing at the time..whether we read an email and forget about it, go on vacation and can't get to our email for a few days, don't know the latest trend going on, or miss something that someone posted on Facebook or Twitter that eventually disappears in a few hours. 

The best way is to just prioritize your life. Figure out what is most important and start with that. For email, for instance, try responding to an email right away rather than reading it and then saying you'll get back to it. Or, if you have email that is more than 2 weeks old and you haven't done anything about it...delete it! Or archive it at least...make folders with different names so you know where everything is and can find it more easily. 

As for trends, it usually doesn't matter if you're on top of every single one or are the first one to know about something...unless it's your job to. You'll find out eventually and no one will know that you didn't already know. I am usually the last person to know about things and I've learned to live with it. I don't always have the time or energy to read news and keep up with celebrities or fashion trends. So, just prioritize what's more important and worry about that. Don't fret about keeping up with everything and worry about making time for everything every day. Just do the most important things first.