Social Media News of the Day: July 29, 2010

Update for Facebook Mobile?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has added the Facebook App onto his new Android phone, according to his profile. If Zuckerberg has genuinely switched over to the Android then he will quickly find out that his own company’s app needs a little (let’s be honest, A LOT) of work. I have to deal with this app and its short-comings on a daily basis.  Android users would like to be able to chat, easily open links and get mobile updates just like our iPhone and Blackberry-using friends! Anyone else frustrated with Facebook on the Droid?

Getting Down to Social Media Business!

Social media has taken heat in the past for being a distraction to employees. I know that at my first job Facebook was banned on our server (bummer).  In reality, social media can increase a company’s productivity and help employees increase their efficiency and effectiveness.

Networking in the 1990s consisted of bars, restaurants, out-of-town conferences and long phone calls. Now companies can save money and time by networking with a simple tweet, Facebook post or a LinkedIn comment. Instead of it taking several after work dinners to build a connection, it can take a few seconds.

Social media collects an enormous amount of data for companies but it doesn’t have to cause information overload. Here at Step Ahead Inc. , we use TweetDeck multiple times daily to monitor client Twitter accounts, find mentions of these clients and to respond to relevant tweets. With only a few minutes I have customized and narrowed down massive amounts of information to just include my specialized needs.

There are several other wonderful ways that social media is boosting work performance; check out this article from Mashable to learn more!

Do you know Laura Angermeier?

Laura Angermeier

BIRTH DATE AND PLACE: June 1981 at San Antonio.

RESIDENCE: Johns Island.

OCCUPATION: Project manager at Step Ahead Inc., a social media and public relations company in Mount Pleasant.

FAMILY: Husband, Eric Angermeier, 29; son, Andrew, 4.

EDUCATION: B.S. in business administration, majored in marketing and minored in public relations; completed 12 hours in MBA program at USC.

LAST BOOK I READ: “Go Dog Go,” a bedtime story for my son.

INTERESTING FACT ABOUT MYSELF: I am an Army brat, so we moved around a lot! I attended 10 different schools by the time I was in ninth grade.

FIRST JOB: McDonald’s. I was only 15, so I wasn’t allowed to cook the food, so no greasy french fry shift for me.

SOMETHING IMPORTANT LIFE HAS TAUGHT ME: Things will work out, just give them a chance!

WHEN I WAS YOUNGER, I WANTED TO BE: In marketing. I used to play a game with my brother where we’d pick a random item in our house and try and make up jingles and commercials for it.

FAVORITE CHILDHOOD MEMORY: Hopping over the rocky California coastline with my brother and sister at Point Lobos State Park, looking in tidal pools and watching for whales.

SOMETHING I DO THAT IS SILLY BUT FUN: Eat kids’ cereal for dinner. Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes just taste so delicious.

DREAM VACATION: Bora Bora!

July Social Media Star: Misty Lackie

These days, companies of all sizes are diving into the world of social media, and Misty Lackie, CEO of Go Smart Solutions, LLC, is making it easier and more affordable than ever for small businesses and individuals to create and customize their social media “brand”. Misty started Twitbacks.com, a tool that helps create free and affordable custom Twitter backgrounds. Twitbacks.com is a huge success and has been featured in BusinessWeek, CNET and PCWorld.

Misty has been involved with social media for years, and learned early on how valuable social media can be. Currently she sees how powerful and valuable Facebook is for businesses and has created FaceItPages, a do-it-yourself system that allows businesses to create a professional Facebook business page without the designer price.

Here’s what Misty had to say about social media:

What is your job/company/profession/title?

I am the CEO of Go Smart Solutions, LLC. We develop self-serve online marketing solutions for businesses.

What was the first social media technology you used?

Back in the day, I would use discussion forums. I lived and learned in forums. I know there are some who may not consider this as a type of social media, but my belief is that forums were – and still are – an aspect of social media. The technology has been around for a while; it just wasn’t always in the form we’re familiar with today. Forums, social bookmarking, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are all forms of social media technology, in my opinion.

What is your favorite social media tool?

I use a lot of them, and some more than others, but my favorite social media tool at this time is Facebook. I feel like with Facebook I can engage on a deeper level with not only our members, but my family and my friends as well.

How have you used social media for your business/company and how has it benefited?

We mainly use social media to connect with our customers. We actually end up doing a fair amount of support through social media. In fact, our customers will sometimes contact us directly through Twitter or Facebook rather than by email or phone. We see these platforms as another way to be able to provide quality support to our customers in a setting they are comfortable with. We also use many social media platforms to monitor our brands and what’s being said about them. We have received some new business through social media, but it has mostly benefited us by keeping us visible with our existing customer base.

How much time would you say you spend a day engaging social media?

I normally spend about an hour per day unless we are releasing something new or dropping a press release. In these cases, I will spend more time managing the messaging for the new release.

How do you incorporate it into your day so it’s not a time waster?

Great question! It is easy to get caught up and spend hours in the different social media platforms, which can cause you to become less productive in other business operations. I have been guilty of this. I set my schedule to check the major platforms in the morning and in late afternoon. I also have alerts set up that I monitor at least once per day. I don’t allow myself to spend more than 1/2 hour in the morning and 1/2 hour in the afternoon on these platforms (collectively). I have also trained myself not to get distracted throughout the day while working on other things. This same type of discipline can also apply to things like email or phone calls. As a small business owner, it is important to manage your time; if you are spending all of it in the social media platforms, on the phone or answering emails, you may be loosing valuable time growing your business. I have set times throughout the day where I will answer emails, take or return calls, monitor social media, and do anything else that may need my attention.

Is there a social media tool/technique that you think is underutilized that you would like people to know about?

I think Facebook business pages are underutilized. Our company uses various Facebook business pages and each send a decent amount of traffic to our sites. I also think many companies are not using social media as a support channel. Being able to support our customers through these channels has been invaluable to us.

How did you come up with TwitBacks?

TwitBacks started out as an office conversation. We were discussing how there was a new business trend with Twitter backgrounds and how designers were charging hundreds of dollars for these. I mentioned that I could create an app that would allow people to create their own Twitter backgrounds using templates and have the output save as an image. It was statement that I wasn’t really even serious about but Candis, our marketing communications rep, thought it was a great idea and hounded me for weeks about it. So I registered the domain and decided to make it a weekend side project. The very first release was very minimal, but it went totally viral. CNET and some other big sources picked us up. From there we built onto it and have just been adding more features over time.

Do you have any new services coming out?

Our latest service is FaceItPages. It is a DIY system that allows businesses to create a professional Facebook business page with your branding, links, etc.  Following are a few pages that have been created through the service.

FaceItPages.com

Estudiar Hoteleria

Shoes Online

Lauren Mcmullen – Your Social Media Marketing

Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland

We are also working on a video advertising platform, VidShout, which will allow business to create video ads (commercials) with landing pages and have those video ads published online to video portals, shopping comparison sites, directories, etc.

Where can people find you online and via social media?

http://www.gosmart4u.com

http://twitter.com/gosmart4u

http://www.facebook.com/gosmart

http://www.linkedin.com/in/gosmartsolutions

Social Media News of the Day: July 28, 2010

YouTube Done Right!

At this point everyone has seen and fallen in love with the Old Spice “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign. For anyone who’s not had the pleasure of seeing this become the archetype for social media campaigns, here’s a blog I wrote a few weeks ago to get you up to date! Old Spice is now seeing the fruits of their labor with sales doubling. Congrats Old Spice and Isaiah Mustafa (the Old Spice guy)!

We Will Always Remember @IvyBean104

The oldest tweeter, Mrs. Ivy Bean of England, passed away last night. Mrs. Bean (isn’t she cute?!) had 56,000 followers on Twitter and was an active Facebook member, as well. What she taught us at Step Ahead Inc. is that social media can be accessed and used by all ages, all over the world, and that in itself is a very powerful thing! Ivy, we will miss you and I will forever use you as my example when friends say “I don’t get twitter, it’s hard to use!”

Move Over Brangenlia, The New “It” Couple is Amazbook!

This is what the headlines would read if this blog was on OK! Magazine or People! Amazon and Facebook are partnering up to provide their customers with the most customized experience. You can link your Facebook account with your Amazon account, allowing the site to give you recommendations based on your interests and recent activity.

*** I would like to state that I do not read trashy magazines regularly but, come on, it’s beach season, people!

Social Media News of the Day: July 27, 2010

Leave the Keychain Behind

“Do you have your CVS ExtraCare card?” This phrase I love and hate. Love because I knowam about to save money, hate because it is going to take forever to find the right membership card on my keychain. Cardstar is a smart phone app for iPhone and Android users that keeps all your loyalty cards in one place on your mobile device! What’s even better is now you can “check in” on Foursquare through this app, as well. This will help companies to better understand their loyal customers’ habits but it will also be an easy reminder for you to check in!

Bump Me!

This mobile app is probably the easiest way to share information with your friends by simply bumping your phones together. They just released their newest version which will allow you to bump with friends  to connect with them on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I can’t find the updated Bump 2.0 in my Android marketplace but for all my iPhone-using friends here it is! Now if Bump/Verizon/AT&T would only allow Android users and iPhone users to bump each other, I would be a happy little “mobile” camper!

Mindless Fun

We all have those after work rituals whether it be the gym, a nice walk or the long commute home. There’s something all these routines have in common: time to NOT THINK! I love my job, could not ask for anything better, but when I want to turn off my work brain, I just turn on MTV. It’s a guilty pleasure and this week Jersey Shore will be back for their second season, full of fist pumping, tanning, Snookie and The Situation!

MTV has used social media and mobile devices to promote the new season. Today they released a Facebook game and iPhone app that allows you to navigate through a cartoon Jersey Shore world. Will you play, or more importantly, will you fist pump?

Yet Another Reason to Update Your Facebook Page

Having a Facebook friend page is a great first step in marketing your business with social media, but it’s only a first step. In order to get the most benefit from your page, you need friends, and in order to attract friends, you need to update frequently with interesting content.

Facebook recently introduced a new feature that automatically suggests pages for new users to “Like.” This feature is placed second in the Facebook signup process, just behind the finding friends page. They’ve also added a section on the top right of your Home page where they sometimes recommend pages for you to “Like.” So how can you take advantage of these new features to help promote your page?

Facebook says the pages chosen to suggest will be based on the pages that people in the same demographic commonly “Like”, and how much the pages are updated and engage with friends.

So, if you’ve been waiting for yet another reason to frequently update your page with good content and reach out to your friends, here it is!

Before you start updating, here are few rules to keep in mind:

1. Update 1 to 3 times per day, even on weekends and holidays!

2. Update at different times of the day, and then monitor which times are most successful.

3. Ask friends to click “Like” when posting. It’s much easier to click “Like” than to actually comment.

4. Make updates conversational and casual.

5. Add in photos and videos when appropriate.

6. Respond quickly to questions and comments, within 24 hours if possible.

Now go start updating and build up your friend base! Have any more tips? Share with us here!

Social Media News of the Day: July 26, 2010

Ford Uses Social Media to Reveal 2011 Explorer

Everyone’s talking about the brand new reinvented Ford Explorer. I have to admit this morning I tried everything not to look at this new car simply because I have wanted an SUV since I was 16, but I knew (and still know) I wouldn’t be able to park it! But, between Facebook updates, the Today show reveal and Mashable’s every few hours tweets, I can’t escape the beauty of this new car.

This is the first time that a major car company has used ONLY social media to promote a new product and not the typical auto show. Be sure to check their Facebook page out to see what all this vehicle has to offer! Is Ford changing the way the auto industry does premiers and uses social media?

Revive Me From Check-in Fatigue!

I am an avid check-in girl for Foursquare but with the growing number of users, it’s harder for me to become the mayor of anything and I haven’t received a badge in who knows how long! I’m not the only one feeling this fatigue and Foursquare knows it. Here’s a great article from Smart Brief about what the future of Foursquare looks like and how they plan to keep us checking in for years to come.

Tweet! You’re Famous

Nabisco pulled off a great social media campaign a few months ago, surprising Wheat Thin tweeters with a gift that correlates with their tweet! The company is taking this to a new level by creating at least two 30-second TV commercials starring these tweeters. Want to learn more about the campaign? Check out this article from Media Post Publications.

Social Media News of the Day: July 22, 2010

Facebook Is Consuming My Thoughts

After Diane Sawyer interviewed Mark Zuckerberg last night on ABC News, I have not stopped thinking about Facebook. There have been all the articles about Facebook reaching 500 million users, and then the leak about the new feature called Facebook Stories, which allows users from all over the world to share how they use the social network.

I don’t feel like my Facebook “story” is interesting enough to share. I mainly used it in college to brag about dating the drummer of a well known band! What’s your Facebook Story? Will you share it on the new feature?

Whether or not our own stories are intriguing, here are some “intriguing” little known facts about the social networking giant, compliments of Mashable!

FarmVille Hits the Mainstream!

Ok, I have to admit I’ve never truly understood the obsession with FarmVille, the social networking game. My idea of getting on Facebook is to check my messages and comments, look at any new pictures  my friends have posted and maybe stalk an ex-boyfriend or two (kidding about the stalking!).

I would never think to milk my cows, plant that corn I purchased yesterday and pull all the weeds from my garden. But, for those 65 million users of FarmVille this is their social media reality and now they can earn Farmville bucks just by shopping at their local grocery stores.  Here’s how!

The Most Personalized Magazine Ever!

Flipboard is a new free iPad app that takes your Facebook and Twitter accounts and spits it back out in a beautiful magazine like format. Once you’ve added your accounts, Flipboard will create a cover to the magazine and table of contents based on the information in those social networks.

It’s interested in the material with which you have had a lot of interaction, whether that be retweets, multiple comments or a friend that you message with consistently. This is a complex application, but here’s a great video with the CEO to explain better!

Social Media News of the Day: July 21, 2010

Foursquare Hits Another Milestone

The location-based social networking site reached 100 million check-ins yesterday (is there a badge for that?)! They’re recording around one million check-ins a day and have seen tremendous growth in recent months! With Foursquare in talks with major search engines, this once again proves that geolocation is the next big thing!

Social Media and Street Food, A Perfect Pair

I might be the only “adult” in America who will admit to watching MTV’s Teen Mom, and loving it! My favorite mom is Maci, her always unemployed ex-boyfriend Ryan and their adorable son, Bentley. Ryan’s dad tried several times last season to find him a job in construction, truck driving and even as a hot dog vender. After watching this video from Mashable, Ryan’s dad might be on to something with street food!

Just Give that Assignment to the Computer

As a long-time journalist, an article in Bloomberg Businessweek a couple of months back gave me pause. In fact, I found it truly disturbing. It was about a new piece of technology called Narrative Science that takes data-intensive information and turns out a news story.

The example was sports stories; stats are e-mailed to Narrative Science where a computer pops out an article in just a few minutes. The Big Ten Network is using the service as is Fox Cable for its baseball and softball coverage on its website.

As if journalists weren’t concerned enough about their jobs, now they have to worry they will be replaced by computers. “There’s no human author and no human editing,” Narrative Science CEO Stuart Frankel is quoted as saying.

And if you don’t have human authors and editors, you don’t have paychecks to hand out every two weeks. Sure, it’s a significant financial savings, but at what cost? Articles won’t have the context and perspective a human can bring. They won’t have the historical information and analytical eye that trained and experienced journalists provide. It’s a good bet the writing won’t be as polished and will probably be filled with clichés and unimaginative writing.

To bring this a little closer to home, from a public relations perspective, it’s a little tough to suggest a story idea or source to a computer.

Using a computer to generate short online stats-driven stories for the website and saving the meatier pieces for the journalists would certainly be a slightly better option, yet it still takes away jobs from interns and young reporters who often cut their teeth on these sorts of assignments.

Granted, widespread use of technology like Narrative Science may be many years in the future, but whether it’s five or 50, it’s unfortunate something like this would even be considered. It’s clear more and more people assume the skills of reporting, writing and interviewing are something anyone – even a computer – can do.

Next Page »