Too often we churn out Facebook status updates without putting enough thought into it – looking to ‘tick a box’ rather than get the most engagement possible. Most of us know we should be putting more effort into the content we are posting on one of our most prized and rewarding marketing channels, but the truth is Facebook updates are just one of those things that can be done pretty quickly, so when we look at the lonnnnng list of things to do for the day, it just happens to be one we can cross of pretty quickly. Well, here’s a few tips that should help you improve your status updates and get more engagement – put together in partnership with one of my favourite partners (the best in Facebook apps) Shortstack. Check out the lovely infographic below, or if you’re a no-crap type of person who just wants to read some old-fashioned text tips, I’ve included the tips below the infographic (though they are the abridged version!).

1. Post an interesting fact
2. Share a tip
3. Endorse content
4. Don’t always ask a question
5. Inspire action
6. Tell users what to expect
7. Add a P.S.!
8. Use short links
9. Use images with text
10. Ask users to comment

Do you have any other proven tips for putting together successful and engaging Facebook status updates? Please share below!

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Spring is in the air (at least, in the USA), so it’s time to pin house cleaning ideas, landscaping inspiration and the fresh, bright colors that the spring season is known for. But what’s this? Pinterest has been changing things around, impacting both users and businesses who are invested in Pinterest marketing. March saw a lot of changes—some good, some bad—so Pinterest has taken note of the feedback.

What’s Old is New Again

Some Pinterest users were not happy with the older features and styles that got taken away as part of the March revamp, according to CMS Wire. Some of the features that came back from the dead includes “See it now,” which automatically forwards a user to a pin they posted, finding out the source of a repin, @mentions and Find Friends. The Find Friends function works with your Twitter or Facebook friends so you can follow your social network’s pinning activity.

Brand New to Pinterest

The changes to Pinterest include a larger image size, increasing from 600 to 735 pixels, a drop down category box, a new button for pinning, a source link to take you to the website the pin was originally from and related pins so you can browse around the site. The Settings page has undergone plenty of changes as well, according to Mashable.

Business Tools

While Pinterest has removed important marketing features, such as hashtags and links in descriptions, it compensated by adding in a number of new business tools. Many business tools were added to the service, making this high-traffic site even more desirable to marketers working in this demographic, according to Copyblogger.

You have the ability to convert your Pinterest account to a business account. Visually, your account looks identical to a standard Pinterest account when it comes to your boards and pins. However, you get access to the business tools to help you market on this platform.

The major addition is the web analytics that provides you with information on what gets the most repins, metrics on your own pinning and how much of a reach you have with the audience. While Pinterest might have taken away the ability to farm likes on Facebook with pinning directly, this information gives you a way to really tailor your marketing strategy.

Many Pinterest users and businesses take advantage of the best online backup services to save a copy of every pin. Developers have even created new tools solely for Pinterest to ensure not one pin is lost to hackers or computer errors.

Features Missing From Pinterest

Pinterest is focusing on the user experience, but there are something that could be updated:

• User messaging is an odd feature to not have at such a social site, according to Mashable. It makes little sense that two users are forced to communicate through pins only and can’t contact each other directly via Facebook.
• If a user tends to pin a lot of destination images, it would be great to be able to add them to a category to filter your feed based on categories.
• There are plenty of times when I can’t remember what board I pinned something on. Some of the boards overlap. A great feature would be the ability to search your own boards for a pin.
• While Pinterest has updated its features to give you the ability to edit pins more easily, being able to edit multiple pins to add them to a board at once would be a little more user-friendly.

What do you think about the latest changes?

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These days the focus on Facebook for business is less about the initial set-up and more about “what’s next”. Everyone already has a Page and a basic content strategy, and now they are looking to step it up a notch by jazzing up their page with some cool Facebook apps and driving engagement through competitions. But how do you take that step? Should you engage a social media agency to look after it for you? Or hire some whiz web developer to build your Facebook contest?

No! Get out of town. You can do it all yourself with a number of third-party tools out there that use drag and drop functionality so you can easily build the tab you want (whether it be a competition, form, simple image or otherwise) without needing to write a line of code.

This was exactly what Wildfire did (and still does, albeit only for enterprise). Like many other social/web services before it, Wildfire recognised the potential for enterprise and decided to focus solely on big business moving forward. There are now no plans available for small to medium business.

So what other tools are out there, and which tool is the best? I’d be lying if I said I’d properly tested them all. I haven’t. But I can tell you which one I use, and why. And I can give you some other alternatives to check out. So I guess without further ado perhaps I should actually do that, right? Riiiight.

The best Facebook Application Tool according to Cara Pring (who is otherwise known the genius of all things social and internet-ish) (…not really)

I have been using the same Facebook apps tool for the last couple of years – Shorstack. I love them! How can you not love a company who on their about page lists their CEO as ‘Overlord and “Pancake Guy”’ I mean for anyone who has read virtually any of my other articles on this godforsaken (cough, awesome) site, you gotta know that’s the type of thing I’d be into.

A couple of years ago I was so enthused by these guys I got in touch with said Overlord and we’ve built a partnership ever since. But it’s not just the team that’s awesome, their customer service and overall offering is also pretty cool. My favourite thing about them is they are constantly improving. That is what online businesses need to be about – continuous improvement – and these guys get an A+. Every other week there’s a new feature and they work closely with Facebook so that they are always on top of Facebook’s fifty million changes every quarter.

Shortstack caters really well to the small to medium business group, which is another reason I love them. Their pricing options are:

• Free: Up      to 2,000 Fans (some limitations on widgets and features)
• $30/Month: Up      to 25,000 Fans (all widgets and nearly all features)
• $75/Month: Up      to 100,000 Fans (full white label and all features)
• $150/Month: Up      to 250,000 Fans (full white label and all features)
• $300/Month: No      Fan Limit (full white label and all features)

They also provide countless templates for competitions, contact forms, sweepstakes and even seasonal tabs like Valentines Day and Mother’s Day, plus targeted tabs for places like restaurants etc. You don’t need to know any code at all, however you can also customise using CSS, HTML and iFrames if you are a designer/developer (or have one on your team).

They’ve got something like 30 different widgets to drag into your tab – images, forms, Twitter integration, YouTube… even MailChimp. And for competitions they even have ready-made refer-a-friend and voting functionality – no complex code required!

At the risk of this starting to sound like one huge advertisement I will move on – but I did write another review on Shortstack a couple of years ago. They’ve definitely improved even more since then, but it may prove useful if you’re looking into signing up.

So if Overlords and Pancake Guys aren’t your thing, what are some other Facebook App service options?

 PageModo: Includes free plan for one page and one tab, otherwise starts at around $6 per month (one page) and upwards.

TabFusion: $40-$200 per year depending on the plan

Tabsite: Has free plan if you want to have ads and only minimal functionality. Otherwise paid plans between $10-$30 a month.

Heyo (formally Lujure): Between $3-$95 per month.

If I was truly a social media goddess as everyone (EVERYONE) proclaims me to be, I would provide a really detailed comparison of all of these services, which obviously would be more helpful to you. However, I’m a real person who tries to have a real life, and unfortunately that means I don’t have TIME TO DO EVERYTHING.  I’m just one person dammit! And to be honest, Shortstack is just so damn awesome, I really don’t see the need to check these other ones out. But please, if you have used another tool, share your feedback below. Just beware that obvious SEO spammers will have their comments deleted, and their families destroyed. Not really that last part, but I just wanted to try and make it sound even less appealing.

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It might be easier to count who is not on Twitter. The short-form social network attracts people from every industry imaginable. So, on such a popular network, how do you stand out?

Here are 4 tips to help you ensure that your Twitter account is headed in the right direction, thanks to Sabreena Thouli (yes, it’s another guest post. Don’t judge me.)

1) Make Sure Your Profile is Eye-Catching and Complete

Most people avoid spammers – that is, accounts that tweet irrelevant information, or even harmful links, all the time. So don’t let your account look like it could be a spammer – you will have followers, but not the right ones.

Start by making sure that your Twitter handle is short(ish), relevant to your brand, and doesn’t have any crazy characters in it. For example, if you are setting up an account for your clothing brand, your Twitter handle might be something like @BrandName – easy! @Brand_&_Name_55 is too long, and too hard to remember.

Next make sure that you fill in the bio section completely, including what your brand is, where you are located, who is tweeting from the account (especially if there are multiple people tweeting), and the URL to your website. Also pick an appropriate picture, such as your company logo, as well as a background and header. Don’t overwhelm people with your background, but make sure that it represents your brand well. Note that any links in the background image are NOT clickable, so make sure you put links in the bio section.

2) Tweet About What You Said You Would Tweet About

There’s nothing more annoying than following someone whose bio says they tweet about social media tips and tricks, but they actually only tweet about what they ate that day and share photos of delectable desserts.

Tweet about what you tell people you tweet about! Every now and then it’s okay to share some other random piece of information, but that shouldn’t be the bulk of your content. Your tweets should be valuable to your followers, and should give them a reason to keep following you.

You should also tweet other peoples’ content – not just your own. If you only share your content, you look selfish, not to mention boring. Share articles that you enjoy, or that you think your followers will enjoy or find useful. Make sure this content is still somewhat in line with what you said you would tweet about. Don’t share 10 recipes for how to make cupcakes if you’re supposed to be tweeting about social media marketing.

3) Engage with Followers in a Timely Fashion

Have you ever sent someone a text message only to have them reply four hours later? Twitter is also instant! Now most people understand that a major brand may not be able to respond to inquiries immediately, but no matter what size your company is, you should respond in a timely manner – I would say that is within a few hours for a small-to-medium sized business, but this will vary.

If you become extremely overloaded with tweets containing questions that you absolutely must answer, then add a line in your bio that says something along the lines of, “We pride ourselves in engaging with our customers personally; however, this means we may take slightly longer to tweet you back! We apologize for the delay.” Make sure you add in another way for them to contact you if they’re question is time sensitive, and consider giving them a time frame, such as, “We will definitely respond to you within the next 24 hours.”

This is not ideal, as some may think you are not able to handle social media, but it does demonstrate your commitment to being personal with customers; people like when they communicate with humans and not robots. By providing them with a time frame, and an alternate way to contact you, you are also showing that you understand that their time is valuable as well – people like that too.

Not every reply needs to be intricate, so don’t become overwhelmed just because lots of people are tweeting you! If they say they like your product/service, a simple “Thank you!” may suffice.

If someone asks a question that you can answer through a tweet then do it; don’t tell them to call or email you unless that is the only way for them to receive all of the information that they need. Customers want quick answers, and they don’t want to do any extra work to get that answer unless it is absolutely necessary.

4) Separate Customer Service from Marketing and Engagement

When your company is first starting out, you may only need one Twitter handle, but as you start to grow, and more people starting interacting with you, you may want to consider separating customer service tweets from everything else.

Separating the two departments online makes it easier for you to respond to questions and concerns that may be more time sensitive than other general tweets. You can also have different people managing the accounts, so someone who has been trained in customer service can handle the online customer service inquiries as well.

Separating the two is not difficult, but you will want to make sure that the customer service account name is similar to the main account name. A good example of this is Instagram – their main handle is @Instagram and their support handle is @InstagramHelp (see image).

All Done?

These are just a handful of the many, many Twitter tips that are out there. If you ever think your Twitter needs a pick-me-up, first take a step back and identify what the issue may be. You might think you’re not tweeting enough for your followers, when in reality you may just be tweeting at the wrong times.

If you integrate these tips, and always look at Twitter with fresh eyes, your followers will be pleased.

This article was written by Sabreena Thouli based on tips gathered from SocialMediaTips.com.

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When I first started The Social Skinny I remember talking with someone in the industry who warned me against ever diversifying the content on my blog. He maintained that once you start writing about things other than your core topic area, you invite doom to your blog, to your life and all those who you’ve ever met.  Well, maybe that’s exaggerating his warning slightly, but the advice has stuck with me over the past couple of years, and I’ve stuck to writing about social media – often ignoring the urge to write general rants about people on public transport, the state of politics or why my cat must always wait for when I’m on the most important conference calls to jump on my computer and meow in my face.

But over those two years my career has developed past social media and into the ecommerce space, which means I’ve become somewhat of an expert (self-proclaimed, as usual) on website optimization, conversion, SEO etc. For a long time I’ve wanted to write about these topics, because I think (like social media) they are also relevant to a pretty high percentage of businesses out there – big and small.

 
I know I have a lot of loyal readers out there and because I (vaguely) care about what you think I was a little apprehensive of how website optimization content might be received on a site that has previously been pretty much solely dedicated to social media. So what to do? Use my very clearly demonstrated social media strategic abilities and apply them to my situation. Ask my Facebook Page fans! And that’s what I did. If you haven’t liked my page, you wouldn’t have known, and as a result you didn’t have a say. So my advice to you would be – and this could be the most important thing you do in your life – like my page. Anyway as you probably gathered by the title of this article, the overwhelming response by my Facebook community was yes please, let’s see what you’ve got for us in this new topic area. So here’s my first ‘diversified’ article on some simple and very actionable tips you can implement straight away to your site to improve your customer experience and increase conversion.

 
And now, without further self-aggrandizing and rambling crap, here are the aforementioned tips for you, Social Skinny style:

…Oh wait, one more thing. I haven’t focused on SEO or cart optimization in the tips below because I’ll post articles on these two subjects soon.

1.       Update your ‘about page’. Such a simple thing to do (and so hypocritical of me to say), but if you want people to buy from you and trust you as a business, you need to make sure your ‘about’ page is up to date, clear, has no spelling/grammatical errors and speaks to your audience. Provide all the information you think your visitors might want to know about your business, but also put in some nice humanistic stuff too – if you’re a family business let them know, profile some of the key personnel, and let your potential customers know what your values are as a company. You want to gain not only their trust, but also their preference, so make them like you (as well as get what you’re all about).

 
2.       Have clear, prominent key benefit claims. Why should they choose your business over your competitors? Free shipping? Free returns? Awesome customer service? Tailored Product? Free quote? Figure out what sets you apart and make it prominent on the site.

 
3.       Assess the hierarchy of your page. What do you want people to do when they arrive on your homepage? Where should they be clicking? What draws the most attention? Design is important, but what is more important (that a lot of graphic designers don’t necessarily understand) is the user experience. Your site might look GREAT, but if it’s not intuitive and easy to navigate – if your visitors don’t know what they should be doing next – you’ve got a problem.

 
4.       Do you have a clear call to action? Are there too many calls to action? When someone lands on your page, what is the main thing you want them to do? Is it to sign up to your newsletter, buy your product or simply view your gallery? Is it to call you for more information or to book/buy? Whatever your key objective is from your website, make sure you have a big fat call to action (CTA) for your visitors to do just that. BUY NOW, CALL FOR A QUOTE, SIGN UP – whatever you want your customers to do the most, make sure that’s what stands out on your page. This CTA must be the most prominent element on your page. Don’t make your visitors work to figure out what to do next. You can have more than one call to action on your page, but make sure you take hierarchy (see point 3 above) into account and make the most important CTA the most prominent.

 
5.       Concise and relevant site navigation – can people find what they are looking for? Do you have a ‘home’ link in your navigation (this is a pet hate of mine if I can’t easily get back to home)? Do you have too many links in your navigation, which is likely overwhelming your customers? Think about whether you could consolidate your navigation links. For example you may have links to ‘staff’, ‘about’, ‘company values’ and ‘history’ – this could all be put under ‘about’. How do your customers navigate your website? Are they looking via product category (in which case you could have the product categories as links in your nav)? Do you have clear customer segments like male/female (eg. Clothing retailer) or Student, Business, Consumer? If so, you might want to have these segment links in your navigation. Think about how people use your site and make sure you have the most relevant links here. And do not have too many.

 
6.       Language – are you speaking to your customer using the terms they would be using? Is it clear and concise? Don’t overdo it, you might have a lot to say but a lot of text is going to turn people off. If you need to have more, links to pages with more information can work. At the same time, you need to make sure you have the information your visitors are looking for. The most important thing here – make sure you’re talking in a language that your customers understand – don’t assume they know industry acronyms or jargon. If newspapers write for an audience of 12 year olds, it might not be a bad place for you to start too.

7.       Reassure your customers at every step – security messaging, testimonials, reviews, free returns, guarantees, trials. Don’t give them a reason not to buy from you – give them ten thousand reasons to buy from you.

 
8.       Move the most important links and info above the fold – putting information, links and CTA buttons on your website is not a ‘tick-the-box’ exercise. It doesn’t count if you just make sure you have it on there, somewhere. This feeds into point 3 about hierarchy a little – make sure that the most important information and calls to action are above the fold. What does this mean? It means when you view your site on an ordinary laptop (not a huge monitor) the most important information is visible on the screen without having to scroll down. Anything that requires scrolling to see is going to be seen by a lot less people. People hate scrolling, because people are lazy. So keep the important stuff as high on the page as you can, and don’t waste your prime real estate with pretty pictures and large navigation.

 
Those are just eight ways that you can help optimize your site to help boost conversion, but there are plenty more.  If you’ve got any other tips put them in the comments below, or if you’re too lazy you can just wait for my next article…

 
So that was it – my first diversified website conversion article – what do you think? Helpful or crap? Let me know what you think, because remember, I vaguely care

PS. yes I’ve started speaking in American English with the whole ‘optimize’… but that’s because looking at my visitation data I get more US visitors than AU… so I’m sorry Australia. You see we have the worldly knowledge to know that optimize is another way to spell optimise, but those Americans… well they assume it’s a spelling error. So please forgive me!

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Charles Trentham is diehard tech blogger who loves to write about software, technology, and future science. After retiring from a small telecom startup after the bubble burst, he’s been blogging full time, including some freelance work for Trend Micro, in order to feed his tech habits. He enjoys spending time with his family and Kelpie named Elaine.

As of October 4, 2012, Facebook reported having over a billion active users. With all these people connecting and sharing personal information, it’s more important than ever to protect yourself from hackers and spammers. Here, I’ll discuss several tips and suggestions to keep your information and accounts safe.

Arm your Device

The best thing you can do to protect sensitive information on your computer of social networking site is to invest in anti-virus software for your computer and mobile device, through well-known brands such as  Trend Micro. These days you can even get software specifically for your mobile device, for example this particular example (left) which runs off the Android platform - it detects and protects phones from malicious websites, apps, even text messages.

Not only will you be protecting yourself from hackers with software like this, but you will also be protecting your contact’s information; some viruses steal contact lists and spread the malware to all your friends.

Passwords

When it comes to hacking your account, this is the first thing that is tampered with. Unfortunately, most cyber-criminals get away with it because of one crucial mistake made by users: inadequate passwords. If you believe you’re secure with a password like “1234,” “password,” or “qwerty,” think again. These are within the top five most common passwords; hackers will try them all and more often than not they’ll get a hit. What should you do?

• Create a strong password: the best contain capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. To check the strength of your password check out http://www.passwordmeter.com
• Try not to use anything that can be found in the dictionary.
• Use a different password for every site; use variations of the same password to make them easier to remember.
• Never, ever have a list of your passwords anywhere on your computer or mobile device.
• Finally, change your passwords often.

Manage Security Settings

Sites like Facebook and Twitter are making it very easy for users to protect valuable information. Unfortunately, many users disregard the security features available to them. Here are a few important settings to change on Facebook:

• Secure browsing: enabling this ensures you are browsing via a secure connection (https).
• Login notifications: FB will send you a notification every time your account is accessed.
• Login Approvals: security codes are needed to access your account from an unfamiliar device.
• App passwords: one-time passwords sent to you to log in to your apps. This keeps your FB password safe when you link your apps to your Facebook account.
• Active sessions: This feature allows you to monitor what devices have accessed your account.

For Twitter:

• Tweet Privacy: When this option is clicked, only those who you have approved will be able to see your tweets.
• Password reset: This requires personal information like a phone number or email to reset a password.

One thing that applies to all accounts: disabling the location feature. The history of your location is enough for spam to infiltrate your account. Keep in mind that this type of spam will most likely not compromise your device.

Dangerous Downloads

With thousands of applications and files shared daily, it’s important to make sure that you’re downloading from a reputable site or person. However, you may be receiving messages and emails from a “friend” whose account has been hacked. So, it’s important to always trust your gut; if the message or file seems strange, chances are it is spam. This warning also applies to apps. You should especially watch out for apps that require access to your account. You should take inventory of your apps regularly, deleting those that you hardly use or don’t seem legitimate.

Watch where you surf

Wi-Fi hotspots are particularly dangerous places to access your social media accounts. Hackers can easily retrieve information from your accounts by tapping into the unsecured network.

If you are using a computer in a public place like a library or school computer lab, it is crucial to log out of every application you use and remember to enable the “secure browsing” feature.

Misleading Links

Many times you will see links with captions like “Justin Bieber Stabbed by Fan.” These are almost always false statements made to peak your interest and get you to click. The bad thing about these malicious links is that as soon as you click, the damage is done. In most cases, when you click the link it automatically begins downloading onto your computer deleting anti-virus software, making your computer vulnerable to all other attacks.

What can you do to protect yourself against bad links? Unfortunately, nothing. The trouble with links is that they spread via your “friends” hacked profiles. So what you perceive as a friend sending you the link to a funny cat video could potentially be a dangerous virus—or a funny video of a cat. You just never know. Here are some examples of what bad links may say.

• “I’m stranded, need money” – some hackers will pose as users stranded in a foreign country, and ask for money to get back home.
• “See who views your profile” – These links are popular because many users of social networking sites are interested in who sees their profiles. I know it’s tempting, but don’t click it.
• “Get this for free” – Offers for free merchandise are tricky and will usually lead to spam.
• “(Insert celebrity) did (something ridiculous)” – These links get a lot of action because many people are interested in the lives of celebrities, at the expense of their accounts security.

Twitter users should be especially weary of short links. These versions of URLs can evade anti-virus software. A simple fix is to copy the link and paste it onto a site like www.checkshorturl.com. Also, try not to re-tweet anything that you have not verified.

There you have it, several tips to keep you protected from hackers and spammers who make a living from annoying you and penetrating your accounts. Above all else, make sure to use common sense and trust your instincts. It’s time to be more aware of how we interact with each other and how we secure our information.

One last thing, if you think you have been a victim of malicious spam or have been hacked, report it to the “help centre” of the respective site. This helps professionals block further attacks, and develop better software.

 

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Too often I find that when brainstorming for ‘great’ social media campaign ideas we limit ourselves to thinking about what would work well online. It’s a natural connection to make – the social channels we want to harness are in the online world, so we often automatically think about what we can do online to stimulate connection or conversation.

However I think it’s often worth considering the options that involve the offline world because these tend to be the ones that get more traction. When you’ve got something that’s tangible – and even better that people can take a photo of, touch, taste, feel etc – you’ve got something that people will be more likely to share and talk about. And that should be what your social media campaign is all about – conversation and traction. It may not be as easy for them to like your Facebook Page or buy something from you, but it’s more likely to get you more awareness and stimulate excitement and enthusiasm for your product or service. Like any campaign it comes down to your objectives (and likely budget), but getting creative with social campaigns that involve major offline elements may be a great idea, particularly if you’re launching something new.

One example of a company that has thought outside the box is Telstra with their new MOG music streaming service. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a music streaming subscription service that allows you to stream music (duh), create playlists etc. It’s not exactly a ‘new’ concept out there, but what they did to launch the service was unique.

The Story of MOG – creating juice from tunes

Telstra and Social@Ogilvy worked together with a western Sydney fruit farmer to investigate the theory that sound encourages plant growth by playing tunes from MOG to an orchard of fruit trees that were then used to create a special fruit juice.

They then shipped crates of the juice to people around the country so they could taste the difference for themselves. I was lucky enough to get to taste three versions of the Made by MOG juice, and I have to say my favourite was the Blue Suede Juice – ‘a rockin’ fruit juice that was made from crushed apples grown to the sounds of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochrane, The Everley Brothers, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Johnny Rivers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Buddy Holly. I have to admit I felt a bit of a traitor to my generation not favouring the ‘Baby I was grown this way’ juice which was made from the tunes of Gaga, Rihanna, Adele, Katy Perry, Britney Spears and an array of other female stars of this decade.

My verdict? They were pretty tasty. I don’t know if it really was the MOG tunes that made them that way (I don’t want to steal credit from the apples themselves), but the concept of the campaign was nonetheless interesting. You can’t deny that they thought outside the box for this one, and as a result there’s been a lot more excitement and conversation about MOG than it’s likely there ever would have been had they launched with an online-only campaign promoting the service.

Win a $100 Ticketmaster voucher and/or a one-month subscription to MOG

If you’re in Australia and would like to win a $100 Ticketmaster voucher and a free one-month subscription to MOG, I’m running a simple competition on my Facebook Page here: https://www.facebook.com/thesocialskinny/app_172365919581767 (don’t forget to like it too ) It’s only open to Australians unfortunately and the competition closes 1 April 2013. All you need to do is share your email address and let me know what music you’d play to a fruit tree to make the tastiest juice.

The grand prize will win $100 Ticketmaster voucher and a one-month free subscription to MOG, and 9 runners-up will receive a free one-month subscription to MOG.

Good luck

Conclusion

Next time you start brainstorming some ideas for a social campaign, try to think of some offline ideas that are unusual, funny or interesting that may just get people talking and sharing more so than something you do online. If you execute the right way, you might find that the results blow you away.

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Still sitting on the fence in terms of whether social media is important for your business? It is. In this article Jamie Franks (yes, it’s another guest post) outlines why you need to be in the social media game and how it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Enjoy!

I hate to be the one to state the obvious, but Social Media is kind of a big deal. Popularity of movies, TV shows, books and even, perhaps especially, businesses live and die by their acceptance on sites like Facebook or Twitter. Before the internet became “mainstream,” advertising agencies had to capture the attention of the masses via TV and radio commercials and billboards, now there is an almost endless playground of digital space with which they, and you, can gleefully convince users to part with their hard earned cash. Doing things like posting reasonably consistent status updates for a business, or even encouraging customer reviews on social media sites can do a lot to increase traffic and revenue

This seems like a natural evolution, after all, the internet has become one of the staples of our culture, and at the center of internet culture is social media. It’s no secret that these places are massively popular, the 80% of  internet users visiting social networks or blogs spend, on average, nearly a quarter of their time on the internet there. According to this article, every minute of the day, 100,000 tweets are sent, 684,478 pieces of content are shared on Facebook, and 3,600 photos are downloaded on Instagram. That is a massive amount of media sharing being done in only 60 seconds. Multiply that by 60 for an hour, and then that by 24 for an entire day. It’s no wonder these places get targeted as prime real estate for advertising or for the hopeful up and coming artist to try to gain popularity.

Why, though? Why do people spend so much of their time updating their statuses or checking their feeds? Are we really that curious, as a society, about what our friends are eating for dinner? Or what grocery store they’re in right at this moment? It could just be that we’re all that nosy, but I think the reason has everything to do with wireless internet and mobile technology. The first iPhone was launched in June of 2007, opening the doors for the smartphones we all have glued to our hands today. With its clever web browser opening up to the actual internet and not the stunted 2G mobile browsers that had been available up until that time, people suddenly had the ability to surf and browse anywhere they wanted.

That being said, since 2007, social media usage has gone up roughly 230%.  Coincidence? I think not. Naturally, the iPhone’s iOS and Android successors opened up an entire world of mobility for consumers to play with. One question permeated everyone’s mind now that they didn’t have to wait until they were home or in a Starbucks to get connected, “What do we do now?” We invent Twitter and Tumblr, of course! We make easy to use apps for Facebook, for instant messengers, for anything that streams updates and pictures to and from your friends and family. We are suddenly more connected than we ever have been before; we meet people on the internet that we will never ever encounter in person. We check our phones 300 times a day, open up Facebook to see if anyone has posted anything interesting in the last five minutes. We post quips on Twitter about the dog we saw on the way to work. We write a quick blog entry before the movie starts.

The point is the advent of wireless and mobile technology has been massively important in the frequency with which we connect to other people. This is how we get all of our information nowadays, our news, our advertisements, product reviews, you name it. You, as a person who wants to be noticed, or who wants to sell something, need to tune into places like Twitter or Tumblr or Instagram. These have not only made the world a smaller, more intimate place, but, if you know where to look, it has made it easy for owners of small businesses to be successful and spread awareness of their product to the ever-growing web of human interaction.

James Franks is a writer by passion and writes for BroadbandExpert.com, a website that compares internet providers. He is happiest when writing and loves literature, games and technology.

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It’s the million dollar question (or questions?) – can you get a return on investment on your social media activities, and can it be measured?
 
Before I get into my answer, watch this video, mainly because it’s just so enjoyable to see marketing people (that aren’t us) getting slapped… and it also reminds me of the slap bet from How I met your mother (and HIMYM references are always good). So watch.

 
Ahh, don’t you feel better now? It seems providers like Adobe Social would have you believe that it is indeed possible to measure ROI from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc – but is this just a sales pitch or is it true?
 
It’s true. Well, to an extent. The real answer is probably somewhere around ‘it depends’, because there are some things that can be accurately measured and others that are not so easy. It also depends on what you see as ‘return’.
 
Probably your finance department (and maybe your senior management team) see ROI in the traditional sense of the word – financial return on your investment, because obviously this is what it is originally meant to mean. And typically this means in a direct-response, measurable way. So you spend $X on a campaign, and you then see a direct gain of $Y in revenue as a result. Implement a bit of Maths101 and there’s your return (hopefully it’s more than 100%).
 
Can you do this with social media? Of course you can. Well… when you’re dealing with direct-response initiatives within the channel. For example, if you implement a Facebook advertising campaign – you might spend $1,000 and by implementing some tracking or using a unique landing page or a promo code etc, you can directly attribute the resultant revenue from the campaign and thus calculate ROI. You can also do this via campaigns on your Facebook Page – implement a Facebook deal, or offer a unique promo code to your fans, or post a link to a unique landing page etc – it can easily be done. The same is true for advertising on other social media sites – just like advertising on any websites in general. All can be tracked, measured and calculated.
 
However what about the more hazy area of engagement and customer service? Can ROI be tracked here? Yes it can, but it’s not as clear-cut. It always depends on what resources you have at your disposal for starters. For example if you have 24/7 Twitter customer service and this is linked to a good CRM system you can probably track to some degree customer retention and acquisition. I can tell you from my years of social media response (oh the good old days) that there were plenty of times I knew I’d saved a customer or gained one from the social interaction. Maybe you can’t get this absolutely 100% right, but you can get a pretty good idea from your staff in the field if you’ve got the right systems in place. Then you just apply the average worth of a customer (which you should know!) and you can get a good idea of what social media is gaining you in terms of acquisition and retention per year. Now you might think well what is the spend on this so that I can work out the return – you could look at the salaries of the people doing the work, but you also have to factor in that their sole job may not be acquisition/retention, it may also be general customer service (saving you time/money in other customer service areas like phone/email), brand management, marketing etc. So if you wanted to get scientific, you could breakdown and quantify all aspects of their job responsibility and figure out what percentage of their time (or what percentage of their overall job description) is attributed to customer acquisition/retention – then you apply that to their overall salary to see what it’s costing you, to figure out ROI.
 
It’s all a bit complicated I know, but it can be done! There are also ways to try to establish the value of a Facebook fan or like, but these are almost more for show than really useful, in my opinion.
 
Of course there are some things that just can’t be adequately quantified – for example social media is not all about sales. As much as your CEO might like it to be – it is a fair amount to do with general customer service and brand reputation. So if your business doesn’t apply ROI metrics to your customer service department or receptionist, then perhaps it’s not fair to apply them completely to social media either. Some social media activity can be tracked, measured and evaluated, other activity isn’t designed to be so straight forward.
 
Do you measure the ROI of your social media activity? Do you think it works?

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Guest post by Jim Belosic, CEO of ShortStack

Foreword: I know I have been relying too heavily on guest posts of late and I swore to myself the next post on The Social Skinny would be one of my own, but I simply couldn’t pass up the opportunity to feature this great post from the king of Facebook applications, Jim Belosic. If you’ve read some of my past articles, like How to run a Facebook competition without getting your Page shut down, How to create a Facebook welcome page and get more fans or How to create easy and affordable Facebook tabs, you’ll know that I rely heavily on (and strongly recommend) Shortstack to easily design and implement Facebook tabs. So if you haven’t checked it out already, you should – but in the meantime read on to find out just what tabs/apps you should consider implementing on your Facebook Page to increase engagement, get more likes and improve your customer service. Thanks Jim for your contribution, and anyone who is keen to implement any of these tabs (or others), please feel free to get in touch with me for advice or help!

Anyone who sets up a Facebook Page to use as a business-promotion tool obviously wants to use it to its fullest potential. One of the easiest ways to do that is to add apps. Using an app increases visibility — whenever anyone uses the app an announcement is made on his/her wall and is visible to his/her followers — plus apps allow to you customize your Page and integrate all of your other marketing efforts on Facebook.

The type of business you’re in will determine which apps are the most beneficial, but there are some that are pretty universally helpful. Here are a few that I recommend:

1       Contest/Promotion app. Apps for hosting contests and giveaways are super popular on Facebook. And with good reason. Contests can drive traffic and significantly increase engagement. But only if you do them right. Lots of factors go into running a successful contest but there are three that you can’t ignore:

• Following Facebook’s terms of service

• Keeping the entrance requirements simple

• Offering a prize that is relevant to your business.

If you want to learn more, I wrote a piece awhile back for Social Media Examiner that includes details about promotions and lots of tips for running a successful contest.

2       Newsletter app. Why add a newsletter signup app to your page? Because it’s an easy way to increase your business’ visibility. As a bonus, you can ask people to like your Page in order to reveal the newsletter signup form. That way you have an additional way to communicate with your users. You can use status updates to tease newsletter content and then direct your fans to the app where they can sign up to receive the newsletter.   At ShortStack we use MailChimp but there are other options that also have integrations that are easy to use.

3       RSS Feed app. If you’re a blogger, you definitely want an RSS Feed app on your Facebook page because it allows you to bring your blog right to your fans. It’s always smart to reach out to your fans/customers where they are and installing an RSS Feed is an easy way to do this. You can do status updates with a “link here to see what’s new” that links to the RSS feed app. You can also keep the RSS app pinned to the top of your page so it shows off your latest content.  If you’re running ads, point them to the RSS feed app where your latest post is featured.

4       Current Events app. Facebook offers a default version of an events app (within the status update box you can create events) but using a third-party app provider to create an events app allows you to customize the look of the event to complement your Facebook page and/or website. One reason to create an event with an app is that when you alert your fans/friends to the event, they don’t view it as spam. If you frequently host events, using an app makes them easy to promote what’s happening now as well as what you have going on down the road.

5       Reservation/Appointment app. Any small business owner who wears many hats should definitely use an app that allows his or her clients/customers to request or even book appointments or reservations via Facebook. You can ask for name, telephone number and times that a customer wants to come and then call them to book or confirm an appointment. You can also iFrame in a more sophisticated reservation system that will actually make the reservation for your customers, something like OpenTable.

6       Request for More Information app. What better way to avoid overwhelming your staff with requests for more information about your company’s products that by letting prospective customers ask for specific information that you can then email them or link them to? Maybe they want to see menus or lists of services that you provide or get cost estimates — all this can be done via a “request” app.

7       Contact Us/Customer Support app. The easier you make it for people to get in touch with you, the better. Using a “contact us” app allows your fans/customers to send an email to specific departments within your company. For example, you can send them straight to whomever handles sales, customer support, press inquiries, etc. streamlining the contact process.  You also link to this type of app whenever someone comments on a post or or asks for more information, keeping them inside your Facebook “property.”

8       Testimonials app. At ShortStack we have an app we call “Make us Better” where customers can leave us feedback about our service. It’s a great way for us to learn what we’re doing right and what our users would like us to do differently. It’s also great for potential future customers to have visibility on what your current and past customers think about you and your products/services to (hopefully) help get them over the line.

9       Voting/Survey app. People like to participate in surveys. As a business, using a survey or voting app is a great way to learn what kinds of service your customers wish you would provide, or even what color t-shirt they’d be most likely to buy. Using a voting or survey app can ultimately reduce the risk of investing in new products or services only to have them bomb. For example, if you’re a restaurant and you learn that your customers want more vegetarian dishes on the menu, you might not want to order that industrial sausage making machine you’d be thinking about. Or, if you own a hair salon and you get tons of requests for hair-straightening service you might be willing to invest in someone who is licensed to provide that for you.

Finally, when it comes to installing all these apps, be aware that you can install a total of 11  apps at any one time, but only four are visible, including Photos (which you cannot remove).  The remaining apps become visible when you click on the down arrow in your header bar. Many users don’t know to click this arrow in order to see the other apps so make sure you arrange your apps based on their importance. To arrange them click on the arrow and after the apps drop down you’ll see “Swap position with” which allows you to move the apps around.

I’m always happy to answer questions about how to use apps effectively so if there’s anything else you want to know, ask me in the comments here.

Jim Belosic is the CEO of ShortStack, a self-service custom app design tool used to create apps for Facebook Pages, websites and mobile web browsing. ShortStack provides the tools for small businesses, graphic designers, agencies and corporations to create apps with contests and forms, fan gates, product lines and more. 

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