Posts Tagged: Twitter
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 20th, 2011
With online ad spending hitting new highs, Internet advertising is becoming one of the key tools that companies use to attract attention for their product or service online and online ads are beginning to eclipse traditional advertising.
History
Hardly a new concept is it? Advertising has been used ever since mass production became possible well over a century ago as a means to influence an audience with the intention of getting them to buy your product or service. You just need to read Claude Hopkin’s 1923 book on the topic called Scientific Advertising to understand the importance advertising has had from a business perspective for the last century (and many of his points still apply today).
Recently however traditional media advertising (TV, newspaper, billboards etc) has faced a tough challenges with readership and viewer numbers plummeting, savvy audiences becoming desensitized to traditional advertising techniques and with the rise of alternative ways to influence target audiences (such as social media).
One of the saving graces for advertising is the ability to use the Internet to advertise online. Online advertising has a few advantages over traditional advertising:
- Less Expensive
- Highly Targeted
- East To Track Effectiveness
There are a number of different forms of online advertising, each with its own pros and cons.
Search Based Ads
Usually associated with search engine results ads like Google Adwords and one of the most commonly used forms on online advertising, search based ads are predominantly text based and appear as sponsored or paid ads when people search for a particular phrase or keyword online.With search ads you pay or bid on an ad appearing to a searcher (impressions) or when someone clicks on the ad (pay per click). These ads are highly targeted because they appear only to the people who enter pertinent related keywords. If you have a new website this is a great way to get noticed by the major search engines, and really useful if you are going after new audiences. The key to being successful using these ads is to use very specific key terms that you know potential clients will use and to make the most of them in the ad text.
Banner Ads
Banner ads (or web banners), are for the most part, rectangular image ads that appear on another organisation’s website. Pop on over the Entrepreneurial Woman’s website and you will see an example of a banner as right at the top of the pag
e. One important consideration with banner advertising is that you should only post your ads on sites that are related to your product or service or that attract your target audience. Banner ad costs can vary according to the traffic the site gets and can be on a pay per click basis or on a time based (i.e. monthly) fee basis.
Email Ads
Not to be overlooked, more people use email on a regular basis than use any other online tools. Having a regular opt-in marketing newsletter should be part of every company’s online advertising strategy to promote its products or services. Email advertising can also include buying placements in the newsletters of related companies.
Network Advertising
Advertising networks companies make it easier for organisations to advertise on related sites. Google Adwords is an example of a tool that facilitate network advertising and this is a growing area with companies like Tribal Fusion acting as facilitators between publishers of high trafficked content and organisations looking to advertise to their large audiences.
Pop Up Ads
Those annoying ads that pop up on your screen unexpectedly and won’t go away. Spare your audience and don’t use them.
Online Classifieds
Just like traditional classifieds, online ads on classifieds sites are used for the most part by the general public to buy or sell and by companies that target consumers. Craigslist and Kijiji are just 2 examples of online classifieds – they are easy to set up and free to use but before you do consider if this is appropriate to your brand.
Social Network Advertising
Many of the major social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter allow you to advertise and these social ads are the fastest growing form of online advertising. The biggest benefit of advertising using social networks is that your ads can be aimed at a very highly targeted audience and you can get started with just a few dollars per day to test the waters.
Online advertising tools make it easy for companies to use adverts to reach their audience online and can be a huge driver of targeted traffic to your website. If you are considering your online advertising strategy and would like more information about our services please contact us.
Related posts:
The Future of Digital Advertising, iAds and Promoted Tweets
The Future of Advertising
Written by Corrie Scott, February 24th, 2011
Many businesses would like to have a strong social media presence, but are put off by the sheer number of social networks available. It’s easy to get overwhelmed but remember, you don’t have to be on all social networking sites. In fact, being on sites that don’t directly speak to your target audience, or on sites that your target audience doesn’t frequently visit, can be detrimental to your business, and a waste of your valuable time.
A good place to start when entering the realm of social media is with the heavy hitters; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube for video content, and your business blog. If this list still seems overwhelming, don’t despair! There’s a way to connect all these social networking sites so you’re not spending half your day posting the same YouTube link to all your different followers.
It is best to set up Facebook as your hub when connecting all your different social networking sites. This is because Facebook has a huge amount of applications that have been developed for all sorts of social networking related purposes. All you have to do is go to the Facebook Application Directory and search for the appropriate application, chances are it’s there in the directory. Next up, how to connect your blog, Twitter, and Youtube accounts to Facebook.
Blog:
Connecting your blog to Facebook means that each time you update your blog it automatically posts to your Facebook page’s wall, as well as archiving in the ‘notes’ tab of your page. The process for linking your blog isn’t obvious when looking at your Facebook page, but it’s well worth the search. To begin, click on ‘edit’ below your page’s profile picture. Next, click on ‘Apps’ in the list on the left hand side of the screen. Once there, find the Notes application and click ‘Go to App’. Now, on the left hand side of the screen you should see ‘Edit import settings’ as the very last option. Click this. You should now see a screen that looks like the photo below.
From here, enter the url of your blog and click ‘start importing’. Your blog is now auto posting to your Facebook page.
Twitter:
To connect your Twitter and Facebook accounts, log into your business’ Twitter account, then open a separate tab and go here. Find your business page, click ‘link to Twitter’ and follow the directions.
Youtube:
Using the Cueler application, you can connect your Youtube and Facebook accounts so that videos posted to your Youtube channel automatically post to your Facebook page as well. To do this, click here, and then click ‘install’. This will bring you to a screen that looks like this:
Choose the page you want to add the application to, and follow the directions to automatically post Youtube videos to a new Youtube tab on your Facebook page.
Following the above steps will help reduce the amount of time it takes to update your social media accounts. However, don’t forget to manually update your accounts as well. A mix of manual updates and auto posting allows you to save time, but also ensure that your business maintains a humanistic and approachable presence online. Also, if people follow your business across multiple social networking channels, taking the time to manually post, along with auto posting, ensures they won’t continuously see the exact same content numerous times.
We can help:
If you are interested in connecting your social media accounts and are looking for more guidance, contact us at Out-Smarts Marketing – we provide social media and internet marketing planning services to help you achieve your online goals.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 15th, 2010
It has been a big week for online advertising with announcements at the inaugural Twitter conference, Chirp, that Twitter is finally about to monetize its micro blog service by adding ad functionality and the announcement from Apple last week that it was going to introduce a mobile advertising platform called iAd.
Twitter Promoted Tweets
According to the Twitter blog, promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users. Twitter will begin to roll out the Promoted Tweets platform in partnership with some of its big advertising partners like Starbucks.
Right now these promoted Tweets are limited to specific searches, for example if you search for “Starbucks” on Twitter today you will see the following:
Reaction to the announcement has been mixed, many recognized that Twitter had to do something like this in order to grow revenues others resent the move seeing it as invasive.
iAd Mobile Advertising
Apple’s hugely successful iPhone is becoming more open from a developers perspective making it easier for third parties and app developers to make money. A component of iPhone OS4 released last week, iAd is Apple’s mobile advertising platform. It will feature rich media ads which, according to Apple, are aimed at stimulating emotion and interaction. For advertisers, iAd gives them a new way to reach consumers a highly targeted fashion. Mobile advertising is nothing new but it is the first time Apple has openly embraced the model.
Google owns the digital advertising market and only time will tell whether Twitter or Apple will make a significant impact with their new offerings. From a marketing perspective these innovations give us new ways to reach our audiences in a highly targeted way which can only be a good thing.
Related Articles:
The Future of Advertising
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, March 22nd, 2010
These days building relationships online is as important to growing your business or reputation as networking in the real world. Not only can you be more effective using social media but you can also get more done in less time.
The Internet is a great way to expand your career horizons and get to know new and influential contacts. Here are a few pointers to bear in mind when using social media to network.
1. Dont try to network in every Internet networking hub out there. Choose those where you get the biggest impact (i.e. those that your existing contacts already use, those that reflect your target audience, or those most applicable to your niche). The most popular are LinkedIn (Professional Network), Facebook (fastest growing) and Twitter but there are many networks that are industry or job specific (like Active Rain for real estate) too so take time to check them out.
2. Leverage existing on-line networks to grow new ones. I use the Out-Smarts’ Facebook Page profile to promote our Twitter account and vice versa and add more contacts in that forum
3. Promote your activity in your chosen forums by including it in business cards, profiles and on your website.
4. Use widgets. Most of the social networks allow you to widgetize a link to your profile. Add this to your site, blog etc and include widgets for other networks in your networking profiles.
5. Always remember to be professional in these forums – ask the Granny question and make sure your content is appropriate to your professional standing.
6. When you meet new contacts in the real world find then on-line and add them to your networks.
7. Trawl the friends of your friends and contacts and add those you know or those gurus in your business.
8. Dont spread yourself over to many networks or allow them to suck up your time. Schedule it into your day.
9. Join groups. Facebook and LinkedIn both offer groups. Join applicable ones and gain access to more people in your field.
10. Participate in the right forums. These should relate to your industry or market and to those of your prospects.
11. Ask and answer questions and use your status to attract new contacts.
12. Blogs can be a great way to build your network too. If you have a blog, always follow up with people who leave comments to connect with possible prospects and peers.
13. If you don’t have a blog then use blog comments as a forum to connect with influential bloggers in your industry, to build awareness of what you do and to add value for their visitors in turn.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 10th, 2010
The Olympics are in town and this city is all a buzz. Following my post last week about how the Olympics use social media, I thought it would be great to follow up on that and take a look at how athletes are using these tools.
According to a Wired Magazine blog post, there is some confusion among athletes as to whether or not they are actually allowed to post during the games. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
But there is no Olympic rule that sets up a blackout period for athletes according to Bob Condron, the Director of Media Services for the United States Olympic Committee.
“Athletes are free to blog during the Games,” says Condron. “And Twitter is just a blog that’s written 140 characters at a time.”
There are some restrictions on what athletes can do online during the Olympics. According to the IOC Blogging Guidelines for the 2010 Games, athletes and other accredited people must keep their posts confined to their personal experiences.
Despite this confusion many athletes are using social media right now. Lets look at which social media tools they are using, how they are using them as well as how you can find, follow and lend your support.
Twitter
Lots of athletes are using Twitter to share their Olympic experiences. One of the best ways to find them is to follow Olympic lists like these ones.
Canadian Athletes on Twitter
US Olympic Athletes on Twitter
Olympic Winter Sports
True North Media House
Huffington Post Athletes List
Olympians
Athletes are using Twitter in different ways. Some are simply sharing their experiences in getting to BC and settling in to their new diggs at this point. Many are posting their experiences in their final practices leading up to their events and all are building their fan base. By finding and following our athletes on Twitter we have the chance to share in their Olympic experiences first hand as well as to give them our support.
Many national teams have dedicated Twitter feeds too, to keep fans updated:
Team Canada
Team Great Britain
Facebook
Whilst Twitter gives athletes a quick and easy way to communicate with fans, many also have fan pages on Facebook to build awareness of their endeavors, to post video content and share their Olympic aspirations. Canadian gold medal contender in figure skating, Patrick Chan’s page links to video clips, fan photos and updates about the skater.
One of the best ways to find and follow athletes on Facebook is through the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Page. Theyrecently asked the question “Hey any Olympic athletes out there? What is your Facebook page?”, here is the response. Another way is to find the national team pages and check out who they are fans of – athletes are usually listed. Here are a few – to find the rest search Facebook for “Olympic Team”.
Canadian Olympic Team
US Olympic Team
Swiss Olympic Team
Australian Olympic Team
Blogs
How these athletes find time to train and blog is beyond me – I guess that is why they are Olympians and I am not! Here are links to athletes using these forums too:
Dustin Cook – Official blog of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team Member
Speed skater – Denny Morrison.
Good Luck To All Athletes
Good luck to all athletes competing at the games – thanks for keeping us posted on social media. Welcome to BC and enjoy your time here: may it be golden!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 01st, 2010
Vancouver 2010
With only 11 days to go before the Vancouver Olympics begin, the excitement is building here and I thought this would be a good time to update on our last post about the Olympics and Social Media.
Since posting over a year ago, it would appear that the Olympic organisation has embraced social media somewhat and had some hick-ups on the way.
The Olympics on Twitter
In November VANOC was chastised for their poor response on Twitter when thousands were left waiting and eventually dissed because of a glitch in their ticket ordering system: rather than using Twitter as a customer service tool to let customers know exactly what was going on, their Tweets were ambiguous and erratic.
You can enjoy “timely Tweets from the VANOC communications team” at 2010 Tweets, where the organisation continues to push out information about itself with little interaction or true community building. The same can be said for their other feeds: @followthe flame, @code2010.
The Olympics on Facebook
They do rather better on Facebook, it has to be said. Both Vancouver 2010 and The Cultural Olympics are well represented there.
Again, fans cannot contribute to posts on the site but they can and do comment – most of them being positive.
The less publicised Canada Code page though is centred around community and collaboration. The Canada Code website encourages everyone to upload photos and text sharing their Olympic experiences. If you do, you could win a pair of those red mittens everyone is trying to get their hands on (or on their hands as the case may be!) and if you are really lucky your content may be shared on public screens across Vancouver during the event. Now that is more like it VANOC! From their Facebook page:
The Olympics and Citizen Journalism
As for the Olympics embracing social media journalism, according to VANCOUVER ACCESS 2010, a collection of multi-media content; blog posts, pictures and videos covering the various winter/summer sports and cultural events, despite numerous attempts by prominent social media commentators VANOC seems to still be ignoring this vehicle:
“Over the past few years, as a group, we have spoken at various conferences and events about the impact of citizen journalism, social media and the internet on the various Olympics, IOC and “ANYâ€OC brands. We sent VANOC several letters over the past 18 months requesting to meet with them, and have a discussion about this change in culture… Without any replies.”
Seems a shame to ignore such valuable contributions.
Watch out for more on social media and the Olympics over the next month.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, January 31st, 2010
After a brief hiatus in December, our regular month end Reasons to be Cheerful post is back. Here is a compendium of cool sites I discovered over the past few weeks that might of interest or useful for you. Enjoy!
Screenr - easily create screencasts to post to Twitter.
Lifeforce TV – Canada’s online broadcast network.
Biddingo – an online portal that connects suppliers providing various goods and services to buyers from public and private sectors across Canada.
Xina – handy tool for checking how your SEO efforts stack up.
Entreprenuerial Woman Magazine – online journal aimed at Canadian small business.
Rollip – professional, online photo effects.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, January 22nd, 2010
Yesterday, we talked about how you can use LinkedIn for recruitment purposes, today we look at some of the other tools available to support your recruiting needs.
Plaxo - another prominent professional networking tool with over 20 million users, Plaxo is similar to LinkedIn in that it allows you to search job listings and to connect with people who are hiring but unlike LinkedIn, it does not have tools aimed solely at recruiters yet.
Xing – Another professional network which is becoming more popular with over 8m users. It is very similar in its functionality to LinkedIn but posting jobs is much cheaper. The downside is that lots of users are in Europe so its not the best tool for North American recruitment purposes.
Other professional social networks that facilitate recruitment:
Viadeo
Biznik
Social Networks – Facebook
Facebook Groups: there are groups on Facebook dedicated to getting the word out about jobs. To do so you can join and post or participate. Examples include:
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=jobs&init=quick#/group.php?gid=29593013279&ref=search&sid=745281396.2828234181..1
Facebook Pages – some companies have Facebook pages dedicated solely to helping them find staff. The best known example is the Ernst and Young Facebook Page.
Facebook Events – having a hiring fare? You can use Facebook events like this one to promote it.
Facebook Ads: allow you to post ads aimed at people you want to employ: location, education level etc.
Twitter
Twitter is proving a great tool to promote job openings. You can use corporate or staff Twitter pages to Twitter to your community about job postings or you can even have your own dedicated Twitter feed that serves this purpose alone like KPMG http://twitter.com/kpmg
As with any Twitter effort, your follow strategy will be important.
Twitter Ad-ons
You can also use third party tools like Twitter Job Search to search listings and post your own.
Here at Out-Smarts, we are looking to hire an intern right now. So far we have had 3 suitable and interested candidates contact us and all we had to do was post the fact to Facebook and Twitter. If you are interested please contact us, otherwise good luck in your recruiting or job search efforts.
Written by Jan, January 08th, 2010
This is a guest post from Jan Littler-Finseth.
Last night – driving home – I heard a discussion on the CBC’s ‘The Current’ about a Facebook page that has grown exponentially this week (it was set up last weekend and has grown from zero to over a hundred thousand members in a few short days). Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament is a page that provides a conduit to protest the decision by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to initiate prorogation and it is gathering steam.
Whether you supported the Conservatives or the Marijuana party in the last election or think that is wrong or okay for Parliament to be temporarily discontinued, the fact that a Facebook page is national news says something about the lengthening tentacles of Social Media.
In my car – windshield wipers working overtime – I was bemused at the number of ‘serious’ people out there who are convinced that Facebook is mostly a vacuous portal only frequented by teenagers when on the contrary, the over 35 age group is the fastest growing.
Can Social Media sites bring about democratic reformation or real-world change of any kind? That remains to be seen but the truth is, Facebook, Twitter, and the likes are ‘little’ things that can make big change happen.
Grass roots politics has long been a facet of the Canadian political landscape but now tools like Facebook allow for communication and networking, bringing geographically diverse (but likeminded) communities together to join forces, communicate their message and have more impact.
Let’s face it, however, if your group, your idea, or protest is poorly focused and unsupported – no one thing will help. Social Media is only a part of a program – changes come when we act and believe that what we do makes a difference.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, January 06th, 2010
In December I read an article in the Vancouver Sun that inspired me. The article, called “How Social Media Have Globalized the Shopping Experience”, related how the writer, Gillian Shaw, simply had to Twitter about her choice for next car and lo and behold she got a response from a GM dealer offering her a test drive. Here’s an excerpt:
My Social Media Experiment
So, I decided to try this out for myself to see whether organisations using social media are actually doing a good job of listening and responding to customers and prospects.
Twitter
First stop Twitter where I decided I would use the tool to plan a ski trip. So I Twittered:
To date I haven’t had a response. I tried a different tact and sent a Tweet to Sun Peaks who were listening to direct messages and did, thankfully, respond:
A few days later I got stuck in an elevator: what a perfect opportunity to see if anyone was listening and could help me. So I posted my dilemma on Facebook and Twitter. Followers we’re listening – I got 2 responses from friends, both in Alberta, both in no position to help me escape!
Facebook
On to Facebook, where I commented on the Marks & Spencer Page about my frustration with their delivery service (more often than not gifts for my family in the UK arrive broken or damaged):
Here was an opportunity for M&S to respond to my concern and to correct it in the public forum, to enhance their customer loyalty but again I had no response. Very disappointing – this year I will find a more reliable supplier and M&S just lost a loyal customer of 20 odd years because they weren’t listening or were choosing to ignore my comments.
Shut Up and Listen
Whilst I might not have the following of a journalist like Gillian Shaw, I do have over 2000 Twitter followers and am very active online – I really expected to get more response to my social media comments.
What is my point here? I have two:
1) Shut Up – First of all companies should realize that we are living in a new world, one where they can and should interact with their customers in these forums to build loyalty and improve customer service. Your audience expects this and not doing so puts you at risk of negative exposure. This is no longer a push to market model where companies bombard their audience with one way messages but a two way street where they can build loyal and valuable relationships with customers and prospects and enhance brand value. Shut up about yourself already and focus instead on your audience and providing value for them.
2) Listen - the first step any company should take when approaching social media is to implement effective listening strategies. Listen to what online communities have to say about your products or services, company, industry and competitors. By doing so you will not only get a feel for what is appropriate (very useful when building your social media strategy) but you will also identify sales opportunities, chances to improve customer service and to build loyalty so that customers keep coming back. Our article Are You Listening? talks about tools you can use to do this effectively.
Conclusion
I look forward to the day when companies stop talking about themselves and start listening to and fulfilling the needs of their audience on social media. There is a vast source of information and opportunity about your company and your market online just waiting for you to tap into it. What are you waiting for? Shut up and listen!
