Tag : online advertising

Putting “Live” Back into Conversations

8Jun

Advertising, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Marketing, Periscope, Pinterest, Social Media, Social networking, Uncategorized, Video

In social media, an “instant response” is a highly sought after concept for businesses. On Facebook, pages will be rated on how quickly their response time is to a message. We’re told to reply to everything if possible. The pressure is on to be quicker, more precise, and we need to have a smile while doing it. There are new ways to communicate being produced all the time, but not all of them are necessarily conducive to proper business tactics. Right now, the internet is at an interesting transition period. The old days of instant messaging companies like AIM and ICQ are long gone. Yet audiences are craving ways to simulate a real face-to-face, live conversation. How can we have the types of conversations we crave while still integrating progressive technology? Social media now has answers.

Videos are in demand more and more. However, just because we post a video, it doesn’t make it any deeper of a form of communication than text or images. These videos were uploaded after the actors have left the stage. It’s a snippet of the past. After all, it’s not like we can necessarily communicate with a video, right? Well, new apps are starting to change all that. They’ve integrated live video feeds for users to watch and even interact with via text or emojis. This is the start of a brand new way to communicate both for business and personal uses.

Periscope, proudly owned by Twitter, is one of these apps. When you sign up for this new service, you can integrate all your Twitter contacts that are already periscoping and see what they’re up to. There’s already a large following on this app and you’ll be able to join a live broadcast any time of the day. Once you find one that’s interesting, just tune-in and you’ve become an audience member to a LIVE show. This doesn’t mean they can see you, but those running the show are being broadcasted onto your smartphone in real time. You can see what’s happening exactly as it happens.

Now, since they don’t see you, you have the opportunity to send a question via text onto the constantly moving chat board that streams below the video feed. This is a great avenue for those who want to do a Q&A or unveil a product.

Facebook has recently adapted this idea and have now created a sister site called Facebook Live. Not exactly as original of a name as Periscope, but it’ll do. It has the same essential features Periscope has with a few added bonuses like drawing on the screen and other fun ways to reach out to those hosting the broadcast.

Yet one of the most important sides of these new apps is that while watching these people LIVE is the selling point, you can always go back and watch the reruns. Your feeds will be catalogued and available for all to see.

As you can see, there is still room for real life conversations in social media. This is only the beginning of this movement, and we predict that there will be an explosion of new video-centric innovations to the social media frontier in the coming months and years.

Have you used these two apps yet? What are your thoughts?

The Domination of Social Media

By Christopher Tompkins

6Jun

Advertising, Email Marketing, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

It seems that we have an interesting relationship with social media. Sure, we get our news, connections, entertainment, and business advertisements through these intuitive websites, but in the same breath we’ll complain how our lives are being dominated by technology. Maybe people are addicted to these websites and the screens we view them on. Yet our culture has created a need to be constantly connected to the web we’ve created. Because of this, viewers are being fed a large quantity of content everyday.

It may be expected that complaints about social media and “technology addiction” would be from an older generation that weren’t always used to it. However, we’ve seen younger people have similar thoughts. The only thing about them, though, is that they keep using it. Some Millennials may have strayed from the traditional and uber-popular Facebook, and now flock to platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat. But social media is social media. In fact, speaking of generations, older users are increasing on many fronts. So, even those who complain are still using them!

There is no doubt that we use this medium more than we have with television and radio. This is because, frankly, we’re able to. Social media is on our phones, desktops, even on some people’s Smart TVs. Even if we try to avoid screens by going out, we see those iconic logos everywhere as businesses try to promote their pages. We’ve even seen this Presidential Election being molded by tweets and followers. Let’s face it…it’s everywhere.

Businesses are at a special advantage with this. Since it’s being used so much, you have ample opportunity to grow your customer base in a short amount of time if implemented correctly. Yet, since social media never turns off, how can you, as a business person keep up with the demand? Certain applications will allow you to schedule posts so you don’t always have to be online. If you get a message from a follower, you can schedule auto-replies when you’re out of the office, even when your office is a smartphone. You can view analytics to see key times when people are online so you know exactly when to send your word out.

The point is, even though social media is demanding and everywhere, you can be successful when sending out your message, especially since your audience is always present. Many of us use these platforms as news sources and sole means of communications with family and friends. We’ve invested a lot into these accounts and ended up connecting many, many aspects of our lives into them. As a result, these tools have become constants, even more so than previous tools. As a result, we can use this to our advantage and get important messages and branding out.

What do you think about social media’s impact? Let us know below!

Hootsuite: Your Social Media Sidekick

By Christopher Tompkins

31May

Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

When you start getting more involved with social media, you’ll find that it’s a little bit like chess: easy to learn, hard to master. This is especially true when you manage multiple pages on multiple platforms. How can somebody keep up with it all? Introducing Hootsuite!

Hootsuite is a great way to manage the social media frontier. Not only can you post to all your accounts and pages from a single browser window, you can also view a ton of content at one time. Their “Streams” feature allows you to view how certain hashtags, keywords, and trending subjects are doing in cyberspace. Streams will help you get inspiration by seeing a stream of similar content that you want to post. You’ll also be able to do a quick search if you don’t feel like investing a whole column to a particular subject, or if you just want to see if a topic is still relevant. After all, things quickly change in the social media world, and you could use a hand to keep up with it all.

Consider Hootsuite your social media HUB. This is true for content, but also for posting your own original work. Hootsuite lets you post directly from its dashboard, but you can also schedule your posts so you don’t have to be glued to a screen all the time. While you’re out enjoying life, you can tell Hootsuite to keep your pages freshly supplied with content.

One of its more recent additions is a widget called Hootlet. This will help you make a post on the fly with the right account, a shortened URL, and it can even keep track of character count for Twitter. It’s a great way to be able to stay on the page you’re reading while getting it ready for sharing.

There are many wonderful features Hootsuite has to offer in both free and premium versions. You’ll wonder how you managed without it!

What do you think of Hootsuite? Comment below!

Facebook’s Advertising Firepower

By Christopher Tompkins

28May

Advertising, Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

Social media is a great tool to reach out to peers, clients, and potential customers. But where would it be without the websites and its advertising features? Whether it’s a good or bad thing, there isn’t a single website that drives the industry, no SocialMedia.com that every user has to use. In fact, that domain redirects to Living Social, which isn’t even a social media platform! That being said, social media tends to be synonymous with its biggest facilitator, Facebook. Most people know the name by now, but not many understand how powerful it can be for business. Turns out its advertising can make your brand go viral!

Originally, Facebook was only intended for college students. Now, their target demographic is… well, everybody. It has an estimated 1.65 billion users every month and is considered the easiest platform to establish a business page with. With that many users, you have ample opportunity to reach out to exactly who you want as a customer and Facebook’s advertising power can set your page up for success.

One thing that Facebook was always proud of was the lack of a price tag for its users. Yet they still make quite a profit by the amount of people that invest in advertising on their website. However, it’s worth every penny. Facebook has made it so your ads are targeted towards exactly the right person based on their likes and hobbies, but also for what they search for and post themselves. Have you ever searched for something and then you got hit with a barrage of advertisements about it later? That’s not a coincidence. They’ve worked tirelessly on the system and it really is effective. Their advertising has the strength to bring attention by doing the best thing Facebook knows how, putting it right in your customer’s line of sight.

Facebook has been around since 2004 and doesn’t seem to be fading any time soon. While many social media platforms have faded and others have risen, Zuckerberg’s creation continues to stand tall in the constantly changing winds of the internet. Because of this, it has become a staple for any business. They’ve provided resources for people to thrive using their pages, and their advertising is undoubtedly the most effective.

What do you think of Facebook advertising? Share your thoughts below!

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