Author Archive
We understand. Twitter can be overwhelming.
Hundreds of Tweets come hurtling down your home page at breakneck pace, and there is no way for you to stop it. Depending on how many people you follow, you may never find the Tweets you are really looking for.
Searching for that perfect Tweet can be a little difficult at times, but fear not! Here are some tips to make sure you are maximizing your search results.
Learn the Lingo
Start with the basics.
These shortcuts can help you narrow down your search to find exactly what you need.
Get A Feel For It
Have you ever tried searching for your own Tweets? You may find that not everything you post turns up. Twitter has some rules about what is searchable, and sometimes they may filter your posts. Here is a short blog on some more of what Twitter brushes aside.
Profile Search
Maybe you aren’t looking for a specific Tweet as so much you are looking for a specific handle. There are external tools you can use that can help you locate the proper accounts. Connect with like-minded people who work in similar industries or share your interests.
Check out the Twitter category on our blog page to see all of our other tips and tricks.
Follow me @loucimaglia and follow @growsocially for more insight on social media!
For all of you iPhone users, Instagram is something you are surely very familiar with. The app has skyrocketed to a usership of over 27 million. And there will be an app for Android coming out “very soon.”
Instagram doesn’t offer calls to action or inherently do much to drive sales. So why would your business be interested?
It should be interested because when it comes to boosting your social media clout, you need to engage with your audience. And there is no medium stronger than visual.
Instagram allows for you to post entertaining and relevant content to your social networks. And when you post good material, your followers will respond.
When you start posting photos, consistency is king. Create a common theme that gives you reason for posting. Sponsor a daily caption contest, or anything that will invite feedback at a regular time every day. Also, be consistent in numbers. Do not post two photos one day and 45 the next. Saturating the news feed of your audience can be overwhelming and unwanted. Find a happy medium.
Uploading photos to your social networks adds a human element to your company, one of the main goals of having a social presence. Incorporate Instagram into your online strategy, your followers will appreciate it.
Inbound marketing is a technique that drives traffic to your company’s web presence. In a time when traditional outbound marketing (commercials, cold calls, print ads, etc.) are becoming a financial burden, more and more companies are turning to inbound marketing.
Here are three tips on how to maximize your inbound marketing strategies.
1. Make Your Content Meaningful
One of the hallmarks of inbound marketing is a strong blog. You want people to see your blog and translate that into clicks onto the rest of your website. And just like in so many other marketing strategies, content is king. Write meaningful, informative and relevant posts that draw your audience in.
2. Social Media is Crucial
Cost efficiency and customer engagement are two of the major benefits of social media. Inbound marketing prides itself on being more affordable, and this is where social media is a huge asset. Creative campaigns that captivate an audience are one step closer to getting to your website. Convert your social media followers into a loyal fanbase.
3. Make Your Audience Clear
The best part of inbound marketing is that the people who do find your company are qualified. A cold-call or email blast can miss the target by miles. If someone takes the time to follow you on Twitter, read your blog and then subscribe to an email newsletter, you can bet that they are worth your time following up with.
The sun is out, the birds are chirping and the college kids are home for break. That can only mean one thing!
Global Warming
2012 Apocalypse
It’s Spring! And everyone knows that that means. Spring cleaning. While you’re dusting off the cobwebs of some of the things around the house, why not do the same with your social media? Here are three quick tips on how to freshen up your social media platforms.
1. Embrace Timeline
By now, you are certainly aware of the overhaul to Facebook pages. Don’t fight it! Use the new banner image to creatively display your company’s image and let everyone know who you are. Grow Socially wanted its network to see how much fun our team is.
Additionally, there are restrictions with the information you place on your cover photo. According to Social Media Examiner, “You can’t tell people to like or share your page or have any contact information at all, including your web address, phone number or mailing address.”
A limit on calls to action necessitates creativity when showcasing what your organization is all about.
2. Dress Up Your Twitter
A first impression is everything. And with Spring comes a fresh start – a new outlook. So why not improve your aesthetics? Customize your background and image. Every square inch of your online presence can be branded. Despite what anyone says, appearance does matter. And it matters quite a bit.
3. Change Up Your YouTube Strategy
There are more ways to see life than just sitting behind a desk, staring at a camera. As you can tell, the theme of this blog is creative overhaul. Incorporate a sense of humor with your videos. Be informative and keep packing in the great content, but a different perspective may be that boost that captivates viewers.
As the temperatures rise, so should your fan loyalty. Create an image that you would want to follow.
For more social media tips, follow us on Twitter: @growsocially
We are very excited in the Grow Socially offices! We’ve successfully launched a new service called Mobile Résumé.
Mobile Résumé is a unique service offered by Grow Socially that will transform your traditional résumé into a slick mobile interface, making your name rise to the top of the pile!
You supply us with your existing résumé and we will get you started. We will generate a custom QR code that, when scanned on a smart phone, points directly to your mobile résumé. We will also create your Mobile Résumé. Info, links, pictures, videos, you name it and we can do it. When your QR code is scanned, your potential employer will now have all of your information in the palm of their hand.
More and more, employers are turning to mobile to find their next employees. In this highly competitive job market, it is essential for you to set yourself apart from the applicant pool.
Interested in learning more? Check out this landing page to see how you can get started.
Here at the Grow Socially offices, we seek to be on the cutting edge of technology and social media. We try our best to consume as much information about products and solutions as possible so that we can be “in-the-know.” That being said, it is somewhat rare for us to be impressed by something new.
That is, until we encountered a little number called the LifeDesk. We first met the owners of this product at a print industry event in Chicago. Well, a few months later, they are a Grow Socially client! We are creating their website and building a social media platform to give the LifeDesk a deserving online presence.
LifeDesk is an adjustable, sit-to-stand desk that allows you to do your work however you please. Want to type up a memo while you’re standing? No problem. Watching YouTube videos and your back hurts? Fear not, adjust the LifeDesk and get straightened out. Are you just really, really tall? LifeDesk works for you too.
To help us best understand the product that we’d be promoting, the company was kind enough to lend us two desks for use at our office. Below are a few reviews from the employees that have tried it out so far.
“In sales, motion creates emotion,” said Matt Sullivan, Grow Socially sales executive. “Using the LifeDesk has allowed me to stand up and put more passion into my sales presentations for new potential prospects. Besides improving my sales pitch, it has also helped me keep my ‘get healthier’ mindset while at work.”
That’s right, folks. The LifeDesk can increase sales. (Disclaimer: No, it cannot really do that. But it may make your Sales Reps happier people!)
Jacques Gingras of interlinkONE also had high grades for the product. “Having used the Life Desk, I would highly recommend it to anyone who typically sits at their desk all day. I enjoyed the change of pace that standing up provided as well as the focus that it was able to generate.” Aside from helping the normally erratic Jacques focus, the LifeDesk has many other functions as well. It can be completely customized, from shape to color. Its ergonomic design and concept make for an attractive and innovative addition to your office. Also, it has a handy storage drawer.
The desk was very well received by our own Jason Pinto as well. “I have greatly enjoyed using the LifeDesk at the office! I honestly have found that standing up has helped me to focus more intently on the tasks that I need to accomplish each day.”
It’s official: Grow Socially has a full-fledged case of LifeDesk fever. And the only prescription, is more LifeDesk.
We love working with the team behind this product, and we love using what they produce. We think that you might too. Please feel free to connect with them online.
This year, Grow Socially is packing its bags and flying to the Lone Star State from March 8-12. Our own Vice President Dena Woerner and Social Media Specialist Graham Spector will be at South By Southwest in downtown Austin, Texas, checking out all of the new trends, keynotes and presentations.
“Dynamic speakers and compelling daytime content provide the heart of the SXSW Interactive Festival,” according to the SXSW website. “While this content covers many different aspects of new media technology, creative solutions for a better tomorrow serves as the underlying theme of all SXSW programming.”
We are looking forward to meeting up with a lot of great folks at SXSW! If you will be in attendance at this year’s event and would like to meet up, contact grahams@growsocially.com.
The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, as it is affectionately named, has become a lightning rod for angry opinions and constitutional interpretation.
Essentially, SOPA is designed to stop online piracy and copyright infringement. While it is an important idea that has received the backing of much of the music and entertainment industry, there is a tidal wave of dissension coming from all sides. There is an overwhelming fear that personal privacy will be compromised by SOPA, and this has been echoed by Google, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, AOL, Yahoo! and many more.
This Wednesday, January 18, Wikipedia and reddit.com, among others, are going dark in protest of SOPA.
Unless the Internet is something you work intimately with, there is a chance you might not be familiar with this legislation at all. According to news.cnet.com, “It allows the U.S. attorney general to seek a court order against the targeted offshore Web site that would, in turn, be served on Internet providers in an effort to make the target virtually disappear. It’s kind of an Internet death penalty.”
Business Insider goes further. “The Attorney General would have the power to cut off select websites from search engines like Google. It could also cut off advertisers and payment processors like Visa from the sites. The Attorney General could essentially kill all of a site’s traffic and revenue in a matter of days.
It’s a tumultuous proposition. Free speech supporters are wary of the implications. The Guardian wrote, “the White House said it would not support legislation that ‘reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risks or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet.’”
The main issue is that any site that “facilitates” copyright infringement can be classified as “rogue”. For example, posting a video of yourself on YouTube singing a copyrighted song could land you in hot water.
The fear of squashing innovation has most tech tech companies up in arms. And it would seem that they have won the most recent battle. “House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa has said that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been ‘shelved’ in the House of Representatives, meaning it has been put on indefinite hold until a consensus about the act can be reached,” according to osnews.com.
The battle for public opinion will continue to rage. What’s your take on SOPA? Tweet us @growsocially with your thoughts!
It’s Friday the 13th, and here at the Grow Socially office we are a little more cautious than normal. Social media can be such a great tool when it’s used properly. However, ‘properly’ is the operative word. In the spirit of the day, let’s take a look at some of the more unfortunate mishaps with social media.
Hacked Twitter Accounts
Twitter has been gaining steam as a news outlet since the story of Osama bin Laden’s death was broken on the microblogging site. However, Fox and NBC were the victims of some meddlesome hackers in the past year. Fox’s phony handle reported the assassination of Barack Obama and NBC’s illegitimate Tweets spoke of an attack on Ground Zero. Neither of those things happened, of course, and both outlets immediately regained control of their accounts.
Google+’s Biggest Fan
A Google employee had some not so kind words to say about the internet behemoth’s new social network. And unfortunately for him, the rant found its way onto his Google+ page. According to Mashable, “Steve Yegge, a Google engineer, intended his 5,000-word post to be an internal diatribe for other Google employees, but accidentally published it for his 2,000 or so followers.” The article goes on to say “‘That one last thing that Google doesn’t do well is platforms. We don’t understand platforms. We don’t ‘get’ platforms,” Yegge wrote. “Google+ is a prime example of our complete failure to understand platforms from the very highest levels of executive leadership (hi Larry, Sergey, Eric, Vic, howdy howdy) down to the very lowest leaf workers (hey yo).” The G+ platform, Yegge wrote, is a “pathetic afterthought” and Google lacked an API at launch.”
I need to say nothing else, Mr. Yegge said it all.
Anthony Weiner
I’m not even going to bother.
GoDaddy CEO Not An Elephant Fan
Bob Parsons, CEO of the risque domain-hosting site was on a trip in Zimbabwe when he, naturally, shot an elephant. As a CEO of a large company, one would have to ask at what point was killing a elephant was a reasonable thought. And par for the course with incidents like this, the camera was rolling. The video circulated through social media and GoDaddy had an absolute disaster on their hands.
Certainly by now, you have been unable to escape the media blitzkrieg that is Tim Tebow. His peculiar, albeit effective, style of play has led his Denver Broncos onto the next round of the NFL playoffs, against Grow Socially’s hometown New England Patriots.
Love him or hate him, it is difficult to refute his intangible traits that compensate for his technical shortcomings. After his 80 yard touchdown pass in overtime against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tim Tebow was the subject of a new Twitter record: most Tweets per second for a sporting event with 9,420. And actually, he is was second all time in Tweets per second. (You would never number one, Anime movie Castle In The Sky was broadcast in Japan and received over 25,000 Tweets per second. Sure.)
America loves the underdog. And in a recent ESPN poll, Tebow was just voted as Americans’ favorite athlete.
So what are three Tebow-esque qualities you can translate to your social media strategy? Let’s take a conceptual look at how you can start seeing results.
Consistency
A successful social media plan takes effort. A great deal of effort. Coming up with a plan and sticking to it is essential. Allot yourself time every day to post relevant content, interact with industry colleagues and prospects. Research best practices. There is new material every day being posted all over the web with new findings and studies. Be insatiable when consuming new ideas and statistics.
Perseverance
For all of the expansive treasures that social media offers, they can be elusive. And when followers and friends aren’t abundant, it is easy to get frustrated. Stay true to the plan that you and your team carefully laid out. Good content will be discovered with powerful networking.
Creativity
Unorthodox, maybe so, but Tebow brings a different flair to the game. Translate this to your social media efforts. Not every product can be Nike, McDonald’s or Budweiser. Those companies are benchmarks in creative promotion. Think of Nike like Tom Brady. He is the best at what he does, much like Nike.
Tebow doesn’t have the tangibles, but he has the creativity to succeed. Utilize your social media team to maximize possibilities for various campaigns.
Follow us on Twitter @LouCimaglia and @GrowSocially!
Contact Us For An Audit
FROM THE BLOG
A Few Thoughts on GM and Facebook Advertisting || Read More
May 17, 2012
Come See us at LabelExpo in September! || Read More
May 14, 2012
Arkansas Society of Association Executives || Read More
May 13, 2012
