Silly Social Media Mistakes

Making a mistake on social media can be seen by thousands, if not more, in the matter of seconds. Brands and businesses always need to be careful when monitoring and posting on these sites, such as Twitter. 

This infographic (created by MDG Advertising) shows examples of some social media screw-ups. To avoid these issues, always edit your tweets and make sure you know what's going on in the news and the world around you before you speak on it; or in the case of social media, "tweet on it". These types of mistakes are 100% avoidable when paying attention to social media etiquette. For now, check out these social media blunders for a good laugh, and hopefully to learn from others mistakes!

5 Hot Facebook Marketing Trends

Facebook has drastically changed in the past year, and marketing on it has changed as well. The image-heavy Facebook timeline has made many changes for how businesses market their products and services through the social media site.  There is an impressive amount of pressure on Facebook to be advertising friendly, and a lot of this comes from the fact that with its 133 million users, it can potentially have a bigger audience than the Super Bowl.

The first marketing trend the new Facebook has is the ability to post more and larger photos. Consumers are getting used to a more image filled web, so the new Facebook design features much bigger pictures than before. An analytics firm that measures brand performance, Simply Measured, confirmed a 65% jump for photos and videos combined that companies posted on their Facebook timelines. Sprinkles Cupcakes is a strong believer in the effectiveness of posting photos and videos to their Facebook page, especially with a call to action, seeing the number of likes and comments triple when one exists.

The second trend Facebook timeline has is tapping real-time data. Businesses now have the ability to immediately see the success of their campaign, while typically you have to measure the results at some point in order to see if the ads are working or not. This past April 17^th on Tax Day, TurboTax saw their Facebook post on “Most Common Tax Questions” doing well on Facebook’s “People Talking About This” page, so in turn they advertised on Facebook to increase the reach of the post.

The third trend is to use your Timeline cover photo for marketing. With the cover photo being a giant picture at the top of the company’s Facebook page, brans are realizing this photo can be a banner ad. The huge image provides instant exposure to all of the brands Facebook fans. Other brands are using the cover photo as an interactive photo for their fans. With different call to actions, such as posting a question on the image, fans can now interact with the cover photo.

The fourth trend the Facebook timeline creates for marketing is the gamification of posts. Coca-cola is a very well-known brand on Facebook.  Coca-cola has been posting URL riddles to its millions of fans. Along with them, JetBlue has also been posting more interesting and interactive posts such as “Fill in the Blank” status updates. JetBlue received 182% more comments per most than other typical brands with their post gamification method.

The fifth and final trend on the new Facebook timeline is creatively saying ‘Thank You’. By coming up with creative ways to thank your fans, you can single out and give your fans praise while entertaining the rest of the fans, who normally would have been uninterested in the post. Kraft Mac & Cheese did this by posting a 7-minute video thanking 4,800 fans who had “liked” a post of theirs. The video consisted of a song which included each of their individual names. The 4,800 fans were individually thanked, and the rest of the fans were still entertained in the process.

Will 2012 see growth in online ads?

From Online Media Daily: Just as gadget-crazed as consumers, advertisers are expected to accelerate their nontraditional media spends through 2012. MagnaGlobal now expects spending on Internet media (including national and local) to grow by 12.2%, this year. That’s up from the Interpublic unit’s previous forecasts of 10.9%, and, if correct, will represent $35.6 billion and a 20.2% market share.

“Encouraged by the rise of smartphone and tablet usage and the availability of scalable platforms, mainstream advertisers are now fully embracing all mobile formats (display, search, video, in-app),” said Vincent Letang, EVP and head of global forecasting at MagnaGlobal.

Letang expects mobile-related online ad revenues to grow by 53% in 2012, to reach $2.4 bil. “iAd and Facebook in particular will create more opportunities for marketers in various mobile environments in 2012,” he said. With $1.6 billion in 2011, mobile advertising already represents 5% of online advertising, and 1% of total domestic advertising.

That said, Internet media is still driven by paid search, as well as online video, which Letang expects to grow by 24% in 2012 to reach $2.2 billion.

In terms of advertising sectors, technology, finance and telecoms are expected to increase their respective expenditure at higher than average rates, according to the company.

Automotive remains a concern, but more for traditional media buyers, MagnaGlobal notes. In 2010, and again in 2011, a double-digit recovery in car sales was matched by a double-digit growth in automotive ad spend. Going into 2012, however, while new car sales were up in the first quarter, protracted unemployment and steep gasoline inflation could hamper further growth.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/173666/new-online-ad-forecast-12-growth-for-2012.html#ixzz1tjoq8epQ

Happy Birthday, Twitter!

Six years ago today, Jack Dorsey tweeted the first ever tweet on Twitter and a communications revolution was born.

Now, 6 years later it has grown exponentially to over 500 million users, making it the largest one-to-many open communication platform on the web today.  After hearing those numbers you would never believe what humble beginnings this social network came from.

Twitter stemmed from an earlier company ran by ex-googler friends called Odeo, which was going to be a podcasting platform. But when Apple launched iTunes podcasting, it made their little startup company irrelevant. After enlisting the help of another buddy and much brainstorming, the team came up with “Twttr”, which would eventually become Twitter.

This social networking phenomenon allows its users to interact with their favorite celebs and follow the latest news s
tories. Many businesses use Twitter as a marketing tool to reach consumers. It has changed media, business and politics – even our President Barack Obama has an account!

With 11 Twitter accounts created every second, the company is projected to earn $259 million in Advertising Revenue this year. Not a bad birthday gift!