Tips to Survive the Tagging Invasion – Some things to keep in mind: Hash tags are here to help not hurt. Many applications support it. With Facebook being the latest platform to support hash tags, its army of over one billion users cannot be ignored. 71% of people using social media use hash tags. The branded hash tag has become ubiquitous. Using hash tags correctly can extend the reach of your post. You can gain followers and exposure with a strategy. And there are nuances to using hash tags depending on the platform.
Bottom line: Hash tags are taking over the world, one phone, television and computer screen at a time and are here to stay. @hkogachi
In Other Online Marketing News…
Top Social Stats for U.S. Adults – It appears that women use social media 9% more than men do at a whopping rate of 71%. The most pervasive and consistent divider amongst social media users remains, unsurprisingly, their age. Eighty-three percent (83%) of the young adult demographic (18-29 year olds) use social media, which represents more than double the activity of online adults over 65 years old (32%). Pew Research Center
Facebook Considers Adding Profile Photos to Facial Recognition – This move is intended to improve the performance of its ‘tag suggest’ feature. In an effort to appease privacy advocates, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer stated that there will still be an ‘opt out’ option for users uncomfortable with the change. Reuters
LinkedIn Exec Shares Strategies for Social Selling Success – Here’s advice for those who have a hard time motivating skeptical sales teams to use social media: You have to start looking at training. You have to start ingraining the methodology and the best practices into your sales team so that they can make it a seamless part of their day-to-day work life… and that’s how you’ll be successful. DemandGenReport
Disgruntled Customer Burns @British_Airways With a Promoted Tweet – Promoted tweets are traditionally used by brands to promote content to a wider audience, but, if you can afford it, this may be the fastest way to get a brands attention. Fast Company
How McCormick Launched Their New Brand With Help From Their Fans – They created the McCormick Dinner Party Chain contest and #GoGourmet campaign to reach out to their younger target audience. Advice from senior manager of digital marketing and social media: listen, learn and do one thing right. SmartBlog
Twitter’s Lead Generation Card Opens to All Advertisers With New Layout, Analytics – When a consumer looks at a particular tweet, it will offer a button or call-to-action whereby a discount or incentive can be redeemed. Are you using TCards? TheNextWeb
Microsoft Makes Surprise $7.2 Billion Deal for Most of Nokia – Microsoft said it aims to increase its share and profits in the mobile-device market ‘through faster innovation, increased synergies and unified branding and marketing.’ Mashable
Best Buy To Add In-Store Google Sales Specialists – Part-time Google sales specialists will be stationed at approximately 350 Best Buy stores to discuss Google products and programs (including Chromebook, Google+, and Gmail, among others) with customers. Google has denied rumors that they are opening mini-stores within Best Buy locations, however. TwinCitiesBusiness
3 Ways to Use Pinterest and Instagram to Build Stronger Consumer Relationships – By adapting to this new visual language on platforms, you can humanize your brand and strengthen relationships with consumers. See how a travel, food and fashion brand are using photos to inspire their fans. MarketingProfs
Why Mobile is Key to an Effective Multichannel Strategy – Retailers that were quick to embrace mobile technologies – such as local search or a mobile optimized site – have continued to thrive and stay in tune with consumer behaviours. eConsultancy
7 Badass Tactics for SlideShare Content Domination – As prospects and customers continue to be bombarded with information in the form of pure text, such as whitepapers and blogs, it can be difficult to differentiate your content from the competition. Visual content can help and Slideshare is the perfect place to publish. LinkedIn
New Washington Post Owner, Jeffrey Bezos, Aims for a New ‘Golden Era’ at the Newspaper – Bezos said his basic approach to operating the business will be similar to the philosophy that has guided him in building Amazon.com from a start-up in 1995 to an Internet colossus with $61 billion in sales last year: Put the customer first. Invent. Be patient. The Washington Post
What Does the Future of Mobile Search Marketing Look Like? Smart advertisers won’t just build a mobile search strategy for today’s formats – they’ll pay close attention to how their customers are searching and interacting with their mobile devices to ensure they’re present for every opportunity to respond to their customer’s needs. ClickZ
How Screens, Speed and Networks are Changing the Future of Online Video – Just as movies were different from Broadway and television shows were different from feature films, every form of online media is also different. Network speeds and availability of the network along with the size of the screen define storytelling and viewing experience. Gigaom
11 SMS Marketing Best-Practices for Better, Results-Driven Text Messaging Campaigns – Discover the fundamentals to provide a solid foundation for how to communicate with mobile subscribers appropriately and comfortably using SMS. MarketingProfs
From the Online Marketing Community
On “Content Marketing As A Useful, Meaningful Experience. Anything Else Is Just Noise,” Cliff Pollan said, You have captured it well. I do see an important opportunity to extend content marketing to sales teams. The great content created by marketing is now what all sales teams need. Buyers are demanding sales people who can provide unique insights and then help them through their buying journey. I suggest that in the new sales world, marketers need to extend content marketing to include how to educate the sales team on content and how to use it in their interactions with clients.
On “Your Brand: The Next Media Company,” Holly McIlwain said, Michael Brito’s #2 makes this quite an uphill battle, now doesn’t it? Reminds me of something I heard the other day; the barista at Panera Bread said, “I have mass appeal and that isn’t easy!” With her red tipped dreads, in support of GA Bulldogs, huge smile, and hilarious personality, she truly has mass appeal and I believe a lot of folks go there to see her. I’m going to get Brito’s book when it comes out and learn how to create that mass appeal!
On “7 Things I Learned From Dan Schawbel on Personal Branding and Promotion,” Sarah Bauer said, For when emotional intelligence is valued in the workplace, it helps to have honed the person-to-person skills that have been largely overtaken by web communications such as social media, texting, and email. We can start by catching up with clients/colleagues via telephone, and arranging face-to-face meetings. We can get back to human connectedness. Great post, thanks.
What’s Your Take?
Have you embraced hash tags to good effect or are you guilty of excessive tagging? Has social selling become part of your company’s B2B sales tool kit? Are visual mediums, like Pinterest and Instagram, attracting more of your digital marketing budget?
Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
