Which Type of Social Media Addict Are You?

5 Ways Your Company Can Use Twitter Hashtags

If your company has a Twitter account, hashtags, better recognized as #,  should be a part of your social media strategy. Follow these five tips to improve your company’s hashtag strategy.

1. Look for Business-Specific Conversations

If you use Twitter for one thing, use it to learn from others. Look for hashtags such as #smallbiz or #socialmedia to find advice, resources, and influential people to follow. While using these hashtags to learn and gain advice is great, step into the conversation once and a while. Using a hashtag about a subject you’re interested in will put you in the conversation and will allow other people to engage with you too around that topic.

If you want to jump into a more specific conversation, narrow down the hashtag. For example, looking for a business savvy person to follow? Try #entrepreneurs. Wanting to meet new people? Try #networking.

2. Keep it Simple and Consistent 

When tweeting about a new blog post about creating and developing mobile apps, don’t do this: #MobileAppCreationandDevelopment. Try this: #mobileapp #development #design. Overwhelmingly long hashtags are hard to read, making your tweet buried in the mix, and also aren’t search-friendly.

3. Create Your Own Hashtag

Large and small companies can create their own hashtags, and they should! Hashtags are a great way to generate buzz around just about anything! For example, Domino’s Pizza told followers to tweet #letsdolunch. When the number of tweets reached 85,000, Domino’s split prices in half during lunch that day. Get creative! Hashtags are a fun way to engage with you followers and be more than just a Twitter account.

4. Organize Social Dashboards by Hashtag

Whether you use HootSuite or TweetDeck, using a social dashboard can conveniently keep you up-to-date with relevant hashtags for your company. You can create specific columns by social network, search term, or hashtag.

5. Take Advantage of Follow Friday

Micah Baldwin, CEO and Chief Community Caretaker of Graphic.ly, announced on Twitter that he would suggest people to follow every week. This trend took off with the hashtag #FollowFriday and has now been shortened to #FF.

You can use Follow Friday in two ways. You can create a list of great people to follow and try to fit as many of them as you can in a tweet using the hashtag #FF. You can also group your favorite followers in categories. For example, tweet #FF #entrepreneurs and then list the entrepreneurs you like following. This is a great way to contribute to the conversation while letting people know you like following them at the same time.

These are just 5 ways to use hashtags. What are some ways your company uses them?

Below is a current example of how our business used hashtags in the hiring process.

Determine Your Social Media Personality

In 1921, psychologist Carl Jung published Psychological Types. His theories presented in this book helped formulate a psychometric test called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This test was used to categorize the psychological types of humans into 16 major divisions.

Still in use today, the results determine whether test takers tend toward certain character traits, such as introversion (I) vs. extroversion (E) or thinking (T) vs. feeling (F). The metrics produce an acronym per individual. For example, “ISTJ” is for an Introvert-Sensing-Thinking-Judging person.

The infographic below, based on the Myers-Briggs personality assessment, details the qualifiers for each of the test’s characteristics. It also predicts the psychological types most likely to participate on specific social networks. More extroverts reported using Facebook than introverts, for instance. People with inclinations toward Feeling spend more time browsing and interacting with people on Facebook, rather than those who tend toward Thinking.

According to the infographic, what type of social media personality are you? 

Statistics on Facebook User Interactions

A recent social media survey from Performics, a performance marketing firm, shows that 33 percent of people are most likely to respond to brand offers when they are reposted by a friend. The study shows that 27 percent will respond on the brand’s page, 26 percent from the newsfeed, and 20 percent from a social ad. 

The study also provided insight about branded content engagement: 44 percent of Facebook users are most likely to engage with branded content containing images, roughly 40 percent of users said they are likely to engage with status updates and 37 percent said they are likely to engage with videos. 

These statistics are based on the Performics Life on Demand social media survey, which studied 2,000 Americans who visit a social networking site at least once a day. 

Facebook Timeline Tips from Grovo

Whether you haven’t switched your Facebook profile to Timeline format or you’re already a Timeline pro, check out Grovo’s quick video-based tips for making your Facebook presence just right.

Grovo has video lessons on everything from controlling privacy to exporting Facebook birthdays and calendar events. The screenshot below shows”New Lessons” and “New Courses” Grovo offers.  

Let us know what you think. Did Grovo increase your Facebook knowledge? 

How Pinterest Drives Online Sales

Recommended Read: The Social Media Bible

I recently started reading The Social Media Bible, by Lon Safko. I highly recommend this book to everyone; it’s full of great insight and interesting facts. Below are a few quotes I felt were worth sharing!

“The next most-asked question at my keynotes are ‘Where’s the ROI in social media marketing?’ and ‘How much money should I be spending on social media marketing?; My answer is always, remove the term social media from those questions and ask them again ‘Where’s the ROI in marketing?’ and ‘How much should I be spending on marketing?'” 

“Social media is only a new set of tools, new technology that allows us to more efficiently connect and build relationships with our customers and prospects. It’s doing what the telephone, direct mail, print advertising, radio, television, and billboards did for us up until now. But social media is exponentially more effective.” 

“Social media marketing is all about listening first, understanding the conversation, and then speak last.”

“Whether it’s a social network like Facebook or LinkedIn, Twitter or blogging, it’s about participating in that conversation and being there with a relationship when your prospect is ready to buy.” 

“By building relationships through social media, you build a more lasting trusted relationship that will result in more sales, fewer returns, and greater word of mouth.”

“The reason for Twitter‘s success was best put by Mark Twain, when he said in the late nineteenth century, ‘I apologize for the length of my correspondence. Given more time, it would have been shorter.'” 

“Kakul Srivastava, the general manager for Flickr, told me that there are three cell phones for every man, woman, and child on the planet. With that kind of technology penetration, you and your company needs to be participating.” 

“Anytime there is a tool that millions of people in one place at one time, all with common interests, are clamoring to use, you, as a businessperson, need to understand it and be a part of it.” 

Tips to Increase Your Twitter Presence

Calling all Twitter users! Whether you’re new to Twitter and you’re trying to build your follower base or you’re not-so-new to Twitter, if you’re wanting to increase your followers’ engagement, here are 5 simple tips you can use to build your follower foundation. Keep in mind, you can use these tips for your personal Twitter page or your business/brand’s Twitter page. 

1. Personalize Your Page

Take advantage of all the opportunities Twitter provides to personalize your page and have it represent who you are, what you’re interested in, or what you’re looking for. The left side of your Twitter page should be your primary focus. There you can put photos, logos, or contact information. For bigger brands or public figures, validating your account is a good idea. Also, use the “about” section wisely and put together a to-the-point and effective bio. When followers can quickly get a sense of who you are and what you’re about, they’re more likely to follow you. 

2. Ask Interesting Questions and Ask for Help

Create conversation; don’t wait for the conversation to come to you. Your followers are a great resource for feedback and help. If you’re a brand, questions don’t have to necessarily be about your products or services– asking someone’s opinion and making it clear that it’s appreciated goes a long way. Be creative and make it fun! 

3. Re-tweet and Reply (in Moderation)

Re-tweeting (RT) and replying to tweets is an easy and effective way of acknowledging your followers and letting them know you find their tweets valuable and informative. But most of all, this lets them know you appreciate their following. 

However, make sure your re-tweets and replies are balanced. Creating conversation is important, but remember that you don’t want your Twitter feed to turn into a long list of “@reply” posts. If anything, this will decrease your number of followers, because most of them don’t have the patience to look through the conversation to find out what it’s all about. 

4. Post Relevant Updates

By posting relevant and informative information and links, followers will start to consider you as a good source of information and will find it worthwhile to engage with you. 

5. Go Back to the Basics with Follow Friday (#FF)

Putting some time and thought into a #FF post is worthwhile and a great form of engagement. It’s an easy way to give a shout-out to your favorite followers and let them know you acknowledge and like their tweets. It’s also a quick and effective way to make a recommendation to the rest of your followers on who to follow. 

What tips do you use to get the most out of your Twitter account? We’d love for you to share. 

Facebook Determines World’s Most Social Landmarks

Facebook has collected data and measured check-ins made on Facebook in 25 cities worldwide to determine the world’s “most social landmarks”. 

Among the number one ranked landmarks across the 25 cities:

– 7 are sports stadiums/arenas
– 6 are public areas: squares/avenues/parks/gardens
– 2 are amusement parks
– 2 are concert arenas
– 2 are shopping-related: shopping centers/malls

The data also shows: 

-Shopping is popular internationally. Malls and outdoor markets appear within the top 10 landmarks for 19 0f 25 cities. 

-Cities with warmer climates had more check-ins to outdoor spots, while cooler climates had more activity in concert halls or bars.

– In summer months, music festivals are top summer check-ins as well as sports venues. 

Below is a map of the most social landmarks around the world. 

The most social landmarks in the U.S.: 

Time Square, New York City

AT&T Park, San Francisco 

Staples Center, Los Angeles 

Wrigley Field, Chicago 

Have you ever checked-in to these most social landmarks in the United States? 

Facebook Dominates Social Networking Traffic Worldwide

According to a new infographic map, Facebook shows a strong hold on traffic to various social sites worldwide. 

Vincenzo Cosenza, an Italian-based social media strategist, has studied the most popular social networks used across the globe and has put together a map to highlight the leading platforms. He posted his findings on his blog.  

Facebook, which has more than 845 monthly active users, is the top-used social networking site in 126 out of 137 countries analyzed, including the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, Japan, Brazil, and India. 

Although Facebook has its roots in the U.S., with 222 million users, Europe is the continent with the most Facebook users, 232 million. 

However, Facebook is not the top player in Russia, China, Vietnam, and Latvia. 

“If we take a look over Facebook’s shoulders we can see the battle for the second position between Twitter and LinkedIn or, especially in Europe, between Badoo and Twitter,” Cosenza noted on his blog.

What do you think? Do you think other social networking sites have the potential to pass Facebook in the future? If so, which sites in which regions?