Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

...But if Twitter, the human-curated information network, ceased to exist? Well, it doesn’t bear thinking about…

The thing is, effort does not scale well online. People have become conditioned to expect convenience; to expect to have the hard work done for them. The rise of mobile usage has hugely fueled this mentality — making it even more imperative for a digital service to be hyper simple to set up and use. If it doesn’t ‘just work’ within a matter of seconds it likely won’t get used at all.

Although I don’t have to spend very much time at all maintaining my Twitter feed now, with six years invested in the service, that’s exactly because I have spent multiple years figuring out who it’s worth my while following (and who not).

Sure there are undoubtedly plenty of folk on Twitter who I haven’t found yet who could expand my network in new and interesting ways. But you can’t usefully follow every interesting person (whatever Robert Scoble says). And, more importantly, I don’t trust an algorithm that’s geared towards maximizing business profits to identify interesting  people on my behalf. That algorithm would be working for Twitter’s shareholders, not for my brain.

Bottom line: who I choose not to follow is as core a part of why Twitter is so useful to me as those accounts I do add to my follow list....

I’m not a very huge fan of Facebook, and hardly even use it, but there have been some tools that I’ve been able to experience during my journey that I think you’ll find useful and appealing.

I was inspired to put this together after I published my Twitter tools post, earlier last week. I had fun putting together some of the new, and cool stuff that has been entering the market, and this list was not an exception. It’s all about creativity, innovation and the passion to help people in some form....

Follow the lead of top brands who use a variety of Facebook status updates to increase engagement, build email lists and showcase fan content.Does your business have aFacebook marketing plan?Do you need inspiration for Facebook updates that excite your fans?Do you treat each and every update as an opportunity for engagement?In this article we’ll take a look at 26 brands, an A-Z guide, that use Facebook status updates that combine visual content and brand messages to create buzz, excitement and interaction....

According to John McDermott at Digiday, Instagram is conducting a test (yes, for now it’s just a test) with Mercedes-Benz that allows them to target Facebook users who previously saw one of its Instagram ads. While this development is eye-opening in and of itself, as it gives hints into Facebook plans on returning their $1B investment, it also shows Facebook’s commitment to transforming how advertising not only can coexist with social media, but thrive and break into new levels of adoption.

What stands out the most to me is how inherent behavioral characteristics seen on both Facebook and Instagram are being aligned with their natural fit in the conversion funnel. As noted by McDermott, Instagram’s product naturally promotes behavior more conducive to the top of the funnel, where brand awareness comes into play. If Instagram is committed to preserving the user experience that allowed them to break 200 million users, it behooves them to preserve this characteristic of their product and not to “forcefully” incorporate more direct-response elements like call-to-action buttons, etc....

Is Facebook marketing dead? It's a question none of us really want to face. Here's a 3-part answer that will probably surprise you.Today I answer a question none of us are quite ready to face:Is Facebook marketing dead?The short answer? Not by a long shot.The social network is simply evolving....

Has Facebook got you fooled? Are you chasing likes for your brand page? Paying for fans? Maybe it's time to forget Facebook!

... Facebook is pushing you to advertise. To promote your post is now just a couple of clicks. Easy but it costs. One of the motivators to use Facebook as a page is now almost zero.

Is there any point to chasing likes except for “social proof”.

Some research is showing that only 4%  or less of people are seeing your page updates in their newsfeeds when you post on Facebook. Here is some research from the 4129 agency on ZDnet.com showing the decline in just 12 months from 2102 to 2013.It appears that in 2014 that organic is still in freefall. Zero is maybe not an unrealistic expectation. Is that possible? Jason Loehr, director of global media and digital marketing at Brown-Forman who owns the brands Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort thinks so.

The Ignite Social Media agency did an analysis in December 2013 and saw a 44% drop in brands organic reach in just 12 days...

Most of us have had Facebook accounts for the past few years, if not a decade. But time and bloat have turned once-beloved font of nostalgia into an onslaught of faux-sentimental sludge from strangers. So as Facebook stands poised to break itself into a bunch of different apps, we say to you: Screw it. It's time to start fresh.

The first thing you need to understand before you think of marketing on Facebook is the unique opportunities it offers and the basic difference between this and other media. Like you would never use a radio commercial for a TV ad, you cannot market on Facebook, the way you use other media for advertising.

Facebook is not a platform for ‘hard sell’People perceive Facebook as a platform when they share their stories, jokes, videos and generally relax. Therefore to appeal to this group you too have to join in their conversations rather than act like an outsider who has come to sell something aggressively...