YouTube: Broadcast Yourself

By now, you’re probably familiar with YouTube, the popular video-sharing/hosting website, with over 490 million unique users. YouTube is useful for more than just uploading adorable videos of your child’s first steps, embarrassing moments caught on tape and professional music videos. It can also be a valuable (and not to mention free) tool for marketing and promoting your business. Running a video blog or maintaining a YouTube channel can be a great advertising tool. Below are some ideas on how to utilize YouTube for your business:

 

Internal Communications Within Your Organization:

YouTube is a useful resource for uploading special presentations or other company tutorials/explanatory information, turning podcasts into videos, introducing staff members, conducting interviews with experts or recording important meetings. Note that all uploads are limited to 15 minutes, so if you’ve got a particularly long video, it may have to be split into several sections.

Marketing & Advertising Purposes:

YouTube is a great platform for running a contest (have users upload a video relevant to your product, brand, mission, company, etc.), engaging with consumers (ask for feedback in the “comments” section or post client video testimonials), promoting events, or creating a visual means of explaining your product or service.

Customer Service:

YouTube provides another outlet for managing feedback and handling customer service through “how to” videos, visual support, and “work-in-progress” videos of an ongoing project or event.

 
Setting up a YouTube account is simple. Visit www.youtube.com and click “Create Account” in the upper right hand corner. Follow the prompts and choose a unique username to get the ball rolling!

Twitter 102: What The Heck Are All These # Symbols?!

Once you’ve got your Twitter account set up (see blog post #3 for details on how to do this), you’ll want to familiarize yourself with the lingo and start interacting with your followers.

Mentions:

You can “mention” on Twitter the same way you “tag” on Facebook, using the @ symbol followed by another user’s Twitter handle (ex. @InstantSocialMe). Think of this as a public shout out, directed at one person or business in particular, but visible to all of your followers.

Retweets:

If you see a tweet that you think is particularly interesting, you can “retweet,” or send an exact replica of the message to your own followers. Simply hover over the post and click on the “retweet” link. The more you retweet others, the more likely it is that they will reciprocate!  And the more your tweets are being retweeted, the more exposure you have on Twitter and the easier it is to grow your following.

Direct Messages:

If you want to send one of your followers a personal, private message, use the “direct message” feature. This is similar to a private message on Facebook. Direct messages (or DMs) are still limited to 140 characters.

Hashtags:

Hashtags are symbolized by the # sign, followed by a phrase with no spaces (ex. #SuperBowl). This is a way of assigning a particular subject matter to your tweet and getting the attention of those who are also interested in this same subject. For example, if you are tweeting about the Miami Dolphins performance in a game, you might include the hashtag #MiamiDolphins. By using this hashtag, your tweet will be grouped with every other tweet that contains that same hashtag and your tweet will be seen by those searching Twitter for information on the Miami Dolphins.  The most used hashtags on Twitter often make up the current trends.

 

In future ISU posts, we will go into the different methods of growing your Twitter following.  In the meantime, be sure to follow us on Twitter at @InstantSocialMe.  Stay tuned!

What’s All This Buzz About Google+?

What is Google+? Essentially, Google+ is the search engine giant’s effort to develop a social network to rival Facebook. Google+ acts as a “personal profile” extension of your Google account, and closely interacts with other Google products such as gmail, Google docs, etc.

When first launched in June 2011, Google+ was only available through invites from current users. As of September, the social network is now available to the general public. Get your profile started today by logging into your Google account (or create one at www.gmail.com). Click on your email address in the upper right hand corner and click “Create Profile” to get started.

After you’ve filled out your information, your Google+ profile will appear in the left hand corner as “+Your Name” as soon as you sign in. (screen shot).

Google+ allows you to add a profile complete with photos, personal information, games and more. The main components include a Stream (a “newsfeed” type feature), Hangouts (video chatting), and the ability to group your connections into Circles according to your relationships (close friends, acquaintances, coworkers, etc.).

One of the main draws to this social network is that you can adjust your status updates (or “shares”) to apply exclusively to different circles. For example, you can direct certain updates towards your “coworkers” circle or only your “close friends” circle. While it is possible to create lists on Facebook that operate in a similar manner, it is a much more complicated process.

You may have heard about the recent launch of Google+ Brand Pages, comparable to Facebook’s fan pages, which was announced just last week. In future posts, we will go into greater detail about these new pages, so be sure to stay tuned.

Our thoughts?  Currently, there are about 40 million Google+ users (compared to FB’s 850+ million users). However, there is a great deal of debate about how many of these users are actually active on the network.  While Google+ does seem to offer some distinct advantages to other social media sites, it still seems to be too soon to tell. The true test will come in time, and will depend largely on their ability to keep up the momentum.

Facebook 103: Facebook Postings & Top Stories

We’ve all heard it before: Content is king! When it comes to Facebook postings, this mantra is particularly true now — more than ever — due to the recent implementation of Facebook’s new “Top Stories” feature. This tool enables users to mark certain posts as “Top Stories,” effectively customizing the type of content that appears in their newsfeeds.

What does this mean for your business page? Long story short: it’s more important than ever that your fan page postings (or “status updates”) are relevant, interesting and engaging!

Obviously, the primary purpose of your fan page is to promote your business. However, your fans are more likely to pay attention to your postings if they contain interesting and informative content, and not just repetitive promotion of your company or product. Every now and then, a “Check out our website!” or “View our latest collection!” type of post is entirely appropriate, just be sure that these are occasional and interspersed.

Some ideas for quality postings: Industry-relevant articles and news stories, helpful tips & advice, commentary on current events, and promotions and special offers. Try to engage your audience by taking advantage of the “Poll” feature or by asking your fans questions. As a page administrator, you will see a “Question” option above your status bar (in the same place as the “link” or “photo” option). This is a great way to get fan feedback!

Remember to keep an eye on these kinds of postings for any responses. There is little point in asking a question or taking a poll if you do not follow up! Remember that social media is a two-way conversation.
One last tip: Try to keep your posts short and to the point. Novel-length status updates are often overlooked or simply skimmed through. We also recommend posting often, at least once a day (or at least on Monday-Friday).

If you simply don’t have the time or know-how, don’t forget that ISM offers customized content-management services and packages. Contact us at info@instantsocialmediaco.com for additional information.

Facebook Timeline

Recently, Facebook announced a major overhaul of their personal profile designs intended to create a more complete social experience. Facebook will soon roll out this new product, which they are calling “Timeline.”

The main difference between Timeline and the current profile design is aesthetic. Your profile will look like an actual timeline, with the ability to go back and visit old content by year or month. This effectively resurfaces information that has been lost on your profile due to the “rolling” nature of the current wall. Facebook will automatically fill a user’s timeline with old info, but it will also allow users to manually add content to any time period.

In addition to profile pictures and photo albums, Timeline includes a “cover photo,” which appears as a large banner at the top of the profile. There is also a new map feature that interacts with Facebook Places to map out your activities, travel, etc.

Although Timeline was initially set to go live at the end of September, Facebook has not yet moved the product into the general public’s domain. If you want to get a jump-start on Timeline, check out a step-by-step guide to manually enable the product HERE.

 
Note that the Timeline product is currently only available for personal profiles, and is not applicable to fan pages or groups. Since this is a new feature for Facebook, we will be learning about Timeline along with you! As always, feel free to ask us any questions by email or by commenting on our blog/Facebook wall.

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