Category: Facebook

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More Politicians Are Embracing the Web

Nancy McCord
Nancy McCord – Point of View for Today.

Donald Trump, love him or hate him, he has masterfully used social media to his benefit and forever changed the way politicians relate to the electorate.

But, not only are politicians moving to Twitter and Facebook as they seek votes, but some are even embracing Google AdWords to try to drive traffic to their election websites.

Glitzy websites with donate now buttons or click here to sign up for our email updates are standard fare for judges, congressmen, senators, and of course our presidential candidates. Never before have we seen a politician use Twitter to his ultimate benefit as Trump has. Rapid firing off tweets that carry his special brand of candor, make it clear that no ghost writer is writing Trump’s tweets. They are “All The Donald”.

Not every politician wants the high profile and electorate exchange that Trump has embraced, and not every politician has the sass and bad boy demeanor that Trump has embodied online, but for The Donald, it is certainly working.

For others in the political landscape using Google AdWords allows for strong, very targeted exposure that increases the chance that voters will see the message that they want to share and not the message of PACs or of that of other candidates. That’s especially important when negative campaigning is being used.

We are currently running one AdWords program for a Circuit Judge in a Midwest state and expect to see more politicians move onto the Web and into Google AdWords in the months to come.

Find out more about our AdWords credentials and services today.

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You’ve Got to Pay to Boost Posts on Facebook

Thumbs Up
Do You Like the Facebook Boost This Post Button?

Facebook advertising – it just does not happen magically with the click of a “Boost This” button in your business’ Facebook timeline. I was chatting with the owner of a start up recently and she mentioned that she was advertising on Facebook (at least she thought she was) but missed the connection between paying and playing.

First, I do like Facebook advertising for some businesses. It is easy to set up, easy to manage, and for the typical business owner, they do not need an account manager.

Here’s where my colleague went wrong with Facebook advertising. You MUST enter in a credit card into your own personal profile for your business Facebook account which is treed off of your personal page first. Then on your Facebook business page, when you click “Boost Post” you can select the advertising and cost you want to spend and other criteria to run a small pay per click promotion, but until you enter your credit card at the personal page level, you can click “Boost This Post” until your finger is sore and get no results.

It sounds simple, but you would be amazed at the confusion that the boost button causes others who are not well versed in the arena of pay per click.

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As Search Shrinks, Social Grows

Man having an idea!
Mobile has shaken the world of search.

As a void is created in search by the changes that the mobile web has brought about, social media is filling the gap by becoming the “go to” location for reviews and personal recommendation.

“Is Search (As We Know It) Dying” is an excellent point of view and a great read for today.  As the author notes, social media icons like Facebook are deep into development for the next generation of search and mobile use. One of the biggest pushes are for artificial intelligence and personalized assistants; keeping users tied in and connected.

Take into account activity on social networks, where queries like “I am visiting London, England next week, what have you done or loved that I should make sure to put on my to do list?” are commonplace and readily answered by friends, family and acquaintances.

Although users have loved, then hated, and now appear to love again social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, I am seeing more businesses and consultants feel that it is now time to get serious about establishing and keeping a presence on these social media sites.

Courtney Danyel (the author of the aforementioned article) puts it all succinctly in this ending comment, “In the long run, brands and businesses focusing the majority of their energy on optimizing for search will face the inevitability of stunted reach and growth.” I could not agree more.

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Images in Social Media Using HootSuite – Lessons Learned

Learn From Our Mistakes How to Add Images Fast to Social Media
Learn From Our Experience How to Add Images Fast to Social Media.

Our clients are asking for images in their social media posts. Sounds easy right, but not so fast. Here’s what I’ve learned and wanted to share it with you.

For HootSuite users it is easy to add an image to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+. You just open the writing panel, click the paperclip and then browse to the image you want to save. But what about when you are doing bulk loading and scheduling using a spreadsheet or when you are wanting images in Twitter?

Bulk Loading
You cannot add an image using the bulk load spreadsheet method in HootSuite. So if you want images, you will have to bulk load your updates and then manually go to each social media account and edit your post manually and add your image. Not so simple, but not so hard either.

Twitter
For Twitter, your content will need to be only about 10 to 15 words and if you have a link to shrink, know that the link will take up character space and so will the image. We are trying to stick with about 10 words or so.

You still have to do the manual upload of images and may need to rewrite or edit your post to have it once the image is in to be within character count.

Notes
All images you add to Facebook have to be under 5 mb.  A good rule of thumb is that an image compressed for the web and no bigger than 600 pixels wide with a resolution of 175 dpi will meet this 5 mb criteria.