Tag: Facebook

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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.

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Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – Social Media Nightmare, Where Should I Be?

Confused about how to effectively promote your business on the Web?
Confused about how to effectively promote your business on the Web?

You hate Facebook, but your customers are there. You just don’t get Twitter, isn’t that for teenagers? Too busy for LinkedIn? All these social media sites may seem like too much trouble for some business owners to get involved with, but did you know your competition is there and so are your future customers!

How do you demystify where you personally should spend your time and on what social media sites? It is easy, look at your demographics in Google Analytics.

If your customer/reader base is 18 to 29 to 30 years old or so, you’d better be on Twitter.

If your customer/reader base is 30 to 60 years old or so, you’d better be on Facebook.

If you are selling business to business, regardless of age, you’d better be on LinkedIn.

How do you find your own Google Analytics stats?

  1. Go to “Audience” in the left side navigation, then go to “Demographics” and then select “Age”.
  2. There you’ll be able to see your visitors from the last 30 days organized by age groups.
  3. Make sure that you check average session duration, pages per session, and bounce rate.
  4. Based on what you see for your own traffic then make a decision on where you should selectively be on social media.

Don’t feel that just because you may not be on social media that your business does not need to be there. Social media use is an excellent way to start building a community of readers loyal to your message.

Not sure where to start? At McCord Web Services, we make it easy for you. Check out our writing rates for social media with service options for frequency. You are sure to find something that fits your budget.

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Has Facebook Passed Its Prime?

Teens whispering
Find out where your teen and older kids spend their time online now and position your business there for the future.

In the long car ride I took with my kids (see my post on Monday), I found out, as I had suspected, that Facebook is not where the younger generation is spending their time anymore. They’ve moved to Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr! Forbes even verifies this with their own poll.

I have long suspected that the popularity of Facebook would wane over time and the statistics of how frequently young people log on to Facebook is now proving this trend.

Over the years I have seen how the young tech generation sets the trends, they were the first to move into Facebook and Instagram and now the first to move out. Adults will take a while to catch on, but I would expect that as my kids say Facebook is now the place to connect with family (older people) and not their friends.

What does this mean for business? First, don’t fold up shop at Facebook yet! Adults are still heavily involved at Facebook but are spending less time there already. Second, expect Facebook to rectify this, if they can, by implementing new strategies to keep visitors there longer.

For some businesses, due to their audience demographics, Facebook will be a great place to be for quite a while yet. For others, it’s time to expand to Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr as Facebook will not provide the reach and platform that reaches potential prospects. That being said, I feel that the place for business on Facebook will move off the business page and into Facebook’s pay per click platform.

There are still plenty of people on Facebook, but keep an eye on when it is “right” or “wrong” for your own business.