The Hard Truth About the Viral Potential of Facebook Sweepstakes

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Facebook’s early days were incredible. Companies like Zynga, who were able to take early advantage of the social network’s viral potential, grew into multi-million dollar entities over a period of weeks. We were all new; brands and common users alike saw shares and invites as the path to virality, and for a time, it seemed […]

Are Brands Overvaluing Facebook and Twitter? Let’s Find Out

Social Media Research The Social Habit

As I announced recently, I’m partnering with global market analysis firm Edison Research on The Social Habit, a comprehensive, quarterly study of how Americans use social media, why, and to what end. Edison (who is the exclusive provider of exit polling data for Presidential elections, among other things) is handling the research, and is using […]

Eating Their Lunch: Using Technology to Monitor and Respond to Competitors

Monitor Competitors

You never see people talk about competitors on social networks, and on marketing blogs. It’s the ultimate taboo topic. Get behind closed doors and that changes quickly.  Marketers obsess about their competitors, messaging, and corresponding market share. That’s why we talk about competitors a great deal in Marketing in the Round. Some believe they should […]

Spy on Your Facebook Competitors with HyperAlerts

HyperAlerts

The great thing about companies widely publishing APIs in this age of collaboration is that crafty third-parties can develop tools and features that the developers of the “mother ship” forgot. Browse through Laura Fitton’s amazing One Forty (the app store Twitter neglected to build) and you’ll find thousands of Twitter add-ons. But now that Twitter […]

Social Listening and Analysis for the DIY Inclined

If you are conducting any level of online reputation management or campaign tracking using social media data sources, you have to get beyond the obvious. The point of tracking software isn’t to determine how many tweets were sent mentioning a company, it’s to figure out what those tweets say, and what the business ramifications are. […]

Social Media Monitoring Tools – How to Pick The Right One

social media monitoring tools comparison

Guest post by Katie Van Domelen, the social media manager at Off Madison Ave in Tempe, Arizona. She specializes in social media strategies that lead to actionable plans to achieve real world objectives. I’ve spent a lot of time working with various social media monitoring tools and I’ve whittled my list of favorites down to […]

Kurrently Revolutionizes Real-Time Search With Twitter + Facebook Results

Editor’s Note: Kurrently is no longer available, however, we recommend using Social Searcher which has much of the functionality that Kurrently used to have. Check it out at http://www.social-searcher.com. The future of real-time data didn’t come from Google. Or Microsoft. Or IBM. It came from a Canadian computer sciences student who uses his free time pretty […]

Take Off the Social Media Blindfold

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Among the many exceptionally interesting data snacks in the recent MarketingProfs’ State of Social Media report is one showing that businesses of all sizes and types are primarily using Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, and blogging. And while it’s on one hand a positive that we’re stating to see some norms and best practices emerge within […]

Give Them Something to Talk About

Calgary Flames

Last week, I spent a few days in Calgary with my clients at AdFarm, the largest agriculture-focused communications agency in North America. In addition to the single best room I have ever spoken in (see photo), I learned a lot from the good folks at AdFarm. Every Company Will Be Social Every company, regardless of […]

Is Social Media Monitoring Ready for Prime-Time?

Microsoft announced recently that they are launching their own social media listening software tool (currently in closed beta), called Looking Glass, which will according to Microsoft “make social media actionable for business.” Pricing for LookingGlass has not been established. Impacts of Big Boys on Social Media Monitoring Microsoft’s entrance into the social media monitoring software […]

Social Media Makes Everything Marketing

hiddenface

It’s truly fantastic that so many companies are starting to monitor the social media conversations around their brands and their industry at large. But what’s not fantastic is the reflexive apoplexy when some of those conversations inexorably are less than complementary. I have seen corporate marketers (and even PR firm folks who should know better) […]

Free Social Media Worksheets Worth Every Penny

Social Media Strategy Worksheet

Convince & Convert is all about hype-free social media. Practical, achievable advice you can put into place in your company or organization today. To that end we’ve developed a series of free social media worksheets that you can use to help keep elements of your social media program on track. We’ll keep adding these worksheets […]

Who’s Watching Now?

Social media doesn’t close at 5pm. Or take weekends off. Or go on vacation. I’ve been watching today’s very successful Labor Day-only Chick-Fil-A promotion. If you wear any sort of sports team shirt or hat to a Chick-Fil-A today, you get a free sandwich, driving awareness of the company’s Chicken Wave fan group and contest. […]

How to Create a Share of Voice Report

Do you have your copy of Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype? Visit Amazon or Barnes & Noble to get your copy now! Social Mention is a free Web site that monitors and organizes social media chatter on Twitter, blogs, discussion forums, and elsewhere. Social Mention is not nearly as powerful or […]

Is Social Media Too Fast?

One of the greatest challenges of effective social media outreach is the need to be always on. Speed kills in social media, and that’s a difficult transformation for marketers (and especially agencies). If a consumer tweets something negative about your company, addressing it quickly before it festers and is retweeted everywhere is the best practice. […]