Under the bonnet of Twitter & Facebook
Quality of fans & followers versus quantity
The phrase quality over quantity is nothing new – even in business – but the first thing to point out is that even if you do follow this old adage you will have to preach hard to almost everyone you meet that that is the right approach. It’s human nature that we want answers, quantifiable results, etc. The modern marketing world is dominated by ROI (return on investment) stats but social media works best in ways that are more difficult to quantify. There are methods that claim to help evaluate improvements in brand awareness, customer opinion and loyalty but even those are difficult to relate back directly as a result of social media. So many people turn to the number of followers and fans as a symbol of how well they are doing in social media terms. As we pointed out back at the start of this guide – B –Buying fans and followers – there are plenty of places offering you the chance to boost your follower and fan numbers if you are prepared to part with some cash, but that’s like holding a party and inviting loads of people you don’t know and who don’t know you. Sure some will come, curiosity for many others just looking to see what’s in it for them, others because they have nothing better to do. In which case they are of very little value to you as the party host and you are highly unlikely to ever see or hear from any of them again. The same is true of this un-natural fan or follower. Quality of fan and follower should be your focus and that means someone who appreciates what you are doing, is likely to be inspired to spend some money with your business and hopefully may even want to spread the word about how good you are. One fan telling their own set of 500 fans how great you are is likely to be so much more productive in the long run than you just buying in 500 fans. Better quality fans can be advocates for your business by spreading the word, but also can be your ear to the ground. The chances are they are already your customer. Their opinion could be an indication of how other customers are feeling too, so if they make suggestions or start grumbling…pay attention. Use social media to get to know your customers not just to gain statistics you can show off without meaning. An example of why quality of followers over quantity works, is the celebrity twittersphere. Almost every pop-star, football player even politician has a Twitter account with 10,000 or more followers, yet very few actually interact with those fans who have chosen to follow them. In fact, often they are the worst Tweeters and people to follow. If they tweet at all, it is usually inane references to their unreal lives. The fact that most celebrities with large numbers of followers only themselves follow a handful of others on Twitter, also shows they don’t care for the interaction, it is more self-promotion and while it has worked for some Twitter is more about relationships than just one-way PR. The better quality your follower the easier you will find it to interact with them – there will be more shared ground and knowledge and desire to interact. Your aim should be to develop relationships, interact with your followers and become an influencer over their habits. That will help drive sales back to you and that will also help improve your status as a social media guru.
Top six tweets and Facebook updates of 2011
If you follow us on Twitter or check our updates on Facebook, you’ll have seen us post lots of interesting stories and links this year. In typical ‘review of the year’ fashion, we’ve trawled back to bring you six of our updates that were most shared or retweeted: Don’t make it easy for burglars! You might enjoy using social media services to keep friends appraised of your every move, but are you unwittingly helping burglars target your home? This useful infographic shows the risks you’re taking. Read more > Making WordPress run faster. Thousands of our customers use WordPress to build their website. But if your WordPress site is slow, how do you fix it? Here are some great tweaks and changes to speed up your WordPress install. Read more > How not to get a job. This classic has little to do with what we do and even less to do with the internet and building websites. These cringeworthy tales of botched job interviews might or might not be true, but they’re still entertaining. Read more > Google’s secret weapon against Twitter and Facebook. So far the search giant’s attempts to make a splash in the world of social media have had limited effects. But wait, has one musician demonstrated the power of Google+? Read more > It’s time for hackers to get hacked. Tired of being targeted by persistent hacking attempts, some firms are now fighting back, with tools and techniques designed to disrupt hackers and divert them into dead ends. Read more > Good News from Nominet The .uk registry is making it easier for you to grow your brand and business for the long-term from 2012. From May, Nominet will allow you to lock in your .uk domain for up to 10 years and we’ll be including the same in our order and renewal processess. Read more > What are the best articles, content or pieces of information you’ve discovered through social media this year? Let us know in the comments. Oh – and follow us on Twitter and Facebook if you want to see more of the same.
Twitter’s Free Analytics
Do you know how much traffic Twitter is bringing to your site? Wouldn’t you like to get in-depth information on how your content is being shared across Twitter? With Twitter’s new Web Analytics tool you can measure the amount of traffic that Twitter is sending to your site and see exactly which type of content your followers enjoy more. This is actually a useful tool to measure the effectiveness of not only your Twitter campaigns, but your overall activity on this social network. It is not available for all Twitter accounts but comes as part of the Twitter for Business package, with analytics provided for both promoted (paid for) activity and free activity. The Twitter Web Analytics tool is powered by BackType, a social analytics company acquired by Twitter a few months ago, so it was only normal that it would be put to good use. Fortunately. the tool, currently in beta, is free to use and every site owner with a Twitter account will get the chance to test it out in a few weeks. What does Twitter’s Analytics tool bring to the table? According to their official blog entry there are three main benefits of using this tool. Once you use Twitter’s Web Analytics tool you should get a better understanding of: How much your website content is being shared across the Twitter network You will see in detail how much of your site content is being shared across Twitter. You will get more insights on the number of tweets and those of click-throughs to your site. Unlike Google Analytics, which most of us are using to get some of this information, with Twitter’s Analytics tool you can also see the path that the user took to get to your site. You’ll get to see how and who is sharing your content across Twitter. The amount of traffic Twitter sends to your site This is the kind of information you can currently find using Google Analytics, but it was only normal to have access to it using this tool. How effective your Tweet Button integration is This is also something you can currently do with several website plug-ins but it would be interesting to see how much in-depth information will Twitter’s Analytics tool be showing us. Why you need Twitter Web Analytics Well, that’s obvious – we’re all using Twitter but we still know little about how effective our marketing efforts are. This is a tool that can help all marketers determine what they’re doing right, what type of strategies generate results and which ones need to be improved.
Six tips to improve your social Media presence
Whatever your level of aptitude with Twitter and Facebook, there are many tweaks you can make to improve your presence in the social media sphere. Here are six to get you started: 1. Encourage people to link to you Make it easy for people to like and re-tweet your content. Include Social Media buttons whenever you can and encourage them to link back to you with calls to action like “Enjoyed this? Then why not link to us!”. 2. Get your look right Social Media may be more informal than traditional business fora but you still need to make sure your brand is properly represented. Make sure your social media backgrounds, skins and themes are in your corporate colours, carry a logo and are distinctively yours. Make sure you have also posted a detailed and interesting biography or profile either as a person or as your business with links to all your relevant sites. Look professional at first glance and you will encourage many more second looks. 3. Know the netiquette This stems way back from days of online bulletin boards but is as valid in the Facebook and Twitter worlds as it still is for forums. Every site and networking will have its own rules. Some are written some less so, so it is important you study a new network before blasting in. Learn the rules and stick to them. They are there to protect you from being shot down in flames at the very worst. 4. Appreciate not replicate It is easy simply to re-tweet another’s post but your own followers will appreciate you giving it your own slant, they are after all following you. By all means credit others but if you can also rephrase it so you pitch it for your own following. 5. Be a superhero – or at least a Community Angel OK, you don’t have to wear your underpants on the outside of your trousers but being willing to help others rather than just sell your services or self-promote is a good way to develop a strong following. Advice, humour, insight are all things that help us get through our daily lives a bit easier, so if you can offer those on a regular basis you will find you become more popular and thus more able to sell your wares much easier int he long run. 6. Make social media part of your day – every day There’s little point spending weeks getting your username, branding and social media policy right and then abandoning it. See it as akin to attending a networking event: Once you are there you need to stay there and be active or you won’t get anything out of it. In fact if you don’t think you have the time to manage it properly it may be better to avoid it altogether until you do – customers will see a lack of interest and look elsewhere. If you remind yourself of just one of the above every day you will soon see your online presence improve and start getting bigger rewards from your social media efforts.
Top six social media mistakes you should avoid
The exciting, fast-moving world of social media can also be a complete and utter minefield if you’re not careful. Plenty of companies have found this out to their cost, having failed to observe basic social media etiquette in the rush to start tweeting, rack up Facebook fans or pursue potential employees on LinkedIn. It’s easy to turn a social networking opportunity into an enormous social networking own goal. So here are six of the biggest clangers we’ve seen. Allowing unfiltered updates onto your website. No matter how well your company is regarded, it’s always dangerous to publish unmoderated updates from other people directly on your website. At best, someone’s bound to sneak a tweet in which contains a rude word or two. At worst, you could end up hitting the headlines, like Vodafone did last year after a Christmas marketing campaign was hijacked by tax protesters. Using hashtags inappropriately. Hashtags are used on Twitter to organise messages. For instance, the hashtag #cairo was used recently by people tweeting about events in Egypt. So when fashion brand Kenneth Cole used it in an apparent effort to promote its new collection, there was quite an uproar. The offending tweet was deleted and an apology soon followed – but given the furious reaction, perhaps the damage is done. Sending stupid automatic direct messages. One of my personal bugbears is people who’ve set Twitter up so that each of their new followers gets sent a pointless, impersonal direct message. It usually says something along the lines of: ‘thanks for following, don’t forget to check out my blog’. Whenever I receive one, I unfollow immediately. Direct messages are for important and personal stuff, not generic rubbish. Posting messages without asking permission. There’s a growing number of tools that ask for access to your social media accounts in order to do clever things. And some of them are really clever, like this Japanese interactive music video. If you’re thinking of building something similar, just make sure you don’t post messages to anyone’s account without explicitly asking permission. It’s really, really rude. Mixing up personal and business accounts. Malcolm Coles highlighted a classic example on his blog. It can happen with any social network, but posting a message to the wrong account is most likely with Twitter, because it’s not always obvious if you’re logged in as yourself or your business. Don’t mix the two – it can get really awkward. Broadcasting without stopping to listen. Social media is meant to be a two-way thing. You don’t just broadcast whatever it is you think people want to hear. It’s a conversation – so you need to listen to what people are saying about and to you too. Celebrities on Twitter are maybe most guilty of this. But plenty of businesses don’t bother to stop and listen either. What are the biggest social media mistakes you’ve seen companies make?
Friday Fun: It’s just not cricket
Proof that when choosing your domain name and social media names you should consider all definitions worldwide affecting your choice: An American woman has made global headlines after complaining about cricket messages sent to her Twitter account, which is named @theashes. Despite saying she knows nothing about cricket she has received hundreds of tweets about the Ashes cricket contest between Australia and England. Ashley Kerekes, from Massachusetts, started last week with 300 followers, but after tweets like “this is not the account of the cricket match. Check profiles before you send mentions, it’s incredibly annoying and rude”, several cricket fans saw it as chance for mischief. This week her followers stand in excess 11,000. 22-year-old Kereks has told media interviewers that her boyfriend first gave her the nickname “the ashes” ages ago but neither of them can remember why, it’s just stuck, so she chose it for her Twitter account name. Something of a Twitter celebrity now, one of her tweets “I am not a freaking cricket match”, has even resulted in a series of souvenir t-shirts becoming available. She has been quickly educated about cricket too by some of the more helpful tweets she has received. That’s important, as a combination of airlines and event sponsors will now be flying her out to Australia later in the series to see #theashes for herself as part of her new found fame. The Ashes series being played in Australia – effectively through the night in the UK – has seen the internet come alive with various cricketing sites and social media as fans clamber to keep up to date with the action while trying to stay awake. Twitter too has been important with fans swapping thoughts and opinions under hash tags like #theashes and #ashes and #cricket. Meanwhile, ex-players and cricket pundits have taken to the medium en-masse too. The second test of a five match series began last night. After the disappointment of England’s football World Cup bid, maybe cricket is the answer? If you are looking to keep up to date with The Ashes you might want to check these sites out: BBC Cricket They might not have the television coverage but for stats and facts the BBC lead the way on Ashes coverage thanks to their learned Test Match Special pundits and journalists. There is ball-by-ball text updates, a buzzing forum and some incisive blogs. Sky Sports The Ashes Tour 2010-11 With live TV coverage Sky have plenty of resources to present a comprehensive and busy site. Previews, opinions and coverage. Through Ashes Anywhere they are also offering live online action via Sky Player and Sky Sports Mobile TV for subscribers to their Sky Sports 1&2 TV packages. Test Match Sofa Offering alternative cricket commentary for those staying up through the night, Test Match Sofa draws upon the success of fans commentating on the match that has proven popular with football fans in recent years. From a sofa in Tooting, South London, the team aim to abandon the cliché of commentary, bring in a few celebrity names they’ve picked up via Twitter and basically create a feeling of a few mates sitting in front room watching the game (so beware – there can be some swearing). Barmy Army Ashes A Scotsman among England’s infamous Barmy Army supporters is blogging, tweeting and producing some podcasts after every day’s play. It’s all about the sights and sounds of being a fan at The Ashes and with some interesting celebrity and non-celebrity pundits appearing too, it’s a very different read and listen from the usual match coverage.
Getting your website working for you this Christmas
We have just 66 days to go until Christmas. Times are hard and consumers are being even more prudent with what they are buying this Christmas, which means they are on the hunt for a bargain. There are plenty of offers out there if you look hard enough and we thought you might like a few tips as to how you could help boost your own site traffic and possible income by helping consumers find those bargains. Sign up for to become a 123-reg affiliate. The programme is simple and free to join. Once you have signed up you can choose from a wide-range of pre-prepared buttons, banners and links to use on your site advertising 123-reg products. If your visitors click through to us from them and make a purchase, you can then benefit from commission based on those sales. Other sites offer similar schemes. As well as banners and buttons, online bookseller turned superstore also offers Amazon widgets to use on your site. These rich, interactive mini-applications bring Amazon functionality to your website. Select a preferred look to the widget then customise your widget to offer the kind of goods you think your visitors will be interested in. Then just insert the small piece of HTML code into your page. You’ll need to have an Amazon associates account to use the widget functionality. If you are keen to offer a hub with a diverse range of product links consider signing up for an affiliate account with a multi-advertiser programme like Commission Junction. Via their programme you can earn commission from sales via websites, big brand and high street names including our sister web hosting company Webfusion. If you are not as concerned about earning commission directly and are more interested in helping people find a bargain why not add an RSS feed to your site from one of the many bargain hunting sites. HotDealsUK offer both an RSS feed and a Twitter feed which can easily be incorporated into your site using free tools like Twitter’s own Profile Widget. Christmas is a great time to bring in new traffic, as more and more people are expected to go online to look for inspirational present ideas. Remember not to clutter your site up too much with banners and links directing people elsewhere or you will detract from your own products or services, but offering that ‘added benefit’ to your visitors is a great way to get them coming back again in the future.