Back in December, I listened to a talk at MoDev East by “Chief Doer” for Savvy Apps, Ken Yarmosh, who spoke to the crowd about the impending death of the home screen. His main prediction was that the home screen would soon be a thing of the past - being replaced by notifications, widgets and voice and that apps no longer need to be opened to be useful. He called this home screen 2.0, and it seems to be what Facebook and Android have tapped into with the latest announcement of Facebook Home for Android, which launched last Friday, and is finally available for download on some Android phones today. Also, the HTC First will be the first phone available with Home preloaded – which is available today.
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.home)
The Android App store is marketing the new Facebook Home as a “mobile experience that puts your friends at the heart of your phone. From the moment you turn it on, you see a steady stream of friends' posts and photos on your home screen. Upfront notifications and quick access to your essentials mean you'll never miss a moment. And when you download Facebook Messenger, you can keep chatting with friends when you're using other apps.”
Essentially, Facebook is taking over your mobile life, if you have this on your phone. You will no longer need to use your home screen to open the app, it will just be there…alerting you…all the time. No matter what app you have open, when a friend messages you or posts to your wall you’re alerted and given the opportunity to interact in real time.
The feature mostly everyone is taking note of is the new messaging aspect of Facebook Home called Chat Heads, which allows users to send and receive Facebook messages and send and receive texts from the same location on your phone. And, apparently Chat Heads has also been integrating into the Facebook messaging app…so you don’t just have to be an Android user to have it.
I think this article from the Huffington Post gives the best account, in my opinion, of what Facebook Home is all about, addressing that tech industry analysts think that as soon as people start chatting through Facebook the sooner Facebook will bring brands into the mix to start monetizing it. According to the article, “more messaging will give Facebook more data it may use to provide advertisers with personal, personalized ways of interacting with its members.”
"They're just trying to make sure that you don’t use anyone else's messaging service," said Carl Howe, an analyst with the Yankee Group, of Home's messaging capabilities. "They make it so convenient that you would never think about using what are actually very popular other services ... Once you're really invested in their messaging, maybe you won't mind as much when they start showing you ads on your messaging as well.”
I completely agree, Carl. Not to mention, if it’s already coming preloaded on Android phones and set up to make all of this happen, I think people will go for it. The good new is that, according to reviews, you can in fact disable some of these Facebook Home settings if you prefer to not have everything you’re doing on your phone interrupted by Facebook alerts or messages. For me, I’m glad I’m still on the iPhone train and won’t even be tempted to try this, for at least a little while. Personally, I feel like all of the alerts would be a distraction and I also don’t have a problem clicking a few more buttons to get the app if I’m dying to know who’s trying to reach me via Facebook.
As for Ken’s prediction, I think the death of the home screen is just around the corner, as things like Google Now and Facebook Home start becoming the norm.
In scrolling through my new RSS reader I came across quite a few stories this month about Facebook updates. While the company doesn’t seem to be doing a huge site redesign as it has in the past, there are a couple changes that marketers and PR folks should be aware of:
This last item is the most exciting to me – the cover photo guidelines have been changed to allow calls-to-action! As any inbound marketer knows, this change been long awaited. The updated guidelines now read:
"All covers are public. This means that anyone who visits your Page will be able to see your cover. Covers can’t be deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright. You may not encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines. Covers may not include images with more than 20% text."
So that’s not quite saying, “go ahead and put in your call-to-action” but they have removed all of the guideline language about including not including price or purchase information, contact information or calls-to-action.
Now, this does not allow for “clickable” images or links to be included in your cover photo, so if you use a tool like Hubspot or Marketo you’ll still have to drive people to your landing page, but now you have a more prominent space to display text that can do just that.
This post from Hubspot goes deeper into what this means for marketers – i.e., more Facebook leads, better Facebook photo analysis, better promotion to customers, increased conversations and more.
We haven’t updated the SBX Facebook cover photo yet, but this has just gone on the list of things to do around new content releases! Make sure to follow us if you want to stay in the loop on content offerings and SBX news.
Social media can have a large impact for small businesses, but only if they make the time to engage. Small business owners, marketers and other employees are often tasked with many things at once so social media engagement sometimes falls off the radar.
While putting social media on the backburner seems to be the norm, it is a trend that really should change even if the company can’t afford a full time social media person. A small amount of engagement in the right spots can go a long way.
The infographic below (from VerticalResponse) shows how small business are really using social media – how much time they are spending on it, who is engaging and what results they are seeing.
From the results it looks like CEOs are taking on a lot of the work themselves spending 1-5 hours per week on social sites – even though they’d like to spend less time on it. Most small businesses are upping their social game as compared to last year and Facebook is still their main platform.
What I find most interesting is that over half are blogging and making it look easy, spending only 1-3 hours per post.
Check it out and see how you compare.
As companies everywhere dive headfirst into their 2013 marketing plans, I’m sure a social program is included on everyone’s agenda. How do you get your message out effectively, via which social platforms and how do you get your audience engaged in conversation? What should you be tracking and what tools should you be using to make it a success? Whether you’re a beginner or a veteran, social platforms are developing so quickly it can be hard to keep up. Check out the events and conferences coming up in 2013 that could help with your social media endeavors, and feel free to comment with others that we may have missed. After all, it’s about being social, right?
Social Media Marketing World – April 7-9, San Diego, CA
Social Media Marketing World 2013 will combine high-quality 
sessions with an amazing social experience. You’ll rub shoulders with the biggest names and brands in social media, soak up countless tips and new strategies, and enjoy extensive networking opportunities in San Diego, California. Connect face-to-face with top social media marketing experts while breaking bread with like-minded peers from around the globe.
Event Twitter Handle: @smexaminer
Event Hashtag: #SMMW13
BlogWell – April 17, New York, NY
BlogWell features 8 great case studies on the best social media programs at large corporations. This year’s case study presentations will be given by:
- Verizon: Learn how Verizon uses social media to connect with their customers.
- Walgreens: Learn how Walgreens builds internal collaboration and employee relationships through social media.
- ComEd: Learn how ComEd used social media to turn one of the hottest summers ever into the “Coolest Summer Ever” in 2012.
- TD Bank: Learn how TD Bank is becoming a social business by engaging employees and connecting customers with experts.
- Wendy’s: Learn how Wendy’s uses social media listening to make business decisions.
- Corning: Learn how Corning is getting the attention of their fans using social media.
- Sanofi: Learn how the U.S. affiliate of this global pharmaceutical company engages diabetes patients through social media.
- Walmart: Learn how Walmart uses data to build better social media strategies.
Event Hashtag: #blogwell
The Social Media Strategies Summit – April 23-24, Chicago, IL
Social Media Strategies Summit has been designed to apply to a variety of industries. In an effort to meet attendees’ learning objectives, it is built in six tracks, each outlined to focus on a particular industry. Each track includes sessions focused on the following categories: corporate case studies; community engagement and customer service; measurements, including analytics, ROI and tools; sales approach; legal risks & strategies; and marketing strategies & tactics.
Event Twitter Handle: @GSMIonline
Event Hashtag: #smssummit
iStrategy Global Digital and Social Media Conference – April 23-24, Miami, FL
Join North America's most forward-thinking digital marketers, social media mavens and online experts as they converge on Miami in April 2013 to discuss the future of digital marketing and share strategies for improving customer engagement, driving conversions and developing campaigns that positively ring with authenticity, relevancy and significance. Speakers, panelists and workshops will be lead on the following topics:
- Social media
- Mobile marketing and applications
- Display advertising
- Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC)
- Email marketing, database marketing and customer relationship management (CRM)
- Web analytics
- E-commerce
- Content strategy including video, viral and blogs
Event Twitter Handle: @iStratBuzz
Event Hashtag: #iStrategy
The Social Media Strategies Summit June 12-13, New York, New York
Social Media Strategies Summit has been designed to apply to a variety of industries. In an effort to meet attendees’ learning objectives, it is built in six tracks, each outlined to focus on a particular industry. Each track includes sessions focused on the following categories: corporate case studies; community engagement and customer service; measurements, including analytics, ROI and tools; sales approach; legal risks & strategies; and marketing strategies & tactics.
Event Twitter Handle: @GMSIonline
Event Hashtag: #smssummit
Pivot Conference – October 15-16, New York, New York
Pivot is not a social media conference, or even a traditional conference at all. Pivot is as close to a true social community of powerful leaders as a physical gathering can be. In our incisive on-stage conversations, the speakers contribute to the audience, the audience contributes to the speakers and everyone contributes to one another. All Pivot’s participants are leaders of social initiatives from major brands and the organizations that serve them. The result is a singularity that defines the heart of social for the year ahead.
Event Twitter Handle: @pivotcon
Event Hashtag: #pivotcon
Last week I wrote about how Oreo dominated social media during the Super Bowl blackout and touched a bit on how powerful social media can be when used correctly.
However, if you’re reading our blog most likely your company doesn’t fall into the packaged sweets category. In fact, there’s a good chance you’re saying “Well, that’s great for Oreo, but what about the federal government. They don’t use social media!”
To that I call shenanigans.
Just because you’re not selling your product to the general consumer doesn’t mean your audience isn’t using social media and that you should ignore it. It’s 2013, folks; everyone is using social media. That includes the government. Not only is the White House on Twitter – with more than 3.6 million followers – but almost every branch of the military has a presence there along with most federal departments and agencies. Many of these same federal departments and agencies are also represented on Facebook and LinkedIn.
So, now that I’ve shown you that the federal government does in fact use social media I’d like to push you to think beyond just the agency/department representation on these sites. It’s definitely worthwhile to know that government agencies uses social media but more important, in my opinion, is knowing that employees of those agencies – i.e., your customers - are there. After all, social media communities are not run and populated by robots. People, including members of your target audience, manage and congregate on these sites.
When selling to the government you aren’t selling to some great and powerful Oz who runs the agency from behind a magic curtain. You are selling to people. When your company’s sales team goes into an agency they aren’t going to the CIO, they are talking directly to the person who uses the equipment, the person who has the ability to make purchasing decisions. These are the people you want to be sure you are seeking out and reaching on social media, just as Oreo is seeking the consumer who is likely to purchase their cookies. You may not have Oreo’s advertising or public relations budget but that’s the beauty of social media – it’s free – and if used properly – priceless.
Interested in learning more about how to use social media to engage with the government? Download our tip sheet – The Blueprint – Social Media and Government.
--Jennifer Edgerly
As 2012 wraps up, lists are popping up everywhere to chronicle the year that was. From the most searched terms of the year to the biggest news stories, websites everywhere are determining what about 2012 will be remembered in the record books. Not to be left out, Facebook “took the pulse of the global community” by looking at the conversations, posts and images that generated the most buzz among its 1 billion users over the past year.
So what events stood out on the world’s most popular social network in 2012? Not surprisingly to anyone who logged on to Facebook in the past year, the US Presidential Election was the most talked about topic. Second place however, was unexpected to me, as the event was over before the year barely began - Super Bowl XLVI. Finishing out the top 10 most talked about events were -
- Death of Whitney Houston
- Superstorm Sandy
- London 2012 Olympics
- Death of Trayvon Martin
- Facebook IPO
- Aurora Shootings
- Death of Dick Clark
- Obama's Endorsement of Gay Marriage
You can view the full list – including the most checked-in places, top songs, and most talked about technology – and the breakdown by percentage here - http://www.facebookstories.com/2012
Curious as to what your Facebook year looked like? Luckily, you can find out with Facebook’s Year in Review on Timeline. By going to Facebook.com/yearinreview, you can see the 20 biggest moments from your year, including life events, highlighted posts and your most popular stories.
So what stands out from your year? Did you contribute to making the top 10 what it was?
So, it’s already December 18th, and I’ve only received three Christmas cards. I thought that maybe it was because all of my friends had newborns last year and didn’t feel the need to resend photos of their children dressed in Santa hats. That, or dogs everywhere were protesting the wearing of those cute little reindeer antlers owners love to attach to their heads in the family photo. Or, perhaps people just don’t have anything to share with me that they don’t share on a regular basis thanks to social media. That’s what Time blogger Nina Burleigh suggests in her latest post “Why I’ve Stopped Sending Holiday Photo Cards.” Is technology killing the Christmas card? I think that might just be the case. 
As Burleigh states, “we already have real-time windows into the lives of people thousands of miles away. We already know exactly how they’ve fared in the past year, much more than could possibly be conveyed by any single Christmas card. If a child or grandchild has been born to a former colleague or high school chum living across the continent, not only did I see it within hours on Shutterfly or Instagram or Facebook, I might have seen him or her take his or her first steps on YouTube. If a job was gotten or lost, a marriage made or ended, we have already witnessed the woe and joy of it on Facebook, email and Twitter.”
She’s so right – I knew the second your sweet bundle of joy was born along with how much he/she weighed, name, height and their new Twitter handle, photo, etc., so why would I need you to show me again in a Christmas card? I know where my friends are going for Christmas, when they’re heading out of town, and whether or not they’re in the holiday spirit, all from their social media accounts. Although I have respect for a hand-written note, I’m actually OK with the declining rate at which I’m receiving Christmas cards. Then again, I’m also a fan of technology and saving some trees. Not to mention, if you send me something electronic, I’ll most likely have it for a longer period of time. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a complete Grinch, and I sincerely appreciate the cards I do receive. I’m just saying that I understand the decline, and I’m OK with it. And, it doesn’t seem like I’m the only one seeing this trend.
Also, if you’re looking for other ways technology can help bring you cheer this year, be sure to check out the following Holiday Apps!
I came across the infographic below the other day and thought it was kind of interesting but also kind of told us what we already know - Facebook is the king of social media.
As the infographic, courtesy of the Socially Aware Blog shows, people spend almost 7 hours a month on Facebook with other social media sites falling far, far behind. I certainly don't question the validity of these numbers but to me that data is more than a bit misleading. It comes from a comScore study that was released in February and does not include mobile visitors, which is a little baffling. For me the exclusion of mobile visitors makes the biggest difference with regards to Twitter, which they say people only spend 21 minutes on a month. However, in June of this year Twitter reported that 60 percent of their users access the platform via a mobile device so clearly that number would be much much higher if mobile users were taken into account.
The infographic also shows that 65 percent of tablet owners in the U.S. surf the web while watching TV which to me begs the question - how can you conduct a study on the amount of time people spend on different social networks and not include mobile users? Anyone who watches TV these days can't help but see that every TV show includes a hashtag for their viewers to use if they are tweeting while watching the show.
The other key point to me is that more and more people are accessing the web from tablets and mobile devices. For marketers this means if you haven't yet optimized your website for viewing on a mobile device, or if you're not using responsive design to ensure your website reacts appropriately to the device it's being accessed from, then you are late to the game and this should be a priority in 2013.
Take a look at the infographic and sound off below with any thoughts or observations you have!
--Jennifer Edgerly
Yesterday, Potomac Tech Wire held their Social Media Outlook 2013 at the Gannett/USA TODAY Corporate Headquarters in McLean, VA. The event consisted of a keynote, panel and three speaker presentations all focused on bringing us expert viewpoints and analysis of where things stand with social media and where they’re expected to go in the upcoming year. You can check out the recap of the keynote, posted by my colleague Jennifer Edgerly here and get all the details from the panel below. Panelists hit on everything from Facebook to Tumblr and told us about the coolest social media campaigns they’ve seen this year. The panel was moderated by Potomac Tech Wire’s Paul Sherman and included the following industry thought-leaders:
- Leigh George – Director of Digital Strategy, R2integrated
- Rohit Bhargava (also the keynote
speaker!) – Founding member of the 360 Digital Influence Group at Ogilvy and author of the best selling book “Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspring Action”
- Jodi Gersh - Director/Social Media & Engagement at Gannett
- Shashi Bellamkonda – Social Swami (otherwise known as Sr. Director, Social Media) at Web.com and Adjunct Marketing Professor at Georgetown University
Q: What’s going on with Facebook? I’ve heard that Facebook is losing its “cool” for younger generations.
According to panelist Leigh George, Facebook is now a mass media that has reached every demographic. She stated that the only real area of growth for the major social media platform is with baby boomers, which may be why it seems like it is losing its “cool” amongst the younger generations. Bhargava agrees, saying that one drawback to Facebook is that once your parents are on it, it may not be cool anymore. That said, he doesn’t think people will be fleeing the platform. He also noted, Facebook is the only way he is connected with many people and to ditch his account would mean to lose those connections.
Q: How are you advising clients to use Facebook right now?
George also weighed in on this topic, stating that Facebook is not a sales platform, if you want to engage with people here, as a company, you have to reach them through what people are talking about. Ads on Facebook are viewed as intrusive – you need to talk about topics like community involvement or recruiting, and not try to buy your way in. She says you must add value to your audience.
Jodi Gersh noted that the newest challenge with Facebook comes from their ad- ranking algorithm, which places a higher value on engagement than likes. This gives companies the new goal of not simply attracting more likes to their page, but getting those who like their page to engage with their content. She admitted to currently having a love/hate relationship with the platform. Bellamkonda stated that Facebook is the easiest publishing platform and it isn’t going anywhere. He noted that people will share content that provides them with value and recommends people holding social giveaways on fan pages that give away the companies’ own products.
Q: Startups used to have Facebook at their core, but now they appear to have more of an “at arms length” relationship with the platform. Is Facebook losing its “cool” with startups?
There was a time when you had an ecommerce site that you had to display openly that it was VeriSign secure, or people would be nervous to purchase. But, over time, everyone had one so sites didn’t feel the need to put it in the limelight – it was just expected that sites had it, explained Rohit Bhargava. He goes on to say that this is similar to the relationship between Facebook and startups, which used to have the platform front and center. But now, everyone just knows they are there. Continuing with the similes, he also compared Facebook to plumbing, saying that you don’t miss it until it’s gone.
George agreed that his analogy between the plumbing and Facebook was spot on. Hitting back on the younger demographic, she notes that the 18-24 demographic is really involved with the more visual social networks like Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram, and Facebook is the plumbing for all of them (meaning they are all interconnected and you can log in to these various platforms via your Facebook account). Most of these platforms are mobile and she thinks they will eventually catch on with the older demographics.
Shashi Bellamkonda added that as companies and startups integrate into mobile, whoever makes plugging-in easiest will be the most successful, and right now, integrating with Facebook is the easiest way to do that. Bhargava agreed the Facebook platform was simple, but also noted that the interface is looking pretty old and almost compares to that of craigslist. He’s super excited about the new MySpace platform, though, noting its horizontal scrolling.
Speaking of interface makeovers, have you checked out the new USA TODAY web page? Gersh says the new web page is super visual and almost “Pinteresty” with a new cover view option. I’m not going to lie, it looks pretty sharp!
Q: What campaigns/strategies have wowed you this past year and why?
Panelist: Leigh George
Campaign: Coca-Cola
Reason: Leigh is fascinated by Coca-Cola’s embracement of becoming a social company. Last summer, they released their content strategy and people thought they were crazy for giving out their secret sauce. Leigh disagrees, stating that she thinks transparency is intelligent. Coca-Cola is also embracing social business, Leigh explains. They co-create content with their consumers via social by getting them to talk about their concept of “Opening Happiness.” Check out their “Happiness Is…” campaign on Tumblr.
Panelist: Rohit Bhargava
Campaigns: Toyota 100 Cars for Good and McDonalds “Ask Anything” Twitter Campaign
Reason: Rohit mentioned the cleverness of the Toyota 100 Cars campaign, which allowed social media users to select which charities received the free cars from Toyota. But he gave most of his praise to McDonalds, who challenged its customers to ask any question on Twitter and they would answer it. He noted this was the perfect way to engage people when they think you are “BSing” them. Check out some of the results.
Panelist: Jodi Gersh
Campaign: Oreo
Reason: Jodi gave kudos to Oreo’s recent Facebook campaign, in which they post photos regularly of Oreos that have been carved to look like different things. She says its brilliant because of Oreo’s complete understanding of Facebook as a platform. They are taking the cookie that everyone already loves and making something out of it to share. Check out AdAge’s coverage.
Panelist: Shashi Bellamkonda
Campaign: Network Solutions, Go Granny
Reason: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn25Lb8dick
Q: What is coming in 2013 for Twitter and Google+? What about “dark social?”
According to George, Google+ is a ghost town and will continue to be a place for the small, yet active older, male population. She says its great for SEO, but not broad engagement. But, Bellamkonda says it still plays a role, saying that everyone should have a Google+ button on every page of their website. He also noted the rise in predictive analytic-focused platforms like GoogleNow, which collects your data and gives you the info it thinks you want to see when you start your browser (i.e. local weather, favorite sports scores). The group didn’t have too much to say about Twitter, but Bhargava gave a final push to the new MySpace, calling it an exciting destination.
They wrapped-up the panel by talking about dark social, stating stats from an Atlantic article that showed half of the links we go to come from email, text, chat, etc. George said that we should look at dark social traffic and use it to help generate content. And, Bellamkonda recommended using a button tool such as AddThis to help track this data.
Posted by
Mary Evans on Sat, Sep 29, 2012 @ 01:38 PM
Someone recently asked me what Google+ was (mind you, this person is not an active social media user by any means), and I found myself stumbling in my explanation. I’m on the channel, but couldn’t tell you the last time I logged in, let alone actively used it. As much as I wanted to love it, I just never got sucked in. I enjoy so many Google tools, but am sorry to say, this just isn’t one of them. Am I alone in that feeling, or do I have company? (Sorry, Pete, I know you’re a fan.)
Reports from the past few months have varied, so it’s hard to come to a conclusion. However, I did some poking around and came across this cool infographic a UK social media firm put together last month. It compares Google+ to other social networking sites and suggests that activity on the site is much lower compared to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Take a look below, or here, for the details. Where do you stand – is Google+ alive and well?
- Mary Evans
