Twitter Marketing And Promotion Tips
September 15, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Twitter is the place where millions go for news and all types of other information. If you’re a Twitter newbie, the first thing you should know is that the length of individual Twitter posts cannot exceed 140 characters. Clearly there’s a reason for calling Twitter posting “micro-blogging.” The 140-character limit is set by default and is part of the site’s appeal — concision is encouraged and everyone gets information in mini-bits. Another thing the platform is good for? Twitter marketing. It provides a surprisingly level playing field for established businesses and those that are just starting out. Twitter has quickly become one of the most reliable places to get a business following.
Make the most of this free space to promote your business? If you’re unsure about how to get started, iClimber can help you out. Your Twitter account can be maintained with timely and pertinent posts so neither you, your brand, nor your business are left out of important public conversations.
Quick Recommendations for Twitter:
- Have individual profiles for management leaders and a single one for the company
- Be active and post relevant content to increase followers
- Follow individuals/companies in your industry and those posting similar content — these are the folks most likely to follow you back; a 20 percent to 40 percent follow-back can be expected
- Do not follow too many people at once: no more than 50-100 follows/day is best
- Avoid repetitive messages, especially those promoting your website
- Know that after the number of people following you reaches 2,000, if your “followers” are not within 10 percent of your “following,” you’ll be unable to add more friends — this threshold is in place to control spam — so sometimes it will be necessary to wait for more followers or to unfollow those that aren’t following you back
- Include your Twitter address on your website, email footers, business cards, and company brochures
- Check your account’s messages at least every few days and respond to them
If you request to have us manage your tweets (Twitter posts), your account will have anywhere from 40 to 150 posts per month, according to the service selection you make. These Twitter postings will typically consist of links to optimistic news stories relevant to your industry or links to your own blog entries and press releases. If you have a blog or website, you can also hire iClimber for article writing and content writing services. Besides tweeting about your articles and content, iClimber will also redirect to your staff any customer support questions made on Twitter.
The takeaway is that an active Twitter account is a known way to generate followers of your brand. If you would like to also create posts yourself, iClimber can provide a 30-minute training session over the phone to place you on the optimized track. Let us assist you in the sharpening of your marketing tools and chops.
U.C. Berkeley Social App Lab Releases CitySandbox, Hopes to Network Real-World Deeds
August 11, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
These days, Greg Niemeyer, one of the honchos of the U.C. Berkeley Social App Lab, can be caught tinkering with a pet project: CitySandbox. What exactly is that two-word mash-up? It’s Niemeyer’s grab at getting to a finer integration of online and offline sociability, but by his own admission he still has much ground to cover.
CitySandbox is a social medium for people to “ask questions about specific places in [their] city and discuss them” with fellow residents. The goal is to create real-world action from the postings. The site is designed to promote the formation of social clusters focused on specific local issues through the virtual/real communication between its members.
It works by overlaying a Google map of a local area, Berkeley, in this case, with social networking capabilities. Users select a map location and then ask a question about it or propose a real-life event to address a particular issue.
Here goes one example. Concerning the location 1503 Oxford St., Berkeley, CA 94709, USA, CitySandbox user SEstar asked, “Who is the person that spends every night on this bench?” The user explained that the unknown person slept while “sitting upright,” “dressed in a dark long coat with a hoodie,” and kept “his/her legs crossed.”
SEstar’s query, after three weeks, only got one response, from user Shovel, who in some sort of commiseration posted: “Kind of creepy. But you could leave a note for him.” Helpful, indeed.
Niemeyer still has some way to go before hitting upon the online terrain that will truly nurture the creation of collective, real-world action from online discussions, but he feels he’s on the right track.
Read More:
http://citysandbox.com/?r=site/faq#about
http://www.berkeleyside.com/tag/social-app-lab/
Ashton Kutcher Thinks Social Media is “Like a Manifestation of God”
August 10, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Ashton Kutcher, who, these days, is very much unironically being called a “social-media influencer,” has been gearing up for his return to television since joining the cast of “Two and a Half Men” late last spring. Some finer points about his new role have begun to emerge and media commentators are already remarking on the “meta” aspects of his giving life to an “Internet mogul” christened — a la Hollywood — Walden Schmidt.
In an interview he gave to Details Magazine, Kutcher himself described his new character as being “somewhere between an alien and Jesus Christ,” claiming he couldn’t “be more specific than that.” In another choice description provided by the one-time Michael Kelso, Ashton had this to say about social media: “It’s almost like a manifestation of God… People used to behave morally because they thought God was always watching — in some ways God today is the collective, and the collective is watching.”
By their turn, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Kutcher’s television comeback, with its steadier schedule, will “allow him to focus on tech projects” at Katalyst Media, the production company he co-founded with Jason Goldberg in 2000; the company has had a social media division since 2005.
Read More:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2011/08/ashton-kutcher-two-and-a-half-men-sheen-details.html
Flickr, Twitter, and London Riots
August 9, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
On Flickr, it is now possible to find CCTV cam surveillance images of the London riots that have been taking place since Saturday night. London police uploaded the images themselves in an attempt at gaining assistance from the public in identifying the rioters. On August 5th, Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old with alleged gang affiliations was shot and killed by police in Tottenham, a part of the London borough of Haringey. Reports are suggesting Duggan did not fire at police before being shot.
Racial and class tensions are running high — Duggan was a mixed-race Londoner and the neighborhood where he died by police fire is being described by British dailies as home to the “fourth highest level of child poverty in London and an unemployment rate of 8.8%.” Widespread civic violence first broke out after a peaceful protest against police brutality in Tottenham devolved into the torching of two police patrol cars and a double-decker bus. By Monday the violence had reached London proper and continued to spread on Tuesday to Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bristol. 525 arrests have been made so far on account of vandalism and looting. Police are hoping the Flickr images will help them charge more aggressors.
In addition to helping police identify the rioters, through Flickr, the newly opened Twitter account @riotcleanup — already with more than 85 thousand followers — is ready to help people organize clean-ups around the town once it’s possible.
Read More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14462271
http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/man-shot-police-was-friends-nightclub-stab-victim
Social Media Intelligence Offers Employers A Way to Side-Step Discrimination Suits
July 21, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Social Intelligence has only been in business for one year but already it’s set to make a big impact on the ways that employers screen prospective hires through the use of social media. Googling a job applicant can upend an employer’s best intentions to perform a thorough and fair job screening because online searches can easily reveal details that are legally prohibited from being asked during an interview — facts about an applicant’s religion, sexual orientation, race, age, gender, or disability. Conducting online research that discloses sensitive information can leave employers vulnerable to discrimination suits.
On the other hand, not conducting an online search leaves undesirable and, quite importantly, legally knowable characteristics about an applicant undiscovered until it’s too late. In its website, Social Intelligence says that its company tracks down pertinent information on job candidates, like public postings on social media sites of “racist remarks or activities, sexually explicit photos or videos, and illegal activity such as drug use,” in addition to those of “charitable or volunteer efforts, participation in industry blogs, and external recognition.” The company’s gambit is to conduct meticulous online investigations on job applicants but only pass on to client-employers information that is legally safe for them to have. According to Social Intelligence, this is an all-around win-win situation.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s outreach manager, Joe Bontke, spoke with the New York Times and told the paper that violating antidiscrimination laws was a real risk for employers. He also gave the folks there two figures: 75 percent of American recruiters conduct mandatory online investigations on applicants and 70 percent of them report having snubbed applicants because of the information gathered through those investigations.
Read More:
http://www.socialintelligencehr.com/home
Quepasa Pays Myyearbook $100 Million in Merger Agreement
July 20, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Quepasa, the social network with its sights firmly set on a Latino audience has just paid the sibling trio from New Jersey, Geoff, Catherine, and David Cook, $100 million for their fraternal creation, Myyearbook.com. The payoff is considered part of a merger agreement between the two companies.
Accordingly, Quepasa is putting up $82 million in stock and $18 million en efectivo (cash, guys). The siblings’ social network is geared at teens and has a strong focus on games. Calling it like it sees it, comScore ranks the New Jersey group’s site as the most heavily visited online place for teenagers. For its part, Quepasa calls West Palm Beach, Florida home and was founded in 1997 by Jeffery Peterson; its current CEO is John Abbott.
AllthingsD is reporting that last year the combined revenue of the merging companies came to a grand total of $33.6 million. As part of the deal underway, Geoff Cook, Myyearbook’s CEO, will now be Quepasa’s COO. In a release, John Abbot had the following to say about the new partners’ contribution: “By emphasizing social discovery, focusing on the people users want to know rather than the people they already know, the service has built a large and growing user base, especially in the teen and young adult demographic.”
Read More:
http://webcast.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=1598261
Social Media Inside the Courtroom
July 14, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Last week, what Time Magazine has called “the first major murder trial of the social-media age” came to a close with a not-guilty verdict for Casey Anthony, a woman accused of murdering her own two-year-old daughter, Caylee Marie, in 2008. Besides the intensity with which the case was followed online, the case’s very beginnings are found in the social media world. As it was pointed out in Time, the first person to give notice of Caylee Marie’s disappearance was her grandmother, Cindy Anthony, and she did so by way of a MySpace posting that dates to July 3, 2008. In the post Cindy Anthony wrote that her daughter Casey was not allowing her to see Caylee. It would be three more days before Cindy contacted the police about the unknown whereabouts of her granddaughter.
But that’s not where the case’s connection to social media ends. Walter Pacheco, who writes for the Orlando Sentinel, just wrote a piece concerning the Casey Anthony defense team’s innovative use of Twitter, Facebook, and blog postings: use the postings to create a public opinion analysis and refine trial strategy with the findings. Certainly, the analysis was not the only factor to deliver the defense team’s unexpected victory, but the method is now tied to a winning trial.
Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2077969,00.html#ixzz1S7t01kN4
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2015603216_anthonytrial14.html
Underfunded Scientists Hit Up the Web for Cash (Successfully)
July 11, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Crowdsourcing is nothing new, but as a way of funding investigative research at a public institution of higher learning, well, it does constitute a somewhat marked departure from the traditional path to financing. The New York Times is claiming to have found the first example of such an occurrence.
The scientists (biologists) in question have so far raised $4, 873 through crowdsourcing. One, Dr. Jennifer Calkins, teaches biology at Evergreen State College as an adjunct professor; Dr. Jennifer Gee is the second biologist and she’s the Robert J. Bernard Biological Field Station’s interim manager.
The biologists pointed out to would-be donors where the pooled money would be spent: “By contributing to this project you will support a study of this little known species as we examine its behavior and evolution in its natural habitat, a space encroached upon by both urban sprawl and tension surrounding narcotics trafficking.” That would be under-studied quail species of the Callipepla genus: Callipepla douglasii (pictured at right).
Kickstarter.com was the site used to get the money together. The site is usually host to endeavors that lean heavily toward the visual and (non-explicitly scientific) creative arts, but the quail research project was embraced and funded.
The two scientists reported that although they were offering, among other things, trading cards, postcards, and T-shirts for the donations, most people who donated money requested a signed copy of their upcoming volume, “The Quail Diaries.”
Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/science/12crowd.html?ref=technology
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/401217730/the-quail-diaries-in-search-of-the-elegant-quail
Silicon Valley Roars Up an Arms Race for Washington Power
June 23, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has just nabbed Larry Summers for the board of Square, his latest tech start-up. In case anyone thinks they’re mistaken, that really is Larry Summers — former Treasury Secretary, ex-president of Harvard (the one who couldn’t live down a no-confidence vote after denigrating women’s aptitude for science) and very recent Obama economic advisor. As for Square, it’s an app for electronic payments through mobile devices, and a company that’s been around only since last year.
Square calls San Francisco home and was founded by Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in 2010. Currently, its rumored valuation passes the $1 billion mark. Keith Rabois, with ties to Paypal and LinkedIn, is Square’s chief operating officer; Roel of Botha, of Sequoia Capital, and Vinod Khosla, Sun Microsystems co-founder, are on the board.
Summer’s entry into the tech start-up world is likely to have struck many as startlingly unexpected. However, as an arms race for political clout has clearly erupted along the greenback pastures of the Silicon Valley, the move is most definitely anything but fluky. For its score, Facebook most recently set up its own team of Washington lobbyists and hired a former White House press secretary (Joe Lockhart) to be its vice president of global communications.
With undoubtedly strategic blandness, Mr. Dorsey provided the following public welcome to Summers: “We are proud to have Larry join our board and we welcome his insight and decades of leadership to our growing company…Square is at a key point in our trajectory and we know Larry will contribute tremendous wisdom and expertise toward our continued success.”
Read More:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/welcome-to-silicon-valley-larry-summers/
Twitter and Facebook the New Nielsen?
June 21, 2011 by admin · Comments Off
Twitter rankings and Facebook Likes have been all the rage for some time now. If someone isn’t bragging about the number of followers or Likes they’ve so far accumulated, they’re probably busy (breathlessly) citing as proof of importance the number of followers someone else has been piling up. Although there’s hardly a soul left who’s not yet taken note of the accommodating nature of Twitter and Facebook data for ranking purposes, there aren’t very many trying their hand at what SocialGuide.com is trying to do: provide TV ratings from the perspective of social media.
Hailing from Brooklyn and founded by Sean Casey, SocialGuide.com has come up with Social 100, a ranking of what’s most popular on TV according to an analysis of Twitter and Facebook comments. Social 100 is published once a week. A “snapshot” of last week’s audience, as created by the start-up, consists of a total of 966,261 unique watchers who posted 2,305,128 comments about 1,930 TV programs. (Only comments posted while the programs are on are counted.)
Mr. Casey has said that these numbers will prove vital to TV producers when it comes time to figuring out audience tastes and ways to elicit responses from viewers. He’s has also stated his awareness of the potential of social networking to tie viewers together through commenting and shared watching. Beyond that, it seems the Brooklyn people are trying to give the Nielsen ratings a run for their money.
Social 100 -> http://beta.socialguide.com/social100
Read More:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/06/socialguide-providing-a-social-feed-for-tv.html
