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Twitter chatbots can now include buttons that push you to tweet, follow, click & more http://ift.tt/2rnbXGL Twitter today is rolling out a new feature that will allow businesses to prompt their followers to take an action beyond a simple fav or retweet. The company is introducing the ability for businesses to add buttons inside their direct message conversations designed to encourage customers to do things like tweet about the company’s Twitter bot, visit their website, follow the business’s Twitter account, or start a chat with another account the business runs, among other things. The feature is now one of several enhancements Twitter has made to its Direct Messaging experience in recent months. In May, for example, Twitter announced a way for businesses to run ads that were designed to bring users inside a Direct Messaging experience, where they could then interact with the business’s chatbot. Twitter has also rolled out a bevy of features for Direct Messages, like welcome messages, quick replies, custom profiles, location sharing, and more – a suite of features seemingly intended to challenge Facebook Messenger and its own platform for business chatbots. While Facebook chatbots often had you clicking on items to navigate through their interactive experiences, Twitter’s new buttons are much more basic. They are simply appended to a message a company sends to a customer- meaning those that are messaged by own of the business’s bots. For example, Focus Features has implemented the new feature with its bot that tweets movie trailers. Now, Twitter users can click on buttons to buy movie tickets, join the company’s rewards program, or get connected to a human in order to get customer service questions answers. For the release of the movie “The Beguiled,” the bot is also inviting users to play a trivia game then share their score on Twitter. Twitter says that the buttons can be configured for a number of purposes that take place outside the Direct Message conversations, like composing a tweet, following an account, or opening a website within the Twitter app. At launch, businesses can add up to three buttons to their messages, and can customize the call-to-action text (or emoji) on these buttons, as well. The feature can be combined with the recently launched Direct Message Cards, too, which encourage users to enter the brand’s DMs to start chatbot-powered conversations. Twitter says these new buttons are rolling out starting today on iOS, Android, and desktop web. Businesses can access the new feature via Twitter’s developer API. Social Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com June 13, 2017 at 04:06AM
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An Offer You Cannot Refuse: The Future of Content Marketing from the Godfather of Content http://ift.tt/2rdDQNn “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” While this is not a phrase that Joe Pulizzi uses in his content, it is one that we can all associate with him, as he is the undisputed Godfather of content marketing. The words and insights Pulizzi shares on his site, the Content Marketing Institute, are powerful. He is an innovator, and he continuously helps the world of content marketing drive toward success, unlock new ideas, and revamp the old so that marketing is effective, efficient, and always relatable. Today, Pulizzi was kind enough to sit down and share his Godfather-like advice on the future of content marketing. Here’s his thoughts on the best practices marketers and bloggers should be using if they want to see their investment go far. Are You a Have or Have Not?Pulizzi has invested countless hours into content marketing, so he understands the huge amount of work that this area of marketing requires. However, the first point he brings up in the interview is that of how much time is invested versus what a person will receive in return. Essentially, content marketing is only as valuable as the investment—the investment is the critical term here. No one can expect a return on their content marketing if they do not dedicate the time for keyword research, demographic analysis for audiences, and spend time creating engaging, excellent content. A “have” person is one that does all of that and is patient enough to follow the metrics, fine-tune their work, and monitor progress. The “have nots” are those that did not put forth the investment, but just expect the return on half-done work. For 2017 and beyond, Pulizzi could not emphasize enough how important it was to shift your marketing strategy into the “have” category for a better return. Most importantly, a good strategy is one that takes 12 to 18 months to implement and start seeing the “R” in your ROI. Therefore, when creating a plan based on Pulizzi’s ideas, it is important that one acknowledges the fact that results take time. Critical Takeaways for 2017 and Future Content Marketing StrategiesPulizzi shared plenty of advice for fine-tuning this year’s strategy that will be future-proofed for years. Just some points include:
Pulizzi’s insight into content marketing is something that every marketer should consider. While he made a point that a company could potentially succeed without content marketing, doing so is much more work with less return on the investment. Keep in touch with Pulizzi by following him on Twitter or monitoring his blogs at the Content Marketing Institute. The post An Offer You Cannot Refuse: The Future of Content Marketing from the Godfather of Content appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://ift.tt/xMddWR June 13, 2017 at 02:04AM
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UK and France to jointly pressure tech firms over extremist content http://ift.tt/2rdzLs8 The leader of the UK’s new minority government, Theresa May, is in France today for talks with her French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and the pair are slated to launch a joint crack down on online extremism. Under discussion is whether new legal liability is needed for tech companies that fail to remove terrorism-related content — including even potentially fines. Speaking ahead of her trip to Paris, May said: “The counter-terrorism cooperation between British and French intelligence agencies is already strong, but President Macron and I agree that more should be done to tackle the terrorist threat online. “In the UK we are already working with social media companies to halt the spread of extremist material and poisonous propaganda that is warping young minds. And today I can announce that the UK and France will work together to encourage corporations to do more and abide by their social responsibility to step up their efforts to remove harmful content from their networks, including exploring the possibility of creating a new legal liability for tech companies if they fail to remove unacceptable content.” “We are united in our total condemnation of terrorism and our commitment to stamp out this evil,” she added. The move follows the G7 meeting last month, where May pushed for collective action from the group of nations on tackling online extremism — securing agreement from the group to push for tech firms to do more. “We want companies to develop tools to identify and remove harmful materials automatically,” she said then. Earlier this month she also called for international co-operation to regulate the Internet to — in her words “prevent the spread of extremism and terrorist planning”. Although she was on the campaign stump at the time, and securing agreements across cross borders to ‘control the Internet’ is hardly something any single political leader, however popular (and May is not that) has in their gift. The German government has recently backed a domestic proposal to fine social media firms up to €50 million if they fail to promptly remove illegal hate speech from their platforms — within 24 hours after a complaint has been made for “obviously criminal content”, and within seven days for other illegal content. This has yet to be adopted as legislation. But domestic fines do present a more workable route for governments to try to compel the types of action they want to see from tech firms, albeit only locally. And while the UK and France have not yet committed to applying fines as a stick to beat social media on content moderation, they are at least eyeing such measures now. Last month, a UK parliamentary committee urged the government to look at financial penalties for social media companies that fail on content moderation — hitting out at Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for taking a “laissez-faire approach” to moderating hate speech content on their platforms. Facebook’s content moderation rules have also recently been criticized by child safety charities — so it’s not just terrorism related material that tech firms are facing flak for spreading via their platforms. We’ve reached out to Facebook, Google and Twitter for comment on the latest developments here and will update this story with any response. As well as considering creating a new legal liability for tech companies, the UK Prime Minister’s Office said today that the UK and France will lead joint work with the firms in question — including to develop tools to identify and remove harmful material automatically. “In particular, the Prime Minister and President Macron will press relevant firms to urgently establish the industry-led forum agreed at the G7 summit last month, to develop shared technical and policy solutions to tackle terrorist content on the internet,” the PM’s office said in a statement. Tech firms do already use tools to try to automate the identification and removal of problem content — although given the vast scale of these user generated content platforms (Facebook, for example, has close to two billion users at this point), and the huge complexity of moderating so much UGC (also factoring in platforms’ typical preference for free speech), there’s clearly no quick and easy tech fix here. Although the majority of accounts Twitter suspends for promoting terrorism are identified by its internal spam-fighting tools. Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the company is working on applying AI to try to speed up its content moderation processes, though he also warned that AI aids are “still very early in development” — adding that “many years” will be required to fully develop them. It remains to be seen whether the threat of new liability legislation will concentrate minds among tech giants to step up their performance on content moderation. Although there are signs they are already doing more. At the start of this month the European Commission said the firms have made “significant progress” on illegal hate speech takedowns, a year after they agreed to a voluntary Code of Conduct. Facebook also recently announced 3,000 extra moderator staff to beef up its content review team (albeit, that’s still a drop in the ocean vs the 2BN users it has generating content). Meanwhile, the efficacy of politicians focusing counterterrorism efforts on cracking down on online extremism remains doubtful. And following the recent terror attacks in the UK, May, who served as Home Secretary prior to being PM, faced criticism for making cuts to frontline policing. Speaking to the Washington Post last week in the wake of the latest terror attack in London, Peter Neumann, director of the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization, argued the Internet is not to blame for the recent UK attacks. “In the case of the most recent attacks in Britain, it wasn’t about the Internet. Many of those involved were radicalized through face-to-face interactions,” he said. Featured Image: Twin Design/ShutterstockSocial Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com June 12, 2017 at 10:18PM
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How to Engage Millennials on Facebook and Instagram http://ift.tt/2tgz6af Are you trying to reach the 18- to 34-year-old part of your customer base? Are Facebook and Instagram two of your main social platforms? In this article, you’ll discover which Facebook and Instagram features will help you reach and engage with Millennials on social media.
Understand Millennial PreferencesTo connect with your Millennial audience more effectively, you have to learn to speak their language, which is experience. Millennials have grown up as digital natives, and instead of seeing social media as a gathering of information as an older person might, they view social media as an opportunity to experience what other users have to offer and to create experiences themselves. Community is very important to them. In addition, Millennials are price- and innovation-oriented. If you have an advantage over a competitor in either of those areas, make the most of it for this audience. And, if your product or service bridges local concerns with being a global citizen and/or being socially responsible, you’ll speak more effectively to the Millennial audience than a competitor with products or services that don’t. Be Mindful of Millennial Sub-Groups Something to keep in mind even as you plan to reach out to Millennials: They’re a diverse body of individuals. Even more than other consumers, Millennials are aware of how ‘identity’ is both collaborative and constructed. This is especially true because Millennials resist the one-size-fits-all world. Within the broad 18- to 34-year-old age range, tastes will differ. So it’s important to identify sub-groups and what speaks to each of them. Customizing their experience on social media will help you connect. If you’re able to speak to their values and lifestyle, your product or service will be much more attractive. Millennials and Social Media It may surprise you to know that Millennials actually spend less time on social media than their older Gen X counterparts (ages 35-49 years). Social media consumes 24% of Millennials’ time on media (including TV, games, computers, smartphones, and tablets). Facebook is more popular with non-Millennials and some sources even claim that Millennials have abandoned Facebook for smaller, less-constricting platforms like Snapchat. Even so, my college professor friend Jed Record recently conducted a poll of his students and asked them, “If you had to delete all but one app from your mobile phone, which would it be?” They all chose Facebook, primarily because it’s the only app where they know they can reach/contact everyone they know including family members, extended family, and a circle of friends. How Facebook and Instagram Are Positioning for Millennial Audiences In order to reach Millennials, Facebook and Instagram are constantly updating with features designed to attract and maintain engagement with this audience in the face of competition from other apps such as Snapchat. Both Facebook and Instagram are increasing their focus on showing, rather than telling. So let’s have a look at how you can leverage these features for your own Millennial audience marketing efforts. #1: Deliver Disappearing Messages to Keep Interests PiquedIn keeping with their experiential preference, disappearing media is popular, especially among younger Millennials. They like knowing that intimate sharing in words and pictures, as well as rambling posts, will disappear forever. Facebook’s mobile app and Instagram now include the ability to share photos and videos directly with specific friends. These messages disappear 24 hours after they’re viewed up to two times, similar to Snapchat. To access this feature, called Direct, on either Facebook or Instagram, simply tap on the little paper airplane icon. For example, on Facebook, the icon is on the top left of your main news feed. (Note that this feature is only available for personal profiles at the moment.) When you tap the Direct icon, you’ll first see a list of any friends who have seen your replies and vice versa. Tap the big blue button at the bottom of the screen to take or select a photo or video first, and then choose the friend(s) to whom you wish to send the media. Facebook really wants users to take advantage of this feature, as the camera icon shown in the screenshot above allows you to first take a photo or video, add filters and stickers, and then post to your stories and/or use the Direct feature to send to specific friend(s) privately. To access the camera even quicker, right swipe while looking at your news feed. On this screen, you can tap the camera icon next to a friend’s name to record and send another private direct photo or video. Next, whether you take the photo/video using the camera icon or tap the paper airplane Direct icon, you’ll be able to customize your media by adding filters and stickers. While the example above isn’t exactly what you’d call a “marketing message,” keep in mind a mantra I’ve been espousing for over a decade now, “To succeed on social, we must think and act like a member first and a marketer second.” Posting to your stories and/or sending media to specific friends via Direct can be a great way to support top-of-mind awareness and add an even more personal feel to your posts. Once you’re happy with your media, tap the right arrow button at the bottom. This brings up a screen where you can choose to publish this media to any of three places:
Because these features are still very new, like most users dabbling with them, I too am experimenting. Sometimes I post to my wall, sometimes not. Below is a fun example video that I posted to my wall, where I’ve donned the Wonder Woman filter, just before I take the stage at Marketo’s annual Marketing Nation Summit. On Instagram, the process is very similar to Facebook. Tap the Direct icon at the top right of your main screen. On the next screen, you’ll see a list of notifications including replies to your stories, mentions in stories, and direct messages. Just like Facebook, reply to any friend/follower by tapping the camera icon next to the user’s name. To create a new Instagram direct, tap the ‘+’ icon and then select specific friends (people you follow) and tap the Next button. Then tap the camera icon at the bottom left on the message screen to take your photo or video, and send. Also, similar to Snapchat, if friends take a screenshot of your message, Instagram will let you know. Build Disappearing Stories on Instagram and Facebook Given the success of Instagram Stories late last year, Facebook added a very similar Stories feature that mimics Snapchat, where content disappears after 24 hours. Personally, I’m not convinced the Facebook Stories feature is in the right place, dominating the top of your main news feed. It will be interesting to watch the rate of user adoption over time. Concerns you may have about over-posting diminish with the Stories feature. You take photos during the day with the feature, building your story. In 24 hours after posting, it’ll be out of your feed and gone. To use the Instagram Stories feature, tap the camera icon on the top left of the home screen. Alternatively, you can quickly launch Stories with a right swipe. (Note: a left swipe on your Instagram home screen takes you to your direct messages.) By the way, whenever you take a screenshot of any content on Instagram, a notification like the one below will pop up, letting you know you can share the post with your friends. Continuing with your Instagram story content, tap the circle button at the bottom of the screen to take photos, or tap and hold to create a video. Swipe left to add filters to your photo or video, and add stickers and text as you wish. Once you’re happy with your media, tap the arrow on the bottom right to add it to your story. Like Snapchat, it’s not about capturing great photography. It’s about sharing moments. Remember how we started with the appeal of experiences to the Millennial crowd? #2: Stream Live Video to Sustain Visibility and DiscoverabilityLike Facebook Live and Twitter’s Periscope, Instagram has the ability to share streaming live video as part of its Stories feature. However, the key difference is that Instagram Live videos are ephemeral. Your followers need to tune in real-time to catch your broadcast, and the stream disappears the moment you end it. Since the Live feature rolled out in November of last year, Instagram has added the ability to save your Live video broadcasts. This allows you to download live broadcasts to your camera roll and repurpose the video content if you wish. To start broadcasting live on Instagram, tap the camera icon at the top left of the mobile app. Then swipe the choices at the bottom to select Live. Any Instagram followers who’ve chosen to get Live (push) notifications will be among the first to join you. In addition, your Live video will get prime positioning in the Home tab top story ‘bubbles,’ as I call them! Instagram also gives prime positioning to current live-streaming videos at the top of the Explore section (second tab from the left, with the magnifying glass). This is a wonderful section to get a feel for which videos and live broadcasts are popular now. If one of your friends is currently streaming live video, you’ll see “Live” under their profile picture. #3: Apply Augmented Reality Filters for Top-of-Mind Messaging That EntertainsAugmented reality features have become more mainstream, thanks to the introduction of an in-app camera in Facebook, Messenger, and now Instagram. The camera in each of these three apps allows you to add augmented reality features like interactive filters, selfie masks, captions, and stickers. Remember, in Facebook and Instagram Stories and Direct, as well as Messenger Day, your published/shared photos and videos will only last 24 hours. And, as mentioned above, Instagram Live videos disappear as soon as you end your broadcast. Conversely, photos and videos sent to friends using Messenger don’t disappear. Plus, the cool thing about the new Instagram face filters is that you can use the masks in conjunction with other Instagram camera features, such as Boomerang or Rewind (video records backward). Mark Zuckerberg announced this fairly new feature with a demo video on his Facebook profile. This funny filter Mark demonstrated is a geek coder, complete with taped glasses and swirling code above your head when you open your mouth!
Because the camera in all three apps (Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram) lends itself to endless creativity and eye-catching visuals, you can interact with your friends and followers in new lighthearted ways simply to maintain top-of-mind awareness. Each time you use the camera app on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger, you can also choose to save your photo or video to the camera roll of your phone, instead of or in addition to publishing it. I like to do this periodically and get more ‘mileage’ out of fun content, posting publicly on my wall. For example, I check my Facebook Stories camera face filters periodically and recently enjoyed a couple of new ones: lifting weights and a ‘gangster’ look. I took some videos, saved them, and posted to my profile wall. The faux bicep curls and gangster videos got more than 2,500 combined video views, plus many fun responses from my community. It’s not a giant number of views compared to my business page, but it’s a lot more than if I’d only posted to my stories (friends only). I like to be goofy at times, keeping it light and fun. But not so light that people don’t take my business content seriously! If you can create an element of education + entertainment = ‘edutainment,’ your audience stays more engaged. You can also broadcast via Facebook Live with real-time masks, filters, and stickers. Just tap the magic wand icon in the upper-left corner to reveal the special effects options. You can set up these special effects first, then go live. Or change while broadcasting. (I love the Pop filter to make colors more vibrant!) #4: Leverage the Facebook Jobs Tab to Attract Millennial TalentUsing Facebook, you can reach out to your Millennial audience as potential employees. While LinkedIn is often seen as the go-to social media platform for job hunters, only 13% of Millennials are on LinkedIn. In contrast, 41% of Millennials use Facebook every day. So it makes sense to post jobs on the platform where Millennials spend their time. To create a job posting for your Millennial audience, first make sure you have the Jobs tab. Go to your page on desktop, click on Settings, then Edit Page, then Add a Tab. Select Jobs. (If you don’t see Jobs as an option, you may need to select a different type of template.) While there, you can choose to reorder your tabs and place Jobs first, if you wish. (Or you can come back later to do this step.) Next, go back to your main wall and you’ll see where to start filling out the form. Click the green Publish Job Post button. Fill out all pertinent information, include a relevant photo, and enter additional questions as needed. Click the Publish Job Post button and your job post will appear on your page wall. You can pin the post and/or add budget via the Boost button or in Ads Manager to increase visibility. In fact, I would highly recommend promoting your job post with even a small budget, as you can then reach the specific demographic you’re looking to attract to apply for the job. Once posted, your job will also appear under Jobs in the tabs on the left of your page for easy spotting. Note that the screenshot above is just a mockup job posting! I was experimenting with the fields and added a fun selfie of Guy Kawasaki and me at the recent Social Media Marketing World 2017. Conclusion Being an early adopter of these new Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger features can really help you and your business stand out with Millennial audiences. If you’re not naturally an early adopter, just stay informed about these new features. Don’t be overwhelmed! They’re designed for Millennials to use, and aren’t necessarily for all marketers. One of the challenges of these new features is integrating them into your social media marketing in a way that feels authentic to your brand. Simply pretending to be a Millennial isn’t the right approach to attract this audience, and may actually repel the very people you want to reach. Use them in a thoughtful, intentional way. Also, it’s possible that these features may not be the way to go for your own or your client’s brand. Consider sub-groups of this Millennial crowd that may be a better audience for your marketing than Millennials as a whole. What do you think? Will you try these Facebook and Instagram features to help you attract a Millennial audience as customers and potential employees? How will you make these features work for you, while still maintaining the integrity of your brand and business style? Share your thoughts in the comments below. Social Media via http://ift.tt/eZnnjC June 12, 2017 at 10:04PM
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Trump's tweets have already come back to haunt him in court http://ift.tt/2teH9UV Trump's tweets have already come back to haunt him in courtImage: Roberto Machado Noa/REX/Shutterstock
By Colin Daileda2017-06-12 21:08:17 UTC
Never Tweet: The 2017 American dystopia edition. President Donald Trump's inability to keep his Twitter fingers in his pockets just helped derail his attempt to enact a ban on travel to the United States from six predominantly Muslim countries. The Ninth Circuit ruled against the implementation of the ban on Monday, citing a Trump tweet from last Monday, June 5.
Here's the Trump tweet:
Trump's argument, as you probably know, is that a ban on travel from citizens of Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia will keep radicals outside the U.S. But the court — using Trump's tweet to back up its argument — says the focus on "countries" makes no sense. Banning citizens from those countries also blocks anyone from Syria who long ago moved to the United Kingdom, but doesn't block someone from the United Kingdom who recently became radicalized in Syria. It might seem silly of the Ninth Circuit to cite a tweet in its decision, were it not for this press briefing statement from White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. "They're considered official statements of the president of the United States," Spicer said of the president's tweets. And, like all official statements, hasty ones can come back to haunt you. Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 June 12, 2017 at 09:33AM
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The Evolution of CRM http://ift.tt/2rT47TA This past week, the world’s brightest business and technical visionaries gathered in Las Vegas at PegaWorld, hosted by Pegasystems. Our own leading Renegade, Drew Neisser, was in attendance and met up with Pegasystems’ Vice President of CRM Product Marketing, Jeff Nicholson, for an impromptu podcast and interview. Nicholson is a frequent presenter at industry conferences like PegaWorld, and for good reason. His specialties include CRM, digital and real-time marketing, artificial intelligence, and more. The Q&A below is just a brief sample from an insightful conversation. To hear more about the future of CRM and artificial intelligence, “next best actions,” and the customer journey, tune into the latest Renegade Thinkers Unite podcast with guest Jeff Nicholson, VP of CRM Product Marketing at Pegasystems.
Drew: Tell me first for my aunt, who is not as tech savvy: what the heck is CRM?Jeff: Well, what CRM should be is a very different thing than what CRM has been in the past. CRM was sold to businesses—it stands for Customer Relationship Management and it’s been called that for a long, long time. The problem is that it actually didn’t do that. It was sold as this kind of relationship in a box: you just turned it on, and great things will happen. In practice though, that “R” in CRM really turned out to be nothing more than the word “record.” They turned out to be customer record management systems in practice and that’s part of the reason why this space is so ripe for reinvention. If you look at the CRM systems that have been sold over the past decade, the systems are just for managing customer contact details in querying and reporting on details, and some do a better job at managing the information than others. To make matters even worse. many businesses actually have several different CRM systems, which ends up giving you different versions of the truth. So when your aunt calls that contact center or goes to the website, there’s a reason why her information’s disconnected. It isn’t there. As she moves across channels to a mobile app—because maybe you’re Aunt likes mobile apps—or she tweets, or goes to Facebook Messenger, there’s a reason why her experiences are disconnected. There’s a reason why it takes so long to get a resolution to the issues. It’s because customer record management systems were never designed to solve these types of problems. Drew: So where are we today with CRM? What is state of the art?Jeff: So there’s an interesting sea change happening right now and it starts not with the industry but with the customer. All customers are empowered. You have a very slick looking mobile phone right there. Your aunt has one. We all have them. We are digital and often digital first. Where it’s getting interesting is that customers are demanding a better experience. They’re comparing the experience from every brand to the last best experience they’ve had, regardless of the brand or the industry. So the walls have come down in terms of who you’re competing with, in terms of experience. This has got a lot of businesses scrambling to somehow figure this out. Drew: If you want to be cutting edge right now, where does AI fit in?Jeff: Well if you are trying to get results right now, I think the key is actually embedded in your question. What it means is that you have to get a strategy in place now. AI in years past has been something that has been monumental. It took you 6-12 months or even longer to stand up and get something running, let alone getting business results. Those days are no longer palatable or practical, and frankly, they no longer are enough. If you’re a business right now (particularly a large enterprise) that is not applying AI technologies, you’re simply behind. The post The Evolution of CRM appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://ift.tt/xMddWR June 12, 2017 at 06:40AM
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The 'Covfefe Act' is now a thing that exists, because of course it does http://ift.tt/2s3mxjd Today in "things we really wish didn't need to happen," Democratic Representative Mike Quigley has introduced the Covfefe Act. No, we're not kidding. The Illinois congressman shared a statement on his website on Monday morning explaining that the Presidential Records Act has been expanded to include any social media posts shared by the President of the United States, not just posts shared from the official @POTUS accounts. According to Quigley, the "COVFEFE" Act stands for "Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement." (Niiiiiiiiiiiiice. Very well done, guys. Super clever.) The name of the act is clearly a reference to the infamous Trump tweet, in which the president shared the non-existent term "covfefe" with his millions of followers, deleted it, and then had his press secretary announce that "the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant." The letters, which are likely just a meaningless misspelling of the word "coverage," sparked a trove of conspiracy theories, and were even added to the Words with Friends dictionary, so it only makes sense that they would now literally inspire a congressman to take action. Essentially, the bill alters the existing Presidential Records Act to ensure anything that falls under the term "social media" will now be eligible to be documented and archived. Though the official @POTUS and White House Twitter accounts have been archived in the past, Trump often tweets from his personal account, which was not previously referenced in the Presidential Records Act. Now, thanks to the Covfefe Act, all those Trump Twitter rants and misspellings will be preserved, regardless of whether or not they're deleted. "In order to maintain public trust in government, elected officials must answer for what they do and say; this includes 140-character tweets," Quigley said in a statement. "President Trump’s frequent, unfiltered use of his personal Twitter account as a means of official communication is unprecedented. If the President is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference. Tweets are powerful, and the President must be held accountable for every post." That said, back in April, David S. Ferriero — head of the National Archives and Records Administration — sent a letter to Democratic senators Tom Carper (DE) and Claire McCaskill (MO) explaining in very little detail that the White House is archiving all of Trump's tweets, including the deleted ones. With the newly implemented Covfefe Act, deleting the president's tweets, no matter where they are posted, will now be a violation of the Presidential Records Act, one that's "subject to disciplinary action." With the new act at play, POTUS is definitely going to want to be a bit less hasty when sending out his 140-character statements. Might we suggest getting a grammar workbook or turning on your phone's spellcheck feature? And definitely no more tweeting before bed ... that's far too dangerous. Back in March, Quigley also introduced the "Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness" Act — or "MAR-A-LAGO" Act — as a nod to Trump's Florida property. The bill requires White House visitor logs (and logs where Trump regularly conducts official business) to be published, so the congressman doesn't seem to be backing down. Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 June 12, 2017 at 06:02AM
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The only safe social network is the one that has no social component http://ift.tt/2sl2orJ The only safe social network is the one that has no social componentMost people scroll through their phones on the train instead of looking at peopleImage: Drew angerer/Getty Images
By Molly Sequin2017-06-12 16:36:17 UTC
Social media is an ingrained part of modern life in 2017. Checking what's happening on Facebook, Twitter, and other networks throughout the day is a habit for millions of people, even if it's just to see how many likes that epic pic of your glow-in-the-dark donut is getting. Of course, social media also has problems. For starters, there's the abundance of negative comments, trolls, and occasional harassment (let's not even get started on fake news and political filter bubbles). Even absent all that, there's a constant stress of staying connected lest you experience serious FOMO, and the pressure to always be share your best and coolest thoughts, photos, and updates. Enter Binky: an app created for scrolling though something without looking at anything meaningful at all. A place to get the enjoyment of endless, repetitive scrolling without the emotional rollercoaster. Dan Kurtz tells TechCrunch created the app as a joke at first, but "the joke gets better the more serious I take it." I decided to check out this joke, so I downloaded Binky on my iPhone. When I entered the app, it gave me a short tutorial about what to expect and what I could do as a user. I jumped right in and took a look at what Binky has to offer. The content isn't anything wildly fun or crazy — just ordinary objects, people, and places displayed to keep you occupied. When scrolling, I came across photos of mountains, a cow, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and actual chili peppers. The captions on the photos were literally just the name of the object in the photo. The first thing I noticed was the reaction to liking a "bink." Instead of just a singular heart turning red on the screen like on Instagram or Twitter, Binky releases an explosion of stars that shoot across the screen in different colors whenever you, um bink something. The app is a good place for meaningless scrolling, but it actually gave me quite a chuckle as well. I decided to take the next step and comment on a bink of a basil plant, and I quickly found that the app generates complete words for every letter you hit. This is the comment that appeared from me hitting random letters on my keyboard. The last thing I did was try the re-bink option. When you hit the icon, a message box comes up saying, "Do you want to re-bink this bink? This doesn't do anything." When you go ahead with the action, a bunch of brightly colored thumbs fall down your screen before you return to the feed. As the re-bink message states, the great thing about this app is that literally nothing happens when you use it. You don't have followers tracking your behavior on the app and there isn't a real person reading what you comment. The app is built purely for the fact of scrolling on social media without dealing with actual social media. So the next time you're using your phone to avoid eye contact with someone or just want to scroll through something before bed, try Binky. It doesn't give you anything of importance, but that's the whole point. Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 June 12, 2017 at 04:39AM
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How to Make Your Facebook Page Visually Appealing to Your Target Demographic http://ift.tt/2rnbD5I Facebook is closing in on nearly two billion monthly active users! There was even an 18% increase from 2016. If you think about the sheer size and scope of Facebook, it’s mind-boggling. And when you consider the fact that one in five pageviews in the United States occurs on Facebook, the power of this social media behemoth is undeniable. So, of course, you want to do everything within your power to connect with the largest possible percentage of your target demographic. This enables you to build your following, generate more leads and rake in plenty of referral traffic to your website. Of course, there are numerous variables that ultimately determine your success on Facebook. But the way I look at it, your first order of business should be to make your Facebook page visually appealing to your target demographic. It needs to pop. In this post, I’m going to discuss the fundamentals of designing an eye-appealing Facebook page and cover some specific elements you should include to impress your specific audience. Start with a customized cover photoThe most important element by far is your cover photo. It takes up the most amount of real estate and is typically the first thing visitors see. It needs to be perfect. I recommend creating a customized cover photo that encapsulates your brand identity and instantly gives people a feel for what you’re all about. Here’s the cover photo I use for the Quick Sprout Facebook page: If you notice, it includes the same branding elements as QuickSprout.com, with the green background. And in my opinion, this is the number one thing you should strive for. You want your cover photo to mesh with your existing brand so that visitors can connect the dots. This is key for strengthening your overall brand identity. Here’s a screenshot of HubSpot’s Facebook page, meeting this requirement perfectly: It utilizes their signature orange color and their distinctive logo. And here’s another thing. If it makes sense, try to incorporate your unique selling proposition, like I did with the Quick Sprout page. Ahrefs pulls this off flawlessly with their cover photo: This is helpful for first-timers, who may not fully understand what product you’re offering. I suggest staying away from mediocre-looking stock photos because they tend to come across as being inauthentic (and sometimes cheesy). Fortunately, creating your own customized Facebook cover photo isn’t difficult to do. If you’ve got even an ounce of “designing chops,” you can use a free tool like Canva to create a professional-looking image. The last time I checked, cover photos display at 828 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall on computers and 640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall on smartphones. You’d want to stick with 828 x 315 pixels to ensure your image doesn’t pixelate. Here’s how to do it on Canva. First, sign up for Canva: It only takes a minute. Once your account is set up, go to “More” from your dashboard. Then scroll down to the “Social Media and Email Headers” section. From there, you’ll see “Facebook Cover.” Click on that. Now, you can choose from Canva’s pre-made layouts, upload your own to edit or create one completely from scratch. It’s quite easy. You don’t even need to have any coding skills. There’s no excuse to use some crappy stock photo when you can create your own epic Facebook cover photo free. By the way, here are a few other ideas of the type of content you can feature in your cover photo besides just your brand name:
Be creative, and try to stand out from the rest of your competitors. Rock your profile pictureThe next thing most of your visitors’ eyeballs will gravitate to is your profile picture. Just like your cover photo, this too needs to be professional-looking and fully customized. Here’s what the Quick Sprout profile picture looks like: And here’s what I use for my Neil Patel Facebook page: As you can see, they’re both in line with the branding I use on each site. They’re also fairly simple. I recommend you don’t get too busy or cute with your profile picture and keep it fairly sparse. After all, you don’t have much space to work with. In terms of ideal dimensions, Facebook suggests going with 170 x 170 for computers. Again, you can use Canva if you need to create your profile picture from scratch or edit it. The bottom line is you shouldn’t skimp on either your cover photo or profile picture. These are the first things your visitors will see. Not only should they look great, they should also tie in to your brand as well. Post relevant photosThe first thing you’ll see when you scroll down most business pages is a “Photos” section. This is another chance to crank up the eye appeal of your Facebook page and make it even sexier. It’s also another way to reinforce your branding. Add a handful of high-quality images to populate this section of your Facebook page. Keep in mind visitors will see only three photos on your timeline, so you don’t need to be over the top in terms of quantity. In fact, there are only three photos on the Quick Sprout page, and it’s done just fine: What is important is that they all look great and enhance the overall aesthetic of your Facebook page. You can then organize them into relevant albums like profile pictures, cover photos, timeline photos, etc. Just be sure the three images displayed on your timeline are all home runs. Ideally, they’ll be branded, and you can save the other images for the various albums that visitors can find by clicking on “Photos.” Consider adding videosI probably don’t need to tell you how huge video is right now. In fact, “79% of internet traffic will be video content by 2018.” Therefore, I’m a big proponent of using video anywhere I can. One technique I’ve had tremendous success with is incorporating video into my Neil Patel Facebook page. If you scroll down past the photos section, this is the next thing you’ll see: Using video accomplishes three important things:
On top of this, it improves the overall aesthetic of your page. As long as your videos look professional, they can boost the visual appeal considerably. And I can pretty much guarantee people are going to take you more seriously. Experiment with video. More specifically, upload at least three videos to your Facebook page. If you already have video content on your website or YouTube channel, this is incredibly easy. Just upload the same content. In fact, I use videos from the “Neil Knowledge” section of NeilPatel.com. Otherwise, you can just record a few videos specifically for Facebook. I’ve found this to be a great way to build trust and generate more leads. It also helps beef up my Neil Patel Facebook page and makes it more robust. Pin epic content to the top of your pageThere’s one more feature I love. And that’s the one that allows you to pin a top post to the top of your page to maximize its exposure. Let’s be honest. Some posts are better than others. Although you always strive to maintain quality standards, some content naturally rises to the top. Maybe it’s an epic, long-form post or an article that received a ridiculous amount of engagement. Whatever the case may be, pinning it to the top can boost your authority and credibility. Here’s what you do. First, make sure the post has a brilliant-looking image. If it’s only so-so, I suggest changing it to something that looks amazing. Then, scroll down to the post, click on the arrow in the top right-hand corner and click on “Pin to Top.” That’s all there is to it. From now on, this is the first post that visitors will see when they browse through your content. If you want to switch it for a different post later on, follow the same process. ConclusionAs humans, we can’t escape our love of visuals. Visual content is king because “90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.” When it comes to your brand’s Facebook page, your main area of focus should be aesthetics. By following these steps, you should be able to instantly grab the attention of visitors so that they explore more of your content. And when it’s all said and done, this can have an extremely positive impact on your Facebook lead generation and increase your following. Can you think of any other ways to make your Facebook page more visually appealing? Social Media via Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/UU7LJr June 12, 2017 at 03:03AM
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Everything You Need to Know About SEO [Infographic] http://ift.tt/2rS1e5C Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often the unsung star of a successful online marketing strategy. No matter what you’re selling, you’ve got to target the people who are receptive to your message, and you’ve got to send them somewhere to learn more about you—or to purchase your product. Optimizing your content, your website, your product or service descriptions to appear at the top of search engine results is no easy feat. It involves a complex array of moving parts that all must be in sync in order to be effective. To help you navigate the esoteric world of SEO, take a look at the infographic below. See how all the parts fit together and apply some of these tactics to your own online marketing strategy. Infographic by Visiture. Republished with permission. The post Everything You Need to Know About SEO [Infographic] appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://ift.tt/xMddWR June 12, 2017 at 02:36AM |
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