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Last month the Social Media Examiner released the 2012 SMM Industry Report which outlined the trends amongst over 3,800 marketers in a variety of different industries. The report makes for great reading if you’re interested in seeing what the competition is doing with their social media strategy. It’s also interesting to see the top 10 questions which marketers want the answers for n 2012.

I promised to begin offering up answers to some of these questions and more, and then promptly forgot, so here we are back on track with the answers. This week I’ll answer the question which is on so many of your minds: what are the best ways to engage my audience?

"Future Social Interaction" by Jim Stoten

There’s a lot of marketing buzz around the act of ‘engaging’ your audience, it’s clear that this is something you have to do in order for your social media marketing strategy to be successful, but there aren’t too many people offering up solid suggestions on how to actually do this.

Before you start out with your social media strategy you have to establish what it is you want your social channels to do for you. Are you aiming for added visibility? Is it an extra layer of customer support? Are you looking to create leads? Open up new business avenues?

Once you’ve established this you can decide how best to engage your audience. Here are a few different examples of social media feeds that offer different kinds of engagement.

@Easyjet The easyjet twitter account aims to provide a human touch to an otherwise hard-faced company. Kane, their resident Tweep, offers everything from up-to-date flight information, to customer service support. In this case, @easyjet is responsive rather than initiating interaction.

Kraft, the makers of Mac n Cheese, famously go out of their way to reach out to fans. They’ve personally thanked everyone who liked them on Facebook in a very special video and they’ve started games of jinx with people mentioning Mac n Cheese on Twitter, offering prizes for games they didn’t even know they were a part of.

@io, a San Francisco based accelorator are running a campaign offering desk space to three start-ups for a year – how do you win? You send them a good pitch, and you follow them. This is  a great example of a long-term strategy for building a following; offer something that people really want, and make easy to be in the running.

And finally, HelloGiggles, the indie girl blog co-founded by Zooey Deschanel, offers great examples of interaction. They ask questions, constantly, and retweet the best replies. They also offer a livestream of kittens, which probably accounts for a large part of their continued success.

So, what can we take away from this? How exactly should ‘interaction’ take place?

• Ask questions that your audience will want to respond to. If you tweet an article, don’t just ask people what they think, offer your own standpoint or perspective and then invite response.
• Offer customer service, but always suggest you move to e-mail at the first opportunity.
• Likewise for sales, if you’ve developed a lead, take it off social media.
• Respond to everything you receive, even if it’s just to say thank you. The interaction must always be two-way.
• Multimedia is the way to your followers hearts, sharing video and images is a surefire way to get noticed.

How do you get your audeince engaged? Share your tips below!

http://www.bigfootdigital.co.uk/social-media-marketing-report-the-answers

QR codes and readers have had a rough time, no one seems to be too sure if they’ve ‘taken off’ or not, and while many companies seem to be adopting them in their print advertising, this might be down to the relative lack of extra effort required to include them rather than a testament to their success.

I like QR codes, simply because I don’t want to see print media die, and QR codes are the natural link between print and digital. We’ve seen some absolute disastrous uses of them in the past, including this badly thought out example.

It’s not all bad though, here are two recent examples of companies doing amazing things with those fuzzy little squares.

1. The Shadow QR Code – Korea

Recognising that there was a lag in customer numbers in the middle of the day, e-mart, the Korean answer to walmart, came up with this brilliant sundial-esque style QR code.

Between 12pm and 1pm the statue casts the shadow of a QR code which can be scanned by smart phones to unlock a discount to be used in store. They gave away 12,000 coupons, saw their membership rise by 58% and they saw a 25% increase in sales over the dreaded lunch time period. Result!

2. Where did you wear it? Encourages safe sex.

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest dished out condoms which included QR codes, allowing users to ‘check in’ to a website anonymously and let me the world know they practiced safe sex. It’s also possible to check-in via the website, which plots the countries sexcapades on a map.

Not only does this open up a taboo topic, but it’s also a great example of social media and technology promoting a worthwhile cause.

As LinkedIn looks to increase its status as a content sharing network, they made the interesting move to purchase SlideShare, the professional content sharing website. With LinkedIn’s 161 million members, and SlideShare’s 9 million content uploads, it looks like a match made in professional content sharing heaven – if there is such a place.

The only way they could really share this news is through a presentation of course.

Google+ is slowly but surely gathering momentum amongst brands, with more and more adopting and expanding into this relatively quiet social network. This may be down to the integration of social media data into search results, which makes Google+ as much an exercise in SEO as SMM. Although, the data seems to suggest that there is genuine interaction and sharing.

Data released by Simply Measured revealed that Google+ engagement amongst the top 100 brands is on the rise. 64% of the top 100 brands now have a Google+ page, and 43% of these are making regular posts, around 3 times per week. This is up from just 11% back in December.

The top brands dominating Google+ at the moment are Ferrari, H&M, Gucci, Burberry and Starbucks. The overall trend seems to show that cars, electronics and luxury goods are the most engaging on Google+.

So, they’re activly posting, but is anyone actually reading, sharing, or taking any notice of them? Yes! 23% of the top 100 brands have circles which exceed 100,000 members. And the growth of ‘circlers’ amongst these top 100 brands is also very impressive.

‘Content is King’ isn’t just a fad phase, it’s exactly how these brands gained their following. Multi-media sharing accounted for most of their updates, and while Photos were the most shared items, videos were the most engaging. Engagement was most active during the working day; the peak time was 10am, with the peak day being Wednesday.

If you get your RT’s mixed up with your HT’s, you nod politely when people mention API’s, and the phrase ‘astroturfing’ leaves you perplexed, then allow me to demystify some of the slang and jargon floating around the Social Media Marketing realm.

Facebook

App - A phrase that was popularized by Apple, ‘app’ stands for application. In Facebook terms, apps can be added to a profile and used in various ways. Unlike a program, it won’t be installed on your computer, but instead stays on your browser.

API - ‘Application Programing Interface’, an API makes it possible to use a program within a program. An example of this would be embedding a Twitter feed into your website.

‘Cover Photo’ - The top banner on a Facebook Time Line. If you’re making a custom photo the dimensions are 851 x 315 px. Otherwise, sites like thesitecanvas.com will allow you to make custom cover pictures.

‘News Feed’ - A chronological feed composed of updates from your friends. If you manage a Facebook page then your feed will only be composed of updates from other Pages that you ‘like’.

‘Time Line’ – The recently updated version of Facebook profiles, these give an overview of a users Facebook activity in a two column responsive layout.

Twitter

RT - Retweet, old style or new style, retweeting is re-sharing a tweet with your followers while giving credit to the original owner, usually with a @mention. An old style RT will quote the tweet and clearly state ‘RT’. Twitter made it easier to RT with the new style ‘Retweet’ button.

HT - Hat tip, usually used when you want to give credit to the source, even if you weren’t directly influenced by a Tweet.

OH - Overheard. Used for sharing funny overheard snippets or the occasional rumour.

#FF – Short for follow Friday, a way to let other users know who is worth following.

Instagram – Most commonly used wit Twitter, Instagram is a smart phone app which allows users to apply vintage style filters to their photographs.

Blogging and General

RSS reader – the most useful invention ever. A ‘Really Simple Syndication’ compiles news and articles from all of your favourite sources, allowing you to quickly scan headlines for interesting juice.

Astroturfing – building the illusion of a ‘grassroots’ social media campaign. While the phrase originally applied to political campaigns, social media looks like it will be the next to be hit. Followers are often tricked by false reviews or user interaction.

When President Obama went on national television and told the world he supported gay marriage, the world listened. And then the world started talking. A lot.

Twitter was ablaze as the supporters and the opposition furiously tapped across their keys and joined in furious debate about his standpoint. As the first US president in history to openly support gay marriage (or, ‘marriage’, as I prefer to call it.) he knew his words would cause a storm. The issue of gay marriage is one that divides people in ways more complex than the democrat/ republican divide.

So what can you learn from this that will help your blogging strategy and turn your words into hits?

1. Divide opinion. Never be afraid to alienate half of your audeince. If you’re writing about something you are passionate about, chances are other people will be passionate about it too. If you always shy away from the controversial, you’ll never reap the benefits of active debate and interation.

2. Take Risks. When you start out blogging you may be tempted to shadow and mimic your blogging idols. This is fine when you start out, but if you want to make a name for yourself and innovate, you’re going to have to try something new. Think about your favourite blog, what is it that you love about it? It’s probably that they’re doing something different. Take a risk, try something new.

3. Write about things people care about. Would you read anything you’re not particularly bothered about? No, so when you’re writing, think about your audience and what matters to them. As Obama has shown, dividing opinion by talking about the things people are passionate about will give you a huge amount of exposure, as far more people will be willing to share your content.

4. Allow your voice to shine through. The most important aspect of Obama’s speech was that it wasn’t a speech. It didn’t sound scripted or rehearsed. It was a topic that he believed in, and he wanted that to show by speaking his mind rather tha reading a script. When you write, let your voice shine through. Be consistent and recongisable.

Here’s what you may have missed in the world of social media, SEO and general internet goodies.

A novel use for Twitter: live-tweeting brain surgery. A hospital in America reached over 14.5 million people when they updated a liv twitter-feed whilst removing a tumour from a patients brain. [warning: graphic] This is isn’t for the queasy.

Bing is set to be given a make-over with a new three column layout. This layout includes organic search results, a snapshot of the search, and social media integration. Finally, social search to rival Google.

Looking for ways to maximise your SEO budget? Seo.com has it covered. They dish up this advice for making the most of your cash, including: providing great content, and implementing site changes quickly.

Across the pond, the FBI are looking for new and interesting ways to snoop into ordinary American’s personal information. Missing the days when they could phone-tap, they now want backdoor access to social media sites to allow them to monitor suspected criminals. And they want social media sites to not protest this law.

Studies released by Pew Internet have revelaed that 18% of smartphone owners use social check in apps. Even more reason to get your company up and available for check ins.

Just in time for the Facebook IPO, co-founder Edouardo Saverin has given up his American citizenship. Which will conveniently mean he pays less tax when Facebook cashes in.

David Cameron was left red in the face after it was revealed he doesn’t speak txtspk. He reportedly ended a message to Rebekah Brooks with LOL thinking that it meant lots of love.

Facebook has admitted that it doesn’t ‘get’ mobile.  It’s mobile ventures being rather light on advertising revenue, and the company is unsure of how to fix this.

And finally, a viral video for the week:

It’s scooped up over 1.7 million views since it was uploaded last week. Well worth watching until the end.

I’d never thought I could be a Bing person, I thought I would always be Google through and through. And then they go ahead and fix/ improve/ revolutionise the one thing that has always given me deeply troubling doubts about Google.

You guessed it, Social Search, ever since Google+ has arrived we’ve been cursing our search results as sites with the most +1′s are mysteriously pushed to the top of our searches. I don’t care if 50 people left a meaningless stamp of approval on this particular restaurant, I just want to know which restaurant is closest and serves Mexican food! I’m not alone in my frustration, Wil Wheaton recently voiced rather strong opinions about this on his blog – he claimed to be tired of having Google+ shoved down our throats.

So what exactly have Bing done that is so different?

Three. Column. Layout.

*gasp*

It’s everything that you want in a search engine, but with clear divisions. You have your pure and simple organic results to the left, a ‘snapshot’ of your search in the centre, and then social results compiled on the right.

Bing has come along in leaps and bounds to impove their search algorithm. They conducted tests which aimed to see which search results users prefered once branding was taken out of the picture. In January last year 34% of people preffered Bing while 38% preferred Google. Now, the same study shows that 43% prefer Bing over the 28% that prefer Google. Those are some fairly conclusive figures.

While Google has gone in the direction of Integrating everything in to their own Social Media agenda, Bing has embraced the trend towards keeping social seperate, but still close to hand. Bravo Bing! I know I’ll be switching.

What do you think of the new-look Bing?

via: Mashable

By not you must be fairly well acquainted with Facebook Timeline – like all other Facebook updates, we resisted it at first, but not that it’s here we don’t seem to mind too much. Reports have been mixed regarding the reception of Timeline by brands; some say customer engagement has dropped since Timeline while others report an increase in interaction.

This could be down to brands applying old methods of Facebook marketing to an entirely different model. Gone are the days when a brand could simply sit on Facebook, post the occasional photo or link, and gain an abundance of traffic. The current buzzword for the marketing industry is content, which is exactly what Facebook wants to help you develop and share with your audience.

According to the Facebook blog, they believe the best way to bring Facebook timeline to life is through apps. Apps hold a very special and prominent place on Timeline profiles, and they’re a sure-fire way to get your audience talking and buzzing about your brand.

So far there are Timeline integrated apps for Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor, and more.

Here’s a round-up of some of the best Facebook app campaigns at the moment:

Simple but effective, the fan gate gives added incentive to ‘like’ a page: Assassin’s Creed III will unlock content once they hit 1 776, 000 likes, tweets and shares.

Innocent Smoothies fruit picker game [warning, highly addictive]

Ben and Jerry’s Core Tour App… because who can resist a good ice-cream related app?

If you aren’t looking to create your own app, you can still utilise the ones available to give your social media marketing campaign a human touch.

Data released by bit.ly, the URL shortening service used across the majority of social media sites, has revealed the best time for you to change pins into clicks. If you’ve been ardently pinning away from your desk during office hours then your pins may be less effective that they would be if you were pinning at the weekend, Saturday morning, to be more specific.

This was revealed by Hilary Mason, Bit.ly’s chief scientist, at the Mashable Connect conference in the Florida. Bit.ly keeps track of all links created by users, and all the click they recieve. However, as one sharp shooting reader pointed out, Pinterest regularly blocks links from bit.ly as they’re so often abused for spamming, so this could have diluted their data.

That said, it’s still logical advice, as Saturday mornings have done away with breakast in bed and been replaced with ‘iPad in bed’. So how can you pin effectively for your business without giving up your Saturday morning for work?

Chocolate Chip Bacon Cookies - only on Pinterest!

It’s still early days, but there are sites and applications in developement to help you organise your Pinterest boards in the same way you schedule your Twitter feed. If you jump on the waiting list for Pinerly and then leverage your social media prowess to convince others to sign up too, then you could become a member much sooner than the average joe.

Pinerly will allow you to track who you’re following, who follows you, schedule your Pins for busier times, and see your ‘pinalytics’. The only flaw at this point seems to be the iniability to keep your company branding. The only way for Pinerly to track your pins at this stage is for the pins to look like they’re coming from their server, which isn’t much use if you’re trying to drive traffic to your site.

If you’re underwhelmed by Pinerly, or simply don’t want to wait for the invite, there’s always WPPinner that will allow you to view your Pinterest analytics from your WordPress dashboard.

What time do you find most effective for pinning content?

http://mashable.com/2012/04/04/pinerly-pinterest-analytics-dashboard/