Friday, January 31, 2014

From Friend to Convert: The New Role of Facebook in Mormon Missions

Mormon-missionaries

The woman that he was trying to reach almost never picked up her phone, and she lived more than 50 miles away. Plus, he had to watch his gas mileage. So Brandon Gonzales, a then-20-year-old missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints, stationed in Slatington, Pa., looked her up on Facebook. The young Mormon found that she was almost always free to chat online in the mornings, and soon they were chatting every day. He would send her links to church videos and sermons that explained aspects of Mormon faith, family life, or church theology.


This was 2010, and, as far as most Mormons knew, what he was doing was completely forbidden. Read more...


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Social Media Sharing: New 2013 Q4 Data Reveals Americans' Habits [INFOGRAPHIC]

As you may know, Pew Internet has been releasing a “Social Media Update” over the last few years. The Pew research is essential reading for anyone doing social media marketing. But if you want to get into some really cool stuff, I’d like to introduce you to the Consumer Sharing Trends Report from Q4 2013 (released by ShareThis).

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Preparing to Graduate? Put a Suit and Tie on Your Social Presence

As college students prepare to graduate and enter the professional world, they have a challenging and competitive journey to embark on. As with most things in life we must crawl before we walk, which in this case means students should consider putting a metaphoric suit and tie on their social presence prior to sending out resumes.

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Katy Perry, Queen of Twitter, Is First to Hit 50 Million Followers

Katy-perry-twitter-50-million-followers.jpg

Pop star Katy Perry has roared her way to 50 million Twitter followers, becoming the first user hit the milestone after losing the race to 40 million followers to Justin Bieber in June 2013.


Bieber, who was recently arrested for a DUI in Miami, is close behind with 49.2 million.



It's important to note that Twitter doesn't remove fake, spam or inactive accounts when displaying the overall followers tally for users.


A "fake follower check" on StatusPeople.com reports that 34% of Katy Perry's followers are fake, based on data retrieved from her first 50,000 followers, which isn't necessarily a fair assessment. But in November, StatusPeople conducted a deeper dive and discovered 42% of "33,000 followers across her first 1.25 million followers" were fake. Katy Perry isn't the only one facing this issue; at its core, this falls on Twitter's shoulders to fix. Read more...


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Is the Internet Killing Brands?

For generations, brands have successfully generated demand for goods and services. However, some are now questioning whether the disruptive power of the Internet may disrupt even this, perhaps one day rendering brands irrelevant. We think this is an over-simplification.

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Facebook Paper: Another Move Forward by the Social Media Monolith

Facebook Paper is actually all about news as well as newspapers. It provides the users with the chance of scrolling some of the most popular newspapers that are published on the planet. Thus, it is a great step forward to help people remain updated with world news.

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Why China Could Be the Most Social Media-Savvy Country

WeChat has just released a new feature allowing users to send money to each other for the New Year. There's a sweet spot between design (it's easy and convenient to send Hong Bao), socialized context (we are really preparing this transfer for New Year) and technology (I can directly and easily send the money to my personal contacts).

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Why Companies Need to Analyze Inbound Marketing Content

Is your company capitalizing on the information that your inbound marketing provides? Here are reasons to make analyzing that data a greater priority for your business. Read the full article at MarketingProfs



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Six Public Speaking Tips That Help Your Marketing, Too

Using some of the concepts that have the power to make or break your public address, you can dramatically transform the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. The best part? You never have to give a speech to do it. Read the full article at MarketingProfs



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#SocialSkim: Super Bowl Ads, Shareable Content, Grammy Goods, Biz Apps, More!

Get your a-la-carte awesome this week: from VW's epic Super Bowl ad to Ogilvy's design tips for making shareable content. We've also got your Grammy goods, a treasure trove of business-facing social apps, and more. Skim to stay snackable! Read the full article at MarketingProfs



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Remote Working on the Rise

Although some companies, such as Yahoo, have sought to curtail telecommuting in recent years, a growing number of creative professionals are working outside the office, according to a recent report from The Creative Group. Read the full article at MarketingProfs



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15 Embarrassing Facebook Pages You Forgot You 'Liked'

Facebook_pages

Gather 'round, young ones and listen to a cringeworthy tale, called "Using Facebook in middle school."


Millions of us grew up with Facebook, using the site like we used everything at the time: carelessly and awkwardly. We posted embarrassing photos, "married" our best friends and, worst of all, "liked" an obscene amount of strange pages.



It seems the way we "like" as an online community has changed over time. The popularity of "phrase-based" and angst-ridden Facebook pages, like "I hate when u don't text back" or "We used 2 be bffs" has clearly decreased — although, that likely has a lot to do with maturation (but i still hate when u don't text back) Read more...


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9 Tips for Your Next Craigslist Apartment Hunt

Mailbox

To some, Craigslist is a utopian online wonderland, where people freely communicate and share things they want or need. To others, it’s a creepy site frequented by scammers and murderers. Either way, it’s there and you just might have to use it


Hunting for an apartment is never an easy task, and those looking to make a fast deal will often turn to Craigslist. Millions of people post apartment listings daily, so it’s a plentiful source for those who need roommates or new tenants immediately



Like all sites, Craigslist must be treated with caution. Here are nine ways you can smartly navigate apartment listings on the site. Read more...


More about Advertising, Craigslist, How To, Social Media, and Features



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7 News Events That Appeared on Social Media First

Social media users are becoming the new journalists, with more than half of us learning about breaking new stories via Facebook, Twitter, and other sites rather than traditional news outlets. In fact, when it came to reporting some of the world's biggest recent news stories, social media had the scoop first.

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Arby’s Biggest Social Win Ever Comes from Listening

Arby's biggest social win wasn’t some whip-smart comedian or ad exec getting overtime during off hours. It was an employee who was listening. Arby’s social media manager Josh Martin was watching for brand mentions online and noticed people making the joke already.

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How to Get Arianna Huffington and Pete Cashmore on Your Marketing Team [INFOGRAPHIC]

What’s everyone doing when it comes to content curation? Does curation really work for generating sales and engagement? Read on and learn more about the predominant tactics, tools and goals for content curation in 2014.

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Reputation Management 101: Claim Existing Properties

Unclaimed ratings and review site properties are a lot like high school gossip. There's talk about you behind your back. Some of it could be complimentary and positive, based on facts or first hand experiences. But the majority? Let's be honest here, it's the result of people who have an axe to grind.

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4 New Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Corporate Blog

Corporate blogging is a great way to show the personal side of your business, showcase your interest in what's going in your industry, and establish thought leadership on important topics. Your customers benefit tremendously from sharing your stories and ideas. Blogging is a valuable marketing tool that requires consistency.

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Working with Bloggers Embodies the Shifting Role of the Influencer

I’m going to dumb it down—an influencer can be your mom. Or it can be someone who stocks the shelves in the grocery store and tells all the customers about their favorite spaghetti sauce. Or for the sake of this post, someone active on social media who writes about a specific topic.

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Social Media and Public Services

If you were to step back and remove yourself from current society for just a minute in your mind, what would you think about a social network taken out of context? In other words, if they had never been developed and the idea was a brand new one that someone was just sharing with you, what would be your ideas for application?

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How to Convert More Mobile Pay Per Click Ads into Leads

A pay-per-click advertising campaign generally involves paying each time that a visitor clicks, or views an ad. This is a common method of directing traffic to your website, but to get the biggest bang for your buck, you will need to optimize these campaigns for potential purchasers on mobile devices.

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3 Ways to Beat the Facebook Algorithm

The site that was once all about the “LIKE” is now all about the “Benjamins.” Stay far away from copy that begins with the word “like” (or “comment” and “share”) because it’s pretty much a kiss of death to organic reach. There are plenty of ways around this, from moving the call-to-action to the second half of the sentence to asking for a “thumbs up."

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Facebook May Embrace Anonymity and Allow Fake Names in Profiles

ut now, in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek for his company’s 10th anniversary, Mark Zuckerberg is suggesting that he’s willing to loosen the reins on anonymity and let people use Facebook — in some cases, at least — without their real names.

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Socially Stephanie: Social Media for SEO

"Dear Socially Stephanie: I own an online clothing and home goods boutique. I have decent sales and a good following, but recently my search engine rankings have begun to decline, and I'm getting a bit bored with using Facebook and Pinterest as my main social sites. Any advice?"

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Let the Right One Pin

We’re awash in a bevy of new and exciting ways to land new customers and achieve customer loyalty. Furthermore, social media experience tells us that our digital reputations are fast becoming a crucial feature of whether or not we will make it as small businesses.

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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Facebook's Active User Number Could Exceed China's Population by 2015

Facebook-population-china-chart

If Facebook's user base continues to grow at its current rate, it could surpass the number of people living in China — the world's most populous country — within the next year.


While it's a playful comparison, this chart helps illustrate the impressive growth the social network reported in its Q4 earnings Tuesday. Note that this doesn't even count inactive or infrequent Facebook users — this is just users who log in at least once a month



China recently lifted its ban on Facebook in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, which means only people within the 17-square-mile area can access the social network. Asia as a whole is the continent with the most Facebook users — 368 million, compared to the U.S. and Canada's 201 million Read more...


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Social Powers Business Ecosystems

This article provides examples of four kinds of partner ecosystems that can benefit from social collaboration

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Facebook's Paper Doesn't Scare Other News Apps

Zucky-zuck

Whatever you want to call Facebook's Paper — be it a magazine, a newspaper, a content platform or just a fancy-looking newsfeed — the app brings the social media company into a crowded media platform field.


Sites and apps like Flipboard, Feedly, Zite, Pulse and Inside.com, just to name a few, each have their niche but are now dwarfed by the entry of the most dominant web media host by every metric


Paper will not launch until Feb. 3, but industry players had varied reactions to Facebook's most unique offering to date.


Edwin Khodabakchian, co-founder and CEO of news aggregator Feedly, said he found Paper to be a vote of confidence in the move toward the consumption of customized media streams. Read more...


More about Facebook, News Readers, Media, Social Media, and Apps Software



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Facebook Steps Onto Twitter's TV Data Turf

Facebook_tv

Twitter's firehose of data is about to meet a tsunami from Facebook


After announcing its news reader app, Paper, on Thursday, Facebook has also announced that it will begin to publish anonymized data about its 1.23 billion active users through a new program called Chatter



In partnership with social media television analytics firm SecondSync, Facebook will release a study entitled "Watching With Friends" that will detail how television shows are discussed on the site, along with breakdowns on demographics and other metrics.


“TV-related discussion on Facebook is fascinating and something that all our clients are interested in understanding," Andy Littledale, managing director of SecondSync, said in a blog post. "We’re very excited about this partnership and the opportunity to provide an additional perspective on social TV behavior that draws on Facebook’s rich demographics and broad reach." Read more...


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Fighting Sexism, but Trying to Avoid the Stigma of Being #ThatWoman

Thatwoman-hashtag

Yesterday, Kotaku published a piece by Rachel Edidin that went by the title "She Was Harassed By A Games Reporter. Now She's Speaking Out." While it was structured around telling the story of Alice Mercier (not her real name) a female member of the video games industry who recently anonymously publicized her sexual harassment on Facebook by a male peer, the piece also focused on how infuriatingly, personally familiar Mercier's story is to many women working in video games and the wider tech industry. Even so, despite the the entire article clearly laying out the reasons why women find it socially difficult and professionally dangerous to speak up about sexist behavior in the tech industry, it left lots of people asking why all of these ladies didn't "shut him down," "complain to HR," or "go public." Read more...


More about Video Games, Sexual Harassment, Gaming, Social Media, and Twitter



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Facebook Paper Is Content — But Don’t Call Facebook a Media Company

Facebook_paper_app_thumb

Is Facebook Paper short for Facebook NewsPaper?


Thursday’s unveiling of a new standalone content curation app, Facebook Paper, comes after weeks of speculation and rumors about Facebook hiring editors (the humans in the mix) to help curate content for the hyper-visual mobile app. Now it’s real, though not here yet. Facebook Paper arrives in the AppStore on Feb. 3. That leaves us a few days to speculate on what Facebook is really up to and if, in fact, this is the social media giant ever-so-gingerly dipping its toe into the content creation / media company waters.



More about Facebook, Media, Social Media, and Facebook Paper



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Reaping the Benefits of Diversity for Modern Business Innovation

Diversity is essential to growth and prosperity of any company: diversity of perspectives, experiences, cultures, genders, and age. Why? Because diversity breeds innovation. And innovation breeds business success. Don’t believe me? Let's take a look.

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