Community Management

How community managers can leverage what they’ve built: free report for #CMAD

By now you’ve probably heard that it’s Community Manager Appreciation Day, but did you forget to get them something? We understand. You’re probably still in the sugar trough from Chocolate Cake Day on January 27.

So now that you’re thinking about it, doesn’t it make sense to reward that patient colleague who responds to the company’s Twitter devotees, comes up with sweetly snarky posts that attract thousand of “Likes,” and gently mollifies cranky YouTube commenters…and does the hard work of analytics around social?

We honor the social media mavens among us by offering Leveraging the Community, the last in a four-part series we call Online Communities. It’s free, it’s short, and it’s good — the perfect gift for your favorite social media expert.

Nine simple tips for creating Twitter hashtags

The overenthusiastic use of hashtags is one of the most annoying aspects of Twitter, particularly when the hashtag in question is overused or just doesn’t make any sense (e.g. #justsayin).

But they are also a vital part of the mechanics of Twitter, so marketers need to be able to come up with a good hashtag if they want their social campaigns to have any impact.

The use of hashtags is something we’ve previously looked at in posts rounding up 2012’s biggest social media fails and looking at Twitter’s relationship with TV. You can also find out more in our Twitter for Business Best Practice Guide.

And to help marketers avoid breaking some of the cardinal sins of hashtagging etiquette, RadiumOne’s European MD Rupert Staines has put together a handy list of dos and don’ts.

So here’s what you need to know…

Marketers and businesses should fear Graph Search

Last week, Facebook made what could prove to be one of its most important announcements ever.

After years of discussion, speculation and debate, the world’s largest social network is finally executing on a search strategy, and while it doesn’t look like a threat to Google, at least initially, Facebook’s Graph Search is no less interesting.

What can we learn from the top five retail brands on Twitter?

Twitter is a fantastic way for brands to communicate with their customers, though all too often they overlook the social element of social media.

We’ve all seen companies that just use Twitter and Facebook to churn out marketing messages, but generally they are short lived experiments that fail to deliver any real value to the business.

But rather than dwell on the failures, I thought it would be interesting to investigate the social strategies of some of the most successful retailers on Twitter.

According to eDigitalResearch, Topshop, ASOS, Net-A-Porter, Harrods and Selfridges have the highest number of followers among UK retailers, so here’s a look at what makes them so damn popular.

And for more information on this topic, checkout our Twitter for Business Best Practice Guide and this infographic that shows how @Econsultancy managed to attract 100,000 followers.

Tech companies still failing to engage on social media: report

A new report into the use of social media among the UK’s top 50 tech companies has found that while usage has increased since 2011, engagement levels have actually fallen.

EML Wildfire’s study found that LinkedIn proved to be the most popular social network, with 98% of companies in the study having registered an account, compared to 82% on Twitter and 68% on Facebook.

Interestingly, Facebook usage has actually dropped slightly from 70% in 2011 and would have fallen further had it not been for B2B businesses.

In the 2010 and 2011 reports 100% of B2C companies used Facebook, however this fell to 83% in 2012, while B2B usage increased from 32% in 2010 to 65% this year.

The search for cultural marketing benefits

Green is a great product marketing term. It’s almost perfect for every context, from those that are concerned about environmental impact, through to activists.

In between, there is a cultural change occurring and it is having a deep and lasting impact on marketing.

This middle ground is what I’d describe as Professional Green. This is a marketing space where brands can establish their credentials as aware, caring and proactive when it comes to The Environment.

Unfortunately early attempts to mix product marketing with environmental issues were branded as “green wash”.

That phrase was created purely as a negative response to the over-enthusiastic engagement by many brands that perhaps put more focus on being seen to be concerned about the environment, than actually having a positive impact.

17 digital marketing and ecommerce trends for 2013 by Econsultancy CEO Ashley Friedlein

Following are my personal thoughts on what will be interesting and important in the world of digital marketing and ecommerce for 2013. As is traditional for my trends, there are around seventeen of them.

I haven’t spent too much time on giving extensive justification for any of these; they are based largely on the many conversations I have with industry influencers and practitioners.

Many are really just notes, or bullet points, but I’ve tried to give links to further information if you want to delve deeper. They are in no particular order though I’ve started with the more ‘strategic’ stuff.

As ever, I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts, or feel free to post a link to your own trends or predictions. 

The year of content discovery?

You won’t have to travel far in this or any 2013 trend prediction piece to find that some of the most insightful thought leaders are proclaiming “content is King” when it comes to driving success in a digital world. I’m not buying that.

I don’t think content is King. I actually believe that we will in a digital world where convenience is King and content, is, in fact King Kong. And the link between the two is a powerful tool called Discovery. 

Fading Facebook app icon

Free Facebook Webinar aimed at MENA marketers as Facebook usage soars

Econsultancy is running a free Facebook webinar for Middle East marketers this week to help companies seeking to embrace the fast-growing social network as an effective marketing tool. 

Research published by Socialbakers last month stated that Facebook grew its user base by 29% in 2012, adding over 10 million new users during the year with 21 new registrations per minute across MENA countries. 

Are surveys a thing of the past?

Since the rise of social media, companies have been implored to ‘listen’ to their customers. If you listen, they are told, good things will happen.

The truth, of course, is that most businesses have never been completely deaf to their customers.

Social media has simply created new ways to listen.

How to optimise headlines using the 65 character rule

I’m currently developing some wireframes as we pave the way for a revamp of this blog later this year. There are lots of things to think about. One of those things is typography. Closely related to that is optimal headline length. 

I always try to write headlines that fit on one line, though I don’t always succeed. Nevertheless, short headlines beat longer ones for lots of reasons. As such I’d like to introduce the 65 character rule. Actually it’s 65 or less, to be precise. 

Here’s why…

17 digital marketing trends for 2011, by Econsultancy CEO Ashley Friedlein

Following are my personal views on what will be interesting and important in the world of digital marketing and e-commerce for 2011. 

I haven’t given extensive justification for any of these. It’s just what I feel to be likely from my many conversations with industry influencers.

I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts, or feel free to post a link to your own predictions.  

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