What Twitter Does Best

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t have to defend Twitter and it’s greatness. I became a user in 2009 and didn’t pay much attention at my initial sign up. As my friends started getting it, it started to become more relevant. There are always people who say that are against Twitter and it frustrates me. What is the most common complaint when someone nay says Twitter? “I don’t want to know what my friends had for breakfast that day, or every time they used the bathroom.”

Telling people your every move isn’t what Twitter is intended for and people who push those updates make other people weary of Twitter.

When someone bashed Twitter I always respond(ed) with, “YOU ARE USING TWITTER WRONG!” Yes, twitter is great for blasting mini press releases of your day, but it also has some great (practical) uses as well.

1.Brevity - Each message is only 140 characters at it’s maximum, so strategy is employed when crafting your message. According to ZDnet, Facebook allows 63,206! That is a huge difference.

2. Twitter can be one way communication - I can follow someone, and they don’t have to follow me back. Unlike Twitter, Facebook requires you to friend each other, and you mutually receive updates. Twitter has the ability to be one way.

3. Twitter is better at my fingers - Scrolling through Twitter on my mobile is a far better experience. Rightly so, with Facebook Timeline, it has concentrated much more on pictures. PIctures take up a lot of screen real estate and it takes far longer to get updated. When I want to view friends pictures, Facebook is where I go!

4. Meet new people - It is easier to connect with people you don’t know on Twitter then Facebook. Unless their account is priviate, which isn’t many anymore, you can follow whomever you want and receive their updates. Since I have started blogging about social media, I have connected with people across the country through Twitter, that isn’t as likely to happen on Facebook.

5. Connect with conference goers - If you have attended a conference recently, you saw people using a dedicated hash tag to talk all things conference. If you aren’t at the conference, you can get your hands on that hash tag and stay in tune with all that is happening in your absence. Texting during a presentation is status quo. Updates your followers on what is happening gives them a front row seat even if they aren’t there.

6. Follow your idols - It is far easier to follow celebrities and brand on Twitter! Celebrities gravitate towards Twitter and the social network welcomes them! Lady Gaga just hit 25 million!

7. Be in the know - There is so much to be said about Trending Topics. Trending Topics are a great way to stay informed about what is happening in the world. A topic becomes trending when enough people are talking about it in a certain time frame. It is my life goal to start a trending topic on Twitter.

8. Twitter is the cool party - I have actively chosen who I follow on Twitter and most of the updates I see come from tech writers, bloggers, good friends, a few celebrities, athletes and news outlets. I am not bragging when I say this, but I have over 1000 friends on Facebook, and now it is an over crowded party. Twitter is that small get together where you leave wanting more.

Don’t get me wrong, my job as a social media specialist is heavily focused on Facebook, but I also tweet for Ask Big Questions and use both outlets for personal use as well. I prefer the personal experiance I have on Twitter over Facebook. Twitter is only growing and it is worth checking out if you don’t use it, or you have been using it wrong.

Tips for Social Network Marketing

As a small business owner, the idea of social media marketing can appear intimidating or overwhelming. Many businesses dive right in and try to do everything at once. Unfortunately this approach can end in frustration and lack of results.

Fortunately, there are a few tips that can keep your social media strategy on track and keep your business focused on results.

Focused intensity gets results. It's easy to get caught up in the hype of all the social networking and marketing opportunities out there. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, the list goes on forever. There's no way you can be manage all the social media platforms at once. But by picking one or two and focusing your efforts on them, you will start to see results much more quickly.

Personality draws an audience. Many businesses set up their social media profiles as a professional entity and try to remain professional with all interaction. That's great if you're a fortune 500 company, but small to mid-size businesses need to let their personalities show through. People connect with real people. The more genuine your company appears in its online interaction, the more people will connect with your brand. Letting them see the personal side of your business helps them feel more comfortable interacting with you, your brand, and the business as a whole.

Sell, Sell, Sell! No, wait - Don't, Don't, Don't! Don't make the mistake of using your social media platform(s) to constantly sell or push your products. Nothing will turn your audience off faster than spammy ads all day, every day. In fact, if you want to guarantee your audience will never buy from you, just use your online profile as an in-your-face selling machine. If you want to keep your audience and grow your fan base, however, keep your direct selling and promotions to no more than 25% of your total social media interaction.

Selflessly promote... others. It sounds counterintuitive to promote someone else in order to see results with your social media marketing efforts. Won't that send people away from your website or social networking site? For a short time, maybe. But when your audience sees you selflessly promoting, they'll notice that you're not selling yourself. And when the business or person you're promoting notices, they'll be inclined to return the favor. Receiving praise from another business with a different audience means more exposure for your business.

Following these simple tips will help your business avoid the common pitfalls of social media marketing and gain traction with your online marketing efforts. More traction means less frustration, better results, and more time to focus on the other areas of your business that go hand-in-hand with your marketing plan.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7115436

52 Social Media Facts - Blow Your Mind

Today I came across 52 up to date social media facts. Some of these I found truly mind boggling. It just goes to show how huge social media is these days! It's so impressive how these social platforms have grown in stature.


Facebook
1. 85% of women are annoyed by their friends (note – I don’t think this is just limited to Facebook!!).
2. Links about sex are shared 90% more than any other link.
3. More than 350 million users suffer from Facebook Addiction Syndrome.
4. 25% of users don’t bother with any kind of privacy control.
5. The average Facebook user has 130 friends.

Statistics from Economist, Social Times, CNN.

Twitter
6. 750 tweets per second are shared on Twitter.
7. The original Twitter beta was launched on the birthday of CEO Evan Williams.
8. If Twitter was a country, it’d be the 12th largest in the world.
9. 30% of Twitter users have an income of more than $100,000.
10. Twitter handles more search queries per month than Bing and Yahoo combined (24 billion versus 4.1 billion and 9.4 billion respectively).

Statistics from Compete, Twitter Press Centre and BNN News.

LinkedIn
11. Two new members sign up to LinkedIn every second.
12. LinkedIn has 161 million members in more than 200 countries and communities.
13. Members are on track to make more than 5.3 billion searches on the platform in 2012.
14. LinkedIn’s revenue has doubled every quarter for the last two years.
15. There are more than one million LinkedIn groups.

Statistics from LinkedIn Press Centre.

YouTube
16. YouTube was founded to share dinner clips of a party due to the files being too large for email.
17. The most watched video is Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance, with 470 million views.
18. The most watched non-commercial video is Charlie Bit My Finger Again, with over 458 million views.
19. The average visitor spends 15 minutes per day on YouTube.
20. It originally started life as a dating site and was influenced by the Hot Or Not website.

Statistics: Techzine and YouTube Archives.

Blogging
21. 3 million new blogs come online every month.
22. 60% of bloggers are aged between 25-44.
23. 20% of bloggers have been blogging for more than 6 years.
24. Professional bloggers upkeep an average of four blogs.
25. 35% of corporate bloggers worked in a journalism, media or professional writing role.

Statistics: Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2011.

Pinterest
26. Pinterest drives more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.
27. Users spend an average of just under 16 minutes on the site.
28. The most popular age group is 25-34 year olds, accounting for 27.4% of the user base.
29. Pinterest receives 1.3 million visitors per day.
30. 97% of the fans of Pinterest’s Facebook page are women.

Statistics: Modea

Instagram
31. 25% of Instagram users upload more than three pictures.
32. Over 5 million images are uploaded every day.
33. President Obama is on Instagram, having joined in January 2012.
34. Earlybird is the most popular filter, with 12.5% users preferring it (zero filters is the most popular way to use Instagram, with more than 47% of users going au naturel).
35. There are 575 Likes per second.

Statistics: Instagram Press Centre, ReadWriteWeb, Social Media Delivered.

Google+
36. “Student” is the number one occupation of Google+ users.
37. More than 2/3 of its users are male.
38. The Google +1 button is used more than 5 billion times per day.
39. Google+ is adding 625,000 new users every day.
40. More than 42% of Google+ users are single.

Statistics: Google Blog, Techcrunch, Google Investor Reports.

Social Media Influence Platforms
41. Klout has 50 times more traffic than PeerIndex, its closest competitor.
42. Kred tries to measure offline influence by allowing you to add achievements away from your online activities.
43. Klout changed its privacy model to allow opt-out from its service after a negative backlash in 2011.
44. Empire Avenue has users in more than 150 countries.
45. Justin Bieber is the only person with a perfect Klout score of 100 (says it all, then).
Statistics: Social Media Today, The Next Web.
The Mobile Web
46. 42% of phones in the U.S. are smartphones, with 44% of European users on a smartphone.
47. More than 110 million smartphone users in the U.S and Europe access social networks and blogs on their phones.
48. Tablets took just two years to reach 40 million users in the U.S. – it took smartphones 7 years to reach this figure.
49. China is the number one country in the world for smartphone use, with approximately 1 billion users.
50. In the U.K., there are twice as many smartphone users than cigarette smokers.

Statistics: ComScore and SoMobile.

Bonus Facts
51. Social gamers are expected to buy $6 billion in virtual goods in 2012.
52. One in 5 couples meet online; 3 in 5 gay couples meet online.

Statistics: eMarketer and Stanford University.

Are there any there that you are truly surprised at? Let me know in the comments!

The 3 Missing Links In Twitter

Three things that are missing from Twitter and having them will definitely increase the user experience.

The world of 140 characters or Twitter is like drugs to me. So I tend to maintain a controlled affection towards it otherwise it can take my entire day. Over the years, Twitter has evolved from 140 characters to being a source of consumptions of news for some while getting popular by trending hashtags for some. I was really happy when Twitter had donned a new look last year. It not only introduced exciting features but the world of 140 characters became smarter. Of late I have started using the web Twitter more than my Hootsuite app for some definite advantages. However, with regular use I have found that Twitter can get even smarter if it incorporates the 3 missing links listed below.

1. Sound Email Marketing:

Initially, Twitter started sending emails, which would inform you about who followed you and who favorited your tweets. Recently, after it acquired startups like Summifyand RestEngine, it indicated that it wants to strengthen it’s email marketing. According to Twitter, it has also started testing the same where Twitter is sending emails with a list of top articles that were retweeted most by your followers. A service similar in the lines of Summify.

But along with this, wouldn’t it be great if Twitter sends me an end of day email that would give me a complete summary of my Twitter account? The email should have my daily activities along with how many tweets were favorited and retweeted so that I can connect with them then and there. I am aware that the current Connect tab in the Twitter web app provides all these details but you won’t be checking it very often. So a complete summary email is the need of the hour and it will definitely strengthen Twitter’s email marketing.

2. Interest Based Suggestions:

When I started using it regularly, I noticed that Twitter shows me a random list of people under the section “Who To Follow”. The funny part was that it also showed me people whom I was following already. Over the time, Twitter has improved this feature and now it shows me list of people who are being followed by my community. The service is not bad but it won’t be the case always that I would follow someone just because one of my friend is following her. I think Twitter should show me a list of people who have similar interests as mine. Browse Categories section in #Discover tends to achieve the same but it has a listing of a few broad categories only.

#Discover which was revamped recently should also, going further, be based on interests along with the trending articles in my networks. One would be more interested in following people or consuming content that matches one’s interests.

3. Twitter Analytics:

Twitter Analytics has been the most long-awaited feature. Twitter had confirmed a long time back that they are working on Twitter Analytics, which will provide a detailed in-depth analysis but then we haven’t heard much. I find this very interesting that why has Twitter ignored such a basic feature or is it waiting for some competitor to give it some heat. Like Google Plus did give Facebook for a while. Analytics is the major missing feature and even if Twitter launches it as a subscription offer specially for brands, I think it will still find many takers.

These are the 3 missing links in Twitter which if tied up, can provide a better user experience for twitteraties. Do you have anything to add to this list of missing features in Twitter? Do share them in the comments section. I would love to hear them.