Twitter Ads – A Brief Overview

The idea behind Twitter Ads is to “Get your Tweets and your account in front of more people who are interested in your business” -business.twitter.com.

The Twitter ad platform magnifies your presence on Twitter while allowing you to maintain control of your messages.

Here’s a quick explanation of the elements of Twitter Ads from business.twitter.com:

Lest We Forget

5 WAYS TO USE HALLOWEEN FUN IN YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Who doesn’t love Halloween?  I mean, besides the one guy who complained when I used an image of a jack-o-lantern in my Halloween Savings email marketing campaign. True story! Can you say “Stick in the Mud”?? Good thing I didn’t go with my original (albeit in jest) idea of using an image of Michael Myers (you know, the psychopathic killer star of the Halloween movie franchise) menacingly holding a bloody knife!                  

Well, like it or not, Halloween has, and will continue to, come around once a year – and most of us enjoy it and have fun with it. So why not take advantage of the season and create your own Halloween-themed social media marketing campaign? Here are a few ways to do it:                      

1.  Hold a photo contest. This will work on a number of social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etcetera. You can make it a “Cutest Costume” contest (kids, pets, etc.) or you can do a “Scariest Costume”– or even a “Best Jack-O-Lantern” contest.  Offer a prize for the winning photo and let users know that you’ll be announcing the winner on your social media platforms – that’ll ensure they keep checking back in.

2.  By the same token, you could hold an essay or short spooky story contest.  Again, offer a prize and arrange to have the winner’s story posted on your blog, with, of course, the credit going to the winner. And be sure to link to your blog on your other social media platforms.

3.  Offer Halloween savings or discount specials on your products and services. Everyone loves to get something at a discounted rate or price!

4.  Play up the spirit of the season! Make most of your tweets and Facebook posts Halloween-themed – really get into the spirit and encourage your followers to do the same! You could try horror movie quotes, Halloween (historical) facts, Halloween themed jokes – and don’t forget the pictures and/or video!

5.  Play a Halloween-themed “word of the day” game with your followers.  You could, for example, every day, post a word or phrase from a horror movie or a Stephen King novel, and the first person to guess the movie or the book, wins a prize! You get the idea.

The more fun and engaging you make your social media marketing campaigns, the more followers you’ll attract - and that spells more potential business for you.  And if you get a great response with your Halloween campaign (of course you will!!), remember, the holiday season is right around the corner.  Just imagine the possibilities!

10 Things You'll Want to Know about the 10 Most Prevalent Social Media Sites

For today's blog, I'm cheating. Rather than research and write it myself, I figured why not just plagiarize from the best?  (Well, it's not really plagiarism if I tell you outright that I didn't write it, and give the credit to the person who did!)  So, without further ado, here are some fascinating statistics you'll want to know about the 10 most prevalent and popular social media sites, courtesy of one of my favorite go-to social media gurus - none other than Mr. Jeff Bullas (from jeffbullas.com).

1. Facebook

There are now over over 1.15 billion active Facebook users.That’s the main fact you need to know.

This is a 21 percent increase in 12 months. Facebook is still the social media network of choice and its numbers are huge no matter where you look.

Source: Facebook 

2. Google+

Google+ has become the second biggest network during the last 6 months and continues to grow rapidly. It seems to have reached a tipping point in consciousness and people are curious about how to use it.

Why do I think that?

My approach is not scientific but anecdotal. It is based upon the crowd voting with retweets, shares and traffic. And they are often right. Any blog posts about Google+ that I have published in the last couple of months receive much more traffic than Facebook articles.

The latest statistics indicate that there are 343 million active monthly users.

3. Twitter

Twitter is a platform that is bridging the mass media and social media gap. Television is using the social network to obtain feedback and comments. It’s power lies in its simplicity, real time feed and news breaking capabilities.

The latest numbers on Twitter indicate that it has  has over 288 million monthly active users. This is according to GlobalWebIndex Study

The number registered currently sits at over 500 million. So there are many registering but not inhaling.

4. LinkedIn

LinkedIn has been working on making its platform more social and is social media’s quiet achiever. According to some reports it has now reached 238 million users.

5. YouTube

YouTube is the giant of online video and this social media giant now has over 1 billion unique visitors every month. It’s big.

Source: YouTube’s official blog

6. Instagram

Instagram was Facebook’s first major purchase (when it had 13 million users early in 2012) and despite paying top dollar it has helped Facebook move into mobile advertising and also is continuing to grow.

It has now reached 130 million users.

7. Pinterest

Pinterest captured many people’s imagination shortly after it launched. The online “pinboard” social media platform has had significant impact on web design (even seeming to have influenced the  new Google+ design)

It currently sits at 70 Million users.

8. Vine

When Instagram launched the video feature for Instagram there were many pundits predicting the demise of Vine  (Twitter’s new 6 second looping video social network).

Twitter has just announced (with a tweet ) that it had 40 million users. That is significant growth considering it was only launched in January, 2013.

In June it only had a user base of 13 million. That is a growth of 27 million in just under 3 months! No wonder Twitter is a proud parent.

9. Tumblr

Tumblr was bought by Yahoo last year because it had broken into the top 10 sites in the USA and its audience was young tech and savvy. It is an easy to use blogging platform that is both visual and mobile. There are some statistics showing that is shrinking after being bought by Yahoo.

Currently it has 245 million monthly unique visitors according to Qantcast.

10. Foursquare

Foursquare has been with us for a while now after being established in 2009. Its attraction is that it is a mobile media channel.

Number of users now sits at 30 Million.

The Twitter Town Hall: #bcliquor

Now more than ever before, it’s so easy to ‘have your say’. Ya’ gotta’ love Twitter. And do you know what’s really cool? The Twitter Town Hall – a forum on Twitter where you can join in the conversation, express your views & opinions, and really get into it with others on specific subjects. And the best part? You don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home to attend the ‘Town Hall Meeting’. 

An example of a Twitter Town Hall is coming up this Sunday (September 29 – between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm).  The B.C. liquor laws are being reviewed (for the first time, apparently, in 12 years) and you can weigh in on the following topics (from http://engage.gov.bc.ca/liquorpolicyreview/twitter-townhalls/):     

1.       Would you like to see restaurants and bars licensed the same?

2.       Tell me a time when BC’s two license system was inconvenient for you?

3.       Would you be supportive of allowing markets and festivals to sell local #bcliquor products?

4.       Should drinks be consumed in separate areas at festivals & public events or should people have access to consume anywhere?

5.       Do you think #BC has a good balance between accessibility and health/safety?

                                              

The British Columbia government website inviting people to join in, states:

§  Anyone with an active Twitter account can join the conversation

§  Tweet direct to @John_Yap to share an idea and have your voice heard

§  Make sure you use the hashtag #bcliquor in all tweets

§  When responding to a tweet, use the “reply” button to ensure conversations remain threaded

§  Staff will help moderate the chat through handle @GovTogetherBC

§  Feedback gathered through the Twitter Townhall will be considered as part of the final report sent to Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Suzanne Anton.

Sounds like it could be a very engaging couple of hours, doesn’t it? Think I’ll check it out!