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Category Archives: Social Networks
Lava Lunch: How to prepare your business for Google Plus
Our Lava Lunch series continues on Thursday, August 25th with a discussion about the newest player in the social networking space: Google Plus.
Drop by for a full download on the basic functionality and how it differs from other major networks. We’ll also unpack some of the future business uses for Google Plus, and what you need to prepare your organization for. (This isn’t a social network you can afford to ignore.)
Refreshments and catered lunches will be provided. We’ll get started at noon, but feel free to stop by between 11:30 and 12:00 for some good, old-fashioned networking.
Tickets can be purchased at the bottom of this post for $30.00 per person, plus a nominal Eventbrite fee. Or, skip the fee and pay with Dwolla. Full event details and directions can be found on the Lava Lunch page.
Beyond check-ins: writing useful tips on foursquare
On Wednesday, we talked about foursquare’s newly launched brand pages, which allow companies to leave their own tips at other foursquare venues. Today, we’ll discuss a few ways to make your tips stand out — whether you’re posting on behalf of your business or sharing your own personal favorites through an individual account.
If you use foursquare, you’re already familiar with using your smartphone to check in to the venues you visit in real life. You’ve earned a few badges (maybe even the elusive Swarm badge) and taken over a few mayorships. But when was the last time you left a tip?
Tips are notes you leave on a venue for friends and other foursquare users to find. Think of tips as the types of recommendations you’d share with a friend before they visited somewhere for the first time — things to try, things to avoid, best places to park, anything that will make their experience better. When your friend (or someone “following” your brand page) checks into a venue where you’ve left a tip, your tip just might pop up on their phone, where they can add it to their To Do list or say “I’ve done this!”
The best tips have a few things in common:
- They’re actionable. Use action words like “Do this,” “Try this,” or “Order this.” The ultimate goal of leaving tips is to have the largest number of people choose “I’ve done this!” That moves your tip up to the top of the list, making it more likely your tip will be shared with others. If you can’t say “I’ve done this!” to a tip (like this El Bait Shop tip that just says, “Crazy selection of beers on tap”), find a different way to say it.
- They’re specific. Use one tip per recommendation. If that means you have to leave three tips, then leave three tips! Users are much more likely to choose “I’ve done this!” on a tip recommending one menu item, for example, than one recommending half the menu.
- They’re exclusive. Foursquare specials are all about the exclusivity of rewarding people “in the know,” so think of tips the same way. Do you know of a secret menu item or a hidden parking lot that always has a few spots open? Now’s your chance to share it.
- They’re real. Don’t spam foursquare venues with “tips” about your company, your products, your services, your events, or anything else unrelated to the venue itself. The foursquare community will flag these as spam and your tips will be removed. This is not about selling — it’s about sharing your expertise.
Ready to leave a tip? In the foursquare app on your smartphone, simply search for the venue, then click the Tip button in the bottom left corner of the venue page. Or visit foursquare.com from your computer, navigate to the venue’s web page and leave your tip in the text box.
Our challenge for you? Leave tips at three venues you checked in to in the last week. Want a bigger challenge? Scope out other users’ tips when you check in to a venue and see if anything strikes your fancy. Foursquare isn’t just about checking in anymore — it’s time to leave your mark.
Foursquare unveils new self-serve brand pages
Foursquare has long been a fantastic resource for consumers, offering exclusive discounts, recommendations and of course, bragging rights for venue mayors. On Tuesday, foursquare made a leap forward to become an equally strong resource for brands, from bloggers to small businesses to large corporations, with their new self-serve brand pages.
First, a bit of history: foursquare launched its first brand page for Intel in January 2010, offering the company a platform for recommending local Philadelphia favorites to out-of-towners during their annual ISTE conference. As other companies expressed interest in custom-branded pages, foursquare began to build pages for them, too — all built manually by the foursquare team, behind the scenes. The launch of these new self-serve pages gives companies the opportunity to build their own pages, without needing to await approval from the foursquare team.
So what is a brand page, and what value does it offer to a company? A brand page is a custom-branded page on foursquare that allows a company to recommend venues through check-ins and tips left on foursquare. Brands lend their influence and expertise to foursquare users, who “follow” the brands to see their tips; for example, Walgreen’s leaves tips at public transportation stations reminding passengers to wash their hands after train rides to avoid catching the flu. In return for sharing tips with foursquare users, brands gain their followers’ trust by infusing their expert knowledge into their followers’ daily lives. Brand pages can also be connected to your company’s page on Facebook, so your tips can be extended beyond foursquare to reach all of your fans.
It’s important to note that brand pages function differently from typical individual foursquare accounts in a few important ways. Remember that these pages are meant to be used by brands, not as a substitute for a personal foursquare account. Brand pages can’t earn badges, and if your brand has used an individual account in the past to leave tips, all of your friends will be converted to “followers” when you create your page. That means that your company won’t be able to see where its fans check in, but everyone on foursquare will be able to see where your company checks in. It’s like following someone on Twitter — a one-way connection.
Ready to create a brand page for your company? Here’s what you’ll need:
- A header image of 860 x 130 pixels (check out the Walgreen’s brand page for inspiration)
- A small profile image of 185 x 185 pixels
- A description of your brand
- Links to share with your followers (website, Facebook page, Twitter handle, blog, etc.)
Now, just visit https://foursquare.com/create_page and click “Create a Page” to get started!
Once you’ve created your page, you’ll have everything you need to start leaving tips at other foursquare venues you endorse or recommend. Visit our blog later this week for a guide to crafting great tips through your brand page!
Curate the web with Pinterest
During the past six months, the female contingent of Lava Row has become obsessed with Pinterest, a web application that allows users to “pin” and share items they find online through themed collections called pinboards. Think of Pinterest as a sort of tumblr for beautiful images, where users share everything from decadent desserts to ingenius organizational ideas.
As a novice interior decorator on a tight budget, I love Pinterest because it gives me access to the thousands of DIY decorating ideas and whimsical products pinned by users more creative than I am. The Pinterest community is incredibly diverse, so I never fail to find something unique to “repin” or to share with my friends as I browse through public pinboards. And in recent months, tastemakers such as Real Simple, Better Homes & Gardens and local Des Moines boutique Domestica have embraced Pinterest as a way to endorse products, share breathtaking home décor from around the web, and infuse their finds into fans’ pinboards.
We see tremendous opportunities for brands to interact with their fans on Pinterest in new and truly engaging ways, but as with other social platforms, a brand’s success on Pinterest depends on its sharing more than just its own web content or products. To be a trusted influencer on Pinterest, a brand must spark authentic conversations about things the people behind the brand actually care about — not in an effort to boost sales or page views, but to establish itself as an authority in its market. My favorite brands on Pinterest are doing a fabulous job because I feel like I’m truly getting to know the people pinning the content, and because they’re sharing meaningful pins, I’ll keep coming back for more.
To get started with Pinterest, visit pinterest.com to request an invite (and follow Norah and Hillary if you’d like). Happy pinning!
Twitter’s Promoted Tweets hit the Main Stream
Yesterday Twitter announced that they’ll be rolling out Promoted Tweets in your main Twitter timeline. By definition, Promoted Tweets are ordinary Tweets paid for by advertisers in order to reach a wide group of users or spark engagement from their existing followers. Per the post on Twitter’s blog, the promoted ads are a new way to ensure that users can easily access the most important Tweets from the organizations they follow directly.
The Promoted Tweets will only appear in your timeline if you’re already following the account that has paid for the placement. According to Twitter, the Promoted Tweets will scroll through the timeline like any other Tweet and will appear in your timeline just once. The ads will clearly be marked as “Promoted” with an orange arrow icon below the tweet (the same way Promoted Trends and Promoted Tweets are currently displayed on the sidebar or in search). You can also easily dismiss or remove Promoted Tweets from your timeline with a single click.
Where will Promoted Tweets be displayed?
At the top of relevant search results pages on twitter.com.
In your main timeline if you follow the Advertiser.
In Related Tweets shown on the Details pane.
In the search results for a Promoted Trend.
In third-party apps like HootSuite and TweetDeck.
Twitter is also currently testing syndication of Promoted Products within HootSuite and TweetDeck. Promoted Tweets could appear in searches and user timelines in both of these third party applications.
Twitter will be testing and rolling out Promoted Tweets over the next several weeks with a select group of partners, including Best Western, Dell, Gatorade, Groupon, HBO,JetBlue, LivingSocial, Microsoft Xbox, Red Bull, Sephora, Starbucks, Summit Entertainment’s “50/50”, TNT and Virgin America and a handful of non-profit organizations, including charity: water, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Room to Read, The American Red Cross and Water.org.
So, how are Promoted Tweets different from other online ads? Twitter’s take is that since all Promoted Tweets start out as regular Tweets, they are an organic part of Twitter, which is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising. What are your thoughts on Promoted Tweets? Leave us a comment below!
