Facebook has begun feeding select news outlets real-time social network chatter about hot topics to weave into story coverage, wading deeper into Twitter territory.

A pair of software tools, Public Feed and Keyword Insights, lets Facebook’s media partners tap into comments posted on the service.

‘Selected news organisations can begin to integrate Facebook conversations into their broadcasts or coverage by displaying public posts of real-time activity about any given topic,’ Facebook’s online operations vice president, Justin Osofsky, said in a blog post.

‘From favourite television shows to sporting events to the latest news; the conversations are happening on Facebook.’

Facebook listed its media partners as Buzzfeed, CNN, NBC’s Today Show, BSkyB, Slate and Mass Relevance.

For a while now, news outlets have turned to globally popular one-to-many messaging service Twitter for real-time insights, opinions, and perspectives for stories.

Osofsky said that Facebook is ‘committed to building features that improve the experience of discovering and participating in conversations about things happening in the world right now, including entertainment, sports, politics and news.’

Only public posts by Facebook members will be streamed to news outlets, according to the California-based social network.

The software tools also allow news outlets to report demographic breakdowns of those discussing topics online, as well as how often specific words have been mentioned.

Osofsky gave the example of NBC’s Today Show being able to ‘include how many people on Facebook talked about a popular subject, where it’s getting the most buzz, whether it’s most popular among males or females, and with which age groups.’

Story source: www.bigpond.com

As a busy business owner, you’re unlikely to have endless time and resources to spend on marketing, so what you execute needs to really count. Focus on these five strategies for maximum bang for buck.

A survey conducted by US email marketing company Constant Contact has revealed the most effective marketing techniques for small businesses. Even though the study is perhaps biased to email marketing, the overall results are consistent with what I believe works well for soloists.

Here are the top five marketing strategies for small businesses according to the survey, and the percentage of respondents who found these strategies effective:

1. Email marketing – 83 per cent

2. Website marketing, including both content marketing and SEO – 71 per cent

3. Face-to-face interaction – 68 per cent

4. Social media – 49 per cent

5. Events – 41 per cent

These results show some interesting trends, which may change the way you think about and conduct your marketing activities.

If you are actively trying to promote your business, you will likely have a website, and you probably undertake some form of email marketing and social media activity. These are relatively straightforward and low-cost ways to market your business and, done properly, they get results.

However, from the survey results, it appears that combining face-to-face interaction with online marketing techniques is the most effective way to market a small business. Who would have thought that this traditional marketing approach would trump social media?

It is worth noting that other more traditional forms of marketing, including offline advertising and outbound calling, ranked much lower on the scale, along with pay-per-click advertising, direct mail and public relations. However, they are still effective, in my opinion, when combined with some of the other techniques noted above.

Here is how an example of how using a combination of the top five marketing strategies works in practice:

I am a consumer looking to install new solar panels in my home. My friends tell me it’s a good idea, but I don’t know much about solar panels.

I use Google to find out more and come across Company A, which has an interesting blog covering the topic. (Website marketing).

I like what I hear from Company A, and have a look on their Facebook Business Page to see what others are saying about them. (Social media). Still impressed with what I read, I sign up to receive updates from the company. (Email marketing). Being a busy person, I run out of time to make an enquiry.

However, in the coming weeks, I receive an email from Company A, inviting me to a free information night (event) on solar panels. While I don’t have time to attend, I take them up on a free consultation in my home to learn more about what they do (face-to-face interaction). From that point, the sales process kicks in.

As a soloist, there are many ways to market your business; however considering what techniques will give you the best return is critical. A well-thought-out, integrated marketing strategy using these top five methods can really boost your business.

Story by Jo Macdermott, Flying Solo, Story source: www.ninemsn.com.au

Social networking site Facebook has announced plans to introduce clickable hashtags for users.

The tool is already widely used on other media, such as micro-blogging site Twitter, so users can find out what others are discussing.

Facebook users have long adopted the hashtag, often using it as an addition to comments and status updates.

But they will now be able to click on the hashtagged words as a search term and view a feed of discussions relating to that topic.

In a post for the company, Facebook’s Greg Lindley said: ‘To date, there has not been a simple way to see the larger view of what’s happening or what people are talking about.

‘To bring these conversations more to the forefront, we will be rolling out a series of features that surface some of the interesting discussions people are having about public events, people, and topics.

‘As a first step, we are beginning to roll out hashtags on Facebook.’

Twitter has began to allow ads to be targeted at users based on the words written in ‘tweets’ and messages forwarded to followers at the popular social network.

Previously, contents of Twitter messages relied on algorithms that pool the interests of users to send them potentially relevant ads in the form of tweets ‘promoted’ at the top of feeds.

Twitter produce manager Nipoon Malhotra said the new feature would allow ‘advertisers to reach users based on the keywords in their recent tweets and the tweets with which users recently engaged.’

Malhotra gave the example of a concert venue being able to target local music lovers with tweets promoting upcoming shows by bands they have raved about in messages at Twitter.

‘Users won’t see any difference in their use of Twitter; we’re not showing ads more frequently in timelines, and users can still dismiss promoted tweets they don’t find relevant,’ Malhotra said in a blog post.

Twitter is expected to earn $US582.8 million ($A563.55 million) globally in ad revenue this year and nearly $US1 billion next year, according to industry tracker eMarketer.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

Facebook unveiled a software suite overnight which stakes out a "home" on Android smartphones as it steps up its challenge to Apple and Google in the booming mobile market.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the new software weaves the social network into the home screen of HTC and Samsung phones powered by the latest versions of Android to focus experiences on "people and not apps."

"We’re not building a phone and we’re not building an operating system, but we are building something that’s a lot deeper than an app," Zuckerberg told a gathering at the company’s headquarters in Silicon Valley.

Facebook called the new software "a new way to turn your Android phone into a great, living, social phone."

The software, which allows users to see Facebook’s "Cover Feed" when they turn on their phones, will be available for download from Google’s online Play shop in the United States starting April 12, Zuckerberg said.

A version should be available in Europe in coming months, according to Facebook, which said it is in the process of tailoring "Home" for tablet computers.

Home will be available through Taiwan-based electronics firm HTC, which will launch its Facebook home-screen smartphone called HTC First, to be available through US carrier AT&T at a price of $100.

"It is the only phone that has Facebook Home pre-loaded and optimized," HTC chief Peter Chou said while joining Zuckerberg at the event.

"Mobile is fundamentally social; it is all about connecting with other people," Chou continued. "This is a great opportunity to bring mobile and social together even closer."

Zuckerberg demonstrated how a user would start with Facebook on the home screen and be able to navigate and switch back and forth between apps, and simultaneously send and receive messages through "chat heads" which are overlaid on the screen.

"I think this is a really big deal for Facebook," said Peter Corbett of the research firm iStrategyLabs.

"We’ve actually seen Facebook call themselves a mobile company recently and if you look at their analytics, more than half of their users are accessing Facebook through mobile. Now that they have what will essentially be a native branch of the Android operating system that they control and build upon, this is the future of Facebook."

Corbett added that "Apple should be worried to a certain extent" because Facebook will "put this in front of millions and millions of the world’s youth who may decide ‘I want a Facebook phone instead of an iPhone.’"

Analyst Trip Chowdhry said the new software is a potentially "groundbreaking experience" which could help Facebook compete with Google in the market for mobile advertising.

"Since Facebook is not imitating, they will carve a leadership position," he said, adding that "Google missed a huge opportunity in social mobile phones."

Facebook said no ads will be woven into social network feeds that appear automatically as home screen or lock-screen scenes but that they may in the future.

Facebook customized Home for Android-powered smartphones because the operating system made available free by Google can be openly tweaked by hardware makers as opposed to the tight grip Apple keeps on iPhone innards.

Zuckerberg was careful not to throw down overt challenges to Apple or Google.

"We have a great relationship with Apple," Zuckerberg said.

"Google is aware of what we are doing; we have talked to them," he added. "We are committed to doing our best on every platform."

Zuckerberg reasoned that since people spend an average of 20 percent of their smartphone time at Facebook, improving the experience on Android handsets was a good thing for Google’s mobile operating system.

"Every company that I know wakes up in the morning trying to build the best experience; and Google does too," Zuckerberg said.

"In a way, this can start to bring some of those high quality experiences you see on iPhones to Android, and that could be really good for Android."

The announcement comes with Facebook trying to connect more with mobile users, and — importantly — deliver more ads in the fast-growing segment.

The research firm eMarketer said US mobile advertising spending grew 178 percent last year to $4.11 billion, a market that nearly tripled last year.

Google took more than half of those revenues, but Facebook’s share in growing: eMarketer said the social network accounted for 9.5 percent of mobile ad revenues in 2012 and is expected to take 13.2 percent this year.

Story source: www.ninemsn.com.au

A new survey shows marketing budgets will grow by 1% in 2013, following growth of 3.4% last year, while the growth of social networking and Web 2.0 is less pronounced than in 2011.

The 2013 Senior Marketer Monitor, conducted by the Australian Marketing Institute and Colmar Brunton, is based on a survey of 259 senior marketing professionals in Australia.

The aim of the study is to understand senior marketer sentiment, priorities, perspectives and challenges in the current marketing environment.

Marketing budgets will grow by only 1% in 2013, the report reveals, following growth of 3.4% last year.

A third (34%) of the marketers surveyed expect their marketing budget to increase in 2013, with these organisations anticipating an average increase of 16%, while 38% expect their budget to stay the same.

Meanwhile, 28% of marketers expect a decrease in 2013, and for these they anticipate an average decrease of 16%.

Nearly half of organisations with zero to 100 employees expect to increase marketing budgets this year, according to the report, with these smaller organisations more positive than mid-sized and larger organisations.

“Most organisation types and most industry sectors are reducing marketing budgets in 2013, with only smaller organisations, professional services and not-for-profit[s] growing budgets,” it said.

Organisations with zero to 100 employees will grow their budgets by 6% in 2013, while those with 101 to 1,000 employees will reduce their budgets by 1.7%.

There is also a great deal of variation at an industry level when it comes to the outlook for marketing budgets, the report said.

The media and communications (13%) and manufacturing (19%) industries have the lowest proportion of organisations increasing budgets in 2013, while professional services has one of the highest (45%).

The top marketing priorities include measures to increase sales, maximising efficiency of marketing expenditure, and focusing on more profitable market segments.

“Overall, there was slightly more emphasis on increasing sales and less focus on efficiency and brand-building compared with previous years,” the report said.

According to the report, there have also been shifts in the communication channels used by marketers.

“The use of social networking and Web 2.0 as a communication channel continues to grow, but the growth in this channel is less pronounced than in 2011,” it said.

“The popularity of viral marketing has decreased somewhat with less intending to use this channel more, compared with previous years.”

In 2011, 77% of the marketers surveyed used social networking and Web 2.0 applications. Last year, that figure fell to 66%.

Similarly, 32% of marketers used viral marketing in 2011, compared to 23% in 2012.

It’s worth noting marketers’ use of all communication channels has decreased, suggesting they have become less important to businesses in the current economic climate.

The use of online advertising fell from 64% in 2011 to 56% in 2012, while only 34% of marketers engaged in public relations last year, compared to 47% in 2011.

The use of direct marketing fell from 48% in 2011 to 38% in 2012, while mobile and SMS fell to 30% last year, down from 46% in 2011.

This article first appeared on StartupSmart.

Story by Michelle Hammond Story source: www.smartcompany.com.au

Some people can’t stand it, others can’t live without it.

Twitter turned seven on Thursday and with more than 200 million active users, the social media platform has no shortage of friends to celebrate with.

It’s come a long way since March 21, 2006, when web developer and Twitter creator Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet: ‘just setting up my twttr’ (twttr was the platform’s early name).

Now roughly 4600 tweets are sent every second.

Ordinary Australians have embraced the site along with celebrities, athletes and politicians, with results that have ranged from amusing to disastrous.

Our most popular tweeter is actor Hugh Jackman with about 2.18 million followers.

The Wolverine star is still a long way from challenging the world’s most popular tweeter, Justin Bieber, who has a whopping 36 million followers.

The first Australian politician to join Twitter was Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young in 2007, but it was another politician, Kevin Rudd, who in 2011 became the first Aussie to exceed one million followers.

Mr Rudd remains our most popular public officer holder on Twitter, which isn’t bad for a backbencher.

Other federal politicians who’ve embraced the platform include Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Environment Tony Burke, the opposition’s Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey, Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt and independent MP Rob Oakeshott.

A growing tendency for MPs to abuse each other via Twitter has led to calls for a ban on tweeting in federal parliament.

Elite sportspeople have also muscled in on Twitter but some athletes are probably wishing they hadn’t.

Stephanie Rice’s homophobic tweet celebrating a Wallabies Tri-Nation win over South Africa in 2010 – ‘suck on that faggots’ – cost her a lucrative sponsorship with car maker Jaguar.

Former Wallaby David Campese landed in hot water and was forced to apologise last year after posts questioning why a female reporter should cover the rugby.

And the Australian swimming team’s 2012 Olympics belly flop was partly blamed on athletes spending too much time on the site.

But it’s not only sports personalities who are prone to Twitter gaffes.

Fairfax columnist Catherine Deveny was sacked for tweeting ‘I do so hope Bindi Irwin gets laid’ during the 2010 Logies.

The same year the Queensland Liberal National Party expelled 22-year-old member Nick Sowden for a racist tweet comparing Barack Obama to a monkey.

Queensland Federal Coalition MP Andrew Laming was castigated in January for a post suggesting Aborigines and Pacific Islanders involved in a violent race feud in Brisbane were only interest in ‘welfare on tap’.

And Victorian Labor MP Steve Gibbons was forced to apologise last November for calling deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop a ‘narcissistic bimbo’.

The outspoken MP found himself in hot water again for a tweet referring to Australia Day as ‘invasion day’.

Companies aren’t immune from Twitter fails either, as Qantas learned in 2011 when its #QantasLuxury campaign backfired spectacularly.

Instead of tweeting their ‘dream inflight experience’ users hijacked the hashtag with jokes at the airline’s expense.

The red-faced PR team later admitted it was not the response it was expecting.

But the platform can also be a force for a good, as shown during disasters such as the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and the 2011 Queensland floods.

Twitter was used by emergency workers and other organisations to get alerts and updates to people on the ground.

Twitter says about 35,000 tweets were sent in January 2011 using the #qldfloods hashtag and the site also connected flood and bushfire victims with people offering assistance.

The lack of a Twitter company presence in the country has been a source of major frustration for politicians and police inundated with complaints about online bullying.

But those frustrations might be allayed with the company tipped to open its first Australian office this year.

Exactly when is not yet clear. What is clear is that Twitter is here to stay.

One area of Internet marketing we constantly get asked about by our clients is negative reviews of their products on review forum sites. As these sites tend to have a high organic  search result in Google they often rank higher or just below the company themselves, and if the review is negative and there are a few of them from disgruntled customers, it can affect not only the On Line reputation of the company but also sales.

We are often asked to remove these from the search results, and of course that is easier said than done. The best form of defence is not to have the bad reviews there in the first place, but lets ask a question, how many of them are actually genuine reviews?

Are you asked for a proof of purchase before your review is accepted? do you check the email addresses or user names of the people writing the review?

I know of one client where the negative reviews, which resulted in a poor star rank, was actually caused by a competitor leaving bad reviews under assumed names, this is really a form of commercial sabotage.

So where is the policing of these reviews? in the more traditional media, an editor will first audit the review and then decide on wether to publish. That process is given lip service with the forum sites, and as long as you don’t defame the company your review seems to be freely published.

I’ve never been contacted by any review site either before or after a review has been published, to ascertain the genuineness of my review, even to find out if I’d ever actually used the service or product, the assumption is I have.

As a frequent traveller, I will often look at customer reviews of hotels or resorts to make decisions on wether I’ll use them for accommodation or travel, and often have changed my selection based on other peoples reviews. But how do you really know they’ve actually been there?

Of recent times, I’ve become very suspicious of reviews and now research more thoroughly before making my choice.

It’s about time that the ACCC is now looking into this, it has the ability to impact on small business in a big way, it’s hard enough for small business to compete for clients in the current economy, and the last thing they need is this impacting on their business. 

If you are interested in the actual story, I’ve included it below for you to read:           

“Businesses have been put on notice after the competition watchdog warned it will be cracking down on fake product reviews and online voucher rip-offs in the new year.

Following a spate of complaints about businesses taking advantage of customers or other companies, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has changed its focus.

While it will continue to scrutinise door-to-door selling – which led to fines of $1 million this year – a number of other issues have come to the fore.

According to ACCC chairman Rod Sims, fake online reviews have emerged as an issue as reviews become increasingly popular among consumers.

"Companies [are] either making [them] up themselves or getting other people to make up positive reviews," Sims told News.com.au.

"Sometimes Blind Freddy can see what’s going on, but sometimes they are more subtle."

The ACCC will also investigate group buying – which attracts around 140 complaints every month – and will continue to scrutinise companies that dodge consumer guarantees.

It will also maintain its special carbon tax taskforce, although Sims admitted carbon tax complaints "have slowed to four or five a day".

The announcement comes one week after the ACCC released a free app to provide consumers with instant advice while they are out shopping.

According to ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard, the app will "help to take the worry out of Christmas shopping".

"Simple disputes over returns, refunds or replacements often leave shoppers confused about their rights," Rickard said in a statement.

"The app answers commonly asked questions about refunds, returns, warranties, and lay-bys, such as ‘What do I do if a product is faulty?’ and ‘What happens if I don’t have a receipt?’.

"The app will allow consumers to store photographs of receipts as proof of purchase on their smartphone or tablet at the point of sale.

"Keeping your proof of purchase and checking the store’s returns policy if you have simply changed your mind can be important."

Rickard pointed out the Australian Consumer Law provides stronger protections against faulty products, often allowing for repairs, replacements or refunds outside of a manufacturer’s or retailer’s warranty period.

"If products don’t work as promised or don’t work at all, you have rights as a consumer regardless of whether you bought it online, in a shop, full price or on sale," she said.

"The app explains the steps to take when enforcing these consumer rights."

The app also has a "My items" feature, which allows consumers to set reminders for when lay-bys are due, and the expiry date for warranties and gift vouchers.

It also explains common labelling terms like "Made in Australia".”

This article first appeared on StartupSmart.

Author: Mike Andrew – Source: www.yournetsolutions.com.au

Copied content indicates what really engages—and what drives users off-site

Social sharing buttons may be sexier, but according to research from user engagement platform Tynt, copy and paste is the sharing method of choice 82% of the time.

The service, which offers a way for content publishers to track sharing behavior through embedded code that indicates referrals and includes site URLs when content is pasted elsewhere, reported that in October 2012, 2% of all page views across its network involved a copy and paste.

Just over half of the content copied was then shared. This could be in an email, an instant message or another social channel. In addition, about one-quarter of copy-and-pastes resulted in a search—that is, a word or phrase from the content being viewed was copied into a search bar to look for more information on the topic.

For users, copying and pasting to share content holds obvious appeal: It’s almost frictionless, and it allows the sharer to choose exactly what to pass on to a friend or social network.

“You probably have a lot of friends sharing the same article,” Tynt general manager Greg Levitt said. “But when you can specifically call out a personalized, relevant aspect, it makes the story your own.”

On the search side of the equation, copy-and-paste analytics give publishers information about what content is actually driving users away from their sites.

Tynt also reported that while the vast majority of copied-and-pasted content is text, 12% of copied content was images.

Publishers know based on other types of sharing which pages are driving social engagement—but not necessarily why. When they can dig into the specific phrases and passages of text that readers want to pass on, it gives them a deeper window into what content users are really engaging with.

Story Source: www.emarketer.com

Internet users think TV ads are more effective than online placements

Even while marketers have taken strongly to digital advertising, they haven’t abandoned traditional media by any means—TV still takes the largest share of ad dollars in the US, and its percentage of the total isn’t slipping. But with the measurability inherent in online ads, confidence in their efficacy is generally high.

In an October Adobe survey of marketers and consumers, US marketers even rated online ads better than TV ads—though just barely, with 51% saying that they were more effective. But consumers appeared stuck in the past, with about two-thirds claiming TV commercials were more effective.

Consumers also appear to like seeing ads in traditional media better than on newer digital devices. Asked about their preferred venue for ads, 45% said they liked seeing them in their favourite print magazine and 23% on their favourite TV show, compared to just 11% who chose favourite websites, 3% who chose social media and 2% who liked to see ads in digital magazines.

Marketers and the consumers they are trying to reach disagreed on the effectiveness of a wide variety of ad types, according to the survey. Though both groups thought the best ads were those created by professional marketers, nearly half of marketers said this, compared with just 36% of internet users. There was large disagreement about the effectiveness of paid search ads (touted by marketers, played down by web users) and outdoor advertising (the reverse). Internet users were also much more likely to say there were no good or effective ads—positions which marketers were extremely unlikely to hold, for obvious reasons.

So what did consumers like? Nearly three-quarters thought ads should “tell a unique story, not just try to sell,” while about two-thirds said videos and user product reviews were good and that in-store experiences were more important than online ones.

The message for marketers may appear mixed, but it’s not exactly news that consumers don’t love to see advertising—or that they consider information from people they trust better than a hard sell.

Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009480&ecid=a6506033675d47f881651943c21c5ed4#OcuGwUXYp07WpPqo.99