5 Mobile Video Apps to Boost Online Engagement

By Meaghan Edelstein
Published April 17, 2013

Do you want to use videos to market your business?

Are you wondering if there are simple mobile apps to make this possible?

In this article I’ll review five mobile video apps and share how they can boost your online engagement.

Vine, Twitter’s mobile video app, has business and marketing professionals considering the numerous ways video apps can be used to increase engagement.

Ekaterina Walter, social innovator at Intel and author of Think Like Zuck, recently predicted that “2013 will be the year of visual marketing”. Walter based this prediction, in part, on the fact that “…visuals and video done right are highly effective in cutting through the noise.”

This prediction has already proven true with a burst of new video apps and upgrades hitting the market. And some of these offer unique opportunities for savvy marketers.

Here’s five apps you should consider.

With only 140 characters to work with, it can be a challenge to create rich content on Twitter. To date, catchy headlines, creative hashtags, promoted tweets and images have been the best methods for grabbing attention on Twitter. But with the introduction of Vine, there’s a new way to generate and share highly engaging content.

Vine is a simple and fun way to create short, beautiful, looping videos for your friends and family to see.

Vine’s six-second looping videos are easily consumed and highly shareable. And as a result, these videos naturally boost engagement. Marketers can use them in a variety of ways. You can create mini-advertisements, behind-the-scenes tours, announcements, contests and much more.

Your followers can view and share your videos directly from within Twitter. And you can encourage followers to shoot and share their own six-second videos to further increase likelihood of engagement.

Now’s the time to jump into Vine because it’s easier to capture audiences’ attention. Early adopters almost always enjoy a higher level of exposure. With Vine, you now have an opportunity to stand out among the millions of tweets posted daily.

Happy valentines #valenvine vine.co/v/brMraJq2aW3

— London Lazerson (@londonlaz) February 14, 2013

According to Facebook, the use of images and video results in the largest visual impact on their platform.

Instagram increased the ease and popularity of photo posts.

However, the use of video has lagged. This can be attributed in part to the hesitation many feel when it comes to filming, editing and sharing video.

Facebook’s recent integration with iOS 6 makes the creation and sharing of video less daunting. If you are an iPhone user, you can record and post without ever leaving your Facebook app. This makes sharing video on Facebook instantly very easy, even for novices.

Video posts on Facebook encourage engagements in the form of views, shares, likes and comments.

The key with video on Facebook is creativity and consistency rather than fancy editing. With the iOS 6 upgrade, you can give fans exclusive inside access. Record major events and breaking news, then post immediately to your timeline.

To encourage community participation, create fun video challenges, ask for honest reviews and acknowledge those who take the time to post their videos to your Page.

One of the most enticing aspects of social media for business is its ability to expose a large number of people to your brand messages in a short period of time. However, as more and more businesses use social platforms, your messages are easily diluted.

Video offers a way to stand out from the masses, draw attention and leave a longer-lasting impression.

With the mobile app Socialcam, you can create videos with no length restrictions, use an assortment of filters and post to numerous social sites including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Socialcam allows mobile users to quickly and easily upload videos to social networks and share with others via SMS or email.

Lars Schmidt, senior director of talent acquisition and innovation at NPR, shared NPR’s strategy for exposing potential new hires to what it’s really like to be an employee at their organization.

“We used Socialcam to capture and share a more realistic perspective of what it’s like to be an NPR employee.” He went on to explain how, exactly, they did this: “We would record NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts using Socialcam, then push the videos out to our various social sites.” This visual element helped NPR “show the true experience, the energy and buzz of what it’s like to work at NPR.”

The Robert Cray Band jamming at NPR's Tiny Desk Concert.

The decision to create and grow a presence on social platforms should not be taken lightly. Platforms emerge constantly and it would be virtually impossible to build and cultivate communities on all of them.

However, there are key platforms every business should seriously consider: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and at least one video-based social network. Because video platform members feel comfortable engaging with and creating video, you’ll see an uptick in interest and views of your video content.

Viddy is a video app for both iPhone and Android that creates “a simple way for anyone to capture, beautify and share amazing videos with the world”.

A simple way to share well-produced, bite-sized videos with the world.

Viddy is also its own social network with major brands like Southwest Airlines and General Electric actively engaging through posting compelling video and running contests.

With a presence on Viddy, you can post your own 15-second videos, follow other members and be followed. There’s also plenty of opportunity for daily engagement in the form of comments and likes.

One of the most appealing reasons to utilize Viddy is that it’s integrated with Open Graph, allowing all actions on Viddy to be automatically published on people’s Facebook timeline.

This creates a unique environment and allows you to grow a community where it’s easy to encourage user-generated content.

People like, follow and subscribe to businesses because of a desire to connect on a deeper level.

Once someone has initiated an interest in connecting with your business, it then becomes your responsibility to build the relationship. This can be done through various activities and correspondences, video being one of the more successful avenues.

Videolicious is an extensive app with a variety of business-focused plans. You can edit videos and photos and turn them into film, use built-in video ideas and share across multiple platforms all at once.

Make and edit professional-quality video, automatically. Just choose your shots and Videolicious does the rest.

The app even provides extensive how-to’s for creating video thank-you notes, product reviews and news reports. And, if you want to boost views and engagement even more, there’s an option to promote your video content.

With a plethora of ways to engage via a video, Videolicious has the capability to drastically increase people’s affinity for your business.

As you can see, these tools offer a variety of ways to increase engagement on your social platforms. And as more marketers adopt these video apps, you’re sure to find other ways to improve your social media marketing with videos.

What do you think of the mobile app phenomena? Are there mobile apps you’re using that have helped move the engagement needle? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

About the Author, Meaghan Edelstein

Meaghan Edelstein is the Senior Social Strategist for Tilson PR and RingCentral. She is an event producer, journalist, attorney and owner of MobileDealin’. Follow her on Twitter @megse34. Other posts by Meaghan Edelstein »

http://www.jretechnology.com

5 Ways Marketers Can Keep Updated on Facebook Changes

By Rachel Sprung
Published May 7, 2013

Are you struggling to keep up to date with the latest Facebook changes?

Are you conducting activities that are against Facebook’s policies?

It isn’t easy to keep up with all of Facebook’s updates.

Here are 5 ways marketers can stay up to date on Facebook updates and policy changes.

Just like businesses keep their Facebook Pages updated with the latest announcements from their company, Facebook also keeps their Pages updated to inform their users about the latest changes and announcements.

In particular, Facebook for Business, Facebook for Privacy and the Facebook blog often post updates when there is a change to their guidelines.

Facebook for Business takes you step by step to create a business Page that is effective but also follows their guidelines.

Facebook for Business Page to learn how to reach the right audience.

The Facebook and Privacy Page post an update every time they revise a guideline or policy.

In addition, they post tips every week to make sure people are informed about some of the changes that they made previously. Following this Page will allow you to stay up to date when there is a new announcement and also stay informed about older policies.

Facebook and Privacy Page, how to exercise your choice to share what you want.

Here's an example of a Facebook and Privacy update.

Finally, you can find updates on the Facebook blog.

You can add the Facebook blog to your RSS feed so you receive a notification every time there is a new post. This can help you gather real-time information to make sure your presence online is always relevant.

Facebook blog where you can find out what's happening behind the scenes at Facebook.

Technology journalists jump at the news of a Facebook update. One of the best ways that we as marketers can stay updated on this topic is to follow technology journalists or even the Facebook tag on websites like TechCrunch or Mashable.

To find the tag, scroll to the bottom of an article and you will see at least one tag on the article.

To find all Facebook articles on TechCrunch, you can go here.  This will allow you to quickly and easily find all of the latest updates to Facebook in one place.

The Facebook tag on TechCrunch.

A hack to get Facebook updates as soon as they happen is to set up a Google Alert with the term “Facebook Privacy.” That will send an email right to your inbox with any articles that are written about updates to Facebook guidelines or new privacy rules. And you can be sure that there will be a ton of articles written whenever Facebook updates anything.

Once you create your Google Alert, type in “Facebook Privacy” as your search query.

You can choose what type of results you want, whether its news, blog articles, videos, discussions, books or everything. You can choose the frequency you wish to receive these updates and the number of updates you would like. Finally, you can insert your email address to let them know where you want the results delivered.

Facebook Privacy Google Alert setup.

After that is set up, you will receive emails that look like the image below. They will separate your information by the type of result, allowing you to be instantly notified when there is something important to know about Facebook.

Facebook Privacy Google Alert Preview.

AllFacebook is the unofficial Facebook blog that can be a great resource for anything new that is posted about Facebook. They consistently update their website with new information on Facebook, whether it be news about their guidelines and privacy issues or just general updates that marketers should know about.

In addition, they host an annual conference called the AllFacebook Marketing Conference in San Francisco where attendees can learn even more about marketing with Facebook.

The AllFacebook blog.

AllFacebook Marketing Conference coming in June 2013.

In addition to the blog articles you can read and conferences you can attend to learn more about Facebook updates, there are many thought leaders who can be great resources to learn everything you need to know to market on Facebook.

People like Mari Smith, Andrea Vahl and Pete Cashmore are great resources to follow on Twitter and stay updated on Facebook news.

When there is something that marketers need to know, you can be sure they will be discussing it and sharing their knowledge on the subject.

You can also read Social Media Examiner’s This Week in Social Media articles published every Saturday to stay current on the latest Facebook updates and other social media news.

Review Facebook Updates and Policy Changes Regularly

By staying up to date on any announcements and blog posts that are written on Facebook marketing, you will be able to create relevant and effective campaigns on Facebook and take advantage of all that Facebook has to offer.

With the constant changes to Facebook policies, it can be a scary task to market on Facebook. However, don’t hesitate as Facebook is a great way to generate leads for your business and show off your company or brand.

What do you think? What other ways have you stayed up to date with new Facebook policies? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

About the Author, Rachel Sprung

Rachel Sprung is at the Brand & Buzz Coordinator in the Marketing department at HubSpot. Her responsibilities include managing marketing events including HubSpot's annual conference INBOUND. Other posts by Rachel Sprung »

http://www.jretechnology.com

How to Boost Engagement on Your LinkedIn Company Page

By Mike Delgado
Published April 18, 2013

Are you leveraging your LinkedIn Company Page as best you can?

In a recent LinkedIn study, 50% of current company followers stated they are more likely to purchase products and services from a business they engage with on LinkedIn.

This means that an active LinkedIn presence could help your business. And you’ll likely want to improve engagement on LinkedIn.

Here are five simple ways to boost engagement with your LinkedIn followers.

Aside from studying what your competitors are doing on LinkedIn, you should spend time in the groups where your target market is engaging. You’ll want to find out what interests them there.

Which “manager’s choice” article is getting the most attention this week? What discussions are getting the most likes and comments? Take time to analyze and read what’s engaging your target market. All of these discussions will help you discover topics and ideas to post in your company stream.

Furthermore, you can search for specific topics in groups to quickly see what type of questions and issues are drawing the most engagement. Simply go into a group where your target market is active and click on the Search tab. You’ll then see the box on the left-hand side where you can search for posts by topic.

Use the Group Search feature to find the most engaging content on a given topic.

Create a log of what types of topics, questions and challenges are being discussed by your target market.

You can also dig deeper to find the most engaging discussions month-over-month by analyzing the group’s activity data. Simply click on the More tab in a group you’re part of and select Group Statistics in the drop-down menu.

The Group Statistics link will provide you insights into demographics, group growth rate and activity by month.

Next, click on the Activity link in the chart navigation to see trends in engagement, as well as what months received the most comments. This insightful look can help you figure out trends and what topics might be more interesting at certain times of the year.

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Once you know the periods with high engagement, go “back in time” by scrolling to the bottom of the group discussion stream and click on the Go to Archive link. This can help you find older posts with high engagement.

If you scroll to the bottom of group discussions, you’ll find a Go to Archive link that will help you see older discussions faster.

Tip: Groups are also a great place to “test” status updates to see what type of engagement they receive before adding to your company stream. Not sure whether a certain post would be valuable to your followers? Add the update into a group first to see what type of interaction you receive.

Recent data from LinkedIn reveals that posting status updates in the morning is the best time for businesses to engage followers. That said, it’s also important to schedule posts throughout the day to increase post visibility and engagement with those logging in later in the day.

This is why you should use a tool like HootSuite to automate LinkedIn posts when you’re not able to manually update. Automating your status updates in LinkedIn allows you to schedule posts on weekends or late at night when you’re not working on your LinkedIn company account.

HootSuite is a free tool that allows you to schedule posts for your social media channels.

Using HootSuite to schedule posts doesn’t mean you should schedule a bunch of posts and never log in to check metrics. You should still check your engagement metrics for each post to see what content is resonating with your followers and dig into your Page and follower insights to see what’s working and what’s not.

Tip: Create a spreadsheet to log days, times, post impression count and engagement stats. This will help you figure out what days/times are giving you the most reach. This will also help you figure out what topics are getting more or less engagement.

Now that you can add images and files to your LinkedIn company status updates, there is no excuse not to test out pictures and files along with your text updates. As you know, images make your status updates “pop out” in the stream, and this can help you get more eyeballs and engagement on your status updates.

Add images to your posts help you get more attention and more engagement with your posts.

Interesting links with status updates can help you pull in hundreds (if not thousands) of clicks to a URL you are promoting. So take advantage of driving relevant traffic to a blog post you’ve written for your target market.

Number of likes and comments can signal high engagement, but the click-through data can provide even more insight into what’s engaging your audience. (Note: Engagement stats listed in example above are not real data.)

Aside from testing images, files and links to interesting articles, you should also explore using contests to gain more followers (and potential clients).

London-based Reconverse started up a LinkedIn page to reach out to the human resources community. Even though they had less than 200 followers, their first status update below helped them gain 1,431 likes, 124 comments and 87 followers because of the shares and virality of the post.

Test out a fun contest to see how many likes, comments and shares you could receive even if you don’t have many followers.

This simple status update also helped them attract 15 delegates and 4 new supplier clients for their events. And their second “contest” status update (offering an iTunes gift card) received 318 likes, 11 comments and 12 requests for more information about Reconverse events. Check out the full Reconverse case study to learn more.

Tip: Use LinkedIn’s Targeting feature to craft specific status updates for select audiences that are following you. For example, use a targeted update to reach out to non-employees only with offers and contests.

One simple way to increase engagement on your LinkedIn company profile (and attract new followers) is simply by promoting a link to your LinkedIn Company Page on your website and email signature line. This will inform fans and potential clients about your LinkedIn profile, which can help you establish credibility and more followers.

In fact, Wild Apricot added their LinkedIn product reviews on their homepage, which increased conversion rates by 15%. You see, adding product reviews from real customers (via LinkedIn) adds more credibility for products. This helped them increase leads—not to mention new followers for their Page.

Wild Apricot displays reviews of their products on their homepage, which boosts conversion rates on their site and increases LinkedIn followers.

By promoting LinkedIn recommendations on your website, you’ll gain more followers and engagement on your LinkedIn Company Page. If you’re going to do this, make sure to get approval from the person who will be featured on your home page.

Tip: Test long vs. short product recommendations on landing pages (or pages that you want to boost conversion rates on). You may also want to test type of recommendation based on the visitor coming to your page (e.g., first-time visitor vs. frequent visitor).

LinkedIn Recommendation Ads allow you to promote your products and services to your target market. These ad campaigns can help you increase engagement with your Company Page by bringing in more traffic and product recommendations. And each time someone recommends your product, it is automatically shared with that person’s followers (which can bring you even more traffic and recommendations).

Recommendation Ads allow you to showcase a product or service with a specific target market. AT&T now has 104 people recommending their AT&T Networking Exchange product.

Hewlett-Packard used Recommendation Ads to gain 20,000 new followers, 2,000 product recommendations and 500,000 viral updates in just a few weeks.

Increase Your Company’s Engagement on LinkedIn

If you follow these steps consistently over time, you’re sure to increase engagement with your audience on LinkedIn. And they will be more likely to purchase products and services from your company.

So how are you engaging followers on LinkedIn? Do you find these tips useful? Please share your questions and comments below.

About the Author, Mike Delgado

Michael Delgado is a digital marketer who loves writing about Google+, online brand management and social media. He's the author of circled.us and the Social Media Community Manager at Experian. Other posts by Mike Delgado »

http://www.jretechnology.com

How to Improve Your Social Media Calls to Action

By Heidi Cohen
Published April 25, 2013

Is your audience responding to your social activities?

Have you integrated the right calls to action into your social media strategy?

A call to action is a way for you to entice your social media audience to focus their attention on the next action you want them to take.

Here are seven steps for crafting calls to action to get your social community to do what you’d like them to and transform your social media marketing to get the results you want.

Your call to action should encourage readers to engage with you further.

You’ll want to break the activity into smaller steps that make sense to your audience. You can lose prospects at each step of the process, so you want to make it very easy for them.

Make readers an offer they want. What will get prospects to commit now? Your offer will vary based on your business and where the prospect is in the sales process. You can consider offering white paper downloads, ebooks, ongoing emails, discount coupons and/or free consultations.

You’ll need to answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” This is what your prospects want to know.

And your request must make sense to them. This means not asking prospects to purchase if they’re still in an information-gathering mode.

So you’ll want to assess the tradeoff prospects are willing to make. From a participants’ perspective, going to the next step means they have to consider if it’s worth their effort and social capital. Consider the 90%/9%/1% ratio of social media engagement.

On social media platforms, participants tend to follow a 90% view, 9% share and 1% create.

Skip the promotion. People active on most social media platforms are focused on socializing and aren’t prepared to buy.

Among the exceptions are blogs, Tumblr and Pinterest. These social media venues encourage sales by providing valuable content that persuades, not merely promotes.

For example, below are three sample implied calls to action. King Arthur’s Flour offers recipes with enticing photos and explanations of baked goods with links to their product.

King Arthur’s Flour blog has several calls to action above the fold.

By contrast, Target uses Tumblr to show customers the fashion backstory and how to style their clothes. There’s no “Buy, Buy, Buy” in their content. They use social media sharing and notes to build customer excitement and engagement pre-purchase.

Target Style’s Tumblr for their Spring 2013 Collection featuring Prabal Gurung.

Remember, you want to give your readers a reason to act.

Provide sense of urgency. Remember you’re not just competing against other retailers for the same item or other tradeoffs; your bigger opposition is customer inaction. It’s much easier for prospects to click to the next shiny item. Tests by Marketing Experiments proved that increasing the urgency of the call to action improved response.

Make people an offer they can’t refuse. Give them a one-time offer to encourage a response. Realize, however, they may only buy when you provide coupons going forward.

Like other aspects of your content, formatting matters! Here are some points to consider.

Use a contextually relevant presentation. Your offer should make sense based on the social media platform where it appears. Use a consistent voice and language to represent your 360° brand.Make your call to action stand out visually. Use color, typography and wording to enhance presentation of your call to action.Qualify your offer. Make readers feel that opportunities are limited or time-sensitive. For example, “There are only 100 tickets left”.Limit selection choices. Don’t give prospects too many options or you’ll suppress response because readers will put off acting because they need time to consider your offer.Place calls to action in multiple locations on your pages. Take the “Don’t make me think” approach. Don’t assume using only one call to action will yield optimal results. For example, put social sharing buttons at the top and bottom of articles.Keep calls to action above the fold. Make your call to action visible so your offer isn’t dependent on participants scrolling down. Similarly, have a persistent banner or other calls to action below the fold.Put call-to-action options in order of importance. While you can present more than one call to action, make the hierarchy of importance clear to participants. The more important option should be bigger, shown first or be given more prominent positioning.Include social sharing. Ask participants to share your offer with their social network by using social sharing buttons. L.L.Bean Million Moment Campaign uses social media calls to action on Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Foursquare, as well as at live events and on their blog.

This is one of the biggest reasons calls to action don’t work. Send prospects to the appropriate step in the purchase process.

Make sure you use the same wording and graphics. The goal is to show continuity. Don’t let the reader think that you’ve sent them to the wrong place or they’ll leave.

Use of implied call-to-action on King Arthur Flour recipe for Morning Glory Muffins.

King Arthur’s Flour links to Morning Glory Recipe have a consistent look and feel.

Tailor landing pages to increase results. HubSpot research found that using more landing pages yielded better results. This makes sense because it translates to more targeted offers.

HubSpot chart showing the increase in the number of landing pages results in increased leads.

Every element of your call to action can be tested. When testing, only modify one factor at a time or you won’t know what caused the change. Among the attributes to test are:

Text. Check the text on buttons as well as information surrounding the call to action.Color. Take a holistic view of color. Consider the text and button colors, the background and the use of white space around the call to action.Graphics. Test the use of photographs and other images.Size. Assess the size of the call to action relative to the rest of the content.Placement. Consider where on the page the call to action appears.

How can you measure your results? You want to track the impact of your social media calls to action back to your original objectives. Here are some metrics to track:

Impressions are the number of people exposed to the call to action.Click-throughs are the number of people who take action.Click-through rate is the percentage of people who checked out your offer out of the number of people who saw it.Completions are the number of people who filled out your form and submitted it.Completion rate is the percentage of people who complete your form out of the number of people who clicked through.

Are Your Social Media Calls to Action Working for You?

Social media calls to action are a necessary element of any social media marketing implementation. They nudge prospects, customers and the public to take action that’s trackable.

When a call to action is in alignment with your business goals, it can help you get measurable results that support your key marketing objectives.

What do you think? Have you used social media calls to action? If so, what were your results? If not, what has held you back from doing so? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

About the Author, Heidi Cohen

Heidi Cohen is an actionable marketing expert. As president of Riverside Marketing Strategies, she increases profitability with innovative marketing programs. Heidi shares actionable marketing insights as HeidiCohen.com's chief content officer. Other posts by Heidi Cohen »

http://www.jretechnology.com

LinkedIn Visual Profiles: This Week in Social Media

By Cindy King
Published May 4, 2013

Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up-to-date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.

LinkedIn Introduces Visual Profiles: “For the first time, you will now have the ability to showcase your unique professional story using rich, visual content on your LinkedIn profile. This means you can illustrate your greatest achievements in the form of stunning images, compelling videos, innovative presentations and more.” This new feature is rolling out now to LinkedIn members in English-speaking countries.

"To begin sharing your achievements and creations on your profile, simply select Edit on your profile, then follow the prompts in your Summary, Experience and Education sections."

Pinterest Improves New Look: Pinterest adopted a new look in March, and has now added a few more features, thanks to feedback from users. These new features include See It Now, Pinned From, Mentions and Find Friends. ”You can see which of your Facebook and Twitter friends are on Pinterest.”

Discussion From Our Networking Clubs: Thousands of social media marketers and small business owners are asking questions and helping others in our free Networking Clubs. Here are a few interesting discussions worth highlighting:

Google+ Sign-In Brings App Activities to Google Search: “Soon, if you search for a site or app on Google.com (and that app has integrated with Google+ Sign-In app activities), you’ll see popular and aggregate user activity to the right of search results.”

More Google+ activities are being integrated into search results.

Vine Gets an Update: The new Vine app has a few new features. “You can now shoot with the front-facing camera” and “switch back and forth between the regular and front-facing camera as many times as you want.” And Vine now supports mentions.

"To mention a user, type @username and select the name among the suggestions you'll see."

Twitter Ads Are Available to All U.S. Users: Twitter is ending their invite-only period and opening signups for their self-serve ad platform to all users in the U.S.

Twitter ads are available to everyone in the U.S.

Interesting social media news to follow:

About 30% of Facebook’s Advertising Revenue Comes From Mobile: Facebook posted its first-quarter 2013 earnings and this shows that mobile advertising on Facebook has increased.

What do you think? Please share your comments below.

About the Author, Cindy King

Cindy King is the director of editorial for Social Media Examiner. She spent 25 years abroad in international business development and then built her own international business from scratch by using social business networking. Other posts by Cindy King »

http://www.jretechnology.com