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The Best Time To Update Your Social Media Network

by Jerry Battiste · 6 comments

lori r taylor, revmediamarketing, social media, social media marketing, branding, product branding, networking, oneclicksociety, social caffeine, mobile marketingSocial Media Manager Know Thyself

As with everything concerning social media the exact time when you should post an update to get the highest level of interaction differs widely depending on which social media professional you ask.

Some social media professionals will tell that early in the morning, before people go to work, is a great time to post because social media users are checking their network before they walk out the door, so they have something to talk with co-workers about. Other social media professionals will tell you that the best time to post is between the hours of 1pm and 3 pm, while people are on their lunch break, or just returning from their lunch break.

There is also a school of thought which says that posting around 4:45pm, just before people leave from work, is a good idea because many people log-on just before the ride home.

But here’s the truth: Only you know when the best is for you to post to your social network. If you don’t know when the best time is you are not managing your network properly. There are a host of analytics tools which can help you track clicks on the links you post, so you can easily tell which ones received the most attention. Your web traffic tool (Google analytics, or whatever tool you use to track visitors to your web site) likely will tell you where that track came from, and what time of day it came in.

With this information you can formulate a plan based on what has worked or what hasn’t worked; eliminate what hasn’t worked and emphasize what has worked.

Remember, when it comes to social media marketing, there are no hard and fast rules, just guidelines. Some of these guidelines might work for you, some may not. Don’t try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Find the hole which fits your peg precisely, and use it.

A study conducted by URL shortening service Bitly looked at the amount of clicks on links generated by its service that were posted on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, and during which times of the day that these links saw the most activity.

They found that the optimum time for posting links on Twitter and Facebook was between the hours of 1pm and 3pm from Monday to Thursday. This can most likely be attributed to a lot of users checking their accounts during their lunch breaks.

However, when it comes to popular Tumblr posts, it was found that it is best to post in the evenings, with the majority of activity on Bitly links occurring between 7pm and 10pm, particularly on Friday evenings.

It was found that weekends were generally a poor time for social media posts, with the least activity occurring on these links over Saturday and Sunday.

Click here to read more about social media posting.

Mother’s Day Social Media Marketing

by Jerry Battiste · 0 comments

lori r taylor, revmediamarketing, social media, social media marketing, branding, product branding, networking, oneclicksociety, social caffeine, mobile marketingMarketing For Mom

If there has been one truism in social media it is this: More women than men use it every day and are more likely to interact, engage and share. Of those women using social media, in fact, most are moms. That means when it comes to social media marketing there is simply no better day to take advantage of its power and leverage with users than Mother’s Day.

Now before you rush out and start scheduling hourly promotional messages for all day Sunday stop and think. Remember, social media marketing is all about building relationships. Chances are, if you haven;’t already built strong relationships with moms through your social media network, you won’t be able to take advantage of the day the way some other campaigns cans. Also, your efforts to mass market during their ‘special day’ could easily work against you.

No. It is a much better idea to carefully consider how best you might strategically turn a message into a meaningful relationship with a key demographic. Regard Mother’s Day not as a promotional opportunity, but as a team building exercise; a day to expand your network into a growth area by force of “nice” not “will”.

There is a fine between social media marketing and spamming and not everyone understands which side they are supposed to be standing on. Holidays which have marketing opportunities are not supposed to be a free-for-all. They require a targeted response with specific goals in mind. If you start pushing, chances are you will get pushed back and the result will be the exact opposite of what you were hoping to achieve.

 

The ability of social media sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube to promote ads with emotional elements tailored to consumers is generating increasing interest on Madison Avenue. That is particularly true at holidays, when marketers are seeking to freshen tried-and-true pitches — like, say, ads about buying flowers for your mother on Mother’s Day.

For instance, 1-800-Flowers is teaming up for the first time with Facebook for ads known as sponsored page posts, a kind of sponsored story, in Facebook parlance.

Celebrities who have endorsement deals with 1-800-Flowers are posting to their Facebook fan pages messages like: “For Mother’s Day, I teamed up with 1-800-Flowers to get you a special deal on flowers.” Those messages are transformed into sponsored page post ad units that appear on the Facebook pages of the celebrities’ fans.

Click here to read more about Mother’s Day and social media marketing.

Not All Social Media Experts Are

by Jerry Battiste · 1 comment

Send Yourself To (Social media) Camp

Social Media Camp is the brainchild of Chris Burdge and Paul Holmes, two social media professionals who have made it their business to differentiate between good social media marketing advice and the other kind. They have so far been doing this with a series of “campy” videos mocking so-called social media experts whose advice is not always spot-on, and often downright incorrect.

The pair are aiming to promote their upcoming Social Media Camp event in Virginia early next month. They have invited digital media expert and noted author Chris Brogan to be the keynote speaker. The camp will also offer a series of “seminars and workshops with all the latest information and case studies for those new to the field and those looking for advanced social media techniques.”

It might seem like a a bad idea, to mock the very sort of professionals Burdge and Holmes (and Brogan) claim to be, but the fact is, as with any profession, no two are exactly alike. We all have a favorite dentist, and the dentist we simply will not visit. The same goes for mechanics, lawn care services–you name it and we pick the professional who does the best job for us and avoid the ones who don’t. Why should social media marketers be exempt from this type of critical analysis?

 

“Social Media Camp has grown to one of the top social media education events with a line up of respected speakers and industry specialists,” says co-founder, Chris Burdge. “We wanted to get the word out about Social Media Camp and also have a little campy fun with some of the bad social media advice that we have heard of.”

A whole new industry of social media consultants has emerged – some of whom are very knowledgeable and some of whom are not yet aware that Facebook has rules about promotions.” Burdge says, “Co-founder, Paul Holmes and I are passionate about educating people about social media. We are more than willing to get campy to get the word out about Social Media Camp.”

Click here to watch some of their “campy” videos.

Zimmerman Attorney Leverages Power Of Social Media

May 1, 2012

Justice In The Balance There is little doubt the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin cause has captured the hearts and minds of people across the country and around the world. Now the attorney for George Zimmerman, who faces a charge of second-degree murder for shooting Trayvon Martin, is using social media to defend his client against what [...]

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Social Media Is Just One Part Of A Complete Marketing Plan

April 27, 2012

What Role Does SMM Play For Your Brand? Social media marketing is quick, inexpensive (compared to traditional marketing) and provides global coverage, but despite all these benefits it is cannot do the job of marketing your brand all by itself. Are there niche products or groups which can benefit enough from just a social media [...]

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Craigslist (Finally) Welcomes The 21st Century

April 23, 2012

Better Late Than Never Craigslist has been around for almost 20 years, and the site still looks decidedly 20th century. The interface is streamlined and simple, perhaps too streamlined and simple for the more tech savvy 21st Century web surfer. This week Craigslist started using Craigslist (what else?) to find someone who can help them [...]

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Legislating Social Media Privacy

April 20, 2012

Who You Hire (And How) Matters California and Maryland are racing to become the first states to make it illegal for an employer to ask a potential employee, or any employee, for their social media log-in information. This has been big news lately, as employees begin to report that they were required (or at least [...]

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Brokers Finding Success With Social Media

April 6, 2012

It’s All About Being Proactive If you are using social media and happen to have a problem with, well, just about anything, try Tweeting your complaint to your Followers and posting it on Facebook. Chances are you’ll get a response sooner rather than later. So it was for marketing consultant Tom LaScola. He had a [...]

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Social Media For The Next Generation

April 5, 2012

Gen-Y or Gen-Me? When it comes to the current generation they have known nothing except a digital world. No cassette tapes, VCR’s, floppy discs or life without MTV. The Internet has always been a reality for Generation Y and they do not fear it at all. In fact, if you aren’t using the Internet, you [...]

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Twitter Doesn’t Have To Be Complicated (Or Expensive)

April 4, 2012

What Would You Pay For A Tweet? I read a news story today about a Philadelphia councilman who has been paying $28,000 to an outside contractor which is running his Twitter account. On the surface this might seem like an effective use of taxpayer money to some–seeing as how Twitter is a tool which can [...]

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