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Take Part in Our Instagram Competition & Win a Copy of Engage (COMP)

January 30, 2012 By 2 Comments

Hello!

Dave the Social Penguin here. I love my readers, you guys freakin’ rock! I thought you all deserved the chance to win a little something – I have a copy of Engage by Brian Solis (in our opinion one of the top guides to social media around) to give away. However, you will have to do a little work! To enter:

  1. Take a photo of yourself reading The Social Penguin Blog. Be creative folks, really catch my eye! (one photo per entrant please)
  2. Upload the photo to Instagram and tag it with #instapenguin
  3. Put your name & where you are from in photo info field so we can clearly identify you

And that is that! The competition runs from now until Feb 20th. The best photo in the opinion of The Social Penguin Blog team will win the book (we will mail worldwide) Get entering and good luck!!!

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Tech Talk With Nicholas Montgomery (Part 1)

January 30, 2012 By 2 Comments

Nicholas Montgomery is a 16-year-old technology blogger, podcaster, entrepreneur, and regular tech expert on The Marilyn Denis Show. Based in Toronto, Nicholas started in the cyber world when he was 12-years-old by co-hosting a live podcast about Web 2.0 and the latest tech startups.

In 2008, he launched a website profiling design related work on the Internet such as screensavers and wallpaper, where users could vote on a featured daily item. It exploded to 35,000 unique visitors by the second month. In addition, Nicholas created a weekly 60-episode video podcast called Blastr.tv, featuring the best of web culture. 

Nicholas has contributed to a number of tech blogs including, MacApper, Listified, Appletell and iAppBlog. He has also made appearances on CP24, Digital Journal, CTV News, Yahoo! News and more.

Photo courtesy of CTV

You’re the tech expert for a popular daytime TV show in Canada, a social media consultant at Ryerson University, an intern at Sprouter and have various other projects on the go. How did you end up getting involved in so many things at your age?

I developed my passion for technology at a young age. Once I realized it was something I was passionate about, I decided to pursue it – even if I didn’t know much about it. When I was 12-years old, I started a couple of podcasts interviewing tech entrepreneurs, journalists, founders and anyone else in the community to learn what they were doing and how they were doing it. I also hosted a news recap with teens analyzing the tech news of the week.

At the beginning I tried to hide the fact that I was young, but I soon realized that was my greatest asset. We all have something that separates us from the crowd, and when you can embrace that trait instead of downplaying it, you will start to work towards success.

In 2010, CTV’s THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW was launching soon and Marilyn was looking for a team of lifestyle experts. The production team reached out to me and we worked on a couple segments before the show launched to see if I would be a good fit for the show. It turned out I was, and I became the youngest professional on the show’s roster of specialists. THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW provides an opportunity for me to educate audiences both in-studio and nationally, on how technology, social media and other gadgets work and how they can maximize its usage.

What part has social media played in all of it?

Social media has played a tremendous role in everything I’ve done. Twitter and Facebook are great to connect to people (and viewers) because they remove all the barriers of traditional media and the conversation isn’t just one person broadcasting, but two-way. I use Twitter on a regular basis for testing out ideas for a show segment and ask followers questions that garner instant feedback. There is also the power of social media, which allows anyone to market just about anything at zero cost.

Social media is also great for networking. Before I go to a conference, I will look at the list of attendees and speakers and look for individuals I can potentially work with and find their Twitter names to message them. By the time I introduce myself the next day at the event, they will have already recognized me and we’ve already built that initial connection online. I love Skype, Facebook and other tools to connect, but at the end of the day no technology can replace grabbing tea (or coffee) with someone and engaging in face-to-face conversation.

Tech expert Nicholas Montgomery can be seen regularly on THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW, which airs Weekdays at 10 a.m. EST on CTV, 11 a.m. EST on CTV Two and on-demand at marilyn.ca. 

For more information on THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW, visit marilyn.ca. Follow THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW on Twitter (@TheMarilynShow) and Facebook (Facebook.com/MarilynDenis).

For more information on Nicholas, visit NichM.com. Follow Nicholas on Twitter (@NichM) and Facebook (facebook.com/nicholasmontgomer).

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Filed Under: Interviews, Social Media Interviews, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Freak Out – Cold LinkedIn Connection Requests

January 27, 2012 By 13 Comments

Friends. We all need them. And hopefully we all have them. It’s nice to have lots of them. In the past week, I’ve had 13 LinkedIn requests, all from people that I have never met, spoken to or done any business with. Each one of them classed me as a ‘friend’. This is the only way that someone can ask to connect with you on LinkedIn without having to validate the request with a further piece of data (for example, if you say ‘colleague’ you must define where you worked together) and therefore is a popular way of people approaching an individual on LinkedIn.

You’re Not My Friend

Were any of them my friend? No. Had I had any previous interaction with these people? No. Are they just desperate for more ‘friends’ to pump up their connection numbers? Possibly. Do they lack real friends due to a persistent and incredibly potent lack of charm? I’d bet so. The real reason that each and everyone of these requests was made, was with the view to selling me some kind of service. I really wonder about people sometimes! Who in the right mind would think that taking this initial approach gives off a good first impression? Anyone taking this action immediately fails to get past the first hurdle – gaining trust. As soon as I see this hit my inbox my blood boils. Just like magma. I once heard a rumour that LinkedIn operates a three strike rule – if you use the ‘friend’ option and another user rejects you three times, you can be banned from the network. A fair outcome I think and I hope it’s true.

Cold man, oh so cold.


Is This Ever Ok?

Maybe, but only when the connection request is with a view to discussing something mutually beneficial – if you must go down this route, at least use the text section of the connection invite to explain your request. On the odd occasion I have accepted a cold request, I’ve done so as I expected a conversation to be forthcoming only for it to fail to transpire. Altogether a pointless exercise.

So What’s The Alternative?

That’s for you to work out my friend… Seriously though, think of some of the principles of social media, and you may well see the light.

Oh, and don’t even get me started on LinkedIn ‘coaches’.

Are you guilty of the ‘friend’ request? Has it ever got you anywhere? Do you get annoyed when you receive one? Do tell…

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Filed Under: Friday Freak Outs Tagged With: ,

5 Facebook Metrics You Must Track

January 25, 2012 By 4 Comments

As more businesses dive into social media, one challenge that resonates among many is how to achieve a return on their investment. As a business owner, you will be measuring how social media contributes to your overall business objectives. However, as a fan page administrator, you should also be monitoring key performance indicators (also known as KPI’s) in Facebook Insights as a measure of your page’s success.

The intention of this post isn’t to discuss how to meet your business goals (such as sales, leads or website traffic), but to highlight five KPI’s that you should be monitoring and to show why they contribute to your Facebook marketing success.

image credit - http://www.physorg.com/news174057519.html


Number of Likes

Yes, I know – it’s quality, not quantity, when it comes to Facebook fans, but keeping an eye on this number helps you spot any anomalies. If you can attribute an unusual fan increase to a specific post, ad campaign or promotion, you can learn from that and adapt your strategy accordingly.

Number of Unlikes

In the same way that irregular fan increases can indicate great fan page strategy, an unusual jump in your ‘Unlikes’ can point toward the opposite. If you notice such a jump, take a look at your page and question why. Perhaps you’re posting too much, being unresponsive or sharing content not relevant to your audience? If you can’t manage to keep fans from sticking around, you’re unlikely to turn them into customers either.

Reach

Prior to the new insights platform, admins were only able to see the number of impressions their content received. While this was useful, it didn’t specify how many unique users were actually being reached. For example, did 100 post impressions mean that 100 users were seeing a post once, or ten users were each seeing it ten times?

Now, not only can you see how many unique users your content is reaching, but also whether this reach is organic (viewed in a fans news-feed), paid (via advertising) or viral (users sharing your content). The higher your reach, the more visible your brand

Engaged Users

Exporting your data will allow you to find ‘Engaged Users’, defined by Facebook as “the number of people who clicked anywhere in your posts”. This is important as it goes beyond public engagement (‘Likes’, ‘Comments’ and ‘Shares’) to also include silent contributions, such as clicks on links and photo views.

Considering that 90% of users in online communities do not publicly contribute, this number provides a better insight into how well your content is being received than the engagement figures that are visible on your page

Talking About This

This metric is perhaps the most significant of all – partly because it is so prominent on fan pages and also because of how it measures your page’s performance. Rise Interactive describe it as “one singular rating intended to tell users how compelling and interesting a page’s content is”. I agree, and believe it is the most useful Facebook metric available in terms of measuring a page’s true value. A high number here indicates an engaging page that shares valuable and relevant content.

With an abundance of data available, it can be tricky to make sense of it all. Hopefully this post gives you a better idea of what data indicates performance, how you can monitor this and why the results should influence your strategy.

What do you think of Will’s list? Are there any other KPI’s you would recommend monitoring?

Will Russell is an online marketing freelancer from San Francisco, CA. Author of the blog Social Cycle, Will provides consultancy in social media marketing, SEO and content creation. 

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Filed Under: Online Measurement, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Stats Tagged With: , , ,

5 Key Things To Keep In Mind When Using TripAdvisor

January 23, 2012 By 4 Comments

Having travelled in SE Asia for over a month now, TripAdvisor has fast become my most valuable online travel resource. Information, which in the past would take months to gather, is now available in a few clicks – a city’s best accommodation, No.1 ‘Thing to do’, and most popular restaurant can be discovered without opening your mouth or leaving your chair. However, even although I use TripAdvisor most days, my experience on the road has suggested that the peer-review website is far from flawless. Here are 5 things to keep in mind the next time you use TripAdvisor.

1 – Do you trust your peers?

Peer recommendations are often seen as a reliable source from which to make a decision; whether it’s a hotel review, restaurant advice, or a product review. However, so many factors can make or break a person’s experience. Don’t let one bad review put you off staying somewhere…that person might simply have been ill for a few days and taken their frustrations out on a poor hostel owner!

2 – I smell a rat

When you’re an accommodation owner fighting for business in an area with hundreds of competitors, you will inevitably look for ways to stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately it has been suggested that many take to TripAdvisor, leaving unfounded and malicious reviews about their competition. Next time you see a user who has only left 3 reviews, all criticising hotels in the same area, have a think!

A typical poster urging guests to leave a review.

3 – It’s ruthless

Family Guesthouses that’ve been in business for decades are being wiped out by one or two people complaining about the most mundane defects (in one case I stumbled across, the lack of a plastic bag inside a waste paper bin). You might expect people to ignore those reviews, but most users don’t even get that far – the first thing you come across is the ‘User Rating’ (scored out of 5), and if they’re any lower than a 4 people often don’t commit to reading the reviews.

4 – Users are abusing the system!

Users are becoming increasingly aware how damaging a bad review can be and are using it to blackmail accommodation owners into giving discounts and even free stays. This is not only a horrible position for the accommodation owners to be put in, but if these nasty plans bear any fruition the other users also suffer, basing future travel plans on ‘paid-for’ positive reviews.

5 – It’s no fun really, is it?

As I’ve already said, I do use TripAdvisor…a lot! But from the users point of view it can also remove from the equation a lot of what’s great about travelling – surprise, taking the good with the bad, spur of the moment changes, etc.

TripAdvisor really is a fantastic tool, and gives you an edge when it comes to making decisions on where to stay, what to eat, and why to visit somewhere. But take into account that, as with any platform from which people share their personal views, it can be inaccurate and unreliable at times.

Euan Black is currently on a world tour, keep up with his awesome travel at his blog – Our Wee Trip

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Filed Under: Social Media Skills Tagged With: , ,

Social Media – Real or Perception

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Many companies still don’t view the Internet and social media as a legitimate way to grow their businesses. It’s because they don’t view the Internet as trading in reality. For example, a standard business may view an online reputation managment company as helping with its image and not actually repairing its brand in whole. You can likely chalk this up to the rocky hill any new medium must climb in order to prove its mettle.

In the case of the Internet itself, e-commerce sites, like eBay and Amazon, and video streaming services, such as Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube, have already shown the world that the futures of commerce and entertainment are online. But, if you remember, early on there was not as much confidence in these trends. In fact, if you had told industry professionals a decade ago that in 2012 at least half or more people would be watching movies online, they would laughed you out of the room. Similarly, why social media must deal with doubters as to its legitimacy has a lot to do with people clinging to the past. Again, it’s not so much that people and businesses don’t think social media is useful and powerful, it’s more that they view it as a tool for creating images and perceptions—not realities.

Yet social media’s popularity and ubiquity across the Internet makes it more than just a matrix of opinions and perceptions. Social media is now real, a real element of the physical world that tangibly affects a company’s sales revenue, brand, and relevance. A meme or viral video spread through Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube can reach millions of people within an hour. Companies, politicians, and media professionals alike can find themselves retracting a product, a statement, or a story simply because the reaction to it online was so negative that immediate PR was needed. Conversely, a person can become famous or a cult hero within just a few hours by this same manner. And a company’s product or service can become a household name.

This is not meant to be a manifesto about the greatness of social media. Rather, it’s a warning to small businesses who may be hesitant to move their brand management efforts online and use the tools of social networking sites in order to diversify their reach. To put it directly: resistance is futile. If you do not adapt soon, you will get left behind. If you haven’t noticed by now, most successful businesses are optimizing themselves to be social media-friendly and Internet-savvy. So should you.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Friday Freak Out – Tweets That Are Too Long To Freaking Re-tweet

January 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Picture the scene – you read a tweet from your favourite blogger, the content of said tweet compels you to click the link to their latest post. You read the post, oh my freakin’ god, it is the best damn post you’ve ever read, you can’t wait to tell the world about it! You race back to Twitter, ready to re-tweet that bad- ass post to your mountains of information hungry followers…

And then…

You click your re-tweet button. BOOM! Your character counter turns red. -12 characters to play with. Now of all of a sudden you aren’t so sure you want to share that tweet any more. Why should you bother editing the original? It can be a real pain in the posterior right? Time is tight enough as it is!

So what’s the solution?

Simple. Make sure you squeeze all of your awesome tweetage in to 120 characters. This makes it really easy for people to re-tweet (remember the originator of the tweet’s name will be added when you RT) and can even leave a little room for a comment. Don’t treat 120 as a target, the shorter the better. Of course this doesn’t necessarily apply to all tweets, if you aren’t looking for something to be shared, then go freakin’ nuts with your 140.

Please note, if you are using the twitter.com re-tweet function, this may not apply as that function does not add the originators name. Personally I am not a fan of that method as it does not allow for the adding of any comments etc to the tweet.

It’s the little things in life folks, the little things…

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Filed Under: Friday Freak Outs, Twitter Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Why Linking Facebook to Twitter Is a Dumb-ass Thing To Do

January 18, 2012 By 4 Comments

Probably one of the most often-heard queries from people new to social media, is ‘How do I link Facebook to Twitter’.

These are usually the people that are either lazy, or they ‘get’ Facebook but not Twitter, so they just auto-feed one with the other.

Linking your account to Twitter is quite easy and widespread. I’ve even seen experts recommended it. But doing this can cause problems, the worst of which is unwittingly removing the context of your Facebook status update when you add a link.

When you post a status update, if you have linked your account to Twitter, Facebook will shorten the link using its fb.me domain and post it to Twitter. It looks something like this: fb.me/123456

Facebook will cut off your longer message at around 115 characters to allow for the shortlink to fit, and the complete tweet just fits into the 140 characters allowed on Twitter. (continued post-image)

Don't be one!

Don't be one!

If there is no link in the update, the shortlink will go back to the Facebook post. No problem there. However, if there is a link in the post, the shortened URL will skip the post content (your comment) and go straight through to the link which was added on Facebook, leaving only 115 characters of the potential 63,206 – the limit on Facebook updates.

People will click on the link based only on what the preceding message says, so the context is rather important. Nine times out of ten, the start of the message bears some relation to the link property, but if, after the 115-character mark, you change your context, and link to something that expresses that change, the message is spoiled because the rest of the message is gone. Here’s an example (using a youtube link):

On Facebook:

This makes me so happy. My mother used to tell me that if I ate meat I would grow up big and strong and have a healthy life, but the day I saw this video, I became a vegetarian, and I have campaigned tirelessly to make a difference for these animals. Today I learned that the law has been changed and there are much tighter controls on how animals are treated in farms. This video is sick, but I have achieved something great. http://youtu.be/qf0_0zVwByA

When Facebook sends this to Twitter, it will look like this:

This makes me so happy. My mother used to tell me that if I ate meat I would grow up big and strong and have a… http://youtu.be/qf0_0zVwByA

You can see what has happened. (I’ve used the original YouTube link but this would have been shortened by Facebook)

I’ve made this example up, but twice in the last week, I’ve seen someone query the response of a post on Twitter where the context of the original post on Facebook was lost because of this.

And the example may be extreme too, but the whole point of having Facebook and Twitter is giving yourself two different platforms on which to express yourself, but by linking them, you are forcing your message on Facebook to have the meagre constraints of Twitter. It’s like trying to publish broadsheet content through a tabloid format, it’s not designed to fit.

The solution is simple – don’t link the two. I always advocate that the amount of time spent on posting to each is well worth it.

Writing concisely for Twitter is a world apart from the verbose freedom of Facebook. Be brief on Twitter, Be expressive on Facebook. Don’t link them. If you haven’t got time for Twitter, make some or don’t use it.

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Filed Under: Social Media Skills Tagged With:

Twitter Spam Alert – You seen what this person is saying about you? Terrible things..

January 18, 2012 By 2 Comments

‘You seen what this person is saying about you? <link> terrible things..’

Watch out people, the Twitter DM spam is doing the rounds again and many people are falling for it! If you are unfortunate enough to click one these links, you need to immediately:

1 – Send a public tweet apologising - its highly likely that your followers have now received a spam DM and potentially clicked it. Not a great impression!

2 – Change your password

3 – Visit twitter.com and go to settings > applications and revoke access to anything that looks dodgy

4 – Slap yourself on the wrist for clicking the link in the first place!

This is the latest round of spam to hit Twitter – see here for run-down on the ‘bad blog’ spam from last year.

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: , ,

What Google Plus Your World Means for Your Business

January 16, 2012 By 3 Comments

Last week Google announced it’s latest search innovation called Search Plus Your World which adds three new features to the search giant (taken from the description in Google’s post):

  1. Personal Results, which enable you to find information just for you, such as Google+ photos and posts—both your own and those shared specifically with you, that only you will be able to see on your results page;
  2. Profiles in Search, both in autocomplete and results, which enable you to immediately find people you’re close to or might be interested in following; and,
  3. People and Pages, which help you find people profiles and Google+ pages related to a specific topic or area of interest, and enable you to follow them with just a few clicks. Because behind most every query is a community.

Watch the video. Its cute if not entirely informative. (post continues below video)

On a personal level, it may not mean a whole lot. Even those of us who are active on Google+ can admit that the activity level is still quite low compared to Twitter and Facebook and the Your World results are going to vary depending on the quality of the content shared by you and your connections. There is some argument that Your World could actually decrease the quality of your search results, but I have a feel that most of us won’t notice a significant impact for some time. If nothing else, Google is just making Google+ a little more difficult to ignore though at least you can turn off the social search feature if you feel the need to.

What does this mean for your business?

The effect may actually be more deeply felt by brands and businesses in that it could force you to invest more time into your Google+ Page or risk loosing headway in your SEO efforts. The addition of personalised results means that regular search results will be pushed further down the page and that brands with a heavier social media marketing emphasis are more likely to have been shared and therefore listed in Your World results. Also, the People and Pages makes it blatantly obvious that more screen time will be given to business that have a Google+ page. With that in mind, I’d say its time to give in and start giving your Brand Page a little more attention:

1. Create a +Page for your business if you haven’t done so already. Here are a couple links with good tips to get you started.
2. Share content and comment on things that are relavant to your business. I feel like I say this every day but having quality content and engagement that is useful to the end user is key to online success. It will make it more likely that people will add you to their circles and generate the kind of activity that will show up in Search Your World results.
3. Monitor the results. The full effect of Search Your World is still unknown (especially since it hasn’t been launched worldwide) so you need to keep a watchful eye on the sucess of your efforts and adjust them accordingly.

This is going to be case of needing to take my own advice. I have set up a page for the company I work for but haven’t done terribly much with it as Google+ just doesn’t have the support of the local social media community quite like Twitter and Facebook do. But with this new combination of search and social, its clearly time to get on board whether I like it or not. Thanks for adding to my to do list, Google!

Have you had a chance to test out the new Search Your World features? Please leave a comment and tell us what you think of it!

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Filed Under: Google, Google+, Social Media Marketing, Social Networks Tagged With: , , ,
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