Category: Twitter

In a perfect world, we would have months to prepare for an event. We would have nicely organized lists, a smooth process, an effective team and no stress.

But, as most marketers know, this is not a perfect world. Sometimes, plans get derailed and communication breaks down. Sometimes, an opportunity for an event comes up at the last minute. And sometimes, we’re just plain too busy to think that far ahead.

If you’ve ever put on an event – last minute or not – you know that it is essential to get the word out among potential attendees, so that the conference halls aren’t empty on the day-of. And this can be an extra challenge when you’ve only got days – not weeks or months – to raise awareness.

Here are seven tips for using Twitter to promote your last-minute event:

1. Leverage your partner network

Remember all of those retweets, shares and favors you did for friendly businesses and organizations? Now is the time to cash those favors in.

You probably have a list (even if it’s just in your head) of the organizations that you tweet to regularly. And better yet, another list of your partners, vendors and other friendlies – whether you’ve engaged with the on Twitter or not.

Ask these organizations to share your event on their Twitter account. Most will happily support you, but they won’t know what to tweet unless you give them great guidance. Don’t forget to include the date, start time, location and relevant hashtags or promotions when asking them to help you promote your event.

2. Reach out to influencers

Just like partners and friendly organizations, influencers in your space can help you reach a wide, targeted audience for your event.

Influencers are the individuals who have a lot of sway with your target audience. You might not know them directly, but it doesn’t hurt to ask if they will help spread the word.

Tip for reaching out to influencers: If you don’t already have a relationship with them (and even if you do), it’s a good idea to make sharing your event as easy as possible. Send them an email with several pre-written tweets, so they can copy+paste if they choose.

3. Don’t dilute your hashtag

Hashtags are the absolute best way of organizing the conversations that happen before, during and after your event on Twitter, so pay attention when creating yours. It can be tempting to develop hashtags for promotion, hashtags for event discussion, even hashtags for individual panels… but this will dilute the conversation. Keep it simple, and stick with one.

4. Offer incentives

OK, it’s a last-minute event. People might already have plans. So how do you get them to commit? Offer incentives! You can tweet about door prizes, raffles, and other great stuff that attendees could win if they show up. Or, create special Twitter-only deals (like 20% off at a local restaurant for lunch) to encourage them to share and attend.

5. Stick with a single message

There are probably lots of reasons why your event is going to be great. Awesome keynote speaker? Great networking opportunities? Cool vendors? Since you’re working with limited time, you should choose just one feature to really hammer home on Twitter.

Tweeting too many “benefits” at once will confuse your audience and dilute your message. You’ll get better reception if you highlight a single feature, and mention the others more subtly or less often.

6. Share lots of images

Twitter is a visual network. Tweets with images appear larger in people’s timelines, and see more engagement across the board. So by including images in your event promotion tweets, you’ll stand a better chance of being seen and engaged with.

There are plenty of images you can include. Have you hosted a past event? Real-world photos of the crowd, vendors and speakers would be great. If not, no problem. You can create custom graphics using a service like Snappa, or use stock photography.

7. Create a sense of urgency

Last but not least, make sure your audience knows that time is running out for them to get their ticket to your event! This sense of urgency is very real for you, as you are promoting last minute, but make sure you tweet about the urgency as it relates to your audience. What will they miss out on if they don’t attend?

You can do a countdown to the day of the event, tweeting one feature or promotional point each day. Or, offer last-minute deals on accommodations, restaurants or local attractions. Anything that builds urgency will work.

Have you promoted an event last-minute using Twitter? What worked for you? Share in the comments below!

Photo credit: Media Evolution via Visual Hunt / CC BY-SA

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In celebration of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, keyboard app maker SwiftKey has analyzed the use of food emoji around the U.S. to discover which food emoji each state uses most, and which states are the most and least festive, in terms of Thanksgiving, with their overall emoji use.

The report found the top ten food-related emoji in the U.S. are the pizza slice, coffee or hot beverage cup, poultry leg, cherries, slice of cake, hamburger, doughnut, ice cream cone, strawberry and lollipop.

When breaking down the use of food emoji by state, SwiftKey found some unsurprising results. For instance, the most popular food emoji in Washington is the coffee emoji (perhaps due to Starbucks), while Hawaii’s most popular food emoji is the pineapple.

However, some results were unusual. As an example, SwiftKey found Florida’s top food emoji is a piece of candy, and not the orange, as might be expected. Similarly, Georgia’s top food emoji was shown to be the cherry, and not the peach.

In addition to measuring the use of all food emoji, SwiftKey measured the use of ‘festive’ emoji for Thanksgiving, with festive emoji being the poultry leg, football, sweet potato, corn and leaves. The data showed the states which use these emoji most are Delaware, New Hampshire, Maine, Oregon and Alabama, though SwiftKey did acknowledge the results might be skewed for states known for their colorful trees during the fall.

On the other hand, Montana, Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington D.C. were found to use Thanksgiving-related emoji the least.

Readers: Which food emoji do you use the most?

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The mobile revolution has given birth to a generation of mobile addicts. According to Flurry, the mobile optimization and personalization platform from Yahoo, the revolution is being led by Europe with several countries reaching full saturation.

Flurry analyzed data collected from more than 725,000 apps and 564 million mobile devices it tracks across Europe, with a focus on the top 10 countries in terms of population.

According to the report, smart device penetration is highest in the north with Sweden at 150 percent, the Netherlands at 136 percent and the U.K. at 130 percent.

In keeping with the global trend, phablets (mobile devices between 5 and 6.9 inches) are growing in popularity in Europe. Spain is leading the phablet trend in Europe with nearly 40 percent of smart device users opting for devices small enough to fit into their pockets but big enough for reading and other entertainment.

When it came to how people were spending their time on mobile devices, the British and French spend nearly 40 percent of their app time on social and messaging apps, according to the report. Italians, which had the lowest overall smart device penetration among the western nations included in report, spend the least amount of time on messaging and social apps.

Among Germans, Spanish and Italians, nearly one-third of their time is spent on gaming apps. Italians also seem to like their utility apps, which account for 18 percent of app time. Across the continent, music, media and entertainment apps account for about 10 percent of app time.

Check out the full report for more data.

Top image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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According to Tilt co-founder and CEO James Beshara, the original vision was to answer the question “What will crowdfunding look like in a mobile world?” However since its 2012 launch, Tilt has become a social crowdfunding app used by groups to raise funds for anything from events to social causes.

Tilt, which boasts investors including Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian and tech futurist Marc Andreesen, has experienced huge growth throughout 2015 — including a recent northern European expansion.

The platform has been most popular among college students and community organizers in the last three years. However, brands are also discovering same powerful uses and Beshara says there are 20,000 Tilts live at any given moment and a “Tilt” every 15 seconds. 

In terms of iOS downloads, Tilt is the fastest-growing crowdfunding platform — beating stalwarts GoFundMe and Kickstarter.

So what is a “Tilt?” Someone starts a campaign to raise money and invites their friends to pitch in. Once the campaign reaches its minimum goal — or “tilts” — the funds are sent to the organizer. Beshara said it’s similar to other crowdfunding platforms but built specifically for groups and a mobile use case.

Beshara noted that the group function is what makes the app so social and ultimately, what has created the momentum behind the Tilt’s growth. If eight students launched a philanthropy campaign or a tailgate fundraiser, they’d likely share it with an average of 24 users and 18 will join, Beshara said:

From those that join, people will split off and create their own Tilts from that. It’s just a very social product that you have to invite friends to use and it’s really led to a lot of our growth.

While Tilt is most popular among college students, it has had some big breaks this year. In February, the platform launched Tilt Open, a payment platform of sorts for business users and in August, it partnered with ESPN as the fantasy football payment system. The partnership was so successful, ESPN extended it to fantasy basketball this month. 

Ahhh, I love the smell of true exponential growth in the morning.

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Periscope is truly a worldwide phenomenon. Saturday, thousands of viewers and broadcasters celebrated Scope Day, taking people around the world through Twitter’s live-streaming app.

The event kicked off at 5:15 a.m. PT, and Periscope broadcasters streamed from a plethora of places all over the world, including the Egyptian pyramids, Niagara Falls, Tianenmen Square, Burj Khalifa, Walt Disney World, the Golden Gate Bridge, Big Ben and the Sydney Opera House, among several other locales.

Scope Day also featured 12 bands from around the world, performing covers of Taylor Swift songs.

According to Scope Day founder Mike Lin, the event had more than 51,000 viewers, more than 15,000 comments, nearly 1 million live hearts and almost 150,000 replay hearts. Lin also said that broadcasters gained anywhere from 400 to 5,000 new followers.

Here’s a snapshot from @Cheryl66stl‘s broadcast atop the St. Louis Gateway Arch:

One prominent Periscoper, Lizza Monet Morales, took her 13,000-plus followers (known as Lovebug Nation) to the Caribbean island of Antigua. It was quite a journey just to get connected to wifi, as she had to rely on a local’s phone signal. She coordinated with other broadcasters via Twitter direct messages.

Morales, who has Periscoped with the Dalai Lama, discussed the power of Scope Day with SocialTimes:

Scope Day was a virtual passport that easily allowed anyone to travel the world and visit some of the most iconic places on Earth right from the palm of their hand. Each of my fellow #ScopeDay broadcasters and I had one thing in mind, to share the best content we could with the viewers frrom where ever we were on November 7th.

It was great seeing us all, who for the most part have never met in person, voluntarily working together to put this whole thing together, for no other than reason than to let others “explore the World through someone else’s eyes” as Periscope’s motto states.

Periscope blogged about the event, highlighting some key broadcasts around the world, such as @Rosscaneva‘s tour through the museum of Sforza Castle in Milan, Italy. The broadcast included a tour with the lead curator, showing the last works of Michelangelo:

Lin told SocialTimes that he’s planning future Scope Days, encouraged by the success of this one.

Check out replays of Scope Day broadcasts by clicking here.

Readers: Did you participate in Scope Day?

 

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It’s official – Twitter has killed off the “Favorite” and replaced it with a “Like.” Along with a terminology change, they also swapped out the star for a heart. And while this might appear to be a superficial change, it’s going to impact marketers in a big way.

More likes, more users

For starters, it’s important to understand the likely reasoning behind Twitter’s decision to change the icon.

Twitter has had a problem with user growth since its IPO. Part of this is no doubt due to the somewhat confusing syntax (What’s a RT mean? Why do I need to use the @ symbol?) that newbies have to learn in order to join in a meaningful conversation. The new “Like” works towards changing that.

Thanks to Facebook, Liking something has become ubiquitous. It is something that consumers instinctively understand. And you can bet that Twitter made the decision to rebrand the favorite so that more new users would “get” Twitter’s functionality off the bat.

So what does this mean for marketers? If Twitter has its way, this move (combined with other initiatives from reinstated CEO Jack Dorsey) will bring new users to the service. And that means new consumers to see your tweets.

Tweeting for an audience that is new to Twitter requires a different strategy than tweeting for an audience that’s been around for some time. Once the impact of the Like button and other initiatives have been felt, you may need to adjust your strategy to welcome newbies – reducing the number of hashtags in your tweets, for instance, or linking to beginner Twitter how tos for more visibility.

A positive, universal appeal

A heart has emotion built-in. A star? Not so much. Plus, hearts are internationally recognized as symbols for love and positivity, while a star may have different meanings in different cultures.

Going forward, Liking something on Twitter will have emotional implications. There will probably be fewer people using Likes as bookmarks, and more people using them to express positivity towards the content of the tweet they are Liking.

Marketers managing a Twitter account may begin to see more Likes of the positive, share-worthy content they tweet.

On the flip side, if people begin to use Twitter’s Like button like they do on Facebook, marketers might also encounter something less-than-optimal: fewer retweets and replies. If their audience feels that Liking their tweet is “good enough” to show that they appreciated its content, they may be less inclined to retweet to show the same sentiment. This could mean less reach and exposure to new audiences.

Time to dust off your favorites strategy

Whether you’ve been using favorites as part of an engagement strategy, to say thank you, or just to save great tweets, it’s time to reevaluate.

Consumer behavior is going to change on Twitter, and while the change might be subtle, the marketers that can adapt quickest will benefit.

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Snapchat has continued to evolve as it endeavors to establish a stable position in the social media market. From closing security holes, to updating its policies, it looks like the messaging-app-turned-content-platform wants to be taken much more seriously. However, its marketing efforts haven’t always panned out, and advertisers are skeptical that it can deliver on promises.

Just last month, Snapchat decided to abandon its original content strategy, and attempted to restructure for a more sustainable future of revenue generation. Other than security issues, this could be considered the first major hiccup for the company’s future. But Snapchat has already rebounded with sponsored lenses, in an attempt to get back in the market.

Lens ad units are aggressively priced, and may cost up to $750,000 per day if the campaign is supposed to coincide with a holiday or major event, according to Re/code. Through Lens, and other possible ad solutions, the company plans to bring in $50 million in ad revenue by the end of this year.

However, Snapchat has been known to keep its actual metrics very quiet, so it’s unclear how these new ad units will perform. Advertisers are already throwing money at Snapchat, but quality performance metrics are what will bring the company long term stability as an advertising platform.

Ben Winkler, chief digital officer at Omnicom’s OMD media group, told Re/code that this is Snapchat’s main problem. Additionally he said:

Of course, the challenge here is even as they’ve improved with their reporting and performance, the goalposts are moving. … Every one of their competitors are [also improving].

Snapchat’s long term stability, and indeed viability, hinges on the company generating meaningful revenue over time. To push its way out of the startup phase and into a true mainstream service, this generally means advertising. Whether Lenses act as a silly diversion, or a meaningful way to spread ad content and an established way to take selfies among the user base, seems very up to chance. And not realizing that potential could result in another serious stumbling block for Snapchat.

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Pretty much every company that operates online has become a big data company. And this constant data mining has been putting users on edge for some time now. New survey data from Broadband Genie, a consumer comparison site, indicates that users in the U.K. don’t have a lot of confidence in the companies holding their data.

Broadband Genie surveyed 3,440 Internet users and discovered that many believe the Internet is getting more dangerous and are looking for ways to protect themselves. 80 percent use an antivirus, 57 percent use a firewall, and 53 percent are using malware and spyware detection tools. However, there are still some areas of concern, such as the 10 percent of people using nothing.

Relatively few people have fallen victim online. Only 15 percent say they have had their personal data exposed in a leak and only 12 percent have been the victim of an online scam. However 54 percent have caught a computer virus.

77 percent of users surveyed still believed the Internet was getting more dangerous, while 65 percent believed that they were personally safe online. 75 percent of people believe that online companies are not doing enough to secure their personal data, and they’re right to be skeptical. Other recent data has revealed that nearly 90 percent of the most popular websites online are leaking data to third parties.

While Broadband Genie head of strategy Rob Hillborn says it’s important for companies to employ “rigorous security procedures” to mitigate risks, he also encourages consumers to be proactive about their own digital security.

He said in a statement:

It’s also important for users to consider what protection they’ve got on the other devices they own. It’s not uncommon for users to access their personal information from laptops, phones and tablets, so it’s important to make sure these devices which are often overlooked are also secure.

Readers: Do you think the Internet is getting more dangerous? Are you worried about the security of your personal information online?

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Online Circle Digital has been analyzing brands on Facebook in Australia for quite some time, and now the digital agency turned its attention to Instagram.

The company released its first Instagram Performance Report for Australia, looking at the top 20 Instagram accounts by followers and by engagement in August and September, as well as the top 12 industries or categories by those two metrics.

Its findings included:

• The top Instagram account in Australia by followers in August and September was Kayla Itsines, at 3,720,465.
• Itsines also took the average engagement crown, at 314,264.
• Influencers led industries and categories in average engagement, at 92,538.
• Influencers also dominated by followers, at 10,366,170.

Online Circle Digital lead strategist Lucio Ribeiro said in an email to SocialTimes:

With millions of Australians using the platform every day, Instagram can’t be ignored as a viable communication channel for businesses. Most of us look at the real-world micro-moments and events and think about how they would make a great image on our Instagram. We see a plate of food, a dog or a nice piece of fashion and we think, “This will be great on my Instagram.” Some businesses have understood this drive and incorporated visual occasions and moments into their communication, turning their advertising into native content, content that blends in, content that makes viewers feel something, content that transports people.

Influencers are becoming the new superstars. There’s a great opportunity for brands to select and connect with them to act as cultural megaphones.

Readers: What did you think of the findings by Online Circle Digital?

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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It can be frustrating to tweet, day in and day out, and watch your followers number not budge an inch. Sure, you might get two new followers one day, lose three the next, and gain another one the next. But if the trend isn’t upwards, your Twitter marketing likely isn’t doing what it’s supposed to.

Since the average Twitter user has a bit over 200 follower, it’s not that difficult to double this number quickly. But if you’re sitting pretty at 1,000, 5,000 or more, you can use these tactics below to double your followers too – it just might take a little longer.

Here are 25 tips to double your Twitter followers:

The basics

1. Refresh your bio (or fill it out for the first time, if you haven’t done that yet).
2. Update your profile picture.
3. Change your cover photo semi-frequently to showcase your employees, workspace or product.
4. Tweet more frequently. Several times a day if you can.
5. Reply to anyone who @mentions or @replies to you on Twitter.
6. Follow anyone who follows you (as long as they are relevant to your reason for being on Twitter).
7. Use more images in your tweets (which you can do even if your product is ugly).
8. Retweet tweets from thought leaders and influencers in your industry.
9. Ask for retweets.
10. Set and work towards SMART Twitter marketing goals.

Advanced tactics

11. Use hashtags in your tweets to get them more reach and exposure.
12. Pin important/interesting/engaging tweets to the top of your profile.
13. Use Twitter lists to listen to your customers, industry or competitors.
14. Schedule your tweets using a service like HootSuite or Buffer.
15. Review your Twitter analytics dashboard to see what types of tweets got the most engagement and create more tweets that are similar.
16. Network with thought leaders and influencers in your industry by replying to their tweets and striking up a conversation.
17. Use tools to discover great new content to share.
18. Use Twitter’s analytics to create better, more engaging content to attract more followers.
19. Use Twitter search to find new, relevant accounts to follow in the hope that they will follow you back.
20. Let everyone in your other networks know that you have a Twitter account. Post your Twitter handle to Facebook, LinkedIn, in your email signature, on your in-store signage, etc.
21. Live tweet during events, and use the appropriate event hashtag.
22. Time your tweets so that you are tweeting when your target audience is online.

Bonus tips

23. Purchase Twitter’s promoted account ad product to get your account in front of targeted follower.
24. Join the conversation happening in your local community. This is especially useful for small, local businesses looking to gain more local customers.
25. Host a Twitter chat. This can be time-consuming, but it will also put your account front-and-center as a thought leader in your industry.

(Growth image via Shutterstock)

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As a marketer, producing consistent viral content, is a sort of holy grail that many strive for. However, creating viral content is complex and often expensive.

So instead of chasing a dream, it may be better to apply real insights in your content creation. To that end, digital marketing agency DigitasLBi and author Jonah Berger teamed up to create a “Contagious Index.”

The contagious index is a metric that focuses solely on person-to-person sharing on Twitter and Facebook.

The purpose of the index is to show companies how to create social interactions consistently through the production of targeted, sharable content.

Berger, author of the bestseller Contagious: Why Things Catch On, said in a release:

The Contagious Index helps companies understand how to win in social. Why do some brands get more shares than others and what types of content are more effective? Rather than hoping or guessing about what’s working, companies can engineer success. … Comparing content on a granular level enables marketers and brands to analyze social content with unprecedented detail.

The analytical method behind the index is intended to provide marketers with a map that enables them to analyze their strategies as compared to the most successful companies, and create new strategies that deliver consistent results for their campaigns.

The index itself highlights the most contagious brands on Facebook and Twitter, based on their high scores. For example, Taco Bell was the best performing quick serve restaurant on Twitter, due in no small part for the Internet’s love of the Taco Bell Twitter account.

Highly shareable content that tugs on the heartstrings can also lend a high contagion score, as seen on Facebook with the Humans of New York series receiving the top marks in the arts and humanities category.

Top image courtesy of Shutterstock.

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