Belle Strategies - Business Consultant

AI Ethics and Tech Trends


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Introducing Facebook Context Cards

On Wednesday, Facebook rolled out a new feature to its iOS app that encourages users to share more about what they are doing.

Now, Facebook users will start seeing “Context Cards,” which will appear over their News Feeds and provide detailed information after they check in or link to subjects such as movies or songs in status updates.

Here are some examples:

  • If a user checks in to a location, the context cards will show friends who have recently checked in to the same location and when those check-ins occurred, as well as related photos they have posted.
  • If a user posts a structured status update referencing listening to a musical artist or watching a movie, the context cards will show friends who have consumed the same media.

Facebook is hoping the cards will provide helpful information and encourage users to interact with their nearby friends.


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Twitter’s ‘Fave People’

Twitter is currently testing a new feature that could be very popular for users following thousands of people.

It’s called ‘Fave People’, and it allows you to easily build a separate timeline for your favorite Twitter users. Building your ‘Fave People’ timeline is pretty simple – just tap on the star icon in the profile of the user you want to add.

It’s also possible to choose to receive notifications every time someone in your ‘Fave People’ timeline tweets. This concept is similar to Twitter’s existing “Lists,” which lets you organize users into labeled groups such as “reporters” or “celebrities.”

But don’t get too excited yet…

As we mentioned before, this concept is in the testing process! Tell us, would you like to see a feature like this on Twitter?

 


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Flawk and Yik Yak: The Good and The Evil

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You may have heard of these two new socially driven platforms, Flawk and Yik Yak.

They are completely different, but they are both getting a lot of buzz, so let’s talk about them. One is good, and one is…well, not so good.

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Flawk:

Flawk describes themselves as “a real-time platform for engaging with your twitter followers. Host a Q&A, share media, and interact with your followers like never before.” and their service promotes a more streamlined version of AMA’s (ask me anything) and Twitter Q&A’s. Flawk offers a host the ability to “chat” with their guests in real time. This is a much more engaging communication model because it offers one-to-one interaction – exactly what every fan is hoping for.

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On top of the chat window feature, you can watch the other flawker’s conversations at the bottom of the screen. Everything is run using twitter, so you don’t need a separate log in/password to remember. Check out their video, it’s short and sweet:

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Yik Yak:

This relatively new app has gotten a ton of attention recently because of the trouble it is causing. Now – we’re logical people here – we aren’t saying the creators of the app are bad people so let’s get that straight. What we are saying is that the basis of the app (anonymously saying whatever the heck you want) is a recipe for disaster.

Yik Yak is a free app that allows users to send comments anonymously. It uses geo-tracking to share those comments with any user who is nearby (the closest 500 users). Users don’t have to be logged in to see comments from other local users.

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This app has already been associated with instances of bullying, and TWO students have already been arrested for using it to make school-shooting threats.

Yik Yak makes money by charging you to send your message out to more than 500 users. Here’s how it all looks:

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If you’re wondering, yes I downloaded it to get those images, and yes, I have already deleted it from my phone!

So overall – Flawk…expecting it to gain some traction for all the right reasons; Yik Yak…expecting it to become even more infamous. Let us know if you use either of these already and what you think!

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Instagram: Changing the Face of Marketing

In a world increasingly filtered through Instagram, a carefully crafted photo shoot starts to look dated. That’s why retailers are rushing to crowdsource their product shots — harvesting a stream of photos from social platforms to help sell everything from West Elm couches to Coach handbags.

The photos are typically curated in galleries, where each picture is linked to a page selling the product. Increasingly, the amateur images are also showing up directly on product pages, next to professionally styled pictures. “The path to purchase has evolved tremendously, and consumers are much more likely to trust their peers than a brand,” said Mimi Banks, director of social media at L’Oreal’s Lancome brand.

The team at Lancome recently goaded women into posting portraits of themselves sans makeup for a project coded “#bareselfie.” The campaign urged women to “be proud of the skin you’re in,” but it also tied in nicely with one of Lancome’s newest products: a cosmetic called Dreamtone that promises to correct blemishes and weird skin tones without blush and powder.

“It’s a challenging ask,” Banks said of getting strangers to share stripped-down selfies. “But people love social clout — to be acknowledged by the brand.”

Coach, meanwhile, is burnishing its brand with a website that collects photos from women wearing its shoes all over the world. The pictures — routed to the company via the hashtag #coachfromabove — aren’t a far cry from what one would find in a professional lookbook.

Both strategies constitute more than branding, according to Olapic, a New York-based startup that helps retail companies collect, curate, and display social content. Photo tie-ins from Facebook and Instagram increase the odds of a purchase by from 5 percent to 12 percent on average, according to co-founder Luis Sanz. What’s more, there is plenty of material: Olapic’s clients feature only about 4 percent of the photos they capture.

“The structure of an e-commerce site has basically been the same since the beginning of the Internet,” Sanz said. “But as soon as we started doing this, the results were really good.” Olapic, which launched in 2010, closed a $5 million round of funding in July. It also won the backing of Scott Galloway, a New York University marketing professor known for founding Red Envelope.

Galloway said Olapic is hitting a sweet spot in e-commerce: High-quality cameras are now standard in new smartphones, and consumers are searching for a sense of authenticity that’s lacking in traditional advertising. “If I can show a Coach bag looking great on me, it carries more credibility than if Annie Leibowitz makes it look great,” Galloway said.

The photos also prime purchases by addressing what might best be called a failure of imagination. For instance, consumers who like a throw pillow from West Elm, a Williams-Sonoma home-goods brand, might be more eager to buy if they see it paired with a particular couch or carpet. That’s one of the main strategies behind the company’s #myWestElm campaign, which went up in September.

“We don’t want to be style dictators,” said Abigail Jacobs, West Elm’s vice president of brand marketing. “And there’s this age-old thing that we love seeing inside other peoples’ homes. […] The goal really is for them to inspire each other.”

An “inspired” customer is often a spendthrift customer. What’s more, social media lets retailers engage in an incessant exercise in AB testing. Coach, for example, might decide to make more of a particular shoe in red if photos of that color appear more often and get more positive feedback.

The practice isn’t entirely new, but it is spreading through the retail industry at a rapid pace. Web marketers are starting to develop best practices. Just this week, two marketing professors at the University of Wisconsin unveiled an algorithm that promises to help retailers select the best photos to drive sales. The researchers found that increased purchasing activity comes from unfiltered photos without long captions, question marks, or exclamation points. In short, authenticity is all.

West Elm, meanwhile, has found another surefire attention-getter: pets. Everything gets more “likes” when it has an adorable animal on it. That’s just a law of the Internet — no research required.

This article originally published at Businessweek here

Photo by Coach


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Social Media: Facebook Changes Newsfeed Algorithm AGAIN!

Chris Turitzin, Facebook’s product manager for News Feed ranking says that, “Page admins can expect a decrease in distribution of their text status updates, but they may see some increases in engagement and distribution for other story types.”

Facebook’s complicated ranking algorithm is not new, but it is consistently revised to make the user experience as enjoyable as possible. The revisions require social media administrators to stay in loop…what used to rank well in the past might not have staying power as changes to the algorithm affect each post differently. The newest revision comes after testing that showed people are inclined to interact with different types of content (opposed to text-only status updates) on Pages.

Social media admins are advised to use what Facebook calls a link-share: a link in a status update that generates a preview of the website you are linking to. In other words, do not embed the URL by closing out the preview. The first example shows an embedded link, while the second one shows a link-share.

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Basically, Facebook wants you to stop clicking the “X” that removes the link-share feature. By clicking the “X”, you embed the link and turn the post into a plain text post.

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Facebook is making it clear that plain text posts will not rank as high as posts using the link-share feature. If you’re a social media manager, this knowledge should help!


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5 Favorite Free Fonts

You don’t always need graphics, photos, or images to make your design pop — sometimes the right font does the trick. But scouring the internet for hours on end can be very frustrating! So, we’ve made it easy for you…

We have compiled 5 of the most beautiful fonts we could find. Here’s the best part… they are FREE!

Journal

Great Vibes

Cinzel

Sofia

Learning Curve Pro

Enjoy…


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Google Plus and Social Media

Up until recently, taking advantage of social media for marketing purposes was just a luxury. Now, it’s a necessity. Google Plus is one of the social media platforms you absolutely need to be utilizing if you have a website. Obviously, it’s owned by Google, and that means your Google Plus account creates credibility for your business website in the search algorithm.

Remember, Google also owns Youtube, so becoming active there will help too! All the different social media platforms can be overwhelming, but if you dedicate the time, you can really help your business through social media marketing!

Oh and…if there aren’t enough hours in your day for that kind of dedication…you know where to find us!

 


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How Often Should I Post? A Quick Tip!

“How often should I post?” Posting to social media too frequently can work against you, so consider how many followers you have, and the type of business you are in.  Some businesses attract the kind of followers who love lots of casual, frequent updates (photographers, local boutiques, hair stylists, etc.) and some businesses require more professional, less frequent posts – think quality over quantity – like most major franchises, authors, motivational speakers, etc.

No matter what you’re selling, make sure the content you post is actually interesting to your potential customers!

The quick tip above reminds businesses that they should post more than just their company information. Company information includes things like location, hours, contact info, sales, and inventory. Followers are interested in your company information, but you should engage with them in other ways too.

For example, if your business sells fashion merchandise, consider posting a photo of a fashionable celebrity or an inspiration quote about fashion. Create a posting ratio based on feedback you get from your followers. We hope this answers the “How often should I post” question! Have fun with it!


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Who are the most annoying people on social media?

Sweatband.com, an e-commerce site for fitness enthusiasts in the U.K., has compiled a list of the ten most annoying social media behaviors, based on a survey of 1,793 British social media users. The top 10 includes updates that most social media users will have published at some point. Find the full list below…

The 10 Most Irritating Social Media Status Updates

  1. Boasting about diet/weight loss/exercise (53 percent of respondents didn’t like this) Come on! Do we really need to know exactly how long you’ve spent in the gym and exactly what machines you used? NO!
  2. Sharing pictures of meals (45 percent) These are the people who take pictures of what seems like every single meal. Nobody cares about the spaghetti you’re about to inhale.
  3.  Cryptic status updates (42 percent) “I can’t believe that just happened!” If you ask them what’s going on, they’ll clam up for sure.
  4. Game inviters (37 percent) No, I don’t want to play virtual farmers or candy crush. I didn’t want to the first time. Take the hint.
  5.  Proud parents (36 percent) Okay since I am a mom this one is a little tough for me… But there is such a thing as TMI. For example…We do not need to know what consistency your baby’s poo is and we certainly don’t need a picture of it either!
  6.  People who share very personal details (32 percent) Once again—TMI. Keep your family and personal business to yourself. Once it’s out there it’s out there forever.
  7.  Checker-inners (32 percent) Users who share every place they go. They may as well check in when they use the bathroom too.
  8.  Event spammers (25 percent) Users who invite you to every event they can think of, even when you don’t live in the same city – or even country –  as them.
  9.  Constant engagers (22 percent) Those who like and comment on everything. There is a fine line between being a supportive friend and being a creepy stalker.
  10.  Self-promoters (19 percent) People who are more interested in promoting themselves and treat you as a potential client. For example: “Oh what a nice family picture. Have you thought about life insurance and what might happen to your family if something terrible happens?” We can all do without those comments.


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Facebook AutoPlay Ads Are Here

Facebook announced Tuesday morning that the News Feed will now feature a select number of auto-play video ads. These ads are being tested by a small group of advertisers. Luckily, these videos do not include audio at this time; you must tap the video in order to hear it. Tapping it will also expand the video and when it’s finished, you will see a carousel with more video ad choices for you to watch.

As of right now, only a very small number of users will even see the Facebook autoplay ads as they are still in their infancy. Good news for data usage: the videos have been “downloaded” in advance using your wi-fi and will not affect your data plans.

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You may be thinking, “Well I’ve seen Facebook video ads for so long!” and you aren’t wrong. Video ads aren’t new, but the auto-play feature is. You may have noticed that many of the videos (not ads) are auto-playing in your News Feed already, that feature was recently released to get users comfortable with upcoming Facebook autoplay ads.

If you’re a business owner interested in this kind of marketing, you only need to save up roughly $1 million -$2.5 million for a 15 second video! Prices are rumored to be in that range at this time. Expect to see ads for major brands and films at first.

Image: Getty/Jonathan Nackstrand


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Facebook Image Dimensions

Using the standard Facebook image dimensions will ensure that your images look as good as possible!


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Drive More Traffic: Yoast SEO

Driving traffic to a company website is the goal for most social media marketing strategies.

You’ve set up all your platforms, you’re posting and interacting with followers, it’s going great right? Well, if you’re spending so much time trying to bring people to your site through social media, you definitely want to ensure your website is helping bring people there as well.

Enter Yoast SEO.

We are a huge proponent for WordPress; we love building a site and providing our clients with some simple instruction so they can maintain it themselves and save money! If you’re working with a WordPress site, you have to get on the Yoast SEO plugin train. This FREE plugin provides you with everything you need to properly optimize your posts and pages for the search engines.

Take a look at the Yoast SEO panel. Choose a key word or phrase that sums up what the post is about, and then let the SEO checker tell you if you’re optimized.

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You can easily updated your page title, URL, main content, and meta description to include the key word or phrase more (in a natural sounding way) to ensure the post is optimized.

We especially love the super easy color system they use to indicate if you’re doing a good job. Like a stoplight, red is no good and green is great!

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The Yoast SEO plugin is user friendly, effective and we highly recommend it! You can find everything you need on their website here.

Happy optimizing!


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Giving Tuesday on Instagram

Black Friday and Cyber Monday brought our holiday shopping dreams to life, and now we’re paying it forward for Giving Tuesday.

In its second year, the new “holiday” of sorts offers a selfless response to Black Friday and Cyber Monday by encouraging charitable giving and highlighting worthy causes. This year, participants were urged to upload to social media an “#UNselfie,” a hashtagged photo of the user that depicts a cause that’s important to them.

Check out these inspirational Giving Tuesday “UNselfies” found on Instagram! (Thanks to @LXELA ON INSTAGRAM, @MELGOOD711 ON INSTAGRAM, @DAWNELYSE ON INSTAGRAM, @FELTSOCUTE ON INSTAGRAM and  @MMCTIGUE ON INSTAGRAM  for these amazing UNselfies).

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New LinkedIn Feature: Showcase Pages

We love to keep our readers up to date on the latest social media news! So here’s what’s new in the LinkedIn world…

LinkedIn has recently replaced its news aggregator in order to get the right content in front of the right users.

On Tuesday, LinkedIn unveiled ‘Showcase Pages’. According to LinkedIn, “These pages are dedicated pages that allow companies to highlight different aspects of their business and build relationships with the right community. Whether it’s a brand, a business unit, or an initiative, following a Showcase Page will provide you the updates you are most interested in.”

Interested in creating a Showcase Page for your business? Here’s how you do it!

First, identify the business areas of your company that need a Showcase Page. Then go to the “Edit” dropdown menu and select “Create a Showcase Page.” Once created, you can start sharing content from your page. You will also be able to monitor the performance of your Showcase Page through our analytic tools.

Companies will not be charged for creating showcase pages, and can create up to 10 of them on their own. If you do not see the option to create one of these Showcase Pages, don’t fret. LinkedIn will be rolling out this new feature slowly.


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Avoid these Instagram SCAMS!

A new wave of internet scams is showing up on Instagram where bogus accounts lure users into providing personal information. You’d think we’d all know by now that you shouldn’t provide your name and address to strangers online right? Online shopping is secure (always look for the SSL Certificate folks)…but social media platforms do not provide that type of security.

We’re seeing a large number Instagram scams in particular because of it’s casual atmosphere. Here are five tips to make sure you aren’t part of the one in ten people who fall for a social media scam this year!

  • Don’t engage with accounts that have the “giveaway” in their name.

  • Check to see how much they post, and what kind of content it is. If there isn’t much going on – it’s likely a scam!

  • Don’t ever click a SHORT URL!

  • Check out their profile; are they following anyone? If not, it’s probably a scam.

  • And of course…never provide your personal information!

Lots of companies are using social media platforms for giveaways the right way; so don’t give up online contests all together! Just remember the tips above and use common sense to make sure you don’t end up involved with these Instagram scams.

*Image courtesy of Instagram


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3 Quick Tips to Increase Blog Traffic

Use Pinterest

When you write a blog post, you need to drive traffic to it for a good return on investment (ROI). Pinterest is increasingly becoming a site where people go to read the articles of their choice. Make sure when you pin your blog you:

  1.  Write a brief summary from the piece that relates to your specific board
  2. Find an image that catches the eye
  3. Directly link to your blog

Twitter

Twitter is the best platform to build a focused list of followers. Make sure you schedule your blog to post to Twitter at least 3 times a day. And don’t forget to use hashtags! Tweets with hashtags receive two times more engagement than those without.

Share Other’s Work

Reach out to other bloggers you like and write them a quick note telling them how much you’ve enjoyed reading their posts, find them on Twitter, follow and re-tweet their posts. Building connections is what turns one time readers into followers. They will also be more likely to follow you and share your blogs!

Stay tuned for more tips on increasing page traffic :0)