Archive for the ‘twitter’ tag
Using Twitter as a nonprofit
We talked to Beverly Robertson of the March of Dimes about using social media as a nonprofit in one of our TakeFives earlier this year, and here’s what she had to say:
“TweetReach: Do you feel the approach or reliance on social platforms is different for a nonprofit organization? What would you recommend to one that is just starting on their social strategy, or is uncertain of how to even begin?
Beverly Robertson: Social Media is critical not only for delivering mission messaging, but in introducing the organization to a new audience, as well as keeping track of what people are saying about you and your mission. It also is critical to take the opportunity to thank your donors and volunteers publicly for all of their hard work and support. I cannot tell you what a tremendous response we get for doing that. My recommendation is jump in, but listen before you speak.”
If you’re a nonprofit who would like to get more out of social media, here are some tips to get started on Twitter:
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Listen before you speak: see what other non-profits have to say in their Twitter profiles and down their timelines before you jump into tweeting.
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Listening to other accounts can give you a good idea of etiquette and basic interactions, but be sure to use your organization’s voice and be human
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Find supporters and follow them. Interact where it’s appropriate: proactively answer questions and provide links to more information
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If someone is spreading misinformation about your organization on Twitter, you have options:
a. Address them and gently correct the information, sharing a link for them/those following the conversation to read more
b. Send out a tweet from your own account that does not directly address the account spreading the misinformation, but corrects it Either way, try to avoid getting into a verbal battle with someone on Twitter. Neither party ever looks good.
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Take major issues offline: if someone comes to you on Twitter with a big problem, make sure you’re mutually following one another and then DM an email address where a deeper discussion can take place
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Check for hashtags related to your cause and monitor them; this is one way to track what’s being said about your organization
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If there aren’t any obvious ones, create a hashtag and start using it. Encourage your supporters to pick it up as well.
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Regularly monitor search results for the name of your organization, both the version you have for Twitter (such as @marchofdimes) and any iterations of the name without the handle: March of Dimes, MoD, etc. (Use Twitter’s search, create columns in TweetDeck and even run a free snapshot report with us.)
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Consider hosting a tweet chat. Those interested in supporting your cause could find you through another’s timeline or the chat hashtag, and will have a chance to interact with and follow you, as well as ask questions.
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Finally, be sure you have easy-to-find, working social buttons on your website! Supporters won’t know where to find you if you don’t tell them.
Want more information on how nonprofits used social media in 2012? Check out the infographic below featured on Mashable (and if you have any tips for us, leave them in the comments!):
This Week in Social Analytics #45
It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for This Week in Social Analytics and our favorite posts of the past week in the world of measurement, analytics, and social media. See a great piece we missed? Link to it in the comments!
Social Behavior: The BIG GAME — A Study with SurveyMonkey [from iAcquire; written by Norris A. A. Rowley Jr.]
“From 2011-2012 time spent on social media has increased by roughly 30 billion minutes (or 37%). You may have thought Facebook increased the most, however there was a 4% dip in user visiting the site. However, Pinterest’s visits increased by 1000% (that is a whole lot of pins). This is a useful insight because it shows the social media market is not solely Facebook, a social media strategy needs to be holistic and flexible.”
The Lean Analytics Cycle: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act [from Occam's Razor; written by Avinash Kaushik]
“We are far too enamored with data collection and reporting the standard metrics we love because others love them because someone else said they were nice so many years ago.”
Definitely falls under long reads, but it’s a good, detailed approach to setting up analytics beyond the easiest (and often most meaningless) metrics.
Twitter’s Big Challenge: Too Much Twitter [from Wired; written by Mat Honan]
“Discover needs to get far better at surfacing the most interesting things from your own timeline that happened since you last looked at Twitter. Imagine if instead of showing interesting things from all around Twitter, Discover focused on your own timeline and showed you the most interesting and important things since you last checked Twitter. It could display the tweets by people you follow that were the most retweeted and the most favorited. It could show the links that came up the most often over the past hour (or two hours, or four hours or whatever) on your timeline, or that had people talking. If two or three of the people you follow message each other back and forth for multiple tweets, it should put that conversation in front of you, starting with the first tweet (especially if more people join in).”
Social Media and Multitasking Go Hand in Hand [from eMarketer; written by eMarketer staff]
“Social network multitaskers on both Facebook and Twitter were most likely to log on to accounts when they were planted in front of the TV; more than eight in 10 Facebook users and about two-thirds of Twitter users used social networks while channel surfing. But the two networks were also extremely popular while traveling and among those who were supposed to be working.”
For pols, Tumblr is trending [from Politico; written by Kevin Cirilli]
“This is Tumblr’s moment,” Gregory Galant, CEO of Sawhorse Media, told POLITICO. “It’s almost equivalent to when Truman realized that he could address the nation directly on television to make a presidential address – here’s a new form of media to reach an audience.”
Case Study: How Content Diffuses Through Different Social Networks [from Social Media Today; written by Dr. Scott Hendrickson]
“Tumblr’s reaction was unique, with slow momentum building during the first few hours after the shareholder call, but quickly speeding up when as people created ‘re-bloggable’ content about the news. Rather than an event-response reaction such as Twitter, or a considered reaction, as with blogs, the reaction of the audience on Tumblr accelerates as the type of content Tumblrs reblog appears in the network.”
9 tips for watching TV on Twitter
Live-blogging has spawned a new generation of itself, and the cool kids these days are live-Tweeting and Tumbling while they watch their favorite shows. Sound like something you’d like to get in on? We’ve got some suggestions to help get you started using Twitter while you watch TV.
After all, 4 in 5 Americans multitask while they’re watching TV now, did you know?
From Marketing Charts
If you want to be one of them, here are some tips for getting social while watching your favorite shows:
- Check for an official show or episode hashtag. Using this, you can join in the voices of the multitude – or minority – watching. It’s easy to connect with like-minded people this way. You can find these hashtags by searching for an official show handle by typing the show name into Twitter search, and then go to that account to see what hashtag(s) they use. If there’s no official account, or they’re not using hashtags, click through other search results to see what other people are using.
- If a hashtag doesn’t already exist, make up your own. People who follow you who watch the show might join in, and it can spread from there. Or someone who follows you who doesn’t even watch the show might start, because they know someone else who watches it.
- You might want to announce ahead of time if you’re going to be live-tweeting a show, and that you’ll be using a hashtag, just in case anyone wants to mute it if they’re not interested.
- Do not tweet spoilers. Ever. Remember that not everyone is watching live, and you don’t want to be the one who ruins the ending for everyone else.
- Interact with other people talking about the show, replying to and retweeting them when appropriate.
- Mention official accounts for the show, the actors or the characters. You never know when you might get a retweet, and those accounts often have a large following. You can find them by searching Twitter for the show name and choosing the official account that pops up with a verified checkmark, or by going to the show’s website – they all have their social profiles prominently displayed.
- Follow people you have an interesting interaction with – that’s what being social is all about, after all. You may find some new friends.
- For big events where you might have people over to be social IRL too – like a Super Bowl party or Oscar party – post pictures of your setup, and include guest’s handles in your tweets.
- Share your content from other networks like Tumblr and Instagram. But be careful of auto-sharing everything you post elsewhere; those who follow you in multiple places might get bothered by the redundancy and decide to unfollow you. It’s great to cross-post some, but be selective.
Do you tweet while you watch TV? Got any tips we missed? Tell us how you do it in the comments below.
This Week in Social Analytics #44
It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for This Week in Social Analytics and our favorite posts of the past week in the world of measurement, analytics, and social media. See a great piece we missed? Link to it in the comments!
Facebook to See Three in 10 Mobile Display Dollars This Year [from eMarketer]
“Both Facebook and Twitter have benefited from their use of so-called native ad formats that are seamlessly integrated within the core user experiences of their respective products. The resulting ability for both companies to deliver mobile ad impressions at much higher volume than many traditional ad publishers has helped them capture market share very quickly.”
What Does That Second Screen Mean for Viewers and Advertisers? [from AdWeek; written by Lucia Moses]
Social television does more than just give people something to collectively chatter about on a social network; it engages them emotionally:
“When people used Facebook, Twitter or GetGlue while watching TV, their emotional engagement was 1.3 times higher than that of solo TV viewers.”
This has a lot of different implications for advertisers.
Twitter Relaunches Its Twitter For Business Site With More Content, New Video [from Marketing Land; written by Matt McGee]
“Twitter has also published a new video that, in my opinion, is the most effective messaging the company has offered yet for businesses — not just why, but also how to do business on Twitter. It’s basic and meant for beginners, but there’s a lot of information packed into a little more than two minutes.”
More from Twitter Dev: Mobile app deep linking and new cards [from Twitter's Developers blog; written by Jason Costa]
A breakdown of Twitter’s new card capabilities, straight from the development team.
4 Types of Content Consumption (Research) | Content Marketing: How We Use Multiple Devices [from Heidi Cohen's blog; written by Heidi Cohen]
“Social Spider-Webbing is the opposite of Investigative Spider-Webbing in that it’s extroverted. Focused on sharing and connecting, it allows viewers to connect with others (both friends and like minded individuals) while watching live events and television shows.
Overwhelmingly social spider webbing makes solitary content consumption a social activity. More than two out of five respondents use it to connect with others. About a third use it habitually. About one in four chooses social spider webbing to enhance their enjoyment of their content consumption.”
You can find the link to the full study here.
And before you ban Facebook at the office:
Social Media: Not the Productivity Killer You Thought? [from Inc; written by Francesca Louise Fenzi]
“This tiny group of social network butterflies, however, ranked as the most efficient. Employees who belonged to more than five social networks had a 1.6 percent higher sales conversion than their counterparts and a 2.8 percent lower average call time.
While the data is interesting, it’s next to impossible to determine causation. But Mike Houseman, the managing director of Evolv, posits that performance may be linked to the sociability of employees who belong to several online networks.”
Game of Thrones season 3 premiere on Twitter
97.6 million accounts were potentially reached on Twitter about the Game of Thrones premiere last night
Game of Thrones premiere tweet stats
The internet was excited for the season 3 premiere of Game of Thrones on HBO last night. You can see the spikes in Twitter reach about it in the graph above (reach in blue, exposure in yellow, times in PDT), particularly leading up to and during the premiere – nearly 98 million unique Twitter accounts received GoT tweets yesterday. In total, 330k people churned out more than 596k tweets yesterday. The top 5 hashtags were #GameofThrones, #GoT, #GoTSigil and #jointherealm (these two are about the ability to create and share your own house sigil), as well as #GetGlue.
The last one is for social television app GetGlue: you check in to the show or sporting event you’re watching and then you can see how many others are watching with you, leave comments about it, comment on other’s posts, and more. You also have the option to share on Twitter and other platforms what you’ve checked into on GetGlue, automatically adding the #GetGlue hashtag.
This is particularly interesting in the wake of a recent study from the Time Warner Media Lab (via AdWeek) which found that emotional engagement on television viewing is higher if you watch with someone else, or if you log in using a social app like GetGlue:
Did you watch Game of Thrones last night? Was it social? In person or digitally? Tell us about it in the comments!
This Week in Social Analytics #42
It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for This Week in Social Analytics and our favorite posts of the past week in the world of measurement, analytics, and social media. See a great piece we missed? Link to it in the comments!
Tumblr Is Worth a Look at For Your Business [from Business2Community; written by Matthew Simonton]
“If your business targets anyone in his or her teens or 20s, you should have a presence on Tumblr. Even if those youngest in these demographics are not your target audience, where do you think they will be in a couple of years? There are reasons why brands beyond College Humor have Tumblr accounts. Huggies has one. Sesame Street has one. Do you see the trend?”
This graph represents the % of respondents who said that they used X platform for at least several hours in a week.
Social Media And The Workplace [INFOGRAPHIC from AllTwitter; post written by Shea Bennett]
“More than half (52.1 percent) of firms now let all of their employees access social media sites at work, with only a little more than one quarter (26.4 percent) actively blocking access to these channels. And while almost two-thirds (64.2 percent) don’t monitor the use of Twitter and Facebook in the office, 68.9 percent do have a social media policy in place.”
State Of The News Media: Everything In Decline But Digital [from Marketing Land; written by Greg Sterling]
“In particular social media figure more prominently as a news ‘channel’ than even a couple of years ago. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center study, 19 percent of Americans received news or headlines on a social network ‘yesterday.’ The number was almost double (34 percent) for people in the 18 – 24 age category.”
Link to the full Pew study here.
Integrate Big Data Into Your Marketing Strategy [from Social Media Today; written by Yoav Dembak]
“I wanted to share a few easy ways anyone can start integrating analytics into marketing campaigns.”
A great short piece for those shaky on their feet, starting out in social media marketing.
New Study Confirms Correlation Between Twitter and TV Ratings [from Nielsen]
“Specifically, the study found that for 18-34 year olds, an 8.5% increase in Twitter volume corresponds to a 1% increase in TV ratings for premiere episodes, and a 4.2% increase in Twitter volume corresponds with a 1% increase in ratings for midseason episodes. Additionally, a 14.0% increase in Twitter volume is associated with a 1% increase in TV program ratings for 35-49 year olds, reflecting a stronger relationship between Twitter and TV for younger audiences.”
Twitter Tips: Keyboard shortcuts for navigating on the site
We’re all busy, and some of us are too busy to bother with our computer’s mouse or trackpad. If that sounds like you, check out this handy list of Twitter keyboard shortcuts (we posted something similar over on Tumblr, if you’re into keyboard navigation on all of your social sites):
B → block user
U → unblock user
F → favorite
J → next tweet
K → previous tweet
L → close open tweets
M → new direct message
N → new tweet
R → reply
T → retweet
G + A → activity page
G + C → connect page
G + D → discover page
G + F → favorites
G + H → home
G + L → lists
G + M → messages
G + P → profile
G + R → mentions
G + S → settings
G + U → go to a profile
Space → page down
/ → search
. → load new tweets
? → load shortcut menu
Got any we missed? Leave them in the comments. Happy shortcut tweeting!
SXSWi 2011 vs. SXSWi 2013 in numbers
Two years ago we did a recap of SXSWi 2011 in tweets after the five days of the Interactive portion of the festival were over. (In case you’re still unfamiliar, SXSW is a great big gathering of all kinds of interactive professionals – from social media folks to software developers and startup founders, to designers, researchers and basically anyone interested in the digital space. SXSW Interactive is a tech conference, and is followed by the film and music portions of the festival.)
Here’s a table comparing the tweet volume, total number of unique contributors, and overall reach for 2011 vs. 2013:
What a difference two years can make!
Here’s a breakdown of the 2013 SXSW tweet activity:
Activity breakdown for tweets and contributors during SXSWi 2013
Were you at SXSWi? How was your experience? Tell us in the comments, old hats and newbies alike.
This Week in Social Analytics #40
It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for This Week in Social Analytics and our favorite posts of the past week in the world of measurement, analytics, and social media. See a great piece we missed? Link to it in the comments!
Advisers benefit from “listening” on social media [from Reuters; written by Beth Pinsker]
“Josh Brown, a financial adviser at New York-based Fusion Analytics who is known as The Reformed Broker to his 35,000-plus Twitter followers, says many of his friends at major brokerage firms regularly visit sites like Twitter, just to keep tabs on the chatter.”
Social Media in the Banking Industry [from Social Media Today; written by David Wittlinger]
“The mental hurdle that bank officers needed to overcome when starting out in social media was the fear of ‘losing control’ of their marketing message. For many of the Marketing Committee members, platforms like Facebook were widely misunderstood. A majority of time at the beginning of this project was spent educating the bank about how social media marketing works (different from traditional media) and how it can effectively be applied to create a deeper loyalty within their customers.”
Twitter Reaction to Events Often at Odds with Overall Public Opinion [from Pew Research Center]
“At times the Twitter conversation is more liberal than survey responses, while at other times it is more conservative. Often it is the overall negativity that stands out. Much of the difference may have to do with both the narrow sliver of the public represented on Twitter as well as who among that slice chose to take part in any one conversation.”
See the full article for charts on when Twitter’s reaction was more conservative, when it nearly matched public sentiment, and more.
The Content Crash [from Mitch Joel]
“. . .there is a common thought in the digital universe that goes like this: create relevant content and consumers will continue to connect with your brand. It’s not a zero-sum game and it’s not an all-encompassing strategy. It may be in marketers vested interest to adjust that theory to this: create relevant content and your heavy users may continue to connect with your brand.”
21 Social Media & Content Marketing Tips Tailored For Small Businesses [from Heidi Cohen]
Consists of “7 Questions Every Small Business Must Ask To Succeed” and “Actionable Marketing Tips” for each point
Dealing with Social Media Criticism: Deflect, Defy, Defend? [from KISSMetrics; written by Neil Patel]
“According to a study by RightNow, when customers did receive a response to their complaint, almost half of them were pleased by the company’s interaction, and 22% of those customers posted a positive comment about the company or brand. Keep in mind that this is the same company they were bashing just recently.”
This Week in Social Analytics #39
It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for This Week in Social Analytics and our favorite posts of the past week in the world of measurement, analytics, and social media. See a great piece we missed? Link to it in the comments!
2013 U.S. Digital Future in Focus [from ComScore]
“Three social networks in particular – Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram – each gained more than 10 million visitors over the course of the year in part by catering to a desire for more visually appealing content. comScore has called this phenomenon “the rise of the visual web.” Of the three, Tumblr had the largest audience at 30.8 million visitors (up 64 percent from the prior year), while Pinterest (up 284 percent to 28.9 million visitors) and Instagram (up 284 percent to 27.4 million visitors) both shared the same outsized growth rate.”
This graph from ComScore shows the shares for time spent on each site, with Tumblr coming in second behind Facebook.
Download the full report at the link above.
In 2013, Mobile, Social Lead Shift From Traditional Media to Digital [from eMarketer]
“On the digital side, mobile and social media were the two categories expected to see the most increased attention in 2013. In fact, more than eight in 10 of those polled named mobile media as a target for increased focus, while just over three-quarters of respondents said the same for social media.”
Marketing Analytics: 20% of marketers lack data [from MarketingExperiments Blog; written by Daniel Burstein]
“A full 40% of marketers only have ‘an average amount of data,’ which does not sound like an overwhelming vote of confidence they have the information they need to intelligently plan, and execute, tests that will help them learn more about their customers.”
An Autopsy of a Dead Social Network [from MIT Technology Review; written by The Physics arXiv Blog]
“They say that when the costs–the time and effort–associated with being a member of a social network outweigh the benefits, then the conditions are ripe for a general exodus. The thinking is that if one person leaves, then his or her friends become more likely to leave as well and this can cascade through the network causing a collapse in membership.”
It also depends on how large each user’s network of friends is. Overall a fascinating read on the death of Friendster.
Social Media and Branding: Is It Worth The Money? [from Heidi Cohen's Blog; written by Heidi Cohen]
“This research underscores the need for brand marketers to go beyond considering social media in the traditional sense of being a media entity. It’s more than a place to post and distribute promotional messages. Social media requires being social. To this end, brands must engage with their prospects, customers and fans as humans and understand why they’re on social media.”
6 Tips on How to Use Twitter’s New Vine Video App for Marketing [from JeffBullas.com; written by Jeff Bullas]
What to do with 6 seconds of marketing video time.
Friday fun with hypotheticals:
How many unique English tweets are possible? How long would it take for the population of the world to read them all out loud? [From What If?; written by Randall Munroe, creator of xkcd]
“Reading all the tweets takes you ten thousand eternal years. That’s enough time to watch all of human history unfold, from the invention of writing to the present, with each day lasting as long as it takes for the bird to wear down a mountain. 140 characters may not seem like a lot, but we will never run out of things to say.”
And a bonus, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all of this:
5 Tips for Avoiding SM Burnout [from Social Media Today; written by Rachel Strella]