Instagram
[fts_instagram instagram_id=256737344 super_gallery=yes image_size=100px icon_size=50px space_between_photos=1px hide_date_likes_comments=yes center_container=yes image_stack_animation=yes type=user]
Twitter
[fts_twitter twitter_name=elliance]
Depending on what part of the world you call home, you probably have a different reaction to the name, “Debby.” It’s a perfectly beautiful name, and we even have a few hard-working Debbies here at Elliance. But, when a storm by the same name rolled through the Gulf of Mexico last weekend, my perspective changed. I’m from Pittsburgh. And, when I moved to Florida in 2008, the humidity and gigantic bugs were the only bad parts, really, besides missing my friends and family. Weathering my first serious tropical storm, though, made the bugs seem (almost) tolerable. The Bay area, where I live, was hit particularly hard by Tropical Storm Debby. St. Petersburg, Tampa, and Clearwater endured between 10 and 16 inches of rain over a two-day period. There was (and still is in some places) massive flooding. Winds and surf were high enough to shut down three of our four major bridges. Numerous tornadoes left millions of dollars in damage. … Continue reading
Posted in: Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Best Practices
Leave a comment
A few weeks ago, one of the speakers at the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals conference in Chicago raised an interesting question: Is it necessary to live a “social lifestyle” personally, in order to be a social media professional? I took pages of notes at the conference, but this one idea is something I’ve come back to far more than I would have expected to. As with most interesting questions, I think the answer is yes and no. One could argue either side, and — as I am prone to do — I’ll argue both. No. Your social media manager needs to understand the media. What is the etiquette of Twitter? What do Facebook users respond to? What’s different about LinkedIn and what’s the point of a +1? But does that person need to engaged in any of these networks personally in order to gain that understanding? Not necessarily. There are plenty of resources out there with best … Continue reading
Posted in: Social Media
I have to imagine that @sweden’s citizen-driven Twitter “experiment” is waking up many a marketing director’s concerns about social media—ergo their brands—in the hands of the masses. As part of its Curators of Sweden campaign, Sweden’s government-sponsored tourism agency turns the reigns of the @sweden Twitter account over to a different citizen each week. This week, Sonja Abrahamsson’s tweets have taken their followers on a magic carpet ride. Everyone from Mashable, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes weighed in on the controversy. Even Stephen Colbert riffed on it on The Colbert Report, causing over 4.7MM Twitter users to campaign for him taking over the account for a week (#artificialswedener). Because of Abrahamsson and her gaffes (or trolling?), many are calling this “experiment” a colossal failure, while a few say it is absolute brilliance. Having worked as a digital marketing consultant for many tourism directors over the years, I felt an immediate concern for the future of tourism social media efforts. … Continue reading
It’s getting hard to remember life before social media – much more so since mobile devices enabled its wholesale invasion of every corner of our lives. One of the conundrums I’ve observed people encountering is that of how heavily committed one should be to keeping up with the goings-on of his or her social set. If I’m following 1000 people on Twitter, do I need to read all of their updates? If someone engages me constructively online, is there an obligation to reciprocate? Is it okay to go on hiatus for days or weeks and, if so, is there some etiquette I should follow? For my personal life, I chose a policy of obligation-free, occasional engagement. I am very unselfconscious about the regularity with which I read or post to social websites. A month away from Facebook is of equal value to me as flooding Twitter with nonsense, and I take and leave them interchangeably. But I’m an individual, I’m … Continue reading
Posted in: Social Media, user experience, ux
Search results have gone social. There’s no doubt about it. Earlier this year, I wrote about Google releasing its own social network, Google+, and quickly integrating that content into regular search results for those visitors who are logged into a Google account. Bing is now taking a similar leap, re-vamping its entire search interface to include a social sidebar on the right-hand side of the results page. Where Bing had previously integrated some social information directly into search results, it’s now mainly pulling it off to the side in order to assist in the search experience instead of compete with it. Image via Microsoft News Center. Bing’s rolled out a lot of new features as part of the “New Bing.” I won’t go into all of them here since other experts have done such a thorough job explaining them in detail. I will pull out a couple of the elements that I feel are especially significant, as both a searcher … Continue reading
Posted in: Search Marketing, Social Media
During these times when consumers tend to ignore billboard ads, block telemarketing calls, and fast forward through television commercials, inbound marketing is a hot topic. Tactics typically categorized as inbound marketing are ones that encourage interested prospective customers to come to you, as opposed to simply purchasing their attention through advertising and other methods of pushing out marketing and sales communication. Inbound marketing tactics include activities like blogging, search marketing, social media, and content marketing (producing videos, creating infographics, writing articles, etc.). While both inbound and outbound marketing certainly have their merits, the benefits of incorporating inbound marketing strategies into your long-term plan are unmistakable. According to a 2012 Hubspot report, “inbound marketing-dominated organizations experience a 61% lower cost per lead than outbound marketing-dominated organizations.” While a lower-cost outcome might not be surprising for organizations that don’t spend as much on traditional, costly tactics like advertising and direct mail, what is interesting is how strong the leads turn out to … Continue reading
Posted in: Marketing Strategy, Search Marketing, Social Media
The New York Times wrote a great and fun story about a nut company that just spent a fortune for the domain nuts.com, despite having a wonderful brand to itself and a thriving online business at nutsonline.com. We had a nice debate internally about all the search and brand impact of this decision. Read Abu’s response and all the other fun responses. I can’t help but be struck by the amazing social opportunities that have been created here for Newark Nuts. If the age of corporate social media has taught us anything, it’s that customers value businesses that are honest, forthright and show their human side. We want to join in this story of their heroic rise, fall, rise — and we wanted to save these nutty nut lovers from falling again. The world is already coming to their aid in the NYT article with tons of free, some good, advice. Newark Nuts now has a tremendous opportunity to connect … Continue reading
Most of us understand, if only by feeling, the power of great photography. But on a recent client photo shoot I was reminded how much your approach to photography—just like your approach to social media—can influence your brand. Do you stage everything? Shoot the obvious? Capture what’s natural? Leave room for the unexpected? Have a fallback plan? One of the key moments during our three days on campus was capturing the ROTC physical training at the wee hour of 6:20 a.m. To be ready to get the shot, we got there early and scoped out the scene. It was still pitch black, and the field where training would take place was only dimly lit. I saw the concern in Ed’s, our photographer’s, face. We talked with a coordinator and mapped out the route they’d be taking, then figured out where the best place to intercept them would be. We settled on a long, steep hill where we could catch them … Continue reading
It was a dark and stormy brainstorm session. Ideas were flying. “What if we could connect them to people who came before them and then show them the ones they could influence after?” “What if we use a narrative device, juxtaposing past stories with current stories. The platform could provide a dramatic backdrop for the rhetorical argument.” “Will anyone fill out a form? Let’s not make them log in.” Marketers worldwide are hard at work dreaming up campaigns and interactive whiz-bang features that will inspire or impel users to engage. As someone who waves the social media flag in the new world order, I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we want people to get involved, share their enthusiasm with others, be our brand ambassadors. And sometimes we’ll settle for just liking a pretty picture or new yogurt flavor. And therein lies the problem. All the world’s a stage. We’re scattered, untethered, bouncing like … Continue reading
In January, Google search results received a major overhaul. The dominant US search engine debuted “Search Plus Your World,” a new results format that takes personalization – and visibility of Google+ content – to new heights. What is Google+? Google+ is Google’s social network. It offers many of the same features as Facebook (building connections, sharing news, photo, and video content), with a few fresh elements (like group video chat, or “hangouts”) mixed in. It launched early last summer and, within two weeks, had recruited 10 million users, the same size user base it took both Facebook and Twitter more than two years to reach. Although its users tend to be less active than Facebook’s (according to December comScore data, Facebook accounted for 1 in 7 minutes spent online around the world), Google+ has now skyrocketed to 100 million users. And, as of January, it boasts content visibility in a portion of Google’s 400 million daily search queries. And, it’s … Continue reading
Posted in: Search Marketing, Social Media