Social Media SEO Ranking Factors

The idea of using links to help identify high quality and well liked sites was a major leap forward for search engines. It helped the likes of Google to determine which sites were most popular with their readers and, therefore, which sites were the most authoritative. While links still prove highly valuable to a search engine optimisation campaign, they have been joined by social media ranking factors. Attracting likes, comments, and +1s can help further improve your search engine position.

Quality Counts

There are some similarities between links and social ranking factors. Not all are treated equally so you will receive greater weight with a like from an authoritative account. This is likely done in order to help prevent marketers and website owners from gaming the system. Without such measures in place it would be possible to register hundreds or thousands of dummy accounts simply to build links. By using authority and quality to determine the value of a social link, the search engines can negate this problem.

Different Social Media

Each social network or social media website is slightly different and this means that the ranking factors they have are also different. When embarking on a social media marketing campaign, especially if it is to help boost search engine rankings, you need to first identify the actions that are measured by Google and the like.

Facebook Ranking Factors

Facebook has shares, comments, and likes; all of which are likely to be used as ranking factors because they identify quality content. If something is being shared between users and gaining a lot of likes then it must be good quality. Similarly, if a piece of content or a status update is amassing a large number of comments then it is perceived as being beneficial by the search engines.

Twitter Ranking Factors

Twitter has proven an effective tool for social media marketing and SEO but, again, attention is paid to quality as well as quantity. The number of Tweets you post is unlikely to have any bearing on search results but gaining a link from an authoritative Twitter user will have a bearing. Retweeted links will carry a lot of benefit because you will receive numerous links and it shows that your content is popular.

Google+ Ranking Factors

Google may be one of the newest entrants to the social media market but it is obviously a significant one. A +1 is essentially an editorial vote and receiving a number of these from respected accounts can give a major boost. Links from authoritative accounts are also considered effective.

Other Social Ranking Factors

Many other social media sites exist and they all have their own ranking factors to consider. Pinterest uses Pins, Digg uses Diggs, and so on. Identify the likely ranking factors on a site before ethically encouraging your readers and new connections to help promote your profile as well as your website and other online real estate.

The Rise Of AuthorRank

One factor that you shouldn’t overlook is your AuthorRank. This is a quality score that is given to individuals rather than their websites or other real estate. Linking your social profiles, integrating them with your website content and other content, and then building your profile so that it is perceived as being high quality by the search engines will give you a higher AuthorRank. Once your social media profiles are linked this means that social ranking factors will carry some of the weight of your profile and improvements to one social network may provide benefits to your other accounts.

The Importance Of Social Ranking Factors To SEO

Social ranking factors are used by search engines as one method of calculating quality and building search results. As well as concentrating on links, which still offer value to a search optimisation campaign, you should put some time, effort, and resources into the development of social ranking factors and building your AuthorRank.

Generate UK Win Outstanding Achievement Award

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Mike in Customers, Internet Marketing | Leave a comment

It’s great to be involved with projects where you know that the customer is doing good in the world. This is what happens at Gamewatchers on a daily basis, so we’re proud to be working for them. This blog post talks about the new Gamewatchers website and how we won an award for it. As you can imagine, this has made our week… not only do we get to work with an awesome customer but we also get rewarded for doing so!

About Gamewatchers

Gamewatchers Safaris & Porini Camps (Gamewatchers) deliver Kenyan safaris, offering holidays that can be handpicked to suit your specific needs. Recognised as Kenya’s ‘Tour operator of the year ‘ in 2011, Gamewatchers have been operating in East Africa for 25 years and providing holidays that range in accommodation from 2 man tents through to luxury boutique hotels. Just to add weight, you can see that the Porini Mara Camp in the Maasai Mara Eco System is featured at position 1 on TripAdvisors Travelers’ Choice 2013.

When Gamewatchers approached us they already had a very large website, however we established that a restructuring project aligned with SEO (search engine optimisation) and social media activity would enable us to make improvements to gain greater conversion rates from their website.

We recognised that this was going to be a huge task considering the site had some 500 pages and the competitiveness of their industry and keywords.

After addressing each of these areas and including a rebuild of the site, a freshly designed site that both inspires and engages visitors through a much more image led design with many photographs and videos depicting the beauty of Africa and the safaris available from Gamewatchers.

Some of the results achieved to date have included:

Unique visitors have grown year on year by 64% (January – February 2012 with 2013).
Conversation rate from enquiry to a booking form submission have increased by 200%
The site boasts a healthy position 1 and 2 in Google organic listings for their target keywords, many of which are “High Competiton”
A social media campaign helped to raise awareness of the new site launch, expanding the Gamewatchers brand through imagery on Pinterest, delivering more traffic to the website than either Facebook or TripAdvisor combined.

Of course, we’re very proud of these results. As with any website, there is always more that can be done, however these results demonstrate the following:

Great content – a successful modern website needs engaging and great content
Information architecture and the structure of the website is vital for both usability and accessibility.
With a new website launch, it is important to follow established best practises provided by the search engines, details of Google’s advice can be found here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=checklist.cs&tab=1095542
Social media activity can provide an alternative source of targeted traffic for your site, don’t forget to use them.

The website won the IMA Awards (Interactive Media Council Inc) for Animals/Wildlife reaching an ‘outstanding achievement’

Sources

Interactive Media Council site - http://www.interactivemediaawards.com/winners/certificate.asp?param=267707&cat=1

Gamewatchers site - http://www.porini.com/

10 Top Tips from Brighton SEO April 2013

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Kelly Perkins in Brighton SEO | 1 Comment

SEO Brighton Sign

So the time had come. My first ever Brighton SEO conference. I was a little excited to say the least. The difficulty with working in such a specialised field of digital marketing as SEO is when you even mention it to anyone outside of the industry, they have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about. The idea of spending an entire day with like-minded people, and learning great tips and techniques from the experts was definitely something to look forward to.

The day was well organised with various different talks going on throughout the day at different locations. Each time slot was broken into segments which gave a good amount of information in timely bursts and enabled people to move between talks if some were of more interest than others. Seminar speakers came from big industry names like Google, Bing, Distilled and Majestic SEO, to name a few. To sum up – Brighton SEO offered a range of knowledge and expertise all under one roof at the same time and gave great information to take away and put into our own work…

10 top tips from Brighton SEO April 2013

Create content that solves a user’s problem. This could be in form of a blog, article, tweet – the best results come from information that helps someone. In retrospect, this is a no-brainer but not necessarily something we all put into our work.
Use real people and real stories in content such as case studies and news stories. Try to make sure they are relatable with real world examples.
Evergreen content is less risky than topical, try to use evergreen content where possible for best long term results. Evergreen content is defined as always being relevant to the audience as opposed to topical content that could change over time.
Always bear in mind the context of content and the human experience.
Social is still not a major ranking factor at present. Google can’t get to the majority of Facebook data, resulting in a reliance on Google +. If using Google+ at present, this will prove to be beneficial in the future.
Using the disavow tool gives a better result from webmaster reconsideration.
When using the Disavow tool, make sure the entire domain is removed instead of removing each ‘dodgy’ link.
Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) – when promoting an offer, add urgency and social proof: how long is left on the offer, how many people have bought it and how many Facebook likes.
The 3 main link risks are penguin, link devaluation and link warnings. To resolve penguin: rebalance and wait for Google. Devaluation: rebuild. Link warnings: audit and clean up, remove/disavow links.
Not so much a tip but an interesting fact from Dave Coplin at Bing – the QWERTY keyboard layout is 142 years old and was originally designed to slow people down. We still use the same design today…so how much has the basics of technology really moved on in all that time?

INFOGRAPHICS & MY LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THEM

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Matt Lewin in Blogging, Content, Infographics, Internet Marketing, Mobile and Apps, Web Design | 4 Comments

Ok, so as a designer in the industry of design for print / web for the last 12 years, I felt compelled to understand the logic behind what an infographic is for when they emerged so explosively into our world over a year or so ago.

I JUST DON’T GET IT!

What was the point in a large format graphic more commonly used as large format print on a web platform? There is no value for SEO, so it seems, as all you can do with an infographic is slap an ALT tag and TITLE tag on it and assume it will work.

Search engines are blind to anything else and certainly can’t see the content, graphic or text that is embedded into the image, so therefore held no specific value to the host of such complicated forms of information.

For these reasons I did not share the enthusiasm or love of infographics that both the industry and (closer to home) my colleagues had for them.

To me they seemed over stated, over engineered, in some cases incredibly messy, and certainly never quite fitted in with the content around them or indeed the structural framework of the homely websites surroundings. Like a rough in the diamonds!

That was a first impression, and they don’t always last, myths aside.

CONVINCED?

Further to my initially over opinionated attitude towards a new idea in the visual world of digital marketing, I decided to investigate further, looking at examples of infographic’s that may change my mind.

I discovered a whole ream of variations, in some case where presentations of neat pockets of statistical information, which had been executed beautifully. In other cases, it was simply a case of simply trying to join the fun and produce visual information that would best suit a web page with little formatting.

A great corporate example below :

Tech boom or bubble? (Kissmetrics)

infographic

While this example is a visual feast, it still, in my opinion, does not lend itself naturally to a digital environment and would be better suited to wall paper.

SHARE THE LOVE

One of the powerful things about how digital marketing is changing quite dramatically is the ability to be able to share content simply and quickly across multiple platforms. This is great and can be hugely advantageous when it comes to linking to pages using url shorteners on platforms such as Twitter where this is limitations to characters.

However, I am still yet to be convinced that this is a suitable process for the infographic. I am immediately frustrated when an infographic loads in Facebook with 500 pixels of black either side of a slither thin graphic that has a native dimension of, for example, 600px wide by 4000px deep.

It just doesn’t fit, and is therefore unreadable and unrecogniseable, hit the X !

PUBLIC EXECUTION

For me visuals used on the web in a single image work better as quick and energetic statements, not trawling flows of a visual that simply doesn’t mean much, and half way down the image you begin to question what is the relevance of the visual that you are looking at.

In the face of the masses, sharing this type of content in the myriad of different social platforms is simply a means to an end. It does not support the delivery method of something beautiful if the method in which its delivered is poor.

SALVATION

As a designer, maybe I am completely missing the point. The point of freedom as a creator of visual messaging to be able to create serious information without limitations of the web platform on which it is delivered.

If you look beyond the process of attempting to view the infographic in a social platform and find the golden examples on their native host, the website in which they naturally reside, then you can see the item in full glory.

It doesn’t have to comply with SEO and it is not for the visually impaired…. its visual!

It is creative, it is visual, it is information presented in a way that a simply formatted web page is unable to process.

FUTURE PROOF

So what next. We are beginning to see some really cool examples of work in HTML5. Once all the standard browsers are fully compliant with the rules of HTML5 and can execute the language comfortably, then it will open more doors to create visually stimulating and dynamic content that we aspire to deliver in the infographic.

It won’t be as flexible or as blue sky as creating a photoshop mind warp of data, but as developers become more creative with the freedom that the code provides, we will begin to see really cool and well presented websites that render the infographic a pointless exercise.

Generate UK launches its new support and maintenance department

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Mike in Content Management Systems, Customers, Web Design, Web News | Leave a comment

So you have a website, what now?

Generate UK provides the full range of Digital Marketing services including search engine optimisation (SEO), pay per click (PPC), social media strategies. However, we found that a full blown digital marketing strategy does not suit everyone’s business requirements. Often, all a business needs is knowledge and expertise to host their website and to update the content, images and banners when required, and perhaps send the odd email campaign or banner update.

Does this sound familiar?

We reached out to website owners and asked what their experience with support and maintenance was, they told us:

They were not confident their requests were always a priority.
It was therefor difficult to set reasonable expectations of changes internally.
They sometimes wanted the opportunity to speak to someone to get a refresher of how to do something.

Frustration, Frustration, Frustration…

After hearing about these issues from business owners, we decided it was time we stepped in and offered a solution… Therefore, we are delighted to announce the launch of our new support and maintenance department that we believe, will alleviate all these common issues.

To make sure we don’t fall in to the same trap as many other companies we have taken a number of steps.

We have put together a dedicated department to deal with these enquires, this means developers devoted to clients on a support contract, so no more being pushed to the back of the queue
We know that you want a friendly service but don’t want or need the ongoing marketing or expense of a dedicated account manager, so you raise your requests within a ticketing system that is linked directly to the developers that will be working on your site
You can always ring our dedicated phone line or email us at support@generateuk.co.uk if you have a question that doesn’t require a ticket.

We’ve researched the market to identify the best online support ticketing system, we’re now able to offer:

A unique username and password to log in to the software
Simple and easy to use interface that prompts you for the relevant information
You can log in and check the status of your tickets at any time
You can chat in real time to our developers about your tickets. All the conversations are automatically transcribed on to a ticket when the chat window is closed
You can share you screen with a developer, this is sometimes very helpful it resolving issues when you are on a different PC or MAC, or you are using a different browser
You can attach items to your tickets such as pdfs or Jpegs up to a file limit of 20MB
The portal is mobile optimised for easy access on the move
After a ticket is solved, you can leave feedback of your satisfaction with the support you received. This allows us to make sure we are delivering the best possible service
You can also priorities your tickets using the following flags:

Normal: These tickets will be assigned to a developer within 8 hours and completed within 72 hours.

High: (Tickets that are time critical, for example, a special offer needs to be removed from the website) these tickets will be assigned to a developer within 4 hours and be resolved within another 4.

Urgent: (This is for business critical issues only) A developer will be assigned within 1 hr and these tickets will be resolved within 4 hours.

T’s & C’s apply *

We have a number of support packages on offer but if one of the packages below doesn’t suit you, just ask as we are happy to create a bespoke package that suits you.

*All hours are business hours which are Mon-Friday 9.00am – 5.30pm, all time frames above are aims which we fully intend to hit, if these cannot be achieved for some reason, this will be communicated with you as soon as possible.

Generate UK acquires Publicity Project extending design and marketing capabilities

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Teresa in Other stuff, Web Design, Web News | 1 Comment

Generate UK is delighted to announce the acquisition of Publicity Project, a leading Newbury based design agency.

Publicity Project is a successful graphic and web design company with over 31 years experience supplying print related materials across many different sectors. This acquisition enables us to extend our design and marketing capabilities and it also allows us to offer the following services: design for print, exhibition & display material, advertising, corporate identity and more.

Should you have any design or print requirements we would be pleased to work with you in fulfilling these. In the meantime, please take a look at what they do and some examples of their work http://www.publicityproject.co.uk/what-we-do.php

Full Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Generate UK Completes Acquisition of Newbury based Design Agency

Newbury, Berks (15^th April 2013) Generate UK Limited a leading Digital Marketing Agency today announced that they have acquired the assets and goodwill of Publicity Project, an established design agency from Newbury.

The acquisition of Publicity Project extends Generate UK’s design capability and increases the size of their in-house design team. It also means that clients of Publicity Project can now take advantage of Generate UK’s extensive multimedia and digital marketing resources.

“We are delighted to welcome Publicity Project to the Generate UK family. They have a customer centric approach and are highly skilled in the area of design – particularly for print and exhibition purposes ” said Mike Robinson, Director of Generate UK.

“I am delighted for ‘PP’ to come under the wing of Generate UK. For some time I have been looking for the right home for our talents and experience and I am thrilled to say that Generate UK ticked all the boxes. After 31 years of successful trading I had to be sure that it was the right decision for me, my colleagues and our clients. Importantly, it enables us to offer a much broader remit in digital applications – certainly a direction we needed to move towards, whilst bringing our own expertise in design for print, into the Generate stable.” – said Su Elsden, now Head of Print at Generate UK.

Publicity Project is the second acquisition made by Generate UK in the last two years. Sourcing exceptional talent in the areas of video production, content writing, social media management, SEO and web design, Generate UK is now positioned as a one-stop digital marketing and multimedia service provider for small to large business enterprises.

“Our approach is to invest in qualified talent not only to provide exceptional creative and business services to our clients, but to support the further development of our own local economy and create employment opportunities ” added Mike Robinson.

About Generate UK

Founded in 2008, Generate UK is an award-winning digital marketing agency providing web development and digital marketing solutions. The agency has built websites for the Parent Teachers Association, Goodwood and NHS. Their other clients include the Royal Scottish Academy, online used car retailer Motors.co.uk, The Law Society and Acer UK.

About Publicity Project

Su Elsden founded publicity Project in 1982, to provide graphic and, more recently, web design solutions to a diverse range of clients all over the UK, including schools, AONBs, SMEs and local authorities.

For further information about this press release, please contact:

Mike Robinson
Generate UK Ltd
Venture West
New Greenham Park
Newbury
Berkshire
United Kingdom
RG19 6HN

01635 550431

www.generateuk.co.uk

Twitter: @generateuk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/generateuk

Hear It Through The Great Vine

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Mike in Blogging, Social Media, Web News | Leave a comment

Just when you thought that Twitter could not get better, the new feature called Vine was introduced as a video sharing app for iOS devices. It allows users to create interesting and effective six second video shorts which are looped and replayed when posted in the Twitter feed.

This entirely new and exciting level of sharing on the popular social network has digital marketers and brands eagerly scrambling with unlimited creative applications. We know that video does a superior job at garnering attention. Simply take a look at the 800+ million unique users who visit YouTube every month! Capturing part of that appeal in Twitter will redefine posts and reach for Brands and businesses.

One innovative journalist has used Vine to augment her resume and get some attention while she searches for her next employer. Mashable wrote up the Vine video for Dawn Siff as possibly the first Twitter video resume in the world. With only 170 followers on her Twitter account, we’ll be interested in noting how much success the New Yorker has due to Vine and the subsequent press coverage.

Will the social network community at Twitter embrace using the six second looping video to augment text content with multimedia? While the idea of putting video into the Twitter feed is interesting, it may have an equal chance of deterring the audience as well as engaging it if used improperly.

Our Guide To Using Vine

Like any other social media engagement, you want to closely monitor your strategy for using Vine in your Brand or business Twitter feed. Misusing Vine could create new followers but it could also cause you to lose followers if used excessively.

• Keep it uncomplicated, short and relevant

• Incorporate consistent brand colours, images and communication

• Avoid using Vine videos excessively in your feed (maximum twice per week)

• Get creative and make it interesting!

• Avoid over selling or over commercialised advertisements

Creative Marketing for Brands

• Share a clip from a customer appreciation event

• Have staff say ‘hello’ with short clips

• Create clips of customers or enthusiastic brand ambassadors

• Ask customers to create product or brand clips for contests

• Create product spotlights that are fun and memorable

Generate UK is a full service award winning digital marketing agency. We provide creative platforms for making your business heard and penetrating your niche market. Contact us to implement an effective multimedia digital strategy for your Brand.

The Digital Marketing Trajectory for 2013

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Mike in Blogging, Business Development, Digital Marketing, Email Marketing | Leave a comment

The world of digital marketing continues to evolve at a rapid pace. By now most businesses realise that social media has definitely become part of the formal marketing mix. It is not a fad but rather a critical professional skillset that every business must acquire in order to remain competitive in regional and global markets.

While you are developing your social strategy we think it’s important to be aware of some of the changes that are happening in digital marketing which may impact or influence the choices you make and the campaigns you develop. We keep tabs on all these changes on behalf of our clients to tailor their social outreach, email and website content to enable us to respond accordingly. We stay informed to keep your business at the forefront and achieving the results you need.

So where is it headed for 2013? The need and demand for digital marketing services continues to increase but in the interim there are a variety of changes and focal points that SMEs need to be aware of. We’d like to share a few of them with you to help you refine or even get started on your brand and digital strategy. The most successful businesses are learning how to source and attribute great content for a competitive advantage and we can help you get there.

Let’s take a look at the trajectory for digital marketing in 2013.

Google Author Rank

We have written a few blog posts on the importance of Google Author Rank. In our blog post titled Google Author Rank and How Claiming Authorship Can Improve Your Ranking we discussed how the author rank works and how to establish your ranking if you are a frequent content contributor, writer or brand communicator. We also discussed the importance of claiming ownership of your blog or website through authorship and the SEO advantage involved. Content continues to remain one of the most important factors in any successful digital marketing plan.

Long Tail SEO

With each emerging update to Google Analytics, the efficacy of traditional fast tracks that most SEO professionals were accustomed to (such as meta tags, acquired back links and more) have changed. Getting your website to a preferred standing in the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) takes a multiple tiered approach now. We wrote a blog post that provided some creative ideas for establishing long tail SEO opportunities for a business website. Please see The Benefit of Linkable Assets for some understanding of diversity of link opportunities available to support your business, build community around your brand and increase your social footprint.

Email Campaigns

Social media is not the only way to get through to your customers. Developing an email campaign that motivates a call-to-action for your customers is an effective way of retaining your existing clients and building loyalty. Effective email campaigns work in tandem with coordinated social media communications to drive traffic to your site and create participation. They also work strongly with supplemented print advertising or direct mail. Contact us for more information on a collaborative campaign.

Google+

It may not be Facebook but it’s worth taking a second look at establishing a contributing presence on the Google+ social network. If your niche market is under the age of 45 and technology savvy, the Google+ community suits a demographic and may be a potentially overlooked source of garnering new customers and creating noise for your business. As a business tool Google+ is also convenient to host documents on its new Google Drive Hosting which can create a secure cloud network for important documents for people on the move.

Are you ready to get serious about your social? Outsourcing your digital marketing and social media engagement provides two key advantages. First, you get access to a qualified team of experts in optimisation (SEO), website design, graphics and content. Second, you will receive that expertise at an affordable rate to help your business grow, expand online audience and create new sales opportunities. Outsourcing digital marketing truly levels the playing field between small and medium sized businesses and larger corporations.

The award winning staff of Generate UK is ready to help take your business to the next level with innovative digital marketing strategy and supports. Contact us today for a free Brand consultation.

The Biggest Social Media Blunders of 2012

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Mike in Blogging, Social Media, Web News | 1 Comment

Now that we are safely in the New Year we can look back at some of the gaffe’s and blunders that made the news last year. Social media established itself as a professional tool that was widely adopted by large and small businesses as a critical part of the formal marketing mix. As business begins to embrace the potential of social marketing and experiment with its use as a tool, there will naturally be great successes and some fairly spectacular failures which offer some valuable lessons as we set our goals and strategic planning for 2013.

We take aim at the American National Rifle Association (NRA) and the large social media debacle that took place on July 20, 2012. There had been a tragic gun incident in Aurora Colorado involving sixty victims due to a gunman. A mere three hours after the shooting the social media manager for the NRA Twitter account posted: “Good morning, shooters! Happy Friday! Weekend plans?” Needless to say the organisation took a large shot to its reputation with the social outcry and public relations fallout that ensued.

Social Media Lesson: Be aware of what is going on locally, nationally and internationally on the news as it may impact your content and sharing for the day.

We question the purpose of a secret identity if it isn’t secret at all. For instance the curious case of the Chik-fil-A incident where the American fast food chain faced a maelstrom of negative feedback after Jim Henson’s Muppet figures would no longer be offered at the restaurant. Instead of addressing the negative comments professionally and using a public relations approach, the restaurant allegedly created fictitious Facebook accounts (and one Abbey Farle in particular) to advocate on behalf of the Brand in comments.vShortly thereafter someone recognised the picture of Ms. Farle as a popular stock image and called foul. The mysterious Abbey Farle and her profile disappeared shortly after.

With that and other public relations issues, Chik-fil-A remains an ongoing case study on “what not to do” when it comes to successfully building community around your brand.

Social Media Lesson: Address negative comments from your audience professionally and directly. You may choose not to reply to all comments, but do address your customers accordingly. And never use dishonesty or fake accounts to moderate issues.

We have heard of a “fire sale” but a hurricane sale? That’s exactly what the US division of American Apparel launched with a promotion conceived in bad taste. Typically American Apparel is not the type of organisation that gets it wrong when it comes to ecommerce, and they are brilliant marketers. Unfortunately they chose to offer an email promotion that stated ““In case you’re bored during the storm, 20% off everything for next 36 hours.” The promotion was only offered to residents in the areas of the Eastern United States which were preparing for Hurricane Sandy, and they even dubbed it their “Sandy Sale”. American Apparel sustained its own social storm and collateral damage due to that error in judgment.

Social Media Lesson: Using a natural disaster to promote sales will provide a huge response from your online audience. Unfortunately it will be a negative one.

McDonald’s proved to also be a victim to bad judgment and launched a campaign in Twitter urging customers to share their stories of eating in the restaurant. They had hoped that childhood memories of “the first hamburger” or other such sentimentalities would be shared, creating a positive vibe and strengthening brand loyalty. Unfortunately what ensued was a flood of negative Twitter engagement and posts about “feeling ill” and “soaring cholesterol “ and users professing to avoid the fast food chain for years and making healthier choices. The hash tag #McDStories remains quite an interesting read.

Social Media Lesson: Don’t ask for the opinion of your customers if you don’t want to hear the honest truth.

Now what did his Grandmother have to do with it? That was the question many people were asking when popular brand KitchenAid committed their gaffe on Twitter right in the midst of the American presidential election. The social media manager for the Twitter account posted “Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president.” The organisation commented to Mashable that the staffer would no longer be updating social media for the company and extended its heartfelt apology to President Obama for the insensitive statement.

Social Media Lesson: Keep personal feelings and politics out of professional social media.

What is important to remember is that while social media has the ability to support your digital marketing, grow audience and create brand ambassadors for your products and services, it also has the potential to do some significant damage to both your online influence and your offline reputation. Communication through social media should warrant the same review and professionalism as all other types of external broadcast mediums. Since negative incidents have an even greater opportunity to go viral, it’s far better to err on the side of caution rather than have to clean up a public relations issue.

________________________________

Are you ready to get serious about your social media and content planning? Generate UK is an award winning digital marketing agency with a track record of excellence in design, performance and ecommerce. Find out what our team can do for your business with a multiple tiered digital marketing and communications strategy.

Social Networks and the Right to Monetize

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Mike in Digital Marketing, Social Media | Leave a comment

We loved Facebook because it was free. The first of its kind, the social network exploded into something that no one could have really predicted. The world’s first almost viral online community, the design of Facebook enabled even those with minimal computer literacy to engage with family and friends, share interests and photographs and connect. There did seem to be a lot of white space on the margins of the sites layout but no one seemed particularly concerned with it.

When Facebook began to monetize the complaining by users began. Turns out that the new revised layout of Facebook had much to do with improving user navigation but also in retooling the site for advertising. When the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising began the social constituency reacted negatively. Unwilling however to give up their use of Facebook, the community learned to accept the banners and targeted advertising prominently featured on the right hand side of their screen. Users didn’t like it but they learned to cope with it.

The outrage expressed by users of Instagram was fast and quite expected when it announced that it would be changing the terms and conditions for its subscribers. Photographs on the site would be able to be used for sale by Instagram (although how they intended to use the images or commercialise them was not articulated to the public). It was enough for the organization to announce that it owned some rights to the data it was processing and storing on its network. The backlash only seemed to surprise the people at Instagram and Facebook, who own the network.

Read more about the furor on the Guardians article “Instagram reassures users over terms of service after massive outcry”

A debate began. Users and subscribers were frustrated because they wished to maintain absolute copyright and ownership of their images. But did they have the right to them? After all, use of Instagram is free. There is no monthly subscription and there are currently no advertisements on the social network. But they do provide a service, customer support and storage for photo uploads from around the world. Do digital users expect this to continue as a measure of philanthropy? Is that expectation fair?

There are advertisements on radio, print and television and we promise you there will be advertising on all social media channels eventually. With the monolithic traffic that the most successful sites gather, it is to be expected that they would like to capitalise on it. Remember that social networks are first and foremost a business. Like the rest of us, they are in business to make money and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

What we do see is social networks faced with a rather difficult situation when it comes time to move to a formal monetized model. Some users may feel animosity that the advertisements have been forced upon their user experience. After all, social networks are “ad free” in the beginning deliberately in order to grow a large and successfully engaged audience. Some people feel strongly about the changes and may even reject them angrily, leading to a social media backlash which is exactly what happened to Instagram. Nonetheless all social networks will and must move to this model in order to survive.

But before you consider Instagram or Facebook to be unique in this hurdle, we would draw your attention to the white space layout in Google+ and Twitter. Those left and right margins seem rather spaced out and empty also, don’t they? Care to venture a guess as to what that space will be for in the future?

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