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6 Twitter Best Practice blog posts for marketing businesses and non-profits

Keir Jakich — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 11:22:57 +0000

Using social networks like Twitter can be a bit like riding a bike – a bit of perseverance and practice goes a long way. While you’re learning a bit of help from a sibling can certainly prevent a few grazed knees!

I’m regularly asked for Twitter best practice marketing tips for businesses, brands and non-profits wanting to make use of Twitter and other social networks. Often the request starts with ‘we want to use Twitter to promote our messages’, or ‘we’re going to start marketing on Twitter, can we link it to our website?’ So, I have compiled a handful of my favourite best practice articles from around the social web. This post focuses primarily on best practices for Twitter.

My top social media management tip!
Before you get started, I cannot stress enough the value of using Hoostsuite or a similar Social Media management tool. This will allow you to efficiently manage and analyse your efforts on multiple social network accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other networks. Sign up for a Free 30 Day Trial of HootSuite Pro.

Our favourite Twitter best practice blog posts:

The basics on using Twitter for business, from Twitter themselves:
https://business.twitter.com/basics/best-practices

More advanced, but concepts that are fundamental to Social Media in general and Twitter particularly. Still extremely accurate even though originally published in 2009.
http://mashable.com/2009/06/24/twitter-brand-best-practices

For non-profits, a bit more marketing focused than just best practices:
http://www.socialbrite.org/2011/10/03/24-best-practices-for-nonprofits-using-twitter/

Using Twitter for a live event:
https://dev.twitter.com/media/live-tweeting/

Best practice for the business or brand:
http://www.business2community.com/twitter/twitter-best-practices-for-business-0181165

More general reading on Twitter:
http://socialmediatoday.com/all/840

Have you found any other great articles like these? Leave post it in a comment below and I’ll add it to the list!

We will continue to compile our favourite best practice picks for other social channels here too. So, if you want to know more about LinkedIn, or something more obscure, please let us know.

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LinkedIn and business – 5 tips to avoid pitfalls

Keir Jakich — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 09:46:43 +0000

Thinking about linked in for your company/business? The following article fromWindmill Networking is a must read. LinkedIn has numerous pitfalls which can be easily avoided.

5 strategic tips for creating killer LinkedIn company pages

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Generating website revenues just got easier

Keir Jakich — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:41:12 +0000

Thanks to a new release of Googles website ad inventory management platform, DART (DFP), we’ve been able to streamline online ad trafficking and delivery for our customers that generate ad revenue from their websites, like The Royal Aeronautical Society.

Major publishers across the world use DFP to serve and manage digital ad campaigns on their sites and the new platform upgrade has allowed integration which drive higher revenues from website ad inventories.

Do you serve ads on your website of content network? Ask us about DFP @kjakich

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Infographic: Training for an Employee-led Social Media Strategy

Keir Jakich — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:05:23 +0000

This is another fantastic social media infographic depicting a method for staff social media training, created by the folks at Mindflash.

A very useful method highlighted by this infographic is the grouping of users in your company by social media capability — the digital native, savvy technologist, reluctant user, digital newby and digital contrarian. This generally applies regardless of the size of the company.

When discussing infographics, I’m often asked ‘how do I use this?‘ In this case, I wouldn’t go as far as discarding professional digital marketing advice, but this infographic might gently help facilitate a little organisational culture change – maybe show it to a ‘reluctant user’ colleague and become a social media influencer!

Download the infographic here

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Social Media and Scotch, two of our favourite things!

Keir Jakich — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:18:29 +0000

Aye Laddy! We’re stoked to welcome our newest customer and announce another web development for private members club The Caledonian Club in London’s Belgravia.

www.caledonianclub.com

Happy with their website design, the exclusive Belgravia Club is embarking on a new path with social media marketing close to its Scottish Heart and needed a strong base to build it on. We introduced a new CMS and blog, keeping visual identity much as it was. The new CMS delighted the Club’s staff ‘…publishing is far easier than our old website!’

Established in 1891, the Club is a private club which caters to Scotts and those with close ties to Scottish culture in London and abroad.

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Launches, lunches and new memberships

Keir Jakich — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:20:50 +0000

iPER, iPER Media and LCD Design have been busy with myriad launches this quarter.

The Royal Aeronautical Society’s publishing network, Guess2Give‘s web app, an introduction to blogging and social networking for the prestigious No.4 Hamilton Place, even our own WordPress Plugin..! I’m also excited to announce a working relationship with Air Marketing who we will team up with to work some digital magic for our newest London customer, the Caledonian Club.

Love is in the Air!

Bringing with them style and experience, Air provide marketing, branding and PR consulting; and have put wind under the wings of prestigious organisations and companies around the UK.

Also just on the horizon is the redevelopment of the groups websites, and we have something in store for podcast publishers coming soon, so keep an eye out!

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We spend 22% of our online time blogging and socialnetworking

Keir Jakich — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:24:58 +0000

According to Nielsen, we now spend over 22% of our time on blogs and social networks. This is one of the key findings in the recently released 2011 Q3 Nielsen ‘State of Social Media’ report.

Also, when compared to the average adult internet user, active adult social networkers are 45% more likely to go on a date!

Interested in the impact of social media?

Click here for more from the report.

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Banking association risks all over social media

Keir Jakich — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:17:47 +0000

Google David Cameron on Twitter and you’ll find an American family man claiming to be ‘more awesome than the Prime Minister’ of England. However, move slightly to the left (so to speak) and you will find that the Conservative Party is indeed on Twitter. This is no surprise; politics and popularity are rather tightly tied.

On the other hand, the Pharmaceutical and Banking sectors are much less likely to dabble in the digital economy. That’s why I was ecstatic to see a post on the American Banking Journal blog (American Bankers Association) giving a 7 step guide to social media for their own member banks and banks alike.

By highlighting that ‘employees, vendors and customers are ambassadors’; and ending the article with the ‘Risks of doing nothing’ – the association is sending a sensible and succinct message to their industry – negative sentiment can happen, but there can be possibility of positive spin in social PR. This is a poignant article that provides – in my opinion – great practical advise and also helps create some credibility for the role of social media within this traditionally stoic industry as well as other professional sectors. Albeit a little overdue.

What about my sector?

Hands up who’s struggled through a website development or website admin? Members, committees, staff… so, the task of sector-wide social media co-ordination can be daunting! But, authoritative organisations like the ABA are being looked upon to lead their sector in terms of best practice – and most companies are participating at some level, with or without the guidance of their sector associations. The companies look to them to play the role of curator in the real world, it shouldn’t be any different in the digital world, should it?

…what to curate and what not to curate?

To build a blog network, wiki or similar social space may be over-kill for smaller associations and membership organisations, even the digitally bright ones – but don’t take my word for it, why not ask the sector what they want? If they crave a space of their own, they may only need some encouragement to do it themselves.
Alternatively, it could be as easy as simple as publishing a few blog posts, like the ABA, creating couple of document templates or curating discussions on a relevant blog or social network.
Specific groups require different levels of participation from an association, membership, group or clubs – but what is clearly most important, is that you DO SOMETHING to help them take advantage of the ‘biggest communication revolution since the printing press’. What do you do now? Please share your ideas, failures and successes.
All questions and comments welcomed below.

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3 steps to track sub domains with the new Google Analytics (Sept 2011)

Keir Jakich — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 19:05:07 +0000

Need to track multiple sub domains on one domain? Don’t fear the ‘profiles’ and ‘filters’ in Google Analytics, they’re very useful and actually fairly simple.

This tutorial assumes that Google Analytics is already installed on your website. If you operate a CMS, the following plugins are suggested:
Google Analyticator (WordPress)
Google Analytics (Drupal)
Google Analytics Tracking Module (Joomla)

So here is the scenario:

You want to track all of the sub domains individually to stop Google treating them as though they are all the root site. And, you would like to be able to track one or more of the sub domains individually.

Example domains:

www.domain.com
subdomain1.domain.com
subdomain2.domain.com
subdomain3.domain.com

Just follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Adjust tracking code:

First you need to add the following tracking code to all pages of your subdomains and main domains.

_gaq.push(['_setDomainName', '.domain.com']);

Make sure you include the ‘.’ before the domain (google seems to have made a booboo with this in some instructions)

tracking subdomains google analytics code snippet

NOTE: Be careful with the above. TrackPageview should only show once on the same page.

2. Set up 3 (or more) custom profile, each with a filter.

Old Analytics click here.
New Analytics: click the orange cog in the top right > Click ‘New Profile’

Note: before you start the next step, please note that you should not remove the existing profile. Retain it and rename it to ‘default’, or ‘all traffic’. DO NOT DELETE it!!!

1 to track the overall traffic.

tracking all subdomains google analytics filter configuration

2 to track subdomain1

track a single subdomain google analytics filter configuration only one

3 to track subdomain2

track a single subdomain google analytics filter configuration only one

3. Well, I lied. There is no step 3. Maybe set up some reporting if you need to…

Any questions on the above .. please ask away …

Note: Other solutions also exist for tracking between top-level domains and other Google Analytics sub domains tracking scenarios.

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Guide to Facebook profile setup 2011

Keir Jakich — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:54:45 +0000

Facebook’s myriad security settings can be somewhat convoluted. I don’t suggest you engage them all – however, it’s a good idea to get your head around the privacy settings and lists – for any level of user.

Image: geekandpoke.typepad.com/

The following are some guides to Facebook privacy and general advice I provide to clients when they ask ‘how do I secure my Facebook page’ [sic]. (profile)

Guides to privacy settings:
http://mashable.com/2011/02/07/facebook-privacy-guide/

http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-privacy-settings-2011-02

Guide to lists:

http://www.dotjenna.com/facebook-friends-lists/

I suggest you spend some time on this – when friends begin TAGGING you in terrible photos, you will want to be able to quickly control who can then see them etc

Big thing to keep in mind:

Reading into the Ts and Cs it would seem that, anything you upload to Facebook becomes property of Facebook – ANYTHING!!
http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
Avoid setting up a fake Facebook profile on behalf of your company. Instead, create a page for any commercial Facebook pursuits, and configure your own Facebook profile security correctly if you are required to administer any commercial Facebook pages.

Some additional extended info and tools:

Beginners guide to Facebook privacy:
on http://news.yahoo.com

January 2011: The Definitive Facebook Lockdown Guide:
on http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration

Official Facebook security PDF guide for users / parents:
on https://www.facebook.com/safety

Tool for investigating what info is available to the world:
http://zesty.ca/facebook

Our Facebook tools RSS list:
on http://feeds.delicious.com/

Do you have any Facebook setup favourites? Please share them here, or find me on Twitter: @kjakich

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UK online ad spend set to increase

Keir Jakich — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:17:41 +0000

Regardless of tightening marketing budgets, online ad spending continues to grow

Despite UK adervitsing spend dwindling as 2008′s recession continues to touch Europe and the UK, online ad spending is growing steadily.

In 2008 online ad spend grew to £3,350 millions, a 17.1% increase from 07′ and a 19.2% market share of total UK advertising expenditure – up 3.7 percentage points on 2007 (15.5%).

What’s in store for the future?

In my opinion, accurate figures are a little hard to come by due to the application of social media across all business functions and not just in communications; customer service and product support, for example. Not to mention the dificulties in monitoring and measuring online exposure.
However, some reasonable projections see growth continuing steadily into 2011.

UK Total Digital Ad Spend estimates:

2009: £10.77bn
2010: £10.90bn
2011: £11.03bn

The drivers

Click for full image

Marketers are being swayed by:

users increasing average time online
wide acceptance of online content
growing ease of use
growing ability to measure ROI

the most important driver, may in fact be the steady and undeniable fall in traditional media use within key demographics.

Sources:

ZenithOptimedia, April 2010

www.iabuk.net

www.pwc.com/uk

Are you responsible for your company’s marketing spend? Discuss your views on the shift of spend towards digital in the discussion section below.

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What is a Social Media Release?

Keir Jakich — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:34:58 +0000

Click for full image

Contrary to what the name may suggest, a Social Media Release is NOT the act of venting anger in a post on Facebook.

Whether referred to as a Social Media News Release (SMNR), a Social Media Press Release (SMPR) or just plain old Social Media Release (SMR), the SMR is a tool aimed at journalists and bloggers which can be described as an digitally-enhanced news / press release. The SMR is designed to make information accessibility and retrieval smarter and easier by collecting and packaging it neatly and coherently to streamline the process of story creation.

SMR Resources

A live example of a Social Media Release:
Example

A blog post featuring a Social Media Release template:
Template

The Social Media Release normally takes the form of a blog post or webpage and features various multimedia elements including images, video, audio and reference information etc. The journalist can learn more about the story and quickly adapt the multimedia content for their own stories.

A portable version of the SMR, in the form of a PDF document, can also be included – this allows the content to be easily printed or moved ‘off-line’.

If you’d like to know how you can use social media and enterprise media content to promote your brand or organisation, contact us today for a free introduction to enterprise social media.

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Audio: Social Media Monitoring Tools

Keir Jakich — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:00:42 +0000

Social Media Week London 2010 came to a spectacular close with an informal mixer organised by Waves PR supported by Sun Microsystems.

The event gave marketing and PR a chance to interact with technology vendors from across the fast emerging filed of social media monitoring, while I had the chance to chat with some attendees and table talk hosts about social media monitoring, the event itself and social media week in London.

Audio Interviews from the Event

Luke Brynley-Jones

Social Media and Marketing Consultant, Founder Our Social Times

Introducing the event with a thought on the complexities and opportunities of social media measurement in and beyond the disciplines of marketing and PR.

Steven Haggard
Freelance Social Media Consultant

On the event, social media week and B2B rich content.

Chris Hall
Director, Cowbell Digital Marketing

Some suggested solutions to the Social Media ROI quandry.

Benjamin Ellis
Director and Co-founder, Redcatco and SocialOptic

Eric Swain
Social Media Director, Spice

Together discussing the importance of social media beyond marketing and PR.

If you like what you hear, a sequal to the event is planned for later this year, see wavespr.com for more info.

“A well organised but informal event that was stimulating due to the content covered and the people there. There was an amazing amount of interest in the issues discussed. Great to hear different views, meet potential clients and chat with competitors – we have much in common and much to learn from each other(within reason!). Thanks to Claire for organizing it, Sun for providing the space and coffees, any other sponsors and all the people who contributed to the afternoon.”

Jonathan Moody
Presenter, Asomo

The event was a great round up of Social Media Week London, so a huge thanks to the event speakers and Waves PR for organising the event, as well as everyone who participated.

Is your computer audio and Adobe ‘Flash’ equipt? No? Get help here

Comments welcome below.

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Social Media Week London

Keir Jakich — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:13:49 +0000

The second annual Social Media Week conference takes place between February 1st – 5th, 2010. Hosted simultaneously in New York City, Berlin, London, San Francisco, Toronto and São Paulo, events include all aspects of social media from theatrical Twitterers and social media Realtors right through to providers of reputation monitoring tools.

We will e attending a number of events and even catching some interviews and audio snippets at the Social Media Measurement and Monitoring event – presented by Waves PR and supported by among others, Sun Microsystems.

The various events provide those interested in using social media in the enterprise an opportunity to explore new technologies, practices and generally learn about the latest trends, technologies and people within the social spheres. The events are particularly important for communication, marketing and PR professionals.

The completed audio productions from the event will be made available for download here on our blog soon after the event.

If you’d like to know more about using social media or creating enterprise audio to promote your brand, contact us today for a free introduction to enterprise social media.

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Facebook’s New Christmas Heights

Keir Jakich — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:32:02 +0000

During Christmas, people are drawn together. So, it is no suprise that this time of year has brought around a new milestone for social network Facebook. For the first time, the site has hit the #1 most visited mark in the United States, accoding to traffic analyst Hitwise today. Although this is a first in the U.S., Facebook has already reached #1 status a few times in many other countries.

Facebooks popularity has grown beyond being a peer communication tool. During 2009 the site has gained popularity amid businesses and brands with thousands asserting themselves with facebook fan pages and paid advertising on the site.

2010 is shaping up to be an interesting year for the Google vs Facebook battle both in terms of popularity and profitability as business service providers.

Were you Christmas Facebooking? Add a comment below if you used Facebook during Christmas.

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Royal Aeronautical Society Stay Social for 2010

Keir Jakich — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:08:09 +0000

We are pleased to announce that the Royal Aeronautical Society will continue to develop the Aero Society Channel with many new improvements and a wider range of media planned for 2010.

In 2010, the current aero society channel site will be redesigned and released on the new iPER Media Channel platform. The channel site along with all audio and other media content will continue to be produced and maintained by iPER Media in 2010.

The Aero Society Channel

The Society recognises that social media will continue to grow as an integral part of their offering to members and marketing. As part of this approach, the Society have committed to another year of support for the Aero Society Channel.

The Channel is a rich media website which allows interested audiences to stream audio presentations of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s live lectures and talks. The site is available to audiences across the globe, free of charge, 24 hours a day. Visit the Aero Society Channel

Find out more about our Social Media Marketing packages

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Seasons Greetings

Keir Jakich — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:26:01 +0000

To all of our fantastic clients, friends and colleagues – have a lovely Christmas and a pleasant new year, from the the team at iPER Media.

We are closed during the statutory festive holidays, however for anything that can’t want till the new year,
please call Alan Harrison: 0794 125 3345

Christmas Holidays

24th December – CLOSED
25th December – CLOSED
28th December – CLOSED
29th December – 9:30am to 4:30pm
30th December – 9:30am to 4:30pm
31st December – 9:30am to 4:30pm
1st January 2010 – CLOSED
4th January 2010 – OFFICE HOURS – 8:30am to 6:00pm

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the people we have worked with during 2009. We look forward to seeing you and bringing more great ideas to life 2010.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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UK Social Media Usage

Keir Jakich — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 09:00:33 +0000

Social media use has taken off in the UK. eMarketer estimates that 39% of UK Internet users – more than 15.4 million people – will use social networks at least once per month in 2009.

source: eMarketer, April 2009

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Social Media Revolution Video

Keir Jakich — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

A fantastic short video clip which does well to convey the importance of social media.

Please leave a comment if you have any questions about the video or how social media is relevant to you and your organisation.

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1,000,000,000,000 (One Trillion)

Keir Jakich — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:21:42 +0000

Over a trillion unique URL’s or web page addresses are analysed and cataloged by the Google search engine. This is an astonishing quantity.
.
Can’t fathom the number?
.
Fathoming the huge number is beside the point. However, the number of Google searches by web users is equally vast. So, when some of those searches are directed toward your type of business or service, they’re suddenly more relevant.

How it works

Search results are accurately sorted and presented to audiences based on the words they search on Google. A proportion of those trillion pages are yours, as are a portion of the searches!

So, how big is your slice of the pie?

An easy way to look at it is: “It’s what you say multiplied by how many times you say it.”

Search engines use a complex set of calculations to determine their results, but they’re not beyond comprehension.

Your online reputation and google page rank depend heavily on ‘what you say’ and ‘how many times you say it’!

So, picture this: your website traffic volume and website visitor experience is what you say, and the number of links you have leading to and leading from your website is how many times you’re saying it; then multiplying those concepts gives you an idea of your search engine reputation / page rank.

Add a comment or question, or get in touch to find out about how Google page rank effects your company and how to improve your rankings.

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