Check Out 5 Standout Changes To Twitter Layout

This week brought the first of the changes of the new face of Twitter, the steadily emerging powerhouse of Social Media. Tuesday saw the initial roll-out of the redesign changing its image dramatically.

Twitters new design resembles an older layout of its main competitor Facebook and appears to be placing more of the emphasis on streams of tweets rather than its profile.

1/ The first change is unmissable as Twitter has introduced a larger cover photo, essentially the top of the profile page. Twitter seems to be adapting to the ever changing landscape of Social Media bringing a more visual element to the user’s profile.

2/ In the past Twitter users could control a number of elements on their page, now it seems Twitter is giving out even more control. Users will be able to pin their favourite tweets to the top of their page as a static post giving the page more individuality.

3/ As with most Social Media channels these days the provider has to reduce the noise (the sheer amount of tweets appearing on a page), Twitter is combating this in a clever way. Basically when a tweet appears on a page it is in small text and as engagement increases the text enlarges giving it more prominence on the page.

4/ Twitter has also introduced a new filtering option that helps users view the tweets they want to see. The new options in the filter include Tweets, Tweets and Replies and Tweets with photos and video, helping the user browse through individual Twitter profiles.

5/ Finally Twitter has revamped how people can follow and be followed on their channel. They have turned the old list into a grid design that features a mini Twitter profile to give users a better look at other users they’re following or users who are following them.

Twitter have already started rolling this out and you should notice some changes in the coming weeks! If you aren’t tweeting yet now is a good time to start as new accounts will get the new layout straight away.

Here’s some of the main benefits of Twitters new design layout for your business include:

• Larger profile picture – getting your brand seen more clearly,
• Customised header/cover photo – opportunity to get creative and promote your brands unique selling points.
• Best tweets – the more popular a tweet the larger the font so get writing compelling tweets.
• Pinned tweets – Like Facebook you can now pin important tweets to the top of your page, this can be used for offers, sales etc.

With Facebook charging more and more for advertising on their channel, now is a good time to maximise the opportunity of getting your brand out to your customers through Twitter. It is a very useful tool to use in every on-line business and should be a part of your Digital Marketing Strategy if it isn’t already. Contact us at WebResults where we can work with you to manage your on-line presence effectively through our tried and tested Digital Marketing Strategy.

Rabo Tweeties – Twitter Awards

The Rabo Tweeties is an awards ceremony to celebrate the best of Irish businesses and Irish people on Twitter. There were 14 categories in all, including celebrity, TV, sport, Vine and business. Twitter users could vote for their favourite twitter account in each category by using the accounts Twitter handle and the relevant category hashtag.  The Winners were announced at an awards ceremony in Dublin last night.

We would like to congratulate @DoneDeal, the winner of the Twitter business category, which is the Twitter account for Ireland’s largest classifieds website. Their account has almost 12,000 followers and they are very active posting links to their blog which usually has a few posts each week, they retweet some of their followers tweets which are about an item on sale through their site. They also have competitions and news from events they are taking part in.

We would also like to congratulate @SabaDublin, another business account that won the ‘food’category. Saba is an atmospheric eatery, serving tasty Thai & Vietnamese food on Clarendon Street, in Dublin’s city centre. . They again, as you would expect are very active and have almost 2,500 followers. They tweet about all their latest offers, retweet tweets from customers who enjoyed their meals there, they also tweet about events on in the city centre such as Arthurs Day and Oktoberfest, their cooking courses and sporting events.

For businesses, it is important to also ensure that you are using your social media activity to drive your rankings on Google. By taking the time to devise a focused Social Media Strategy, you can really bring benefit to your search engine optimisation.

Is your business making the most of social media? Have you got profiles set up on all the relevant social media platforms for your business? Are you active on them? Are your search engine rankings benefiting from your social media activity? If you would like to find out how your business can take advantage of social media, contact us at Webresults.ie. We offer a full range of digital marketing services including social media account management. We also run a Web Mentor Programme, where we guide your business on how to effectively manage your own Social Media activity. You never know maybe next year your business could be a nominee or even a winner at the #RaboTweeties.

What Bitly can do for Your Business

Bitly For Business:

 

Twitter is a great tool for any business with an effective digital marketing strategy. However with only 140 characters available to you, it is important that you make every character count when conveying your message. This restriction the amount of characters available becomes particularly problematic when including links in your posts. Bitly is a great tool for shortening these links as to not take up as many characters in your post. All that needs to be done is to post Link A into the Bitly Tool and the result will be Link B.

Link A:

• https://webresultsblog.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/why-businesses-need-to-listen-to-what-is-said-on-social-media/

Link B:

• http://bit.ly/1951omo

This isn’t the only function Bitly has to offer, with a range of stats, apps and shortcuts available for free.

Monitor Your Stats:

When you shorten a link through Bitly, each link is automatically saved to your personal account, these are called bitmarks. Within your account the stats tab enables you to view each bitmark’s popularity and performance. With this you can see how many clicks each link received and from which source. You can also breakdown the time of each click and view the country from where each click was received.

Purchase Personal Bitmarks:

If you wish to purchase a short domain you can have your bitmarks start with a personal beginning. Ellen DeGeneres has her bitmarks start with ellen.tv/ rather than bit.ly/.

You can also change the arrangement of letters at the end of a bitmark to be more relevant to the subject. This can be done for free by clicking on the pencil icon situated next to the bitly link. The difference in each link can be seen below.

• http://bit.ly/1951omo

• http://bit.ly/social-listening-wr

Bundle Your Links:

The option to bundle your links is a way of categorising your links and having them grouped together. This can form an easy to use archive of bitmarks for future use. People can also view these bundles so it is a good way for people to browse similar links that you have to offer.

App and Plugins:

Bitly has a free app for Iphone where you can create links and check your stats on the go. There is a helpful plugin available for chrome which is very handy for creating links quickly and another available for WordPress which can automatically create a bitmark for each blog you post.

Where your business is focused on inbound marketing activities, Bitly is a useful tool for tasks associated with content creation and link building.

If you have any questions about using Bitly or any other digital marketing tools and applications, then please contact us.

Why Businesses need to Listen to What is said on Social Media

The Importance of Social Listening:

 

Social media provides businesses with a great opportunity to connect with customers and hear what they have to say about your brand. This is all well and good; however some companies fail to actually listen to what their customers have to say. If you are going to give your customers an open forum for them to express their thoughts on your brand, then you need to monitor the conversation.

 

 

Listening to Complaints:

If people are voicing their dislike for a current product, or their dissatisfaction with the customer service they received, then you need to address this and resolve the situation quickly. There is no point in merely deleting negative posts, this angers customers and only adds fuel to the flame. Think of who posted the negative comment as an angry customer causing a fuss in a shop, however this time they can be heard by potentially thousands of people.

Negative posts on social media have a distinct way of gaining traction online. One negative post can have a domino effect, causing a string of negative posts based on previous incidents. A customer who has poor previous experience with a brand may see a post criticising this brand and this may entice them to post about their bad experience with the brand. To stop this effect it is important to respond to complaints quickly and respectively, but don’t aggravate the situation!

Listening to What Your Customers Want:

 When making changes to products or services, it is good to keep the customer in mind. Social media can be a great tool for testing some new ideas. This can be done in a friendly and casual way like ‘any suggestions for what flavour our new ice cream should be?’ Posts like this can start the conversation with your customers whilst giving you an insight as to what they actually want in comparison to what you think they want.

A great example of a company who listened to their social media fans is Cadbury. In 2003 they took their much loved Wispa bar of the shelves. However by 2007 the bar had gained quite a cult status by those who remembered the bar fondly. This brought about various social media campaigns including a Facebook campaign entitled ‘Bring Back Wispa’. This group gained a large following and eventually Cadbury listened and jumped on the band wagon, which led to a hugely successful re-launch.

Conclusion:

Listening to what your customers have to say is vital to developing strong relationships with your customers. Through social media customers can be heard by many, so it is important that you hear them also.

Listening to what your customers have to say is not only an action which is of benefit to them, more importantly it is a benefit to your business. Through listening to what they have to say, your business can gain great insights as to what your customers think about your products and services. Listening to your customers through social media can also lead to product innovation as no one knows what your customer wants more than your actual customer.

At Webresults we offer a wide range of digital marketing services including the management of social media pages. For more information on how we can help your business get the most out of social media please contact us.

How connect with influencers of your industry on Twitter

How to connect with Influencers on Twitter:

 

Twitter is a massive open forum of conversation which ranges with every topic and subject matter possible. Anyone can have an input in any given conversation; however some people’s opinion is regarded higher than others. There are some Twitter members who voice their opinion and share information regularly on specific topics and gain a huge following based on their insights. These people who have a large amount of followers and have their content constantly shared and retweeted, are known as influencers and can be found in any market.

 

When producing content based on your area of interest, you should always keep these influencers in mind, as they have the ability to spread your content to a very similar audience, sending traffic your way and ultimately effect the buying decisions of others. Here are some tips in connecting with your industry’s influencers in an attempt to have your content shared.

 

Follow them – This is an easy step and can show that you are interested in what they have to say.

 

@Mention Them – This is a good way of appearing on their activity feed. Try to engage the influencer, ask for their opinion on a particular topic.

 

Avoid Direct Mailing Influencers as these days the DM is constantly used for spam and a lot of users don’t even check their Twitter Mail.

 

Retweet their updates – Retweeting is a great way of getting on the radar of influencers, whilst also sharing good content for your current followers.

 

Reply to their questions – Some influencers actively seek to engage with their followers, so if they do ask for input on a certain matter, be sure to reply with a good tweet.

 

Share their content – People love to have their work recognised, so share their content whilst mentioning them as the source. This again will have you appear on their radar.

 

Recommend content to them – As well as sharing their content, try to create your own content relevant to them and suggest they read it. Also suggest good content from other sources so that you appear helpful rather than pushy.

 

Connect with them through other social networks – If you begin to add influencers on different networks, they may begin to recognise you, especially if your profile picture and branding remains consistent.

 

Why connect with influencers?

Connecting with influencers can have your content reach a wider and more lucrative audience. Extra merit is added to your content by having influencers share your content. These influencers can also produce good content from which you can learn and get ideas from.

If you have any inquiries as to industry influencers or any other social media topic then please contact us, as our team of highly trained digital marketers will be more than happy to reply.

Inbound Marketing Essentials

 

Inbound Marketing is seen by many in the industry, as an essential tool for naturally attracting a wide range of potential customers. Inbound Marketing is a non aggressive approach to making your business known to new customers and forming a bond with current ones. When it comes to good Inbound Marketing practice, here are some of the essentials.

 

Know Your Customers:

A huge factor of Inbound Marketing is providing relevant and useful content / information for your target market. To do this you need to know who your customers are and what they are interested in. A breakdown of customer demographics and interests would be ideal.

 

Research Keywords Relevant to you:

Carry out a keyword analysis for words and terms associated with your business. The objective is to target keywords with a high search rate. Have your keywords as specific as possible to approach your target market rather than approach a broad and unreliable market.

 

Have a Strategy for your Content: (Know your Objectives)

Be sure to speak to your customers about content relevant to your industry. Your aim is to speak to each customer type at each level of the “sales funnel” (Leads – Opportunities – Proposals – New Customers).

 

Create Content Frequently:

Your aim is to now create educational, thought provoking content related to your business area. Think of what you would be more likely to share or comment on, don’t focus on sales and talking about what you do.  You need to be doing this at least once a week to keep your site fresh.

 

Insert Links:

Having both internal and external links throughout your content can both help with user experience and encourage inbound links from those external websites. Try to fit in maybe 1 or 2 links in your content.

 

Include Images:

Images help break up the content for the reader making the content more presentable when done correctly. Include an image title and alt text so that search engines can pick them up.

 

Incorporate Calls to Action:

After reading your piece of content, give the reader something to do or somewhere to go, ideally back to your website!

 

Share on Social Media:

Social Media sites provide a great platform for you to get your content out there and shared. It is a great opportunity for creating more inbound links to your site.

Why use Inbound Marketing for Your Business?

Build Your Business Profile:

Present your business as the experts in your field offering relevant, helpful information, updates, tips and advice. Generally information that is helpful to your clients and prospects when they are in the market for your products/services.

Give Personality to Your Brand:

Inbound marketing enables companies to express themselves in an informal manner. They can show what their company is passionate about and what motivates them.

Build Your Business Profile on the Web:

By offering interesting, engaging content, your contacts and followers will share your information with their contacts, building your community and getting your business in front of new prospects.

Engage With Customers:                 

Inbound marketing enables your company to engage with your customers on personal level

and build strong relationships. It makes your company more approachable to the public.

Improve Your SEO:                           

Effective inbound marketing will improve your SEO. The search engines are placing more and more priority on social media activities and links when presenting search engine results. By focussing on the terms that are most relevant and building content around them on both social networks and your site, you will build up your rankings on the search engines for terms most relevant to your business. At Webresults.ie we can help you create a successful content strategy that will maximise your SEO and social media activity to drive sales for your business.

If you would like to find out how to devise and implement a successful inbound marketing strategy for your business that will build your profile and drive more high quality customers to your business, please contact Webresults.

The Facts On Social Media Analytics

Want to know more about social media analytics?  Read our article on how you can make the most of it and beat your competitors to the punch on finding the most valuable data available to your business!

To read the full article, visit The Facts On Social Media Analytics.

To find out more information on social media analytics and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.

SEO Vs Social Media, Which Is Better For Your Businesses Marketing?

Confused about whether you should be using SEO or Social Media to promote your business online?  Read our article on the advantages and disadvantages to get a better understanding of which may work for your business!

To read the full article, visit SEO Vs Social Media, Which Is Better For Your Businesses Marketing?

To find out more about SEO and Social Media, contact us.  For more information on both topics and for downloadable resources on more topics, click here.

How Can Social Media Help Your SEO? Here’s how…

Are you using social media marketing for your business yet?  Did you know that social media can rank faster than a website can?  For more information read our article on Social Media Marketing and find out ways that social media can help with your SEO and boost your rankings on search engines!

To read the full article, visit How Can Social Media Help Your SEO? Here’s How.

For more information on Social Media Marketing and web marketing, contact us.  For further information on this topic, click here.

A Quick Guide to Social Media Marketing

Have you started using social media to promote your business? Are you unsure of how to use it properly/effectively for online advertising? Our article on Social Media for beginners may be just what you need to understand how and why it is a great tool for your business.

You can read more about Social Media Marketing at A Quick Guide to Social Media Marketing.

If you would like more information on social media marketing and web marketing, contact us.  For more information on this topic, click here.