Erik Qualman's Blog, page 610

The Social Media Resignation: Bright Idea or Digital Downfall

A current and popular social media fad is posting job resignations online.  Employees are looking for more and more public ways to resign or utter the words “I quit” in an entertaining fashion.  Others simply want to leave a scathing review of a former employer or supervisor. Undoubtedly, social media has been a tool to deliver many of these parting messages.

One of the most well-known examples of quitting via internet & social media is Marina Shifrin’s YouTube “I Quit Video” that has nearly 17.5 million views, not to mention countless examples of media coverage and debates.  Shifrin was even offered a job to work on the Queen Latifah Show, which she turned down to pursue a career in television writing;
A unique way to capitalize on the resignation via social media phenomena was developing the Quit Your Job App, which provides a series of scenarios and potential recipients for a mobile resignation.  This app encourages the user to “feel free to get social and share your new found freedom via Facebook and Twitter” by providing direct links to post the notice online;
The popular Resignation Letter Cake went viral on Twitter in April 2013 shortly after being delivered by airport employee Chris Holmes and then posted by his brother-in-law;
There is also the well-known YouTube video of a gentleman resigning to the sound of Dawn from Also Sprach Zarathustra op. 30 by Richard Strauss followed by a lively departure dance as Freddy Mercury & Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody plays in the background.  This video has over 300,000 views and has been a twitter favorite too; and
Another popular Facebook posting that shows a woman resigning from her job by emailing her colleagues a series of white board messages, followed by an even more startling response from her supervisor.  While more extensive research shows that this particular incident was a hoax it is still a virtual advertisement to encourage people to try other types of mobile resignations.

As an advocate for social media, I have always reminded students that the power of social networking is alluring.  However, equal consideration should always be given to the permanent nature of most content.  I echo the same sentiment today that I shared in 2009 when I participated in a Belmont University panel about social media called From Facebook to Twitter: Rules, Rights and Realities of Social Networks.  At the time, our moderator, Dr. Sybril Bennett led a visionary discussion about social media’s value, and the associated responsibility needed by student users. The panelists each shared perspectives on how to effectively and responsibly engage social media.

One of the best resources at any college or university is the Office of Career Services or Career Development.  These campus departments exist to help students secure internships, prepare for employment, or transition to graduate school while mapping out trajectory for careers and life after earning a degree.  Many universities even offer career planning or placement services to their alumni.  Over the last few years, an important shift in the teaching tools offered by many career placement offices includes very specific guidelines and practices about how to use social media effectively.  A few of the best and most powerful examples include:

Virginia Tech Career Services offers a detailed resource for students with substantive explanation of social media value and responsibility. Va. Tech also offers some compelling data points to encourage good social media behavior among students;


The University of Minnesota Duluth’s Career and Internship Services website delivers awesome recommendations, guidelines, and resources on how to effectively use social media;


At Indiana University Southeast, our campus Career Development Center frequents Twitter to increase student interactions.  IU Southeast also offers a robust training webinar that teaches students and graduates how to use LinkedIn as a tool for professional development and networking;


The University of Texas at Austin Law School has a series of guidelines and social media tips specific to law students.  Most notable are tools designed for law students to develop relationships with alumni in various forums and resources to clean up personal pages; and


The Office of Career Services at Columbia University Teachers College has an information packed social media page that shares tools for employment seeking using various social networks as well as offering ten informative user guidelines which help students navigate the social media universe.

Earning a college degree is very much linked to career success and job continuity.  For example, a Pew Research Center analysis reminds us that as of February 2014, young adults with just a high-school diploma earned 62 percent of the typical salary of college graduates.  A May 2013 New York Times article notes that college graduates’ unemployment rate was 3.9% compared to 7.5% for the rest of the population.  These favorable numbers clearly support the value of earning a college degree.  However, failing to utilize the type of resources and best practices in career development described above can lead to four viral social media minutes that could easily overshadow four valuable years spent completing a degree.

Saying goodbye to a job that leaves a person feeling underappreciated, mishandled, or treated unfairly can bring a rush of power.  While it may seem refreshing at the time, choosing to leave a job through very public and social media inclusive ways can produce potential real world consequences such as inability to find new employment, a damaged reputation, or even lawsuits.  Equally important to consider is how failing to adequately represent oneself in the social media world can tilt the scales against students and graduates in the job market, in a current position, or on the way out of the door.

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How Not to Break the Bank on SEO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It doesn’t take a genius to realise why it’s important for businesses to have a strong online presence… but just in case! We are now living in an age where everything and everyone is online, the development of tablets, androids and smartphones has simply added fuel to this fire. Simply put more people are spending more time online, hence more businesses want to get online and more importantly position themselves in front of their targeted audience.

A recent online study from ComScore reports 70 per cent of online shoppers cite online access as their preferred path to retailers. Out of this 70 per cent over 50 per of people only click on the first result they see in Google and 95 per cent of consumers never go past the first page of results. Point being, positioning your business as near the top of Google’s search results, could be the difference in making  $50 or $50,000.

To illustrate this point, let’s draw a parallel with opening a sweet shop. Being near the top of the first page of Google’s search results is the equivalent of opening your sweet shop in Times Square. Lots of people passing by and lots of them will walk through your door. If you are on page two or three of Google it’s like being on one of the quieter streets in Manhattan – from time to time you’ll get some passing trade, but most of those people will know you  already exist.  If you are not listed on Google it’s like having that sweet shop in the dentist land.

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is the process used  to help improve your search engine rankings.

Sky is the limit when it comes to investing in SEO, and many companies believe throwing substantial amounts of money into getting to the top of Googles search results is the best approach. I’m here to say NAY,  there are plenty of things you can do to improve your businesses’ rankings without breaking the bank.

Understand Your Market

Understanding your market in SEO means think about the phrases your potential customers or clients would  use to find a business like yours on Google. Write them down – these are your ‘key terms’ and you’ll need them over the coming months.

Try to be realistic and think of phrases  that you will be able to compete for, for example if you are a shoe shop and you sell UGG boots – don’t try to compete for the term “UGG Boots” as essentially you will be competing against multinational brands who will have a far stronger online presence initially, and you will also be competing against the brand UGG boots, so not so smart. Be tactical, think smart!

If you are uncertain of the terms to select for your business, use a simple tool such as Google Trends or use social media as a gauge of what people talk about when it comes to your business and related products. A more complicated tool is  Google keyword planner tool to see what phrase are associated with your sector or business, but this tool is becoming less and less relevant because of the term not provided.

Use those terms

After choosing these terms use them appropriately to optimise the pages on your website, using these terms in your page titles, content, URL’s and so on. Be careful of over optimisation or keyword stuffing, where essentially you are using there phrases where it makes no sense. For example the “about page” of your business, there is no need to mention products in your title tag for this page, as it doesn’t make any sense.

Quick tip, you can also add value by linking from one page to another by using these phrases using the terms as the anchor text for a link.

Google+ Local /Google Places

Google have two services that businesses can use to help promote your business, specifically for localised search, Google Places and Google+ Local. There are some very helpful articles that you will find online to help you differentiate between the two, like here.  I would use these for local businesses opposed to virtual businesses (business only operating online) spend time improving their Google Places listing.

Add value to your profile, use images and encourage customers to leave reviews on Google Places.

Technical Errors

Google frowns upon sites that load slowly or have technical errors i.e  404 errors . The majority of sites do have some technical errors even if the average user doesn’t see them.

There is a suite of professional tools to check site speed and identify errors with your site. However, Google Webmaster Tools is a great (free) first stop to check if there are any technical issues that might be holding you back.

Be Socially Active

Social Media is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the search engine algorithm, meaning being active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. is important in the eyes of Google. Having a large following across these channels that you engage with regularly, can really help your business  search rankings. This has become a bit of a specialist category in recent years, and businesses have put a lot of time and effort into gaining valuable Facebook likes, re-tweets, pins etc.

Quick tip, think of what people want to hear and add an engaging angle, good subject matter; what’s current, cute, sexy or funny.

Keep It Fresh

The greatest challenge for small businesses is keeping content on their site fresh. Google has a bit of a love affair with new content, and is obsessed with customer concentric content – content aimed at the customer for the customer. So try to update and add pages to your site when and where possible, this adds value to your website. While preferably this should be text, the use of pictures and video can also help.

Link Luv

Try to get as many quality sites to link to your website as possible. With Googles Penguin update clamping down on spammy links (bad links) getting the right type of links is now a crucial part of any SEO strategy. The safest way to do this is to get links to relevant websites or that have a connection with your industry. There are a number of ways to do this, from existing mentions links, to guest blogging to online PR.

Think Mobile

According to a report from Smart Insights mobile share is now around 25% on average. However, this can easily vary depending on your businesses target audience. Generally, business To business(B2B) companies should expect a lower percentage of mobile views compared to business to customer companies(B2C). For example our own website is mainly aimed at businesses, so only about 20 per cent of website visits are from mobile phones. However, some of our clients are seeing upwards of 40% of their visits from mobiles.

Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes here, you simply need to optimise your site for mobile. Some factors to consider are load time, a user friendly experience and clean design with a focus on usability – imagery over content.

If your website isn’t optimised for mobile you may find people don’t browse your site for long, or get fed up waiting for it to load. Google will interpret both as negative factors and will start to down-mark you in searches done from mobile phones.

Final Thoughts

Feeling the love from Google can take time, so important to be patient andt by following the steps above, the web could quickly become your best friend – helping you find new business.

 

 

 

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Happiness, Vlogging and College Athletes: Our Top Posts in February 2014

Here is a look back on the top posts on Socialnomics in February of 2014. Which one was your favorite?

Four Reasons Why Happiness Is Changing Social Media

Amidst the wildly popular #100happydays campaign, this post provides four reasons why positivity is changing the social media landscape. Here is a brief excerpt from the post:

100 Happy Days weeds out negative social media “noise”.  While social media can sometimes cause FOMO (fear of missing out) or the negative

effects of watching someone else’s “highlight reel” while sitting on your couch, the 100 Happy Days challenge is having a positive effect on social media users. This is different from the frequent venting or cyber-bullying that we see on a daily basis in our social media spheres.

 

Forget Blogging, It’s All About ‘Vlogging’

No surprise here! Video has been a growing trend on the web so this post is a great read for those interested in staying ahead of the curve. Here is an excerpt from the post:

They say a pictures worth a thousand words, well a 1 minute video is worth a 1.8million words according to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research. This is equivalent of about 3,600 typical web pages. So unless you have the time and patience to write that much copy, then video blogging is the way to go.

 

 

College Athletics: A Fuel for the Social Media Fire

Who doesn’t love a good college athletics story? This post got a lot of great traction, and started  an interesting dialogue about the use of social media in the college athletics space. Here is an excerpt from this post:

Among the thousands of innocuous tweets, non-controversial Facebook posts, and innocent Instagram photos by the majority of student athletes, social media isn’t a problem.  When tweets or posts capture athletes in the middle of a community service project, visiting a hospital, or in a glorious competitive moment, then social media is certainly a desirable medium for college athletics.  At the other end of the spectrum, there have been firestorms associated with posts by a few athletes who didn’t apply standards of education, thoughtfulness, or common sense.  The resulting negative media coverage for athletic programs has left some coaches and compliance officials scrambling to recover from the fallout.

What topics will grab our attention in March? I suppose we will just have to wait to find out.

 

 

 

 

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How Social Media Can Work Wonders for Your Business

Social Media interaction is now the top internet activity and as a result has changed the way businesses operate today. Many businesses that have used social media in their marketing strategy, have seen very positive results. For example, 74% of marketers saw an increase in traffic after spending just 6 hours per week on social media and 52% of marketers have gained a customer through Facebook, and 35% have done so through Twitter. However, despite the statistics to prove that social media is an effective digital marketing strategy and evidence to suggest that it should be a vital part of any businesses marketing plan, there are still many businesses that are yet to implement it, immediately putting them way behind the competition.

Having said this, three fourths of marketers are planning to increase strategic efforts on social media and social networking sites this year and if you fall under this category of businesses, take a read to see just how much social media can benefit your business.

Increased brand awareness

Multi-channelling has become the blueprint to success- the more platforms that your brand is visible on, the more well recognised it will be. Therefore, having a business presence on various social networking sites will dramatically help to improve your brand awareness and in turn enhance your brand identity. However, it is essential that you maintain a consistent and positive brand identity across all of the different channels so that your brand image doesn’t get confused. 89% of small and medium-sized businesses report that increased exposure is one of the greatest benefits of social media.

Advertise your assets that make you stand out from competitors

Using social networking as part of your marketing strategy allows you to continually keep any existing or new customers up to date with any new products or services that you might be offering. For example, if your business has received any awards, whether it’s an ISO 9001 quality management certification or a local business award in the newspaper, presenting these to your consumers on your social networking platforms will allow you to stand out from your competitors and improve your chances for them to choose you over any rivals.

Reduced marketing costs

The great thing about getting your brand on social networking sites, whether it is Facebook, Twitter or Google +, is it’s all free, so you are essentially building brand awareness for free. What’s more, it means you don’t have the added risk of spending a fortune on extortionate marketing strategies that have no real positive effect.

The popularity of social media

Social media has become a popular activity across a broad range of audiences, so whatever your target market may be, there’s a high possibility that social media will appeal to them and as a result benefit your business.  Previously social networking was thought to be a popular activity among the younger generation, however these platforms are becoming increasingly popular with the older generation too. For example, the fastest growing demographic on Twitter is 55-64 year old age bracket. This bracket has grown by 79% since 2012.

Create a brand personality

Using social networking for your business is a great way to engage with your customers directly and personally, which will result in higher levels of customer satisfaction.  In addition, it allows you to create a brand personality, strengthening your brand identity as well as making your brand more relatable to your target market.

Helps with Search engine optimisation

If your business has a variety of active social media accounts on multiple platforms, it can also have a positive effect on your organic rankings. This will boost traffic to your site and in turn increase your profits. This has proven to be particularly effective when using the social network Google +, with their feature of providing instantly indexed posts.

Photo credit: Jason A. Howie

 

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You Are Your Own Brand: 3 Tips to Keep You in Their Minds

Branding affects everything in the marketing sphere and is what consumers will associate with your business. While branding is often associated with an enterprise or corporate entity, there is also personal branding in which individuals create a trademark identity or signature design that their followers can come to know them for. When you establish a strong personal brand, you can overlap or intertwine that brand with that of your company’s.

You Are Your Own Brand: 3 Tips to Keep You in Their Minds

1. Define Your Niche

You want to associate your face and name with a niche that you are fervently passionate about and that you know you can own. Be specific and come up with a vision, a mission statement, motto or set of core values. Your niche should be well-defined. Instead of identifying as a fitness coach, for example, try positioning yourself instead as a wellness coach for postnatal women or a coach for men fifty and over. Start by winning over a smaller demographic rather than trying to win favors among a general population. In other words, be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond.

2. Express Who You Are Through Your Social Profiles

Consumers will resonate much more with a company if they can associate the brand with a human face. This shows them that there is an actual person running the business who is just like everyone else as opposed to a bunch of unfamiliar corporate conglomerates in suits.

Be active on social network sites to build the foundation of your brand. This goes beyond making an occasional post on Facebook or sending a tweet. Get personal and let people know the real you outside the company. Consider uploading a few photos of yourself with your significant other or with your dog or maybe even a goofy selfie.

As a side thought, maybe use your Twitter to send a daily inspirational quote especially if you are in the field of personal development. Use Pinterest or Tumblr to display a photo collection of yourself wearing clothing from your e-commerce retail store. If your business is on a more B2B level, then use your Linked In profile to showcase your professional credentials. If you create content, incorporate Google Profile so that your face appears next to the search results.

Express your brand through Social Profiles

3. Dare to Be Different

As personal and individualistic as you strive to be, there are going to be hundreds of others whose online profiles are strikingly similar to yours. Think about how you can make yourself different within the context of your niche. This will require some brainstorming outside the box.

What are the ways you can be different? There are infinite possibilities. Perhaps you can make a public commitment to donate a portion of your business proceeds to a charitable cause for the achievement of a specific milestone. Maybe you can promise your followers that you will do something outrageous and post it on video if you reach a certain number of subscribers.

Personal Branding for Success on a Business Level

The purpose of personal branding is to blur the distinction between your personal profile and your business. When people see that you are authentic and not someone just trying to push a product or sale, they will be more inclined to give you the time of day. Most web design firms recommend that you begin by building your personal brand before even doing anything promotional with your products or services.

Personal branding is about engagement, and if you can resonate with your consumers, they will respond favorably when it comes time to take advantage of your products or services.

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Merging Social with Project Management – What are the Benefits?

Social media has not only become an integral part of our personal lives but also embedded itself into various business processes. It is playing a mission critical role in the digital marketing strategy of a business and is also instrumental in improving the customer engagement. That’s not all. It is also used by astute project managers as a part of their management strategy.

There was a time in the not too distant past when choosing business tools, the right team, adhering to the best practices of project management would have been enough to plan, manage, control and monitor a project successfully. But evolution in market dynamics and the needs of target customers means businesses are faced with newer challenges vis-à-vis project management. The use of social media is just one of the many solutions that can help meet these challenges.

Project Management, Meet Social!

There is a comprehensive array of project management software for the enterprise, such as WorkZone, SAP and Virtual Project Office, which have third-party communication features baked into them. But, the essence of great project management is ensuring sustained useful interactions between the team, away from the software silo. Social media ensures communication within the team and between the project stakeholders is taken to a more personal level devoid of the interactive limitations that are often imposed by software.

The idea behind incorporating social media into your project management process is to improve collaboration and create a more conducive environment wherein problems are solved faster. What you are essentially doing is bringing social interaction to project management, trying to get rid of the pressure points that might limit communication and having more fun along the way.

Leveraging Social’s Familiarity to Improve Performance

Most people are connected to their social networks all the time – yes, even at work! Keeping in touch with their friends and followers on social media is as much a part of their daily lives as say, food. Over time, social networks have evolved and this evolution has kept pace with the growing needs of businesses and their needs.

Different social networks have different working models. While Twitter is founded on a micro-messaging model, Facebook is driven by shares where content is distributed by users. LinkedIn is configured for professionals with its features in step with how connections take place in a formal environment. The appropriate network with the right kind of model (one that is aligned with your project management needs) can be integrated within the existing communications architecture of the PM process. This can help tide over some of the communication pitfalls that lead to problems, because people on your team will be familiar with the workability of these models.

Using Social Networks as Project Management Tools

 

Social networks shouldn’t be seen as an alternative to project management software, but a means of enhancing the channels of interaction that improve coordination between stakeholders of the project. Project communication and collaboration is a critical activity that makes or breaks a project. Do it right, and you set the stage for managing expectations; but get it wrong, and you may end up with a finished project on your hands that doesn’t meet your client’s needs.

To give you an example of how social can be used to improve value-added communication within the project management ecosystem, let me walk you through how you can put the features of Twitter to use for improving communication.

As a project manager, you are well aware of the sensitive nature of the information you’ll be sharing across, so your first step should be to create a private group, assign Twitter accounts to your team, and ensure they protect their tweets,

The next step is to add group management functionality like GroupTweet, which allows contributors to tweet from the same account. Another add-on that I believe is perfect for your intra group communication needs is twitChat. It’s a mobile app that will help you send instant messages within the group while you are on the move.

Once you’re all set up on Twitter, you need to smooth out communication within your group. Learn to use hashtags to separate the nature of your Tweets, categorize them and/or direct them to the right people. Hashtags like #budget, #time, #risk are commonly used by project managers to itemize their Tweets. Group messaging is good, but there will always be a need for sending a direct message to a recipient – this can be done using D (user name) +message. Something else you need to do is use Bitly, to shorten hyperlink addresses. The j.mp account will help you share link to files that are located on your company portal.

Your use of social media in project management is entirely dependent on the objectives you want accomplished and the role you want social to play in managing the information flow of your project.  The sanctity of a project can be undermined if the inflow, interpretation and outflow of project information is not properly controlled and managed. This is one of the challenges of merging social with project management. However, there are ways and means to address these challenges, and as a result, social integration can become one of the bedrocks of a results-driven project management process.

Making an Informed Decision

It’s taking the social plunge that is really very difficult. Yes, using social concepts to improve team communication is an exciting prospect, but it’s important to know the pros and cons of implementing social into your project management strategy. If you believe your project information is too sensitive to be shared through the social matrix, avoid using social. Yes, the security of social media networks is improving all the time, but being doubly sure that a social network’s privacy features will ensure data safety is the first step toward social integration in project management.

The idea is to know everything there is to know about how social can prop up the professional interaction dynamics within your project management team, and then implementing it.

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5 B2B Companies Understanding Social Media

B2B companies haven’t built a major social media presence yet, especially compared to their business-to-consumer counterparts.

But a few companies are starting to embrace social media, and are proving that the platform can work for B2B campaigns.

Here are five who are making the grade:

American Express

In 2006, American Express launched its OPEN forum, a resource intended to help companies improve their marketing efforts. In the years since, the forum has grown into a community of small business owners trading business opportunities and advice.

It’s been a successful venture, attracting more than 52,000 Twitter followers, and more than 220,000 Facebook fans since its start.

What did American Express do right? It created a useful tool for small business owners who owned American Express OPEN business cards. By providing this resource, it built trust and loyalty among its business customers, which led to its social media success.

Cisco

Networking leader Cisco has taken YouTube by storm, attracting more than 43,000 subscribers to its channel.

Online video becomes more and more popular every year, and Cisco has used that popularity to its advantage. It uploads a lot of videos, from Q&A’s, to product demos, to presentations.

This focus on creating useful, engaging content for its corporate clients has driven Cisco’s social media visibility, building awareness with every video it posts.

Kinaxis

Another company who understands the power and value of viral videos, Kinaxis launched a successful online campaign around its comedy web series.

The series, titled “Suitemates”, starred Kevin Pollack and Ray Wise as two businessmen who end up in jail after a less-than-legal corporate merger. The humor of the series drew in customers and more than doubled the company’s web traffic.

Phillips

The Innovation in Light community, formed by Phillips on LinkedIn, has become one of the biggest B2B networks. It provides useful resources and benefits like chats, white papers, and news.

These interactive tools have helped Phillips attract more than 49,000 members to the group — and most are very engaged in discussions about lighting innovations. This has helped the group become fairly tight-knit, building brand awareness and trust for Philips and solid business connections for group members.

Corning

Glass and ceramics manufacturer Corning created a buzz around its B2B viral video titled “A Day Made of Glass.” The video earned more than 21 million views on YouTube, which prompted Corning to create a sequel video.

Both videos illustrate the various uses of Corning glass products in a day. They helped reinforce the brand’s message, shined a spotlight on its innovation in the industry, and created a huge PR buzz that boosted awareness even more.

All of these companies have shown that social media isn’t just for the consumer market — it can also be a powerful tool for B2B marketing. The key is in creating content that entertains, informs, and engages users — all while promoting brand awareness.

By putting customer needs first and choosing social networks that are ideal for the type of campaign you want to run, you can recreate these companies’ successes in your own business.

Photo credit: northernlightspr.com

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Should Pinterest Be Part of Your Branding Efforts?

At just a handful of years old, Pinterest is one of the newer social media outlets. However, its popularity is certainly growing.

According to a 2013 report from Semiocast, there are some 70 million million users on Pinterest.

Pinterest is an essential tool for small businesses as it offers a great way to market your brand.

So, is it part of your company’s branding efforts?

How Pinterest Works

Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board where users can pin and share items they like.

Pictures can be repinned by other users, causing items on Pinterest to quickly gain popularity, meaning your images of your products and/or services can be placed in front of countless eyes.

Pinterest for Business Owners

Pinterest remains the fourth most popular social network, according to the Small Business Assistance Corporation. Showcasing your items on Pinterest can get your business on the radar of potential customers quickly.

Pinterest can help you drive traffic to your website. As pins get repined among other Pinterest users, people will begin checking out your business.

The social networking site also offers a great way to gain word of mouth advertising. Someone may view a pin and ask someone, “How much did that cost?” or they may add it to their own bulletin boards which allows even more users to see your products.

Post Pictures of Your Products

One of the most obvious ways for business owners to begin marketing on Pinterest is to post pictures of their products. Highlight any new products as they become available.

Include common questions about products or even customer reviews about certain products.

Pin Information to Reach Your Target Audience

You can also gain a following by posting relevant information that isn’t directly related to your business.

For example, if you sell wedding dresses, you might be able to attract customers by also posting information on wedding cakes and wedding flowers.

Highlight Testimonials

If you’ve had great feedback from customers, let your followers know about it.

Turn their reviews into a graphic image and post it to your bulletin boards.

Create Graphs and Charts

Anything visual can be posted on Pinterest. Create interesting charts and graphs that will be of interest to your audience.

You can even run some numbers about your business or conduct an informal survey and post the results.

For example, if you sell shoes, ask customers which pair of shoes are you most likely to wear to work.  Then, create a chart showing customers the results.

Share Information About Your Business

Share information that you can help customers learn more about your business as a whole.

If you’ve got a brick and mortar store, in addition to your website, show online customers how your store looks. You can also post photos and profiles of your employees.

Get Customers to Join Conversation

Use Pinterest to interact with your customers as well.

Ask customers to post photos of themselves with your product or doing something that relates to your business. This can greatly increase your exposure on Pinterest.

Pinterest is a quick and easy way for small businesses to promote their products and services to potential customers whether they sell clothing, diaper bags, electronics, household items and much more.

With that in mind, are you pinning your business?

Photo credit: Digitaltrends.com

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Is The Older Generation Becoming More Social?

Believe it or not Google is only just over 15 years old, the first IPhone was built in 2007, Facebook is 10 years old and Twitter just 8 years old. We forget just how new the all this technology is and the dramatic speed at which it has grown. If you’re part of generation Y, then you’ve grown up with technology developing at a rate quicker than you. ‘Just Google it’ has probably seemed like a good answer the majority of your life and a life without social media, is just, well, unimaginable.

Whilst picking up all the latest technology is easy for the younger generation, it can be pretty difficult for the older generation to understand and come to terms with. Trying to teach your grandma how to write a text message might have been a challenging experience for both of you. However as technology continues to grow, it seems as though more of the older generation are getting to grips with these new technologies and are becoming more social, and here’s how…

Social Media

According to a survey carried out by Pew Internet, senior citizens using social networking sites have shown a steady growth in the last four years. In 2009, just 13% of adults ages 65 and older were using social networking sites and as of August 2013, that number has more than tripled to 43%. Furthermore, in a stand-alone survey about Twitter, it was discovered that 18% of online adults are now Twitter users which is roughly double the number of online adults who used Twitter in November 2010.

The older generation are joining social networking sites in the hope to reconnect with old friends and their extended family. Okay so they might not be completely down with the lingo, perhaps using ‘LOL’ thinking it means ‘lots of love’ rather than ‘laugh out loud’ and it might be a little annoying when your great aunt likes every single one of your pictures on your Facebook profile. However, it’s a great way for them to not only learn new things, but keep them entertained and in the loop of what their family and friends are getting up to, especially if they are people that they can’t visit easily.

Growth in device sales

As technology grows, more and more of the older generation are choosing to invest new technology devices available on the market. For example, according to Nielsen, people over the age of 45 now account for 37% of the tablet, a.k.a. iPad, market.

Furthermore, smartphone ownership has significantly increased in older people, with 44% of senior cell phone owners becoming tech savvy and using it for taking photographs. Although the number of older people with smart phones continues to be significantly lower than the rest of the population, this figure continues to grow. What’s more, Forbes revealed some interesting information, showing that household income effects whether the older generation have a smart phone – while only 8% of seniors earning under $30,000 have a smartphone, those in the $75,000 bracket are five times more likely to have one, at 43%.

Online dating

The online dating industry has rocketed in recent years and is now reported to be worth over £2 billion. Online dating is no longer just a thing for younger people – seniors are not just using their new technology devices for photos and social media, but also for online dating. A reported 48% of seniors (over 50) look to online dating to find a serious relationship, 26% look for friendship, and 14% want to try casual dating.

Lifestyle

And it is not just online where seniors are becoming more social. Better health care services, has meant that the older generation are staying fitter and healthier for longer and are therefore are more active and able join in social activities, whether it might be going to community centres, lunch clubs or volunteering to work. In addition, more of the older generation are choosing to downsize from their oversized family home and are settling down in park homes located in park areas where they can socialise with people of a similar age to them and make new friends during their retirement years.

Photo credit: TradeGroup Signal

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Learn Something New Every Day from Social Media

A common goal that many people set for themselves is to learn something new every day. You could learn a simple fact or a complex idea, or even something that will get you ahead in your career. Luckily, it is easier than ever to educate yourself with the numerous social media sites at your disposal.

A lot of people tend to use these platforms solely for social purposes, but why not take the next step? Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and even Instagram allow for easily accessible collaborative learning, which you could be taking advantage of everyday.

Learn How to Cook

Both beginners and experienced chefs can learn, not only new recipes, but also new techniques related to cooking and baking via social media. Want a new meal idea to try out? Check out Food52. They have great recipes that are not only delicious, but also good for you!

If you really want to take your food learning experience to the next level, you should create a Pinterest account. This site will surely change your life and your dinner options. You can search chicken recipes if you know you have some one hand but want to learn to prepare it a new, exciting way, and this site will return numerous options for you to consider.

Don’t know what you want to cook? That isn’t a problem at all because you can also just browse the food and drink category and discover new ideas. The best part about this site for foodies is the fact that you can “pin” the recipes that you like to a board, which is basically a virtual recipe book. Also, other users give some great feedback and comments on the recipes if they have already tried them, so you will know what you are getting yourself into before you attempt to make something new.

Learn a New Word or Language

The art of language can be a bit intimidating for some, but it doesn’t have to be. If you are not quite up to the challenge of learning a new language entirely, you can at least brush up on your native tongue. For instance, you can learn the word of the day by logging onto Twitter.

On the other hand, a foreign language may be what you are interested in learning more about. Language learning software can be very pricey and not everyone has the extra money to shell out for this. Instead, try following a Twitter page to learn the basics. You can learn to speak Italian, little by little, without having to spend any extra money.

Brush up on the World of Business

Businesses make the world turn, so it is a great idea to keep tabs on what is going on in the corporate world. A good resource for doing so on Facebook is Business Insider. They report on top news stories in the world of business, finance and technology, so you can learn a little bit about everything business related while browsing the page.

Also, you can follow Forbes on Twitter to get the most up to date facts concerning business. If you really find yourself extremely interested, you should check out online colleges offering business degrees. You will be able to learn the ins and outs of the field from the comfort of your home, and someday you may be one of the CEOs talked about on these business focused social media sites.

Do-It-Yourself Projects

Creating or fixing something on your own can save you a lot of money and it usually is not as difficult as it seems. These projects can range from crocheting all the way up to something more elaborate, like building a deck. Lifehacker has their own site, but they keep their Facebook page up to date and use it to share new “how to” projects and tasks. You can easily pick up something new every day.

Also, just as it is for foodies, Pinterest is the social media haven for do-it-yourselfers everywhere. You can browse random DIY projects or even search how to install a wood floor. The possibilities are endless and you really learn a lot of valuable information that will be extremely useful when carrying out your next project, no matter how large or small of a task it may be.

Random Information

Want to win that next trivia tournament or just learn some random information? Well, social media can help you with that. Daily Random Facts on Facebook and Random Facts and Trivia on Twitter have some of the most interesting updates that you can possibly think of.

Did you know that there is a garden in England consisting completely of plants that kill? You do now! While information like this may not seem useful while you are learning it, you would be surprised how well people can retain and remember these random facts at the most opportune moments.

What to Take Away

Learning something new doesn’t need to be a monotonous task or chore. It can be enjoyable and even more so when you are utilizing social media to educate yourself. You can learn just about anything on these websites in just minutes a day, and best of all, they are FREE! Simply do a little bit of research, follow the pages that interest you, and you will be on your way to learning something new every day.

Images: Werwin15, MKH Marketing

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