How frequently should you use hashtags to engage with your audience properly

Image from Flickr user Esther Vargas. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

With the ever increasing use of social media, hashtags have been ubiquitous. The pound (hash, #) sign turns a word or group of words accompanying the sign into a searchable link. It makes your post more searchable, allows you to follow a certain ongoing conversation in social media and search user-generated content.  

However, in spite of the usability of hashtags we’re often not sure on how to use them properly – how frequently use them in our posts in different social media platforms. As suggested by social media experts, each platform has its own specialty and we need to add hashtags to our posts accordingly.

Facebook
Facebook posts without a hashtag fare better than those with a hashtag, recommends Andrew Hutchinson in SocialMediaToday.

However, social media experts recommend using 1 or 2 sensible hashtags, especially industry specific, event specific or campaign specific (if you’re using it for a campaign) for maximum interaction.

Instagram
Use of branded (specific to your brand or company) and community hashtags are a must to interact with your followers on Instagram. While the branded hashtags help you get most loyal followers to engage and improve brand awareness, community hashtags help you make your content more discoverable and build your audience.

However, you make sure you bundle up all your hashtags at the end of the post rather than putting them in between the post.

Experts suggest using more than 10 hashtags in your Instagram posts, but make sure you don’t use more than 30 tags. As Instagram Help Center suggests, don’t use more than 30 tags on a single photo/video. If you do so, your comment won’t get posted.


Twitter
Don’t use more than two hashtags in a Twitter post and keep your hashtags relevant to what you’re tweeting about.

Make sure to generate your own specific hashtags during special events so as to track the ongoing conversation and engage with like-minded people.


LinkedIn
Though it was useless using hashtags in your LinkedIn posts earlier, I would suggest using 1-2 hashtags in a LinkedIn post. LinkedIn Help suggests: “There are no limits to the number of hashtags that can be added to each article, but you should choose your hashtags wisely, so they reach the most suitable members for that article.”


Want to know more? Here’s a pin detailing the use of hashtags.

How to live-tweet and reach a wider audience

Image from Flickr user hjw223. (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Thinking of live-tweeting during one of your much awaited conferences?

Though it seems a simple task, if not planned well it can go haywire. So proper planning is a must to reach a wider audience.

Decide on a hashtag
Before you jump into tweeting, decide on a hashtag to be used during the programme. Keep it simple – for example, if it’s a report launch, keep the hashtag as #ReportNameLaunch. Since the hashtags aren’t case sensitive, it can be typed as #reportnamelaunch, but the former one provides better readability.

Make sure the live-tweeters use the hashtag in each of their tweets.

Assign the tasks
It’s always better to form a team and assign the tasks rather than everybody tweeting the same thing.

At least two dedicated tweeters are a must to spread the word. Rest of the team can re-tweet and comment on their tweets. The two of them can meet beforehand and decide on how to go ahead with the tweeting – things like who takes care of which part of the speaker quotes.

Get the technology right
Make sure the live-tweeters are well connected to the WiFi or have enough balance in their cellphones to tweet throughout the session.

At least one live-tweeter should use TweetDeck so that they can follow the hashtag conversations with much ease.

Don’t forget the language and grammar
Check the spellings and the sentences before you push the ‘tweet’ button. Since you can’t edit the tweets later, it’s wise to check the sentence structure.

Refrain from using the shortened forms like 2day, 4U, etc. – now you don’t have the 140 characters restriction on Twitter any more.

Get to know the speakers
Research a bit about the speakers, collect their Twitter handles and put them on a spreadsheet with short bio and links to their articles published online. It will be handy to link them to their relevant quotes.

Make sure to add the hashtag and speaker Twitter handle while tweeting. It will make the tweet credible and help start a conversation.

Before clicking the pictures, taking the videos and tweeting them, make sure to talk to the speakers beforehand. Some of them might not be comfortable being tagged in the tweets.

Finally, some handy tips
Use speaker quotes and add their Tweeter handles. However, if you’re starting with the speaker handle, don’t forget to add a dot (.) before the handle (.@SpeakerHandle) so that it reaches everybody.

If you’re not a fast typing person or lose track of the conversation, don’t panic. You can write a note on a notebook or pad and tweet it later during the session.

Ask tweeters to send their questions during the session. Feel free to approach the speakers to get the answers and then tweet it to the person who sent the question.

You can also take some short videos or quotes from the audience and tweet them.

Retweet others. It is a good idea to set up a stream in your dashboard. It’s easy from there to share and comment on what people are tweeting.

Thanks to the Global Voices Summit 2017 social media team. A large chunk of this piece has been prepared from the notes and guidelines circulated to the live-tweeting team.

Are you following the 80/20 rule of social media sharing?

It happens to me all the time. I spend almost 80% of my time doing 20% of a task and in the last remaining 20% time end up rushing forward to get the rest 80% work done.

Does it happen to you also?

Well, I have discussed this with lot many friends of mine and most of them agree on this 80/20 hypothesis.

So, how do you do this in the social media?

Like in the Rule of Thirds, keep aside 20% for your original content. Make sure that only 20% of your content promotes your brand. Rest 80% should be for interesting content from your industry.

To make it clear, if you share 10 contents, only 2 should be about your organisation or your brand and the rest 8 should be some interesting stuff from the industry. 

The below pin further divides the 80% into 50% and 30% to make your job easier!

Apologies: The above mentioned pin has been deleted by the user. Sorry for the inconvenience.

It’s not only for photographers but also for social media users – the Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds. Image by Flickr user John Watson. CC BY-NC 2.0

Have you been posting too much of your content in the social media? Or are you just sending out your organisational messages in your network?

Well, if you are doing either of the above two – you are in deep trouble. Doing the first will make you a Narcissus while the latter will reduce you to a sycophant.

So, what’s the best way to avoid the both?

Social media gurus say that you should adhere to the Rule of Thirds. If you know photography basics, then you must be familiar with this rule.

It’s just like putting the subject to be photographed in the one-third part of the imaginary photo-frame divided into three imaginary parts either from the top-to-bottom or from the left-to-right.

Likewise, you need to promote your content into one-thirds: one-third of your content promoting your organisation and its objectives, another one-third sharing stories from think tanks in your field and the last one-third talking about your personal experiences.

So, why share somebody else’s content? Won’t it make you a copycat? Well, the answer is NO. While sharing the good things about others, you are not only spreading the message but also giving a signal to your followers that you are up-to-date with your industry knowledge. And for this, your followers will like to keep an eye on your posts – to get the latest news from your industry.

When you talk about your experiences and your ideas, it provides personal touch to the messages – so that your followers know that there’s somebody knowledgeable doing the messaging and not a robot!

Last but not the least as you push forward your organisational messages along with the above messages, people digest it easily. They get absorbed by your followers and if you are lucky or your messages are outstanding, they get liked and shared to wider audience.

So, next time you are posting a Facebook status or a tweet, make sure you have the Rule of Thirds in your mind!

And how do you do this?

Find and follow your influencers and competitors, listen to what they are saying and share the relevant information. To know more, here’s a blog by Sam Milbrath.

Why it’s necessary to convince your CEO to be active in social media

Image by Flickr user Sean MacEntee. CC BY 2.0

You must have faced it – it’s hard to convince your CEO to be active in social media. And even if CEOs start blogging or tweeting, it’s really difficult to ask them to contribute regularly. It’s simple. Their schedules are packed and it takes huge effort from their side to keep the creative juices flowing and jot down something that is relevant and interesting.

Besides, they are worried about committing any mistake in social media that can right away tarnish their reputation and put the organisation’s goodwill at stake.

So, how do you convince the CEO? That’s the big question.

A survey by BRANDfog found that 83% of the US respondents and 73% of the UK respondents believe that CEOs participating in social media helps building better relations with customers, employees and investors.

The survey also came up with the finding that executive use of social media raises brand awareness.

People like to hear from the top authority. And the CEOs should use their authority to provide updates about their organisations.

In an interview with Forbes, Weber Shandwick CEO Andy Polansky says if done well, using social media can be a compelling way to enhance the company’s reputation, business results, employee communications and tell stories around innovation.

If your CEO is not comfortable with social media, help them to get on board and once they start doing it on their own, move away.

However, some CEOs are naturally social. Richard Branson with millions of followers posts multiple times a day.

CEOs like him can be an inspiration to your CEO.

So, just ask your CEO to blog and tweet. It has lots to offer to your organisation.

Perfect image sizes for your social media posts

You must have come across this. You are doing a social media post and when you upload an accompanying image, sometimes it bleeds off and sometimes looks like a tiny button on a handkerchief. Then you keep on with trial and error till the Eureka moment.

That's frustrating. Isn't it?

Thanks to Jamie for the below cheat sheet explaining the social media image sizes. He has re-created and updated the 2015 cheat sheet. It keeps you updated on the forever changing image sizes and formats for different social media platforms.

2016 Social Media Image Sizes Cheat Sheet

MakeAWebsiteHub.com

Don’t risk your reputation on rude front desk staff

Teach your staff to be polite. Flickr image by user KoiQuestion. CC BY-SA 2.0

Recently I was at one of the famous guest houses in Thamel of Kathmandu to meet one of my friends from India.

He had called me from the guest house landline and I could not grasp the room number correctly. When I asked the front desk staff, he fumbled through few pages, could not find the name and threw the ledger to me. I scanned through the pages but could not find the name.

The staff showed no interest at all to help. Instead, he claimed my friend might have lodged with some other hotel.

I took out my cellphone and showed him the number. Luckily, it was dialed from the guest house. Then the next person at the front desk came forward and checked in the computer’s log. And there he was – in the room no 308.

He dialed the room and handed me the phone. I thanked the man for his kindness. However, from now onwards I would never recommend any of my friends to stay there.
                 
                  ****                ****                ****                ****

A reputed bank in the heart of Kathmandu, known for its customer base and profitability, has no dearth of customers. However, one thing that it lacks and which makes its service sucks – is again, the front desk staff manners.

Recently, I was at the bank and was a victim of snobbish behaviour of a front desk officer at one of its branches in Maharajgunj. As I was in a hurry to collect the statement, I rushed to the twenty-something guy and asked him where I can get the statement. To my astonishment, he behaved with me as if I was a schoolboy asking him irrelevant questions. Not even looking at me, he pointed me to a teller and said, “Can’t you see, it’s written over there – in BIG letters?” And literally, he was pouring his frustration on me.

When I enquired at the counter, the officer once again politely pointed me to the same guy. I was miffed to be directed to the same rude officer. However, this time, he yelled the guy’s name and asked him to hand me the envelope.

As I got to the front desk, he asked, “NAME?” When I told him my name, within a minute, he took out the envelope, handed it to me and said, “Why didn’t you ask me to search the envelope?” And again he was rude as earlier, as if I had asked him to fetch the three golden apples.  

Dumbfounded, I returned from the bank and decided not to continue banking with them.

                          ****                ****                ****                ****

Incidents like above happen all the time – even at so-called reputed organisations. And they only bring bad names to those organisations. In the past, nothing much happened to such rude front desk staff and the organisations. However, things have changed and with the return of word-of- mouth era along with the advent of social media, the customer base can deplete in the blink of an eye.

Few months back, one of my seniors bought a pair of shoes on sale from a reputed store in Durbar Marg. As he reached home and found some defects, he went back and asked for a replacement. However, the shop owner didn’t listen to him. Vexed by the irresponsible behaviour, he clicked a picture of the shoes and posted it on Facebook detailing how he got cheated. Within minutes, everybody was cursing the storekeeper. The post went viral. You can imagine how many customers the store lost to that silly mistake.     

                            ****                ****                ****                ****

Now let’s again talk about the two incidents of irresponsible behaviour of the front desk staff. Replace myself with an angry customer. Then add the power of word-of-mouth and social media. With every tweet and every comment, the customers would have cursed them and asked their friends not to deal with them again.

With the popularity of social media, the power to promote and of course, to demote is controlled by the mere fingertips of customers. And believe me, most of the times, there is no involvement of the brain! It can either enthrone or dethrone you within seconds. 

Remember, customer relationship starts at your organisation’s gate itself. If you want to keep yourself ahead of the competition, make sure to train your guards and front desk staff to treat every customer with politeness. 

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Wouldn’t you prefer a celebrity posting a selfie with your sweet and polite janitor?

The names have not been mentioned to protect the identities.        

Further reading
Protecting Your Company’s Reputation From Employee Risk

Here’s a paragraph from the above piece.

In Deloitte’s 2014 global survey on reputation risk, it was revealed that over half of the high-level executives surveyed believed that their biggest risk to company reputation came from its internal staff.

7 blogging myths and ways to deal with each of them

The stats are mind-boggling – over 409 million people read more than 17.6 billion blog pages every month as reported by the site WhoIsHostingThis?

And as the saying goes – break the rules but know the rules first – it is up to you to stick to a certain blog regime. The one that is more favourable and suitable to you.

The rules of social media are ever changing and nothing is carved in stone forever. When someone says, you should blog daily – listen to him/her. But take your time to do proper research before posting. You don’t need to post a blog every day to get more traffic. It’s the content that you are serving matters the most to the readers. However, be consistent and post at least once a week.

Likewise, it’s not true that readers like only short posts or long posts. You should post both in short and long forms.

Here’s more if you want to avoid the 7 common mistakes bloggers make.

Source: WhoIsHostingThis.com

Blogging stats you must know to be a successful blogger

Are you a frequent blogger? Are you not getting the expected traffic to your blog?

It’s a common problem for most bloggers. But if you are aware of the 13 blogging statistics curated by Social Marketing Writing, you will be on a safer side.

As per the report, 80% of daily blog visits are new. So, you must optimise your blog for the new visitors.

Likewise, the post says that once you cross 51 posts, your blog traffic increases by 53%, goes up by 3 times after 100 posts and by 4.5 times after 200 posts. So, the more the number of posts, the more the traffic. 

And above all, the images matter. Post more images and infographics to your blog.

Want to know more? Here’s an interesting and useful infographic on the 13 blogging statistics that you should keep track of. 

Think twice before starting a tweet with an @ sign

.@jetairways update: Fire was under control as the plane landed and no passenger was injured. http://t.co/gxz56ecYax
— Nepali Times (@nepalitimes) December 29, 2014

Did you notice a period in front of @jetairways?

Why the period at the start?

If you start a tweet with @, only the people who follow BOTH you and the person named at the beginning of the tweet will see the tweet – not all your followers.

This tweet has been targeted to Pat and only the followers of Jet Airways.

@patdesma Waiting to welcome you on a Jet Airways flight soon. :)
— Jet Airways (@jetairways) December 29, 2014

I got to see it because, one of my followers retweeted it.

So what’s the solution?

It’s simple. Rephrase the tweet and put the @ sign in the middle of the tweet.

Another crisis averted. @jetairways safely landed at #TIA after it collided with a bird. #airsafety #birds
— Subhash Ghimire (@subhash580) December 29, 2014

Here’s a presentation by Gary Vaynerchuk that describes it all.

The Number One Mistake Everybody Makes on Twitter from Gary Vaynerchuk

Twitter tips to get more retweets

A picture is worth thousand words. Interestingly, it works for Twitter too. A tweet with an image gets 150% more retweets, 89% more favourites and 18% more clicks than those without a picture.

A tweet with an engaging hashtag or two is 55% more likely to be retweeted. However, make sure that you don’t have more than three hashtags in your tweet.

Similarly, numbers and digits stand out in a tweet. A tweet with numbers or digits is most likely to get 17% retweets.

Humility always stands out and if you mention “Please RT” in your tweet, most likely it will get 3-4 times more retweets.

Brandon Gaille, CEO of the internet marketing company ByReputation.com, which specializes in SEO, SEM/PPC, social media, and reputation management, has put together 15 useful tips that will help you get more retweets, favourites and eventually help you increase your followers.


Want more Twitter tips?

Check out the article 6 Ways to Improve Twitter Engagement With Psychology Principles by Beth Gladstone, Marketing Manager at Twilert.

Blogging styles, preferred post frequency and buzz creation

If you have been blogging for long, you must have noticed that certain blogs attract more traffic and some don’t even get a single share. It all depends upon your blogging style, frequency of your posts and the content that you present in your posts.

Rohit Bhargava, founding member of 360 Digital Influence group at Ogilvy and author of the award winning marketing book Personality Not Included, has listed down the 25 basic styles of blogging and when to each one.

Talking about each style, Rohit suggests frequency of the blog (the maximum times a week) to ensure that neither you have a stale content nor you overwhelm your readers. Then he talks about the buzz index – how likely your blog will be read, commented or linked to relevant posts. The difficulty level to create a blog of such style has also been discussed. 

However, before jumping down to the presentation by Rohit, let me talk about few styles of blogging that I like the most and find really engaging enough to attract more readers to my blog.

List blogging
This is the most preferred style of blogging for me. It arouses interest among readers when you start your blog headline by saying “10 tips for writing exciting blogs” or “7 famous destinations for hiking during the monsoon”. I do a lot of list blogging and found that for me they have been attracting more traffic than other blog styles.   

Insight blogging
This style of blogging, though difficult, attracts more readers. Doing such posts, I have noticed that people read and comment if they don’t agree with my opinion or second my views. 

Link blogging
It’s quite easy to search blogs and articles online to create an aggregated post. You can then add your views to the list of resources and publish it. As it is a collection of interesting contents, it is highly sought after by the readers. It is really good to find all resources at a place. Isn’t it?

Review blogging
Writing reviews of a product or service is not always easy. You need to be unbiased and share your honest feedback to your followers. People searching about the product or services will land up at your blog.

Bridge blogging
I am Nepal author for Global Voices and whenever I post a blog, I take care that I am writing for an international audience who don’t know even a bit about the happening and places that I am talking about.

The fives styles of blogging that I prefer make up only one-fifth of the styles suggested by Rohit. Find below his presentation on 25 basic styles of blogging.  

25 basic styles of blogging

The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging ... And When To Use Each One from Rohit Bhargava

So which styles do you prefer? Get acquainted to the styles of your interest and keep blogging.

Can social media change the world?

Can you imagine? There are more mobile phones in the world than toothbrushes.

Unbelievable? But it’s true.

A video produced by International Development, University of East Anglia has all sorts of staggering data convincing that social media can change the world.

And why not if 26 per cent of world’s population is using social media including 41.2 million Tweeters in Brazil, 90 million Facebook users in India, 3.6 million Facebook users in Kenya, 6.5 million Mxit users in South Africa, 600 million Weibo users in China and 46 million Vkontakte users in Russia.

Watch the engrossing video “Does social media has the power to change the world?”
 

How long should your social media updates be?

How long should your tweet be? Between 71-100 characters. So that people retweeting your tweet can add their comments to it before sending it to their followers. Tweets shorter than 100 characters have 17 per cent higher engagement rate.

Likewise, Facebook posts with 40 characters attract 86 per cent more engagement than posts with higher character counts.

Similarly, your blog headlines should not have more than six words. Limit your LinkedIn posts to 16-25 words and blog posts to 1,600 words if you want better engagement.


The below infographic taken from a post by Kevan Lee in buffersocial explains in detail the optimal length of your day to day social media updates.



Download the PDF of infographic.

Download the printable companion infographic.

Read the original post.

7 must-have elements of a compelling infographic

As I talked in my last post, infographics are gaining popularity more than ever. However, there are maximum chances that your infographic might get lost in the deluge of data pounding by your competitors. 

So, what are the must-have elements to make your infographic compelling and stand out among the mee-toos?

Obviously, the most important thing is how you craft your story – the storyline, the way of explaining your message including the facts. Visually appealing style, simplicity, size, statistics, shareability and quoting the sources referred are the other elements that make your infographic compelling, says Donna Moritz, a Social Media Strategist and Visual Marketing Specialist – and founder of Socially Sorted.

Read the original post by Donna.

Courtesy of: SociallySorted.com.au

Why and how to use Twitter

The latest data on Twitter users is staggering. With more than 554,750,000 active registered users and 58 million tweets per day, the online social networking website and microblogging service launched by Jack Dorsey in 2006, earned $259,000,000 as advertising revenue in the year 2012.

Every second 9,100 tweets see the light of the day and 135,000 new Twitter users sign up every day. Likewise, 115 million people actively use Twitter every month and Twitter site attracts 190 million unique visitors every month.  (Source: Twitter, Huffington Post, eMarketer -www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics)

Twitter is a real-time social network that helps users share, follow and interact with stories, opinions, links, pictures and 140-character messages. The power of Twitter allows you to receive the tweets from and listen to the opinions of the people and organisations you follow. The retweet (RT) facility allows you and your followers to spread the message to a wider audience and opens the door for your message to go viral.

Twitter basics
Tweets are small bursts of information of 140 characters long at the maximum. A user's Twitter Handle is the username s/he selects and the accompanying URL (E.g., www.twitter.com/username). An @reply is a method of responding to another Twitter user publicly. If you place @ before the receiver's username, your message will be directed to that person publicly.  

The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to categorise tweets for reference and to facilitate conversations on specific subjects.

Twitter lingo
As the users are bound to a 140 character limit, they have come up with innovative acronyms.

at (mention) @
hashtag #
caret/hat sign ^
financial hashtag $
as far as I know AFAIK
carbon copy CC
correction CX
direct message DM
Follow Friday FF
hat tip/heard through HT
in case you missed it ICYMI
Music Monday MM
modified tweet MT
not safe for work NSFW
overheard OH
partial tweet PT
real life retweet RLRT
retweet RT
shaking my head SMH
thanks for the follow TFTF
today I learned TIL
too long; didn't learn TL;DR
tweet me back TMB
thanks for the retweet TQRT
translated tweet TT
with W/

Simple steps to use Twitter
To create a Twitter account, you just need an email address. Go to www.twitter.com, sign up, assign a username and a password. A username can't be more than 15 characters – you are free to use letters, numbers and underscore. Make sure you use a name that you use in your websites and blogs. Using your real or business name makes it easier for search engines to find you.

After signing up, add a photo (not more than 700 KB and should be either in JPG, GIF or PNG format) and a short bio – your bio should not exceed 160 characters and should tell people what you do, your interests and personality. You can customise your Twitter profile page (Password, add devices, notices, picture, design and colour schemes).

Follow your friends, opinion leaders and organisations you want to receive tweets from. To get followers you need to tweet regularly. 

To start tweeting, tell people what you are doing, disseminate the news from your industry, share helpful tips and your opinion on a trending topic. As the maximum characters you can use is 140, shorten the URLs of your links through URL shortening services (Tinyurl.com, Bit.ly etc.).

Add a hashtag (#+word/phrase) to your tweet to make it more searchable and increase its chance of becoming a trending topic. Don't use more than 3 hashtags per tweet.

You can retweet (RT) to share the best tweets you come across with your followers. You can send someone a tweet publicly or reply to his/her tweets by adding @ before the username. You can send a direct message (DM) to a person who is following you. It is private and directly goes to the follower's twitter inbox.   

You can follow back a follower, un-follow and even block him/her if you find them annoying. To block a follower, go to the profile of the person, click the person icon, from the dropdown Actions menu select Block from the listed options. You can Unblock him/her by clicking undo on their profile page. 

If you are a beginner, follow the steps in the presentation (in Nepali) below to start tweeting and be an advanced user by tweeting at regular intervals.


Source: Twiends.com, Mashable, USC Rossier School of Education.
 

What is your social media personality?

How do you behave in social media? Are your posts informative? Or you just comment to others’ posts?

Your online behaviour determines your social media personality. According to an extensive new study by conversation experts first direct, you either fall under the category the Ultras, Dippers, Deniers, Virgins, Lurkers, Peacocks, Ranters, Changelings, Ghosts, Informers, Approval Seekers or Quizzers.

Source: bjoerntantau.com via Sanjib on Pinterest

Know your online target audience

Who are your target audience?

In simple words, they are the crucial actors who help achieve your communications objectives. Basically, while designing a communications strategy you take into consideration their willingness to support your initiative. Thinking in terms of time involvement and willingness of the audiences, they can be classified as partners, early adopters, wait and watch category, and rejecters.  

Most communicators categorise their audiences as ultimate target audience who are the primary audience, actors with the potential to strengthen the key message and influence the ultimate target audience, intermediaries who help to pass the message to the audience that are hard to reach but are easily accessible to them, and actors with the potential to weaken the message.

Analysing the target audience is always a cumbersome job. And, targeting audience according to their online behaviour has been much more difficult since the number of online visitors is humongous and the motives behind the visits are incomprehensible. Due to the influx of millions of blogs, online forums, and websites, the behaviour of online visitors too is changing day by day. 
So, how you analyse your online target audience?

Forrester has devised an innovative approach termed as Social Technographics Ladder to analyse the online target audience. Forrester’s Social Technographics classifies people according to how they use social technologies.

Inactives at the bottom are followed by spectators, joiners, collectors, critics, and creators at the topmost rung of the ladder.

Creators make social content go. They write blogs or upload video, music, or text.

Critics respond to contents from others. They post reviews, comment on blogs, participate in forums, and edit wiki articles.

Collectors use RSS feeds, add tags to web pages or photos, vote for websites online.

Joiners connect in social networks like MySpace and Facebook.

Spectators consume social content including blogs, user-generated video, podcasts, forums, or reviews.

Inactives neither create nor consume social content of any kind.

Conversationalists update status on social networking site or post to Twitter at least weekly.

Source: ifonlyblog.files.wordpress.com via Sanjib on Pinterest

So on which rung of the ladder does your target audience hang on? Try formulating strategies according to the behaviour of your audience and the success is yours!

Social media explained with coffee

Just stumbled upon a pin from marketplacemaven.com - it explains characteristics of different social media in a simple and interesting way. See how your favourite social media positions itself among the crowd of me-too sites.

Source: marketplacemaven.com via The Dot on Pinterest

5 ways to grow your Twitter following

Twitter is second only to Facebook in terms of users. It has 517 Million registered users with 6.9 Million daily active users. Every minute of the day 100,000 tweets are sent over internet and in a day 340 Million tweets make their way to the online world.

More than 11 Twitter accounts are added every second totalling to 1 Million new accounts created everyday.

Apart from tweeting and retweeting on a regular basis, you can grow your Twitter following through the below mentioned ways suggested by www.twiends.com.

Source: marketingnewscentral.com via The Dot on Pinterest