Monthly Archives: June 2011

Friday Funk: Cincinnati is “Social”

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For the second year in a row, hundreds of thousands gathered together to celebrate “Social Media Day”, on June 30th.  This event is a celebration of the technological advancements that allows for everyone to connect with real-time information and communicate with one another miles apart.

In honor of “Social Media Day”, Mashable, the leader in social media news and web culture reporting runs a global event where they ask web users why their city should be considered the most social place on the planet.

This year, thanks to Blair Ward, Cincinnati, OH (the home of Upright Communications) was chosen as the most social city on earth.

Take a moment to see why Cincinnati is just so social and so cool I might add!

#Cincinnati – The Most Social Savvy City in the World

 

Google+ (A New Social Platform)

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Google+ is a new social platform which many see as Google’s answer to Facebook. There are several components to the free product, launching now and over the next several months:

1) CLICK TO SHARE The first feature (available now to all Google users) is the ability to “+1″ Google search results. Enable this feature, and you will see a +1 button to the right of each Google search result. It’s similar to ‘liking’ on Facebook– when you click the button, other participants in your Google social network will see what you +1 in their own search results. See screenshot:

Sign up for the ability to “+1″ specific Google search results, the new form of social sharing. (Log into your Google account first.)

2) HOOK +1 UP ON YOUR WEBSITE Most likely, Google will eventually factor the amount of +1s a webpage receives as a ranking factor. Currently, the amount of tweets and Facebook shares a page receives is a ranking factor; so this is the next logical step. According to your comfort level, we recommend you add the +1 sharing button to your webpages:

Add the +1 button to your website, to enable visitors to share your webpages and blog entries with their Google networks.

3) ADDITIONAL FEATURES Google has a whole world planned with Google+. For example: ten-person video sharing, management of Facebook-style social profiles, and easy mobile sharing. Currently, only a select few Google users have access to these features. Read one user’s experience of the new features.

Sign up to be notified when additional Google+ features are rolled out to the public.

More to come on Google+ in the coming weeks and months!

Friday Funk: Credit to Social Media

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We frequently hear advertisers in various industries say, “social media is great, but it really doesn’t apply to my market.” The story of Xceed Financial Federal Credit Union, as reported at Credit Unions Online, might make those reluctant marketers reconsider. Rather than deciding that social media was not relevant for their business, they found a way to make their business applicable to social media.

Financial advice and tutorials might not be the liveliest social media subject matter but Xceed is managing to use a variety of social outlets to gain a broader audience. Is the effort paying off? According to Senior Vice President Kathryn Davis, they see measurable results from promotions like the “BLING-BLING for Mom” message on their Facebook page promoting a discount at Zales using the Platinum Visa. She reports, “posts like the Mother’s Day discount entry produce almost a 200% increase in activity. We get the highest response when we weave a current event or something happening in the news into our offerings.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

For today’s Friday Funk, we’d like to share an episode of “The Cube” a humorous series reminiscent of The Office that Xceed features on their social website, xperienceonline.org. It’s fun to watch, you’ll learn how to calculate your net worth, and you may even be inspired to create your own social media gem!

Tuesday Tip: Top Ways to Clean Up Your Social Media Identity

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The way you represent your brand on social media networks is as important as being on the most prominent channels. You may be on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, but if you’re not managing how your brand is being represented, then why be on there. Upright has given you information on how to create the best profiles you can, but you now need to know how to manage it.

Follow these top ways to manage and clean up your social media identity for unwavering success:

Keep up the same persona on all channels. You want your followers to know who you are as a company. If your Facebook persona is inconsistent with your Twitter persona, how will they know who you really are? Social Media is all about allowing people to connect with the real brand. ** Remember to keep in mind that MySpace allows for more creativity than LinkedIn for example, so try to keep it consistent no matter what network you’re talking to.

Sign up for monitoring systems like Ping.fm where you can update your social media networks all at one time. It’s important that you notify all your channels of what your business has to say rather than just one. By doing that, you’ll never miss anyone when you’re sharing your newest products or offering out of this world deals.

Use the same name on every channel. The worst is when people look for you on one network but can’t find you on another because you have different names for your business. If you’re CupcakeChick on Facebook, then you need to be CupcakeChick on Twitter, YouTube, etc. Own your brand! Same goes for your screen name. If it’s Twitter.com/CupcakeChick, then you want it to be Facebook.com/CupcakeChick. Before you go creating a screen name on one account, check other accounts to make sure it’s available.

Don’t mix personal with business. It’s easy for us to associate our personal accounts with our business accounts. However, not everyone wants to know what you did this weekend or how cute your dog looks in that photo, so be sure not to mix the two. To avoid this issue, try cross-connecting your business social media accounts. Add your Twitter and Facebook links to your LinkedIn profile and vice versa. That way Google can see that those accounts are connected but not see your personal account in the mix.

Now, go on your merry way to cleaning and managing those accounts. It will be worth it!