As we get closer to the Facebook IPO people are starting to examine more closely where the potential threats to facebook might come from.

I think before we go any further I should lay my cards out on the table.  I admire what facebook has accomplished, I’d be a fool not to.  Where my views apparently differ from the mass media is on its future prospects for growth.  I’m not alone in this wilderness.  There are some even more vocal apponents to the current pre IPO stock valuations.

OK so we could touch on the obvious stuff here.  Revenue has fallen in this quarter compared the last.  Profits have fallen over a period when user numbers increased by over 30%.  Click through rates on paid ads fell and continue to fall.  Although they claim to see the future as mobile (dont we all)  they’ve  a poorly executed mobile app (on all platforms). Only a fraction of their income comes directly from mobile ads, something no one has yet to accomplish at scale.  Oh and last and not least, the jury is still out on social media ROI, at least when compared to the much more transparent established search marketing channels.

Anyway the point being, the list is pretty long and getting longer as more of what goes on behind their closed doors becomes public.

All these topics have been covered at least in part by other industry commentators.  So what I’d like to discuss here is something more fundamental in terms of threat to their future growth.

If the future truly is as mobile as zuckerberg believes, then central to that future internet is hardware.  One might argue that its in fact hardware thats facilitated the growth in mobile internet rather than consumer demand.  The iPhone has taken us from the old mobile wap world into a 4G, app driven version..

As the speeds of mobile internet increase it’s easy to believe the bulk of our social interactions will be via mobile devices. They are the ideal delivery mechanisms for this type of information.  Foursquare, instagram, path, twitter and yes even google+, are all potentially standalone mobile apps.  In the case of path and instagram they already are.

So what happens if that social aspect is baked into the hardwares operating system?  Apple already has plans to integrate photo sharing in its next release of iCloud. Facebook’s photo sharing is seen as its core feature.  What if apple was able to make photo sharing seamless?  Photos taken and shared appear on friends phones without the need to load a browser or an “app”.  A kind of next generation instagram.  Fully integrated with your phones camera.  They’re already part the way there with the current iCloud version, imagine what 3 versions from now is going to look like?

Twitter is already built into iOS at a core level, and although Spotify already shares your music across facebook, its not a huge leap to believe that apple will step into the music streaming business in the near future.  Their last major itunes update took them a step closer to that end goal.

Apple already has a notifications screen (following androids lead), which is an, admittedly raw, events feed right now. But again imagine a version thats two or three revisions from now.  We’ve already seen the latest release of windows mobile really pushing the bounderies of whats possible on a mobiles homescreen.  Android is not far behind.

I propose that if you had a device which shared music, status updates and photos in a way that was passive to friends and family (meaning there is no NEW social network to join) there would be massive adoption.  On a scale no web platform has yet to witness.

Apple is moving every closer to that illusive mobile to browser to TV operating system.  The summer release of OSX is going to see us take another step closer.  Incorporating messenging and reminders across all devices.  Joining the existing music, photos, TV, movies.

So when people claim apple has failed at social media, I think they’re missing the point.  They already have the network in place with well over 100M people using it on a daily basis.  Ignoring ipads, they sold more iPhones in the first quarter of 2012 then babies were born on the planet!

Ironically facebooks only really viable defence comes from its current number one enemy.  Google.  The rise (albeit shaky in recent months) of android has at least slowed apples mobile domination.  Its possible that iPhone & iPad adoption, fuelled by an integrated social platform could be a tipping point the likes we havent seen in 30 years.  As windows was and continues to be to the desktop, so too will iOS be to the mobile.  The one remaining questions is in a world where mobile internet rules and is run by apple, how long before the subservient desktop operating systems follow suit?

If you can show me a company that is not utilising at least one social network as part of their online marketing strategy, I’ll eat my hat. Everyone’s doing it, that part’s undeniable, but not everyone is doing it properly.

When it comes to using social marketing as a business there is a certain etiquette that you should follow (however loosely you like) in order to best present yourself to your fans or followers, whoever they might be.

Here are some tips that will come in handy when you’re going through the process of setting up your social accounts:

Find Your Voice

Before you let your social media guy lose on your Facebook account it’s probably a good idea to decide what kind of message you want to portray; what kind of company do you want to be?

I’d recommend having a chat with your marketing team (or whoever is responsible for social media) and establishing a set of social guidelines that anyone using your accounts needs to adhere to. This way you’re all writing in the same tone, posting at the right times, choosing the right content to publish, and just generally on the same wave length.

Finding your voice is (arguably) the easy bit, it’s maintaining consistency in your voice where most businesses fall short so bear this in mind when you’re establishing your tone.

Choose Wisely

Contrary to popular belief you don’t actually need to have an account with every social media site in the world to have an effective social media strategy.

Its fine to dabble if you think a certain site will be beneficial to your marketing strategy but don’t be afraid to delete the account if it doesn’t quite work out. There is nothing more detrimental to your social presence than sites/accounts that aren’t updated on a regular basis.

Depending on your industry there may well be a site or two that you need to be on; if you’re in the travel industry for example you should probably take control of your TripAdvisor page, but that doesn’t mean you need an account on every site related to travel.

Spend some time testing your engagement on various sites and be realistic about how many sites your business can maintain.

Post Unique Content

So we’ve established that you’ll probably have a handful of social accounts that need to be updated on a daily/weekly basis, and that’s fine, but make sure that you’re not always using the same content for each update.

If you’ve got a link to your latest blog post then think about what audiences need to see it, is it really necessary for the link need to go on Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? Google+? Pinterest? Remember there is such a thing as over saturation.

As I’ve just touched on, the great thing about social networks is that they do attract different audiences, and that’s something you can play to. Where Twitter followers may benefit from 140 character updates, your Facebook followers will probably want something a little more substantial (pictures, videos, events etc.) given the capabilities of the site.

Have a think about ways you can interact with your different audiences and this could even inspire some of your content/updates.

Get Personal… But Not Too Personal

As I’ve covered in this post, it’s great to include a personal touch to your website, and even more so to your social media profiles given the informal nature of social networks, however, make sure that you don’t end up with profiles that look more like they’re managed by an individual than by your company.

Feel free to post some pictures of the team or promote your latest charity efforts, but avoid the I’s and Me’s or you’ll start looking like a one man organisation and it could taint how people perceive your company (link back round to the finding your voice point).

As conversational as sites like Facebook and Twitter can be, remember you’re still representing your business, and ultimately trying to promote and sell a product/service.

I’ve found a great infographic from social media expert Dan Zarrella which summarises some studies he’s conducted on click through rates (CTRs) on Twitter links.

He’s given out some really valuable information which could help to improve your Twitter interaction rates so I thought it would be useful for everyone to have that info in text format rather than a screen consuming image!

There are results from quite a few different studies in here so I’ve just picked a few I think are the easiest to implement straight away:

Tweets between 120 and 130 characters have highest CTRs

Zarrella looked at over 200,000 Tweets containing links and found that the tweets with the highest CTRs were between 120 and 130 characters long, just shy of Twitters maximum 140 character limit.

I found this kind of surprising given the attention span of users on sites like Twitter – I figured the shorter the better but Tweets of this length could indicate that a link is more attractive when it’s accompanied by a short piece of text.

I’d guess that a comment or introduction to the link gives the impression that there actually is a human behind the Tweet and it’s not just a bot throwing out links.

Place links quarter way through your Tweet

In the same study Zarrella found that, out of the 200,000 Tweets, the highest CTRs could be found in the Tweets that presented the link around 25% of the way into the text.

So it if we make up a quick example (ignore the text, it might not make sense), Zarrella is saying that a Tweet formatted like this:

“Love this post [link link link]. Really informative article from @Serchen, everyone take a look.”

Would work better than a Tweet formatted like this:

“I’ve found a really informative article from @Serchen. Everyone take a look, I love this post [link link link].”

Mentioning other users and putting ‘RT’ gets a higher CTR

The result I found most interesting was how CTRs increased when Tweets contained certain words of phrases.

Tweets containing the terms ‘via’, ‘retweet’, ‘please’, and ‘check’ (as in ‘check this out’) had a higher CTR. As did Tweets containing mentions like @Serchen.

I made the assumption that Tweets that were essentially asking for Retweets (or begging for, if you’re cynical), would be perceived as slightly more spammy than those simply presenting information, but apparently not!

On a side note, I think the @mentions point is really important to implement because not only can mentioning other users instigate conversation, it can also add a little more personality to your Twitter and gain you more followers. (See more on Increasing your Twitter Followers).

(Note: Zarrella doesn’t specify which study this information came from, but if it was the 200,000 Tweets one then it’s a safe bet to say his results are pretty accurate.)

Schedule Tweets – CTRs higher on weekends

Another result that I found quite interesting is that Tweets posted over the weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) had a higher CTR than those posted throughout the week. It’s quite a significant rise too.

I figured most Twitter users would be using a mobile device of some sort and would have Twitter ‘on the go’ if you like. Either that, or those working on computers would be checking it throughout the day, but, again, apparently not! (This is why I love Zarrella’s studies).

I want to show you the graph as well so you can see just how significant the jump is for CTRs over the weekend:

This result is a good argument in favour of scheduling Tweets and using third party tools like TweetDeck or HootSuite. As long as you’ve got the content it only takes 2 minutes to schedule some Tweets so by the looks of things it’s definitely worth experimenting with.

Tweet in the afternoon – 3pm is good

If you are going to Tweet at the weekend, better make sure it’s after 2pm as CTRs seem to peak at 2pm, 5pm and 8pm. Unsurprisingly CTRs significantly dipped at 4am and 7am, but apart from that it looks like you could generally achieve a 0.5% CTR majority of the day.

There are a few more findings on the infographic but I thought these five would be the most useful, and like I said, the easiest to implement. You could even be really literal and write a Tweet 120 characters long, with a link 25% of the way through, ask for a Retweet and schedule it at 3pm on a Saturday. Let us know if you give any of these techniques a go!

If you want to see the full infographic you can find it here: http://danzarrella.com/infographic-how-to-get-more-clicks-on-twitter.html

UPDATED Feb 2012 – Have updated with a few more links. Enjoy!

Recently, I’ve been writing a lot about how businesses can use social media sites as part of their online marketing strategy. It’s a really interesting topic for me as I spend quite a lot of time on social media sites during the day and love finding sneaky new ways to use the sites that most people aren’t yet spotting.

I wanted to share with everyone what I’ve found so rather than putting together big ‘social media guides’ which a lot of people seem to be doing at the moment I thought I’d just put together this resource page with a few links to blog posts that you might find helpful when using social media as part of your online marketing strategy.

Google+ - Finding Influencers with Google+ Ripples

Google+ – Maximising your Google+ Brand Page for SEO 

Facebook - Facebook Brand Pages: An Audience Study

Twitter - 5 Tips to Increase your Twitter Followers for 2012

Twitter - Awesome (and Easy) Ways to Increase Click on your Twitter Links

Pinterest.com - Using Pinterest.com as Part of Your Online Marketing Strategy

Pinterest.com - Connecting Pinterest.com to Your Website and Social Pages

I love reading through all of your comments so let me know if you’ve found any of the posts helpful and feel free to share any tips you’ve found yourself!

Enjoy!

If you’re jumping on board with social media marketing for 2012 then Twitter.com will definitely be one of the sites you utilise.

As of September 2011 Twitter has over 100 million active users from different countries and industries around the world and it’s not unreasonable to believe that some of them will be interested in what you have to say.

If you either already have a Twitter account or are only just introducing Twitter to your business, the tips below will help you maximise your Twitter account and increase your Twitter followers for 2012.

1. Give and you shall receive

You can’t expect your followers to engage with your Tweets if you don’t engage with them.

The best way to engage with Tweets publicly is, of course, to Retweet. Not only does it show you’re interested in the topic, but gives the Tweeter a little ego boost as you’re recommending it to your Followers. Adding a personal touch like a short comment (providing you can fit one in) is an even better indicator that you’ve truly read and engaged with the post.

If you can convince your Followers that you’re genuinely interested in reading and sharing their stuff then they’ll be much more likely to pay you the same respect and Retweet your posts, thus promoting you to a whole new list of potential Followers.

2. Stick to a couple of topics

With business, Twitter followers are largely based around industries and related topics so it’s important that you know your industry, and more importantly, stick to it.

Chose just one or two topics to Tweet about so you know that once you’ve hooked your audience, you won’t lose them on a random tangent. The more you can confidently discuss a topic, the more knowledgeable you appear to your followers (hopefully you do actually know something about your industry, too!).

As a result, this should encourage trust in you as a knowledgeable source and Followers will be more likely to share your information via Retweets, again, exposing you to a new group of potential Followers.

3. Make the most of the ‘Lists’ feature

If you really want to refine the audience of your Tweets you should start putting together lists of people you would class as influencers in your chosen field.

This is a great way of having a list of respected content to Retweet from reliable sources. This could in turn encourage them to Retweet some of your posts if they begin to recognise your name and associate that with an expressed interest in their posts.

It’s also handy to observe the people in your lists to see how they interact with their Followers, the kind of content they post, the level of discussion, frequency etc. This can give you a good idea on how a highly successful Twitter profile is run (although obviously their position and fame in their industry will give them an advantage so don’t get disheartened if you can’t quite reach their level).

4. Remember to Tweet on a regular basis (but not too much)

It’s likely that you’re followers will come from various countries with differing time zones so bear in mind that not everyone will see the Tweet you send from the UK at 10am (for example).

There’s no set limit on how often you should Tweet (whether that be a Retweet or otherwise) but general rule of thumb is around a handful of Tweets per working day. But only if you have the content, don’t Tweet for the sake of it or your Followers will be able to tell and certainly won’t Retweet.

You can schedule Tweets at out of office hours that will hit other time zones though so make the most of that feature so as not to miss out certain groups.

5. Twitter isn’t all about Retweets – Get talking

Retweets will likely be the best and easiest way for you to gain more followers due to the time they take up but if you’ve got the man power then you should definitely try and engage in conversations.

Make the most of Twitter’s #Discovery tab and search for and join in with discussions related to your industry. By searching for particular topics you’ll find like-minded users who will be more willing to not only participate in discussions re those topics (as they already are), but will also be more inclined to Follow you as a result of your shared interest.

If you’re looking for more influencers to Follow yourself, then the #Discovery tab is also a great tool for providing you with an infinite list of potential Follows.