We created this short video that shows you how to sign up for Markitty and connect your Facebook page, Twitter account, and Google Analytics account. (You need to be the Manager of your Facebook page and the Administrator of your Google Analytics account to connect them to Markitty.)
As you can see, you can sign up, connect your accounts, and start getting your recommendations from Markitty in three minutes flat!
Twitter offers users no stats at all, unlike most other social media sites. You can look at your followers and your total number of tweets from your home page (timeline), and click on the @ Connect button for recent retweets and mentions. But that’s it: you can’t see whether your follower count has increased from last week or last month (unless you’re using a separate method of keeping track); you have to count to see how many tweets you posted yesterday.
Markitty’s Tweet Performance and Profile Performance graphs give you a quick glance at all of these for the last three weeks. The Tweet Performance graph compares your tweets each day with retweets you got and mentions of you by others.
Why compare tweets with retweets and mentions? Because common sense suggests that the more you tweet the more your mentions and retweets should increase (though not necessarily in the same day). If this isn’t happening, maybe you should look at the quality or relevance of your tweets.
We’re moving the weekly round-up to Monday, so you can read it as you start your week. This week, here are some social media updates you should know of.
Did you know that you can now tag (mention) people on LinkedIn the way you do on Facebook or Twitter? I’m so glad they finally rolled this out. Even Google Plus had this!
Facebook changed their guidelines to remove restrictions on using calls to action or contact info on cover photos. Now you can say “Buy Now”, “Like”, or “Call us!” in your cover photo if you want to.
Facebook also introduced threading of comments, so that replies are bunched together. In itself, this is a great idea, but people are complaining about the replies being ordered by popularity/relevance instead of in chronological order. If you are a Page owner, this might make your life a little more difficult.
Facebook announced changes to the news feed last month, which are being rolled out to users. This article gives you the five coolest changes: I especially like that mobile usability will improve and we’ll see more content in chronological order.
On to Twitter: the new Twitter cards (that allow you to add rich content in a tweet) have interesting features. For developers, the app card looks really cool. The Gallery card lets you include up to four images in the same tweet. Most interestingly for e-commerce businesses, you can embed product details right inside a tweet.
Are you excited about any of these new features?
Have you seen the Condescending Brand Corporate Page on Facebook? I’d call them a service to humanity: they highlight annoying, irrelevant posts by brands on social media and give you a range of examples on what not to do.
It’s a parody of many brands on Facebook. As their “About” page says:
Welcome to our Facebook page! We’ll be posting up plenty of engaging content to hopefully steal you away from your daytime chores and daily viewing of the Jeremy Kyle Show. We’ll also be asking some very open-ended questions that even a Chimp would find condescendingly offensive
Let’s look at a couple of recent posts.
We just released an update to Markitty with several significant (and a few not-such-a-big-deal changes). We’ve focused on adding more stats and recommendations that you can use to make marketing decisions. We have tried to format tables consistently throughout the site, and made some UI changes that we’re pretty excited about.
We’ve also added a Help page that should answer some of your questions and explain the data we show you. When you’re signed in to Markitty, the “Help” link is on the top right of the menu bar.
On to the details.
Time to remove the mask and reveal yourself on social media
This week, I want to tell you all about Twitter. If you’re a startup founder or a business leader, you should be using Twitter.
This article about top companies’ CEOs in Australia and their low use of Twitter explains why:
By deliberately avoiding Twitter, CEOs are shutting themselves off from engagement with a range of stakeholders including customers, staff and shareholders.
The Wall Street Journal has also discussed what seems to be top executives’ “fear” of Twitter.
Are you new to Twitter? Do you keep feeling you’re missing out by not being on it but aren’t sure how to start? This post tells you what common Twitter terms mean, and how you can make use of Twitter features.
Alison Green is the blogger at Ask A Manager, a popular site that answers questions related to work and careers. I have read Alison’s blog for a couple of years now, and am amazed not only at how she manages to be insightful day in and day out for so many people who write in with questions, but also at how she has nurtured her community — read any of the comments sections to see how much helpful advice commenters usually offer on the blog.
Alison doesn’t have a background in HR — as one comment on her blog from an employee she had managed attested, she is just an exceptionally good manager who is sharing her perspective to help others navigate tricky issues of politics and performance at work.
She talks to us about how her part-time blog turned into her full-time career! Read on.
Bhaskar Sarma of Pixels and Clicks is a copywriter specializing in B2B technology businesses. He is also a fantasy fan, judging by his marketing blog posts that reference Tolkien and Dr. Who. He talks to us about copywriting and social media for B2B.
My questions and comments are in bold.
How and why did you become a consultant?
I came into consulting and copywriting through a pretty roundabout fashion. Before my current gig and after getting my BE in computer engineering I was a tech journalist, an infosec consultant and a volunteer with a non-profit running schools in remote mountain villages near Mussorie. I decided not to get back into the corporate rat race and opted to work for myself, travel when I want and choose my own clients and projects.
The recent brouhaha over Instragram’s policy changes brings into sharp relief the fact that marketing on social media entails a lot of dependence on the social media sites. Instagram’s users might not be in trouble right now, but do you remember the last cries of outrage over changes in Facebook’s policies?
Which brings me to the question: is it wise to focus your marketing efforts primarily on social media?
I’m not advocating ignoring social media (of course). But realize this: you don’t control Facebook or Twitter or Google Plus. Your most important content should be on your own site, whether it’s in the form of blog posts, FAQs, a photo gallery, or video tutorials.
Here are five reasons why.