Social Media
Our social media marketing coverage addresses management tools, educational courses, platform tips, social analytics, and strategies for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more. We’ve interviewed merchants who rely on social media traffic, and vendors who provide specialized services.
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Social Media
Creating Facebook Ads Using ‘Custom Audiences’
February 19, 2014 • Paul Chaney
One Facebook advertising option you don’t hear much about is Custom Audiences. It helps companies reach current customers and prospects. Only large advertisers could previously participate in Custom Audiences, but ...
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Social Media
Using a LinkedIn Company Page to Showcase your Business
February 12, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Due to its focus on people in professional occupations, LinkedIn is often the social network of preference for B-to-B ecommerce companies. With more than 277 million members, it is the ...
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Social Media
9 Contests on Facebook from Retailers
February 10, 2014 • Sig Ueland
Facebook Page owners can now run promotional contests directly on the Timeline, simply and easily, without high cost and without a third-party app provider. As a result, smaller merchants can ...
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Social Media
7 Ways to Use Social Media to Tell Stories
February 6, 2014 • Paul Chaney
The Super Bowl is known for two things: the football game and the commercials that air during it. While this year’s Super Bowl proved to be lackluster in so far as ...
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Social Media
Facebook Algorithm Change Favors Link-share Posts
January 29, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Facebook recently announced a change to its algorithm that adversely affects the way a certain type of Page update appears in News Feed. According to Facebook’s Chris Turitzin, product manager, News ...
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Social Media
6 Ways to Use a Facebook Page for Year-round Holidays
January 22, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Just because Christmas and New Years have passed does not mean the holidays are over. Even though they pale in comparison to the Christmas season in terms of retail sales, holidays ...
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Social Media
Social Marketplaces Can Benefit Ecommerce Merchants
January 14, 2014 • Paul Chaney
Online marketplaces bring buyers and sellers together to exchange goods and services. Social media encourages marketplace mentality by enabling product discovery in a social environment, where prospective customers can rely ...
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Social Media
Social Media Advertising Necessary in 2014?
January 8, 2014 • Paul Chaney
One of the trends likely to dominate social media marketing in 2014 is advertising. Facebook said that advertising would ensure posts are more visible in News Feed. Twitter continues to push ...
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Social Media
For Ecommerce, 12 Social Media Essentials for 2014
January 1, 2014 • Paul Chaney
The onset of a new year is a good time to step back and analyze what worked and what didn’t with social media. Here are 12 practices that can start ...
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Social Media
Social Media and the Zero Moment of Truth
December 24, 2013 • Paul Chaney
In 2011, Google introduced the term Zero Moment of Truth to describe how people shop. A ZMOT is someone’s subjective experience with a product that, when shared, influences another person’s purchase ...
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Social Media
Using ‘Instagram Direct’ for Ecommerce Marketing
December 18, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Instagram, the photo sharing application owned by Facebook, just launched direct messaging. Called Instagram Direct, users who follow each other can now send private messages containing photos or 15-second videos in ...
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Social Media
Facebook Wants ‘High Quality’ Content; 8 Tips for Merchants
December 12, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Views from organic Facebook Page posts have been declining. A recent announcement from Facebook explains why. “On a given day, when someone visits News Feed, there are an average of 1,500
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Social Media
Does Social Media Impact Ecommerce Sales?
December 4, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Black Friday online sales hit a record of $1.2 billion, according to published reports. But only a very small percentage of those sales could be attributed to social media, says ...
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Social Media
Enforcing FTC Advertising Disclosures for Blogs, Social Media
December 3, 2013 • Carolyn Kmet
Earlier this year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission updated its disclosure-of-advertising guidelines to include blogs and social media. If you are paying a monetary or product incentive to promote your ...
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Social Media
7 Ways Merchants Can Use Twitter’s New Custom Timelines
November 27, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Twitter recently introduced a new feature called custom timelines, which are similar to Twitter lists except that you create them using tweets of your own choosing. “Custom timelines are an entirely ...
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Social Media
7 Ways to Make Holiday Sales More ‘Pinteresting’
November 20, 2013 • Paul Chaney
The holiday season is upon us and merchants are looking for innovative ways to market their products. Pinterest is one of those ways. Its emphasis on the use of visual imagery,
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Social Media
Twitter Redesign: Photos and Vine Video
November 13, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Twitter recently made a substantial design change by showcasing previews of photos and the first frame of Vine videos in user timelines. Previously, users had to click a link to ...
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Social Media
5 Holiday Social Media Tips for Ecommerce Merchants
November 7, 2013 • Armando Roggio
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media sites may play an important role in how 2013’s Christmas shoppers find and buy presents on the Internet and in store, potentially making ...
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Social Media
Facebook Updates Page Insights; Adds New Feature
October 28, 2013 • Paul Chaney
In response to user feedback, Facebook has redesigned Page Insights to make it more actionable, simpler to use, and easier to understand. The new version helps Page administrators create better ...
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Social Media
8 Facebook Post Types for Boosting Engagement
October 28, 2013 • Kunle Campbell
Certain types of Facebook posts tend to see higher engagement than others. Here are eight post types with examples to help you get higher engagement on Facebook.
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Social Media
5 Popular Web Clipping Software Platforms
October 23, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Web clipping platforms are a convenient way to save content for sharing social updates or when conducting research for blog posts. They are designed to store information such as text,
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Social Media
Facebook Simplifies Ad Buying for Second Time
October 15, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Facebook continues to promote its advertising products, especially among small business users. One way is by simplifying the ad purchase process. The first attempt occurred in June of this year ...
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Social Media
Using Hashtags for Ecommerce
October 8, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Hashtags are common nowadays. They are prominent on many social networks. You see them on television commercials and programs. Late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon even has a segment ...
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Social Media
5 Ways Twitter Is Like Radio Advertising
October 3, 2013 • Armando Roggio
From a marketer’s perspective, Twitter tweets and radio promotions have a number of similarities. Thinking about what these marketing tactics have in common can reveal insights about content creation, message ...
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Social Media
Social Listening: Benefits, Tools, Tips
October 2, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Social media has given people a megaphone through which to share ideas, advice, and opinions about brands they do business with and products they buy. Such sharing can wield powerful ...
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Social Media
Facebook Increases Image Size of Ads
September 25, 2013 • Paul Chaney
Facebook revised some of its ad formats recently to make them more consistent across all devices — desktop and mobile — as well as to improve performance. Ads affected by ...
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Social Media
Does Pinterest Help with SEO?
September 20, 2013 • Jill Kocher Brown
The intersection of organic search and Pinterest is actually very small. Still, Pinterest does have a place in search engine optimization as a way to expand a site’s search result ...
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Social Media
25 Helpful Facebook Insights Definitions
September 19, 2013 • Kunle Campbell
Facebook Insights offers metrics to analyze your audience beyond age, gender, country, city, and language. You can discover what your audience likes about your page, where the visitors were before they came to your page, and otherwise monitor reach, virality, and more.
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Social Media
Twitter’s Lead Generation Ad Format Captures User Data
September 18, 2013 • Paul Chaney
In May, Twitter announced the release of Lead Generation Cards, which are designed to help advertisers highlight specific offers, products, or services and capture user interest directly from within a ...
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Social Media
Top 10 Social Media Marketing Application Providers
September 11, 2013 • Paul Chaney
I conducted a roundup of top social media marketing app providers nearly a year ago and much has changed since then. Many have added new features and apps, integrated with ...