I’d rather you be able to just go ahead and click the Play button.

I think that this is another great example of showing the potential power of online video and social media. At the time of writing this post, this video has nearly 700,000 views in just a few days.

There certainly are many ways for people to see what their Twitter connections are saying. Of course, they can see tweets on their main page/stream. They also might create and monitor Lists to read tweets from different groups of people. And, there are plenty of third-party Apps that can be used to see data from your Twitter feed.

If you have the responsibility of monitoring Twitter, you may also regularly use the “Search” and “Saved Searches” function.

A Very Important Option in Search Results

One way that I use “Saved Searches” is to monitor mentions of my boss, John Foley, Jr. There are certainly different variations of his name that people may use when talking about him, but one common one is his Twitter handle, JohnFoleyJr.

Whenever I need to, I simply pull up that saved search to see what Twitter presents in its results. This will include @mentions, as well as any other tweets that simply include that phrase.

I thought that this was helping me see every tweet that Twitter’s search engine could find.

However, that was not the case! I was missing tweets.

The Feature That I Was Overlooking

Take a look at the screenshot below:

Now that I know it’s there, I’m a bit embarrassed that I missed it before.

But the search results can vary based on the option selected next to the “Tweets:” field label.

For me, “Top” has always been the default option that was selected. It wasn’t until I realized that I saw that option and changed it to “All” that I realized I was not always seeing tweets in real-time.

I hope that you find this tip helpful!

Photo Credit

However, I are absolutely thrilled that I saw this advertisement from Budweiser ahead of the big game:

I am not embarrassed to say that I think I was tiny seconds away from shedding a tear (in the middle of an office, no less!) as the video came to a close.

This is certainly a tremendous example of how to produce a video that stirs emotions and causes people to think quite positively about a brand.

I also am passionate about the mail and fulfillment industry.

But can those two passions mix? Specifically, can a company that provides mailing and/or fulfillment services use social media to promote their business and generate more leads?

Would you like to know the answer?

I am quite happy to have the opportunity to discuss that latter question in more detail at a meeting on February 1st, 2012 of the Mailing and Fulfillment Services Association (MFSA) New York Chapter.

While I’m there, I’ll be delivering a presentation titled “How You Can Improve Your Marketing Efforts”. My content is specifically geared to folks in the mail and fulfillment industries.

I will discuss cross-media and multi-channel marketing campaigns, but I will also spend a lot of time focusing on providing actionable advice for attendees specifically in the social media space.

Will you be attending? I’d love to see you there!

Event Details

When: Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Where: Club 101, 101 Park Avenue, (40th St), New York, NY

5:30 – Cocktail Reception
6:15 – Dinner
7:00 – Program

Need more information? Please visit the MFSA New York Chapter’s website >>

They have recently gone through quite a period of change! They’ve changed their name, their branding, and their website! To help create awareness about these big changes, they have turned to marketing channels such as social media and email.

They initially tried to do an email effort on their own; however, the results were a bit less than they had hoped. However, rather than giving up on email as an effective channel, they turned to the team here at Grow Socially for some help!

How We Helped

With over five hundred customer email addresses on file, we created a new email for them. During the creation process, we had the following goals in mind:

• Reward Generation Smile’s customers
• Convey Generation Smile’s value of family and community
• Create awareness of their Facebook Page
• Encourage recipients to “Like” the Facebook Page and engage with it
• Encourage participation in a contest – the prize was “win a night out” from Generation Smile.
• Create awareness of their name change — and explain why they did it.
• Create awareness of Generation Smile;s new website and social media presence.

Yes, there were a lot of goals! But all parties felt that they could be tied nice together if the email was laid out properly.

The email that we created for them contained prominent calls-to-action, clear messages, and used images in the appropriate places.  We linked the corresponding text and images to their websites and social media profiles, in order to make it very easy for the recipients to click-through.

A/B Testing and the Subject Line

Of course, we reognized that the content in the Body of the email is only one component. We also focused on the Subject Line.

We used the A/B Split testing technique to try to determine would Subject Line would be most effective in regards to creating engagement.

• Test A: Sent to 50 people with the subject line “Thank You from the Generation Smile Team”
• Test B: Sent to 50 people with a subject line of “Let Generation Smile Treat Your Family to a Night Out!”

Though both had very good open rates of 53% (A) and 49% (B), Test B generated more clicks to the Facebook page than Test B. Based on these results, the remaining contacts on their list were sent the email blast with subject line B – “Let Generation Smile Treat Your Family to a Night Out!”. The final email had an amazing 44.76% open rate!

The email blast absolutely helped to achieve the desired results for Generation Smile. This included a rise in Facebook fans, a number of interactions on their Facebook wall (required to be entered into the giveaway), and their largest spike in website traffic to date.

Could We Help You?

If you’re interested in learning more about how Grow Socially can help your current marketing efforts, please contact us.

Being a die hard Patriots fan that follows football AND enjoys the interaction between players  & fans on Twitter, I find this very unique and definitely interesting. I think I recall Chad OchoCinco being fined $25,000 for tweeting during a game as a Bengal. (Not to show my bias too much but I don’t think that would’ve happened on Bill Belichick’s sideline, but that’s my own opinion.) With that being said, the NFL has policies set in place regarding social media usage by professional athletes and coaches. It states:

“Players, coaches and operations staff cannot use social media less than 90 minutes before kickoff. Social media use can resume after traditional media interviews conclude. Updates to player accounts (by the player or anyone else) are prohibited.”

The NFL is not the only professional organization that has installed policies like this to maintain the integrity of the game and regulate the image of the sport in the eyes of the public. NBA forward Charlie Villanueva was an early offender of in-game tweeting. Although there were no fines issued in his incident, there had to be some sort of regulations put into effect that channeled the behavior of athletes on social media websites.

So what is the Pro Bowl doing this year that slips quietly around these regulations? Basically, the NFL has decided this:

“Pro Bowl players will not be able to tweet from personal devices on sidelines. Will be computer station on each sideline,” tweeted Darren Rovell, CNBC. “The Pro Bowl twitter stations where players can in-game tweet will not be sponsored.”

I think that this is a great decision by the NFL! In fact, I believe that the ratings for the Pro Bowl are going to sky-rocket through the roof! I know that I will be following the stream and tweeting at my favorite players… and I do know my excitement level will rise quite a bit if one of them tweets back at me!

I am quite curious to see how this type of interaction can be used for future events. Of course, there could be a downside. By integrating real-time technology like this into a highly focused sport, it could certainly distract players and create future problems with leadership on the field.

Where do you think this technology will go? How far can we take this to allow for flexibility for athletes and fans while maintaining the essence of the game? It should be a very interesting day on Twitter this Sunday for sports fans.

For more on Grow Socially you can connect with us today on Twitter

or Follow @tomRbarry

Well, he wasn’t. He had delivered a statistic that was out-of-date.

And guess what? That statistic is more out-of-date than ever before.

Today, YouTube announced that they there are now 60 hours of video uploaded every second!

Recognizing that figure is truly beyond astounding, YouTube has put together a website to help illustrate what that really means.

If you have a few moments, check out the “One Hour Per Second” website.

It’s entertaining and a bit zany. But it does help to put the incredible usage of YouTube in perspective.

Of course, the main reason for using a hashtag nowadays is related to social networks. And while there are many networks that utilize them, Twitter is the certainly the most popular one in terms of usage.

I took a few moments to record the video below. It presents how you can effectively use hashtags within the Twitter interface. But I also share a third-party tool that can help you monitor hashtags on a regular basis.

I hope that you find those tips and that tool helpful!

Photo Credit

That is, until we encountered a little number called the LifeDesk. We first met the owners of this product at a print industry event in Chicago. Well, a few months later, they are a Grow Socially client! We are creating their website and building a social media platform to give the LifeDesk a deserving online presence.

LifeDesk is an adjustable, sit-to-stand desk that allows you to do your work however you please. Want to type up a memo while you’re standing? No problem. Watching YouTube videos and your back hurts? Fear not, adjust the LifeDesk and get straightened out. Are you just really, really tall? LifeDesk works for you too.

To help us best understand the product that we’d be promoting, the company was kind enough to lend us two desks for use at our office. Below are a few reviews from the employees that have tried it out so far.

“In sales, motion creates emotion,” said Matt Sullivan, Grow Socially sales executive. “Using the LifeDesk has allowed me to stand up and put more passion into my sales presentations for new potential prospects.  Besides improving my sales pitch, it has also helped me keep my ‘get healthier’ mindset while at work.”

That’s right, folks. The LifeDesk can increase sales. (Disclaimer: No, it cannot really do that. But it may make your Sales Reps happier people!)

Jacques Gingras of interlinkONE also had high grades for the product. “Having used the Life Desk, I would highly recommend it to anyone who typically sits at their desk all day. I enjoyed the change of pace that standing up provided as well as the focus that it was able to generate.” Aside from helping the normally erratic Jacques focus, the LifeDesk has many other functions as well. It can be completely customized, from shape to color. Its ergonomic design and concept make for an attractive and innovative addition to your office. Also, it has a handy storage drawer.

Well, if you have been neglecting adding Google+ to your marketing activities up until now, you may want to re-think that approach! Here’s why.

Search Plus Social

Last week, Google announced that they were going to make some fairly significant changes to their search engine. They labeled these changes “Search, plus Your World”. These enhancements would dramatically change the search results that were presented to logged-in users. The results presented to people would now greatly incorporate the social networking data that a person is connected to — at least the social networking data that Google had access to.

Users would notice this difference throughout the links, images, and videos that were presented by Google’s search engine. Yes, what a person saw two weeks ago as the #1 result when they searched for “printing services” could now be radically different, based on their social network connections.

Since Google only has access to the data within so many social networks, Google+ is playing a major role in the changes that they’ve made to their search engine.

This has caused a number of debates to arise as to whether their actions are fair and justified. But for people like us — those that are looking to do whatever we can to grow our business — we must react to the reality.

And the reality is this: If we want people to find our business online, we need to be on Google+!

How to Get Started with Google+

Google started rolling out these changes to users last week. Thus, chances are very good that you have access to them.

Below are a few things that you can do now to take take advantage of these enhancements:

• If you don’t already have one, create a Google Profile.
• Once you have a profile, make sure that you log-in to Google before you run your next Search.
• Get on Google+! It’s free to create an account.
• Google+ allows you to have a personal profile, of course. But you can also create Pages for your Business, Products & Services, Events, and more.
• Start creating and publishing content on your Google+ profiles and pages
• Build your Google+ community: Take the time to add people and Pages to your Circles and invite others to do the same for your accounts.

It certainly will be interesting to see how companies adapt and benefit from these changes.

Once you’re logged in to your Google profile, start running a few searches. It can be quite fascinating to see how the “Personal Results” change what is presented to you.

If you have a free moment, check out the video that Google has released regarding the “Search, plus Your World” functionality below. I think it does a great job of demonstrating the importance of using Google+ in one’s marketing efforts.

P.S. These changes have absolutely motivated me to increase my personal Google+ usage. Feel free to “Circle” me there!