Twitter Analytics Could Have Been a Money-Making Machine

Twitter is set to launch an analytics service allowing users to track the popularity of their tweets, their own popularity on the service, and the number of retweets, replies and faves each tweet received.

In short: Twitter() is launching a powerful tool that will make marketers salivate.

What’s more, it’s being reported that the product may start at a surprising price: Free.

Is Twitter simply throwing away money?

That’s the topic of my latest CNN column.

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Social Media Now More Popular Than E-mail on Mobile Devices

Mobile users spend 1.4 times as many hours using social networking sites than reading and responding to e-mail, according to a recent study by research company TNS. On average, users spend 3.1 hours per week on social networks, versus 2.2 hours on e-mail.

In most mature markets — such as the U.S. — the trend is reversed on PCs; consumers spend more time on e-mail (5.1 hours per week) than social networking (3.8 hours).

The study, which tracked the online activities and behaviors of nearly 50,000 subjects between 16 and 60 years of age in 46 countries, cited “the increased need for instant gratification” as well as “the ability to offer multiple messaging formats, including the instant message or update function,” for the popularity of social networking platforms on mobile devices. More consumers, both in the U.S. and abroad, expect to spend even more time accessing social media on their mobile devices in the future, rather than their PCs.

In general, consumers proved more engaged and comfortable with social media in rapid growth markets, particularly in Asia, than those in more mature markets. In areas of rapid development, social networking takes up more of users’ time (5.2 hours per week) than e-mail (4.2 hours) on PCs.

The heaviest users of social media live in Malaysia (9 hours per week), Russia (8.1 hours) and Turkey (7.7 hours). Eighty-eight percent of online users in China and 51% in Brazil said they have written their own blog or forum entry, compared to a little less than a third in the U.S.

More than 85% of online consumers living in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam have uploaded photos to social networks or photo-sharing sites, while only 28% and 48% have done so in Japan and Germany, respectively.

TNS Chief Development Officer Matthew Froggatt explains that social media is less popular in more developed countries because consumers have learned to take much of what the Internet has to offer for granted.

“However, in rapid growth markets that have seen recent, sustained investment in infrastructure, users are embracing these new channels in much more active ways. The digital world is transforming how they live, develop and interact and online consumers in these markets are leaving those in the developed world behind in terms of being active online and engaging in new forms of communications,” he says.

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Six Ways to Find Social Media Talent

As organizations move their social media strategies from theory to practice, they discover a difficult truth they must confront: Finding the "perfect" social media talent is practically impossible.

To start, the field is flooded with thousands of self proclaimed "experts" who have reinvented themselves to take advantage what looks like a growing business opportunity. Maybe they do know social media, but many don't. They need to be vetted.

More broadly, most candidates for social media positions fall at the ends of a spectrum. On one end is the person who really gets it and has deep expertise in social media, but lacks the potential to plug into your business culture. On the other end, there is the candidate with plenty of practical professional experience who will fit in easily with your culture, but who maybe doesn't have deep social media experience.

Ideally you'd find the candidate in the middle of that spectrum, but that's proving to be a remarkably rare individual. Trust me, I'm in the middle of a job search for this person and it's a time-consuming, intensive effort.

But in the process of hiring, I've learned some ways to help move the hiring process forward to attract some of the best and brightest emerging talent at all levels. Here are six emerging practices for hiring social media talent.

Empower anyone to recruit. Candidates deeply immersed in social media usually participate across multiple networks--likely the same ones that your employees use both professionally and personally. Empower employees to use their networks to uncover people who may be looking for an opportunity.

Leverage your beacons.Professional activities tied to social media are still relatively new and everyone is learning. That said, if your organization has individuals who are well known in the space, be sure to leverage their social and professional equity in the recruiting process. For example, if one of your employees earns a following in the social space, reward them by supporting their initiatives. Harness their passion for the benefit of your business. A shining light will attract others to it.

Go where they go. The professional world has been slow to embrace social media events such as "tweetups" (meetings organized by participants on Twitter) or conferences like South By Southwest, a kind of spring break for technophiles. But the reality is that these events attract social media enthusiasts--many of whom may become tomorrows corporate superstars.

Show off your case studies. Candidates in this field are typically familiar with the more publicized social media case studies (Ford, Zappos, Comcast, to name a few) and are hungry for more. If your organization has had success on either an internal or external initiative, don't be shy about touting it. But be sure it's something worth talking about. Also, be honest and forthcoming--share failures as well. If you aren't failing, you aren't doing.

Upgrade recruitment tactics and technology. Contract with recruiters who are extremely proficient in engaging with prospects across multiple networks. They must also be conversant with typical social media job descriptions. Make sure your technology infrastructure is upgraded to help recruit socially. For example, simply tracking the links to your job descriptions with a service called bit.ly will show you not only how many times your ad was clicked on, but how the link was socialized and shared across a variety of networks. This data can provide valuable insights into the recruiting process.

Groom internal candidates. Don't forget you probably already employ good candidates for a social media job. They likely already have the cultural qualifications but perhaps lack knowledge or skills in social media such as being comfortable engaging with individuals in public. It's the responsibility of management to ensure that internal prospects can be trained and groomed for opportunities. This means potentially setting time aside for those who have the knowledge internally or bringing in expertise externally for assistance.

David Armano is the official writer of this article.

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Google Announces Search Deal With Twitter

While we’re still digesting the news of Bing adding Twitter to its search engine, Google has some news of their own: they’re about to do the same exact thing.

The search giant has just announced that they have reached a deal with Twitter to include tweets in search results.

From the Google blog:

“Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.”

In other words, so much for Bing getting the upper hand in the battle for real-time search. Absent from Google’s announcement, however, is Facebook. That said, the vast majority of status updates on Facebook are not public, so how much of an advantage that will be to Bing is dependent largely on how Facebook is able to change user behavior.

For Twitter though, today marks significant validation of its business. Just two weeks ago, it was rumored that the company was working on search deals worth “several millions dollars,” and today, they delivered, by partnering with the two biggest players in the game. With a fresh $100 million in the bank and both Google and Microsoft implementing tweets in search, it looks like Twitter() is in it for the long haul.

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Six Tips To Avoid Getting Burned When Starting Social Media Campaigns

If you’re not already tapping into social media, you should, as the channel offers brands tremendous opportunities to foster community and engagement. But many marketers jump into social media efforts with little more than a “cool” idea. This is a mistake. Not only could it pose serious implications for a brand, but it could also obliterate the value you sought to derive from social media in the first place. To effectively leverage social media, you first need to devise a plan. Here are five tips to help you get started.

1. Develop your vision. Get creative and develop a vision of what your brand looks like in social media. For example, will your brand be personified, or will it have a catchy tagline? Will the user get special deals or coupons if they connect with you in this space? What is the message you wish to have transcend the brand? During this process, be sure to think through the different sites you are interested in using, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and define how you envision your brand acting within these sites. Give thought to what you might tweet about, the discussions you might create, how to best use Facebook notes, or what to include on your YouTube channel. When the sky’s the limit—as it is in social media—it is essential to take the time to first create this vision.
   
2. Understand your goals. Outline what you are trying to achieve with social media and be specific about your goals. And note that jumping into the fray just because your competitors are doing so is not a valid reason. Instead, perhaps you want to leverage social media to interact with your customers, or drive sales, or simply to reinforce your branding efforts in alternative channels. Whatever the case, you first need to have clarity on what you are hoping to achieve so you can put together an effective strategy to get the job done.
   
3. Identify your success metrics. Decide how you will gauge the success of your social media efforts and the specific metrics you will use. For example, if the goal of your campaign is to create awareness for a contest that you are running, it’s important to measure contest and brand impressions, numbers of fans or followers, video views and interaction with the site. In addition to identifying your success metrics, be sure to have analytics in place so that you can track on-the-page site interactions and monetary value.
   
4. Define how you will communicate value. Identify the value you are offering your audience and how you will communicate it. In doing so, be sure to make the connection between cool and valuable. Why? Because while creative content generates initial interest, the communication of value will keep the discussion with your audience going longer. Regardless of the means you choose—maybe it’s a contest, or an exclusive coupon for fans or followers—be sure to give your audience a reason to stay connected. Not only will it facilitate engagement, but it will also boost the longevity of your social media effort.
   
5. Integrate your efforts. From the outset, you should plan to integrate your social media efforts with the rest of your marketing initiatives as it can produce a symbiotic effect. For example, by integrating social media with your offline programs, you can create “buzz” for the launch of a new commercial, or solicit feedback about your latest magazine feature. Likewise, by integrating social media with search, you can leverage SEO tactics to help your social content rank in the search engines, build a PPC campaign to capture the demand created by you or your competitors and leverage optimized press releases to promote your efforts.
   
6. Identify sufficient resources. Give thought to the effort and resources necessary to launch your social media initiatives and keep them going. Remember, just showing up in social media won’t suffice. Instead, you need to continually update your presence on a daily basis. For example, you can’t just create a Facebook fan page and walk away from it. You need to invest the time necessary to leverage it as a creative means to interact with your audience and expand the conversation. As you develop your social media plan, make it a priority to identify who will be responsible to update and outline communications with your constituents. Otherwise, your social media vision will get stonewalled.

Social media is a growing channel that offers brand marketers creative ways to interact with their audience and keep the conversation going, but getting started requires more than a cool idea. To derive the most value from it, you first need a plan, and these tips should help you get started.

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