TweetDeck is a great tool that can generate a lot of traffic for a business, especially if you use it as part of an overall marketing plan. It can however be a bit confusing for first time users.

Use this guide to help with:

• Understanding what TweetDeck is
• How to set up a TweetDeck account
• How to add twitter accounts to TweetDeck
• How to add columns in TweetDeck
• What you can do on TweetDeck
• How to create custom alerts

Understanding What TweetDeck Is

TweetDeck is an application for a twitter account that is of great benefit to businesses, bloggers and publishers alike. Utilised properly it can allow you to organise, search for and respond to tweets centred on a specific subject or product for multiple accounts at the same time.

How To Set Up A TweetDeck Account

You must create a new account to use TweetDeck as you cannot create an account with any current twitter credentials.

1.    Go to tweetdeck.com
2.    Click on create account
3.    Provide an email address and create a password
4.    You’re ready to go

You can add multiple twitter accounts to your TweetDeck account once it is created by using the settings icon in the top right of the navigation bar.

How To Add Twitter Accounts To TweetDeck

To add twitter accounts to TweetDeck just follow the instructions below:

1.    Open the settings in the top right of the navigation bar, it looks like a little gear
2.    Select settings
3.    Then select add twitter account
4.    Enter the account you wish to add
5.    Easy as that!

How to add columns in TweetDeck

1.    Click add column in the top navigation bar
2.    Select the type of column
3.    Select the account to populate the column

What You Can Do On TweetDeck

One of the most useful features for business owners on TweetDeck is the custom alert tool. With this tool you can set up your own keyword or phrase alerts which will instantly pull up tweets from twitter that are relevant. For Example if you set up an alert for “BMX Bikes” whenever someone tweets about “BMX Bikes” that tweet will show up on your TweetDeck.

How To Create Custom Alerts

To create a custom alert follow the instructions below:

1.    Add a new column
2.    Select search
3.    Enter the keyword or phrase you wish to create an alert for
4.    You’re alert has now been created and all search hits will be pulled up and displayed in that column
5.    It’s as easy as that!

This simple “How to guide” should get you using TweetDeck effectively, there really isn’t much more you need to know. If you have any questions, or if you have any useful tips, please leave them in the comment box below.

The History

When Google started its shopping search engine, it was called Froogle: A name which many in the industry still use – old habits die hard and all that. It’s changed a lot over the years but the premise has been simple – Merchants products were displayed in the SERPs (Search results) to help users find the products they want and navigate to the websites where they could buy them. Google created these listings using their normal crawls or even better, by using the product feeds submitted through Google Merchant Centre. Most importantly of all though, it was all for free!

So What’s Changing

First off, it’s now referred to as Google Shopping (and has been for a while in the UK) But the most important change is that these free listings are being discontinued. Merchants that don’t pay for it, won’t have their products listed. Simple.

Also, (and this is the bit we’re excited about) advertisers are going to be able to provide data feeds or product listings through Google AdWords. For those that are on the ball, it’s more or less how Product Listings currently work. However, Merchants won’t bid on particular keywords but rather bid how much they’re willing to pay, if their listings appears and get clicks or produce sales. Getting to the top will depend on a combination of perceived relevance and bid price – basically Adwords on steroids.

Google also says the new Google Shopping listings will be able to show if merchants have any special deals or offers — these can also be sent within the merchant’s data feed. If that doesn’t get you excited, you don’t get to join our nerd club…

Why Is It Changing

Google say, the quality of data in Google shopping is generally low, and that makes life more difficult for their users. Shifting to the new model is a simple way of stripping out the junk information and spammy listings. It’s also aiming to give savvy e-commerce marketers a hell of a lot more control in getting products displayed.

However, any half-awake cynic would suggest it’s about money. Like with most successful web based giants, we all get hooked onto a free service before we’re forced to pay for it. Usually it’s a bit more subtle as to how we remunerate for the service (eg we give Facebook our personal data and Instagram our images) but in this instance, its cold hard cash that’s the currency. For many, it’s not really practical now to go cold turkey.

What You Need To Do

There is always the option to walk away of course and stand up to these awful corporate giants and not give them a penny: And good for you – fight the system! But the reality is, Google Shopping still represents an important sales channel and serious merchants need to get themselves in order.

Note: If you are already on the Eventure Marketing Program and using adwords, you’re in the clear! Sit back and enjoy the show. We will manage your budgets accordingly and suggest increases in ad spend as applicable.

To keep your products showing, you will need to do two things. Create a well formatted product feed or listing and create an Adwords account as well as preparing yourself for an additional outgoing. If you want to read more about it then have a look at the adwords blog post ‘Google Shopping Goes Global‘, it’ll give you all you need to know.

I Can’t Do That, We Hear You Cry!

If you aren’t technically minded or your are prepared to let someone else do all the heavy lifting, you should contact your closest friendly e-commerce specialists who will need to be able handle both feed creation and Adwords account management. This is most easily done by ringing the number at the top of this page or filling out the form at the bottom of this page.

Whatever you choose to do, you need to act now. Changes are being gradually rolled and by June, the old system will have disappeared for good.

Questions or comments are open below if you need to know more or want to share your thoughts…

It’s not had a huge fanfare, but Microsoft has branched out by creating its own version of a social network – Welcome to Socl, an online gallery designed to bring visual and textual messages together. Pronounced as “social”, it is powered by the Microsoft search engine Bing to create “rich, visual collages” using the inbuilt search engine to display your interest to your friends as well as people all around the world.

To sum it up, its Pintrest meets Bing presented on a Facebook wall.

The team behind the latest social network describes Socl as being “…an experimental research project with a minimal set of features that combine social networking and search for the purpose of enabling people to express and share ideas through rich visual collages, organized by interests.” To translate, it means they’ve not quite worked out what it’s for (experimental) but it helps people share stuff in a slightly different way.

What we say is that it’s simply another weighty indication that all search engines are relying more and more on social data to determine search positions. Whether it takes off or not (probably not) it’s another chapter on the theme of the past two years (google + anyone) that search without social is dead.

Main Features

•    Doesn’t compete with other social networks
•    Research and learning orientated
•    Open social network
•    Combine video, text and images all in one post
•    Video party feature

So what makes Socl different? Well for starters the social site isn’t in competition with any other popular networking or search sites. Instead, Socl focuses on allowing users to be able to research topics using the built-in search feature as well as letting you post rich in content posts.

Socl is an open social network, this means you can connect to anybody and everybody from around the world through the posts that you and others create. Undoubtedly you will come across your Facebook and Twitter friends but with Socl it’s all about venturing in to the new, this means you have to be prepared to engage with new people as you share topics.

With articles, videos and images becoming more accessible to share online to all your friends, Socl allows you to create posts where you can insert a collage of images, videos and articles around the theme of your topic. Building posts allows you to show your appreciation for the great content you find online – and because so much content is available at your fingertips,  Socl posts permit you to share more of it in one go.

Socl has also included a video party feature where you can create video playlists that lets you watch videos and talk to people in real time allowing you to discuss things as they happen.

Creating An Account

There’s no false advertising when they claim “it only takes seconds” to create an account. Like many social and content sites these days, a little help from one of the big boys is at hand. You can sign in with your Facebook or Microsoft accounts. And if you’ve not got a Facebook account by now, let’s be honest, you’re not going to be using Socl are you!

Creating A post

Once logged in you will be taken to a page similar to your Facebook page feed, on this page you can view recently posed topics by the Socl community which you can interact with.

If you want to create a post yourself, then doing so couldn’t be easier. Simply type in what you would like to create a post on, once you have clicked the “+” you will be taken to another page where the Bing search engine has collected content for you to use. Simply pick what you want to use from the images, video and news tabs and your collage will be created for you, once you’ve finished just click “Post”.

Speak The Socl Lingo

Every time a new social network is introduced we have to get to grips with the new technical terms, the main term you will need to learn for Socl is “riff”. A riff is a visual response to something someone else has posted. To create a riff click on the comment link on a post, this should open a dialogue box which will have a ‘riff on this post’ link on the bottom right corner. Clicking on this link will take you to a separate page where you can respond to the post the same way as you would create a post.

Overall…

Socl feels as if you are constantly creating conversational starters where you can introduce others to interesting facts, videos and articles where you can discuss them in depth. Immediately after creating a post you are accepted into a community which you had no idea about, all it took was a few seconds before I received several notifications where people liked, followed or created a riff due to what I’d posted. If you are looking to create an online presence then Socl is something you should be using; you can even link all your other social accounts to the networking site so you can share your posts easily. Ultimately Socl is an interesting search tool combined with social interaction – let us know how you intend to use this new networking site.

•    Setting Up A Facebook Page
•    Making Someone an Admin
•    The Different Admin Roles

How to create a Facebook page

When creating a brand page to market your business you have to use your own personal Facebook account to do so.

Follow these simple steps to create a page for your brand:

1. Log in to your Facebook account.
2. On the left hand side of your news feed you should see the ‘Pages’ menu. Within this menu click ‘Like Pages’, this will take you to a new page.
3. On the new page you should see a green tab to the right hand side saying ‘+ Create Page’.
4. Once you’ve clicked on ‘+ Create Page’, you will be taken to a new window where you can select what your page is going to be about. If you’re making a brand page then click the icon which says ‘Brand or Product’, you will then be allowed to select a category for which your brand/product fits under and then you can enter your brand/product name.
5. Once you have entered the above details you will then be taken to a page where you can upload your profile picture, edit your ‘about’ section, create your Facebook web address and enable advertising.
6. After filling in the above details you will be sent to your brand new Facebook Page, just like your personal Facebook account you can post, comment and like but this time you will be doing this as your brand.

For clients on our marketing program, you can sit back and relax as we will set this up on your behalf.

How to make some an admin on your Facebook page

If it’s not just you in charge of your brand then you can allow others to be in control of your page by allowing them to become an admin user.

To make someone an admin of your page all you have to do is:

1. Click on the page you wish to make someone an admin of.
2. Make sure that the person has already liked your page, if not you won’t be able to make them an admin.
3. Click the edit page tab on the right hand side of you page.
4. Click on Admin Roles.
5. On this page there is a field where it says ‘Type a name or email’, enter in the desired person’s name then click save.

Once you have completed the above, the selected person should become an admin of your page, it’s as easy as that!

Admin Roles

Facebook has introduced a scheme where you can select the admin role you want to assign to each user.  This handy option has been designed so you can allocate different business roles to each user so that they can only access what they need.

There are five different roles which can be assigned: Manager, Content Creator, Moderator, Advertiser and Insight Analyst.

Below is a table from Facebook which outlines what each admin role allows.

You can assign which user has what role by doing the following:

Click on Edit page on your Facebook Page > Click ‘Admin Roles’.

Under each admin will be a drop down menu of the five roles, simply select a role and click save.

Every time you add a new user the ‘Manager’ role is the default setting for each admin user, you can change this in the admin role panel as described above.

The Manager role is essential. Any manager has total control of the account – it means they can revoke permissions even if you were the one who set up the page. But also, if a page loses access to a manager’s account, you effectively lose control of your page.

Hopefully this simple ‘How to guide’ can prove helpful when setting up your own Facebook page. If you have any questions, handy tips or pointers for starting up a Facebook brand page then feel free to leave a comment below.

• Find a site after clicking on PPC advert.
• Finds the info he needs, doesn’t buy but becomes a “fan” on Facebook.
• A month later, he follows a Facebook link on his phone on the way home after receiving a status update that reminded him he still needs to get that widget.
• Once at home, knowing what he wants after his research on the commute home he Google’s the name of the company, and proceeds to buy the widget.

In this scenario, the browser has used Paid, Social and organic channels to reach a sale. But using the last click model it is only the organic channel that receives any credit. As a business owner, this may fool you into discounting the other channels as ineffective or direct advertising spend in the incorrect manner.

In fact, 70% of the firms using marketing attribution will do so simply to justify their marketing spend decision. More subtly, and just as two thirds of companies do, it can be also used as a method of developing an understanding of the customer journey.

And online is only part of the picture. Whilst only a third of companies use offline touch points in their attribution models. Of those that do, over 50% say the impact has been “major”.

One big hurdle to get over is the fact that despite being a fundamental part of the marketing mix, it’s impossible to actually find an attribution model that is 100% correct. The simple fact is that you can’t truly know what touch point it was that tipped the balance towards making a sale. But that said, any model is better than nothing at all.

The biggest reason firms fail to do anything, is that the difficulty to combine all the data-sources into a meaningful output: Even of those that have the data, 38% of firms say they lack the analysts to interpret it correctly.

But if you get the mix right and the resources in place to do it well, you begin to identify the areas which are feeding your customer acquisitions and budgeting decisions can be made with a holistic view of what is and isn’t effective.

With the evolvement of web 2.0 social media has become increasingly popular to the point where 62% of the world’s 2billion internet users are using it frequently. Gone is the time where setting up a social profile for your business is optional, it’s now required for two reasons:

• Marketing; Social media helps entice customers to your website. It can also harness the passion of your customers which will help drive purchases and buzz.
• Support/ Customer Service; Social media engages customers directly and deals with any issues in a straightforward and quick manner. This helps drive down the cost of service and will help build a better experience for all of your customers.

Google+ already has over 250 million users proving its latest foray into the world of social networking is here for the long haul. It has some key advantages for businesses over its rivals such as Facebook and Twitter who provide a platform to promote content and interact with customers but not much else. Google+, however is a fully integrated search and social profile that will become central to Google’s future identity and how we find and share information. It has already begun this transition with the integrations of its services such as Gmail, Reader and YouTube.

So how does Google+ help you?

Integration into Search:

Google+ members can search against both the broader web and their own Google+ social graph. This means circles, business pages, posts and pictures will be integrated into the search engine. Members will be able to search information from their network of associates that is private and only shared with them as well as information publically available on the internet.

The popular Google Places profile for businesses has also been integrated into the brand. Now called Google+ local it allows for a simple way to discover and share local information about businesses including a 30-point rating system and recommendations. This is fully integrated into Google search and Maps allowing for all your profiles to be merged and managed on a single page.

The ‘+1’ button:

Google’s share button, the +1 can be embedded on your website and acts as a public recommendation by appearing in search results .They are tied to specific landing pages similar to tweets or likes and are tallied separately for each page. When +1ing a webpage you get the opportunity to share your +1 with your Google+ circles .Interestingly, they affect each page’s Quality Score, which could help you PPC campaigns.

The +1 button also has some SEO impact too. Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant that content from strangers. For Instance, a film review from an expert may be useful, but a review from a friend who shares your tastes could be even better. Due to this, +1’s are a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user query.

Additional Functionality:

Even after its rapid growth, Google+ is still significantly smaller than other social networks and a much lower percentage of businesses have a presence there. Subsequently, early uptake can be a distinct competitive advantage as you have the opportunity for a much larger market penetration.

It also had the advantage of monitoring its competitors to see what features work and what did not. This means Google+ is more of a hybrid incorporating functions that worked in Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin and building on them with its own distinct range of functionalities that sets it apart. It has perfected the use of circles to share data with different groups of peoples as well as integrating elements of Skype with Hangouts, Zagat with reviews and ratings with Quora which has the ability to share questions and answers.

Google+ is more than a social network; it’s a social extension of Google’s search engine. If your business wants to develop both search and social strategies, Google+ is becoming a vital tool that should be seriously considered by all businesses.

When considering your mobile strategy, there are a number of things that you need to take into account. These things need to be planned in advance and implemented as your campaign takes shape.

The first impression, the one that is the most brief, is the most important and dictates whether your recipient will move on to more forms of engagement. Effective mobile marketing is using that first impression to leverage interest and thus encourage continued engagement. In this case…. simplicity in usability.

Getting Started, Identify your mobile users. See if site visitors are using mobile devices to visit your site and what devices they are using most frequently. Knowing the devices used to visit your site most frequently, such as an iPad, Android, Blackberry, or iPhone, will help you prioritize optimization efforts toward those devices.

Keep your campaigns simple.

The goal in any marketing campaign isn’t to be as complex as the technology, it’s to be as simple to read and understand as any form of print or audio advertising. In 2011, Sony and Fetch Media launched the music single Bounce by Calvin Harris and Kelis. Although created by two of the world’s cutting edge marketing companies, the premise and delivery was surprisingly simple. A single banner ad with a bouncing ball was enough to get people to tap on it. Immediately, the person was led to the full screen version of the ad and a call to action that gave them the options to watch the video and purchase the single. The simple ad got more than 8 million impressions in 10 days and the single went to number on in Great Britain and number 2 on iTunes in its first week.

People don’t like guessing games and mobile marketing is such a transient form of media that you need to be crystal clear in order to get results.

Understand Mobile’s Limitations

Customize for mobile, not desktops. While mobile devices have capabilities beyond the desktop computer, also keep in mind their limitations when designing a mobile site or app. Create content and designs for a small screen, no mouse, and a device on which extensive typing is unwieldy.

Don’t require users to sit through renderings of large images. Not only can it be expensive depending on their data plan, but it can also waste their time and will probably result in site abandonment.

Create short forms. You can ask users to fill out forms, but pare down the fields as much as possible. Typing on a smartphone is a nuisance at best and difficult at worst, so shortened forms and those with prefilled options the user can scroll through are ideal.

Don’t hide content behind multiple clicks. If a user would click three times to get to it on their desktop, they might only put up with two clicks on a mobile device before giving up.

Create content tailored to small screens. Shorter content that is formatted in bite size chunks is ideal for the mobile experience. Be succinct, and utilize bold headings, bullet points, and numbered lists to break up longer paragraphs and make it easy for the reader to find what he needs.
Make Your Email Marketing Mobile-Friendly

Create plain text and HTML email versions. Some email clients will default to plain text and give readers the option to show pictures, while others will load pictures automatically. Be prepared by ensuring your emails render quickly and clearly in either scenario.

Craft a crystal clear subject line. When mobile users have a few minutes to check their email, they commonly divide their inbox into three categories: “read now,” “delete,” and “save for later.” With a vague subject line, you’re sure to end up in the “delete” category. Create a clear subject line to get your email read immediately, or at least starred for later.

Integrate Mobile with Your Inbound Marketing Strategy

Integrate mobile campaigns with your CRM. As with any other campaign, you can and should track and nurture leads that come through mobile campaigns.

Include calls-to-action. Mobile browsing should be more streamlined than desktop browsing, but calls-to-action are still a must. Compile the CTAs you’re using across all marketing campaigns, and select those that make sense to use in your mobile campaigns to create a congruent user experience.

Integrate paid search. Your mobile marketing strategy can include a paid search component by posting Google Mobile ads through your AdWords account.

Our design department have been busy and we’re delighted with the way the site is looking. Highly stylised page designs which work well with their branding. This all helps in developing a striking and consistent look and feel which extends beyond their website and into the social media platforms.

We wish the team at Tiger Milly all the luck with their new e-venture.

Say Whaaat!

The UK has signed up to an EU directive which aims to protect online privacy of consumers by making them aware of the information that is collected about them whilst using the internet. They have chosen to make it compulsory for websites to gain a users permission before they use cookies or tracking software.

Almost all websites use this technology. Despite widespread condemnation and a years delay, this ill thought out change in legislation will be coming into force and sites that do not comply with the law can be fined. A full description of the law can be found here.

Erm, What Is A Cookie?

Very simply, a cookie is a small file which is stored in your browser to record what you have done. It allows a website to know what actions you have taken (like logging in for example). They cannot carry viruses and they can make no changes to your computer.

But Do I Need To Use Cookies?

No. But then you don’t “need” to have a website either. All eCommerce sites require them for usability reasons such as adding items to baskets.

There are exceptions to this law of which the shopping cart functionality is one. But many others are not; Including the way in which a site records how many users visit a site (ie Google Analytics). Cookies, in general, improve the experience of all websites.

So What Is The Solution

First of all, you could ignore the law. The chances that there are the resources available out there to administer the fines to every uncompliant website across the whole of Europe is unlikely. Popular opinion in technology circles is that the law will prioritise site owners using very intrusive data collection technology before rolling fines out to all sites – However, as with many of the attempts to regulate the web, there is no way to truly know how things will actually transpire.

The second option is to simply comply with the law. This is something we can help with and our development and design teams have already come up with solutions to the cookies laws for Ecommerce sites. These take no more than an hour to implement.

Get in touch or call us to see how we can help – Remember that the law changes this month! You can of course keep up to date with developments in this legislation change (and all the latest web marketing advice) by following us on Twitter or Facebook

In the social media world, there is a third group trapped between the plugged-in “Twitterati” and the shrinking group that remain unaware of it even existing.

This middle group know social media is important: They see it permeating popular culture and recognise the impact it’s having on society, as well as businesses. But without facebook friends, knowing what to say in 160 characters or what it means to hashtag something, for all intents and purposes they are in the group who don’t.

So what are the practical social media uses and how can business owners or those with no friends fans or followers really get anything meaningful out of it.

Networking

Let me reminisce…It’s 2005, it’s a damp Tuesday afternoon in Derby and I’m stood next to some sad looking sandwiches in a corner of the room listening politely to a guy talking about health and safety training workshops he runs. In 5 minutes he’ll ask me what I do, we’ll exchange business cards and then I’ll move onto the next guy whose probably an accountant and just as irrelevant.

Oh the fond memories I have of networking.

Fast forward to today and I can pretty much contact anyone in the world direct to their inbox with just a few minutes of searching. Furthermore, all this can all be achieved from the comfort of the sofa, sat in my pants if I so wished.

It’s not quite that simple of course but what the social web has done is place the opportunity for everyone in the world to be connected to everyone else. You don’t need to be a social media expert to appreciate that this has huge potential for businesses looking to make key contacts.

Even if you’d rather stick to face-to-face introductions, social media allows you to do your homework on the person you want to build a real relationship with. Get that attendee list before the seminar and do your homework! Or give the whole of that conference you’re attending a shout out on Twitter and let them do their homework on you instead.

As a case in point, whilst writing this post, I happened to look up who the CEO of Coca-Cola is on Linked In to use them as a potential example. Only turns out we went to the same University – If I ever get to meet Muhtar Kent I already know how I’ll break the ice.

Keeping Relevant

It’s not just big news stories that get reported first on-line. Any development within any niche is likely to be reported first via social media.

But it’s not just the speed at which you can discover news and information which is important. With so much content on the web, a social network can be used to filter information down to the best stuff from the best sources. Imagine every newspaper magazine and TV show in the world edited down to what you like and presented to you for consumption at your leisure.

It’s this mix of speed and pertinence that means within a few minutes it’s possible to get the latest oversight of any topic – even if it hasn’t been reported yet through “traditional” channels.

Search for info or just receive it

Which leads me neatly onto the following point  – if you you’d find it useful to have great online marketing resources, you should be following us @eventureteam, or you can make sure you don’t miss our latest blogs (like this one) by liking us on Facebook.

Listening

There is a subtle clue in the title which is often ignored. Social media should be…social! It’s all well and good living in our own worlds, finding out what we want to know and saying what we want to say. But great things can happen when you listen to your customers.

Engaging with people is an important part of what makes social media so powerful. When someone talks about your brand, you should know about it. When a customer tells their own followers about your products, you should know about it. And when someone declares their disappointment in your company, you should react to it.

Even if you do nothing else, you should at least be passively “listening to the internet” to maintain your brands image and join in with the conversation whenever possible. Even people who don’t care about social media should care about what others are saying on it about them.

Staff

How well do you know your staff and how well do they know each other. Second to a few hours in the pub, social media is the next best thing for helping create genuine real-world relationships amongst staff. Because we share so much of our lives online, it takes very little time for people to discover hitherto unknown shared interests between staff members.

A lesser appreciated advantage is the fact that no company database is likely to have up to date contact details, for every member of staff, past and present, which can be accessed from any PC or smartphone anywhere in the world at any time.

Final Notes

Social Media is an incredibly powerful tool and it’s certainly not necessary to have lot’s of connection already before it becomes of use (though it does become even more useful once you do). Best of all, it’s free – there isn’t much else out there which offers that kind of value for money.

And whilst it isn’t strictly necessary to have any social profiles yet, the next decade will see a normalisation of social media to the extent that those who aren’t plugged in will become quaint exceptions – perhaps it’s time to choose which group you want to be in?

Your comments are welcome encouraged below we are social after all! There is also a simple guide to setting up social media profiles you can read by following the link.