Tag: Twitter

by Steve Peterson

Can Anybody Challenge Facebook? Giant Continues Dominant Social Media Position.

The latest Pew Research Center data released earlier this month on social media platforms and their influence reveals that Facebook, as it did in 2015, not only led all other platforms by a wide margin but actually increased their dominant position.

Facebook’s online user population, 79 percent of all adults using the internet, more than doubled their nearest competitors, Instagram (32%, owned by Facebook) and Pinterest (31%). The combination of the Facebook and Instagram platforms under a single organizational umbrella make Facebook ads the compelling choice across a number of important metrics: reach and engagement primary among them. When you take out Facebook ads you get Instagram ads in the package. Right now other platforms are either struggling for relevance (Twitter) or playing some serious catch up.

Facebook’s trouncing of “lesser” platforms doesn’t mean the other channels should be disregarded. If social media teaches us anything, it is that discreet segmentation and niche markets abound based on different platforms. Facebook’s 7 percent growth in 2016 was due in large part to an increase of older Americans’ use of the platform. Young adults are still using the platform at a high rate but the growth, as it was in 2015, has been in older Americans.

If you’re looking to reach younger adults, Instagram, with their roughly six in 10 online adult usage ages 18-29, is a platform that should be leveraged. If you want to reach women, Pinterest is the place to be. Continuing a long-standing trend, women use Pinterest at much higher rates than men. Nearly half of online women use the virtual pinboard (45%), more than double the share of online men (17%) who do so.

The full text of Pew’s Findings can be found here

Demographic comparison of Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest social media channels.

by Steve Peterson

Friday Quick Hit Social Media Rundown

Things on the social media front are always busy, no more so then when Instagram, Facebook and some fresh ideas about customer engagement hit the wire. Here’s a quick rundown.

Instagram, as expected after being bought out by Facebook, has announced that their next feature will be live video. It’s been a big hit on Facebook so it’s only a natural that this would be extended to the Instagram platform. In other Instagram news, the company has recently added new features to Instagram stories.

Twitter has announced an anti-trolling “mute” feature in an effort to curb cyber bullying that has long been needed.

WhatsApp, the popular messaging app aimed at easy use worldwide, is rolling out video calling to more than 1 billion users.

Facebook is finally getting around to integrating Instagram and Messenger services into their ecosystem. After a long wait, users will be able to access Instagram and Messenger services in one place. As reported on digitaltrends.com, “The social network announced on Tuesday that it is updating its Pages Manager mobile app with a new, unified inbox that lets page admins access their Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger interactions in one place. The new feature lets you reply to Facebook comments, visitor posts, reviews, messages and Instagram comments directly from the inbox by tapping on the content you want to answer.”

Google+, sometimes justifiably, takes a pretty good pasting in the press and among users. Central to the argument is the platform’s irrelevance. Well, here are five ways to leverage Google+ for your business. The advice offers no real surprises since what you need to do on Google+ is essentially the same things you need to do on other social media platforms (have complete profiles, post regularly and, in the Google+ case, keep expanding your circles). Google+ does have some advantages. Google+ content gets indexed immediately and shows up in search results. Wonder if it shows up immediately in Bing? Hmm…

Snapchat is getting ready to go public with a whopping IPO, targeting March with an estimated $20 – $25 billion valuation. Call me crazy. I still don’t get Snapchat’s allure and I manage social media.

Taming social media for business use takes a regimented, disciplined approach. Of all the trends that came and went in 2016, video was not one of them. Video remains one of the best things you can do for your business. When done right, it creates intimacy and fosters engagement with your clients. 2017 will likely be no different. Here are seven trends to watch for and what they’ll mean for you.

Until next time. Stay curious and engaged.

by Steve Peterson

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Release New Advertising and Engagement Functionality

In the ever-changing world of social media advertising two new features of note have been released on a number of platforms. Here’s a quick rundown of features announced last week.

Facebook and Instagram Roll Out New Slideshow Functionality
Video from still images or existing video, text overlays and music can now be incorporated into a lightweight format that gives you more power to create and more flexibility on both desktop and mobile platforms. Check out the details here.

Twitter Direct Message Button for Websites
Let your fans, customers and followers get closer to you with a Twitter Direct Message Button. Twitter says, the new Message button “works best when your account settings allow you to receive Direct Messages from anyone, whether or not they follow you.” Pop in your Twitter url, copy the code, paste it into the html on the desired page on your website, publish and bang, there’s your Twitter feed. Pretty slick.

LinkedIn New Content Search Features for Mobile
LinkedIn rolled out three new content search features:

  1. Search your feed “and find what you’re looking for under the Posts tab of the search results page,” to
  2. Refine your search to dive deeper into the topic
  3. Add a searchable hashtag to your LinkedIn post.

The new content search updates are currently available on all “iOS and Android apps for English speaking members” and will be made available to all members and all platforms “in the coming months.”