Category: Social Media

20
Aug

Drift Named One Of 25 Seattle Tech Companies To Follow On Instagram

We were thrilled when Built In Seattle named Drift one of 25 companies to follow on Instagram.

Why you should follow: It’s hard work connecting consumers with renewable energyDrift’s Instagram feed combines shots of their team at work alongside information and discussions with their dedicated followers about green energy.

Shaddock Agency has been working with Drift for several months now, and this is fantastic.

Be sure to check out Drift’s Instagram account, and follow it on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

26
Jan

We Have Reached Peak Photo Tweet

Maybe I’m just feeling grumpy because it’s Monday, but this morning I snapped:

Photo tweets are a great tool for publishers. When Twitter first started showing expanded photos in people’s streams, I couldn’t wait to spread the word to my compadres at The Dallas Morning News. After all, images are known for their magic retweetability powers. That said, a photo tweet is not appropriate in all cases. Everything we know about social media says a mix of post types is best for achieving the Twitter goal trifecta: awareness, engagement and clicks back to your domain.

The worst thing about the recent glut of image tweets in my newsfeed: Many of the stories don’t merit the extra visual emphasis. Here are a few examples of when to use a photo in your tweet and when to let your words alone do the talking:

Good Photos Tweets

This clever tease:

Perfect:

Nothing sexy, but the extra info this image conveys is useful:

Just enough to make me want to see more:

Not So Good Photo Tweets

Not necessary:

Ditto:

Weird:

Maybe a chart would work here. This? Not so much:

Stop cluttering my feed, VentureBeat:

I’m pretty sure we all know what Clinton looks like, kids:

This guy, too:

#SadTrombone:

Remember: Just because you can add a photo to your tweet doesn’t mean you should. Make sure you’re serving all of your goals with a mix of tweet types.

08
Jan

Tweet Of The Day: ‘Senior US Official Source’

HAHA. Truth to power.

21
Dec

How To Get Your Instagram Photos To Display As Images On Twitter

The other day a former colleague sought my counsel on a social media issue: Using IFTTT.com to make Instagram photos show up on Twitter as an image rather than a link to Instagram.

Honestly I hadn’t thought about IFTTT (If This Then That) for a long time, and I was grateful for the reminder. For the uninitiated, IFTTT is a clever site that connects “Channels” (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Email, Evernote, Instagram and many more) to create digital “recipes” that are made up of triggers (“this”) and actions (“that”). An example of this in action:

Trigger: I update my Facebook profile photo
Action: My Twitter profile photo changes to match

(If this recipe sounds useful to you, you’re in luck. It’s real! And there are hundreds of others to choose from!)

Back to the question at hand: How to get Instagram photos to display on Twitter as full pic.twitter.com images, rather than as a link back to Instagram. First-world problem? Sure, but first-world problems keep people like me employed.

First, you’ll need to sign up for IFTTT. Do that. Next, click on Channels at the top of the page, then scroll down and select the Twitter icon. Activate your Twitter account, then scroll down a tad. This is what you’ll see:

IFFT Twitter recipes

See the bottom left recipe? That’s the one you want.

IFTTT Twitter & Instagram Recipe

You’ll receive a prompt to activate your Instagram account. Do that, and you’re pretty much done.

Note: When I first tested this recipe, my trial Instagram post didn’t appear immediately on Twitter, and I suspect this is what was tripping up my former colleague. Initially I thought maybe I had to click Share to Twitter on Instagram to make it work, but that wasn’t the case. If you’ve set up the above recipe, posting normally on Instagram will trigger the desired action, but(!) many IFTTT triggers have about a 15-minute lag. It appears you can override that lag by clicking on the Check Recipe icon within the recipe.

P.S. — Mandatory word of caution: Any time you combine a third party with your social accounts you increase the risk of hacking. Be aware and stay safe!

20
Dec

And The Tweet Of The Week Is …

NYT jackjammer tweet

Whoever thought to write this New York Times tweet in all caps deserves a bonus:

Wit: Maybe not a lost art after all.

11
Sep

LinkedIn Job Search App: Does It Really Simplify Your Hunt?

This morning I received a cheerful email invitation to “meet LinkedIn Job Search: a smart app that simplifies your job hunt.” If you’re as mildly intrigued as I was, read on.

According to LinkedIn, with the new app, “opportunity doesn’t just knock. It also sends notifications.” Clever enough tagline, but job-search alerts are nothing new. Indeed and TheLadders’ apps both offer push notifications, for example.

Other features highlighted in the email:

  • Location-based search — again, standard for other job-search apps (and the original LinkedIn app and website already offer this feature), but maybe this one can deliver more specific results, I mused. That’d be handy for those who want to limit their commute or work close to their parents or their kids’ school, for example.
  • Ability to apply quickly with your LinkedIn profile — meh. You can do that with competitors’ apps, too, as well as on LinkedIn’s other offerings.
  • The freedom to hunt for a new job without your connections knowing — to my knowledge (and dear God I hope I’m correct about this), LinkedIn doesn’t broadcast what job ads you’ve clicked on or applied to.

Un-wowed but still open-minded, I downloaded the app anyway and conducted a search for “editor” and “Farmers Branch, TX.” The results:

Continue Reading..

17
Feb

Google Plus For Journalists: A Newspaper SEO’s Mandate

Google+ Icons

No minuses here: Google+ A journalist’s secret weapon

Google Plus For Journalists

A Newspaper SEO’s Mandate (And Challenge)

One of my main objectives for the current quarter is to get every author on staff at my publication signed up for Google+ and Google Authorship. The reasons for doing so are well-documented, but it’s still a challenge convincing people it’s worth their while to commit to yet another social media site. “Everyone uses Facebook, and no one is on Google+, and I only have so many hours in the day to devote to this stuff” — I hear that a lot.

It’s true that everyone and their dogs are on Facebook, but as it so happens, Google+ is now the No. 2 social media site by active users, outranking Twitter (incidentally, YouTube is No. 3, yet another compelling reason to have a presence there).

Read more about Google Plus for journalists and G+’s role in breaking news

I think the problem in persuading people to use Google+  is the false notion that it’s just Google’s version of Facebook. While the two have similarities, their purposes are, in my mind, quite different. Facebook is a place to engage with people you already know. Google+ is where you interact with new people and plant your content for others to find. Perhaps I’ll be proved wrong about this, but I think Google+ is an essential part of long-term strategy. You’re investing time and effort there now to reap solid search results in the future. (The same goes for YouTube.)