Epicurious, a recipe website, recently came under fire for their insensitive tweets surrounding the Boston Marathon bombing. The website capitalized on the opportunity for visibility by creating negative press for itself (some purport). Epicurious’s behavior on Twitter is an often-repeated mistake that many brands have fallen trap to over the last three-to-five years. A few include:

• Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy, who posted a video online of himself in 2011 slaughtering an elephant. It was seen as a plug for the GoDaddy brand, and got a lot of backlash from animal rights organizations.

• Kenneth Cole, who posted an insensitive tweet during the Arab Spring (some believe purposely done).

• Gilbert Gottfried, who was supposed to be the voice of the Aflac duck, lost his contract because of insensitive comments made about the 2011 tsunami in Japan.

Twitter, and social media in general, is an extremely powerful tool for acquiring and engaging fans. Always remember to maintain sensitivity and think before you post something online on behalf of the brand. How will your audience see your message? Don’t ride the coattails of tragedies to spread word of your product–instead, rely on consistency, humanity, and integrity.

In the long run, you will create a better, more longer-lasting name that way.

The post Watch What You Say appeared first on PointBurst | Connect Your Social Media Audience.

Despite stagnant economic growth, more than half of small businesses surveyed by Manta reported successful first quarters, along with optimism for the second. This is partly due to their increasing usage of social media marketing and its significant return on investment.

According to Pamela Springer, CEO of Manta, small businesses have shifted from the experimental social marketing stages into the “results-focused” stages. Almost 60% of small businesses reported a positive ROI from social media marketing, with 30% bringing in more than $2000.  The graphic below goes into more detail.

A focus on social media marketing also comes with many difficulties, the most important of which is knowing how to manage and maintain social presence on many different platforms. 18% of small businesses from the survey reported that Facebook was the hardest account to maintain, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter.

PointBurst’s social media management tool can help small businesses manage these accounts, while exponentially expanding their brands’ reaches by syndicating messages through business partners, fans, and advocates. By engaging the networks of your most loyal fans and followers in a streamlined way, small businesses can build brand trust, establish a brand voice and consistency, and gain access to analytics that allow for continuous monetary improvements.

The post Social Media Marketing Makes Money appeared first on PointBurst | Connect Your Social Media Audience.

According to industry reports, while the overall sale of music was down in 2012, digital purchasing of music rose by 14%. In fact, streaming music online for free or for a small monthly fee is the fastest growing way that people are now taking in their tunes. This means that it can be extremely detrimental to an artist’s image (and to their success) if they are not actively engaged in the social web 2.0.

Furthermore, several large and well-known companies are all purported to be working on some type of music streaming service that brings new music to customers based on what they currently like. Google, Microsoft, and Apple are certainly knee-deep in these projects already, and there are several small start-ups that are also developing innovative streaming technologies. When major businesses converge on an idea or a technology, it is typically because “that’s where things are headed.”

For musicians, this is a golden opportunity. Keep a sharp eye out for Twitter Music over the next couple of weeks–it will surely bring ripe opportunities for new artists looking to build fans through the web.

The post Social Media is Moving Towards Music appeared first on PointBurst | Connect Your Social Media Audience.

The ways in which Taco Bell utilizes social media to engage with its consumers in unexpected ways can be considered revolutionary. While some business opt to use social media as a means to police customer satisfaction and address dissatisfaction; Taco Bell has established itself as a witty, intelligent, inviting brand with a very unique voice often engaging in friendly (yet sassy) banter.

Take for example the recent Facebook Taco Bell/Speedo incident. A high school swimmer expressed his love of Taco Bell and bravely asked for a speedo with a creative take on their classic slogan “Think outside the buns” on the back of the speedo. Taco Bell could have easily ignored that, or brushed it off with a canned “thank you” response; instead, they entertained his idea and without skipping a beat replied with a simple request for the swimmer’s size and address. The traffic and media attention this garnered far outweighs the cost of making a custom speedo and shipping it to the high school swimmer. Moreover, Taco Bell is able to communicate as brand, that they hear and value their consumers no matter how unconventional.

This demonstrates how a brand can successfully drive the messaging and set the tone. Since much of social media can be used as a reactionary tool to customers’ complaints; the precedence Taco Bell sets is keeping the upper hand, but still giving power to the consumer. They can still listen and respond, but choose to do so in a way that encourages continued positive brand engagement. Taking a look at the Taco Bell Twitter account, it is clear that with their candid witty banter with consumers, they are not afraid of pushing the norms and seek to have a social media presence all their own.

Another revolutionary social media method used by Taco Bell was demonstrated at South By Southwest (SXSW) 2013 with their fan-made “Rockumentary” experiment, a real-time marketing strategy. SXSW, an annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival, featured a concert with Passion Pit and Wildcat! Wildcat! that was part of Taco Bell’s Feed the Beat program, a project that funds up-and-coming artists with Taco Bell gift cards and opportunities to be featured in Taco Bell marketing efforts.

Taco Bell’s real-time, crowdsourcing marketing experiement relied on a “camera switching” app on Feedthebeat.com that allowed fans to see images from several cameras, along with Instagram posts, Vine videos and Twitter tweets from fans sharing content at the show using the hashtag #feedthebeat. What Taco Bell has figured out is that influence is shifting away from the traditional print and radio medium and moving online. They have capitalized on the ubiquity of mobile devices, with over 330 million devices in the United States, most with cameras and the means for connectivity, they understand the opportunity and demand. Technological devices in the hands of the majority of their market leaves tremendous room to invite consumers to be a part of the Taco Bell brand.

Engagement comes from involving consumers so they feel as though they are participating, that they are part of the story and social media allows for this on an unprecedented level. Taco Bell zeroed in on this by making sophisticated use of its social media outlets for this successful SXSW experiment. Then on a larger day to day basis, they have a firm grasp on the concept that, social media when utilized correctly, can connect consumers and fans in unprecedented ways and provide opportunities for authentic interactions.

The post Taco Bell Living Más via Social Media appeared first on PointBurst | Connect Your Social Media Audience.

According to Trendrr and the following graphic, courtesy of Mashable, which measures the social reach of TV shows and events, American Idol receives 1.3 million social mentions weekly, which the Nielson Rating equates to reaching roughly 1 billion people worldwide.

Even though traditional measurements suggest that American Idol is slowly losing its appeal, its use of social media to engage its fans has continued to drive its relevance. Why? What can businesses learn from this?

 The answer is simple. Even if your brand is losing its luster, you can bring back its appeal by utilizing social media as a marketing tool. How can this be done? The answer is also very simple.

Make a connection

• Create audience interaction. American Idol does this by asking for fans’ opinions, which fosters the feeling that they are a “part of the show.”  Businesses that use social media in this way will elicit consumer responses that help develop a sense customer involvement, which strengthens their trust in and relationship with a brand’s products.

Watch what works and what doesn’t

• One of the benefits of social media is the instant feedback that it provides. Being vigilant of these responses, and acting on them quickly, will help identify what’s working and what’s not.  Doing so will also communicate to your current fans and potential consumers that you are listening and will help relay the message that your consumers are important.

Keep it simple

• In the age of hashtags and memes, consumer attention spans are quite short.  Keeping the message close to what is really important without endless amounts of data will help your consumers remember your core message really is.

Using PointBurst’s social media management platform, businesses can exponentially expand reach by syndicating messages through partners, fans, and advocates. In addition to guaranteeing consistent messaging, PointBurst also provides analytics that you can use to analyze and improve your results. Businesses can now engage their fans like never before.

The post What Business Can Learn From American Idol appeared first on PointBurst | Connect Your Social Media Audience.