January 2012
3 posts
9 tags
Social Startups - How do you do it?
So you have a startup. You’ve done all the hard work and now your dreams are a reality. You have a small staff, office space, and even an office dog. Now, you just need customers. It doesn’t take a PHD to know that a business isn’t really a business without a solid customer base. You can offer the most amazing products in the world, but if no one chooses to purchase them, they...
Jan 26th
12 tags
Pins, Pictures & Pinterest
You’ve probably seen this icon popping up all over the web.  So… what is it? And why is it taking the internet by storm? Pinterest began in 2009, but didn’t reach it’s “open to the public” beta stage until 2010. The site didn’t explode until mid-2011 however, when women and designers alike took it by storm. It’s developers wanted to create a site...
Jan 23rd
7 notes
4 tags
Social Media - Getting Personal
Social media is great for business. It provides customers with up-to-date information about the company, encourages interaction between the business and it’s faithful followers, and hopefully boosts sales/business. But social media is also good for something else - you.  I’ve spent years on social media. I’ve seen the positive influence it can have for a business in a...
Jan 12th
October 2011
12 posts
5 tags
When Should You Post on Facebook?
Researchers and bloggers and social media(ers) have tried to measure the best times to post on blogs, and Twitter and Facebook. Why?  It’s important to know when you are most effective on your social media sites. If you want people to see your posts, you should submit them when the greatest number of individuals will see them. Most studies show that posting before 8am and after 5pm will...
Oct 27th
4 notes
6 tags
Oct 26th
10 tags
Who I follow on Twitter, and why?
Do you run a company Twitter account? Are you on the fence about running a company Twitter account? Or, are you a Twitter user that follows your favorite brands on Twitter?  Then this post is for you. I’ve talked about my personal rules for how many people I follow on Twitter. I believe that it’s difficult to manage my account when I follow more than 100 people. For example: when I...
Oct 25th
17 notes
5 tags
Blogger Etiquette
I read a lot of blogs. I don’t discriminate against genres, I read whatever I feel like reading, whether it be about social media, entertainment, sports, personal etc. I have my go-to’s and then I have the ones I frequent less often. Here are a few things I’ve learned about Blogger Etiquette: Blogging is meant to do two things: Provide a place for the writer to express...
Oct 21st
25 notes
9 tags
Social Media Tips for the Holidays
Would you say it’s too early to already start talking about Christmas? Well the holiday season began last month for most businesses, so it’s time to get thinking about your holiday marketing efforts on your Social Media sites for 2011. *I thought this was creepy, but strangely… it fits. I read a great article today on Blue Glass about how to engage your followers on your...
Oct 20th
8 tags
How does your Business/Organization use Social...
How much does your company spend on Social Media per year? Do you pay for a service or do you have a full time individual running your social media sites? Have you decided to skip out on this whole “trend” because it’s just a “fad”? Did you know 79% of B to C companies use social media campaigns to reach their audience & 13% who are not active users plan to be...
Oct 19th
6 tags
Nobody Puts Newsstand in a Folder [or maybe they...
So I’ve had a little bit of time to play with the new iOS 5.  Many of it’s features, I love. Others, I’m not sure I will use often. Most notably for me is the Newsstand app.  In theory Newsstand sounds cool. But I can’t imagine using it on my iPhone, perhaps my iPad… but I have not yet bought into subscribing to newspapers and/or magazines via the app store yet. ...
Oct 13th
11 notes
4 tags
iOS 5 Releases at 10am
Today is a big day for Mac lovers everywhere. iOS 5 is scheduled to be released at 10am PDT today. What’s on this new update? iCloud - you’ll receive 5GB of space. When you plug into a power source all of your documents, music, movies, photos, etc. will be automatically pushed to your devices. iMessage - now you can send unlimited messages to anyone who has an iPhone, iPod, or...
Oct 12th
6 tags
Are YOU Talking About This?
You may have noticed the new “are talking about this” feature popping up on some of your favorite pages recently. This is part of the new metrics system the social media site plans to roll out within the next month. This new feature will help page owners track who is (and how often they are) talking about the page’s brand or service. How does it come up with this number? The...
Oct 6th
16 notes
3 tags
Oct 6th
5 notes
9 tags
Highlights from the iPhone 4s Keynote
I followed @Engadget and @gdgt’s live coverage of the iPhone keynote today.  Tim Cook took the stage today to announce the new iPhone 4s New iOS features: Notifications show up on the top of your screen and are visible by swiping down. This new messaging service will push to your iPhone and iPad and you can respond from either device.  The new Reminders app.  Newsstand allows...
Oct 4th
6 notes
6 tags
Oct 4th
September 2011
16 posts
4 tags
Customer Complaints: What to do?
We’ve all seen tweets like this before: If you run a company account, you’re bound to encounter at least 1 tweet (or facebook post) that is less than flattering. How you deal with those complaints online determines your success as a socially networked company. Twitter is a great place to voice 140 character opinions, and an even better way to ‘stick it’ to that...
Sep 30th
7 notes
5 tags
Hootsuite: Do you like it?
Social Media friends I need your help. Who uses Hootsuite? Do you use the free account or pro version? Have you paid for any add-ons? Do you use it for personal use, or is it work related? What are the pros and cons you see with the service? Do you know of any other comparable services out there? I used to use Hootsuite and wasn’t impressed. I paid for the PRO version again, and...
Sep 29th
6 tags
Spotify [Private Listening]
Since the f8 conference last week, we’ve already seen tons of social media changes. Spotify is a pioneer in the new Open Graph and post to Timeline technology, and it’s frustrating many of it’s users. Not only are you required to have a facebook account to sign up for Spotify, but they made it very difficult to turn off the post to Timeline feature. Essentially, as for now,...
Sep 29th
1 note
5 tags
Open Graph Pros & Cons
As the new facebook rolls out, you will probably have a lot of questions. Social media users who are already utilizing the new timeline and profile features are all asking one question: “Is our information still safe?” For the longest time we’ve had to deal with the “like”, “comment” and “share” buttons. Through research, facebook realized...
Sep 28th
4 tags
The Social Media Burnout
In 2004, facebook was founded in a Harvard dorm room. This small invention paved the way for a whole new way of connecting personally on the internet. 8 years later, and we’re still watching this idea take shape and form into something so large… it’s almost inconceivable. facebook is the leading empire in the social media world in the US, and with statistics like that…...
Sep 27th
3 notes
6 tags
f8 Recap [Timeline & Open Graph]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke at 10am September 22 at the Facebook Developer Conference f8. What’s the big news? They have completely redesigned the idea of a Timeline. The Timeline is essentially your new profile page and will summarize your activities based on time and frequency. You will have a chance to look back into the years on facebook as they will collect data to show...
Sep 22nd
5 tags
facebook [it's free &... public]
I saw a comment the other day on facebook from someone who said: I wish facebook would enable more privacy settings because I don’t want people to know what I’m doing all the time. I LOL’d. But then I got to thinking… this is what the majority of people complain about on facebook. It feels like a double standard: if you sign up for facebook and you’ve added...
Sep 22nd
6 tags
facebook [this is just the beginning]
Ben Parr of Mashable wrote last evening that Facebook may be radically changed.  If your heart just stopped because you thought yesterday’s unveiling of several new features was big, according to Parr - that is just the beginning.  An excerpt from Parr: I have seen what Facebook is launching on Thursday [today], and it’s going to change the world of social media. The Facebook you know...
Sep 22nd
7 tags
facebook [explaining the changes]
Most of you should have the new facebook interface, and it’s sending users into a frenzy via status updates… Here’s the deal: this isn’t the first time facebook has changed it’s interface, and it’s not the last time. Every time they change, we say we hate them, but we continue to utilize their free service, and we forget about the change within a few...
Sep 21st
4 tags
facebook [it's not the end of the world]
via: someecards Facebook continues to roll out some of the biggest changes it’s users have seen in a long time and fans of facebook are responding. Let’s all remember that facebook is free, and it’s a technology. As much as you might not like it, technology is ever-changing. Zuckerburg and his team will adapt to the new trends and change their technology to stay one step ahead...
Sep 21st
5 tags
Be Careful What You Tweet
Here is a classic tale of tweeting gone bad. We’ve heard about this before, but it’s just another good reminder that you should watch what you tweet because you never know who’s watching.  His tweets seem harmless, but Microsoft was less than pleased with one of their employee’s opinions on the “yet to be released” product. He was let go shortly after...
Sep 20th
3 tags
The Lists Have Arrived [on Facebook]
The new lists have officially rolled out on Facebook. I went to add people to my “Close Friends” list, and I’m not going to lie (even though I know how they do it) it’s still creepy that Facebook can “suggest” my “best friends” to me fairly accurately.  I heard someone say, “It looks like Google+ did nothing but make Facebook a better...
Sep 20th
3 tags
Facebook Subscriptions
I already know way too much about way too many of you thank you to the world of social media. Now Facebook is giving me the opportunity to subscribe to you, and your updates. That means, I can pick and choose what I want to hear from you. I think it would be ingenious if Facebook could invent this for real life - I’d love to subscribe to some of the things you say, and have the opportunity...
Sep 14th
7 tags
Facebook's Friend Lists
Mashable posted an article today unveiling yet another Facebook feature that may or may not be rolled out to the public.  Google+ never really took off for me, but some people really love it. Facebook must still be worried that G+ is one of their major competitors… and the introduction of Friend Lists will help bridge the gap between the two social networks. So what’s a Friend List?...
Sep 9th
9 tags
Measuring your Effectiveness on Social Media
How do you determine your ROI when social media effectiveness is so difficult to measure? Prior to yesterday, I thought I had Social Media all figured out. My daily routine would consist of checking my company’s social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and engaging in any conversations that may have transpired over the past 12 hours. Then I’d scan the internet for mentions about...
Sep 8th
12 tags
Internet Icon Directory
Do you think you know everything there is to know about the web? At least you think you know… until you come across this on a website: Can you correctly identify all of those icons in the lineup? You’d be surprised how many people can’t… so here’s a little helpful internet icon directory for you. Here’s an easy one: YouTube The “V” is Vimeo...
Sep 7th
August 2011
18 posts
8 tags
Negative Feedback on Twitter
When you receive negative feedback on Twitter (especially as a company) how do you handle the situation? Today, on my personal account, I noticed @ampm was promoted on Twitter. So I said this: It was probably rude, but I said it and there was no point in deleting the comment. Shortly after I received this response: At first I thought they were being condescending, but then I realized this...
Aug 25th
10 notes
11 tags
Facebook's New Privacy and Content Controls
Facebook announced on their blog yesterday that the popular social media site is going to start rolling out a myriad of privacy and sharing options. The changes should help users control what information they share with whom on the internet. Easier Privacy Controls Now you will be able to control what content on your profile is shared with whom with a drop down menu displaying: public, friends,...
Aug 24th
7 notes
5 tags
Twitter + Earthquakes
Well, it’s known now that there was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Virginia today that caused the Capitol to evacuate, but how did everyone find out right away? It wasn’t because of the media. East Coasters took Twitter and Facebook by storm DURING the earthquake. Who was the first person to say something? It’s reported that the first tweets came through about 30 seconds...
Aug 23rd
6 tags
Friday Fun Day: Facebook Edition
Do you love “The Dude”, White Russians and Facebook? Well, your dream has come true because The Big Lebowski and Facebook have combined forces to be one big awesome place of… awesome. You can now rent the iconic movie on the social network platform for 30 Facebook credits ($3). wowzas Facebook hopes to gain ground as a movie rental platform. The Jackass guys released their...
Aug 19th
6 tags
Facebook's New Nav
Facebook announced earlier this week that they’re going to slowly roll out a new navigation side bar, along with some other structural changes. Some of you may have gotten it, most have not yet. Your left hand sidebar (under your default photo) is re-ordered into 4 different groups: Favorites - the news feed, messages, events and friends Apps - game requests and app requests Pages - the...
Aug 18th
74 notes
4 tags
I got you a Twitter Treat
Here’s a Twitter treat you may not know about. If you access Twitter with your browser (ie. not on a mobile device) you have a chance to skip randomly through the timelines of users you follow. Click on the “shuffle” icon in your following timeline: If you hover over the icon you’ll see this: Once you click it, you’ll be sent to someone random that you follow...
Aug 17th
5 tags
HardlyWork.in
I don’t condone not working at work, or while in class. BUT this is a pretty awesome website, nonetheless. Hardlywork.in Now your newsfeed will display in excel spreadsheet form so when your boss is creeping over your shoulder again, as far as he’s concerned, you’re working hard. The left is your friends name, the middle is what they’re saying, and the far right are...
Aug 16th
7 tags
Twitter Tuesday
Every Tuesday is now officially Twitter Tuesday at Social Media + You, FYI. Are you a business owner, a freelancer, or perhaps a blogger who would like to integrate their Twitter account with the website/blog? You should utilize the Tweet Button. At this point, you’ve probably seen a tweet button on most of the websites you’ve accessed. Namely news sites and blogs. Mashable utilizes...
Aug 16th
1 note
6 tags
Facebook's Fabulous Features
Facebook got a little nervous when G+ came out. It’s like the jock at high school when a new jock comes around, the older jock needs to strut his stuff… prove that he’s better.  OK, maybe that’s not happening, but 2 days ago Facebook unveiled a subtle new feature called “On This Day”. Basically, Facebook shows you status updates from 2009 and 2010 that were...
Aug 13th
7 tags
SM+YOU Gets Plastic Surgery
Social Media + You is in the process of getting a face lift (botox, veneers, etc.)… I’ve noticed that there are at least 6 of you who read this blog… so I want to make it pretty for you. I’ve been working with the talented @jkleist to come up with a branding for SMplusYOU. We’re currently choosing a color palette and other branding necessities but here is what we...
Aug 12th
6 tags
Twitter Tips
Most people use Twitter apps to access the micro-blogging site. But for those of you who use your browser for all your Twitter needs, you may have noticed some subtle, but pretty significant, changes. First, if you’re tired of receiving RT’s from someone you follow, but they provide you with gems of incite you simply don’t want to unfollow, you can turn off RT’s from that...
Aug 12th
12 notes
5 tags
Facebook's "Instant" Newsfeed
The developers and strategists at Facebook are always looking for new ways to make the major social media site stand out. Their latest feature seems a bit repetitive, and I’m wondering how long it’ll stick around. Now you can see what your friends are doing in real time… right next to your already “real time” newsfeed. (I’ve blocked out the names and messages...
Aug 11th
7 notes
3 tags
Heello vs Twitter
Twitter just launched a new feature that is in direct competition with Twitpic. Now you can upload photos straight from your browser rather than using a third party app like Twitpic or Yfrog. So what did the founder of Twitpic do? He made a Twitter clone called Heello That’s right instead of tweet you “ping” (sounds familiar) and instead of follow you “listen”...
Aug 10th
2 notes
6 tags
Phone Contacts on FB
Your friends may have been posting an urgent status update today on their Facebook profiles that looks something like this: It’s true, all your mobile phone contacts are now on your Facebook account. Don’t believe me? Check it out: Sign on to your profile click account - Then click on edit friends - Then hit contacts - You’ll see all your mobile phone contacts (on...
Aug 10th
1 note
2 tags
Aug 5th
46 notes
6 tags
Facebook's Facial Recognition Technology
You’ve gone through the necessary precautions on Facebook in regards to your privacy. You’ve worked hard to make sure your password is “very strong” & even set all your photo albums to “friends only”. But are you actually safe? I discovered an interesting article this morning. A study shows that Facebook’s facial recognition technologies can be used...
Aug 5th
8 tags
G+ & Facebook: Combined [finally]
Have a G+ account and don’t want to start from scratch? Well they don’t make it easy, but you can import your Facebook contacts to G+ with the aid of a Yahoo! or Hotmail account. Let’s do this step by step together. Log in to your already existing Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new one. Click on your “Contacts tab” Then “Import Contacts” Click...
Aug 4th
8 tags
NabeWise
Social Media is not just Facebook and Twitter. Nor is it just Google+ and Linkedin. Those are the biggest names in the game though, so it’s easy to get stuck somewhere underneath with little recognition. We’ve all heard of sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor and they do a great job of telling us what’s hot and what’s not… but how many sites allow you to rate/review your...
Aug 3rd
14 notes
July 2011
6 posts
Jason Kleist: Social Media + [me] →
jasonkleist: A buzz has been around about Google+. At first I was not thrilled about yet another social media site. After receiving the coveted invite I was pleased with what I found. I am not going to go into details but over at Social Media + You they do a good job of reviewing the newly launched social…
Jul 22nd