The New Facebook News Feed - What Brands and Users Need to Know

Facebook announced a new look to their News Feed yesterday, which aims to streamline its appearance and cut down on irrelevant stories. In fact, the tagline on their announcement reads “Goodbye Clutter… Hello bright, beautiful stories.” The new version will focus on images, and they will appear much larger and richer than they had previously. To many reviewers, the updated feed looks like a cross between Google+ and the Facebook Mobile app. For the first time, the platform will look virtually the same across different devices. This leaves just one big question for both Facebook users and brands… Where will the ads go?

Super Bowl Social Media: A Touchdown Pass for National Brands

Super Bowl advertising spots are one of the most sought after 30 seconds in television each year. With the event having an estimated viewership of well over 110 million, many national companies view the hefty $4 million dollar price tag as money well spent. In fact, the New York Times reported that the ad spots were already sold out on January 8th, almost a full month before the big event. In recent years many companies have amped up their traditional television campaigns to include YouTube sneak peeks, dedicated websites, hashtags, Facebook campaigns, and apps designed to garner appeal and catch their audience’s attention on the second screen. Social media is a growing factor in many major corporation’s 2013 Super Bowl advertising campaigns, which is a huge change from the surprise element and secretive campaigns of years past.

12 Worst Social Media Mistakes of 2012 (And How to Avoid Them)

2012 was truly a year of phenomenal social campaigns by many national companies. However, with the good came plenty of bad. Here are some of the year’s worst campaigns, and how you can avoid these gaffes in your own businesses’ online marketing.

12. Kansas City Chiefs
A disappointed fan tweeted at the Kansas City Chiefs in September, calling the owner greedy and unethical. Unfortunately for the Chiefs, the fan took a screenshot of the offensive direct message he received back and posted the message to Reddit, where it went viral within hours.

Medium: Twitter's Founder Develops WYSIWYG Blogging

As an avid Tweeter, I’ve been excited about the launch of Medium since I first learned about the new site this summer. The promise of a service that bridges the gap between the 140 characters I already love and a more traditional blogging platform is one that excites both my passion for social media and my desire for a more directed writing channel. A traditional blog often seems like an exercise in futility for your average writer, but a system that is designed specifically for uncovering interesting posts — optimized for quality, rather than popularity — is one that I can certainly get behind. Medium founder Ev Williams took to the platform this week to discuss his new service’s functionality, and how editing and writing will work in the system.

Instagram Web Profiles Bring Nashville Filter to the Masses

Photo sharing service Instagram announced the release of brand new web profiles for all users last week, some two years after the launch of its iOS app. Although this is big news for your average Instagrammer, the addition is also a major breakthrough for businesses who use the app for photo editing and social sharing. The new web profiles have already begun launching, and the majority of Instagram users can expect a new profile featuring their photos within the coming week.

Search Influence Team Becomes Bing Ads Certified

As of September 28th, the Search Influence account management team has 12 Bing Ads accredited members on staff in addition to the 12 team members who received Google AdWords certification last spring. We are constantly striving to improve our training and credentials so that we can provide the highest level of knowledge and most value for our clients. With both Bing and Google ad-certified professionals, we are the most accredited Online Ad team on the entire Gulf Coast. You can see the full list of accredited SI employees in Bing’s Find a Pro Directory. We’re very excited about our expanded knowledge in the Bing Ads program, and loved the interaction we received from Bing about our enthusiasm for the program! Talk about great customer service.

Having Your Cake and Eating It Too: A Step-by-Step Guide To Scheduling Updates In Facebook

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post about how I had found the new Facebook scheduling tool improved EdgeRank for pages. The blog analyzed the significant gains we’ve seen in clients’ reach and interaction since we began using the tool rather than scheduling posts through HootSuite. It seems that fewer business owners and page managers were aware of the tool than I had imagined, so I created a comprehensive breakdown of how to schedule posts using a fictional cupcake shop.

Before doing anything else, you must set a “Founded” date for your business. This is a relatively easy step, but must be completed before Facebook will allow you to begin scheduling updates.

Facebook Scheduling Tool for Business Improves EdgeRank

Maximizing Facebook Fan engagement and excelling at the ever mysterious “EdgeRank” are top priorities for both business owners and marketing firms in this digital age. Unfortunately these lofty aims often take the backseat to more pressing demands, like actually running a business, rather than just writing about one online. Even if businesses have dedicated staff members available to not just to post but also to actively interact with fans, it can be difficult to coordinate posts for the right time of day for maximum fan engagement. Enter the Facebook scheduling tool for pages, which takes some of the inconsistency and stress out of posting regularly.