125 kids and their parents attended this summit and the results of it were more revealing than expected. Kids who were born in the digital age have an inborn knowledge of Internet and its countless tools. In fact, they easier learn to deal with Social Media’s issues than a person on his thirties: they practically are online all days all the time, thank to their parents’ devices and their incredible ability to learn quickly.

For example, there is a little girl called Hannah who re-platformed her blog during the summit (by the way, this event was hosted by @stepanies from june 28th to july 1st). She self-hosted a WordPress site and by now she has posted 20 post, all of them concerning herself, her life, hobbies and more. She is all the time adviced and controlled by her parents and despite of her early career in Social Media Field, her posts have collected more than 70 comments in less than a month. She is 9 years old. How it will be when she celebrates her 20 birthday? If you want to have a look to her blog, here you have the link.

Alexander Hansen is another digital-social kid. He started to love creating digital content by watching videos in Youtube. As far as he enjoy those published videos he knew he wanted to be part of it. His first video was filmed with a little help of his brother, a camera and a tripod. The rest is history and these are the results: 754 suscribers and more than 3 million of video-views. He also was one of the speakers during the summit. And he is younger than 10 years old. Do you want to know his profile? Check it here!

I was thinking about children and social media and, despite Spain is a country that is not strongly focused in Social Media as USA is, little spaniards as my cousin are already eager to know about Facebook, Twitter and so on. My cousin is 13 years old and by now he has already opened an account in Tuenti, a spanish social network that is targeting to engage children from 13 to 25 years old at most.  Of course mi sister and my brother in law are advising him all the time, checking out which type of content he is watching at and blocking some harmful websites. And he understands the usage of Internet better than me: he also uses a mobile phone with Internet connection, we talk everday every hour by using Whats up and when I can not reach the phone to call him back, he chooses to send me a tweet, because he knows I am available in my account all the time.

These kids who were born in the digital era can not imagine a life without internet and online sharing. I was born in the seventies, and I grew up playing with my friends in the street until my brother and I got our first Mario Bross. I discovered the e-mail during my universities years and despite I like to be online 25 hours per day, the knowledge my nephew is acquiring will surpass my internet wisdom in a couple of years. Furthermore, he is learning web developing as a hobbie (while I am intending to deal with PHP’s rebuses unsuccessfully) and want to study Computer Programming.

This is not the future. This is the present. How will be the Internet in ten years, when those kids who became social in the Internet just after they learn to walk will be managing online content? How it will be?  What do you think about it?

Regards!

Richard

Well, because of it, today I want to talk about an interesting an awesome plugin for those who need a store locator in their wordpress site. I was looking for some offbeat one, and I wasted a lot of time for doing so. But I didn’t realize that what I really needed was the most simple plug available in wordpress codex:  Simple Map Store Locator. That’s it.

This plugin allows you to locate any store belonging to you. If you own a big franchise and need to give to your customers an easy way to locate their closest storehouse, this plugin is for you. These are its features:

• Uses Google Maps API v 3
• Manage locations from any country supported by Google Maps
• Manage an unlimited number of locations
• Put a Google Map on any page or post that gives instant results to users
• Users can enter a street address, city, state, or zip to search the database
• Customize the appearance of the map and results with your own themes
• Use a familiar interface that fits seamlessly into the WordPress admin area
• Import and export your database as a CSV file
• Make certain locations stand out with a customizable tag (Most Popular, Ten-Year Member, etc.)
• Easy-to-use settings page means you don’t need to know any code to customize your map.

In fact, the power behind it is that it also provides a widget to put the locator in any of your sidebars or include it into your code.

Have you tested it? I did and I thinks is quite complete. What do you think about it?

Regards!

It’s not a tool for schedule Tweets like Buffer App or Hootsuite. It’s more focused on analytics statuses and topic trends, hashtags and so on. All in one. So it’s very useful to seek niches in which you want to place your message and engage with people who has your same interests. it’s usage is very intuitive, no needs of professional knowledge and you can install trough Google Chrome Apps, if not there is an app to download and install into your desktop.

It allows you to go deeply into twitter statistics, including how many people you follow are following you back, users without recent participation, inactive users, users classified by number of tweets per day, trending topics, hashtag’s usage and quantity and quality of followers from your followers. Big enough, isnt’t?

I am using this tool primarily for my company Twitter account, @alfilcom. I have recently no time to dedicate to promote myself online, so it’s time to get back to work on my own brand. It’s true that I was attempting to engage my followers and despite my community in twitter is not big enough, they are really interesting persons who I follow (and it’s reciprocate) and we are really engaged. So, there is some wisdom in that phrase: it does not matter how many follow you, what really matters is if your followers really appreciate your message and what you are trying to communicate. Well, despite my community is not so big yet, those who I follow and me are building and strong feeling. In fact, being online is the same of being in the real world, just that you express yourself trough a computer screen and binary codes.
 
Last but not least, here you have an infographic on the Story of Twitter. Enjoy it! See ya!

Richardgv

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If you read any blogs in the world, by now you’ll know WordPress dominates the top 100 blogs in the world, like Matt Mullengweg says in this post. We’ve seen more WordPress stats, like these by Lorelle. I then started adding more stats on my own.

Well, nothing more to say. just check this infographic and find out why WordPress is the best on its field!

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Interesting infographic by visual.ly. They did a research on how long a life of a hastag is, and this is the result. Some highligths from the infographic:

• The used the hastag #infographic.
• In one month, the hastag appeared 56,765 times.
• On peak day, there were 3,365 appearances.

by visually. Browse more Social Media infographics.

 

What does it mean? As it happens in real life, what people is expecting from Social Media is to find resources to express themselves without restrictions and become a part of a community in which they could satisfy their social necessities. What they are looking for is a beatiful friendship and relations. Recall that in the early years of this century there were (and still they are here but they are not famous as before) hundreds of sites which offered you the opportunity ‘online affairs’. I know some friends who found their current wife by using Internet. Actually one of them get divorce, but the others are still in their honeymoon.

The beginning of a beatiful friendship

Social Media has become the perfect niche to connect people everywhere. There are no boundaries (well, except the famous chinese firewall…and the language, of course)and all of its functionality is about people relating with other people.

So, don’t be distracted by all the tools, resources, tactics and technics to engage your community. It’s true that as more information you achieve, you will be more prepared to face any situation in life, but not all of the methods Internet provides could be applied to your community. So, if you use social media as a machine for blasting sales pitch and PR releases, your community will never warm you.

But if the people behind your brand act like decent human beings and express themselves as they are and showcasing your company personality, your community will reward you with trust, engagement, interaction, and even love. Because they will realize they are interacting with others like them, and not with a brand intending to sell something. They will naturally become paying customers because they trust you. So, the natural consequences of your online strategy will be to attract and retain more potential clients and buyers, and you will have fun doing so.

So, here you have some highlights

• Your social media strategy will not succed if you don’t care about your customers’ interests, If a company does not care deeply about their community, they should not be doing online marketing.
• Identify online places your targeting audience are hang out and visit them. Don’t make them work to find you.
• Give your online marketing team members a great deal of freedom within clear boundaries.
• Your clients will have a strong connection with your brand if they have a strong connection with your team members.
• Focus on what your community cares about, not pet topics you enjoy ranting on.
• A big part of being a delightful brand means showing that it’s not all about you. Share other’s content.

Finally, how are you applying your online strategy? Are you engaging your online community with confidence and caring about their interests?

by Column Five Media.

Created by: MBA Online

Socialnomics.net has made a study which will clear our expectation concerning measurement patterns. Here we have some key factors that are the most popular by industry.

Social Presence

The most companies I know uses the number of fans, followers, likes, etc. as metrics to measure its success in online marketing. Food Service Industry and Accomodation prefer this points of reference. In fact, it’s true that this is the easiest way of measuring， though many have pointed out the limitations of using just this method.

Social Media Lead Generation

Many companies drive their measures based on lead generation results. Professional and Technical Services and the Information industries lead the pack in terms of lead generation mesaurement with 16 percent and 15 percent respectively. For this companies, online lead generation is a mainstay.

Social Media Impact on Sales

There is an eternal argue on Social Media ROI, because small businnes normally don’t see an inmediate Return of Investment when they spend money on Internet. Though a lot of them don’t believe in this way of measuring, some industry sectors do believe. Retail industry is most active in mesauring its Social Media Impact having their sales incomes as the primary method to realize if they are doing well or wrong in their online strategy.With Social Commerce expected to grow to $14 billion in 2015, and an estimated 90% of all purchases to social influence, retailers are pushing hard to make the connection between their social channels and their incomes stronger.

It is predicted that marketers will continue to invest big amount of money in Social Media. They are likely to be focused on top three priorities:

• Increase their presence in their social media platforms.
• Increase the number of publishing content.
• Increase their social marketing manager and monitoring.

How do you measure your social media impact? Do you think your method of measuring suits your business’ needs?

Then, Pinterest is the perfect place to satisfy this visual appetite because its “sharing process” is based on visual elements: video and images; and even better, they are quite easy to share: you just need to ‘pin’ them (chrome has a special extension to ‘pin’ any website you visit) or ‘repin’ images you have found in your community members’ boards.

The site has exploded in the Social Media World, adding 11 million of users in less than a year and it has become a trend in 2012. Beyond this quick growth, we need to realize that Pinterest has a special clue for business and companies: most of the users are women between the ages of 25 and 44. I mean, the users are the women and moms who are not only making most of the hosehold buying decisions, but also the ones that do the most giving.

What makes Pinterest different from other Social Media Networks?

If you are involved in the Social Media World, when you heard about Pinterest maybe you thought: “Ok, this is my job: I have to join another social media network and learn how to suit it for my business purposes”. I felt obligated to do so, but after searching for a little while I discovered that I was dealing with a new challenge: find out how Pinterest could suit business interests and how to make a benefit of it.

First of all, I realized that Pinterest is quite different than Facebook, Twitter, and other Social Networks because of two features: the way you interact with others users and the content display.

Why the content? Because we are talking just about images and videos. Not a lot of text: just visual compelling content that satisfies my visual instinct. It’s true that I like online reading, but I rather prefer to check infographics, watch videos and enjoy some beatiful designs (I entered Pinterest because a friend of mine, who is a designer, encouraged me to join her community). The first time I went into Pinterest’ boards I felt like I was gossiping into my favourite magazines: GQ, FHM, some of them about Technology, Social Media, etc. I mean, they all were there: it was like being seeing 50 magazines at once, tearing out all the pictures I like and avoiding annoying writing.

Secondly, it’s true that you can comment on other’s people pins, but it’s also true that the most common form of interacting with other  users is by re-pinning their content (or liking them). You just need one click and then pass to another picture of your preference: perhaps no one will mind if you comment or not, but most of them will be happy if you re-pin their content. This low maintenance is definitively a big part of the appeal: it is less demanding or involved than Facebook and Twitter, and there is more immediacy in its interface.

Lastly, Pinterest seems to have a very different vibe from Facebook or Twitter. Facebook seems to be all about “me, me, me”, I mean, it’s like all the time you are saying to your community “hey guys, look at this pics from an incredible party I was in”, or “hey, did you already check the pics I had in my last travel to China?”…etc., whereas Pinterest’s users are seeking a creative and fun outlet to share images of their virtual bucket list and looking for new things to try, instead of spending time in saying how fancy, cute and spectacular I am.

if we own a company, Should I have to join Pinterest?

It depends on your content. I mean, if you have “Pinteresting-content”, joining this new social network will be an asset. You need to focus on what you expect from this social media. If you are clueless of how to participate, maybe you need to consider this few tips:

Do you have rich, captivating images to share? I am not going to be tired of repeating it! Content is the most important factor in Social Media. Internet is just another tool to communicate your brand’s message, with the big difference that in Social Media your brand starts a conversation with their users. But what you want to communicate remains to be the most important part of the social engine.

Are you already on other social platforms? Pinterest nicely integrates with Facebook, Twitter, etc., but I would not recommend it as the platform to start building your online presence.

Do you have resources to do it well? It’s quite important to consider if you have enough time, tools and persons to join a new Social Media Community. It’s negative for brands to have a Social Media Account which lack of content and it’s updated just once in a time.

What do you think? Are you already on Pinterest? How do you use this new platform?

Monetate Marketing Infographics