Recently Facebook and Twitter, the two ubiquitous social media platforms that redefined online engagement, celebrated their 10^th and 7^th birthdays respectively. There’s no competition with Google+ as far as social media presence and reach of the two platforms are concerned. However, Google’s very own social network is fast expanding its present user base and more importantly has found a place among the Top 5 social media networks, as seen from recent studies on user engagement, conducted by reputed data firms in the first quarter of this year.

Why Google+ is needed for your social media entourage? Among many other things we have zeroed in 7 reasons why you should have a Google+ account to enhance your personal/ business branding -

• It’s a Google product so you can vouch on its functionality and trustworthiness
• It helps improve your Google Authorship. That’s true!
• Google’s web crawlers crawl Google+ pages and accounts making them rank high on SERPs. Hence you can have a better web page rank for your Blog or company site with a Google verified G+ page.
• Connect with niche groups via communities, more close-knit conversations enable you to link up with relevant connections
• Hangouts are wonderful ways to establish yourself/ brand as opinion or thought leaders in your domain
• No Advertisement model initiated so far  in G+ (unlike Facebook) to generate paid reach
• Hashtags “#” work just like Twitter and isn’t a flop-show like Facebook

I could have added a dozen other to the list, but to cut the long story short, here’s a detailed look into how you can use Google+ to increase your social media engagement.

For more tips, tricks and news from the world of digital marketing stay connected to ITS blog.

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GIFs are social engagement boosters

It is for this reason particularly that Pinterest has turned their attention towards GIFs and will soon make the facility available to users to pin and share animated GIF images on their boards. Social media scientists are of the view that Pinterest has taken cue from Google Plus – Google’s very own social networking site that didn’t perform well as compared to Facebook in spite of huge expectations. They noted that since Google Plus allow GIF images and that a majority of the highest viewed, shared and talked about posts in G+ are GIF animated images, Pinterest is simply trying to invest on the same and bite on to Google Plus’s growing supremacy in the GIF domain.

How animated GIFs will work on Pinterest?

Now, that’s a million dollar question given that no one is pretty sure on that. But as of now the word which has come out is that, the animated GIF feature would be available only to some select pinners. Once a user uploads an animated GIF image on to a pin board, they can play or pause the animation at their sweet will. All they have to do is control their action by clicking on a tiny play button at the lower left-hand corner of each image.

A Pinterest spokesman was heard saying that they (Pinterest) are always trying to enhance the usability of their platform so that people can pin and share things they love as well as discover new things along the way. Animated GIFs are no doubt going to add dynamism to the already vibrant Pinterest platform.

What to Expect in coming Days

Expect the unexpected! Well that’s what social media is; you can never predict when a new trend will catch up with the social media population. Take for example the curious case of the GIFs. Even a year back GIFs were just an image format and now animated GIFs are ruling the popularity charts in Google Plus. Major brands are drawn to this trend so much so that even Verizon has introduced an animated GIF image as their profile banner moving with the trend. So expect outstanding developments in Pinterest in the coming days.

So, What’s The BIG News?

First up, Facebook has introduced the ‘EDIT’ option for users. Now you can ‘EDIT’ your Facebook posts after you publish them. “Previously you had to delete your post, lose all your Likes and Comments, and re-post to edit something on your timeline.” But not anymore!

How Do I Know Whether This Feature Is ‘ON’?

Simple, go to your timeline. Select any of your previously published posts. Click on the small ‘down arrow’ symbol on the top right of the published post, to open a drop-down menu. Select ‘Edit’ from the available options and start editing the text. For reference consult the image below.

You can also – Change Date, Add Location, Highlight your post, Hide your post from the Timeline, Delete or Embed your post in your blog or webpage.

Now, about the second update. But first tell me, what would you do to find out, in one place, what your college buddies or colleagues or business rivals have posted on their timelines, liked or commented on Facebook in the last week, the last month or the month before and so on? You would say “I’ll click open their profile and scan their walls and activity feed. Yes, but won’t that be an arduous task? Sure thing!

What if you search on Facebook “posts by my colleagues from august” and whoa, all of their Facebook activity from August shows up! Yes, that’s what the second feature is all about. It’s called “Post Search” an extension of the earlier introduced “Graph Search”. Facebook announced its launch on September 30. This new feature will roll out progressively, first in the United States and then the rest of the world in the coming weeks!

Need more info on that? Check out details from the Facebook Newsroom Click Here

So which of these two updates are you really impressed with? Let us know in the comments below.

Stay updated on news, views and analysis from the world of Social Media. Stay connected to ITS Blog.

Startled! You should be. In a few weeks from now, Facebook plans to announce the results of the first phase of this outstanding initiative, which they’ve named ‘Facebook for Every Phone’. According to a recent Pew study, 1 in 8 of its billion strong users access the social networking site every day using 3,000+ models of different feature phones across the world. In spite of this mammoth usage statistics, there are millions of mobile phone users who cannot access Facebook from their mobile phones, since they do not have devices that support the Facebook app. In other words, in order to tap into this huge potential user base and bring them to Facebook family, the Menlo Park based tech giant is planning to go forward with this project, head on. They say it’s their next big step in adding a billion more users to their active user base. The target market for this new project is going to be India, Brazil and Africa, a Facebook insider said, where most mobile handset manufacturers are cashing in by selling cheaper handsets (less than 20 USD) and the market is huge for such handsets.

As a part of this initiative, Facebook has recently offered USD 70 million to acquire Snaptu, an app developed by an Israeli company, which enables primitive cellphones to access a primitive version of Facebook. As per latest news, the deal is in motion. Experts believe that this could be a direct indication of how determined Facebook is to make this project successful.

Industry insiders say that with the upcoming announcement Facebook will roll out its new ‘lighter’ version of the app. ‘Facebook Lite’ as some prefer to name it, will be the first-of-its-kind mobile application that would work smoothly even on mobile devices with slower data speed, while maintaining all basic features of the Facebook experience viz the newsfeed, chat and photos options, which are available over feature phones (smartphones), only that with a lower resolution. According to grapevine, Facebook wants to steal the show by adding Instagram style filters for photos and also adding chat sticker emoticons in FB chats for users of “Facebook Lite” version, to make it quickly popular.

What do you think of this new feature? Would you be interested to use “Facebook Lite” from your good ‘ol cellphone or would you rather prefer to buy a feature phone and enjoy Facebook the way you do on your pc? Let us know.

Till next time stay connected to ITS blog.

Marketing is an umbrella term comprising several sub-types, each suited for a particular medium, e.g. direct marketing, precision marketing, and shotgun marketing and so on. Marketing through social media sites is altogether, a different ball game! Social networking sites are the most talked about medium at present. Owing to huge mass participation, social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, have emerged as the numero uno platform for marketers to pitch for sales. However, an over emphasis on ‘selling’ rather than ‘sharing’ (which is the original purpose of a social networking site) results in gaining only short-lived achievements for companies. So, what’s the solution?

Social Media Marketing gurus opine that firstly, you need to fine tune your social initiative. Start with planning your posts/tweets and then go about scheduling them at times when there’s maximum traffic on your social accounts. Further, you need to keep a tab on comments received on your social posts, the number of times your posts/tweets are shared across the social web, and you also need to reply to these as quickly as possible, or else your audience might feel ‘left out’ and move elsewhere. No doubt, applying all of these would help you get traction out of your social initiatives. However, questions remain – what differentiate a good post from a bad one? What makes a post go viral? Or, for that matter, is there a formula for creating a ‘perfect 10’ post that would click with your target audience?

While the first two questions have no surefire solutions, there can actually be an easy way to create ‘almost’ perfect 10 posts for your social media activities. Take a look at the infographic below to learn more…

If you have learnt something new from this post, share it with your buddies. Remember, the greatest mantra for success in social media – “Sharing is Caring”. Stay connected to ITS Blog.

But, the BIG question remains – why Instagram (now a Facebook property) waited so long to allow videos for its million-strong user base? Well, experts are already busy offering explanations. The common belief is, Instagram wants to bite into Vine’s popularity. Vine, as we all know is the short-form video ‘upload and sharing’ app launched by Twitter in October 2012. Vine has already gained a commendable user base, around 13 million, and looks to expand its reach even further. The most crucial aspect of Vine’s meteoric rise to fame is the support from advertisers. It is estimated that over 50,000 reputed brands from across hemispheres are already faithful Vine users.

Instagram, as media strategist Ryan Holiday puts in, is eyeing the ‘Vine Model’ of Advertising. Advertisers registered with Vine are already paying big bucks for video snippets shared on Vine app. Creating an elaborate Ad would cost advertisers more, whereas, short video snippets showing product launch, consumer experience, client-speak, celebrity endorsements and so on, are generating more engagement via Vine app. With this new video ‘upload and sharing’ feature, Instagram is aiming to replicate this Vine model and trying to grab more advertisers to its shore.

What’s in it for the common users? To put in a nutshell, you will have the following 3 features to enjoy in addition to all the existing Instagram features, and here they are

Upload 15 second video clips. Just aim and shoot videos on your iOS or Android powered smartphones and upload on Instagram app and you’re ready to share.

Select from up to 13 custom video filters. Are you a fan of “Hudson” or “Amaro” filter? Did you wish to customize your party snap with your favorite “Toaster” or “Branon” or “X-Pro II” filters? Well, now all of these popular Instagram image filters can be used to customize your videos! That’s not all, you’ll get 13 new filters to choose from while adding effects to your personal video snippet.

Add ‘cinema’ effect to your videos. This will certainly add a professional touch to your creation and impart a cool and sleek look to it. Just toggle your settings to ‘Cinema’ and apply it to your selected video.

The app war is heating up, and with Instagram’s new video feature roll out, it just got bigger!

What’s your take on this new video feature roll out from Instagram? Are you looking forward to record, upload and share your first Instagram video? Once you’re done, share the link below! Stay connected…

Let’s look at these latest Facebook new updates:

You Can Upload Pictures Into Your Comments – Yes, you read it right! Till now you could only share links in comments, but now you can make you comments more engaging by uploading images. Once you hit the ‘comment’ link beneath a wall post you’ll see a small grey ‘camera icon’ on the far right of comment box. Click on the icon to upload an image and add it to your comment!

Sort Your Comments By Most Recent – This particular feature would help online marketers and social business analysts to track the activities of their fans and followers on all of their Facebook page posts. The latest official statement released from Facebook says: “Replies are shown below the comments, so it’s clear who’s responding to which comment. The most active conversations are shown at the top, and comments marked as spam are moved to the bottom. To view the most recent conversations at the top, click Top Comments and select Recent Activity from the dropdown.”  Thus, this “Recent Activity” filter would eventually help page admins to differentiate between the most recent replies/ comments on their page posts from the oldest, arranged in chronological order.

According to grapevine (and we consider the source as authentic), Facebook will eventually roll out another new feature in the coming weeks. This time it will enable users to EDIT their ‘text-only’ and linked status updates after posting. Just like we can edit the texts accompanied with our image/picture updates now, we will be able to edit our text-only updates, which at the moment is not possible. Now, that calls for a celebration, isn’t it?

So, that’s all folks for the time being. Do share your valuable comments with us. Stay tuned to our weblog for latest updates from the world of social media.

The social media giant wishes to make it a tad easier for users to find content on specific topic that’s already on Facebook and hence, this much awaited initiative, was officially announced yesterday. From the user point of view, this new roll-out is surely going to make waves, a Facebook insider mentioned to Mashable. According to him, “people are already in the habit of including Hashtags in their updates, so why not make it public and let users benefit from it?”

The Hashtag Advantage

Hashtags are both “searchable” and “clickable”. By including “#” in your posts, you essentially increase the scope of your content being found on Facebook Search MORE easily, than ever before. Besides, Facebook Hashtags like its counterparts [used prolifically in other social networking and micro-blogging platforms like – Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Google Plus] will be clickable. This makes them twice as effective in terms of searching breaking news and stories pertaining to your topic of interest.

What is more, Facebook users will have this unique facility of composing new posts and sharing them, directly from the Hashtag feed. This would double the advantage for businesses that bank on social sharing to expand their business outreach and increase engagement with their target audience.

Let’s check out the major benefits that you would be reaping, once “Hashtags” are activated on your Facebook profile.

• You will be able to search a specific term from your FB search bar using a “#” in front, e.g. – #NBAPlayOffs or #IPLScore
• Click on Hashtags posted on Facebook that originates from other social networking services like #Flickr, #Instagram, etc.
• Compose your post directly from Hashtag feed and Facebook search results.
• Share stories directly from your Hashtag search feed with your FB audience. Off course, users would still have the control over the audience of their posts – public, private and limited.

It’s still early to predict how effective Hashtags are going to be in the coming days for average users. Facebook announced that a few more days will take for them to make this feature available to its every user on the planet. As of now, only a handful (fortunate?) user will enjoy the “#” advantage.

How do YOU feel about this new announcement? Like it, love it, hate it? Shoot us a comment below.

Boon for Twitter Users

Twitter has made some significant changes in the latest upgrades of its iOS and Android apps. From now on, fewer steps are going to be required when you upload and tweet photos from your iOS and Android device. While uploading a photo you can have a clear preview of the image. At the same time, you can see your username as well as your profile avatar. This particular facility is going to come real handy to you especially if you have more than one Twitter accounts to manage. Using your username and avatar you can easily toggle between multiple Twitter accounts connected through the app and tweet photos to these different accounts easily. At the same time, the recent updates also bring in the facility of user-requested alterations. With this new facility in, you can get text notifications pertaining to the photos you upload or tweet interactions made through your account.

How Would You Upload Photos After The New Updates?

From now on, all that you have to do is click on the ‘photo icon’ to upload an image and save it from the trouble of cropped preview. Yes, it is that simple! When you log on to your Twitter account and choose to upload a particular image, you will have to click on the photo icon, displayed at the bottom of the compose box. Once you click on the icon a camera roll will appear right beneath the compose window of your iOS or Android display screen, helping you select and finalize the image before uploading. Moreover, when you’re through with adding the photograph, you will get to see a full and clear preview of the photograph, and not just a cropped snippet as before.     

New Add-ons

Apart from getting to see clear image previews prior to uploading, you can enjoy some other exciting facilities like tweet composer, easily access the image gallery of your iOS or Android sets and tweet images from your  collection, enjoy tweet authentication facilities and so on.

What’s your take on this new Twitter app updates for iOS and Android? Share your thoughts with us.  

If you wish your posts to get value in terms of EdgeRank standards, appear on your friends’ NewsFeed and at the same time show up in the FB NewsFeed for a longer time span, then you need to keep these three vital factors in mind. Likewise, you need to go for a few strategic moves to make it sure that your posts do not lose relevance in the NewsFeed. Here are 3 important tips that you should do to better the EdgeRank of your profile and eventually get your posts into prime focus.

• Create Posts With Minimum Content  - Less is More 

If you have to make it sure that your posts look important and relevant in terms of EdgeRank standards you should create posts that flaunt crisp and succinct content. Studies reveal that relevant and terse content happens to grab user attention and hence appear in NewsFeed more often. Minimize ornamental word usage in posts. Keep it Simple, Straight and Short.

• Share Images And Videos  - Visualize 

To grasp your followers’/friends’ attention and the FB audience in general, post interesting images and videos from time to time. By sharing captivating, funny, quirky visuals and graphics, you can boost user engagement on your business/personal page; this in turn gives your page an authority. In due course, pages with high authorities are listed by EdgeRank as potential source of value-content and hence are showed more often in NewsFeed. 

• Be Consistent and Act Natural – Be Yourself 

In order to enhance your Facebook EdgeRank score, you need to be consistent in your initiatives of creating as well as posting and sharing unique content on your wall and stick to a regular schedule. To enhance the engagement factor of your posts you can definitely try something innovative. For example, you can consider integrating a monthly calendar in your profile. The calendar will showcase interesting post ideas to your Facebook friends. To improve the EdgeRank of your posts you need to offer value-added content to your fans and followers. Engage with them, appreciate their engagement and spread happiness. The key to success lies in the credibility, relevance and appeal that you can create in the posts. So be Consistent and foremost, act natural. Be yourself!

What is your take on this issue? Do share your valuable feedback with us. Stay connected.