With 2014 right around the corner, Instagram has added one new feature and is rumored to be considering another one. Recently, Instagram gained support from Soldsie that allows businesses to sell products via the popular photo and video sharing social network. In addition, sources report that Instagram has a private messaging feature in the works, rumored to come out with the app’s next update sometime before 2014. With these new features in play, experts believe that Instagram could raise competition with Snapchat, the 10-second photo sharing service that is widely popular amongst kids and teens.

Soldsie Support

In a past post, I discussed how the launch of ads on Instagram was met with criticism from businesses because they could not be monetized with affiliate links. Now, businesses have a new way to monetize on Instagram – direct sales through Soldsie. Soldsie, which has allowed businesses to sell on Facebook for some time, has now added Instagram support that enables users to simply purchase through comments. A company posts a photo of an item for sale, and when a user comments “sold” and adds their email address, they can instantly purchase the item. An invoice will automatically be sent to the buyer through email, and another option directs users to a form that is hosted by Soldsie.

 

While selling on Instagram was made possible in the past by Soldsie competitor Chipify, Soldsie’s service was designed for small to mid-sized businesses that are hosting daily and weekly sales. This means that Soldsie support is a huge benefit for small businesses looking for a simple e-commerce solution. In beta testing, one company received 72 orders during the first day, and another business saw an average of $1,000 in sales each day. While the beta tests were small in scale, they show that sales on Instagram have serious potential for businesses. To learn how to use Soldsie on Instagram, visit the guide on Soldsie’s support center.

Private Messaging?

Another new feature that may be in Instagram’s future is private messaging. First reported by GigaOm, sources report that private messaging may be available in the next Instagram update, which is expected before 2014. Group messaging will also be a possible feature. Instagram has not made a comment on this rumor, but Mashable suspects that this feature may allow users to share photos with specific friends without having to post them publicly.

Raising the Competition

Experts are noting that the addition of this private messaging feature could help Instagram pull ahead in competition with Snapchat. GigaOm adds that the timing for implementing this new feature would be perfect with the holidays coming up. Many people will receive new mobile devices for the holidays, and private messaging could draw them to Instagram versus Snapchat or even Vine, another major competitor. However, with the trend in social media shifting more toward single-service apps, could the addition of this new messaging feature backfire? I predict that so long as Instagram continues to focus on photo and video sharing, adding private messaging will not detract from the appeal of this social network.
 

Will your brand take advantage of Soldsie support for Instagram?


Elizabeth K is a valued contributor to Business 2 Community
 

Famed for their always-on approach to social media, mobile technology and obsession with celebrity culture, our study of 2,000 17- to 31-year-olds exposes a different picture, says Bite's Justin Pearse.

Marketers have a reductive habit of labelling each new generation with easy-to-digest labels and generalisations. There are of course some sweeping generalisations that are both useful and based on some large grains of truth.

As a member of Generation X, indelibly associated with Douglas Copeland in my mind, I certainly displayed many of the common clichés.

Generation Y, more commonly known as the Millennial generation, seem however laden with far more broad-brush labels and commonly held projected beliefs than I ever was. In fact a now slightly infamous Time front cover feature this year branded them the "Me Me Me Generation", who lived their lives through screens – mobile, tablet or PC – and felt entitled to success.

Another recent report labelled Generation Y managers as "entitled", scoring significantly low as hard-working team players.

There's no doubt the digital revolution is the root cause of much of the clichéd beliefs around Millennials. This is the first generation of people who have grown up with the internet. For Millennials, born after 1981 and before 2004, technologies such as mobile phones, games consoles and the full gamut of connected devices, have always been part of their lives.

For non digital natives looking on in wonder, it is even easier to think of Millennials as a homogenous group. It's a truism that Millennials spend their lives on social media, are obsessed with fame and celebrity, and far more interested in their mobile phone than picking up a book.

A large new piece of research however, The Millennial Index, carried out by Bite and Redshift Research, exploded a lot of the myth surrounding this generation, providing a refreshingly different view of their behaviour, motivations and values.

The research was based on interviews with 2,000 Millennials in the US and UK in August, on their use of digital media, with 144 detailed questions. No research is perfect, but this was a robust study that unearthed some surprising findings.

It's obvious Millennials are big social media users. However, it's far from true they spend all their lives on the likes of Facebook and Twitter. The Millennial Index report in fact found only 41% spend more than three hours a week on Facebook and 29% spend more than three hours on YouTube.

There is no denying Facebook's hugely powerful position in people's lives today. However, these results show that any brand happy to pour its entire marketing budget into social media – and there have been many of those in recent years – is in danger of missing a trick.

Maybe they're all on Twitter instead? Actually, 43% aren't even on Twitter at all. It turned out that this "social media-mad" generation spends more time on work or study related forums and user groups than on services such as Tumblr, Instagram or Pinterest.

Social media is clearly an incredibly important part of this generation’s daily life. But it's only one part. Again, it's so important not to be blindsided by the dizzying explosion of digital media in this generation's lives to believe it is all consuming.

It certainly doesn’t seem to be replacing the more traditional forms of entertainment many bemoan have been eclipsed by the digital alternatives. Games and other forms of digital entertainment naturally scored high among the interests of Millennials. Refreshingly, certainly for me, books remained important. While 26% of female Millennials chose games as one of their most important hobbies, almost three times as many, 61%, said they spent more time reading books.

When they do put down that book to play games or other type of digital fun, we assume their favourite, indeed increasingly only way to do this is via mobile. Not entirely true, it turned out. It is impossible to argue against the dramatic rise of the mobile internet. We know mobile is globally becoming a prime means of accessing the internet. The mobile-first strategy announcements that have become a flood from brands across the board do have their genesis in fact.

However, once again, it’s dangerous to believe an entire generation has already made this momentous shift. The Millennial Index report found that 65% still spend more time accessing the internet via a laptop or PC rather than via their smartphone or tablet.

There is no doubt this fascinating generation will continue to be the focus of studies and surveys attempting to understand how the incredible technological advances we have experienced in digital media are both causing and enabling behaviour change.

The Millennial Index, the findings of which I've only touched on here, will itself be a long-term study into this generation. What is clear though, is the danger of simply throwing this entire generation into one simplistic digital bucket.

Justin Pearse is head of marketing at Bite Communications

"All corporations, organizations, CEOs and boards I know are struggling to define their optimal presence on social media," says Davia Temin, CEO of Temin and Company. "The field is changing so rapidly, and there are so many conflicting ideas of how to best deploy resources that very few know the best way to go. And people are making mistakes. We created this series of deep-dive articles on corporate use of social media to explore not only best practices, but worst practices – not only the 'do's' but the 'don'ts' – in this emerging field."

"The trillion dollar question is 'How do organizations think about communicating to the public now that the public communicates back?'" says Ms. Temin and her co-author,Ian Anderson, Social Media Strategist at Temin and Company. Each article in the series answers this question from a different focus. Most popular to date have been #1: Don't Ignore Your Best Co-Branding Opportunity – Your Employees, trending on the Harvard Business Review LinkedIn group, and the most recent article, #5: Don't Waste Money – Make Your Social Media Advertising Smarter, More Original, More Effective, a new look at advertising creativity on social media – what works, what doesn't, and what the future holds.

"A whole new advertising art form is arising, and that is where the future really lies,"the authors say in Don't #5. "The public does seem to accept with open arms ads on social media that demonstrate real creative quality, and the ability to amuse, entertain, or add value to our lives. These ads do not need to be 'native ads' that pretend they are not advertising. Instead they can harness 'native creativity' that is available because of the medium, but they can do so openly."

Ms. Temin is a contributor to Forbes.com, with a column on "Reputation Matters." Two years ago, she and Mr. Anderson introduced a popular series of articles called, "10 Don'ts of Corporate Social Media" in her column. "So much has changed since then that we decided to create a whole new series, '10 MORE Don'ts of Corporate Social Media,' to capture the latest developments, and help organizations fend off the worst ideas out there, as well as embrace the best," she states.

A list of articles to date follows:

• Introducing "10 MORE Don'ts of Corporate Social Media": "Boards are putting social media on their agendas, as a reputational risk and opportunity. CEOs are puzzling over how to lead and evaluate their companies' efforts, as well as debating what their own social media profile should be. Executive Committees are reviewing metrics and messaging, and still wondering which are meaningful..." 
• #1: Don't Ignore Your Best Co-Branding Opportunity – Your Employees: "We all know employees can be both brand ambassadors and brand detractors. But what we haven't wrapped our heads around is that they are also our most important co-branding opportunity..."
• #2: Don't Confuse 'Thought Leadership' with 'Branded Content' or 'Native Advertising':"Thought leadership, branded content, content marketing, and native advertising are all stops along the continuum of how ideas are expressed, and products are marketed, over the Internet..."
• #3: Don't Waste Your Time(line) – Maximizing Your Own Viral Potential for Thought Leadership: "Thought leadership – the purest form of content – is a valuable currency on social media. Done innovatively, strategically, and well, it can build brand loyalty for organizations and individuals, and help to attract new clients. Done poorly or carelessly, it can do the exact opposite, and turn off these same customers..."  
• #4: Don't Think You're Anonymous – Unless You're Really Anonymous: "These days we seem to be ambivalent – or to want it all: privacy when it suits us; transparency, when it feels right; anonymity when we can choose it; but accountability when others are posting anonymously about us, or those things we care about..."
• #5: Don't Waste Money – Make Your Social Media Advertising Smarter, More Original, More Effective: "On social media, originality in advertising actually has found a new canvas, a new playground to explore. And the profession itself is being redesigned in real time..."

The series of "Don'ts" will continue throughout the month, capped off by the authors' most important "Do" of corporate social media, and an infographic that will capture the entire series, at the very beginning of January.

"Our goal is to step away from the usual analysis, and provide corporate and organizational leaders and their teams with some new thinking, new advice, and new possibilities, as they hone their social media strategies for 2014, and beyond," says Ms. Temin.

For more information, please contact Trang Mar or Lily Rossow-Greenberg of Temin and Company at 212-588-8788 or news@temin.co.

About Temin and Company Temin and Company Incorporated (www.teminandcompany.com) creates, enhances, and saves reputations. The firm helps corporations, professional services firms, and other institutions define and strengthen their public image – and their bottom line – through strategic marketing, branding, media relations, thought leadership, social media, speaker and media coaching, financial communications, and crisis management.

Clients include the leaders of some of the world's largest and most well-known corporations, financial institutions, pharma and biotech companies, law firms, consulting firms, colleges and universities, publishing houses, venture capital funds, authors, and politicians.

SOURCE Temin and Company, Incorporated

A few weeks ago, I stayed at Club Mahindra’s resort in Varca, Goa, taking a much-needed yearly break and visiting relatives in Goa. As a happy customer, enjoying their world-class service and ambience, I shared a few holiday photos of the resort on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

 

By posting a few photos with the @ClubMahindra tag, I became a brand advocate for the company – one that would happily recommend them as being responsible for many happy family memories.

 

Today, social media has become one of the most powerful channels for Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing. Here are some facts about social media that demonstrate just how powerful it can be.

 

• Social media users who receive great service tell an average of 42 people (compared to just 9 for social absentees). (Source)
 

• Approximately 40% of all Twitter users regularly search for products on Twitter. (Source)

 

• More than 88% of consumers are influenced by other consumers’ online comments. (Source)

 

• 44% of Indian consumers have bought a brand because their friends like or follow the brand on a social network. (Source)
 

This is a very convincing argument about the power of social media in creating brand advocates. But just how do you go about creating brand advocates through social media? Here are a few steps to go about doing that.

 

1. Listen to what your customers are saying.

 

Use social monitoring tools, such as SocialMention, Hootsuite, Google Analytics, Klout and Buffer, to listen to what people are saying about your brand across multiple social media channels, and then respond to them individually. All these tools are free and they will help you monitor the sentiment about your brand across the web.

 

2. Have efficient social customer service.

 

Customers on social media have come to expect speed and reliability in brands responding to their queries and complaints on social media. Social media users tell three times as many people about positive service experiences compared to the general population. (Source)

A majority of social media-savvy organizations in India respond to fan queries within 30 to 60 minutes on Twitter and within 30 minutes to a few hours on Facebook. (Source)

Having an efficient customer service program for social media fans will ensure that you respond to complaints quickly and avoid negative comments from escalating to become a crisis.

 

3. Create incentives for brand advocates.
 

A well-designed social media incentive campaign, coupled with excellent social customer service, can help you create strong advocates for your brand and give you the benefit of excellent word of mouth recommendations from your customers and their peers.

Offer your fans and followers discount coupons, free downloads or any kind of incentive relevant to the product or service that you’re trying to sell. Introduce an element of exclusivity in the incentives you offer.

 

See how Jacksonville Jaguars incentivized their brand advocates in the campaign here.

4. Make their actions public.

 

Create an application on Facebook that posts your customer’s actions to their Facebook newsfeed or Twitter stream every time they redeem a discount campaign or complete a successful purchase on your website.

This would tell all their peers about their interaction with your brand and give you amazing word of mouth publicity. According to studies, this kind of marketing-induced consumer-to-consumer word of mouth generates more than 2X the sales of paid advertising. (Source)

 

See again how the Jaguars did it here.

5. Create a rewards program on multiple levels

 

Reward your customers with a bigger discount for purchasing from you consistently and get them to post about it to their peers. You can design a number of levels, such as Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and increase the discounts awarded as they work their way up the rewards program.

 

If you design the rewards well and make them look good when they share about it, they will readily tell all their friends about it. You could even give them additional benefits for sharing about it to all their friends and for any friends that sign up through them.

 

6. Showcase your brand advocates on your page.

 

Starbucks does this very well on Instagram by inviting users to send in their coffee photos tagged with #Starbucks. Many brands invite their customers to send in photos engaging with their product and then showcase the best ones as a cover photo or even on a hoarding. Give your fans and followers some love and they will return it multifold.

 

Again, the Jaguars did it really well here.

7. Respond to damaging posts quickly

 

Remember the crisis Dominos faced when a couple of their employees posted a damaging video on YouTube performing “unsanitary acts” with their pizzas? The failure of Domino’s management to respond quickly resulted in the video getting over 1 million views within two days.

The crisis cost Domino over $50 million in sales and 65% of respondents who would previously visit or order Domino’s s Pizza were less likely to do so after viewing the offending video. (Source)

 

Had Dominos responded quickly and had the video taken down, it might have mitigated some of the negative press and loss of business. It was a lesson for all brands to take customer sentiment on social media more seriously.

Creating brand advocates can help your company weather the ups and downs of the social web and actively respond to any negative press that might come your way.

 

© Priya Florence Shah is a published author, online publisher, blogging and social media consultant and digital marketing trainer. She uses the power of blogs and social media to help her clients build communities and nurture loyal customers online. Her deepest desire is to help her clients create more... View full profile

I’ve had a few prospects getting in touch over the last three weeks – through client referrals and also finding me via Google with blog posts I’ve written. They were all looking for examples of successful social media marketing.

What’s been interesting, however, is the common question all the prospects asked – namely, what can social media engagement actually deliver? They’ve all been keen to see examples of successful social media marketing in action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first question I ask in return is “What’s your definition of successful social media marketing?” and the reply always, always, always includes an element of financial ROI for the activities delivered through social media engagement and blog marketing.

Successful social media marketing usually includes one or more of the following elements for my clients:

* Financial ROI

* Reputation ROI

* Engagement ROI

* Web traffic ROI

* Google ranking ROI

* Competitive ROI

So, here’s six proven, measurable, concrete examples of successful social media marketing from recent client campaigns – to highlight the value and benefits of professional social media engagement, blogging outreach and content marketing:

* How one blog post generated £1,600 in 60 seconds

 

A superb example of successful social media marketing, where a client wasfound on Google from a blog post, and a new customer was secured in 60 seconds. Social media engagement should deliver cash in the bank. Solid financial ROI.

* How blog marketing delivered 18 Google Page One rankings in 12 weeks

 

A brilliant example of successful social media marketing, whereby a client dominated industry search terms for their business using professional blog marketing and social media content. Within 12 weeks, they had secured Google ROI for all services.

* SEO Copywriting delivers 700% ROI in four weeks

 

A solid example of successful social media marketing, with a client using SEO Copywriting and blog marketing to drive more web traffic to their new website and generate interest, leads and Google domination for their business.

* How to use content marketing to sell 100 products per week

 

A great example of successful social media marketing, where a client used a combination of targeted social media content and an eNewsletter to sell 100 products per week. Financial ROI and reputation ROI in a single campaign.

* How to create cash from blog marketing – within 36 hours

 

A powerful example of successful social media marketing, where a client’s blog post delivered financial ROI, web traffic ROI and competitive ROI within 36 hours of uploading. Sceptics of blog marketing need to read this case study.

* How to get 20 customers in 20 days using eNewsletter marketing

 

A fantastic example of successful social media marketing, with a client using a combination of social media engagement and eNewsletter marketing to drivefinancial ROI in a short space of time. A massive increase in reputation ROI delivered, too.

If you’d like free social media marketing hints and tips delivered monthlyto your email inbox, simply sign up here.