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The 16 Most Important Social Media Updates of 2012 Posted by  Rachel Sprung Tue, Nov 27, 2012 @ 08:00 AM  Comments 469 in Share   In the last 11 months, there have been tons of updates to our favorite social networks, several of which were  extremely  relevant for marketers and business owners. Many of them were just little tweaks, but a lot -- 16 in our estimation -- had a huge impact on marketers' jobs. The latter are the ones we want to highlight; not just to show how much can change in a year, but to emphasize how critical it is to  remain agile as an inbound marketer  so you can keep up with all these updates. Plus, if you're not already using some of these new features (or perhaps didn't know they existed), what better time to get started than the new year? Here are the biggest social media updates of 2012, and why they were so darn important to marketers. The Biggest Facebook Updates of 2012 1) Global ...

How to Use Instagram for Business It is time for businesses to understand that this social sharing platform is here to stay. So how can a business use Instagram to share their story? Build an Identity Start snapping photos of your business. Once you’re ready to post your first image, you’ll be able to add a location if it is not already listed. Try uploading photos of interesting aspects of the store or products, or share images of things the people who shop your business care about. You’ll be amazed at the response when you start sharing your perspective. Visuals speak louder than words. Use Hashtags to Build a Following What’s the point of taking a great photograph if no one will notice it? Celebrate your active brand advocates by deciding on a short, easy to type phrase that people can include in their tweets. For example Adidas used the hashtag “#thereturn” to celebrate the return of Derrick Rose. They even made it a predominate design element on their  websit...

Pros and Cons: Facebook Offers vs. Third Party Facebook Coupon Apps in Share 3 FACEBOOK CONTESTS AND PROMOTIONS ,  FACEBOOK NEW FEATURES Facebook Offers have been available to all brands with at least 400 Likes for more than a month now, and that’s great news for brands! But you may have used a  Facebook Coupon application  in the past, and now, you’re left wondering if you should stick with the Facebook native option or if the coupon app of your favorite vendor is still a viable alternative. Let’s find out! If you want to increase the size of your audience or get high levels of interaction, you need to provide value. According to a study by Lab42 ( and this infographic on Mashable ), the number one motivator for Facebook users to Like your Page is promotions and discounts. Oh, and number two? Giveaways. In other words, you need to give people something other than your wise words and an endless stream of PR messages. You could just write a sta...

The (almost) definitive guide to Facebook for brands By  Kevin Allen  |  Posted: November 19, 2012 6 32 in Share The way in which brands approach Facebook is similar to that of Twitter: Steer clear of both social networks if you’re not going to do it right. But if you absolutely  must  launch your company into Facebook, or if you’re looking to take your page to the next level, here is a definite guide (of sorts) to the social network: First, a word about dealing with Legal.  If your companies Legal department has to approve every nuance of your Facebook approach, run away—or at least push back. It’s tough to skirt the lawyers, and the general lack of precedent in Facebook legal cases has many corporate attorneys playing preemptive defense. No one wants to be the first to get dinged. Of course, a Legal department’s recommendation is just that—a recommendation. Make your case to legal by showing them other brands taking cer...

8 Indispensable Tools to Improve Your Social Media Efficiency NOV 1ST in Share 227 50   comments By {grow} Community Member Ian Cleary Being organized with your social media efforts is essential because it can be so time consuming. It’s easy to spend many hours on social media but are you using that time effectively? Here are 8 tools that I use on a regular basis that helped me be more effective and efficient on social media and hopefully it will help you too! 1. Monitor and Build Relationships on Twitter with Commun.it Commun.it  provides functionality to help build and monitor relationships with Twitter followers. I only need to spend a couple of minutes a day on Commun.it but it gives me some valuable actionable information, such as: Influencers who have interacted with me but I haven’t reciprocated. Suggested people to follow Opportunities to engage with people based on keywords that I’m tracking (e.g. my company name Identify people wh...