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Twitter and IBM to enable businesses to effectively mine social data

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Twitter & IBM to enable businesses to effectively mine social dataStop for a minute and think about the amount of data that passes through Twitter every single hour. Then multiply that by the amount of hours in a day, a week, a month etc and try to comprehend how much social data Twitter actually possesses. To aid your thought process or maybe just blow your mind, 500 million tweets are sent via the platform every day.

So it’s safe to say that Twitter holds tonnes of data. And now, in a recent announcement made on the company’s blog, it seems that businesses may get the opportunity to mine that data going forward.

Every day, people share a piece of their lives via Twitter. Whether it’s their lunch plans, a cute picture of a pet or a special occasion, Twitter inevitably knows about it. Moreover, every single one of those tweets holds value.

But accessing Twitter data itself isn’t something revolutionary. After all listening tools have been around for a while and give businesses direct access to the metrics. However, until now there has been a challenge when it comes to actually deciphering the data and turning it into something tangible that businesses can leverage.

Twitter and IBM’s new partnership will effectively allow businesses to utilise Twitter data as part of their decision-making processes through a variety of IBM tools, solutions and services. Heard of IBM’s cognitive supercomputer Watson?  Well it could potentially have access to Twitter data in the future and allow companies to answer such questions as, “What do our customers like best about our service?” or “Why are we growing so fast in Asia?”

With access to such insightful data, businesses will be able to unlock previously hidden realms and shape their customer experiences more intuitively. This will allow products and services to be targeted at specific customer needs and wants.

Tens of thousands of IBM Global Business Services consultants will be trained on how businesses can best apply Twitter data in their day-to-day operations.

This announcement is fantastic news for companies who are already using social media channels to their advantage and engaging with their customers on as many levels as possible. Just imagine the scope of engagement that will be possible in the future.

Social media marketing requires your business to listen. In fact, that’s probably the primary activity you should be doing across all your social channels. But how can you listen effectively if you’re relying on memory as much as anything else?

Utilising social data is more than just checking how many followers you’ve got. It’s about building a picture of your audience; understanding what makes them tick; and creating material that is relevant.

The collaborative force of Twitter and IBM represents a turning point in social data manipulation. One that will allow businesses to take value from every piece of micro content that’s available.

 

Pinterest & Snapchat Offer two Fresh Advertising Platforms for your Brand

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We all know that having an active social media presence serves to promote your business and allows you to engage with your customers and prospects. But while Facebook and Twitter are often the two social networks that get the most attention from brands, Pinterest and Snapchat have introduced paid advertising offerings that provide different angles for your business to leverage.

Pinterest & Snapchat Offer two Fresh Advertising Platforms for your Brand

Introducing Pinterest promoted pins

Pinterest is rather unique in that it’s a highly visual social network which allows users to create stunning visual collections (boards). However, Pinterest is often overlooked by brands but why? After all, at the last count Pinterest boasts more than 70 million users. Furthermore, the majority of its user base are women – some 80% in fact.

Therefore, if your business/brand uses a lot of visual content and your target audience are predominantly women, Pinterest could represent a great opportunity for you. Plus, with the announcement of promoted pins, there has never been a better time to get interested in Pinterest or Pinterested! (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Promoted pins are Pinterest’s paid advertising offering and operate on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. They allow you to promote specific pins based on set criteria that you stipulate. For example, you can choose to target certain demographics, specific locations and even different types of devices.

The best part is that you only pay when somebody actually clicks through to your website from your promoted pin. There’s also no need to worry about spiraling advertising costs as you are able to set daily budgets and duration for every campaign.

There are, of course, a number of rules that advertisers must follow, but these are run-of-the-mill and to be expected.

Promoted pins are still in beta and currently only available to select US-based businesses. However, it’s inevitable that they’ll be rolled out across the board in the future and will present another advertising platform for your business utilize.

Snapchat Advertising is upon us

Ephemeral messaging application Snapchat may not seem like a lucrative platform to focus your marketing efforts on, but don’t dismiss it just yet. Especially as, the start-up – which has been valued at $10 billion has now opened up its gates to advertisers.

With some 100 million active monthly users – 71% of who are under 25 – Snapchat presents quite an opportunity for brands who want to get their marketing in front of millenials (that’s generation Y for those of you who aren’t familiar with the term).

The announcement that Snapchat would start rolling out paid ads was made on its blog last week. The company said that US-based users would see an advertisement over the weekend and judging by the online buzz that definitely was the case.

Snapchat wanted to emphasis that its ad offering would not detract from the user experience that people have come to love using its app. Ads will only appear in the Recent Updates section and never in personal communications (chats).

Snapchat’s decision to roll out paid ads shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, they need to justify their huge price tag and the company’s own blog post states that their reason is simply to make money.

However, they further added: “We want to see if we can deliver an experience that’s fun and informative, the way ads used to be, before they got creepy and targeted”. A statement that’s quite ironic considering that the first ad to be displayed was for Ouija – a horror movie by Universal Pictures.

Pinterest’s promoted pins and Snapchat’s paid advertising may not yet be available to UK businesses but they almost certainly will be. Will you be utilizing them?

Analyse the numbers behind your tweets with Twitter Analytics

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Twitter analytics

 

Twitter will undoubtedly be part of your social media arsenal but if it’s not, why not? After all, Twitter has evolved into a highly effective audience engagement tool and any brand that’s serious about its image should have a lively Twitter following.

Since its foundation in 2006, Twitter has undergone an evolution which has seen more and more features added to the social network over the years. And now it’s time for Twitter Analytics to enter the public spotlight and be rolled out to everyone.

Actually, it’s been quite a month for social media analytics what with Pinterest’s new analytical platform now available to users who have a business account and now Twitter Analytics getting the green light for widespread usage.

But what is Twitter Analytics and will it benefit you as a Twitter user?

Twitter Analytics is a tool that advertisers and some verified users have been using for a few months now. Anyone who uses Google Analytics will embrace Twitter’s platform with open arms. The two function very similarly, with Twitter Analytics offering everything you could want in a tool for analysing your tweets.

First, there’s the ability to see how many impressions your tweets have received; in other words, how many times users have seen your tweet on Twitter. You can also discover how many people have marked your post as one of the favourites; the amount of times people have clicked on your profile; the number of replies and retweets and so on.

Additionally, there is the functionality to actually see how many people directly engaged with one of your tweets and you can also gain an insight into what their engagement was – great for content marketers wanting to see what’s hitting the spot with their audiences.

Twitter let everyone know that their analytics platform was now available to all in the most apt way – via a tweet!

Twitter engineer Ian Chan tweeted: “Absolutely thrilled to open up access to analytics.twitter.com to EVERYONE. Check it out, and let us know what you think!

As with most things though, there are certain criteria that your account needs to meet before you can start using Twitter Analytics. First and foremost, your account must have been open for at least 14 days and not be protected, restricted or suspended. Furthermore, your posts need to primarily be written in English, Spanish, French or Japanese.

Twitter’s decision to open up their analytics platform to everyone is actually rather symbolic. Historically, the only way for non-advertisers to gain insights into the numbers behind their tweets was by using third-party applications. Twitter Analytics means that more people than ever can now monitor their tweets and keep track of what’s engaging their audiences.

Both brands and individuals alike can start understanding the metrics behind their Twitter accounts and realising true value. The ‘average’ Twitter user may be wondering what all the fuss is about and ultimately not take advantage of the platform, but this revelation is definitely something that I’m excited about.

Twitter have created a new Help Center page which explains more about Twitter Analytics and includes some FAQs among other things.

Once you’re ready to give it a shot for yourself you should head over to analytics.twitter.com and start checking out your own dashboard.

 

 

HTTPS Now a Google Ranking Signal

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HTTPS Now a google ranking signalDoes your website use HTTPS encryption? If not, maybe it’s time you made the switch; especially as Google have recently announced that they’ve started using HTTPS as a ranking signal.

That’s right, it now seems that Google are striving to make the internet a safer place for us all and, while the change to their search algorithm currently affects less than 1% of global queries, it’s likely to become much larger in the future.

In Google’s own words: “we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.”

And what better way to cajole webmasters into adopting secure, encrypted connections on their sites than this! But what is HTTPS and how can it benefit you and your website visitors?

The next time you visit your favourite website(s) take a quick look at your browser’s address bar and you’ll likely see either ‘HTTP’ or ‘HTTPS’ – the latter being the secure connections that Google are talking about. Furthermore, your browser will often show a padlock symbol to highlight that you are communicating over secure connection.

Traditionally, online banking and e-commerce websites used HTTPS to increase the security of the connection between them and their customer. However, it’s now much more common to see social media and news websites using secure connections.

Standard HTTP websites use port 80 for communication and are liable to man-in-the-middle and eavesdropping attacks, which allow attackers to get hold of sensitive information and website accounts.

A nice analogy that I came across on the internet likened website security to sending your credit card information via post. Unencrypted sites are the same as posting your details in a clear plastic envelope for all to see. Encrypted websites, however, see your data sent in secure envelopes that protect it in transit.

Now you might be wondering why all websites don’t use HTTPS as standard and the answer is simple – because it costs money. Today, however, SSL certificates can be picked up for just a few pounds a year, yet the benefits they afford are numerous.

Also, there were many people who believed that encryption added an unnecessary burden to a website and reduced its performance but advances in technology have eliminated this issue.

So, there really are no excuses not to implement secure, encrypted connections for your website. Especially as we hear more and more about data security breaches happening on a seemingly more regular basis nowadays. These types of cyber-attack are not only embarrassing but inevitably cost your business financially.

At the end of the day, visitors to your website want to feel safe while they are browsing your pages and/or logging into their personal/business accounts. Implementing HTTPS is a great way to promote trust between you and your customers/potential customers.

The final benefit is, of course the potential boost in search ranking that your site will get from using HTTPS. This might even be reason enough for you to make the change. Your competitors may already be using HTTPS on their websites, so don’t fall any further behind them in the search rankings.

 

 

 

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