Yesterday I wrote about how I was really frustrated by Facebook’s news feed, in that Facebook’s algorithm decided to show me breaking news from my local news station nearly two days after the breaking news happened. Well, since Facebook’s algorithm really is what decides which of your friends’ posts (and posts of pages that you’ve liked) you see, Facebook has made some changes to their news feed algorithm. A recent Facebook announcement about the changes they’re making shows us how we can get more clicks and views of our Facebook posts.

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Thanks, Facebook. Thanks a lot. Thanks for showing breaking news (from a local news station near me) TWO DAYS after the event happened. No, not minutes or even a few hours after the breaking news event happened, but TWO DAYS after the news station posted it to Facebook.

Above, you’ll see the screen capture of what just appeared in my Facebook newsfeed, I use the term ‘newsfeed’ only because that’s what they call it–not that it’s an actual newsfeed in the actual sense of the word. This “breaking news” event, was posted by CBS DFW (a local tv news station that I’ve ‘liked’ on Facebook) on Friday, August 22nd. But Facebook chooses to actually show it to me, in my Facebook newsfeed, roughly 2 days after it occurred. [Read more…]

Starting August 22, 2014, Twitter will remove the auto-promote advertising functionality for advertisers. In an email sent out today, Twitter notified their advertisers that the change “will allow advertisers to have more control of their campaigns and to optimize for the best results…” [Read more…]

In what appears to be yet another Corporate America social media fail, Cottonelle inappropriately used the viral news that LeBron James is returning to Cleveland to tweet out a message to their followers to use Cottonelle brand toilet paper and flushable wipes.

This is one of those social media “failures” that just goes to show that many large corporations just don’t “get” the use of social media. Most likely, though, the person who tweeted about LeBron James from the Cottonelle Twitter account just doesn’t get social media, either. [Read more…]

I have to admit that I am really surprised that I have, naturally, over sixteen thousand tweets and retweets of one of my blog posts. Take a look at the stats on this blog post of mine:

I say, “naturally” because I honestly didn’t do anything to get these extra tweets. There are things you can do to get tweets unnaturally, such as buying tweets on sites like Fiverr.com and soforth. There are “services” where you can literally buy tweets or retweets. But that’s not what happened here. [Read more…]

Just recently, Kanye West posted photos of his wedding with Kim Kardashian on his Twitter account. These are great photos, and just the typical wedding photos. However, what is kind of odd is that Twitter is flagging these photos as containing “sensitive material”.

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Last week, I was speaking at the ClickZ Live Toronto conference, and Kirstine Stewart, head of Twitter Canada, was one of the keynote speakers. According to Ms. Stewart, no Twitter accounts of employees are Verified accounts. Not even the CEO’s account. [Read more…]

As you load a website, the text you were looking for is surrounded by icon buttons, from Facebook to Pinterest. You can “like” or “recommend” posts, text and items at the click of a button. Although these benign entities lining almost any website seem harmless enough, they are part of a larger structure, referred to as social commerce. With traditional advertising barely lifting an eyebrow, businesses are looking for different ways to engage customers and increase profits. Although social commerce is still in its beginning stages, it is more prevalent today than last year. Take a look at some of the main ways top sites manoeuvre you to purchase an item: [Read more…]

According to Social Media Today, the rate of social media usage rose by 18% in 2013. This brings to nearly 25% the number of subscribers using social media today. This includes personal and business accounts. Social media has defined the marketing fronts of most companies with many of them registering phenomenal success. With this rapid growth in social media uptake, the demand for social media training and consulting has risen tremendously. Business, individuals, and even governmental institutions are all looking to hire experts to help them in their social media functions. [Read more…]

Twitter.com is not being archived by the WayBack Machine, the Internet Archive. Although this doesn’t seem to be anything new, I have just personally noticed recently that it’s not being archived. [Read more…]

Here’s one of my favorite current hobbies: I sit down with potential clients, throw out a reference to Google+ and pause for the inevitable response – that “it’s never going to take off” or “we don’t believe in it.” [Read more…]

Yesterday, Matt Cutts tweeted a link to a new scraper report tool that you can use to report websites that are outranking your website. If this other site has scraped or copied or stolen your content, then you can use the form to report the spam to Google. That new form could be useful for some, and I applaud Google for adding it. But that’s honestly not what I’m interested in here. In fact, what I find more interesting, is that fact that Matt Cutts tweeted a Bit.ly URL. And as a result, we can get all sorts of really cool data about his Tweet and the link that he Tweeted. [Read more…]

Many online businesses understand the innate value in social media networking to increase their web traffic and ultimately their profit margins; yet, surprisingly, some do not or have not yet begun to tap into the benefits that social media affords when it comes to marketing and growing one’s online or drop shipping business. The following five reasons are strong evidence why social media is integral to any ecommerce strategy in today’s digital marketplace. [Read more…]

It’s a new year, a time to start off with a clean slate. Unfortunately for some, that could take awhile. Let’s wrap up 2013 with some of the worst social media fails so that you have an idea of just how easy it is for a slip-up to go viral.

Because it only takes one mistake to mess up your online reputation, exercise caution in how you express yourself on the social media front. Look for examples by following the Facebook or Twitter accounts of companies such as InstantCheckmate.com, or Facebook’s Security page that offer suggestions for maintaining your online presence. [Read more…]

If only Facebook had a “creeper” button. Your social media interactions may be harmless, but it only takes one ill-intentioned stalker to worsen your online reputation and your personal security. Here are six surefire ways to spot a potential social media stalker.  [Read more…]