Here are our Likes and Fails for today, Bolt has officially launched! But only in New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore, though it looks promising. Also a hilarious customer service thread for a Glasgow Hostel went rather awry on Facebook.

Likes

Bolt has now been released, but the catch is, you have to be in Singapore, New Zealand or South Africa to install the app. The app works in a similar way to Snapchat, the very popular photo-messaging service but features a slightly different interface.

The app asks for you to take a selfie to sign up and your phone number, but currently this is just to verify you’re in one of the launch countries. The app opens straight on the camera, and works even quicker than Snapchat as you simply hit the friends face that you want to send it to, and their face works as the shutter button, so it sends straight away. Simple. Though what about editing, well you just pre-edit the photo before you take the snap. The editing tools are slightly different to it’s competitor, there are no drawing tools in Bolt but you can still add text to photos.

What is especially handy is that if you just want a quick conversation, and don’t want to reply with pictures every time, you can just write text on the image that was sent to you and can send it back. Another feature that differs from Snapchat is that the photos don’t auto-destruct, the user can decide when to delete them simply by swiping them away.

It’s an interesting first few countries for the app to launch to, especially as the app was created in the US and arguably would have the biggest market there. There is the possibility that they haven’t initially launched in the US because of the copyright/trademark issues I was talking about yesterday. Once these have been sorted and agreed I’m sure the app will launch in the US, plus they must be fairly confident that they can keep the app name if they’ve decided to launch with the name – even in other countries.

All I can say is that I’m excited to see it in the flesh when it’s released, from what I can see it looks a lot more intuitive than Snapchat, and I like the look of the interface. I think as soon as the muscle memory of Snapchat wears off this will be a great replacement app. I’ll just have to hope that contacts will migrate to the app; though it is always hard for an app to compete against a very dominant leader in the market with a huge user base, especially when predominantly, the apps do the same thing.

Credit to TheNextWeb for their demo of Bolt.

Fails

What should have been a simple customer service issue, has turned into a rather amusing long comment conversation on Facebook. The conversation began when a woman called Lou wrote about her rather bad stay at a guesthouse called the Blue Sky Hostel in Glasgow, which she had stayed in to attend the Commonwealth games.

She posted a review on their Facebook page giving the hostel one star and saying it was the worst hostel she had ever stayed in. She then pointed out a list of things wrong with the hotel and said that the whole place was a health hazard. Well, the owner of the hostel wasn’t having any of this and instead of going the usual customer service route of apologizing and trying to make it better, the owner Todd instead had a go at the woman, even going as far as to call her a retard.

Well, you can guess what happened next, there was a massive back and forth in the comments section and people joined the thread to keep getting notifications from the fiasco, some posting pictures of MJ eating Popcorn, to signify that it was spectacle worth watching.

You should really go and read the whole thing it’s magnificent.

There’s no denying that online media is becoming more and more visual, text pieces are losing their oomph as images and video take over. It’s been revealed that YouTube is now the world’s second largest search engine after Google, and that definitely says something about the visual shift. Not only is YouTube the second biggest search engine, but it’s also bigger than Bing, AOL, Ask and Yahoo combined, and has over 1 billion unique monthly visitors.

This is definitely a sign that your company should be working on getting video to be an important part of your online campaign. If the amount of time and investment in video is off-putting to you then there are other options with short form video on sites such as Vine and Instagram. These sites are especially useful for igniting your creativity in ways to advertise your business in quick engaging bursts. People these days have shorter attention spans so it’s more likely they’ll watch a 6 second looping Vine rather than a 5 minute video explaining your business. Unless of course you get Ryan Gosling to do it.

Obviously there are limitations of using sites like Vine and Instagram, first off there’s that time limit, whilst useful for being creative, can be very limiting when trying to convey a longer point. Also, though these videos can be embedded they always seem like a much more ‘casual’ poption which may not be the impression you want to give off as a business, in which case another hosting site like YouTube, Vimeo or Vzaar might be more suited.

Plus going back to what we were saying initially, YouTube as a search engine could be extremely beneficial to your business and your videos. Having all your videos hosted on YouTube give them a greater chance of exposure, with the site having a higher exposure than any cable TV station in the US as well as a whopping 6 billion hours of video being watched on the site every month. The way videos are ranked on YouTube is a secret algorithm, but there are obvious factors taken in to account. These are the number of views (this seems to be a big factor), the title of the video, the video’s description and the video’s ratings. So the more relevant you can make the title and description the higher it will rank, also make sure not to ignore the tagging section on YouTube as this also helps the site know where to put the video.

Seeding your video will also be an important step in getting your video seen as well as pushing it up YouTube’s search rankings, which in turn will help it be seen by more people. You can start this off by sharing your video among different Social Network sites, making sure to post with relevant hashtags to potentially reach a wider audience than just your own followers.

The rise of visual media online has also affected the way that other Social Networks rank their stories too, again showing how important videos and images are if you want to be seen. Facebook has changed their algorithm more recently, making pictures more important in a news feed and ranking them higher, this is also true of video content on the site, there is definitely a bigger focus on the visual as opposed to before when there was an even mix of text and visual content. The focus on video for Facebook has been proven even more recently, where they’ve been seen testing video enhancements on the site, such as suggesting similar videos after you finish watching one on the site. This is obviously a copycat of YouTube’s suggested videos feature, but again cementing the demand for more video content.

Video can be a very tricky medium to get right, it’s important to make sure that you won’t be wasting money and commitment on a video which does nothing for the brand you’re trying to promote. It can be more important to spend time on relevant content than to create a bad video just because you feel you need a video. Planning a video and thinking over a few different ideas is the best way to make sure you get what you definitely want, as well as something successful. Whilst many people think that jumping on to an online trend is a great way to be seen and rank, if it’s not well timed or relevant it can end up drowning among all the similar content which are trying to do the same thing.

If you have a quick thinking team with quick turnarounds then it’s possible, but not highly advisable. It’s probably better to focus on being original and creating your own trend.

It’s a known fact that the biggest thing happening on Social Media is the brands and companies who are being reactive, quite possibly the most talked about tweet of all time is the reactive tweet from Oreo which was a reaction to the blackout at the 2013 Super Bowl. There can be a great advantage for your business in using big events and reactive tweets to help promote your company. The Oreo reactive tweet got over 15,000 retweets which would probably give it an audience of hundreds of thousands if not millions, which is an incredibly wide reach for the company, and from this their followers increased by 8,000. So you can see the appeal for companies to latch on to the big events that have wide audiences.

So here’s a look at how to prepare yourself for probably the world’s largest televised sporting event in the world, the World Cup and prepare yourself for any eventualities that you may be able to use to your favour.

First off, both Twitter and Facebook have launched features surrounding the World Cup which can help you to get involved in conversation. Twitter have added a feature to their sign up which will allow you to set your profile picture as your countries flag for the competition. They’re also adding a useful feature which will put all World Cup information in one place, simply by searching the #WorldCup hashtag. It will link to all the competing teams’ accounts as well as custom timelines for each match being played. They’ve also reintroduced ‘Hashflags’ which allow you to tag a country’s flag in your tweet with a simple three letter country code. eg. #ENG – This could be especially useful for live-tweeting about matches, as it’ll appear instantly clear to followers which match you’re discussing.

Facebook have launched a similar ‘hub’, a World Cup trending section which shows the latest trending stories surrounding the world cup as well as stories from your friends about the matches. It also shows information on the sidebar which includes the time and teams of the next upcoming match, teams that are playing now, and an interactive fan map which shows where fans of some of the top players come from. This could also be useful for watching popular stories unfold, if you see something interesting in this feed, jump on the story right away, whether it just be a re-share of an article or whether you can come up with an original piece to work with the story.

The best way to be prepared for any ‘event’ that may happen at the World Cup is to keep very aware, following all relevant news sources as well as more general areas surrounding the competition. Keep tabs on hashtags, possibly set up alerts (Google alerts are especially useful), as long as they won’t be buzzing every 30 seconds.

Prior to the event think about the best things that could come from the World Cup that would be easily linkable to your business, this will give you a head start on other companies. Maybe already have some tweets/images/videos prepared in the eventuality that one of these things does happen (if it doesn’t take too much time). Also I wouldn’t suggest you make a celebration video for England winning the World Cup, we all know it won’t happen.

Keeping a keen eye on your competitors is another good shout, they may break some news that you think you could give a better angle on. As well as keeping an eye on cultural style news sites like Mashable and Buzzfeed (even Reddit), they often break news before other traditional news sites, especially Reddit as it’s a community led site.

Basically, make sure you have an eagle eye out for everything, following the #WorldCup hashtag, setting up Google alerts and pre-planning are some of the best advice I can give you to appear truly reactive whilst in the midst of the World Cup.

A quick suggestion also so as to keep reactive content relevant to your company, is to think about the event you’re reacting to tonally, how does it represent your company, does it fit with previous content and will it relate closely to the topic and your business. Also, you’ll have to think about the media of your ‘reaction’ will it be a text post, an image, a video or a social media campaign? Work out what’s right for your business and stay alert, and don’t forget to enjoy the football!

Yes, blogging can be time consuming,  and sometimes difficult, but it is usually worth the bit of time that it consumes. The act of blogging can improve your business in many ways, don’t just trust me though there’s actual stats. 77% of internet users read blogs, small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads and 81% of US consumers trust advice from blogs they read. A blog instantly makes your company more personable and the consumer can get to know you and the company easier, and hopefully that will increase a link between the company and the clients. The benefits go further than that though, and we’re going to take a look at some of them now.

SEO

This is the main reason that businesses decide to start blogging on their site. Having regular content uploaded to the site show search engines that the site is active. It is also a good idea to have keyword specific blogs to bring traffic to your site. Having blogs available on your site regarding industry specific topics mean it will be easier to get ranked higher in Google for specific search terms therefore leading to more site traffic.

Get to know your business/industry better

Blogging about topics related to your company and it’s industry give you the chance to get to know the industry better, as well as starting to voice your opinion on industry matters. You’ll need to research industry news and keep up to date on projects that are going on, this not only improves the blog content, but your own personal knowledge.

Establishing a voice

Writing down your thoughts on any industry news and topics means that you can begin to establish a voice online to become a reputable source, as well as it showcasing your knowledge to potential customers. It will also allow them to be able to get extra information which they may not have been able to find out any other way. Giving hints and tips in your blogs will allow people to see that you know what you’re talking about as you’re beginning to give advice on your subjects.

Appeal to customers

Appealing to customers is simple, make sure the content of your blogs is appealing to the type of niche you want to attract. So for example if you want to appeal to those who want a high-end product, make sure you write blog posts about ‘luxury’, and ‘refined’ products; you need to be finding the right keywords for your audience. Whatever you write about dictates the sort of customer you’re appealing to.

Here are today’s Likes and Fails, today we have a look at the Hidden Cash trend that has taken over Twitter, as well as a look at the furore around Asda’s new hooded, wearable flags.

Likes

This Hidden Cash trend has really taken over Twitter with a new UK account (@HiddenCash_UK), it started over the Atlantic in the land of the USA, it went from the West coast to the East coast and is so-say all about spreading positivity and ‘paying it forward’. The original account @HiddenCash started up just over a week ago and ever since there has been copycat accounts popping up all over the place and now a UK version has begin. Basically the account owner hides some money in an envelope for a stranger to find, and then tweets out clues as to the location of the money. It’s supposed to be a social experiment though there is an element of it that seems to be ‘glory hunting’ with the envelope requesting that the finder tweet a photo of them finding the money.

Also, now they’re being heard of more and more there are actual news report pictures of hoards of people looking around the possible site of the money. The good thing about this ‘social experiment’ and it’s popularity is that it really might get people to #payitforward, with at least one British participant saying that they donated the money (£50) to a charity.

Fails

Wife has bought these wearable England flags from Asda for the kids. I’m not sure that they set the right tone. pic.twitter.com/GtnP59Ge3m

— Ade Brandwood (@baggie_ade) May 27, 2014

Asda been part of a bit of strong discussion today, especially on Twitter after it was noted by one user that their brand new wearable flags, just in time for the world cup, have a very unfortunate resemblance to a well recognised outfit, that of the Ku Klux Klan. Which is clearly not a good resemblance as the organisation is well-known to be racist. The media is reporting that there was an ‘outcry’ on Twitter, but in all honesty it does seem that the media caused the outcry themselves after noticing the original tweet that called into question their appropriateness. Now there are many more outcry tweets flooding in, after all the big news sites have latched on.

The wearable flags are £3 from ASDA and since the furore began, the shop has said that they will not be removing the item from sale, saying ”We opted for a hood on our wearable England and Brazilian flags as you never know what the British weather will bring.”

This follows last years public outcry when ASDA were called out on Twitter for selling a Halloween Outfit described as a ‘mental patient’. Which they did actually remove from sale after tweeters complained. If more and more people begin to Tweet about it then it’s likely that ASDA will have to do something about it.

Apple, the company which was well known for it’s foray into digital music, and being a big part of making it mainstream has officially announced it’s plans to purchase Beats Electronics for the rather large sum of $2.6 billion. Beats Electronics are well known for being set up by famous musician Dr Dre, and their designer headphones which have a huge popularity among a young market. The deal is a large one for Apple, as they usually make smaller company purchases, but this marks their biggest company gain to date.

It’s reported that Apple is hoping to re-grasp some of their lead on the digital music market, with this deal helping them to begin to get a foot in the door of the music subscription services model. The two companies will remain separate (including the branding) but they will work together on giving consumers around the world more options to listen to music online. Apple has said that iTunes will be offered alongside a Beats music service.

Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine founded Beats in 2006 and has since become a company with a $1.5 billion turnover. The deal means that the two men will now work under Apple Executive for Internet Services, Eddy Cue and the company is excited to be adding two men with talent to the company.

The company is paying for the acquisition with $2.6 billion in cash, which is not really a dent in their reported $150 billion cash pile and their $400 million in stock. The deal is expected to be cleared by the end of this year.

It’s thought that the growth of online streaming services like Spotify and Pandora are harming the growth of iTunes, so it definitely makes sense that Apple would want to make use of Beats and their music service as well as the company’s know-how in that sector. Of course the company could have built a subscription service themselves, but it seems that the people and the service involved with the purchase is what excited them the most.

Apple’s Chief Executive Timothy D.Cook said that Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine would be working with Apple on the next generation of music offerings but would not reveal any further what these products might be. His official quote was that they would be working on “products you haven’t thought of yet, and seeing around the next corner to articulate the way to take music to an even higher level than it is now.”

Social Media is a big deal for a brand, we all know it, but unfortunately we ALL know it, so competition is stiff. Therefore it’s important as a brand to have all aspects of your business up to scratch to make sure that you’re the company grabbing the attention. A branding mistake can be detrimental to your company, so it’s important to have Social Media Guidelines that the whole company can comply to, to make sure that the company is always seen in a positive light. It’s also a good idea to ensure that everyone within the team knows the vision that the company has and that they stick to it.

1. The Name

The name is the first thing that people will learn about your business so it has to be good. Not only does it have to be easy to remember but it should also evoke a feeling that links well to your company, your customers need to know what your company is about. The most important thing is to be memorable so if you’ve said the name in a presentation, you want a person who’s heard it to be able pop it into a search engine without any issue forgetting it. These so called creative names that keep popping up, with two ‘iis’ on the end, that often sound like a word from a CeBeebies programme are just not memorable enough. The best thing to do is to find a name which is easy to pronounce and spell as well as checking that it has a domain that’s available and fairly cheap.

2. The Vision

Personality, business values and ethics are all things which should be covered in a company policy, as well as made clear in a Social Media policy. It will ensure that all employees are upholding the company values in their own social media accounts as well as in real life. Making sure that all employees are clear on the vision for the company means that there are less likely to be any Social Media blunders, or any incidents involving a company dispute. Obviously it’s completely up to you what your company’s vision should be, though I can’t say I suggest/encourage NSFW language or content, but make sure you have a personal feel to your brand image.

3. The Logo

A logo can be a hard task; once you’ve got a name you need to create the perfect logo that will truly represent you as a company and a brand. You’ve thought about the company’s vision and now you should be ready to create something that will speak to your customers as well as be recognisable. The main thing to think about is whether the logo fits your company, for example if you’re a small solicitor firm and your logo is a cartoon rabbit; why? Keep it relevant and if you’re not sure how your design’s come across perhaps test them out with people who don’t know your company and see what they first think of when they see the logos, that should give you more than an inkling if the logo fits. If you’re really struggling then going for something simple, neutral and clean is defintely a better idea than making it overcomplicated.

4. Social Media

 On your Social Media accounts make sure you pay close attention to your company’s vision and ethics and make sure that every update posted complies with them. Responding to clients and questions to people via social media should also be kept within company guidelines, adopt an online tone of voice and stick to it, this doesn’t have to be stern, you can be joke-y or sarcastic, as long as you know you have the right audience for it, you don’t want to offend anyone. Think through any hashtags you might want to promote; think of ALL of the possibilities, we don’t want another #Susanalbumparty. It’s simple really, keep to one tone of voice, engage with users in a polite way and keep savvy with your account passwords, changing them regularly and making sure each account has a different login.

Effective social media strategies for businesses has changed massively over the past few years; whereas a scattered approach may have reaped dividends a few years ago, more and more companies are turning to a more focused and creative approach in order to stand out in what is becoming an increasingly crowded marketplace. Here are some of the ways businesses have had to adapt their social media strategy in order to stay engaging:

Engaging with Consumers

There was a time when attempting to talk to companies involved being put on hold and listening to some awful songs for what seemed like hours on end. Since the evolution of social media however, consumers have become more accustomed to talking to businesses directly – and as a result, businesses have had to adapt.

More recently, companies have begun to see the true value from one-to-one interaction with their customers; firstly, it lets them resolve any issues a customer may have quicker but also it acts as a showcase to other potential customers that they’re a brand that takes care of their customers.

When it comes to crafting a brand image, this has become one of the key changes since the advent of social media; today a consumer can see exactly how a business deals with queries, questions and problems – and if they do it effectively, it can go a long way to cultivating a brand.

Using Consumers to sell the business

Not only are businesses engaging with customers more, they’re actively sourcing user-generated content to fuel their campaigns. Nothing effectively sells a product or a service like a happy customer, and a memorable hashtag term can help aggregate posts across Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest to create an engaging and interesting campaign.

Social Media has changed the way businesses sell

More and more purchasing decisions are being made via social media, which in turn has completely changed the way businesses have sold their products, but today, it has to be about much more than the product. It’s common knowledge that attention spans are getting shorter – it means that businesses increasingly have to get to the point quicker via attention marketing.

That’s easier said than done, creating high quality content isn’t easy, particularly content that delivers tangible results – but it’s not impossible, and with a recent report from SproutSocial stating that a massive 74% of consumers rely on social networks for help with their purchasing decisions – it means that companies have no choice but to deliver the best possible content if they’re to have any hope of gaining new customers.

Understanding the customer’s needs

Perhaps the biggest change has been the evolution of businesses fully understanding their customer’s needs. Countless campaigns have been launched on the back of suggestions, questions or even complaints. Put simply; social media has helped businesses to better understand their audiences and by careful monitoring of conversations, not only of the brand, but the business’s industry in general, it has made it easier for businesses to strengthen customer service.

Social Media has changed the way businesses interact with existing customers and has become one of the most important tools when it comes to attracting new clients – if you use it effectively, there’s no limit to the benefit it could have on your business, so to help you on your way, we’ve outlined some key points for you to keep in mind when you’re attempting to win over potential new business.

Engage with your current customers

This may sound like a bit of a no-brainer, but it can be tempting to go after new customers exclusively and as a result, your existing ones get left behind. Social Media has made it easier than ever for potential customers to look up a business online and find out everything they need to know about the business’s reputation. If a potential customer sees queries from existing customers going unresolved it doesn’t look good – so make sure that you keep your existing customer base happy by being pro-active and engaging with them.

Don’t forget; engaging with your current customers is different to marketing directly to them. Successful use of social media doesn’t tend to revolve around blind promotion. Actively attempt to connect with your audience in a more meaningful way – bottom line; try to be a little more creative with your content…

Make Great Content

Again, this may seem pretty self-explanatory but social media is a pretty crowded place for businesses trying to make a noise. Bear in mind that potential customers are probably being bombarded with content left, right and centre on their various pages – so make the effort when it comes to making your content stand out. Good design goes a long way, and image based posts tend to attract more attention than plain blocks of text – put the time into really thinking about your content, because ultimately, it’s the businesses that stand out from the crowd with interesting content that tend to prosper.

Make them an offer they can’t refuse

Offering special offers and discounts is a tried and tested method when it comes to attracting new clients outside of the internet – so why should it be any different online? Social media gives you the tools you need to talk directly to your customers – and let’s face it, people who follow the social media pages of a business tend to do it because they expect some kind of benefit. The sooner you become used to the reality that this involves giving deals and special offers to your customers the better, and if your deal is a pretty decent one, word will soon spread and it won’t be long before new customers find themselves on your page.

Keep it focused

A lot of companies, after some initial success on social media, think that they have found the answer and as a result, they end up losing focus – and nothing annoys potential customers more than irrelevant posts cropping up on their feed.  You can’t be everywhere at once, so don’t try – keep it focused and make sure you highlight the key benefits of your business without outstaying your welcome.

What is it?

Facebook is a social networking service which has just celebrated its 10th birthday, having launched in 2004. It allows users to create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. As the most popular social network out there, you’ll undoubtedly have heard about it before. However, don’t worry if you’re not sure what you should be doing on there.

Generally seen as a more personal way of social networking, as you associate more with your friends on the site, rather than users you don’t know. However, this is one of the reasons why Facebook is so popular with brands and businesses. If you can create content that is deemed as shareable on Facebook, then you have a great way of reaching a large number of consumers, by targeting people and their friends.

Despite the fact that you see links on Twitter to Buzzfeed what seems like every single minute of the day, it’s actually Facebook where the majority of their shares lie. During December 2013, they had 5,637,393 shares on Facebook, and that probably isn’t going to show any sign of slowing down.

Tagline

Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.

How many people use it?

Approximately 1.2 billion, as of December 2013.

Why should I use Facebook?

As with any social media network, only use it if you plan on updating it on a daily basis. No Facebook page looks much better than one that hasn’t been updated for six months. Saying that however, we would recommend land-grabbing your business name across all social media networks, just to make sure that no-one else can get their hands on them.

If you’re looking to appeal to a wide range of people and their friends, then Facebook is where you need to be. However, be aware that people will let you know what they think if you open your business up to them on social networks.

Facebook advertising can be a great way to get your business out there, and is far cheaper than traditional advertising. You can target people by demographic and location, so it’s handy to be able to target the very customers you want to sell to.

How do I get a return?

With the biggest audience on any social network, using Facebook means that you can reach huge numbers on your page. Starbucks have over 36 million people on their page, whilst Skittles have 24 million, and that’s a lot of people to be talking to everyday. It’s important to remember that building up an audience and community takes time. You don’t have the same resources, or the same recognisable brand as Starbuck and Skittles, so working your way up to 36 million likes is going to take hard work.

Starbucks’ Facebook Page

Anything is possible on Facebook thanks to the wonders of iFrames; you can get email sign ups, take bookings, sell tickets, the world is your oyster. Anything your website does your Facebook page can do, and what with the recent changes to the way competitions are run on the site, it’s now easier than ever to do promotions on your page (albeit with strict guidelines).

Facebook can be integrated into your website and marketing in other ways too, thanks to Facebook’s OpenGraph. You can have Facebook comments included on your businesses blog or news section. Timeline apps are of increasing importance as well, just look at the number of times you see what your Facebook friends are reading on The Guardian or what they’ve pinned on Pinterest.

When it comes to a social media strategy, Facebook is one of the foundations.

A Social Media Agency’s top five tips for Facebook:

1. Don’t link your Facebook and Twitter accounts. There’s a high chance that people are going to follow you on both, and they aren’t going to want to see duplicated content.

2. Remember to post at least three hours apart, otherwise your posts will be lumped together in people’s news feeds.

3. Facebook isn’t the same as Twitter. Three updates a day is ample.

4. To quote every douched social media conference out there, content is king. Make sure you’re sharing images and video, not just status updates, in order to increase engagements.

5. If someone is posting or commenting on your page with complaints, direct them offline. Get them to email you with their problem, and remove it from the public forum asap, so dirty laundry isn’t being aired in public.

What are you waiting for?

Facebook.com