Read about recent changes in Social Media

1. Social Media Metamorphosis
How Your Favorite Platforms are Changing
(and what to do about it.)
By John Armstrong, Sr. Community Manager – Astek
December 11th, 2012
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

2. Overview
LinkedIn
Facebook
Google Plus
Twitter
Instagram
Pinterest
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

3. LinkedIn Company Pages
Nice new look, but is it
more than that?
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

4. LinkedIn Profiles
Design Elements
Products and Services
Recommendations
Insights
Actions
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

5. LinkedIn Profile: More Engaging
Graphic headers offer better presence, stronger branding
CTA Buttons and Links
Product Photos
ProductVideos
Recommendations
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

6. LinkedIn Profile: More Engaging
Less Clutter
Follow Button
Better Layout
 Navigation bar
 Links are obvious
 Clearly tagged info in posts
Mobile Friendly
Like/Share/Geo-target status
updates
.
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

7. LinkedIn Profile: Product Promotion
Better separation/categorization
More details
 Photos
 Videos
 Recommendations
 Description
 Website Link
 Company Contacts
Acts as micro-sites
Useful for promotions
.
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

8. LinkedIn Profile: Recommendations
Much more visible throughout site
 For better or worse!
For individual product tabs
Shows up in follower news feeds
For the company at large
Peer review is very important
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

9. LinkedIn Profile: Insights
Better understanding of followers
 Demographics
 Location
 Career Status
 Field of work
Page/Post Analytics
 Page Stats
 Post Stats
 Visitor’s Stats
 Weekly Comparison
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

10. LinkedIn Profile: Actions
Images - Design Recommendations
 Use creative, interesting images  Leave no product un-recommended
 100% population across site  Ask clients for them
 Videos, videos, videos  Ask employees for them
 Freely give recommendations to others
 Use them on your website
Engagement
 Offer status posts with
images/videos
 Use Insights to target, create
relevance
 Create interesting copy/personalize
 Use all opportunities to inform and
describe, but be concise
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

11. Facebook
Are your posts
really reaching
your audience?
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

12. Facebook’s
Edgerank
Algorithm
Reach
Engagement
What it means for you
What actions to take
Promoted Posts
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

13. Facebook: Falling Reach
September – the autumn of discontent
Many companies see a reduction in reach
Up to 40% in some cases (see below)
Facebook Monetization - 80/20
News feed saturation demands action
“These changes are geared
towards increasing engagement
with content within individuals’
newsfeeds and likely won’t impact
anything you need to create, but
will definitely impact your metrics.
We are optimizing the algorithm so
that fans see what’s most relevant
for them and most likely to compel
them to take an action.”
– Facebook, 9/18/2012
Via TechCrunch.com – 11/16/12 – based on 41,000+ posts
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

14. Facebook: Press Conference Notes
(Notes from Will Cathcart, FB Product Manager – 11/19/12)
Newsfeed Algorithm Criteria
Prior Relevance (Affinity)
Previous interaction implies relevance
Follower post preference (Affinity)
Previous reaction to post types (text, video, etc) garner relevance
Crowdsourcing (Weight)
Amount of people’s reaction (positive or negative) to posts increase/decrease reach
Time Decay
Time passed since posting
Spam reports
“we started penalizing things that had an above average rate of complaints, and rewarding things that
had a below average rate of complaints …engagement went up and complaints went down in the
double-digit percentage.”
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

15. Facebook: Engagement
Engagement steady (below), rising (right)
Less reach and more engagement suggests increase
in relevance
Rewards brands who are relevant
“Separates the wheat from the chaff”
Punishes brands who are not
Via TechCrunch.com – 11/16/12 – based on 41,000+ posts
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

16. Facebook: Ineffective Content
Spam reports greatly affect potential reach
Photos tend to attract more spam, as well as
more engagement
They take more space on a newsfeed, thus garner a
stronger reaction either way (affinity)
All of this suggests accurate rumors of a
Pagerank score to track negative feedback
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

17. Facebook: Promoted Posts
Promoted posts are a way to
guarantee significant reach for a price
Price: usually $5-12 (but can be $50+)
Posts have a sharp 3-day “reach
curve”
Useful for advancer promotions or other
non-date specific purpose
Effective for announcements and “PR
Material”
Should be a consideration in any FB
strategy
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

18. Facebook: What this means
(The opinion of one community manager)
Facebook creating more efficient Feed
Penalizing poor online brands
Rewarding good ones
Allowing extended reach at a price
Companies will pay to reach their less interested followers
Poor marketers will pay to reach anyone at all
Examples show text-only posts offer 50% more reach
Reach or Engagement?
Quality should win over Quantity
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

19. Google Plus
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

20. Google Plus: Reporting
Instant reporting and quicker response
Posts
Hang-Outs
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

21. Google Plus: Peer Influence
Search Plus Your World
More weight on followers’ choices
Shows friend/organization profiles
Relevant posts from people you follow
Crowdsourcing reviews
Sharable reviews from G-Shopping
Google places recommendations
Zagat Scores
.
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

22. Google Plus: Misc
Sharable Gdocs and videos
New Communities
Hang-Outs
Now 15 people per hangout
Dockable sidebar
Clean, colorful notifications
Manageable apps
Blocking procedures
YouTube / Google+ username linking
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

23. Twitter
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

24. Twitter: Profile/Layout
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

25. Twitter: Discover Tab and Search
Discover Tab
 Tailored media “Cards” --->
 Returns relevant stories
 Suggests engaging posts
 Tweets from people you know
Search
 Returns photos/videos
 Much like Instagram
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

26. Pinterest and Instagram
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

27. Hidden Pages Instagram Profile Pages
Pinterest Business Pages Acts as a landing page
Clickable website URLs Dynamic billboard
Website widgets URL sharing
Convert Privacy Concerns
business.pinterest.com
Twitter Wars…
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC

28. The end
Fin
Die ende
Fine
Zehasof
El fin
www.astekweb.com © 2012 Astek Consulting LLC