Twitter Usage Best Practices

Excited to speak about my favorite social platform – actually Twitter became the source of my social success. It’s so great when your followers’ number grows and they are really your targeted audience waiting for some valuable content from your side every day. Love Twitter! Are you in the same boat with me? If yes, let’s go to some interesting facts on Twitter usage.

Hashtag Usage 

We all know that tweets without hashtags are almost useless. But bear in mind to keep the hashtags to a minimum - 1 or 2 will get you 21 percent more engagement than if you add 3 or more. Hashtags can occur anywhere in the tweet without limitations – at the beginning, middle, or end, the only important thing is to use hashtags relevant to the topic.  

Image Usage 

Along with hashtag usage, keep in mind to compose tweets with images. This gets twice more engagement than those without. Images catch attention as if making the reader anxious to see the content.    

URL Usage

Tweets can be composed with or without a URL. But the ones that include links are 86 percent more likely to be retweeted.

Topic Usage In general Twitter has no limitation of topic usage – you can speak of whatever you desire. In my opinion, it’s more useful to choose a few topics and make them your favorite ones. In this way you become a fan of the topic and you have a proper audience.

Character Usage
140 character usage is the only limitation on Twitter. But this doesn’t meant that we should use it all. The optimal tweet size is 120 characters, which makes it easy for everyone to RT, share, comment. Shorter tweets get more engagement that long ones. Tweets with less than 100 characters get 17 percent more engagement.

Mobile Usage
It’s not a secret that mobile engagement changed the online presence. Twitter says that 60 percent of its active user base accesses the service via mobile devices. Compete found that 18 to 34 year olds are 21 percent more likely to be logging into Twitter primarily via a mobile device.

Date Usage
Many of us use social platforms (mostly for brand engagement) throughout the week. Only 19 percent of brands tweet on the weekends, Twitter engagement is 17 percent higher on those days for brands. So it’s wise to use some services, which allow you to schedule tweets. It makes your life easier, you can schedule for weekends, whole week, why not for a month?

80 percent of world leaders use Twitter. What about you?

2015 – Starting a New Year with the Best Tech Deals

The internet of things? Can we learn about the future peering into the past? If so, this year will also be a promising one, as 2014 has been marked as the most active year in technology. Before that, 2000 was the most active one.

Numerous acquisitions happen each month, but to make my posts shorter, I select the most important deals only. Surely they are important from my personal point of view; anyway hope that my readers will share the same opinion.

The same “giants” all the time – as if conquering the heights. Do they need the products or the talents, or maybe both? Never remember any company announcing about that.

Year started with social deals – two Facebook acquisitions with two-day interval – not bad. Then Twitter joint the list with its ZipDial acquisition. Ok, let’s switch to the list, not to miss anyone. 

06 January - Facebook Acquires Wit.ai to Help Its Developers With Speech Recognition and Voice Interfaces
Facebook acquired Wit.ai, a Y Combinator startup founded 18 months ago to create an API for building voice-activated interfaces. Wit.ai already has 6,000 developers on its platform who have built hundreds of apps. The Wit.ai product lets developers add a few lines of its code to instantly build in voice control and speech recognition. The platform will remain open and free.  

08 January - Facebook Acquires Video Compression Startup QuickFire
Facebook acquired video-compression company QuickFire Networks, further underscoring the social networking giant’s increasing focus on video. Based in San Diego, QuickFire says, it can quickly convert video formats and allow them to be downloaded with less bandwidth and without a loss in video quality. 

20 January – Twitter Acquires India-Based 'Missed Call' Startup ZipDial

Twitter announced that it has acquired Bangalore-based ‘missed call’ marketing platform, ZipDial, which assigns companies a special phone number which their brands can use in print ads or TV commercials. Customers can call the number and hang up before they are charged for the call. In turn, brands can phone or send text messages about their business to the ‘missed callers’. ZipDial’s clients include Unilever, Disney, Gillette, Amazon, Facebook and, of course, Twitter, whose customers have used the platform for placing orders, receiving coupons or entering contests. 

20 January – Microsoft Acquires Text Analysis Startup Equivio, Plans to Integrate Machine Learning Tech into Office 365

Microsoft announced it has acquired text analysis software startup Equivio, which uses machine learning to let users explore large, unstructured sets of data. The startup’s technology leverages advanced text analytics to perform multi-dimensional analyses of data collections, intelligently sort documents into themes, group near-duplicates, and isolate unique data. 

21 January – Apple Buys UK Startup Semetric to Power up Its Media Analytics
Apple has acquired Semetric, the London-based startup behind music analytics service Musicmetric.  While Musicmetric seems an obvious fit with iTunes and Beats Music, Semetric has also been working on analysing data for games, TV, movies and books so will enhance Apple’s understanding of data around all the digital products it sells. 

23 January – Microsoft to Acquire Revolution Analytics to Help Customers Find Big Data Value with Advanced Statistical Analysis

Microsoft has reached an agreement to acquire Revolution Analytics - the leading commercial provider of software and services for R, the world’s most widely used programming language for statistical computing and predictive analytics. This acquisition will help more companies use the power of R and data science to unlock big data insights with advanced analytics. 

23 January – Mobile Network Three to Buy O2 in £10bn Deal 

Asia’s richest man is poised to take control of the UK’s biggest mobile phone network, after Three announced it had started exclusive takeover talks with its larger rival 02. The deal would create the UK’s largest mobile phone firm with 31.5 million customers, cutting the number of network owners in the UK from four to three.

August – another “Google” month!

So many exciting acquisitions take place every passing month! And social acquisitions became an inseparable part of my mentions – Twitter and Facebook continue growing their kingdoms. 

But it’s the second time I call my list a “Google” month, as most important acquisitions occurring in August were Google’s achievements: in May Google had 6 acquisitions, in August - 5, starting from a travel guide to cloud-based software. Who is the target for the next month?

August 1 - Twitter Buys Password-Sharing Startup Mitro

August started with Twitter acquiring password-sharing startup Mitro. Founded in 2012, Mitro’s primary product is a web browser extension that allowed users to store  and share passwords.  Mitro team will join Twitter’s location team in New York, focusing on a variety of geo-related projects!

August 6 - Google Acquires Emu, Texting With Built-In Assistant

Google has acquired Emu - the app creates reminders from messages based on time and location, as well as showing movie times and schedule restaurant reservations from text message.

August 6 – Google Acquires Directr, An App For Shooting Short Films On Your Phone

On August 6^th Directr has been snatched up by Google. It helps users and businesses shoot videos that were a bit longer than your average Vine — think ads, or promo clips, or family holiday videos. The Directr product will live on under its own branding, but the team behind it is joining YouTube’s video ad team.

August 7 - Facebook Buys Secure Server Technology Provider PrivateCore

Facebook announced to acquire PrivateCore, a Palo Alto-based secure server technology company. PrivateCore’s early users have included large financial institutions and a Non-Governmental Organization funded by the US government. PrivateCore’s technology, however, could protect Facebook users’ private data better.

August 17 - Google Acquires Smart Travel Guide Startup Jetpac

Google is buying the travel app startup JetPac founded in 2011. The technology is a system of algorithms that can be trained to recognize different elements within photos, creates visual city guides by analyzing photos from social media to infer key information about the places they were taken. Google will integrate the app's artificial intelligence technology into its image search and map services.  

August 23 - Google Acquires Mechanical Engineering Firm Gecko Design

Google’s forth acquisition of the month became Gecko Design, a small, Los Gatos, Calif.-based company specializing in product design for consumer electronics. The five-person industrial design shop was founded in 1996, specializes in developing consumer-electronic products, working with engineers early in the process before manufacturing begins. Gecko’s clients have included FitBit, Logitech , Sonos and H-P , according to the company’s website.

August 26 – Google Acquires Zync To Bring Visual Effects Rendering To Its Cloud Platform

And the final Google acquisition in August was a Boston-based Zync Inc., the maker of Zync Render,“cloud-based rendering software.” That’s software that helps movie studios take simple, computer-generated pictures of things like a giant robot bashing through a wall and make it look real. Zync’s data and technology will be integrated into the Google Cloud Platform, and move off Amazon Web Services.

August 29 – Amazon buys Twitch
Amazon and Twitch have officially announced the deal, which will see Amazon purchase all outstanding shares of Twitch for roughly $970 million in cash. Twitch is the largest live-streaming website in the US, a live video-game-streaming site with more than 55 million users that's like YouTube for video games.

# Hashtag How-to’s

Today's topic covers some interesting information about the popular symbol used to mark keywords or topics – the hashtag and some ways to use it effectively.

Hashtag Origin

We all do remember that # symbol has been a phone button as well as a pound sign. The hashtag was first brought to Twitter on August 23, 2007 by Chris Messina, who stated: The very ephemerality of hashtags is what makes them easy and compelling to use in a fast-moving communication medium like Twitter.

Hashtag Platforms

Hashtags are being used more and more each day and in the nearest future may appear in all social platforms. Present supported platforms for hashtags are: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr and Pinterest. But the leading platform is still Twitter.

Hashtag Filtering

There are three ways to filter hashtags in Twitter:

• The "Top" option shows the most popular posts. It also includes posts from users you don't follow
• The "All" shows you every tweet that uses the specific hashtag in real time
• The "People you follow" only displays results from the users you are following

Hashtag Creation
Some hashtags became an inseparable part of our routine and their number is increasing with an enormous speed. Everybody can create unique hashtags, concerning company/brand, content of the message.

Hashtag Usage

While using hashtags in the message anyone who searches for that hashtag may find your post. In other words, hashtag becomes a clickable link, so it’s advised using hashtags in every message.

How to be more effective while using hashtags? Ok, tweets with hashtags get twice more engagement. But don’t spam with hashtags overtagging the tweet. It’s recommended to use 1-2 hashtags for every tweet, no more, as the tweet should contain less than 100 characters. In this case people, who want to RT, will have some space for doing so. It’s also proved that short tweets get 17 percent more engagement. And finally DON’T use long hashtags to be reached by many people.

Use hashtags properly and you’ll increase your online success!

 

Twitter – Best Social Platform in Response Time

It’s not the first time I’m impressed by Twitter usage.  As I’m responsible for social media in the company I work, I decided to tweet to @CrunchBase with the company issue and got a response back in 30 minutes. I was so happy, I imagined sending an email and waiting for the response for hours or even days. Let’s not forget that there are also companies who never reply.

So, every time I have a problem with any company, product or service, the first thing that comes to my mind is Twitter as the quickest, reliable and friendly solution.

"81% of Twitter users expect a same-day response to questions and complaints aimed at brands" (Forbes)

As of March 2013, 99% of brands are on Twitter, and 30% have a dedicated customer service handle, mentions a study by Simply Measured. At the same time Socialbakers publishes a list of the top fastest responding brands on Twitter, where Halo BCA, is the fastest responding brand worldwide. It took 3 minutes to respond the request – fast than anyone ever!

By responding to user questions quickly, every company can resolve different issues and avoid negative opinion from spreading. This is the best customer service we used to mention as a priority in today’s innovative world.

Many companies dedicate full-time employees to respond on Twitter. So if your company is still missing Twitter, it’s high time to create a profile and very soon your company will surely benefit from it. Make it easy for your customers to connect quickly and receive a helpful response.  

It’s all about customers’ delight as well as your company’s prosperity!

April – Acquisitions Go On

The number of dominating companies grows. Strong companies buy smaller ones, increasing sales and therefore the revenue as two companies together are more valuable than two separate ones. April continues acquisitions. Will they all have chance of success, are they all worthwhile? 

No one knows…

April 01 - Velocity Acquires Global Cloud Hosting Company Titan Technology Partners

Velocity announced the acquisition of Titan Technology Partners. Founded in 1998, Titan serves Fortune 500 and midmarket organizations in North America, Europe and Asia and maintains offices in Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; London, England; Pune, India; and Singapore. It’s a provider of global cloud hosting and managed services, business process outsourcing (BPO) and consulting services.

April 02 - Harvest Technologies to Be Acquired by Stratasys

A Belton, Texas based additive manufacturing service bureau Harvest Technologies entered into a definitive agreement for Stratasys acquisition - a leading global provider of 3D printing and additive manufacturing solutions. 

April 10 - IBM Acquires Silverpop to Boost its Online Marketing Personalization Products

IBM purchased Silverpop, which specializes in managing personally-customized Internet promotions. Silverpop assembles profiles of individuals from social media sites, Web usage, email and other digital signals. IBM plans to integrate Silverpop's technologies into its own marketing services.

April 14 - Google acquires UAV maker Titan Aerospace

Google has acquired Mexico-based drone maker Titan Aerospace - the drone startup that makes high-flying robots which was previously scoped by Facebook as a potential acquisition target. Google is interested in Titan Aerospace as its solar-powered drones can fly continuously for 5 years, which makes them idea to bring wireless internet to remote destinations, such as Africa.

April 15 - Motorola's Enterprise Business Sold for US$3.45 Billion to Zebra Technologies

Zebra Technologies acquired Motorola's Enterprise business for US$3.45 billion in an all-cash transaction. Illinois-headquartered Zebra has been known for its RFID and real-time location solutions.

April 15 - Twitter Acquires Longtime Partner and Social Data Provider Gnip

Twitter has acquired Gnip, the social data provider that has long provided access to public Twitter data, and that has deepened its relationship with the social network over the years through a series of product and partnership announcements. Gnip offers access to historical Twitter data, and the full Twitter data firehose, but it also offers APIs that provide data from other social networks including Reddit, Instagram, Tumblr, Bitly and more.

April 17 - Dropbox acquires Loom

Dropbox acquired Loom, a popular service that offers cloud-based photo storage. Dropbox and Loom share many of the same ambitions, but unfortunately, the agreement also spells the end for Loom.The company has immediately halted new signups, and the service will shut down permanently on May 16th. Users can choose to automatically export their photos to Dropbox — and they'll automatically receive the same amount of cloud storage they previously had with Loom or customers can opt to receive a .zip file containing every image they've uploaded to Loom's servers.

April 24 - Facebook acquires ProtoGeo Oy, maker of fitness tracking app Moves

Facebook acquires ProtoGeo Oy, a Finnish software company that’s most well-known for making fitness tracker app Moves.  Facebook adds another stand-alone app to its growing stable.

Always Keep Your Online Reputation Up!

Really very important statement and if you follow it, your business will prosper.

Have you ever tried to type your name/company name and see what is being spoken about you? It’s very important to scan everything and if there is any negative stuff, it’s necessary to remove.

How to monitor your reputation

There are many tools that can help you and the most important is setting Google Alerts. It’s free and it tracks all types of web results, like news, blogs, videos and more.

If you are using social media, for example Twitter, you can monitor your name using a hashtag to see what is written about you. And one more important thing about socials: go private – modify privacy setting in all your social platforms,  ensure that only friends with whom you don't mind sharing your personal life or photos will have access to that information. Also de-tag from any uncomplimentary pics of you.

There is also another way of tracking – Question and Answer websites, like Yahoo Answers. If anyone is asking questions about you, your company or a particular keyword, you can track those on certain Q&A sites.

Who needs an online reputation and why

Every human being, any company needs a good online reputation. And if you don’t control your brand online, your competitors will do. Imagine you work in a company which is not aware of your present reputation and competition finds this out. What will happen then? The company you work for is at risk, you, as well.

Another situation: you’re looking for a better job and you’re not aware of what is being spoken in the internet about you (there are lots of “kind” people around us). It would be so difficult for you to find the desired work, as many companies know how to check your “online reputation”.

Or you sell some product - today people don’t buy anything before checking who the seller is or what is being said in the product reviews.

Who really cares about your online reputation

As stated above, many people may be interested in your reputation, starting from consumers, business partners, marketers, journalists, stock holders to co-workers. The easiest way is just to have a “good” reputation.

How to manage your online reputation

There are some points you should follow to improve your online reputation. Google posted some good advice on how to manage your reputation through search results which says:

• Think twice before putting your personal information online.
• If something you dislike has already been published, try to remove it from the site where it's appearing.
• Proactively publish useful, positive information about yourself or your business.

Finally it’s not so difficult to be a “positive”, “kind” and “wise” person. Build credibility, be polite and accessible, respond to any criticism and you’ll prevent reputation problems. And the most important thing – think before you click!