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This week, Whiteboard Friday is hosted by the amazing Tara Reed who’ll walk us through how to use social media broadly and Twitter in particular not only to earn engagement and a following, but to drive visitors directly to our websites and to the content that converts. Let’s dive in!

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription
Hey. My name is Tara Reed. I’m the CEO of appswithoutcode.com, and you’re hanging out with me today for Whiteboard Friday. Today, we’re talking about how to use social media to 10x your website traffic. Specifically, we’re talking about how to use Twitter. We’re doing a deep dive of Twitter and how to use Twitter to do that 10x-ing of your website traffic. How do you take people from your social media content to your actual website and flow them through that funnel? I’m going to be giving you a process today to automate a lot of that work that sometimes we do manually.

Before we jump into that, I just want to ask you a quick question. How many of you feel like you have a well-oiled machine that is taking people from your social media content through and all the way to your site? If you don’t feel like you have a really strong, well-oiled machine, I’ve got one here for you, and you can implement all three parts of this three-step process I’m going to show you in order to really, really drive a lot more traffic, squeeze a lot more traffic out of your social media following and your social media presence.

Reach

So this process has three steps. The first step is reach. This is something that most people skip over entirely. They sit back passively, and they wait for people to find their social media site. So I want to offer an alternative for you that’s going to be a lot more proactive, and here’s how it works.

There are thousands, if not millions of people out there who are actively posting, tweeting, and saying that they want your product, your service, whatever it is that you have. So for example, if you have a company that helps people find apartments, there are thousands of people every day who are posting, “I’m thinking about moving to Seattle next month,” “thinking about going here.” They’re actually saying these things in their social media posts, and you’re just letting them say these things and you’re not actually engaging with them. But there’s a really awesome way that you can do that, and I want to walk you through how.

Keywords

So what you’re going to want to do first, in order to find these people, is write down a couple really clear keywords around the types of things that people are saying in social media to indicate high interest.

These keywords are going to be slightly different than the keywords that someone might type into Google or into a search bar, because the types of things you say on social media are just slightly different. So for example, you might say “looking for an apartment” on social media, but on Google search you might type in “apartments in Seattle,” and that’s a slight difference there. So you want to be conscious of the social media platform that you’re on when you’re writing out your keywords.

Automated workflow

Once you have your keywords, the next thing you want to do is build an automated workflow to engage with these people. There are a couple different things that you can do to create an automated workflow. You get to decide which of these four elements you want to use to create the most organic experience for you and for your brand. But there are four different types of ways you can engage with these people who are actively saying that they want whatever it is that you have. So you can:

Like their posts
Follow them
Add them to a list
Send them a DM that says, “Hey, Tara, saw you were interested in apartments. Check out this blog post of the top apartments in Seattle that we put together last week,” whatever it might be.

But what you’re going to want to do is use some of these, maybe not all four of them. But come up with a strategy that feels really organic and an outreach, because you don’t want to just leave these people hanging out there. You want to make sure that you’re engaging with them in some way. It’s low-hanging fruit, and it’s really going to help you squeeze a lot of value out of your social media content.

Resources

So I’ve outlined some resources for you to use in order to do that. These are two of my favorite tools.

Socedo does a really good job automating this workflow of reaching out to people who are prospective customers, prospective users, prospective visitors of your website. There’s also a tool called Narrow.io that you can use.

Click

So once you’re doing this outreach, you’re not passively sitting back, you’re actually engaging with the people who really want whatever it is that you have, we’re going to move over to the second strategy — to click. Now, what you want to do here is have something really valuable for these people to actually click on, because what they’re going to do is they’re going to click on your profile link and they’re going to arrive here. That is why I recommend people implement something I call a 14-day experiment.

14-day experiment

A 14-day experiment is when you take your top blog posts and for 14 days, every single day you post 14 posts, different blog posts. You can mix them up. But every day you are posting 14 links to a blog post with some interesting, unique content. The reason you want to do this is that the average user spends just 13 minutes on Twitter at a time. So the chances of them seeing more than one of those posts in your day is really slim. So you want to do 14. It may feel like a lot for your company and for your brand, but really that’s where you want to be in order to really squeeze out all that value on your social media site.

Spreadsheet

Now, in order to get prepared for this 14-day experiment, what you’re going to want to do is get out a spreadsheet. In the first column of your spreadsheet, you’re going to want to put links to all of your top blog posts. I’d say grab somewhere between 14 and 25 blog posts that you want to use.

In the next column, for this specific blog post, you’re going to write a tweet, a piece of content. You can grab out a quote from the blog post, or you can do a summary of the blog post, whatever it might be. But you’re going to write a tweet about that blog post, and if you want, you can add an accompanying image.

You’re going to do that again for the same blog post, but you’re going to put a new piece of content, a new tweet, and a new image. This spreadsheet will go on for about 28 rows, because you’re going to do about 14 different posts for each blog post. It’s going to really push you to think about different angles and different ways that people can think about the content that you’ve already written. Most of us just post one or two times on our blog post, but you can really push out 14.

Resources

Some resources to help you do this, obviously a spreadsheet. Really easy, that is all you need. But I also have a book recommendation for you. It’s called “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” by Gary Vaynerchuk. I’ve had my team and other teams read this book as a group. As they go through putting together their 14-day experiment, it’s a really great way to rally your team around the ideas and get everyone involved. So if they want to contribute some content into this spreadsheet, they’re already on board and excited to do it.

Recycle

Now, then you move on to the third part of the strategy, which is to recycle your content. Again, most of us are posting again and again and again on social media, but people are only seeing a few of those posts, because the average user is only spending a few minutes on Twitter every day. So what you’re going to want to do is use a tool to recycle your content.

Resources

You’re not just going to want to post your blog post one or two times. You’re going to want to take everything you put in the spreadsheet and put it into a tool like Edgar. Edgar is a tool that allows you to recycle content. So after the blog post has gone up one day, 14 days later, a month later, it’ll show up again, that same exact post. People probably haven’t seen it yet, and so it’s going to allow you to recycle your content on auto-pilot.

These two elements on the side of me — the outreach part and the recycling part — those are things that you can get going on auto-pilot. They’re running on their own. This middle piece, you’re going to have to do some upkeep. You’re going to have to maintain content, add new content to your funnels. But for the most part, this is going to allow you to cohesively build a really cohesive strategy that’s going to automate the experience. It’s going to really squeeze a lot of the content, a lot of the engagement that you can get to get people from just looking at your social media profile, bring them to your social media profile, and then funnel them through to actually be on your website.

Thanks for hanging out with me on Whiteboard Friday.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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Welcome to our weekly round-up of all the latest news and research from the world of search marketing and beyond.

This week, Google has been spotted testing a new user ratings feature in film and television search results; the National Football League has rowed back its heavy-handed social media policy; and a new report has revealed the distance that still remains between the marketing and IT sides of a business in the digital age.

Google tests user ratings for films and TV shows

Google was spotted testing a new user rating feature in its search results for films and TV shows with a small sample of users this week. Searchers in Google’s test sample found ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ buttons appearing above the Knowledge Graph on the right-hand side, which pulls information from sites such as Wikipedia to provide a quick answer to search queries.

Tereza Litsa reported on the change for Search Engine Watch, observing that the new feature “is a quick way for Google to build user ratings depending on its own audience.

“Even if Google hasn’t revealed its plans yet [for the feature], it could be an interesting addition to its database which may even lead to further plans on building users’ reviews and gather more features on its own site.”

Digital to receive the lion’s share of new ad spending in 2017

Some good news for digital advertising business: according to GroupM, the world’s largest media investment group, digital is due to receive 77 cents for every new dollar spent on advertising in 2017.

Al Roberts reported for Search Engine Watch’s sister site, ClickZ, that “All told, GroupM predicts that global ad spend will top $547 billion next year, up from $524 billion this year. While television will still capture the biggest share of that 12-figure pie (41%), digital’s share will grow from 31% to 33%.”

But the picture for digital advertisers isn’t all rosy, as by some estimates, as much as 80% of this new revenue is being captured by Google and Facebook. According to Kirk McDonald, president of PubMatic, this overwhelming market dominance is set to “reach critical mass” in 2017, while competition heats up between other marketing organisations for the remaining 20% of new ad spending.

CMOs and CTOs need to be more aligned

A survey of more than 500 senior marketing and IT professionals has revealed the differences in perspective between marketing and IT when it comes to communications infrastructure.

The survey’s findings are explored in a new report, ‘Communications Infrastructure: The Backbone of Digital‘, published this week by ClickZ Intelligence and Zayo, a provider of communications infrastructure services. In an article for ClickZ this week, Linus Gregoriadis dived into some highlights of the research, which sheds light on the obstacles that marketing and IT need to overcome in order to truly work hand-in-hand towards the same goals.

National Football League revises its restrictive social media policy

Last October, the U.S. National Football League (NFL) implemented a heavy-handed social media policy aimed at discouraging the posting of video content during games on social media, with fines of up to $100,000 levied at anyone who violated the policy.

The NFL has seen a worrying drop in its ratings throughout 2016 which threatens its television revenue, the League’s main cash cow. Videos posted to social networks like Twitter and Facebook are thought to be the main culprit, as they allow fans to catch the most exciting moments of the game at their own convenience, without needing to tune in to entire games on television.

But a number of NFL teams took badly to the NFL’s new restrictive policy, and took to Twitter to troll the League. Now, as Al Roberts reported for ClickZ this week, the NFL has seen fit to relax its policy two months on. Roberts wrote for ClickZ about the new flexibility that the NFL has afforded to its teams, including allowances for live video and Snapchat.

AMP results are appearing in Google Image Search

Search Engine Roundtable reported this week that Accelerated Mobile Pages, Google’s lightning-fast mobile webpages, are now showing up in search results for Google Image Search.

Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP, were first launched in the Top Stories carousel in February before being expanded to the core mobile search results in August. Now, a number of search results with an AMP logo are appearing in Google Image Search, which when selected, will take you to the AMP version of the page in question.

Image: Search Engine Roundtable

With Google’s search index set to go ‘mobile-first’ in the new year, searchers can expect to be seeing a lot more of mobile-first webpages very shortly. To get ahead of the game, check out Amanda DiSilvestro’s guide on how to prepare your business for Google’s mobile-first index.

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It’s that time of year, happy holidays! As an end-of-year gift from the Tilt Brush team, we’ve got one last batch of treats for you. In our latest update, our goal is to make it even easier to create more impressive sketches… and share them with your friends.

Guides: Our newest set of art tools, “Guides”, allow you to create perfect shapes in Tilt Brush. Using a combination of cubes, spheres, and pill shapes, you can create everything from the solar system to a dining room chair with newfound precision.

Sharing to YouTube: Once you’ve made a sketch, you can now quickly share a video of it to YouTube right from Tilt Brush. Just take a video and hold down the YouTube button, and you’re moments away from seeing your video up on YouTube.

We baked both of these updates into a tasty holiday video for you:

We’ve also added a few of our favorites to our Tilt Brush playlist on Youtube, and we’d love to see yours too. Just tag your videos with #TiltBrush.

Happy holidays and happy sharing!

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In this Marketing Nerds episode, Sara Spivey, Chief Marketing Officer at Bazaarvoice, joined SEJ Features Editor Danielle Antosz to discuss the power of online reviews and how to use them to drive ROI.

The post Sara Spivey on the Power of Online Reviews & How They Drive ROI [PODCAST] appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Understanding the impact of machine learning will be crucial to adjusting our search marketing strategies — but probably not in the way you think. Columnist Dave Davies explains.

The post What the heck is machine learning, and why should I care? appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Most pricing pages have three plans laid out horizontally across the page.

But why?

And in what order?

Simply copying what everyone else is doing, without understanding the purpose behind certain features or the research that shows which features convert the best, will give you a hollow page that fails to convert.

Here is a breakdown of five research-backed steps to create your own high converting pricing page.

Overview of the Five Steps for a High Converting Landing Page

This post is long, with tons of research and additional recommendations for high converting landing pages. So here are a few of the highlights:

Psychology-Backed Layout: Use techniques like price anchoring (to set context) or scarcity (to increase visitor urgency).
Easy to Understand: Remove clutter (like extra nav details) and complexity (like hard-to-understand features).
Order & Recommended Plan: Order plans from MOST to LEAST expensive, while also adding one recommended plan.
Copy, Colors & Risk Reversals: Use copy and color to sell value, and credibility indicators to reverse risk.
Conversion-Boosting Features: Include a free option with FAQ and live chat options.

Step #1. Understand the Psychology Behind High Converting Landing Pages Design, Layout, and Tactics

People hit the Pricing page for one of two reasons.

Either they’re getting a quick spot check; finding out if this option fits within their expected potential budget range.

Or they’re deep in the weeds by this point, actively evaluating this option against a few others and deciding whether or not to click that button and give the free trial a spin.

This last group has already put in at least a modicum of thought by now, and they’re trying to make a decision one way or another.

That means your pricing page can either be greased to send people directly into a free trial, or become a bottleneck to growth by stopping people dead in the tracks.

The best converting pages are created with user psychology in mind. This is well tread territory, with much longer (and more exhaustive) resources available for your viewing pleasure.

But here’s a sample of the problems (and their psychological solutions):

Problem #1. We don’t understand context.

People always think something’s “expensive” if they lack a detailed understanding of the problem or pain point your solution solves.

So instead, the better retort is… compared to what?

Price anchoring takes your expected or preferred options and compares them to a much more expensive one to make them appear more palatable in comparison.

Problem #2. We’re stressed and overwhelmed.

President Obama wears the same color suit everyday. Sartorial statement? Not really… it has more to do with attempting to limit the amount of decisions he has to make on a given day. He (and we) is so overwhelmed with choices throughout the day that it’s easy to suffer from decision fatigue.

A side-product of this is analysis paralysis; where someone has already looked at 10 other pricing pages exactly like yours and is now staring glassy eyed.

Problem #3. We sometimes need a kick in the pants.

The first two problems lead to stagnation. We do all the research and analysis, and then… stop – failing to cross the proverbial finish line.

Introducing urgency into the equation is one of the most powerful ways to persuade and influence those stuck.

How exactly? By emphasizing scarcity, a shorter timeline, or limiting the availability, you can increase pressure on those to take action before it’s too late.

Step #2. Improve Information Presentation Before Tactical Decisions

Pricing pages are difficult to construct because they’re complex.

They’re trying to whittle down all of the possible information a user might need to make a purchasing decision and present it in a coherent manner.

Sometimes that’s easier said than done. And the results heavily dictate the ultimate success or failure (more so than the number of pricing plans you’re highlighting and other tactical considerations that follow).

Hiten Shah and ProfitWell did a study to determine which pricing pages got this right, splitting popular apps you know and love into different categories based on the level of information they’re providing, along with how actionable they were.

Their findings showed that pricing pages that packed the most information with the most action resulted in confident users (who converted more because of their proportionally higher level of trust and information understanding).

That compared with other pages that got one of these key elements incorrect, results in a mix of intimated, distracted, or discouraged users.

(Image Source)

Let’s look at a few examples.

Zendesk’s pricing page was one of those that left users overwhelmed.

On first blush, it looks like they nail all the basics. It appears like any other standard pricing page.

However, look at two plans and try to determine what makes them different.

There’s no simple, easy way to spot the difference, because there’s a TON of differences. It’s only after you click on the Compare Plans option above and methodically comb through each individual feature set like a forensic accountant that you begin to grok which plan may or may not have your specific features.

This page could benefit from some of the specific improvements listed below, but the main point here is that the information needs to be organized and translated better first.

Now compare that with Campaign Monitor, which succeeded in both high information and high action:

Three plans with easy-to-understand features for each, with a sliding scale above to determine which pricing range you fall into.

It’s simple and clear-cut, helping users feel confident that the decision they’re about to take is the right one.

Step #3. List Your Most Expensive Plans First, and Highlight a Recommended Option

Process.st analyzed the pricing pages from the Montclare 250 – a ranking of the most successful SaaS companies.

Unsurprisingly, 81% of those with pricing pages listed the least expensive pricing plan on the left-hand side before moving up to the most expensive.

In fact, BOTH examples we just looked at (Campaign Monitor and Zendesk) followed suit.

But here’s the thing.

Some experts recommend the exact opposite, and ConversionXL just proved why in a recent original research study:

“Participants choose more expensive packages more often when they are listed first, or furthest left in left-right order.”

To figure this out, they ran through different task scenarios, conducted eye-tracking studies, and used survey tools to gather feedback.

While people generally consumed or “processed” the information the same, listing the expensive plans first on the left resulted in longer ‘dwell times’ on the page. The first two positions tended to receive the most attention.

Image Source

This is price anchoring in full effect, plain and simple. The initial expensive options might provide a bit of sticker shock, but your middle and lower tier plans look excellent in perspective.

Inserting a ‘Contact Us’ pricing tier for more complex, enterprise options is a good idea (38% of the Montclare pricing pages feature this), but consider locating it somewhere else (like in plain text underneath) so that you don’t interfere or sabotage this powerful price anchoring effect.

The second research study ConversionXL conducted focused on how ‘calling out’ a preferred or recommended plan impacted results.

They ran the same study as above, manipulating the pricing tier order for SurveyGizmo’s pricing page, along with highlighting a recommended option with a different color.

Here’s what they found using the same task scenario, eye-tracking, and post-survey feedback methods:

Image Source

Ordering your pricing tiers from most expensive to least expensive results in higher revenue. And highlighting one of those options results in even greater results.

Step #4. Pricing Page Tactics 101: The Five Features All Good Pricing Pages Have in Common

Pricing pages typically fail because they’re missing the mark on one of the first three steps above.

However once you get beyond those, it’s all downhill from there.

Because pricing page principles or tactics rarely differ much, no matter if we’re talking B2B or B2C, SMB vs. enterprise, or CRM vs. help desk app.

Here are some of the most common tactical elements that all good pricing pages have in common (pulling from both the process.st Montclare study and the ProfitWell + Hiten Shah study):

Feature #1. Include a Free Option

Almost every single pricing page featured at least one ‘free’ option, whether that was a free trial or freemium plan.

The benefits are obvious. You want to give people an easy, ‘next step’ that requires zero thought.

It’s low risk, removing any barriers to entry or possible doubts and suspicions that might prevent them from giving your product a fair evaluation.

Another spin on this for larger-ticket items is “concierge onboarding”, which is like a guided walkthrough or one-on-one demonstration to help enterprise clients get a feeling for how their setup will work within your app.

Feature #2. Keep Package Tiers to Three Max

The average number of most pricing pages comes out to around 3.5.

If you didn’t skip over the first few steps above, the reasoning should be obvious.

You want to provide people enough information and context so that they can quickly understand which option is right for them, while also avoid presenting too many options that might induce decision fatigue or analysis paralysis.

Feature #3. Allow for Flexibility & Customization

Limiting plans to only three options might sound like a tall order if your product is complex or expensive.

Two ways to combat this:

First, simply offer an ‘enterprise’, customizable plan as mentioned before where people can get in touch for a tailored approach.

The second is to borrow from the Campaign Monitor example earlier where you incorporate a sliding scale option that will dynamically change or update your pricing tiers as you go. That way, you can use a very simple interactive element to condense a TON of possibilities into an easily digestible format.

For example, Autopilot uses a selector (monthly vs. annual) and a sliding scale (based on the number of contacts) to help users quickly demystify an otherwise complex pricing system.

Feature #4. Add a FAQ Under the Pricing Tiers

66% of the most successful pricing pages proactive answer questions before they pop-up, with a convenient FAQ section under the pricing tiers.

The goal is to head-off the most common potential sales objections you get before they happen. (Essentially anything that might stand in the way of someone signing up for a free trial.)

This section becomes especially helpful if you require payment information upon free trial sign-up for example, to make sure there’s no confusion around how billing might work or change depending on if someone cancels their account.

When done correctly, you can also use this section to help differentiate you from the competition. For example, many CRM tools will charge per-user. But not Highrise, which they’re quick to point out on the right hand side of the FAQ section on their pricing page.

Feature #5. Provide Multiple Contact Options

One final way to further reduce friction on a pricing page is to provide convenient ways to get in touch with sales and support.

According to one study, 76% of companies had at least one option, with 13% of those coming in the form of a live chat popup.

One increasingly common option is Drift, which powers a little widget in the lower right hand corner of someone’s screen.

The added benefit of a tool like this is that you can also use it for in-app messaging, and for behavioral or segment-based targeting (to aid your other retention-based strategies).

Step #5. Pricing Pages 201: Copy, Colors and Risk Reversals

Incorporating each of the first five features is good, but just a start. They’re table stakes.

Here’s five tips to enhance those essential ingredients to get more bang for your buck.

Tip #1. Sell the Value & Benefits

Every single line of copy on your pricing page needs to reinforce the value and benefits you’re delivering.

That sounds obvious and trite, but there are a few common missteps many pages still make.

The first is incorporating “lazy ass messaging” in your headline with overly general or clichéd phrase like “save time and money”.

The second is over-emphasizing the features of each plan (as opposed to the benefits those features produce).

A final example involves plan names with meaningless words like “Essential” that don’t do enough to (a) translate value or (b) differentiate one package from the next.

Bad example: the oft-mentioned ProfitWell uses trademarked product names for their plans that curiously doesn’t do a great job explaining the value a user is supposed to get.

Instead, you should try this…

Tip #2. Name Your Packages Based on Customer Segments

Naming your package tiers can help people self-select faster. Ideally, your packages should align with specific customer segments too.

For example, Bidsketch uses package names like Team and Solo to instantly communicate which plan is for which type of customer.

Introducing segmented plans like this helped Bidsketch see the biggest increase in monthly revenue they’ve had, in addition to increasing the average revenue per user.

Tip #3. CTA Language

The word ‘submit’ commonly underperforms in conversion tests because it has a negative connotation (submission). In addition, it’s generic and not particularly inspiring (see also: ‘download’ and ‘buy now‘).

Instead, try using more specific language that emphasizes the next action (like ‘Add to Cart’) or the benefit someone is about to get (like ‘Download My Report’).

The Bidsketch example above uses ‘Start Trial’ as a way for the user to reaffirm the next step a user’s about to take next.

Tip #4. Use a Contrasting Color

We’ve already seen that you should be highlighting a recommended plan.

The two most common ways to do that are through (1) color and (2) sizing.

AdEspresso uses a color variation, shading the entire recommended plan before using a HUGE green button to simply get people into the trial first (which is obvious based on the specific CTA language).

Tip #5. Credibility Indicators

Last but not least, you want to reverse the risk (from the user back to your company) to limit any other potential barriers to entry.

A free trial is the first obvious example, or its money back guarantee alternative that provides people the ability to ‘test drive’ the product to determine whether or not it’s going to be a good fit.

Conclusion

Most pricing pages look similar.

Many have the same surface-level features.

But simply slapping a few generic options across the page with little understanding of how to organize them or what you’re calling them won’t give you the results you’re looking for.

Instead, start by understanding the psychology behind what users want when they hit your page. Then focus on presenting and organizing your pricing information as simply as possible, from most expensive to least, with a recommended or highlighted product to prevent decision fatigue.

Then you can dive into the common tactical features, like limiting your plan features or incorporating a FAQ to ‘tick all the boxes’ users will expect.

Once you’ve gotten this far, you can switch attention over to the advanced stuff like what you’re calling each plan, or how your CTA language and color choices are helping (or hurting) conversions.

The best pricing pages somehow walk a fine line between giving people everything they need to make a decision, while also reducing any extra friction that might disorient, discourage or dissuade someone from signing up.

About the Author: Brad Smith is a founding partner at Codeless Interactive, a digital agency specializing in creating personalized customer experiences. Brad’s blog also features more marketing thoughts, opinions and the occasional insight.

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Internal social tools are fantastic for business. They break down barriers, build connections,and make it easier for employees to collaborate across distances, functions and hierarchies.

As the name suggests, they make work more social, too. But, there’s been an excessive amount of one-sided conversation around Workplace by Facebook recently, generated by those who perhaps don’t understand the company communications landscape as well as they should.

So does Workplace by Facebook live up to the hype? Some words of caution:

Beware of “shiny new object” syndrome

Let’s not be too distracted by shiny new things. Instead, let’s focus on the basics of communication. Communications tools are the tools; not the strategy. Communication channels are the channels; not the message. How we apply them, and what we use them for, is what counts.

The key is to understand the pros and cons of each tool and channel, and when to use them. This means taking into account employee audience demographics, their likely mind-sets, and business objectives.

We also need to remember that important messages need to be repeated multiple times, using multiple channels and tools in order to incite understanding, attitude shift, and/or behavior change.

Just another internal social platform?

When we move beyond the “shiny new object” aura, Workplace by Facebook is just another social platform to consider. Don’t forget alternatives such as Jive, Slack, Microsoft Teams, IBM Jam, and the many other available options. These are all effective employee-to-employee collaboration and social tools, with their own strengths and weakness.

Workplace by Facebook’s biggest value seems to be that user uptake is greater than others because people are already familiar with the platform. After all, Facebook boasts nearly 1.8 billion active monthly users, making it the most widely used social network in the world.

But this represents its own set of issues…

The Facebook effect

Facebook has recently experienced significant problems with perception. Its reputation has been sullied by instances of members’ privacy being exploited and users perpetuating fake news reports. It appears that Workplace by Facebook’s security standards are adequate for enterprise SaaS platforms, but these general platform perception issues are causing users—especially older users—to lose faith. Consequently, this cohort may be reluctant to participate in the platform.

Using a platform owned by Facebook for company communications also forces employees to consider how they should balance their business and social styles. People communicate informally through their personal social networks, liberally using profanity, complaining about their work or people they know, and sharing their hearty opinions on social and political issues. This online style will need to be tempered to be acceptable in a professional environment.

Similarly, it’s fairly common to find yourself in a Facebook hole, losing 30 minutes (or worse) to interesting, but useless posts. This will happen in the workplace, too, creating noise and distraction.

In an effort to make messaging more targeted, Workplace by Facebook has specialized algorithms to allow highlights from different groups to be shown to employees. However, it’s not perfect and tends to focus on things that employees already like or know.

Workplace by Facebook also does not allow employees to choose who can follow them or see their posts. Employees may be concerned about what they post, so therefore opt to post nothing to avoid the risk of being judged or discriminated against.

100% coverage will never be possible

Remember MySpace? The rise and fall of this early social platform all came down to usage.

In the consumer space, only one site could win. There’s a reason why Facebook buys its competitors (i.e., Instagram). Who wants to participate in a social platform if your friends aren’t there?

As with all communication channels, one size does not fit all. Some people will use it to excess; others will never use it, especially if important colleagues are not there.

It’s not an email killer

Can email ever really be replaced by a social platform, when that platform doesn’t have 100% uptake and constant usage (like email currently has)? A platform that requires busy, already distracted employees to actively seek it out is at risk of falling into the “out of sight out of mind” trap. Perhaps Workplace by Facebook will ultimately resort to email notifications, but then that will add to the tsunami of internal email.

In summation, Workplace by Facebook does offer some employees a great way to exchange ideas, collaborate and build connections, similar to other enterprise social platforms already available. It could be a good fit for organizations that already have a social culture (i.e., start-ups and small companies). And it could be effective with mobile and casual workers in transient sectors such as retail and hospitality.

But for large enterprises with a remit to get every employee’s attention, Workplace by Facebook, I’m afraid, is not the cure all.

Sarah Perry is CEO of SnapComms, an award-winning company that develops employee communications software that bypasses e-mail to put important messages in front of employees on any device, anywhere. It has more than 1.3 million paid enterprise users in more than 50 countries.

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The promoted pins in Google Maps are being tested on Android devices.

The post Retailers testing Google Maps mobile Promoted Places ads include MAC Cosmetics, Starbucks, Walgreens appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Cyber Monday is right around the corner, which means it’s time to cash in on the holiday shopping fever. In 2015, cyber Monday sales in the U.S. topped $3 billion in total revenues, and holiday online shopping alone rakes in almost $95 billion-and that’s a figure that increases every year.

Despite it being such a profitable time of year, you can’t expect to have huge success with holiday shoppers without putting in taking some extra steps to prepare and putting in some work. Here are 5 simple ways you can ensure you website is ready for cyber Monday shoppers.

Handle the traffic.

Your e-commerce site will likely get much more traffic on the biggest online shopping holiday of the year than it does every other day, and that could cause some glitches. The spike in traffic might negatively affect your site speed, or even crash your site entirely.

To prepare for this, talk to your web host in advance, and see if your bandwidth can be increased to speed up your website.

Create gift guides.

As a loyal online shopper, I LOVE when brands create holiday gift guides.  It’s a helpful resource that allows holiday shoppers to view products as potential gifts for stocking stuffers, a hostess gift, for their friends, or maybe even assemble their own wish lists. Check out Madewell’s “Gift Well” guide:

The categorization of gifts within certain price ranges and the top items facilitates a pleasant and streamlined shopping experience. Creating a gift guide as a landing page could drive conversions significantly during this holiday season.

Implement live chat.

Excellent customer service is always in season, but it’s especially necessary when you’re going to be swamped with customers. So, what can you do when you’re customers aren’t actually in a store, but on your website? I recommend implementing a live chat feature. Take a look at how Patagonia does it:

Customers are bound to have questions before they check out and complete a transaction. Will it shit in time? Is it on sale? Is there a gift wrapping option? Having a live chat feature gives those customers a channel through which they can ask their questions, making a completed transaction more likely.  You can easily add this through a chat software service, such as Olark.

Prepare your inventory.

The last thing you want is to run out of products when there’s profit to be made! Prepping your inventory before cyber Monday is crucial to being prepared.

Go back and see how much you typically sell of an item on big sale holidays. You might even analyze how much traffic your website received last cyber Monday to determine how much of everything you’ll need this year.

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The bridging of e-commerce and social media has taken off in recent years, and as the holidays close in, there’s no better time to launch a campaign. Shoppers are now accustomed to seeing advertisements and promotions, and the integration of an effective social media campaign-especially right before black Friday and cyber Monday-has serious potential to drive traffic and sales.

It might be the week of Thanksgiving, but it’s still not too late to throw together a few last minute social media ideas to target holiday shoppers. Check out some of these ideas and get started today.

Give thanks.

Since many consumers will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week, a “give thanks” campaign is a great way to interact with them. Your brand can push an image or post that expresses something you’re thankful for that rings true to your brand, and asks others to share what they’re thankful for.

In such a social media push, the sentimental value is what reaches users. You aren’t necessarily promoting products or enticing followers with the hope of turning them into customers, but rather reaching them on a more human level. The personalization of your brand makes you more relatable, which sticks with consumers long after the holidays pass.

Have a photo contest.

I once suggested this as a marketing idea for the Fourth of July, but it can be recycled into just about any holiday or season. A photo contest is a quick and easy way to gain followers while attracting customers. All you have to do is create a post on your social media channels that explains the terms of the photo contest, and offer some kind of prize for the winner(s).

For prizes you can offer cash, gift cards, a free item, or anything else your brand has to offer. People jump at giveaways, and with all the shopper traffic the holidays generate it’s a perfect time to host such a contest.

Promote time-sensitive offers.

A little urgency goes a long way, especially in the frenzy of holiday shopping, and a time-sensitive offer might be the last factor your customers need to make a purchase. Promoting a post that offers free shipping for a limited amount of time or a BOGO deal is a great way to entice both clicks and purchases.

Something to keep in mind:

The main thing to keep in mind is the importance of activity. Consumers are exposed to many brands, especially during peak shopping seasons, and remaining present and relevant among your users requires consistent and compelling activity across all platforms.

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