Google steals the show for this week’s Social Media Recap! You can now send money via Gmail, as long as you have Google Wallet.

Google+ just got a fresh new look, watch out Pinterest. Google seems to also be in competition with iTunes because they just launched a music subscription service. But wait a minute, Bing had one big update this week, they added Facebook interaction to their search results.

Click play to learn more. What did you learn this week?

At Engage121, our clients use social media 24/7 like I do and our goal is to make it easier for them with our software, when they’re in the office and when they’re not. Our new iPhone app will make the job of a community manager much easier.

We’ve updated our existing iPhone app to include the same functionality you have when you are using Engage121 on your desktop. Here are a few things you do while you’ re in the office, and that you need to do when you’re on the go as well. This is also a great checklist for you to use, before you download an app that claims to help you with your community management tasks.

Mentions: you need to know immediately if someone mentions your brand online, good or bad. We’ve all seen what happens when you ignore mentions online and the PR crisis hits and spirals out of control. Now you can monitor any time of day, easily on your iPhone.

Manage Scheduled Posts: You read a great article earlier in the day and you scheduled it to go out later that night, but shoot Facebook just took away that functionality. You need to delete that post before it goes out and damages your credibility. The new iPhone app allows you to delete posts that are scheduled in your Planner.

Publish great content, on the fly: While you’re monitoring for brand mentions you dive into your newsfeed to read one last article before you end your day, and it’s GREAT.  You want to publish it to your social networks and you need to do it now since it’s during the evening hours while your community is most engaged . You can now easily share links on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn groups and elsewhere in the iPhone app the same way you do on your desktop through Engage121.

Alert team members: Someone has asked you a question on Twitter and you responded but  you know that it’s definitely something that customer service needs to handle. You can send notifications to  your Connect121 contacts in the iPhone app. There’s no need to open Outlook, tag them in an update so they see the notification as soon as they get into the office.

We’re really excited about our updated iPhone app, and I would be very excited to hear your thoughts. Do you like the app? Do you need more functionality? Let me know, that’s what I’m here for – to make your job easier.

Happy Posting!

It all comes down to one word, targeting. You can run anything as a Facebook Ad and you will get lots of clicks, and even some new page likes, but they won’t be from people who care about your business. They’ll be spammers or people who do not make up your target market. How can you ensure that your Facebook Ads are being seen by the target audience for your business?

First, you need to determine which type of Facebook Ad you would like to use. Below are targeting options that pertain to all 3 types of Facebook Ads, but I’m going to focus on Sponsored Post Ads, in other words, a published post on your timeline converted to an advertisement.

Geographic Location: You can target your advertisement to people who live in a certain country, state, city or zip code. You can also check a box to include cities near that location within a 10, 25 or 50 radius.

Age: There’s no need to show your ad to people who are 13 years old and older if your target audience is retirees. Select the age range that is most appropriate for your business and the content you are promoting.

Gender: Is your target market mostly men or women? Or, is your target market men, but women also contribute to the buying decision? You can select them both or just one.

Interests: This is what I consider the “gold” of Facebook Advertising. You can select certain interests to ensure that your ad is placed in front of the right audience. For example, if your target market is stay-at-home moms, you can target your ad to Parenting, Family, Kids, Kid Activities, etc.

Connections: You can show your ad to anyone, people who already like your page, or people who do not yet like your page.  However, the “platinum,” is friends of connections. By selecting this option your ads will show to friends of your existing fans (those who already like your page). The great thing about this is that your ad will show with the viewer’s friends name in it. For example, my Facebook friends would see “Jenny likes Engage121″ or “Jenny likes New Blog Post by Engage121.” See the potential? We know everyone values their friend’s input, especially when it comes to buying decisions.

Advanced Targeting: If you’re not socially savvy, you can skip this paragraph. I’m just kidding! The one targeting option here that you should select is language. If you’re advertising in the United States select English (US), or if you’re targeting other ethnicities add Spanish to your selections or whichever language reflects your audience.

Budget & Time Frame: Lastly is the budget you set for your ad or campaign. You can run a Facebook Ad for as little as $5/day. You can also say you want to spend$50 on the ad, which wouldn’t require you to set a daily limit. There are other conversion options, but I’m going to keep it simple for now. Comment below if you’d like to get techy with me.

Why do you need to do all of this work? By targeting your ad you will ensure that those clicks you’re receiving aren’t from spammers. How? Because spammers on Facebook do not fill out their profile and so there is no data such as age, gender or interests associated with their profiles.

I previously wrote a blog post on How to Get Results with Facebook Ads for SpinSucks, which outlines the return I received from using Facebook Ads. There are some additional points in that article that I think you would find helpful.

Have you ventured into Social Advertising yet? Or are you still skeptical?

So, the “Content is King” comment, thank you Mr. Gates (Bill Gates, 1996) has been discussed and vetted among marketers for years – and we all agree, that content is VERY important.  Yes, even before Google and Yahoo emerged as content Gods. 

But there’s a better question.  If Content is King, what is “Local Content?”  My take, the be-all and end-all!  As marketers we struggle to connect on a daily basis with the “local” customer.  We spend vast amounts of Ad dollars trying to reach the very individuals who traffic through our stores, which typically produce disappointing results, generating coupon hounds. 

Enter, Local Content. Like the Local Content Engage121 now provides to small businesses and Realtors all over the country.  A recent quote from a WPP study says local social pages “generate approximately three to five times more engagement than global pages,” and others say it’s even higher.  Your customers shop locally, so empower your local stores, agents, centers or dealers to reach and impact local customers, with relevant content that creates loyal fans and followers; the type of fans that can generate local residual revenue.

Local Hot Content Sample

Our good friends at ERA Real Estate provided a quote earlier this year that truly captures why Local Content is so important, when supporting Local Social efforts:

“In our experience, social media can help build brands because of its ability to penetrate at the hyper-local level with market-appropriate content, giving franchisees a chance to strengthen customer relationships, promote themselves as a local resource and establish their expertise. Consumers engage with information they need, on a platform that is accessible on their own time, and that maintains and increases brand loyalty by marrying the cache of a global franchise with the local expertise of our franchisees.
-Charlie Young, CEO, ERA Real Estate

How can Local Content impact your local marketing and sales efforts?

While the answer to me is somewhat obvious, I continue to see folks not understand the most basic of principles.  Being, (i) You’re not always the most important thing in the world and yes, (ii) a sale can wait a day or two.  While there is no timetable for personal bereavement, or a national tragedy like Newtown, which hit VERY close to home.  Respect for those who have lost their lives is just a human trait. I recently witnessed a spat between a VERY influential celebrity and a writer… which matured into an insensitive chest beating by the celebrity informing this “correct” writer that he didn’t have enough “followers” to tell him how to tweet (auto-posting) during a tragedy or any other time (image of writer responding to the celebrity below, informing him how insensitive he was – I agree with Steve).

Here are my tips for the Guy Kawasaki’s of the world that believe they are above reproach.  Oops, I name dropped:

1. Posting directly after a tragedy should reflect how you or your business support those of the tragedy; please turn-off scheduled tweets or posts, it’s insensitive. (see image of Engage121 during the Boston Bombing)
2.  Stay away from political dialogue.  As with Newtown, we were all upset with the vicious nature of the crime, however this is a time for the victims, not political posturing.
3. Timing – within 24 hours, we need to showcase our resolve.  While I recommend this period to showcase resolve, use common sense and social media.  Social conversations are a great barometer for sentiment.  Listen and your community will tell you if it’s ok!

I’m often asked “what does it take to become a community manager?” My answers usually turn people away, so instead of focusing on how difficult it is, I’m going to focus on what it takes to be a good community manager once you’ve landed the role. Although, you don’t have to take my word for it, I interviewed 3 rockstar CMs to share their thoughts.

This week’s Social Media recap is all about new features on your favorite social networks. You can now manage one YouTube channel with multiple Google+ accounts.

Foursquare took their app to a whole new level by making search and discovery the #1 focus with their new design.

If you’ve been looking for a good reason to start using Facebook Ads you can start today because you now have many more targeting features with the new parent categories.

Do you want to make sure your friends see your new position on LinkedIn? Not a problem, you can now tag people & companies in your status updates.

Lastly, Facebook does care about their users, they now want to know if you’re happy or sad by having you share your emotions in your status updates.

What’s your favorite update this week?

Do you know where they shop? You should. Here’s why, imagine you’re creating a new marketing campaign that is focused on Twitter for a new product, and you’re looking to offer coupons for this new product but you’re not sure which features will redeem the most coupons. If you know where your customers shop, you’d know which stores you should offer coupons at, and drive your customers where they want to shop. Which in turn will help you build customer loyalty.

Background: I was born in Daegu City, South Korea and was adopted when I was 5 months old.  I spent my first few years in Massachusetts and then we moved to Connecticut where I lived up until I went to college.  I swore to myself that after high school I would move as far away from Connecticut as possible.  I moved back to Connecticut less than a year after I was done with college.

College: I went to Bentley University in Waltham, MA where I majored in Information Design & Corporate Communication with a concentration in public relations.  Say that five times fast 

Hobbies: I love almost anything and everything having to do with being in or on the water.  I try and spend as much time as I can on a boat over the summer months.  I don’t care that I live an hour outside New York, I’m a crazed Boston sports fan and proud of it! I love live music in all shapes and sizes and try to go to as many concerts as possible.  One of my favorite things to do is wine and dine with my friends.  I’m a big fan of cooking a big meal but love going out and experiencing a great meal as well.

Experience: In my pre-Engage121 life, I was an account director at a technology company.  I sold video streaming technologies for qualitative market research.

One thing you’d never guess about me: Of all the things in the world you can have phobias of (spiders, heights, snakes, small spaces, etc.), I’m terrified of helium balloons.  A fear I’m not proud of, but it is what it is.

What is your goal for being at Enage121? I hope to continue to learn about the ever-changing world of social media so I can contribute to an effective and enjoyable experience for our clients.

Comment below to welcome Meredith to the team. She’d love to hear from you!

This week’s Social Media Recap includes updates from all over the web. I’ve got 5 big updates for you to check out!

1. LinkedIn overhauled their search function for the first time in years.
2. Facebook rolls out replies to business pages, now you can reply directly to the person who commented on your post.
3. Yelp launched a Revenue Estimator tool for merchants to get a sense of how much money they are making from leads through Yelp.
4. Flipboard opens magazine creation and integrates with Etsy to become the next big eCommerce site.
5. Facebook started placing ads purchased through its ad exchange, FBX, in the newsfeeds of users.

What did  you learn about this week?