Using Facebook Promoted Posts

Last year Facebook shared a statistic saying that a brand pages' content is only seen by 16% of it's fans. Not long after this announcement Facebook released it's Promoted Posts functionality where a brand can now pay $5, $10, $15 or $20 to increase the amount of fans that will see a post on their wall. Facebook users see promoted posts labeled with “Sponsored” directly in the news feed rather than in the right column where Facebook ads are placed. Promoted posts appear both on desktop and mobile and have the same targeting ability that regular posts do, meaning you can geo-target for your companies customers - a helpful feature for businesses like those on Waiheke that might use such functionality to target likely visitor groups (like Aucklanders), or even locals.

For more information on Promoted Posts, see: https://www.facebook.com/help/promote or get in touch with us if you need help.

Wordpress

Wordpress just keeps getting better and better as a small Content Management System for businesses and organisations. I am almost solely using it to help set up sites and it is also fairly easy for newcomers to get their heads around how to  modify existing content or add new content. For example take a look at the new gallery options that have become available. A great improvement over their previous system. If you want a Wordpress site setup for you business or oganisation get in touch.

Social Media course at Waiheke Community Education

The advent of the Internet and the rise of Social media have had considerable impact on almost all facets of our society. Over four meetings at Waiheke Community Education I will provide an introduction into the foundations of social media, reviewing some of its' history, its' basis in the values of openness and sharing, and its' current dominant platforms.

We will explore and practice how to use social media effectively for a range of use cases and audiences, and review its use in marketing, audience building, and community engagement. We will inevitably need to consider the role of mobile devices. The use of a phone, particularly a smart phone is encouraged in the meetings - please bring them if you have them.

Specifically we will be looking closely at Twitter & Facebook, and the use of a third party client (mobile or web) to access both platforms.

To enrol in the course please visit: waihekecommed.co.nz/courses/social-media-2/

Using Twitter - hashtags and trends

Well I finally made it to Webstock this year, the pre-eminent New Zealand web conference that attracts some pretty big names from a range of tech related fields like usability, start-ups, design, etc. Like most conferences these days the event was well covered on Twitter with the hash-tag #webstock. Using a hashtag (a # followed by a word) turns the word into a link which other users can click on to see all tweets which include the same tag. Tweeting at conferences creates what is called the backchannel - the practice of using networked computers to maintain a real-time online conversation alongside live spoken remarks. The almost ubiquity of Twitter on mobile devices makes the backchannel flourish at these events and can facilitate face-to-face networking outside of the presentations as well as providing links to related resources, or just a level of humour to get you through the boring bits! Searching Twitter is a great way for you to see what people are saying about any particular subject you like by performing searches across the Twitterverse. Subjects that are being spoken about frequently can also "trend" and trending topics are displayed on your Twitter page. Trending subjects are also broken down to globally trending and locally trending so you can see what is trending in New Zealand as well as what is trending internationally. If you'd like to know how you can use Twitter for your business or organisation get in touch with us.