As Manatee County’s original social networking agency we are pleased to announce the addition of UK-based ELEVATE Social’s aviation and health care clients to our book of business.
“We couldn’t be more excited about this new phase of NetWeave’s growth,” said NetWeave CEO Kevin McNulty. “We’ve been serving these industries for years, so this is a perfect fit.” NetWeave’s clients already include Fantasy of Flight and Bradenton Urgent Care among others.
The deal came together in April through discussions between McNulty and ELEVATE CEO Adam Miller during the SUN ‘n FUN Expo and Fly-In where the two were presenters on a social media panel.
“ELEVATE Social and NetWeave were both founded on the principals of making social media simpler and delivering the highest impact results for our clients, so combining forces is a natural fit,” said Miller. “The fact that our companies have similar cultures will make this merger that much more seamless to our clients.”
The new business will bring NetWeave’s family of clients to nearly 100, while also adding one more member to their staff of 10.
In other news, NetWeave is a finalist in the Manatee Chamber’s Small Business of the Year competition and will be celebrating its four-year anniversary June 1.
Permanent link to this article: http://netweaveonline.com/2013/05/netweave-growing-again/
Guest Post by Piper Hansen, a social media-in-training tweenager exploring our workplace during National Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day.
Teenagers use a lot of social media, and not all teens use a computer. According to the Pew Internet Research Center, one out of four teenagers say they use their smartphone or cellphone to go on the Internet. Smartphones are getting more and more popular by the hour. One out of four might not seem like a lot, but there are millions of teens using their phone right now.
For example, teens look at videos to entertain themselves a lot. In the car and at home are two places they are likely to use their phones as a source of entertainment. The way people used to entertain themselves in the car was to stare out a window or talk to someone else. The way people used to entertain themselves at home was to go outside and gather with friends. Today teens, and kids even younger, are connecting with others and the world around them through screens using texting/tweeting, video chatting/skyping, or posting photos to interact. I think if friends live nearby you don’t need to Skype or text. Talk to them face-to-face in person, not screen-to-screen. Even if they can see your face on the screen it’s not the same. If they live far away, then go ahead and have a video chat.
Teenagers are known for texting. They can send text after text after text with about 12 different people at one time. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not to be able to have multiple conversations at one time. Are you smart because you can do more than one thing at a time, or are you easily distracted? One thing I have read about teens and texting is that it can lead to bad habits. One magazine I read in school said that not texting out an entire word — always shortening words — can effect your overall writing skills. You could be shortening words in class assignments and not even realize it. Shortening words may help you text faster to all your friends, but that will affect your grade negatively if you do it in your school work.
Teens use so much social media that to them social media and the Internet almost mean the same thing. According to Pew Internet Research data, 95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites. Now that teens can also study on electronic devices, when they grow up they are likely to wake up in the morning and the first thing they will go to is a smartphone or, maybe, a computer.
I don’t think its good to have your face glued to a screen all day. And, now that many high schools across America have students use technology to do research instead of the old fashioned way we all know (a library book) teens can be on electronic devices nonstop. I don’t think that is healthy because it pulls their attention away from their own environment and people around them. But reality is that teens are learning on the Internet and using social media to share with each other so they can help each other know more. Teens aren’t always just goofing off on their technology devices. They use them to learn with others and discover the world in a different way, so don’t judge every teenager you see connected to a mobile screen.
Permanent link to this article: http://netweaveonline.com/2013/04/teen-technology-growing/
ROI? This the American Government… we don’t do ROI.
There is a problem with asking for the ROI of social media.
The problem is that most of the people who ask don’t understand the question. You measure the ROI of social media the same way you measure the ROI of your TV campaign, your Yellow Pages ad or your bus benches. It’s no different.
Wait, you don’t measure the ROI of your Yellow Pages ad?
There’s the problem. If you never understood ROI measurement to begin with, why do you think social media will be this new magic thing that already comes with ROI figures attached?
For specifics in calculating social’s ROI, we recommend the book Social Media ROIby our friend at The Brand Builder, Olivier Blanchard. But for the purposes of this blog post, let’s talk more 30,000-foot level.
Start with the End in Mind
If you find yourself asking, “What is the ROI of social media?” maybe the first thing you should do is evaluate the quality of your social media strategy. When you launch a company profile on a social media platform you should do so after you have not only defined your goals, but also determined how you will measure success.
Screw it, let’s just start moving. Destinations are overrated.
Companies successfully utilizing social media treat it as another finger of their overall marketing hand. If you are advertising an event, including something on your website, emailing information, creating an in-store promotion — these are also prime items to be sharing via social media. In considering how well your social media is functioning consider how well it is integrated into your marketing overall. Failure to integrate could result in falling short of your social media goals, and therefore missing some ROI.
Unlike other marketing channels, social media requires diligent monitoring of the message and response to consumers. Engaged followers have a better likelihood of becoming your brand advocate as well as consumers.
What is it that you are trying to accomplish with your social media? Are you literally trying to increase sales, or do your goals include:
• building awareness
• generating leads
• maintaining ongoing dialogue with consumers
• amplifying the reach of conventional advertising
• delivering world-class customer service
These are some of the strengths of social media and should factor into a company’s definition of fulfilling its ROI goals. But these can also be more difficult to measure. Again, you have to define what success looks like ahead of time, or you’ll never be able to know it when you get there.
Still unsure about the benefits of social media or how to measure them? We can help you build a strategy that works for your business.
And lastly, here is a light-hearted video that raises some good points on the value of social media in business.
Permanent link to this article: http://netweaveonline.com/2013/03/path-social-medias-roi/
New News Feed release design announced by Facebook on March 7, 2013.
We will be blogging live for the next hour as Facebook is holding a news conference at its headquarters at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST) today to unveil the new look of News Feed.
It’s the latest effort by FB to get its 1 billion users to spend more time on the service and to get advertisers to spend more money. Watch here and on our Twitter account for live updates.
The new design will make the Desktop and Mobile interfaces more consistent.
1:30pm - New design, new way to sort News Feed, consistency between mobile & desktop just steps in FB direction. New design will be SLOW roll to web starting today. That ends the press event!
The new Switcher allows easy sorting of your News Feed
1:26pm -Switcher list will be sorted by what you view most. Now, Chris Cox is talking about consistency between mobile and desktop. Now the desktop interface will mirror mobile (tray on left for quick navigation).
1:21pm - Chris Struhar up now to talk about YOUR CHOICE of feeds. Will be able to sort by just photos, just music, games, close friends in the new “Switcher” in the upper right corner. New music feed will include what friends are listening to, what concerts are coming to your area, what artists are being shared most.
1:17pm – Looks like everything on the new design will be bigger: videos, timeline previews, pinterest pins, all will be bigger. You will also get insight into which of your friends is sharing. You can also drill down to upcoming events, most shared from Pages, etc.
1:15pm - Photos will go front and center in new News Feed. Larger photos and larger previews to albums. Links will have larger previews with bigger photo, larger title, and publishers logo.
1:12pm - Zuck hands it off to Julie Zhou to discuss new design.
1:10pm - Back when it started, News Feed was mostly text, now almost 50% of content is visual. Almost 30% is content from Pages. New design will reflect this.
1:10pm - Should be able to share with any audience you want.
1:06pm – Zuck starts by telling audience that News Feed is one of the most important services FB offers. Best personal “newspaper” should have the most relevant content and allow you to drill down into any individual topic you want.
Instagram, Pinterest & The Art of Sharing Visual Content our newest seminar for business owners looking to get the most from their social media strategy.
Register today and join Melanie Torres, NetWeave Social Networking’s lead consultant in the attractions market, for a two-hour course that will teach you how to utilize the Internet’s fast-growing, visually driven social media sites.
As of September 2012 there were 23 million people on Pinterest and 100 million Instagram users. These sites offer huger traffic referral or businesses that want to increase their web presence, leads and sales.
In this seminar Melanie will cover:
• Determining if your audience is using these social networks.
• What types of content are most shared.
• Setting up an account.
• The art of the caption and the back-link.
• Watermarking and copyrights.
• Measuring success.
The seminar will be held from 2-4 pm, Wednesday, Jan. 30, at the Manatee Chamber of Commerce McClure Center, 4215 Concept Ct., Lakewood Ranch.
You can register online or by phone with Carey Miller at 941.748.4842 ext 113.
Permanent link to this article: http://netweaveonline.com/2013/01/art-visual-sharing-business-seminar/
Behind the MacBook: What Google analytics taught our social media consultant, Diana, about her social media strategy.
As a social media consultant with NetWeave I’m accustomed to sitting down weekly to look at my client’s social media analytics. When I do so, my focus is narrowed on the engagement within the platform – data on how many likes, comments, sharing and content reach swirl through my reports.
For many clients their digital strategy is more than just one of name recognition, staying top of mind and leveraging word-of-mouth. It’s also about driving traffic to the digital mothership: the company website. Building websites and tracking web analytics, while familiar to me it’s not what I do on a day-to-day basis. I have a niche. That niche is social and I track performance with related tools. Sounds reasonable, right? I thought so too until I was asked to look over a client’s web analytics. That’s when a whole new world of data gave me a better understanding of the work I do.
Why look at Web Analytics in tandem with Social Media Analytics? To see a broader picture of your audience engagement.
One component of my social media strategy for clients is posting links. Sometimes these link to product pages, photo galleries or blogs originating on the company website. When I look at my social analytics I can see which of my posts the audience found engaging and I can see what external sources (google search for example) led people to my social media page. The component missing that Google Analytics provided is seeing if the links being posted were driving traffic to the company website.
Not only did I discover my social media strategy was among the top five sources of referrals to the website, I also learned web analytics can help you tweak your social media posts. By looking at bounce rates I can see if I need to rethink which pages on the website that I’m linking to in my posts. I can see the how long on average people stayed on site and how many pages they visited.
Looking over several months of web analytics I saw which social media platforms drive the most traffic to the client’s website. I was also able to tell which platforms were sending new visitors and which generating traffic from repeat visitors.
Looking at a combined value of the all the referrals generated by social media I discovered that while the links I posted on social media sites might not always generate a thumbs up or solicit a comment, they are driving significant traffic to the client’s website.
So lesson learned: Having a niche is great, but when evaluating the performance of your strategy sometimes you need to look beyond your niche. Don’t forget to look at all the pieces of the puzzle available to you. You might just find that if you shift your focus, something that might not appear to be working is adding value in a different way.
Permanent link to this article: http://netweaveonline.com/2013/01/web-analytics-tweak-social-strategy/
The ROI of Social Media is that your business will still exist in 5 years.
Are you unsure if social media is a valuable business tool? There is no question in our minds of the value of creating a well planned social media strategy for your business. Social media has become the #1 activity on the web, but don’t let the word “social” fool you into thinking it’s all about fun and games.
When you evaluate your company’s need for social media in the coming year consider these questions:
• Can social media ads generate traffic?
• Does social media carry over into our offline lives?
• Is email considered passe to my target market?
• Where are people searching for information and what affects their purchasing decisions?
The answers to these and many more questions are featured in this video.
Welcome to the world of Socialnomics. If you still have questions, feel free to contact us.
Permanent link to this article: http://netweaveonline.com/2012/12/social-media-revolutionize-year/
Every year brings new tools and developments meant to improve our online communication and connectivity with the world around us. Social Media is continuously evolving not only as an industry, but also as a way of life.
The Netweave staff has the opportunity to put to use a lot of social media tools not just in our free time but throughout the work day as well. In the spirit of holiday list making and the year in review, here are the features we’d like to thank developers for bringing us in 2012:
Kevin: I like the enhancements to the Facebook Ads product that allow us to upload specific lists of users to advertise to. Coupled with NetWeave’s latest analytics products, that gives us the ability to target advertising better than ever, even to competitor’s pages.
Pamela: I love the Facebook Scheduler which gives one the ability to schedule posts on Facebook without having to use a third-party application.
Sean: I actually like the Timeline layout on Facebook. A lot of people did (and still do) hate it, but I think it’s a much more aesthetically pleasing view than the old profile layout. I also think it’s a much more advantageous layout for brands because it gives them an 851×315 space in which to showcase an image representing their brand.
Diana: The redesign of LinkedIn, including its mobile version, has been really effective in increasing user engagement. One of the best features is the retooled news source “LinkedIn Today” which features top news that can be customized based on your interests and industry. The addition of “Influencers” to the news section, which allows experts to post longform updates, also makes the section more interesting.
Mia: The Facebook Page Manager iPhone app that allows me to check on my Facebook pages right from my phone. I can always stay updated and check the notifications even if I am not able to be at a computer. Also, if there is any issue or comments on the page that need an immediate response I can contact my client allowing me to stay more up to date with the pages I’m managing.
Aaron: My favorite thing is the Pages Feed on Facebook. With all of my liked pages in one place it makes it easier to see who is doing what instead of tracking everything down on their page or in my newsfeed. In addition the “subscribe” feature keeps me up-to-date on my favorite pages right from my notifications bar.
What are some of your favorite new features on the social media platforms you use?
Permanent link to this article: http://netweaveonline.com/2012/12/6-tools-topping-list-2012/
Google+ Communities lets users carve out a niche online for like-minded people.
Google recently launched a new communities feature on its social networking platform that allows users to create a dedicated space to gather with others based on a common interest. The purpose of Google+ Communities is similar to Facebook Group pages to talk about the stuff that you love with others who love it just as much.
Communities can be based around neighborhoods like the Village of the Arts, attractions like Farmer’s Market groups, interests like astronomy or sports like skateboarding. You could set up a community for local pet owners or local foodies. The options are endless.
If you are creating a new group you have the option to make it a public, so anyone can join, or a private group, in which a group moderator must approve requests to join. With private groups all your activity stays within the group page, instead of also being broadcast to all of your followers.
On the group page there is a sidebar to the left that will tell you about the page and in most cases will offer participation guidelines. In many communities you will also find discussion categories listed in the sidebar that can help you filter through the page to find subtopics that might have greater relevancy to you. For example, a social media community may have Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ listed as discussion topics. As a member of the community, when you post content to the wall you have the option of assigning a topic to the post.
Important to note on the sidebar is the option to turn on and off notifications (the icon looks like a bell)! If you leave notifications turned on you will receive an email or other alert every time someone posts to the community.
You can search for communities by topic, but Google+ will also show you suggestions based on communities you’ve already joined. On the Google+ Communities landing page, you’ll see the communities you’ve joined featured at the top, and suggestions for similar communities below.
If there has been new activity in one of your communities you will see a red box in the upper right hand corner of the community image indicating the number of new posts and a time stamp below the image indicating how long ago the page was last updated. There is a similar notification box that pops up next to the discussion lists so you can easily keep track of when new posts has been made on that topic.
Community members can use the space to plan events, start hangouts and share the community using any +1 button across the web.
Is anyone using Google+?
Before you jump in and start a community related to your business, organization or personal interest you might be questioning whether or not Google+ has an active user base. It does.
While the platform draws constant comparison to Facebook, let’s keep in mind that Google+ is still a toddler among new ventures coming up on just 18 months since it was launched.
When Google released its growth numbers last week it indicated the network has more than 500 million users. Of those 235 million are active across Google — using Gmail, hangouts, Google Play or +1′ing apps. Of its user base 135 million are active in just the Google+ stream.
Since Google’s last user count update in September the network has added about 14 million stream-active users each month, which some say is comparable with Facebook’s growth when it was at 100 million active users.
Permanent link to this article: http://netweaveonline.com/2012/12/google-lets-users-form-communities/
We believe there is nothing wrong with a healthy sense of humor, and that none of us should take ourselves too seriously. While we take pride in the work we do to provide clients with the best social media strategies for their companies, our confidence doesn’t mean we don’t have the ability to poke fun at our own industry. With that in mind we’ve decided to share some of our favorite media industry spoofs from time to time. It’s ok if you laugh at us; we’re actually laughing with you.
We thought we’d start this out by poking fun at broadcast news and how news segments are being transformed by social media. The young staff of CNBC social media interns show off how news reporting is done today.
As you can plainly see technology hasn’t entirely disrupted the delivery of news media. We just have different tools to deliver the same quality content.
Permanent link to this article: http://netweaveonline.com/2012/12/poking-fun-social-media/
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