The Do's and Don'ts of How to Use Facebook for Business [Infographic]

November 16, 2015 at 02:00PM

You’ve heard all about the importance of using Facebook to grow your business. You know that it has a large user base. You realize that it can help you find new customers. But actually doing marketing on Facebook is a whole other story. 

Wouldn't it be nice to have a little pocket guide to navigating Facebook?

To help you break through all the clutter on Facebook and actually start seeing results, we put together the infographic and tips below. Check 'em out.

To learn more about how to use Facebook for business, download our free guide here. 

Do's and Don'ts for Marketing on Facebook: How to Use Facebook for Business

1) Do: Use a Recognizable Profile Picture

Being recognizable on Facebook is important to getting found and Liked. Because your profile picture is at the top of your Page and used as your thumbnail for all of your posts, you need to make sure it's something that your Fans will actually associate with your brand. Usually, it's best to just go with your company logo. 

2) Don't: Leave Your Company’s “About” Section Blank

A preview of your “about” section is shown beneath your profile picture, and it's one of the first places people will look when they're scanning your Page. Make sure yours displays relevant information about your company -- what you sell, your website, what times you're open, etc. -- to help answer people's questions right off the bat.

3) Do: Coordinate Your Cover Photo, Pinned Post, and Profile CTA to Promote Marketing Campaigns

These three things are the most immediately visible parts of your Page. If you want to maximize engagement with your marketing campaigns, try matching your copy and creative across all three.

So if you're promoting an ebook, for example, you could create a cover photo featuring an image of your ebook, publish an organic post to your page that contains a link to your landing page, and make sure the profile CTA has a link to the landing page as well. 

4) Don't: Use a Dummy Account

There's no way around this one. Dummy accounts violate Facebook's terms and conditions -- so just don't create them.

If you'd like to avoid post publishing mishaps, set up different publishing settings for different employees on your Page. Check out this help document from Facebook if you'd like to see what roles you can set for different members of your team.

5) Do: Tailor Your Organic Posts

Targeting on Facebook isn't just for paid content -- you can also use them for organic posts too. Instead of blasting out all of your posts to all of your Fans, think about ways you can use Facebook targeting tools to segment your organic posts by age, gender, education, etc. By being more specific with your targeting, you might be able to generate even better engagement. 

6) Don't: Post Too Often

According to one of our previous studies, companies with fewer than 10,000 Facebook followers receive 60% fewer interactions per post when they post 60+ times per month. So don't overwhelm your customers by posting more than a few times per day. Instead, spend more time crafting higher-quality Facebook posts, and, you know, getting to the other thousands of things on your to-do list. 

7) Do: Use Tracking URLs and Facebook Insights to Analyze Your Page Performance

You can't improve your Facebook Page if you don't know how your posts are performing in the first place. Use tracking URLs with UTM codes to identify which posts are driving traffic and conversions to your website. And for Page-specific data such as your engagement rate per post, head over to Facebook Insights. 

Once you have insights from these analyses, you can tailor your content strategy to post more of what works -- and less of what doesn't.

8) Don't: Forget About Multimedia Posts

You've heard it before, and you'll hear it again: visual content is essential to succeeding on social media. 

And don't just take my word for it. Research has a shown the use of visual content in Facebook campaigns can generate 65% more engagement after only one month.

9) Do: Post During Strategic Times of Day

While the best time of day can vary from Page to Page and audience to audience, there has been some data released that shows that posts published between 1 - 4 p.m. have the best clickthrough and share rates. Use this as a jumping-off point to discover which time of day works best for you.

10) Don't: Be Slow to Respond

Did you know that 42% of consumers who complain on social media expect a 60-minute response time? Whether your audience posts negative or positive comments, ignoring them only creates possible anger or disappointment. So take a few minutes out of your day to monitor your Facebook Page and respond to any issues that crop up. 

11) Do: Try Using Paid Budget to Amplify Successful Organic Posts

Get better ROI for your ads by promoting content that you already know works. Putting budget behind organic content that's performing well can expand your reach and attract more people to your Page.

12) Don't: Make Assumptions

The last thing you want is for your posts to blend in with the rest of the clutter on a customer’s News Feed. Just because a strategy works well for one industry doesn't mean it will work well for yours. Test your assumptions -- even the ones we've outlined in this post -- to see what actually works for you. 

What do's and don'ts do you follow on your Facebook Page? Share your best tips with us in the comments. 

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in July 2014 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

 

http://bit.ly/1j3k0iw

6 Tips for Scaling Social Media Promotion With a One-Person Team

November 16, 2015 at 12:00PM

Creating and maintaining a presence for your brand on social media can be a 24/7 job for an entire team of people. But what happens when you're on a content team of one? How do you find time to dedicate to social media without neglecting your other responsibilities? 

That's the position I've found myself in. For me, checking in on social media happens between editing articles, managing freelance writers, building gated content, optimizing our CTAs, distributing our content, and growing organic search referrals.

Thankfully, I’ve learned some approaches that scale social production and minimize time spent. While I primarily apply these tips to Justworks’ Twitter account, they're applicable for Facebook and LinkedIn as well. 

Why Does Social Promotion Matter?

Despite limited bandwidth, keeping our social accounts active is a high priority. Why?

Research has shown that social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing. Providing social users with interesting, informative content helps bring in quality leads.

Not to mention, social fans are powerful: 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow. But more than half of Twitter users expect audience responses from brands within an hour. Staying engaged with users is a straightforward way to earn and retain that brand loyalty.

6 Helpful Tips for Scaling Your Social Media Strategy

1) Automate routine social media tasks.

IFTTT --  short for "if this, then that" -- is a go-to tool for anyone looking to streamline social processes. Users can build "recipes” according to their needs, or leverage the recipes that already exist.

Want Twitter mentions sent to you via Slack? IFTTT can do that. Want every Facebook image you’re tagged in sent to Dropbox? IFTTT can do that, too. 

Not only does this tool help me keep our company's accounts active without constantly being online, but it also helps me automate social “admin” tasks. Here are a few of my go-to recipes:

• New Twitter followers in a Google Drive Sheet. This recipe is straightforward, and incredibly helpful. It saves our Twitter followers’ names, locations, follower count, following count, and profile link. I can easily review top followers from the continually updating document.
• Save all #justwomen tweets to a Google Drive sheet. We host a quarterly event celebrating female entrepreneurs called Justwomen, which I live tweet through the #justwomen hashtag. This recipe saves the author, text, and post URL of all #justwomen shares for easy post-event analysis.
• Add all #justwomen mentions to a Twitter list. This recipe helps me stay engaged with influencers interested in the Justwomen (and Justworks) brand. It also ensures I don’t miss adding accounts to the list in the chaos of a live hashtag promotion.

IFTTT has 232 channels and endless options for recipe triggers, actions, and ingredients. If you can think it, you can most likely automate it.

2) Auto-publish to social media when a blog post goes live. 

Automatically posting new blog posts is a quick way to kick start social promotion. The goal here is to get the word out.

While my auto-shares to Twitter are simply the headline and link, I always go back and promote with more engaging copy, a funny GIF, or a pull quote later.

The best part? This only took me a few seconds to set up. If you're a HubSpot customer, all you have to do is simply enable the auto-publish function in your Social Media Settings. If you're using a different content management system, you should be able to simply turn on the function just the same. 

3) Create multiple social posts for one piece of content.

Appearing to promote a large variety of content doesn’t require publishing more content. For each blog post I publish, I draft four different versions of social copy. Doing so gives me the most bang for my buck with each piece of content.

I generally write copy using:

1. The post headline
2. A snippet or quote from the article
3. A subheader or thoughtful question
4. An attention-grabbing statistic

For instance, the social copy I crafted for the blog post, "3 Surefire Ways To Make Your Remote Employees Loathe You," looked like this:

1. 3 surefire ways to make your remote employees loathe you. 
2. .@Forbes says “telecommuting is the future of work.” But what does that mean for teams working w/ remote employees? 
3. What communication tools does your team use? @Slack is our go-to tool for communicating with remote employees.
4. Remote workers can be 20% more productive than in-office employees - so make sure you manage them effectively. 

Having a variety of copy has multiple benefits. Our social accounts don’t look repetitive. Our promotions appeal to a larger variety of followers. And we can promote one blog post more often.

Writing this copy takes me about five minutes in total. I draft it as soon as I’ve edited and scheduled my blog post, so the content is fresh in my mind.

4) Schedule in bulk.

Once I’ve written my copy, I schedule social promotion through the next six months.

Yes, through the next six months.

Scheduling multiple promotions for one blog post -- with multiple copy variations -- is guaranteed to boost its social reach. In fact, CoSchedule shared how repeated social promotionof one blog post doubled their social referrals to that article.

For Twitter, I rotate all four drafts through:

• Two tweets today
• One tweet tomorrow
• One tweet next week
• One tweet per month for six months

For Facebook and LinkedIn, I choose two drafts to publish:

• One post each today
• One post each on the next “off day.”

(An “off day” is any day we’re not publishing a blog post: weekends, holidays, and certain days of each week.)

Memory on social is short, but a well-written blog post deserves longevity. While this approach helps me save time and ensure my content has a longer shelf life, it's important that you don't use this as an excuse to neglect your social accounts for six months. Even though you've scheduled out posts in advance, you should continue to review their performance, and make adjustments to you schedule based on they engagement they're receiving.

It's also a good idea to pepper in timely, relevant posts as they surface to accompany your scheduled content. While your content might be really useful, sharing fresh content from other respected sources will help bring a new level of value to your social media feed and help you build and strengthen your relationship with other blogs and publications.

5) Review and repost top posts.

As a content marketing manager, I’m always reviewing what works on social and what doesn’t. And if one post is particularly effective… why not repeat it?

Reposting top-performing posts takes less than a minute. And the repost regularly matches or exceeds the success of the first post. I check into Hubspot’s Social Publishing tool often to review recent social posts’ clicks and interactions. Once I find a top-performing post, I “clone” it to create a new, identical post to reschedule.

Alternatively, you can review top performers in Twitter analytics and Facebook insights. Export recent posts and sort accordingly, looking for posts that hit your social KPIs. Then, copy/paste the text into your social scheduler.

Disclaimer: this works best in moderation. As a one-man team, I rely on reposting when I’m in a crunch: sick days, holidays, or exceedingly busy days.

6) Organize and monitor your Twitter followers.

Segmenting your social media following makes it a lot easier to monitor and identify opportunities to engage with your audience. I've organized my company's Twitter followers into the following six Twitter lists:

• Influencers
• Justworks customers
• Justworks team members
• Journalists
• Competitors
• Justwomen

While sorting through our followers took a lot of time, it was a one-time commitment. Now, I add each new follower to a list as they come in (or rely on IFTTT). Most of our lists are private; the benefit is primarily to organize my social listening.

Thanks to this approach, I don’t have to scour my newsfeed to engage with our community or resurface recent newsletters for relevant articles to share. These lists help me congratulate customers on successes, reshare pertinent articles, and engage with influencers.

Are you running a content team of one? What are your best tips for managing social media? Share them in the comments section below.

http://bit.ly/1MMjeCs

Adaptable, Curious, Empathetic & More: 7 Traits of Valuable Teammates

November 15, 2015 at 02:00PM

This post originally appeared on Agency Post. To read more content like this, subscribe to Agency Post.

The marketing and advertising industry is obsessed with shiny objects -- the shinier the better. Our attention is focused on hiring employees who understand the latest platform, process, tool, or software. We compete for talented superstars with startups, technology, design, product companies, and more.

But the landscape of talent has dramatically shifted. The truth is -- you can’t buy all the talent you need any longer. Competition is fierce for the savviest of contributors, and there simply is not enough talent to go around. So what do you do?

Innovative companies are now actively developing the skillsets they need. But beyond this, many leaders have discovered that behavior and mindset development are essential because how employees act -- behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values, and readiness -- makes all the difference.

The 7 Mindsets to Develop in Top Talent

Below are the top mindsets for you to consider training for with input from a few industry leaders:

1) Human-centered: attention to needs, wants, and limitations of end-users of a product, service, or process.

As the landscape shifts to the consumer brand co-construction, the employee who understands behaviors, needs, wants, and actions of a diverse group of consumers ­­wins.

“After 20 years of designing experiences I believe that success in the field comes down to two core tenets: 1) Design things for people, 2) Those people are not you. The first tenet, designing for people, is an important craft with best practices and established methods that will generally lead toward viable solutions for customers. However, it takes humility and strength to step outside of yourself to truly recognize and embrace the specific goals, motivations, and behaviors of the people that you are designing for. It forces teams to approach the craft in a more holistic manner. It makes your team more curious, your insights sharper, and your solution more relevant. This often means the difference between good work and great work."

- Tim Allen | President, North America Wolff Olins

2) Adaptable: able to readily adjust oneself to different conditions.

Change is omnipresent. Employees who are able to flex, adjust, and experiment survive and thrive. The more adaptable the individual contributor, the better.

I always talk to digital veterans -- people who’ve built lots of things, lived through all the design and tech trends (remember 'write once, run anywhere?' remember several waves of it?) -- and everyone agrees that there are no silver bullets and that most things which are true today will change in 18 months. Your products aren’t just in perpetual beta, so is your skillset, mindset, and toolkit.

- Kip Voytek | CEO, Rumblefox

3) Curious: strong desire to know or learn something.

An employee who seeks out new experiences, absorbs, transforms, remixes, and challenges herself to learn is the person to retain.

Curiosity is critical to creative thought because most creative thinking in any field begins with interrogating a situation to understand if you have defined the problem properly. In marketing communications, this often begins with a category question: How do people go about searching for a new mobile phone? What triggers the need in the first place? Who or what influences selection? What are the barriers to purchase? Once we have defined the problem, we can search for the right solution. And that inspires a new set of questions. You have to be curious to create. You have to be hungry for information and driven to find answers.

- Bruce Henderson | Chief Creative Officer, Jack Morton Worldwide (starting 2016)

4) Receptive: willing to consider or accept new suggestions and ideas.

The receptive mind leaves ego at the door and remains open to the full spectrum of opportunity finding and problem-solving. Individuals who are receptive to new ways of working, iteration, and experimentation are often the most innovative contributors.

An increasingly important quality we seek to understand when evaluating a new team member is the ability of the individual to receive and synthesize ideas that challenge their existing biases. The individual who has mastery over their biases and who is receptive to new ideas will see around corners for us.

- Toby Krout | Executive Director, Boomtown Accelerator

5) Discriminating: differentiating, analytical, and mindful.

A discriminating mindset is an asset. These employees are able to focus on deeper dimensions of work such as the aesthetic, cognitive, and connectedness. In a world vying for our attention, directed focus is essential for all roles.

Discriminating is a mindset developed over a lifetime of comparisons -- scrutiny of what humans produce such as things, events, institutions, and personalities. It is a critical thinking skill and requires the courage to not always be popular. Rudimentary command of judgment, analysis, synthesis, and communication are required. Not included is the use of 'I like it' or 'I have the power, so I know best!'  -- two common examples from corporate culture. Discrimination also helps the critical thinker to combine domain skills, theoretical knowledge, and earned business smarts on a problem in an efficient, collaborative, and hopefully meaningful or novel way.

- Lori Kent, Ed.D. | Learning Experience Director, smith & beta

6) Empathetic: the psychological identification of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of others.

Humans are connected: We work in teams. The ability to empathize helps us understand a broader spectrum of experience and contribution. Having empathy leads us down the path of great design, ideas that resonate, and experiences that matter.

As we create more ideas that are digital at heart and powered by new technology, we need a wider range of skills embedded in our agency teams. This often means generalists and specialists who've never have worked together before with wildly different backgrounds must find instantaneous chemistry. This can either be a car crash or a wonderful orchestra-like production depending on the level of empathy everyone brings to the table.

- Adam Tucker | President Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, New York

7) Geeky: a digital-technology expert or enthusiast.

We’ve shifted from a mechanical age to a more elusive yet connected digital age that often centers on data, code, and making. “Geek” was a diminutive label until Silicon Valley made us aware of its importance within highly competitive fields. Geeks dig in, explore, tinker, solder, build, and experiment ­-- we should go to battle to hire more of them.

It's no longer just about building the thing right -- process, aesthetics, distribution, etc. It's about building the right thing. This requires a willingness to replace the Madison-Avenue-Don-Draper mindset with the Silicon Valley hypothesize-test-iterate-optimize approach.

- Leslie Bradshaw | Managing Director Made By Many New York

If you want to evolve your company’s capabilities, design an education program to develop these employee mindsets and watch what happens with collaboration, ideas, and innovation. Employees want to stretch and contribute beyond just the obvious skillsets. Give them a chance with mindsets curriculum that matters.

http://bit.ly/1O9TFuf

Want to Be More Productive? Start By Making Your Bed

November 14, 2015 at 02:00PM

This post originally appeared on HubSpot's Sales Blog. To read more content like this, subscribe to Sales.

Have you ever had a day where you just feel like you haven't made any progress?

Everyone goes through these peaks and valleys. But if you’re not careful, that feeling will carry over into the next day … and the next day … and the next … until you decide to make a change.
You have to do something to make that feeling go away. But what?

According to Richard E. Cytowic, accomplishment is the key to self-esteem. Regardless of what it is you accomplish -- no matter how large or small the task -- the positive feeling you get from crossing a task off your to-do list adds up throughout the course of the day.

So with this in mind, I have some simple advice for you: Take the two minutes and make your bed -- every morning. Before you brush your teeth, or make your coffee, or whatever it is you do when your alarm clock starts buzzing, just make your bed.

Believe it or not, this incredibly simple and mundane task can set you up for a productive and successful day. Here’s why.

How Making Your Bed Influences Your Productivity

1) Achieving one small task leads to accomplishing larger goals.

In a speech to graduates of the University of Texas, Navy Seal William H. McCraven told the crowd, “If you want to change the world, start by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task will have turned into many tasks completed.”

Accomplishing several small things not only adds up over time, but performing a simple task can give us a feeling of satisfaction. In fact, each time we complete a task, we get a rush of dopamine sent through our bodies, rewarding us for the effort. And because we’re all dopamine junkies by nature, completing one simple action sets us on the course to get another hit by accomplishing even more.

2) Being organized leads to greater productivity.

Reaching max productivity comes down to being in control of and efficient with your time. Although it’s a small thing, having your bed, desk, or room organized actually leads to feeling like you have more control, thus making you more productive.

Dana Gionta references studies in occupational health that say the more control you think you have, the less stressed you are, and the more energy you have to complete essential tasks. So by staying organized, you’re giving yourself control and the extra energy necessary to get more work done. 

Unfortunately, as we all know, developing a habit out of thin air takes time and a whole lot of work. If you need help, here’s how to start making your bed every morning, courtesy of Jerry Seinfeld.

After reviewing the research, it’s clear that achieving a small task -- even a simple one like making your bed -- can set you up for success. The question now becomes: Are you going to take advantage of this productivity trick?

Surprisingly, most people aren’t. In a recent survey, 59% of people said they don’t make their bed, while 27% said they did. The study went on to conclude that the 27% of bed makers are actually happier and more successful than their counterparts. Pretty cool, huh?

http://bit.ly/1NShvwr

5 Hobbies That Can Actually Make You Smarter [Infographic]

November 13, 2015 at 06:00PM

Did you know that Elon Musk collects James Bond memorabilia? Or that television host Bob Barker trained in karate under Chuck Norris for eight years?

The hobbies we keep reveal a lot about our personalities. But did you ever stop to think that there are some hobbies out there that can actually make you smarter?

Depending on the pastime you choose, there's a chance you could be improving your recall, enhancing your cognitive skills, or even boosting your spatial recognition. Talk about feeding two birds with one scone, am I right?

To learn more about these brain-boosting hobbies and their magical powers, check out the infographic below from ProEssayWriter.net.

What are your favorite hobbies? Let us know in the comment section below.

http://bit.ly/1lncil4

The 14 Best College Twitter Accounts (And What Makes Them Stand Out)

November 13, 2015 at 02:00PM

According to a 2015 Pew Research Center survey, 37% of U.S. adult internet users between 18–29 years old use Twitter. This is up from 31% the year before. On average.

If social media teams at universities want to target the college demographic, they need to start by understanding and adapting to students' social media habits. Universities are lucky to already have a built-in community -- and Twitter is a great place for them to inform and engage with students, prospective students, alumnae/i, and faculty.

There are many universities doing well on Twitter, but we've curated 14 of the best ones we saw. (And if you're inspired to craft your own perfect tweets, download our 60 free templates for creating visual social media content here.)

14 of the Best College Twitter Accounts

1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 

The social media team at MIT knows their audience. Most of the folks who follow them are interested in cutting-edge science, mathematics, and technology. From research studies to nerdy anecdotes (like the one below), they deliver great content that's catered specifically at their niche audience.

NOW: A plethora of 1's #numbers http://pic.twitter.com/C9qCv62OP5

— MIT (@MIT) November 11, 2015

The key here is letting your personality shine by tweeting funny and interesting content along with more official content. Remember: People are on Twitter to be informed and entertained.

2) Indiana University, Bloomington 

The social media team at Indiana University, Bloomington tweet out a lot of content -- but it's obvious that their posts are well thought-out in advance. For example, on Veterans Day in the U.S., they posted multiple tweets showcasing students connected to the cause. One tweet linked to an article about an IU law student who uses education to help her fellow veterans. The tweet below links to an article about a student's transition from veteran to student. All these tweets include cool, custom graphics.

IU junior Miles Vining explains the complex adjustment from veteran to student. http://bit.ly/1NuEskK #VeteransDay http://pic.twitter.com/KheKFaAIpF

— Indiana University (@IUBloomington) November 11, 2015

Their team likely uses a social media content calendar to plan their social media strategy well in advance for events like this one.

3) University of Glasgow 

We love the conversational style of the University of Glasgow's Twitter feed. A tweet that could've said, "@GUCareer Fair for the sciences today" instead said, "Interested in a career in the science sector? Reminder to pop along to @GUCareers Fair TODAY [link]." They make the tweets about their followers -- something that, while it seems straightforward, many universities fail to do in their tweet copy.

They also do a great job of integrating video content into their tweets. Here's an example of a simple but uplifting Vine video of campus on a rainy day.

It's rainy and windy day today, but we're still happy #UofGautumn http://bit.ly/1H0bZql

— Uni of Glasgow (@UofGlasgow) November 10, 2015

Finally, they run fun contests that encourage engagement on Twitter. Their contest below had a particularly punny name: #UofGtrickortweet.

So many amazing entries we couldn't pick just one. Well done winners (l-r) Les,Jordan & Barbara! #UofGtrickortweet 🎃 http://pic.twitter.com/6t8sYyB1fb

— Uni of Glasgow (@UofGlasgow) November 5, 2015

4) University of Madison-Wisconsin 

The University of Wisconsin-Madison's tweets cover the gamut of what you'd like to see on a university's Twitter account. Their feed is a combination of timely posts (like tweets congratulating new students and award-winners), links to blog posts on UWM's news site, cross-promotion with their other social media accounts, and informative posts, like one tweet announcing how street traffic will be affected during a local marathon.

This a.m. is the @MadisonMarathon: Note that some campus streets/traffic will be affected: http://bit.ly/1NuEqt1 cc: @UWMadisonPolice

— UW-Madison (@UWMadison) November 8, 2015

We love the playful tone of some of their tweets and their use of images and even GIFs, which speaks to how well they know and cater to their audience. After all, tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites, and 150% more retweets than tweets without images.

That moment when you hit “enroll” for that perfect Spring schedule. ⏩Enrollment tips: http://bit.ly/1H0bY5B ⏪ http://pic.twitter.com/fevwFcfaxm

— UW-Madison (@UWMadison) November 10, 2015

5) Georgetown University 

Not only is Georgetown's Twitter account chock full of interesting text, pictures, and links, they've done a great job experimenting with other cool formats that many colleges haven't taken advantage of -- not yet, at least. The tweet below is a great example of this experimentation: It features a fun, student-made video that links (in a CTA directly on the video itself) to the school's #GeorgetownStories campaign, which is already a really cool social initiative.

Joong Won (MSB'18) shows us one of his favorite campus spaces, the Rafik B. Hariri building. 💯 #GeorgetownStories http://bit.ly/1H0bZGC

— Georgetown Univ. (@Georgetown) November 10, 2015

Since videos are embedded directly into the Twitter feed, content like this is easily digestible.

Georgetown's use of video in tweets follows a trend Social Media Examiner saw coming: When they asked marketers which form of content they most wanted to learn about in 2015, producing original videos came in second after creating visual assets.

6) Princeton University 

Princeton gets the information for their tweets from a wide variety of different places. They post about everything from school history and events like theatre performances and sports games, all the way to faculty accomplishments and research opportunities for students. We love that they include the official #PrincetonU hashtag right in their Twitter bio.

Speaking of hashtags, they run a lot of cool social campaigns they encourage students to participate in, like #PUSocialDay:

Feeling social, #PrincetonU? We've got just the event for you: http://bit.ly/1NuEqta #PUSocialDay http://pic.twitter.com/pGLHf19I1t

— Career Services (@princetoncareer) November 11, 2015

The length of the #PUSocialDay hashtag is perfect: As it turns out, hashtags with 11 or more characters get 117% more retweets than those with between 6–10 characters. Keep this in mind for your next hashtag campaign.

Finally, Princeton's social media team uses Twitter effectively to cross-promote other social media channels their students are using, like Snapchat. After all, 77% of college students use the Snapchat app at least once per day, according to a study by Sumpto.

We're backstage with @TriangleClub on @Snapchat today. Add us: PrincetonU http://pic.twitter.com/p4wq92X9eX

— Princeton University (@Princeton) November 12, 2015

7) Stockholm Universitet 

The first thing you'll notice when you go to Stockholm Universitet's Twitter page is their gorgeous cover photo. While most universities feature a picture of campus or a stock-like photo of students in a study group laughing hysterically, these folks created their own custom graphic that striking and colorful. The school's tweets themselves have a great balance of text-only tweets, picture tweets, retweets, and even retweets with comments.

Intressant forskningsproj. med bl a Nina Kirchner vid Inst för naturgeografi. Mer om Nina: http://bit.ly/1H0bZGF http://bit.ly/1NuEsB2

— Stockholms univ (@Stockholms_univ) November 10, 2015

8) Ohio State University 

Ohio State University's Twitter feed is filled with a breadth of relevant information for students, faculty, and alums. The post everything from football game announcements (with great custom graphics displaying all the information about each game) to daily photos to links to articles in the student newspaper.

At the same time, they retweet a lot from their alumni account, athletics account, emergency services account, and others -- making their feed a great source of information for OSU followers looking for pertinent information.

They find room for some fun, though. Their #ThrowbackOSU hashtag, for example, gives followers a cool glimpse into the school's history:

#ThrowbackOSU! Ohio Stadium in the 1950s via @BuckeyeHistory. #GoBucks http://pic.twitter.com/DqTErJXcdy

— OhioState (@OhioState) November 5, 2015

9) Universidad de Buenos Aires 

We love how the Universidad de Buenos Aires uses a custom graphic with a tasteful amount of text overlay for their cover photo. Notice how they optimized the text in the graphic for Twitter: Knowing the main profile photo would appear on the left side, they placed text high up on the left and lower down on the right. They also chose an image that just enough negative space -- the more, the better, as busy photos will make the text difficult to read.

They do a great job of creating custom graphics for their tweets, too. For example, the tweet below gives information on getting a graduate degree in agribusiness. There's too much information on there to fit into 140 characters, so they put the relevant text in a colorful graphic, and linked to the image in the tweet instead.

#UBA Se viene una clase abierta informativa del Director de la Maestría en #Agronegocios de @FAUBA_oficial http://pic.twitter.com/kFTVMpTnaX

— UBAonline (@UBAonline) November 6, 2015

10) Universidad del Valle de México 

The folks at Universidad del Valle de México do a lot of great things on their Twitter account, but they do three particularly well: use visuals to promote events, use hashtags effectively, and engage students. For example, the tweet below is a reminder for students to join and participate in the Wobi conference the university is hosting, whether it's by coming in person or engaging in conversation online using the official event hashtag, #WOBIUVM.

¿Estás siguiendo el evento de #Wobi? Súmate a la conversación con #WOBIUVM

— Comunidad UVM (@UVMMEXICO) November 9, 2015

11) Ruhr-Universität 

The folks at Ruhr-Universität post tweets about a wide variety of things -- especially news content curation, events happening on campus, and posts from students like videos, photos, and art projects.

Visual content drives more traffic than plain text, and they're very adept at using visuals in their tweets. The tweet below, which they pinned to the top of their profile (a great move we haven't seen from many other university), includes a beautiful video timelapse of their campus -- a topic that will appeal to any and all of the university's target audience members.

Ein Tag an der RUB im #Zeitraffer: http://bit.ly/1H0bZGI. ^sk #timelapse

— Ruhr-Universität (@ruhrunibochum) July 6, 2015

12) National University of Ireland, Galway

One clever way to use your Twitter cover photo? Use it to highlight an upcoming event. It's the first thing people see when they visit your Twitter page, making it a great opportunity to spread the word. While the cover photo above is what'll appear on NUI Galway's account on a normal day, check out the cover photo they used to promote Postgraduate Open Day

Even in the first, "normal" screenshot, though, you'll notice that the main profile photo has a little addition overlaying the main image: a heart and the words "Gaillimh 2020 Galway." Here it is up close:

That's a nod to an initiative the university heavily supports: Galway's candidacy for the 2020 bid as the European Capital of Culture, a European initiative to highlight the rich diversity of cultures all over Europe.

13) Butler University 

Butler University's Twitter account isn't just there to inform students of events, news, and other official information. It's also a source of entertainment, thanks to posts that showcase a personality college students can relate to. For example, students use emojis in their tweets all the time... so why wouldn't their universities?

😂🐶👻 http://bit.ly/1H0bZGN

— Butler University (@butleru) October 31, 2015

Here's another example of a great, witty tweet (and we applaud them for experimenting with new Twitter features):

At last, @ButlerMBB is back. Are you:

— Butler University (@butleru) October 31, 2015

14) Tufts University 

Here's another university with a cool cover photo: a collage showcasing a wide range of student activities. The collage conveys a message perfect for a liberal arts school: No matter your passion, you'll be able to pursue it there. 

Which college Twitter account is your favorite? Share with us in the comments.

http://bit.ly/1NuEsBh

How to Compete With Google: One Startup's Plan to Disrupt the #1 Search Engine in the World [Podcast]

November 13, 2015 at 12:00PM

If you were starting a business today, would you decide to go after one of the most monstrous companies in the world? 

Back in 2007, that's precisely what Gabriel Weinberg did. He founded the company DuckDuckGo -- a search engine that directly competes with Google.

Its differentiator? When you search for something using DuckDuckGo, you are completely anonymous. This function has made DuckDuckGo a true contender against Google. In fact, it's grown nearly 600% in the past year, and recently became profitable.

How do you compete with a company when their brand name has become a verb? On this episode of The Growth Show, we sat down with Gabriel, the founder of DuckDuckGo and co-author of Traction, to find out.

Some episode highlights include:

• How Gabriel found product-market fit for DuckDuckGo
• Why he decided not to enlist the help of a co-founder
• Tips on hiring your very first employee
• Insights on how upstart companies can quickly find traction 

Click the play button below to listen to this episode in your browser, or subscribe on iTunes to download episodes directly to your phone:

Check out the latest recaps of The Growth Show episodes by clicking here.

http://bit.ly/1WW6URy