Mediaboss Marketing

Reggie Bradford is the founder and CEO of Vitrue, the leading provider of social marketing software, offering SaaS solutions to help brands and agencies harness the marketing-communications potential of social media on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social communities. Follow Reggie on Twitter @ReggieBradford and Vitrue @Vitrue.

Facebook unveiled its much-anticipated new Timeline Pages Wednesday, giving marketers a glimpse of what lies ahead as the feature rolls out over the next few months.

[More from Mashable: Timeline for Brands: How to Prepare for Your Companys New Facebook Page]

Weve already experienced what Timeline means for consumers: a visual, multimedia chronological history of you. And it will be similar for brands: a dynamic new destination that will allow companies to present a visual treasure trove of stories, events and fan interactions.

[More from Mashable: Facebook Timeline Brand Pages Are Here [PICS]]

The Timeline Page feature does represent a significant improvement over the previous Page format. Not to mention, it creates a new opportunity for potential consumers to spend more time exploring brand Pages on Facebook.

But amidst the buzz of Facebook's new Pages, we should not lose focus on something that hasnt changed: the power and importance of the News Feed.

Providing relevant, interactive and valuable content via the News Feed is the number-one priority for consumer engagement. And with Facebooks recent EdgeRank changes, creating this type of content is more critical than ever in order to gain exposure on News Feeds.

Why is the News Feed where engagement happens? Because thats where consumers spend most of their time. Dont believe me? Consider your own Facebook behavior. Need some real-data proof? Our research shows that the News Feed is 110-times more engaging than other features.

However, the importance of News Feed shouldn't downplay the importance of new Facebook Pages. The Timeline Page format is a fantastic new feature for brands, a showcase for conveying information that should, if done well, get consumers more invested in your story, your history, your products and your success.

Read more:
Facebook Marketing: Why News Feed Still Trumps Timeline Pages

NEW YORK, Feb. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Hearsay Social, provider of the leading enterprise social marketing platform, today announced Hearsay Social for Facebook Pages Brand Timeline, which delivers full integration and support for the new Facebook Page redesign launched today at fMC, the Facebook Marketing Conference in New York. All Hearsay Social customers can now tell their brand story with cover photos, pinning and starring of promotional content to their timeline, and corporate/local Facebook Page campaigns, all while ensuring brand protection and regulatory compliance.

Integrated into the Hearsay Social platform, Hearsay Social Campaign & Page Management now includes Hearsay Social for Facebook Pages Brand Timeline, providing a complete solution for marketers to execute and manage social campaigns. With this release, marketers can distribute posts, cover photos, apps, ads, and integrated campaigns to corporate pages, regional pages, and individual employee profiles and social pages. Marketers can easily manage thousands of apps and posts per day and offer engaging content to employees, stores, or branches.

"We are pleased to announce Hearsay Social for Facebook Pages Brand Timeline. Businesses have realized the power of social media, and the combination of Facebook Pages and Hearsay Social empowers brands everywhere," said Hearsay Social CEO Clara Shih. "Friends will be able to share experiences and feelings about brands with each other on the new pages. With Hearsay Social, companies will be able to manage social interactions with their customers at scale, even if there are thousands of Facebook pages associated with their brand."

"And Hearsay Social is still the only vendor offering complete compliance and full marketing capabilities for all the major networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+."

Hearsay Social has a huge content library that makes it easy for customers to engage on social media effectively. Customers can, for instance, simply use a template to generate a social campaign or they can click on a marketing campaign and distribute it to users in the field, who then add content, personalize it, and post it on their own Facebook Pages.

Social marketers who want to do a deeper dive on the new Facebook Pages redesign are invited to download The New Facebook Pages Brand Timeline: Everything You Need to Know, a free guide that elaborates on the five rules of cover photos, tips for humanizing your brand timeline, and other best practices for marketing on the world's largest social network.

About the Hearsay Social Platform

The Hearsay Social platform delivers enterprise-class scale, reliability, security, and complete compliance for enterprises on social media. Today, tens of thousands of advisors, agents, local representatives, and franchisees rely on the Hearsay Social platform to engage in compliant social conversations with over five million customers. The Hearsay Social platform is the only comprehensive platform that both protects and empowers on every social network and at every level of the organization, from firm to business unit to individual employee.

About Hearsay Social

Read more here:
Hearsay Social for Facebook® Pages Brand Timeline Unveiled

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f6621b/social_media_marke) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers" to their offering.

Teaching Photographers How to Use Social Media to Grow Their Businesses

With the rapid rise of both digital photography and social media, amateur photographers can now turn what was once a hobby into a thriving business. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Flickr offer loads of exciting marketing opportunities. This practical guide from a well-respected professional photographer shows you how to take advantage of social media to grow a profitable photography business. If you've been wondering which social media sites to use, how to use them, how often to use them, and more, this book is for you.

In addition to the powerful strategies, interviews were conducted with thought leaders in the photo industry -- Kenny Kim, Zach and Jody Gray, Jerry Ghionis, Becker, Jasmine Star, Catherine Hall, and Grace Ormonde -- to provide you with all-star tips and tricks.

Whether you're just starting a professional photography business or are a seasoned pro looking for good advice on using social media to promote yourself, Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers is the book you need.

Key Topics Covered:

Author:

Lawrence Chan is a wildly popular wedding and portrait photographer, blogger, and marketing strategist. He also provides marketing and business management advice to photographers through his website.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f6621b/social_media_marke

Here is the original post:
Research and Markets: Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers

28-02-2012 07:56 Get a primer of the new social media kid on the block, PINTEREST and why in addition to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn - it is must have for the TV industry. Get our official Oscars debriefing which includes the ratings and J Lo's "nip slip". And see why TV Guide Network is the hot potato of TV networks. Visit The TV News at thetvnews.tv

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Of New Social Marketing PINTEREST. TV Industry News 2.28.12 - Video

Summary: The merger will combine SMB search marketing, social marketing, email and public-relations services into one platform by late 2012.

And so it begins. One of the key tips that I discussed on last weeks Small Business Matters webcast (10 Online Marketing Tips for Small Business) was pretty simple, Keep things integrated.

So, it was with interest that I read today about cloud marketing and public relations software company Vocus plans to pay $169 million to buy iContact, which offers an integrated email and social media marketing application that is hosted in the cloud.

The reason I think this is extremely interesting is that tools such as iContact (and Constant Contact and HubSpot) really speak to the need to keep things simple. Social media can be a time-suck, so the extent to which small-business owners can keep things better integrated, all the better. Anyway, I speculated out loud that we would see some consolidation in this space. Lo and behold.

Under the deal, Vocus plans to buy iContact for $91 million in cash, $9 million in common stock, and $79 million in redeemable convertible preferred stock. The iContact technology will allow Vocus to extend add email and social media management to the Vocus service, which focuses on search marketing and social marketing.

The iContact platform is supposed to be integrated into the Vocus offering late in 2010; at that time, iContacts roughly 70,000 customers will have the option of keeping their standalone product subscription or upgrading to an even more integrated SMB marketing suite.

iContact has been around since 2003, when it was founded by two students from the University of North Carolina, Ryan Allis and Aaron Houghton. It is based in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Vocus has its headquarters in Beltsville, Md.

Related stories:

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

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SMB online marketing marriage: Vocus pays $169M for iContact