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THREADS, by Meta

6 months after the “Musk-Twitter-restructuration” chaotic and mediatic saga, the most notorious social media group: Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg has just launched a new text-based app called Threads.
This micro-blogging platform’s first version clearly recalls Twitter’s global activity. After only 12 hours of existence, the new social media available in 100 countries already counts 30 million users.

Threads is almost a clone of Twitter.

The layout and features are very similar: Users can post, like, reply, share and quote. When the account is public, everyone can see the number of likes and replies each post has received.
The threads are limited to 500 characters (compared to 280 characters for Twitter), it can include up to 10 pictures (just like Instagram), videos up to 5 minutes long and links.

At the moment, there is no web version of this platform.

Businesswise, what can we expect from Threads ?

The project should evolve according to the user’s experiences and feedback but at this early stage, newcomers can only create a Threads profile through an existing Instagram account. There is no clue (yet) about the SEO techniques that can be applied by anyone who would like to use Threads as a business level but based on our experience, it should follow the same Instagram logic. There is no statement about the relevance of hashtags for example but there is a high chance of “keyword repetition scores” to map the accounts circles.

Instagram’s Twitter

Both Instagram and Threads are communicating very (too?) well. For example, if the Instagram user is verified (blue mark check), this person will automatically appear as verified on Threads too. It is very important to note that if the Threads user wants to delete his account, he will also have to delete his Instagram profile, both products are bonded.

Since Threads is a Meta product, without any surprise: Porn is not welcome. Their censorship levels should follow the same Instagram vague standards: About posting nudes on Threads, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram by Meta said: “Nope, same community guidelines as Instagram. We don’t have any philosophical issues with nudity, we just can’t verify age or consent unfortunately, which makes it a safety issue”.

According to the official website, Meta’s goal for this new social app is ”(…) To take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas”.
Moreover, in addition to the adult stigma issues our industry faces, some people have already raised some concerns about Thread’s privacy and data collection (including health, financial, contacts, browsing, location and purchases), which may be a reason why Threads is not yet available in countries which have strict data privacy rules.

As a response to this new competition coming, Musk ironically tweeted: “Thank goodness they’re so sanely run”.

Should I create a profile on Threads?

The digital world is evolving at a different speed, Threads is just starting but it is powered by Meta, the gigantic social media reference. It is impossible to predict which direction this fresh project will take but based on the facts and our experience, Threads offer a new channel of communication and a way for the brands (individuals and companies), to get closer to their audience.
The humanization of the business exchanges should be a priority for any sustainable sales strategy, including for example high loyalty parameters.

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Facebook Ads Suggest Slurs

In a recent update to the Facebook ad system, Facebook started suggesting other key terms that were related to the ones you entered. This was designed to help you get more bang for you buck when setting up ads. However, this seems to be back firing on them. The ads are suggesting racial and gay slurs.

So if you targeted “gay” they will also suggested faggot and sissy. Oh yes, seriously. Now Facebook made a very quick fix on this issue. But if you target “faggot” you get suggestions like sissy and cunt. But the terms are now being categorized as slang and only come up when you are targeting other slang terms.

Interestingly enough if you tag “gay” or “lesbian” you get a suggestion for the tag “white people”. Not a racial slur, but an interesting social commentary on the part of Facebook ads.

The Facebook prejudice does not stop here. You might be able to use the tag “gay” but if you say gay in your ad, it will very likely not be approved. So target your ad, jut don’t talk about it.

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Facebook (Insights) Fails…Again!

I am a geek. So I spend a lot of time pouring through data and looking at analytics. Its just what I do. If you have a Facebook page for your business or brand, you should be doing this too. Thankfully this is easily done through Facebook Insights. Insights is the reporting system for all you Facebook data. It tells you how many page views you had, who is clicking, liking, sharing. You can get age and gender demographics. How many times your story appeared in the newsfeed. How viral your content is. And a lot more. There is so much information in the downloaded excel spreadsheet that you go well into the double alphabet column. You can also view a synopsis of your Insights right on Facebook from you page. The link is on the left side menu, under your profile pic.

Normally insights is behind real time by 2 days. This is not a big deal. 2 days still gives you an accurate picture of what is happening with your page. However, for the past 2 weeks insights has pretty much been down. It has provided some spotty information, but for the most part it is not actually reporting anything useful. For a data geek like me, this has been enormously frustrating.

Thankfully, despite being quiet about it for the past few weeks, Facebook has finally admitted that they are aware of the problem and are considering it high priority.

Now, usually when their is a big FAIL on Facebook it is because they are making some changes to the site. Of course, they don’t let anyone know of any potential changes so when they drop and then the site is working again, we all get to have an “A-Ha” moment.

There is a marketing conference at the end of the month, so maybe they will be announcing some big new changes coming to the site.

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Google Plus for 13 Plus

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Is Google Plus no longer for adults?

Welcome the 13 year olds! Google Plus is trying to make themselves more competitive with Facebook. Though the social network is turning out to be more like a Twitter/Facebook hybrid, Facebook is still it’s #1 competitor and Twitter will likely remain a complimentary social network.

Until recently Google+ has been for 18 years and older. But staying and “adult” network was never in their long term plans. They recognize that teenagers are the biggest demographic, especially when it comes to new technology. But it does leave open the question of security.  Right now there is a lot of adult content on Google+…and we are happier for it. The tight laced nature of Facebook gets all of our panties in a bundle. But Google+ has been pleasantly more lenient. Will opening up the network to teenieboppers make them stricter parents? Well, time will tell

They are taking stricter precautions when it comes to who the teens will be able to circle. They are planning to limit it to teenagers only being able to circle other teenagers. Seems like a good start. Now what keeps someone from putting up a fake profile (ahem..remember Myspace)? Well, nothing that we can tell. But it is likely that they will have learned from their irrelevant social network pal (Myspace), that you do need some safeguards.

Opening up the social network will be beneficial as it will bring a wider audience to the network. Many people adopt a network after their kid have played around on it, look at Facebook. So hopefully this will be a boon for the network and not a big hit for all of us who like to keep the kiddies in the kiddie pool.

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Now Everyone will have the Facebook Timeline

The Facebook timeline has been rolling out since November to the general public. Until recently people have been given the option of it they want to upgrade their profile. If they did upgrade and didn’t like it, they could return it to the old style within 7 days. Facebook has announced that there will be no more of these shenanigans and that everyone will be upgraded automatically to the new timeline profile.

Like most updates this has Facebook users up in arms. Many people don’t like the new timeline. Though graphically it is very beautiful, it is harder to find information on it. Plus if you post a lot it is easier to get information buried.

Lets be real. No one is actually leaving Facebook. They know that they can make these changes, completely ignore feedback, and people will continue to use the network. It has become too ingrained in our online and social culture. Where Facebook will make changes is when it starts to hit their bottom line, ie. affecting businesses.

Of course many of the changes they have made over the past year have greatly affected business on Facebook for the negative but individually they were so small that we couldn’t make a fuss over it. One change that did raise everyone heckles was when FB was deciding what posts should appear on your pages timeline. It resulted in a huge outcry from the business community and prevented the change from ever making it out of the trial phase.

So despite the new roll out, people will yell and complain. You will likely see posts in all caps complaining about how horrible it all it. You will likely hear that you can revert back to the old style (which you can’t), there will be scams that supposedly let you revert your profile (don’t click those links), or apps created claiming the same thing (they are bogus). Like it or don’t like it, the timeline is here to stay.

 

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Army of Twitter Zombies

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Twitter Zombies might actually help you!

There has always been a lot of debate about weather it is good to buy followers or not. Generally the answer is no. When you buy Twitter followers you might as well be buying an army of Zombies. They won’t retweet you. They won’t talk to you. They won’t click your links. …though the might try to eat your brains.

We call these purchased followers Zombies because they might as well be zombies. They are mainly fake accounts that do nothing but boost your followers number. But that might be helpful.

To get followers you need to have followers. The more you have the easier it is to get more. So how do you get that ball rolling and does it matter is the ball starts off with fake followers?

So does it take followers to make followers? Simply, yes.

Now buying followers will not get you any real time results. You will not get clicks to your website. You will not get sales. You will not make “connections”. You will not improve your brand awareness. But you might be able to get you over that “growing” hump that can take so long. If buying followers helps legitimize your account , ironically, then it might be a good tool to help you grow your legitimate followers that will help you reach your ROI goals.

Things to think about.

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Google+ on Hootsuite? Yes, if you have the money!

Google+ Pages on HootsuiteIf you weren’t sure if you should get started with Google+, here is another reason to give it a good thought. Hootsuite has announced that they will be supporting Google+ through their platform. This means that Google+ Pages will be able to be monitored much like you monitor your Twitter accounts. However, this is only available to their Enterprise level clients. So the average Josephina will not be able to use this function yet.

The integration will likely be a big cross over point for Google+. This will allow people to increase their engagement and use Google+ more like they use Twitter. They will be able to have columns with their different circles, and will be able to interact with the posts, much like you interact with peoples tweets.

For adult entertainment you can easily categorize people in your circles by fans, pornstars, fetishes, adult sites…or however you want. But it will make interacting with other industry people much easier than it is on Facebook. Of course that is not hard to do, it is almost impossible to do it on Facebook.

This will accomplish 2 things.

1. Circles: It will encourage people to put people and pages into appropriate and topic relevant circles, as opposed to lumping them all into the “friends” circle. The increase in functionality will make browsing the content of the circles much easier to manage. Plus you will have the benefit of having the different columns to show all your circles posts simultaneously, but still categorized in easy to swallow bites.

2. Engagement: It will encourage engagement. The reason why Twitter has the highest level of engagement is because of how the information is presented. The platform is conducive to a high level of conversation. By applying the twitter platform to Google+ Pages, they are encouraging a higher level of engagement with people’s posts. This could actually be a breakthrough for Google+ Pages. Facebook pages have always been limited in the level of potential engagement, but this opens things up for the new social network.

The Hootsuite integration is a big development for Google+ Pages in the social network popularity race. Unfortunately it is only available to the “Enterprise” level clients. Those are the people paying $1500/month to use the platform. Yes, you read that right. Basically if you are a big brand or manage a large number of social media accounts, you are this level user. Maybe we will hear how playboy likes it because right now, not many other people will be using it.

The reason it is being reserved for these high level users is because it is in the beta testing period. They are running it through their power users to vet the new integration for any functionality issues. Hopefully in the near future they will open it up to the rest of us. In the mean time, we can get use to Google+ Pages and get ready for it to be more user friendly on Hootsuite!

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Shop for Porn! Harnessing Social Media for Black Friday

Sexy shopping bagBlack Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year. But does that mean that people are only shopping for their kids or parents? No. People are shopping for everything and that includes porn!

Though these tactics are mainly used in mainstream business, they are still highly relevant. On Black Friday people want to shop and you need to know how to harness that.

Here are two ways you can use social media to drive some extra sales over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Facebook

  1. Custom Landing Page
    Create a custom landing page that shows some great graphics and text to feature your Black Friday special. This is a lot easier than it sounds. You can use easy to use landing page design programs, like Lujure to do a simple drag and drop to create your page. You can also add trackable links using Google Analytics, which you can automatically add to the page, or by using link shortners like Bit.ly to track clicks back to your site.Here are what some other major retailers are doing with their landing pagesto help give you some ideas.Just like with anything adult on Facebook you have to be careful. They don’t like anything too provocative, but that does not mean you can’t have some fun. Take a look the Victorias Secret landing page. Sexy and still pushing the sale.
  2. Promote on Facebook
    If you did create a custom landing page then promote your sale by using the link to the tab. That way you can direct people to your new beautiful page to promote you sale. You can also link back to your website or anything else that will give information about your upcoming event.
  3. Facebook Ad
    Thought Facebook ads have a low click through rate they are incredibly easy to target and for even specific promotions they are perfect. If you have a physical location you can easily geo-target your ads, making sure the ads will only appear to people in your geographic location. If you are solely online, you can also target via age, gender, education and interest. Again, if you have a custom landing page, make sure that new people will automatically go there by setting it as your default place to land for new users (you can do that by going into edit info on your page, manage permissions, and then chose where you want new users to land).

Twitter

  1. Marketing Tweets
    Set up tweets that talk about your sale. Make sure to use hashtags to target your specific niche.
  2. Twitter Promo
    Even if you already have a sale event going on, you can still add a little extra to help your Twitter peeps. The tweeps love to know they are special. Give them their own promo code to use to get an extra bonus when they shop with you.
  3. Retweet Promo
    Retweets are a great tool in viral marketing. You can ask people to tweet your link out and let them know that they will receive a special discount by tweeting the link. There are a couple ways you can do that. You can either specifically ask for retweets and then DM anyone who RTs you a promo code or you can create a special trackable link to your website that will give people a special discount. The second way is easier and will need less involvement from you. Plus it is more conducive to the viral marketing process. People can promote your link, go to the page and get the promo. Plus by using a trackable link, or a specially designed page for your “twitter promo” you can track exactly how many people came to the page and get a gauge for your promo ROI.
  4. DMs
    We all hate those auto DMs that welcome people to their twitter. But DMs can be useful. If you are doing a big sale you can send DMs to your followers and let them know about the sale. If there is a a promo code, give them that as a special “twitter” gift. Though many people ignore DMs that are obviously ads, if you write it in a personable fashion you are likely to get a few bites.

Everyone is talking about everything, you just need to make sure you are harnessing the conversation to give your business a boost.

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Google+ Pages launched…still not for porn

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Today Google+ announced that they have officially launched their business Pages. This is almost exactly like Pages on Facebook except it is on Google+.  Some key differences are in SEO. These pages will be immediately indexed on Google. Meaning you will get an immediate search engine boost for you page, and therefore your website, if you have a page. You will also be able to do a search specifically for pages by adding a + sign before the company name. So 7 Veils would be + 7 Veils to search for my page (which does not exists yet).

Though some big questions about the functionality of the pages still exist, we do know that profiles will be able to add pages to profiles.  Of course if the networking is anything like Facebook, it means you will need to have a profile in order to start spreading the word about your page.

Of course, just like Facebook, the pages are not adult friendly. The big question is will they be active evangelists against porn pages. That is yet to be seen.

You might be tempted to run out and start your own page right now, and definitely give this a try. But the registration is not yet open for everyone, and that has nothing to do with porn. They are doing roll outs, but we don’t know how long it is going to take them to roll them out to everyone.

Because of the huge SEO boost, I would recommend putting up a page on Google+. Maybe it gets deleted, maybe not. You will get a nice SEO boost, at least for a while. Work your options while they are still options!

 

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