Well social media folks, here comes the end of another week. Here’s a rundown of some important stuff that happened this past week in the world of social media.

Gap Asks Facebook Fans for Alternative Designs to Derided New Logo
Did anyone hear about this incident this past week? Popular clothing maker Gap decided to change their logo for what they called a “a more contemporary, modern expression.” Well, contemporary and modern aside, the social media community exploded with backlash over the new logo. When the company saw how terribly the new logo was received, they’ve opened up Facebook as a means for finding a new one. A great story on how social media affects businesses every day.

7 Resources for Handling Digital Life After Death
So you’ve got your Facebook page running smoothly as well as your Twitter, Linked In, and other social media sites. Well what happens when you die? Does the content simply sit… forever? These 7 tools aim to answer this question.

Build the Perfect Blog Audience for You
If you’re a business and you have a blog, you should be keeping it fresh, updated, and relevant to your clients/readers. Here’s some tips that are often easily forgotten when it comes to blogging.

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Here are some new interesting facts about Twitter from Mashable and Twitter, including how they’re getting 300k new users daily, and how they’re working to make Twitter more prolific and easier to use, as well as well as expanding on the mobile platform.

Twitter Surpasses 145 Million Registered Users. (Mashable)

The Evolving Ecosystem. (Twitter)

via Mashable, and Twitter.

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This week, Twitter introduced “Promoted Tweets” as a new way for businesses to advertise on the popular microblogging sites. Utilizing the same model as Google AdWords, Promoted Tweets will allow a business to pay for their selected tweet to be shown at the top of a search result page.  Currently this program is in the trial stages with only a few businesses (such as Virgin America and Best Buy) participating at this time.

How Does the Promoted Tweets Program Work?

A company or brand will write a tweet and mark it “promoted”.  Then using a payment process that has yet to be defined publicly, an amount will be paid and search keywords will be added.  When a Twitter user searches for one of the supplied keywords, the tweet will be at the top of the list before any non-paid tweets.

How Long Will a Promoted Tweet be Featured?

Details are a little bit hazy on this part of the program, but Twitter has said that quality and “resonance” of ads will be considered.  The better the quality of the ad, the longer it will be featured.  Once the tweet no longer resonates with a certain number of Twitter users, the tweet may become a regular tweet and enter the Twitter stream.

What Are the Benefits of Using Promoted Tweets?

The largest benefit is that your tweet will not immediately disappear into the vastness of Twitter.  Tweets on popular subjects sometime spend less than a minute on the front search page for that term.  Using Promoted Tweets means your tweet will be there when a user searches for your keyword.

What Are the Disadvantages of Using Promoted Tweets?

It seems that Twitter still has a lot of details to hash out, so it’s hard to answer this question definitively.  One reason that social media marketing works is because it connects the customer directly to the company or brand. Promoted Tweets does not seem like it will be a valid substitute for actually interacting with your customer base.

There is also a growing backlash of the Twitter community claiming that this program is counter to the spirit of Twitter where every user is even. However, controversy when a new ad program begins is not a new phenomenon.  Google AdWords and Facebook Ads both had resistance from users which has all but disappeared after implementation.

While it is still somewhat unclear how beneficial Promoted Tweets will be to businesses in the long run, it is an interesting new offering from Twitter.  If it is embraced by the users and done tastefully, Promoted Tweets will create additional interaction and engagement with current customers and enlarge a company’s customer base.

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Have ever thought to yourself, “I wonder just how many messages have been posted on Twitter?” Me neither, but in case you ever find yourself in a situation where your life depends on answering that question correctly (+/- 1 billion) you could check out GigaTweet. At the time of this entry the number is very quickly approaching 6 billion tweets. Do your part and retweet.

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Twitter can be overwhelming. And depending on how many people you are following, it is very easy to get lost in a constant stream of updates. Enter… Twitter For Busy People. This website allows visitors to enter their Twitter username (or anyone else’s for that matter) without a password, and it will load the thumnails of all of your tweeps. Then you can just quickly hover your cursor over of the photos of the people you are most interested in hearing from to see their most recent updates. I found it the web site to be refreshingly simple, with clear instructions. Try it out for yourself.

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Beware there is a new scam going around on Twitter. It starts with a message that says, “omg!! is it true what they wrote about you in their twit blog?” The message comes with a link to a web site at www.twittersblogs.com which looks exactly like the twitter home page. Then users are asked to enter their username and password. If you submit that information then they use your account to send the same message to people you know or are following, and from there the scam continues.

Unfortunately, as Twitter grows, so does the number of phishing scams. No one is safe, so guard your information carefully, and change your password often.

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The Social Media sphere has been abuzz with anticipation since word got out that Facebook would finally allow what many felt was an intuitive feature that was lacking on their site. Beginning at 9:00 pm PST on June 12th, Facebook began allowing the individuals to register vanity/custom URLs. Meaning that guy you once knew as http://www.facebook.com/pages/001234 is now simply http://www.facebook.com/joe. Apparently, over one million URLs were claimed within the first hour.

Of course, if you already use Twitter, you appreciate the fact that vanity URLs, or usernames, make it so much easier to find the businesses or individuals you want to follow. If you have not already registered your URL, I suggest you join the gold rush and do so now – especially if you are a brand owner or brand manager.

How do I get one?

There’s a couple of ways to register:

1. When you are logged into Facebook, you will see a box at the top of the page with an invitation to set a username for your Facebook account.

   

2. Go to http://www.facebook.com/username and then login

Once you are logged in Facebook gives suggestions for usernames based on your name, but you can also suggest a username. Then check the username for availability (you may have to get creative with your name), and register it.

Facebook has made provisions to protect trademarked names, I suppose in an attempt to protect against “squatting”. If you find that you registered trademark is already gone, you can visit this page to reclaim it.

Also, worth noting is the fact that if you signed up for Facebook after June 9th, 2009, you will not qualify to set up a vanity URL. But you will qualify in the “near future.” I have a feeling its going to be a while.

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Are you Linked In to what’s happening in the Twitterverse today? Let’s face it, communication has never been faster, easier or more affordable. With the click of a mouse or th flick of a finger you are immersed in a constant stream of information. That space that you once had to yourself is now shared with millions, worldwide. People who freely blog about your product or service. Some see this as a scary thing, but you see this as an opportunity to get the word out and turn strangers into FANS and fans into loyal customers.

YourSocialMedia.com is an initiative by Wilson Monnig Creative to help businesses understand the effectiveness of the different social media tools available to them, and integrate them into their marketing plans.

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