Get The Knowledge – a collation of online articles by the people at Techdept. » Social Media

How 5 top brands crafted their social media voices

TechDept — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 09:00:26 +0000

Social networks are platforms for personal connection and dialogue, a reality that has proved challenging for many companies that are not used to speaking to their customers in conversational tones. As companies have established profiles on Facebook, Twitter and other social channels, many have had to develop their brand voices anew.

Mashable spoke with the figures behind some of the most compelling voices on Twitter. (Since I primarily follow media and fashion brands and their teams, my sample is a bit skewed — forgive me.) Each has taken a different path to identifying and relaying the brand voice on social networks. Some, like fashion designer and CEO Tory Burch, speak directly on behalf of their brands. Others, like DKNY and Kate Spade, have developed semi-fictional personalities that speak to the best of their brands’ traits, while still others, including Esquire andLucky magazines, have adapted their existing, “all-encompassing” editorial tones to social channels.

Here’s how they’ve accomplished it.

By Lauren Indvik for Mashable, 21 Nov 2011.

Here’s the information facebook gathers on you as you browse the web

TechDept — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:00:26 +0000

Facebook stirred up privacy concerns when it came out that its “Like” and “Share” buttons appearing all over the web actually report your visits back to Facebook servers.

Now Facebook engineering director Arturo Bejar has shared what personal information the company retains with its tracking cookies, as reported by USA Today.

When you’re logged in, Facebook will keep a timestamped list of the URLs you visit and pair it with your name, list of friends, Facebook preferences, email address, IP address, screen resolution, operating system, and browser.

By Dylan Love for Business Insider, 18 Nov 2011.

Stealth wendy’s campaign got 33,000 twitter followers in a month

TechDept — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 09:00:57 +0000

A stealth campaign for Wendy’s brought on 33,000 Twitter followers in about a month with minimal ad support, a feat that many brands haven’t been able to match over several years’ time.

The effort, which promotes a new mid-size burger called the W, revolved around a game show on Twitter using the handle@GirlBehindSix. (The six referred to the open slot on Wendy’s menu, which would be filled by the new burger.) Although Wendy’s bought a Promoted Trend for one day on Twitter to publicize the account, the only other paid promotion was an ad that ran a few places on Sixth Avenue in New York and on the 6 subway line that described @GirlBehindSix as a “140-character game show.”

By Todd Wasserman for Mashable, 15 Nov 2011.

Get app happy with HootSuite

TechDept — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:00:47 +0000

HootSuite is the new App Directory platform in the social media dashboard featuring integrations with top social content providers: YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr and Get Satisfaction. This advance release will provide HootSuite Pro andEnterprise customers with even more ways to engage social audiences.

The HootSuite App Directory provides a platform for third-party developers to integrate existing apps or build custom social applications into HootSuite. The first wave of apps includes:

Read more

By HootSuite.

17 twitter marketing tips from the pros

TechDept — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:00:43 +0000

Are you looking for fresh ideas to improve your Twitter marketing? Now’s not the time to let your Twitter marketing go stale.

Twitter has already grown more in the last 9 months than in the last 5 years and this trend is expected to continue.

How does Twitter fit into your social media marketing? Here are 17 Twitter marketing tips shared by Social Media Examiner’s writers.

By Cindy King for Social Media Examiner, 26 Oct 2011.

How to schedule tweets in tweetdeck for desktops

TechDept — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:00:40 +0000

is the most famous and commonly used twitter client for desktops. The reason being its rich features and user friendliness. This app running on Adobe air gets updated often to blend with the latest offerings in social media. The latest feature additions like scheduled tweets, Foursquare, Google Buzz etc makes it more powerful and THE best in market now.

The new scheduled tweets feature is very useful for a power tweeter who want to feed followers with content round the clock. So, how to schedule tweets in TweetDeck?

By Binoy Xavier for com pixels, 30 May 2010.

A guide to generating leads on LinkedIn

TechDept — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 09:00:01 +0000

To me, LinkedIn has always seemed like more of a place to hunt for a new gig than anything else. And since I haven’t been in the job market for a while, I’ve paid it little mind.

Plus, I’ve always thought LinkedIn was kind of … well, boring. If Facebook is a rave at a hip downtown hot spot, LinkedIn is a stuffy reception with piped-in music at one of those soulless function facilities conveniently located at the end of an exit ramp.

Does that sound harsh? For sure. But now I’ve realized that I couldn’t have been more wrong.

By Ann Handley for Entrepreneur, 06 Oct 2011.

Facebook to build a huge server farm in the arctic…because it’s cold

TechDept — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:00:15 +0000

Facebook will build its first non-U.S. server farm in Sweden on the edge of the Arctic Circle, reports the Telegraph.

Lulea, a town in Northern Sweden will be home to an enormous server farm which will use as much electricity as a town of 50,000 people. Some of that power will come from sustainable energy generated by the Lulea river, which reportedly creates more energy than the Hoover Dam.

The Local reports that the new facility, comprised of three large server halls will cost $72 million a year to upkeep. Rumors about Facebook locating in Sweden have been circulating since May.

By Nick Jardine for Business Insider, 26 Oct 2011.

Corporate logos in CSS

TechDept — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 09:00:04 +0000

Find out how to draw the twitter logo (amongst others) with no images, no JS just CSS.

Visit site

Facebook ‘may be changing brains’

TechDept — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 09:00:54 +0000

Facebook may be changing people’s brains as well as their social world, research has shown.

Scientists have found a direct link between the number of “Facebook friends” a person has and the size of specific parts of the brain.

The regions involved have roles in social interaction as well as memory and at least one is implicated in autism.

It could be that the differences seen are due to the effects of online activity on the brain.

By Google News, 27 Oct 2011.