Brands

September 7,2017ByDAVID VEGA

No one is using Facebook stories, so Facebook is borrowing Instagram’s – Post your story to both places at once.

Brands

Facebook has apparently found a new approach to giving its Stories feature a much-needed shot in the arm: soon you’ll be able to just double-post your Instagram stories to Facebook directly from the Instagram app. As Mashable reports, some Instagram users are already seeing an option to simultaneously share their image or video story to Facebook just before uploading to Instagram. In Facebook, they’ll appear in the Stories section as though you’d actually created them there, but you’ll know that those stories actually originated from Instagram because they’re denoted with an “Instagram” label beneath the user’s name. This whole experiment sounds rather desperate and sad, but it also shows how badly Facebook has so far failed at making Stories a success within the company’s principal app. If you’re like me, the Stories row at the top of Facebook’s mobile app is probably a barren desert of zero activity. None of my friends and family are using the feature. No one posts anything. It’s just a series of grayed out profile photo circles. There’s nothing to see here. There never is. Stories have caught fire across Snapchat and Instagram. I probably post something to my Instagram story at least once a day. But Facebook’s attempt to integrate them into its core app has completely bombed (despite prominent placement) and just isn’t clicking with users. The company has added new features and confirmed that stories are coming to the desktop, but nothing so far has worked. In that way, turning to Instagram Stories, which is used by 250 million people daily, to fix its own engagement problem shows that Facebook is already hitting a point of despair. Yes, you can already publish content that you post to your main Instagram feed to multiple other social networks, but if Stories had taken off like Facebook really wanted, this fallback probably wouldn’t have been needed. It’s also the most blatant example of Instagram adding a feature expressly for Facebook’s benefit in a long time; from a user-facing perspective, Instagram has done an admirable job keeping a line of separation with its parent company. This is just a test for now so it might turn out that Instagram doesn’t roll out the ability to export stories to Facebook for everyone. But the lucrative advertising opportunity that stories present is too good for Facebook to just say “well, maybe people don’t want this feature in every app” and accept failure. The company is going to keep trying and trying until something lights the spark. Author: Chris Welch...

August 21,2017ByDAVID VEGA

How To Use Facebook Cover Videos on Your Brand’s Page

Brands

Facebook has rolled out yet another new feature – Cover Videos. Cover Videos, like their still counterparts, Cover Photos, create a valuable venue for your brand to showcase its unique identity and promote your message. However, videos create a much stronger impact and result in more engagement than images and other forms of content. As we fleshed out in previous blog post, now it is more crucial than ever for brands to start incorporating videos into their content marketing and social strategies. Facebook Cover Videos provide yet another space for brands to do this. Here is how to use them strategically to get the most of your 20-90 seconds. 1. SETTING YOUR COVER VIDEO Simply click-over the Change Cover icon and select whether you want to Choose from Videos or Upload a new file from your computer. Facebook suggests you keep it within 820 x 312 pixels. Eligible videos are between 20-90 seconds and will pause after the first play. If you want it to be shorter or repeat automatically, just make your video a loop before you upload. 2. MAKE SURE YOUR FACEBOOK COVER VIDEO ACTUALLY WORKS First and foremost, you need to make sure the video plays on your Facebook page. Sorry if this sounds too obvious, but it is so important to double-check the functionality when a feature is new or in beta. Even giants like Facebook are not immune to mistakes. Cover Videos were only released in late April of this year, so they are still working out some kinks. Lots of brands have been experiencing issues with the playback, even as late as in August, so always keep your eye out for errors. 3. CHOOSE A COVER VIDEO THAT COMMUNICATES YOUR BRAND’S MESSAGE Your Cover Video is meant to help your business tell more of its story. But since you only get up to 90 seconds, keep it simple. Make it an anecdote, not a novel. Additionally, videos play without sound by default so make sure it’s strong enough to stand on its own. If you can’t find a way to effectively communicate your brand’s message, then hold off on the cover video. Content is a matter of quality over quantity. Don’t choose a video for the sake of filling space; choose one that satisfies your marketing goals. 4. USE YOUR COVER VIDEO TO PROMOTE A CAMPAIGN As the first thing a user sees on your Facebook profile, your cover photos sets the tone of your brand’s page. Use this to your advantage by rotating your cover videos according to specific campaigns. Videos play instantly as soon as a visitor enters your page, so they can’t miss it. A campaign specific video at the top of your page increases your reach and furthers your campaign goals. Changing the video regularly will also help keep returning users engaged. 5. TRACK YOUR RESULTS We believe that the best marketers are data-addicted. You should always be tracking and reporting your page traffic and engagement metrics so you can learn from the results and optimize your strategy. Use the Facebook Page Insights to find out this information. Ask yourself: how many views has my Cover Video Received? Have my Page Views increased or decreased since implementing? Did this result in more Page Likes or more Actions on Page? Are users Engaging more with other content from your page? Adjust until you’ve found a video or strategy that works from a marketing standpoint. NEED SOME HELP WITH YOUR BRAND’S SOCIAL STRATEGY? GET IN TOUCH WITH OUR TEAM FOR A FREE AUDIT and SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT PLANS. #Chicago #Jacksonville Tridence – Social Media and Web Development...

August 8,2017ByDAVID VEGA

International college soccer tournament coming to S.A. for next five years

Brands . social media

Photo: Justin Meyer / San Antonio Express-News Local government and sports officials stand with World Collegiate Soccer Championship (WCSC) executives, during a press conference at San Antonio City Council chambers on Aug. 7, 2017, in San Antonio, Texas. San Antonio will host the (WCSC) revival in March 2018, the first of five years the city has pledged to house the tournament, after a 26-year hiatus. The championship will include men’s teams from eight countries, with confirmed participation from Spain, Turkey, Switzerland, Japan, and Mexico. Invitations have been sent to Canada, the NAIA and NCAA. Eight teams ultimately will be chosen for the 2018 edition and be crowned champions hosting the Prof. Julio Mazzei Trophy. Comalander Stadium and Heroes Stadium will be the tournament’s venues, with Heroes hosting the final. Additionally, the stadiums will have the World Pre-Collegiate Soccer Championship Showcase and World Collegiate Club Championship Showcase, which San Antonio Sports expects to attract a total of more than 340 teams. “We look forward to many years of partnering with San Antonio Sports and the city of San Antonio, as well as welcoming many visitors to the state of Texas,” said Robert Azar, executive director of the World Collegiate Soccer Championship, in a statement. Visit San Antonio and the San Antonio Tourism Council were also involved in the effort to bring the championship event to the Alamo City. The 2018 matches will be part of the city’s official Tricentennial celebration. The tournament is projected to produce more than $13 million in annual economic impact for the Greater San Antonio area, according to a study done by Steven R. Nivin Economic Research & Consulting. Beyond the financial gains, president and CEO of San Antonio Sports Russ Bookbinder said “the WCSC will give the city another notch on its soccer resume, which will be crucial when the time comes for bigger Bids”, which may include future Bids for a possible MLS team and being part of the multi-country 2026 World Cup bid. By: David Vega, Owner of Tridence & WCSC Social Media Director...

July 28,2017ByDAVID VEGA

SAYING GOODBYE TO IPOD, THANKS FOR ALL THE TUNES

Brands . social media

Today officially marks the end of Apple’s era of standalone music players. After nearly 16 years on the market, Apple quietly pulled the iPod Nano out of its virtual stores today. The iPods were with a full generation of users like myself. Some could argue that the iPod killed the album, making playlists and the Shuffle Mode primary methods of listening. Not too mention, It definitely helped kill the paid-for music industry. Who can remember Apple first iPod commercial in (2001): Aww, the memories. More likely, you’ll just stick with your phone, which represents the present and future of how you and we listen to music. So good bye my little nano as you meet the Walkman in the afterlife. David Vega, Jacksonville, FL. | Chicago, IL....

July 24,2017ByDAVID VEGA

A Brand New Editor for the WordPress Mobile Apps

Brands

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July 21,2017ByDAVID VEGA

McDonald’s Apparel Is Here

Brands . social media

McDonald’s Apparel Is Here, So Make Room in Your Closet Next to Your KFC and Pizza Hut Swag Wear the fries you’re jogging for Joining brands like Pizza Hut and KFC, McDonald’s is unveiling its own line of apparel and goods: The McDelivery Collection, in celebration of Global Delivery Day on July 26. The collection is available via the UberEATS app in select countries. And while it’s a limited-edition set, don’t expect to find anything as vainglorious as a burger-shaped meteorite (à la KFC). Items include a World Famous Fries jogging suit, a Big Mac onesie—wonderful for ironic winks back to youth, though unclear whether it has a handy butt flap—and slippers that read “World Famous.” The items have been artful if redundantly, staged alongside the food that inspired them. Better yet, they’re free—for a limited time. “At McDonald’s, we continue to raise the bar for our customers—with new recipes, a fresher look, and now new levels of convenience through McDelivery with UberEATS,” McDonald’s spokesperson Lauren Altmin tells AdFreak. “To celebrate, we created the McDelivery Collection, a fun line of items designed to help people savor the delivery experience, whether they’re craving a Big Mac snuggled up on their couch or sharing some fries with friends in the park.” McDonald’s actually created a line of Big Mac merch back in 2015. But the McDelivery Collection explores more menu items and more types of products. If your closet’s already packed with tributes to your food brands of choice, there are picnic blankets and food-porny pillowcases! (Still less creepy than sleeping with the Colonel, though.) Other non-apparel items include a McNugget Dunker, which looks … dangerous. (How does it combat gravity?) On July 26 only, fans can score a single McDelivery Collection item on-demand, delivered with their UberEATS orders. Participating cities around the world will be unveiled on July 25 on McDeliveryatMcDonalds.com. And if you’re lucky enough to live in China or Japan, you might even be able to get them in-store! Check out more shots of the collection below. Author: Angela Natividad (contributor to Adweek). ...

July 19,2017ByDAVID VEGA

FACEBOOK MESSENGER MARKETING FOR BRANDS with ENGAGEMENT

Brands . social media

Summary: Introducing Messenger As an Ad Destination. Messenger is an amazing tool for brands to communicate with their customers. There is no doubt Email open rates have been on a steady decline the past few years. All while FB Messenger users are on the rise. The benefits using this new tool is you can broadcast specific messages to a specific segment within your Messenger audience by demographics already build in (tags, gender, location and other customized fields). So, if you’re a social media marketing manager and you help brands grow and engage their audience online, now you have another weapon in your arsenal. Messenger is an amazing tool for brands to communicate with their customers with a personal approach. ~ Tridence Make it Easy to get in Touch With Your Business Messenger gives your business a fast and convenient way for people to get in touch to schedule appointments, ask questions about your products and services and more. And it allows you to build personal connections with your customers. Now, you can create a Facebook News Feed ad that opens a Messenger conversation between your business and your prospective customer. Create an Ad How it Works When a person clicks or taps on your ad in News Feed, a conversation with your business will immediately open in the Messenger app (if the person is on a mobile device) or on the web (if the person is on a desktop computer). People can return to this message conversation at any time on any device with Messenger installed to continue the conversation. Promote Your New Offerings Use your ad to promote new or seasonal offerings and engage your customers in a personal real-time conversation. Tip: Use a greeting message, that people will see when the Messenger conversation opens, to start a conversation with your customers and let them know when to expect a response from you. Offer a Discount Use News Feed ads that open a Messenger conversation as a unique way to provide a coupon code and a personalized experience for your customers. Tip: Save time by using saved replies for the common questions you answer such as store hours or location. Saved replies are templates of messages you can create and save and then reuse when responding to your Page’s messages. Get Started Go to ads creation in Ads Manager or Power Editor Choose Traffic or Conversions objective (Note: Traffic may appear as Send people to your website for some advertisers) Choose your campaign name and click Continue Choose your audience, budget, and placement. Note: You cannot use Instagram as a placement option when selecting Messenger as a destination At the ad level, choose your format. You can choose Carousel, Single Image, Single Video or Slideshowformat Choose the Page you want to connect Choose Messenger as your destination Choose a welcome message. When people click on your ad, they will automatically be directed to Messenger and receive a copy of your ad and the welcome message. After you’ve reviewed your ad, click Place Order Keep in mind: Your ad to open conversations in Messenger won’t appear to people on mobile who don’t have the Messenger app. ~ Tridence...

July 13,2017ByDAVID VEGA

Content Marketing Myths That Businesses Need To Stop Believing

Brands

There is a lot of information out there that can help businesses to set realistic expectations for themselves when they first start content marketing. Unfortunately, most businesses don’t take the time to truly learn about what they can expect when they first start publishing content, how long it can potentially take to see positive results, and how much time they can expect to put into the creation of that content. If you’re one of those company’s that are venturing into content marketing for the quick payoff, then I’d recommend spending your time on another marketing medium. Tactics like PPC and email marketing are much better at driving immediate results than content marketing. But when done correctly, content marketing can be a game changer. So, if you are going to venture into the content marketing arena, make sure you don’t buy into these common expectations. Creating Top Tier Content is Easy I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but coming into content marketing with no experience and setting the expectation of creating “amazing” content is a bit of a stretch. That’s not to say that your business shouldn’t strive to create strong content, as that is what will ultimately drive your returns. However, you must know that creating great content is a process. It starts with finding great writers, graphic designers, and video producers. As with any working relationship, figuring out what works for your company could take some time. You may find that the people that you chose to work with were not a good fit for one reason or another, and have to go back to the drawing board in some regard. Instead of focusing on creating a new “top tier” blog post every single day, most companies would be better off taking their time in the creation process and spending a lot more time promoting their content. Too many businesses get into content marketing and get bogged down in the creation process. It starts with finding great writers, graphic designers, and video producers. As with any working relationship, figuring out what works for your company could take some time. You may find that the people that you chose to work with were not a good fit for one reason or another, and have to go back to the drawing board in some regard. Instead of focusing on creating a new “top tier” blog post every single day, most companies would be better off taking their time in the creation process and spending a lot more time promoting their content. Too many businesses get into content marketing and get bogged down in the creation process. More Content Marketing, More Reach Many companies still have older SEO practices ingrained into their minds and figure that the more content that they are able to produce, the larger their reach will be. While this is true in some cases, sacrificing quality for quantity is actually going to hinder your content marketing efforts. Don’t push out content on a daily basis just for the sake of doing it. One blog post that reaches 100,000 people is always going to be more valuable than 100 blog posts that reach 1,000 people each. The best advice that I can give to businesses that are new to content marketing is to slow down and plan. Often, a blog post can be improved upon if you spend a little extra time researching the audience and the way they are searching for information. This could lead you to tweak a headline or add some content, which in the end could end up providing you with thousands of more eyeballs discovering you via the search engines. Finding Great Writers is Easy and Inexpensive A lot of businesses have unrealistic expectations regarding what they need to spend to produce great content. They find content mills, low-cost freelancers, and content production companies and automatically assume that they represent the price range for all content. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. If you want someone to invest their time into producing professional-level content for your content marketing campaigns, you need to pay them accordingly. Lots of businesses will find a low-cost writer who is able to produce some impressive pieces initially but find that their quality quickly drops off. When you don’t pay people professional rates, it’s hard to keep their attention. They don’t feel the loyalty from you and in return, they won’t be willing to give it back. When you pay low rates, you’ll cycle through writers who don’t know how to market themselves well enough to command higher rates and in turn are jumping from one job to the next, trying to climb the rating ladder. With content production, like many other aspects of business and marketing, you really do get out of it what you put into it. Thus, if you’re looking for a bargain, you’re probably going to get bargain basement content in return. It’s Best to Keep Content On Your Own Website It does make sense to post content on your own website. You want to give people a reason to visit. However, some of the most successful blog posts that I’ve ever written were guest posts and content posted on other sources. You’ll find that splitting your content among sources will almost always have a much larger impact and simply be dumping every article onto your blog and waiting for the visits to start rolling in. There will always be bigger brands than your own out there. There is nothing wrong with, and in fact, you should try to have your content featured on those larger brands. It exposes you to a new audience, attracts clients, and helps you to secure new opportunities. Content Marketing Drives Revenue Quickly Content marketing is a long game. You certainly won’t see the type of results that you hope to achieve overnight. When working with companies that are just getting started with content marketing, I often suggest that they spend just as much time promoting new content as they do create...

June 21,2017ByDAVID VEGA

Periscope launching ‘Super Hearts’ as a way to tip broadcasters.

Brands . social media

Periscope is rolling out a new update to the live broadcasting app that lets you tip broadcasters as a way to support their work. The new tipping feature is included in with new ‘Super Hearts’, which viewers can purchase then send to broadcasters during a live stream. In return, broadcasters can cash out Super Hearts monthly as a new revenue stream. By using Super Hearts, Periscope is blending what is essentially paying broadcasters voluntarily with an element of the app that already exists: likes as hearts. During a live broadcast, tapping the screen already sends hearts to show broadcasters that you like what you see. The new Super Hearts feature will be a separate mode that viewers can use during a broadcast with different Super Hearts equalling a different value. A new leaderboard will also show broadcasters which viewers sent the most during a livestream. Here’s Periscope on how to use the new Super Hearts feature: Enter a live broadcast in which the broadcaster accepts Super Hearts. Tap on the Super Hearts icon next to the chat field. If you haven’t purchased coins, tap Get Coins. Once you’ve purchased a coin package, tap Back to Hearts to select which type of Super Heart you’d like to give. Please note that your coin value (shown next to your profile photo) must match or exceed the coin value of the Super Heart you choose. Tap Done (iOS) or down caret (Android) to go back to the broadcast. Tap the screen to give Super Hearts. The new Super Hearts program is only available in the US to start, but Periscope says it will gradually expand around the world soon. Super Hearts are available on both iOS and Android. Tridence Facebook Page Author: Zac Hall...

June 13,2017ByDAVID VEGA

What Is the New Archive Feature in Google Photos?

Brands . social media

If you’re a Google Photos user, you’ve may have seen a new feature called “Archive” show up in the app’s sidebar. if not, don’t stress—it’s just now rolling out and not everyone has it yet. Since it’s new, here’s a quick look at what it is, why you want it, and how to use it. In short, this is a way to keep your Photos more organized—it’s really not that different than archiving emails in Gmail. You can archive photos that you don’t want in your main stream, but still keep them stored online. They’ll still show up in search, as well as in any albums you may have them in. It’s simply a way to keep things clean and clutter-free in Google Photos. Using it is just as simple. This should work the same way on both Android and iOS. Go ahead and fire up Photos. To make sure you have the feature, pull open the left side menu, and look for “Archive.” You can tap it if you’d like, but there won’t be anything there since you likely haven’t archived anything yet. To start archiving photos you’d like to keep out of your stream, go ahead and long-press one, then select any others you’d like to add. Tap the three dots in the top right corner, then choose “Archive.” Just like that, they’ll disappear from the main Photos view and be moved to the Archive section. Super simple. Once you’ve archived the first few photos, a new option should also appear under the Assistant tab that allows you to “Clear the Clutter.” This may not show up immediately, but you should receive a notification when it’s ready. Basically, this is a sort of “smart” archive feature that will pick things you may not want to keep in the main view—screenshots, receipts, etc. Tap “Review Suggestions” to take a closer look. Everything is pre-selected and ready to be archived as soon as you open this view, but feel free to scroll through and make sure you’re cool with all this stuff being hidden. After you review everything, just give the “Archive” button in the top right a tap. Poof! Just like that, a bunch of clutter is gone. If you ever archive a photo and realize that you want it back in your main feed, go ahead and jump into the Archive screen, long press the photo, tap the three dots in the top right, and choose “Unarchive.” It’s almost like that makes sense. Author: By Cameron Summerson on June 13th, 2017 Facebook Page: Tridence...