Social Media & SEO

82% of people actively engage with brands on Twitter, so they want to hear from brands, says Nina Mishkin, brand and content strategy lead at Twitter. Brands, with their understanding of the flow of cultural conversations on Twitter, combine organic conversation with promoted messages in their strategy so they know when to pull the levers.

Twitter may have a simple interface compared to other social platforms, but there’s still an awful lot of tact that needs to go into composing a comprehensive message in 240 characters or fewer. When your brand finds itself in the throes of a crisis, that tact can salvage and enhance your brand’s reputation.

If the company’s primary goal was to raise awareness of its expanded menu through the campaign, it certainly succeeded. But cheeky campaign aside, the franchise is still known a pancake destination.

And since a short stack is typically made up of three pancakes, we thought we’d serve up three lessons communications professionals can take away from the campaign.

June is Pride month, in which members of the LGBTQ community worldwide celebrate their identity and their right to live their life openly and love whom they choose. With the increase in social acceptance, more and more brands are throwing their support behind LGBTQ causes, not just through verbal support but through monetary donations as well.

You could feel the tension rising in the air, knocking out the aroma of coffee beans and herbal tea. Nancy had ordered a decaf-caf skim latte and the barista seemingly got it wrong. She stormed… Continued

On average, podcast listeners tune in to 11 hours of podcasts a week, according to Jason Hoch of HowStuffWorks.com (which of course has its own podcast). So, it’s no wonder companies around the world are jumping on board.

It’s always better to catch a potential crisis when it’s on the horizon rather than having to clean up the inevitable mess once the crisis hits. Sometimes, however, a crisis is inevitable. In those instances, says John Young, social business advisor at Southwest Airlines, having a real-time crisis strategy across departments is key.

It’s far from a secret that Instagram is a visual channel. Still, some communicators use color palettes, grid layouts and themes to boost engagement on their Instagram feeds. For apartments.com AVP of social media Erica Campbell Byrum, color choice and layout are critical to crafting an Instagram personality that consumers will recognize and engage with at high rates.

Much of the platform’s effectiveness at gauging key personal insights is now contingent on users opting in to have that information shared. By assuming that users will consciously share any of their personal information with advertisers once they are given the keys to the gate, Facebook takes a huge risk, one that could alter the industry-leading effectiveness of its insights.

Type any word into Google followed by the word “video” and you’ll see a number of YouTube links load at the top of your browser. That’s because YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine next to parent company Google. And as such, it’s a crucial tool for communicators to leverage in their search engine optimization efforts, says Nati Katz, director of global agency Burson-Marsteller’s technology practice.