Showing posts with label Dan Zarrella. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dan Zarrella. Show all posts
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
About Face/s - Instagram Revelations
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Picture This
If you thought your Facebook posts that contained an image were working more effectively than the common 'garden' text-only variety, then you are probably right.
As the chart above from Dan Zarrella clearly demonstrates, posts with photos perform far better when it comes to engagement.Wwhereas text posts have been on a constant decline these past four years.
And if you have gone to all trouble of producing a video to entice a response you might want to think again, as they too are nowhere near as effective as photos.
Dan's earlier analysis of 'Selfies' also gives some pointers as to what types of image attract people most. For example, cool colour such as blues and greens elicit more 'Likes' than warmer colours. Great news if your are a martian!
A little bit of self promotion using the tag #pretty also seems to help as does #NoFilter.
Time to get out the camera!
Friday, 19 August 2011
The Sweet Tweet Of Success - Getting Your Content Retweeted
Dan Zarrella is well known for his scientific study of social media and those of us wishing to harness the power of Twitter will find this infographic of significant interest.
A couple of key points:
- Focus on news communications and provide a link back to expanded content
- Be proactive in asking people to retweet what you have posted
There is also strong evidence that use of Twitter boosts your search rankings on major engines. These social signals are used to rank regular search results according to Danny Sullivan.
Other pointers for the Sweet Tweet of Success:
- Build your Followers base but remember that the quality of your following also counts, as the above Matt Cutts video explains.
- A retweet by a third party will be more valuable when it comes to search engine ranking, than one you retweet yourself
- Content relevance is important so if your tweets are on a theme or topic you will be more successful in achieving search engine visibility.
New Scientist recommends that you use don't use exclamation marks but do use question marks, as they pose questions which others are more likely to pass on.
Strong and positive words in your tweet are more likely to be re-tweeted than negative words. There is a reluctance to pass on rude or inflammatory language.
Paradoxically, if your use a negative emoticon in a tweet such as :-( you stand a greater chance of having it passed on than a emotive one such as :-) .
If you content is in the broader public interest then it will have a greater chance of success and this ties in with the Dan Zarrella recommendations above.
And the old adage of bad news travelling fastest holds true with Twitter. Bad or unpleasant news gets re-tweeted more frequently as does that which expresses strong sentiments around a topic. A tweet cloud related to the topic 'Norway' demonstrates this.
And if you want to find out how far your tweets are reaching trying using this tool. You may be surprised to learn just how many people have received your content.
And if you want to find out how far your tweets are reaching trying using this tool. You may be surprised to learn just how many people have received your content.
Monday, 7 February 2011
The Science of Social Media
I have been following Dan Zarella's postings for quite a while. The actual science of social media debunks mnay of the myths that have grown up around it.
The Science of Social Media from HubSpot
The above is Dan's The Science of Social Media presentation given to Harvard students.
And an article in the New York Times points out that the debate as to whether social media is an art or a science is raising some interesting facts:
"It turns out that the way information spreads online is often more complicated than viral transmission, in which one person passes a link to, say, a YouTube video directly to another person. As with political topics, people often wait until a number of friends or trusted sources have promoted an idea before promulgating it themselves.
The structure of a social network — for example, whether it is made up of close friends and colleagues or of like-minded strangers who follow Lady Gaga — can have more influence than the size of a group, researchers say. "
While we are at it, here is a summary from Arik Hanson of social media trends that may surprise you:
Facebook
- 75 percent of Brand ‘Likes’ on Facebook come from advertisements. (Mashable)
- More than 250 million people use Facebook Connect every month. (Facebook)
- College-aged kids (18-24) made up the fastest growing segment of users on Facebook in 2010. (AllFacebook.com)
- Chicago was the fastest growing city on Facebook in terms of usage in 2010 (Houston was a close second). (AllFacebook.com)
- During the average 20-minute period in 2010, there were: 1,5870,000 wall posts, 2,716,000 photos uploaded and 10,208,000 comments posted. (AllFacebook.com)
- Indonesia has the second largest population on Facebook
Twitter
- Since April, Twitter has gained 40 million users and a 62 percent increase in mobile use of the platform (Source: ClickZ)
- From December 2009 to December 2010, users with a biography listed on Twitter increased from 31 percent to 69 percent. (Pew)
- Friday at 4 p.m. ET: The most retweetable day/time of the week. (via Dan Zarella and HubSpot)
- 48%: The percentage of Twitter users that either never or rarely check Twitter. (The Next Web).
General
- The average American Internet user watches 30 minutes of video online per day [40 percent increase over 2009] (comScore) Compared to 5 hours of television per day
- 22 percent of Fortune 500 companies now have a public-facing blog that has at least one post in the past 12 months (comScore)
- 4 percent of adults on the Internet use location-based services (Pew Internet Research)
- Social networking site usage grew 88 percent among Internet users aged 55-64 between April 2009 and May 2010 (Pew Research)
- In 2009, social gamers bought $2.2 billion in virtual goods; Predicted to increase to $6 billion by 2013. (NPD Group)
- 75 percent: The percentage of U.S. iPad users that are interested in seeing videos within magazine ads on their iPad. (eMarketer via David Erickson)
- The change in social media use among Baby Boomers 55-64 rose from 9% in Dec. 2008 to 43% in Dec. 2010 (Marketingcharts.com via David Erickson)
The Science of Social Media from HubSpot
The above is Dan's The Science of Social Media presentation given to Harvard students.
And an article in the New York Times points out that the debate as to whether social media is an art or a science is raising some interesting facts:
"It turns out that the way information spreads online is often more complicated than viral transmission, in which one person passes a link to, say, a YouTube video directly to another person. As with political topics, people often wait until a number of friends or trusted sources have promoted an idea before promulgating it themselves.
The structure of a social network — for example, whether it is made up of close friends and colleagues or of like-minded strangers who follow Lady Gaga — can have more influence than the size of a group, researchers say. "
While we are at it, here is a summary from Arik Hanson of social media trends that may surprise you:
- 75 percent of Brand ‘Likes’ on Facebook come from advertisements. (Mashable)
- More than 250 million people use Facebook Connect every month. (Facebook)
- College-aged kids (18-24) made up the fastest growing segment of users on Facebook in 2010. (AllFacebook.com)
- Chicago was the fastest growing city on Facebook in terms of usage in 2010 (Houston was a close second). (AllFacebook.com)
- During the average 20-minute period in 2010, there were: 1,5870,000 wall posts, 2,716,000 photos uploaded and 10,208,000 comments posted. (AllFacebook.com)
- Indonesia has the second largest population on Facebook
- Since April, Twitter has gained 40 million users and a 62 percent increase in mobile use of the platform (Source: ClickZ)
- From December 2009 to December 2010, users with a biography listed on Twitter increased from 31 percent to 69 percent. (Pew)
- Friday at 4 p.m. ET: The most retweetable day/time of the week. (via Dan Zarella and HubSpot)
- 48%: The percentage of Twitter users that either never or rarely check Twitter. (The Next Web).
General
- The average American Internet user watches 30 minutes of video online per day [40 percent increase over 2009] (comScore) Compared to 5 hours of television per day
- 22 percent of Fortune 500 companies now have a public-facing blog that has at least one post in the past 12 months (comScore)
- 4 percent of adults on the Internet use location-based services (Pew Internet Research)
- Social networking site usage grew 88 percent among Internet users aged 55-64 between April 2009 and May 2010 (Pew Research)
- In 2009, social gamers bought $2.2 billion in virtual goods; Predicted to increase to $6 billion by 2013. (NPD Group)
- 75 percent: The percentage of U.S. iPad users that are interested in seeing videos within magazine ads on their iPad. (eMarketer via David Erickson)
- The change in social media use among Baby Boomers 55-64 rose from 9% in Dec. 2008 to 43% in Dec. 2010 (Marketingcharts.com via David Erickson)
Sunday, 13 June 2010
The Science of Social Media Marketing
Dan Zarrella, social media and viral marketing scientist and author explains what drives people to share information and opinions online. He details scientifically proven best practices for spreading content virally using social media.Basic human evolutionary principles put our social media practiced into context. For example, "social proof" and following others are powerful motivators.
Rumours spread in an information void, so when information does exist it is very valuable. One of Dan's key suggestions is that you ensure voids don't develop around your brand. But if there is a void and you can fill it with your information you become the definitive source and this is a powerful position to be in.
"Combined relevance" is another concept that can drive viral success. Combining "zombies" with "marketing" may seem a little weird but see how it worked for Dan.
Source: ViralNetworkers
Recent articles by Dan Zarrella:
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