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Social media monitoring is an important part of social media marketing, PR work, and marketing planning and evaluation. Social networks are searched for information that is relevant to one’s reputation and to one’s products or services. Tools are used for social media monitoring that enables continuous work.

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Background and explanation

Due to the increasing popularity of social networks in the course of the conversion of the Internet to Web 2.0, in which the user becomes active, their importance for online marketing and marketing, in general, has also increased. But in contrast to the evaluation of visitor flows or visitor behaviour in the context of web analysis social media monitoring is based on other requirements. On the one hand, a lot more data has to be processed in social media monitoring and, on the other hand, this data has to be processed almost in real-time so that companies can react immediately to trends, criticism or activities of the competition. It is not directly about the analysis of one’s web presence, but rather about the observation of topics and key terms in a whole conglomerate of different social media.

Social media monitoring tools

Social media monitoring tools were developed to bundle the mass of different data and prepare it for analysis. These programs make it possible to constantly search social networks for information relevant to business planning.

HootSuite

HootSuite is a social media dashboard published by HootSuite Media Inc. The software makes it possible to manage and control activities on different social networks using a single tool.

Functions

HootSuite describes its main function as “social network management”. In concrete terms, this means that the user can use the software to manage and control profiles in various social networks with just one account. The functionality of HootSuite is clearly shown in a YouTube video. In addition to being able to post via HootSuite, users can also follow individual topics or contact other users directly.

The software is browser-based and can be used both as a free basic version and as a paid version with additional features.

HootSuite can be used with the following social networks:

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

GooglePlus

Foursquare

Strictly speaking, WordPress is not a social network, but the blog CMS is one of the social media in the context of Web 2.0.

Mix

Tumblr

YouTube

flickr

Analysis

HootSuite provides concrete data on the reach of individual social media campaigns. This data can be created and retrieved as reports. The HootSuite account can be linked to Google Analytics for evaluation. Other data sources such as Facebook insights and statistics from Twitter or the URL shortener ow.ly can also be imported.

A big advantage of HootSuite is that several users can work with one account. This makes the social media monitoring tool perfect for working in a team. HootSuite is also suitable for use on smartphones or tablets. This means that campaigns can also be controlled and monitored while on the move.

FriendFeed

is a service that allows the bundling of various social networks, blog, RSS and web content into a single account. Strictly speaking, FriendFeed is not a social media monitoring tool, but rather its meta-social network. However, the tool can also be used for marketing purposes. Registration for this takes place via a Twitter or Facebook account and is free of charge. The tool has existed since 2007 and now belongs to Facebook Inc.

Functions

FriendFeed allows users not only to bundle accounts from different social networks in their feed but also to fill this feed with news, topics or information from social media channels they are friends with. The feed can be shared with friends or partners, who will then be informed of any changes to the subscribed content.

Over 55 different web services such as social bookmarks, social networks or blogging services can be integrated into the personal feed. The feed thus reaches far beyond conventional social networks. The following services (with example) can be integrated thematically:

Blogging Services (Blogger, Tumblr)

Social Bookmarks (Delicious, Mister Wong, Stumble Upon)

Books

News

Photos ( Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug)

Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)

Communication ( Gmail )

Music (Last. fm)

Videos (YouTube)

own RSS feeds

other services (e.g. Amazon, SlideShare, Yelp)

Analysis

Those who use FriendFeed should not expect a ready-made social media monitoring tool. Rather, by bundling several very diverse social media channels, it is possible to identify trends and read cutting-edge topics. Unlike HootSuite or SocialBench, FriendFeed brings together news from an even wider range of social networks. This makes FriendFeed ideal for tracking down opinions on specific topics and products.

SocialBench

SocialBench is a web-based service that allows monitoring and analysis of social media activity from various social networks. One of the main features of the tool is the creation of social benchmarks.

The social media monitoring tool is chargeable and, depending on the version, can also be used by several people at the same time. The prices vary between almost 50 and almost 800 EUR per month.

Functions

The tool offers its users a variety of functions. The focus is on benchmarking, within which the performance of individual social media channels can be measured and reports can be created.

Other functions are the analysis of trends and the direct detection of trends. Comparing the competition is also interesting.

Analysis

By connecting Google Analytics, traffic streams from different sources can be compared and analyzed directly via SocialBench in addition to social interaction.

A special feature of SocialBench is the ability to analyze users and their reactions on the social web. In this way, it is possible to see exactly which social networks the users of their own profiles are also active in.

The monitoring tool offers many points of reference to evaluate your own social media activities and campaigns based on defined KPIs.

Possible KPIs are:

number of fans

Fanbase growth in a week

Ratio between the number of fans and the number of people talking about a page

Number of own posts per day (average)

average fan activity

Number of posts by fans on the wall

Number of active fans who have liked or commented on something

Frequency of the site operator’s response to fan posts

average time it takes to reply to a fan post

The special thing about SocialBench is that these KPIs can be analyzed as a benchmark comparison with the social media channels of the competitors.

Importance of social media marketing

Social media marketing is now an integral part of the marketing mix of companies. But hardly any other area is so dynamic. Opinions can quickly change, top issues emerge and just as quickly disappear again into insignificance. The line between liking and bashing is often very thin. For this reason, social media monitoring is of great importance. Because by continuously observing the target groups in social networks, trends can be identified, criticism can be anticipated or opinions can be created.

With the help of social media monitoring tools, marketing managers have the opportunity to react immediately to trends, criticism or changing opinions. Companies that also align their brand and marketing strategy to social media can only use the advantages of the social web with the help of a permanent analysis of the social networks in relation to their own products, competitor products and their own brand. A target-oriented social media marketing without the appropriate monitoring is therefore not possible.

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Social media marketing (SMM for short) is a marketing term and refers to marketing via social media.

Goals and Functioning

The goals of SMM are usually lead generation, increasing reach and online customer loyalty. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing can be understood as public relations and customer service. The first goal is to increase factors such as traffic CTR and reach. The next step is about long-term customer loyalty, loyalty and influencers as well as viral marketing. SMM can be part of customer relationship management and also includes social media advertising.

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General information on the topic

When social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or Linkedin were created, it was not yet clear that they would also be suitable as PR and marketing tools. Social media was considered unproductive and immature. With increasing user numbers, however, it became clear that companies cannot do without direct customer contact and the ever-expanding reach. The networks matured and their number increased – increases are also expected in the costs of social media marketing. Today, very different social platforms are used in both the B2C and B2B sectors to achieve corporate goals.

Suitability for any company size

Social media marketing is an option for many companies and organizations. Your target group likely uses social media in some way – be it mobile with a smartphone or at home on a desktop PC or laptop. Portals such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr, Instagram and Linkedin are among the most visited websites worldwide. If you want to do social media marketing, you should define business goals and choose a strategy in advance. This also includes appropriate platforms and networks, a content creation plan, and employees who can use social media as a customer service and communication channel.

Types of SMM

In social media marketing, two basic strategies can be distinguished, whereby the passive variant is often considered a necessary part of any marketing:

Proactive social media marketing: Here, own content and user-generated content are created and distributed to achieve corporate goals. Active social media marketing not only requires the use of resources and budget but also the organization of different channels in a multi-channel approach to increase reach.

Passive social media marketing: External content is used to achieve the goals. Activities by users and market participants are recorded and evaluated by monitoring. This data is additional information that can be used for strategic and operational decision-making.

Benefits of social media marketing

The basic strategies mentioned above result in individual concepts that can also be combined. In practice, it is mainly about increasing awareness, better customer loyalty, improved access to the target group and communication.

Direct customer contact: Social media can be used as a means of customer service. Customers contact companies by message, rating or status post. If they react to this immediately or relatively quickly, there is a closeness to the customer that cannot be achieved in other media.

Build interest groups: Groups, blogs, and forums can create networks characterized by common interests. Although this is only possible for certain products and services, such a gathering of users who are genuinely interested in the product and who can exchange ideas is almost only conceivable in social networks.

Events: Concerts and events are a popular way of reaching customers, especially in the hospitality industry.

Interactive Campaigns: Sweepstakes, coupons, game apps, and surveys are ways to engage potential customers.

Sales and distribution: The sale of reduced products and other sales concepts can be realized here.

Reputation, image and authority: Expertise can be built up by providing well-founded information. Image and advertising campaigns serve to create a good reputation.

Viral Marketing: Certain content encourages users to share. This content goes viral by being shared by many users. This can also be done in a targeted manner by so-called influencers.

Search engine optimization: With the presence of social networks, so-called social signals can be sent to search engines. Profiles on Twitter, Facebook and Co. Are usually indexed by search engines and displayed relatively high up in the SERPs. High interaction rates (likes, comments, shares) are additional positive signals that let search engines know that users find the offer interesting.

Social Media Monitoring: Numerous options in the areas of reporting and monitoring are available to companies. This data can be used in a variety of ways. For example, to better understand customers and increase customer loyalty. Or to implement brand monitoring.

Traffic: Social networks are very good at attracting visitors to blogs or websites. Good content is of course a prerequisite for this.

Importance of online marketing

Nowadays, social media marketing has become an integral part of the business life of many online retailers and companies – sometimes even as a stakeholder strategy as part of business plans. Especially in the consumer goods sector, almost every company operates at least one social profile. The number of possible networks has also increased rapidly in recent years. Therefore, companies should find relevant platforms and fill them with interesting content. A multi-channel strategy is certainly recommended. However, this does not mean that all available channels have to be played. Rather, it is the target groups and their usage behaviour that are decisive in the choice of a platform. methods such as targeting, Segmentation and monitoring make it possible to reach relevant target groups and thus avoid wastage.

Usually, companies have certain (offline) PR experiences. This know-how should be used – because the principles of successful corporate communication remain the same, at least in principle; only the technology and the environment have changed. Aspects such as corporate design, branding or corporate publishing should not be neglected if the brand message is to reach users. A balance must be found between advertising and transparent, authentic communication or content marketing. Because too much advertising deters users relatively quickly. It is important to pick up the users at the right touchpoints with the right content and to establish a feedback culture. The principles of success in social media marketing are very complex, but a little experimentation is appropriate. The first successes can often be seen after just a few months.

Influencers also play an important role in social media marketing today. These are well-known people with a larger community who work for companies and recommend their products or build brand awareness online. Influencers use their social media channels such as Instagram, Snapchat or blogs for this.

Social media marketing can include or combine other forms of marketing. Content marketing or referral marketing is hardly possible without social media.

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#geotargeting

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#SMM

According to its statements, LinkedIn is the largest online professional network, which is active in over 200 countries and has 200 million members.

In May 2003, the website went online in California, USA for the first time.

LinkedIn’s CEO is Jeff Weiner. The management consists of former executives from Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, among others.

The company’s goal is to connect specialists and executives worldwide.

According to Alexa LinkedIn is one of the 500 most visited websites worldwide.

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Functions

LinkedIn provides its users with access to people, jobs, news, updates and inside information. This is to ensure that the users act successfully in their professional life. The profile of the employee appears with a CV. This enables potential employers to make a well-founded selection of candidates for the vacant position. In addition, the user can set up a link to their website and thus actively promote themselves.

More functions:

Recommendations by other members

Insight into company profiles

Setting up a multilingual profile

Join and create groups.

The user can also register as a premium member via a paid account. Functions such as limiting incoming messages, network statistics and a targeted search according to the job level are then available to them. The costs vary between €20 and €350 depending on the service €. One advantage LinkedIn has over competitors such as Xing is that users can contact users through other members. This allows for serious network expansion. In addition, users can submit ratings about other members. The profile then shows whether, for example, you are a motivated and committed employee or whether you have the necessary skills as a manager.

LinkedIn advertising

LinkedIn offers advertisers the opportunity to place so-called “LinkedIn Ads”. Advertisers can choose between billing using the CPC or CPM model. The minimum CPC is USD 2 (as of December 2014).

A LinkedIn ad looks similar to a Google AdWords text ad but with the addition of an image. A LinkedIn ad consists of a headline of up to 25 characters and a description of up to 75 characters. In addition, the company name can be displayed. At the end of the text ad, a link target is given, which the user gets when he clicks on the corresponding ad.

A valid LinkedIn account is required to run LinkedIn Ads.

Ad positions

LinkedIn Ads appear in all major areas of the network. This allows the ads to appear on a member’s profile page, home page, user’s inbox, and search results page. There is also the possibility that the advertisements will be displayed on group pages.

Targeting

The targeting possibilities for LinkedIn advertising are great. The ads can be placed by business, industry, type of job title or the area of ​​activity of the target group. Sociodemographic and geographic criteria such as age, region or gender can also be used. Interesting targeting options can also be “Company” or “career level” and “company size”.

Benefits for Advertisers

LinkedIn advertising offers companies an excellent opportunity to direct and advance recruiting. In this way, new employees can also be specifically advertised by selected companies. The target group can also be precisely aligned to a specific job that you want to offer. In addition, this form of advertising could also be of interest to conventional advertising for insurance companies or financial service providers. Because the possibility of selecting the career level as a targeting option also indirectly captures the financial potential of the target group.

It would also be possible to place advertising specifically on company accounts to refer to potentially better job opportunities in one’s own company.

However, the diverse and very precise targeting options are reflected in the high starting price of USD 2 per click. Depending on how many other companies advertise on LinkedIn, the click price could quickly reach double digits.

Criticism

Consumer advocates have repeatedly criticised LinkedIn.

On the one hand, deleting a user account is extremely complicated because the functions required for this are not obvious.

Another point of criticism is the lack of data protection. In June 2012, a Russian hacker managed to publish the passwords of over 6.5 million members.

Stiftung Warentest was also able to gain access to the LinkedIn user accounts and their stored data within a few days.

Conclusion

With the IPO in 2011 and the acquisition of SlideShare in May 2012, LinkedIn shows that the website has longer-term economic goals.

LinkedIn is a serious site for networking in the working world. This is becoming increasingly important due to ongoing globalisation. In the long term, LinkedIn will probably prevail over its competitor Xing in Germany. The international orientation and networking with other social networks such as Twitter speak in favour of LinkedIn.

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Soundcloud is a platform that musicians use to make their songs and audio files accessible to a large number of people free of charge. Music listeners can register with Soundcloud and listen to as many pieces of music as they like.

Development of Soundcloud

Soundcloud was founded in August 2007 by founders Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, who are still employed today as managing directors and technical directors. Soundcloud has experienced rapid growth. In May 2010, the service passed the magic mark of one million users. In January 2012, the operators announced that they now had ten million registered users. In December 2012 there were already talks of almost 30 million registered users.

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Functions

The main functionality of Soundcloud is the upload of your own pieces of music, which are then offered to other users for download. If you want to upload music, you need a registered account. This is not necessary just to call up the music files. Soundcloud offers the following detailed functions, among others:

Embedding the pieces of music in third-party websites using widgets and apps

Insertion of listener comments corresponding to a specific point in a piece of music in a graphical representation of the piece as a waveform (time list)

automatic promotion of new audio files via a connected Twitter account

Calling up the music files via various web players

Upload without file size limitation

Music suggestions based on music preferences imported from a Facebook account

Subscription to musicians’ profiles

Creation of playlists

Mark favourite songs

Upload remixes and edited songs as comments

This YouTube video shows how music can be marketed on Soundcloud.

Costs

The free basic account allows users to upload music with a maximum duration of two hours. Initially, in addition to the free basic account, there were also four paid accounts with annual costs between 29 and 500 US dollars. They enabled the musicians to upload a larger volume of music files (even unlimited in the ProPlus account). In March 2013, the pricing model was redesigned. Now there are only two pro accounts:

Pro: up to 4 hours of music for 3 euros/month

Pro Unlimited: unlimited music uploads for 9 euros/month

Legal

Soundcloud is also used again and again to distribute copyrighted material. The service attempts to counteract this using an automated Content ID system designed to filter out this content. However, this works too inaccurately, as it happens, again and again, that content that was actually composed by the respective artists is deleted and that copyrighted material remains available.

Importance for online marketing

Soundcloud is of course an important marketing platform for music and audio files of all kinds. Marketing opportunities similar to those for Facebook have already been found for this purpose, for example, the option of buying “SoundCloud Plays” in order to imitate a song’s great popularity.

In addition, the portal can also be used for advertising. As a Pro Partner, you can advertise your profile here and, for example, play an advertising jingle when you click on the profile photo with the mouse.

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#Engagement Rate

#geotargeting

#google seo

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#serp

Flickr is a photo social community that allows users to share millions of photos with other users. Flickr also acts as an image hoster.

Features of Flickr

With Flickr, users can upload countless photos and videos and sort them into categories – at Flickr, the categories are called tags. The service enables a keyword search. The detailed search can be used to search specifically for images that may be used by other users as desired or to a limited extent because they are under a Creative Commons license or are in the public domain.

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Flickr becomes a community through the possibility of commenting on the pictures and photo streams of other users. In addition, RSS feeds are available through which you can subscribe to the images of specific subject areas. It is also possible to add notes to each of your photos. This YouTube video shows a glimpse of the current version of Flickr.

Defaults for the upload

In May 2013, Flickr changed the photo and video upload policy. Since then, users have had one terabyte of storage space available. Photographs up to 200 megabytes in size can be uploaded, with dimensions no longer playing a role compared to before. Videos are limited to a file size of one gigabyte, a resolution of up to 1080p and a duration of up to three minutes.

Flickr cost structures

Flickr is a free service. There used to be a Pro membership, but that was also abolished in May 2013. Since then, community members have been able to use the service ad-free for $49.99. For heavy users who don’t have enough storage space of one terabyte, the storage space can be doubled for around 500 US dollars.

Importance for search engine optimization

Flickr can be useful as a search engine optimization tool to a limited extent. Flickr could be used for some time, especially in the context of link building, by setting links in comments and photo albums. After Flickr became aware of the abuse of the community for link building, it set the nofollow attribute in many areas. Currently, Dofollow links can only be set in the Flickr groups. Links can also be generated using Flickr by allowing users to use the uploaded photos in exchange for a backlink to certain pages.

In the past, Flickr has often deleted entire accounts and all photos associated with them if they were noticed through improper use. It is therefore important to only distribute links sporadically and to give the impression of a “real” profile overall. This includes but is not limited to, posting new photos regularly, only infrequent links in the comments, and active participation in the community.

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Pinterest, a new social network, was founded in Palo Alto, USA in 2010 by the trio Evan Sharp, Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra. The network is characterized above all by image collections. These image arrangements can be pinned to a virtual bulletin board. Other users can “repin” images, which corresponds to “sharing” or “liking” on other social media platforms.

Explanation of terms and ideas

The term Pinterest can be derived from two words, namely from English. to pin and interest. Consequently, all images that are of interest to a user can be pinned to the platform. At the same time, the idea behind it is that people around the world can exchange information about their interests in the form of images. Originally, it was intended that all images stored on Pinterest would remain public. Due to strong criticism from users, Pinterest also allowed the non-public storage of image material.

Pinboard = A subject area within a Pinterest account in which individual photos or videos from YouTube and Vimeo can be stored. A user can freely choose the name of a pinboard.

pin = upload a picture to his wall

a Pin = An image or video uploaded by a user to a pinboard. This can either come from an external source or be pinned to your own from another pinboard.

Linking to other social media platforms

A Pinterest account can easily be linked to other social network accounts. It is also possible for a user to register with their Facebook or Twitter account. Images uploaded to Pinterest can be automatically published on your own Facebook page or as a tweet after being linked to other social media channels.

Anyone who wants to access Pinterest with their smartphone has been able to access a corresponding app for Apple iO or Google’s Android since 2012.

distribution

In the spring of 2013, Pinterest already had more than 35 million registered users in the USA. In Germany, shortly after its introduction in 2012, there were more than 800,000 users.

Pinterest, SEO and Marketing

Since the discussion about the importance of so-called social signals for search engine optimization within the SEO scene finds neither clear supporters nor clear opponents, the positive effect of Pinterest on the placement in the search results has not yet been proven. However, it can be assumed that a prominent Pinterest account can be advantageous for companies if it generates traffic.

As part of a marketing campaign, Pinterest can also be used for advertising campaigns or prize campaigns, for example. These actions attract attention to the actual web project (an online shop or a company website) and this attention in turn to the possibility that individual products will be rediscovered or the number of visitors will increase.

Pinterest is particularly interesting as a marketing tool because the account can be set up with relatively little effort and a large impact can be achieved if attractive images are used that other users “repin” on their own pinboards and thus share and spread. Pinterest is already being used by many large companies to strengthen their brands.

Because each pin can be backlinked to a specific landing page, many webmasters are tempted to use Pinterest as an external link source. However, the positive effect on the rankings has not been proven

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#geotargeting

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An avatar is a graphic representation that represents a real person. Avatars are used in virtual worlds, social media, websites and communities as an alter ego or character image. They can be both personal icons (so-called picons) in two-dimensional form and three-dimensional graphic representations such as cartoon characters.

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General information

The term avatar was first coined by Richard Garriott. As early as 1985, the game designer created a game concept with “UltimaIV: Quest of the Avatar”, which provided for an avatar to represent the player. The term, which comes from Hinduism, was first used in the games area. Later, as the Internet developed, Internet forums, chats, messengers and finally social networks, blogs and websites were added.

Avatars in computer games

In computer games, an avatar can represent a player. In games like “Second Life” or “World of Warcraft” the player creates an avatar at the beginning. He can define this down to the smallest detail using various characteristics (e.g. face shape, eye colour, hair colour, skin colour) and either emulate his own likeness or generate a completely new character. This artificially created character is then steered through various virtual worlds and sometimes even communicates with other avatars.

Avatars in Forums and social networks

On the Internet, avatars play a major role when it comes to activities in forums or social media . Here the term denotes small symbols, which often measure 80 x 80 pixels. Depending on the platform selected, these symbols are displayed above, below or next to the user name and corresponding post.

Here they serve to increase the recognition value of a person or a profile on the Internet. In this way, they are a trust element that is intended to generate trust. On social media, many people use a real photo of themselves as an avatar. In forums, on the other hand, where people usually act anonymously, this tends to be the case rarely. On the other hand, cartoon figures, 3D graphics, photographs of places, animals or stars, illustrations, sayings and statements and other motifs are used more frequently.

If social media is used commercially, avatars that communicate the values ​​of the company in a certain way are recommended. In this context, experts speak of visual coherence: the first visual impression of a potential customer is designed in such a way that the recognition value is as high as possible. In addition to an avatar, other aspects also play an important role, such as the colours, fonts and logos used in the entire corporate communication. Avatars are an integral part of corporate identity here.

Avatars on blogs

If you leave comments in blogs, you have the option of uploading an avatar in many CMS. This will later appear next to the post. The design options already mentioned are also suitable for this, with some CMS offering special services for creating avatars. If avatars are only used in blogs, the term blavatar is also common.

So-called “gravatars” are a special feature. These are avatars that are identical on different blogs and are used globally. One speaks of the “Globally Recognized Avatar”. Blogs based on the CMS WordPress can automatically recognize gravatar. If the user sets up an avatar on gravatar.com and later uses the email address stored there in a comment on a WordPress blog, the created Gravatar is automatically displayed.

Avatars in the online shop

Avatars are used in online shops for a completely different strategy. Here, avatars are used to realize digital customer advisors and contact persons who support the user in their user experience on the website. If he has questions about the service, the range of goods, navigation or the purchasing process, he can communicate with the avatar. Behind this avatar is a real person who answers the questions, similar to a live chat.

Through the targeted use of avatars, conversion can be sustainably increased. This development results from the fact that the customer is not left alone with questions about the product or difficulties during the ordering process, but is instead taken by the hand and guided to the completion of the order. Here, avatars are part of measures that serve to create trust.

importance for social media

Avatars have become indispensable in the areas of gaming, social media and other Internet services. They should increase the recognition value and create trust. In the case of commercial use, they should be included in the entire corporate communication and the associated corporate identity. In this context, however, not just any image should be chosen, but one that symbolizes certain values ​​of the company.

At best, avatars are part of the company’s visual communication. Because a response from the users also depends on how companies approach the topic of social branding and what all that entails for them. Successful branding goes far beyond avatars, logos and typography and includes aspects such as customer service behaviour and meeting customer expectations.

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#Engagement Rate

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#SEO

Story is a post format that was first introduced in 2011 with the launch of the instant messaging service Snapchat. Because these story posts were so successful, the format was adopted by the Facebook subsidiary Instagram in August 2016. It is now available on all common social media platforms with more or less the same functionality but differs in name on WhatsApp (Status) and Twitter (Moments).

Where did the story format come from?

Until Snapchat introduced the story format in October 2013, social media was characterized by long-lived posts and news feeds. The images, videos and text status updates that users posted on their profiles remained available until the users deleted them themselves. With the introduction of the story, Snapchat wanted to counter this longevity of data and information on the Internet, in line with its self-image.

“Snapchat is not about capturing the traditional Kodak moment. It’s about creating communication that reflects the full range of human emotions – not just what seems beautiful or perfect,” Snapchat announced on its company blog in May 2012.

What is a story?

First of all, the term story is misleading. Compared to the usual social media posts (German, among others: Postsendung ), which, thanks to the name, convey a relatively fast pace, a story sounds like a longer narrative or a coherent plot.

Rather, in the context of social media, the story is a format based primarily on visual elements such as graphics, photos, filters, and stickers. Users take photos or record short video sequences and share them via their profile as a story. The individual images are only displayed for a few seconds.

A story consisting of several photos or videos runs automatically like a sequence: friends and followers are shown the first image for about 10 seconds, then the display changes to the next upload (video or photo), then to the third, then to the fourth , fifth, and so on until the end of the story is reached.

The uploaded and shared media have a default half-life of just 24 hours. After that, the individual elements of the story are automatically deleted from the platforms 24 hours after their upload. This means that not the complete story of a day is removed, but each part individually.

Some platforms such as Snapchat and Instagram now allow stories to be stored long-term as a reminder (Snapchat) or archive (Instagram) via an additional function, where users can delete them at a later date.

The difference to a regular post

A story is characterized by two essential characteristics as a format that deviates from the well-known social media post:

They are not immediately and automatically displayed in the newsfeed of other users and followers. If friends want to view a user’s story, they must actively access it manually.

The second and key differentiating factor is the short lifespan of a story. The individual uploads, which are displayed in a story in a sequence like a slideshow, are automatically deleted 24 hours after their publication.

Other characteristics of a story are that they are hidden again after an average of 10 seconds or are replaced by subsequent uploads within the story.

Also, users viewing a story cannot manually jump forward or back to individual elements within it to (re)view the next or previous image. If users want to view a photo or video again, they have to watch the entire story again and wait until they get to the element they want.

On most platforms, followers can react to individual parts of the story, but this is usually done in the form of a private message – such as WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. The user who posted the story will then receive a personal message in the event of a reaction or reply to one or more items.

Facebook Stories

In the first quarter of 2017, following the success of the Instagram stories, Facebook also introduced the story format on its main platform and in the associated Messenger. In the beginning, the two elements were separate, but now Facebook Stories also appear in the Messenger app, and Messenger Stories appear in the Facebook feed.

Like stories from other social media providers, Facebook Stories are characterized by the fact that they are automatically deleted 24 hours after uploading. Posts can be sent via Facebook either as a status update, as a story or in both formats at the same time. Users can make the selection below the status box.

As of August 2018, 300 million Facebook users used the stories feature regularly.

Facebook Messenger Stories

Similar to directly on the platform, users of the Facebook Messenger app can also choose whether they want to send an update as a direct message to a single friend or a group chat, or whether they want to send it as a story. This is then displayed to friends and followers when they open the Messenger app or as a notification when they visit Facebook regularly.

When Messenger Stories was launched, the feature was still called Messenger Day and was separate from Stories about the actual platform. In the meantime, the two features have been merged and the name Messenger Day was already abolished in 2017 – one year after the function was introduced.

Instagram Stories

Three years after Snapchat threatened to take over the market with its story innovation, Instagram was striving to undermine the upstart. Namely, by introducing a story format there as well. Not only the idea but also the implementation and usability were strikingly based on the Snapchat original.

With 400 million story users every day (as of 06/2018), Instagram is one of the most successful social media networks to offer this format.

Several updates and expansions later, the story on Instagram has also evolved independently of the innovator Snapchat. On Instagram, users can see who viewed which photos and videos from their own stories. Similar to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, you can share stories privately on Instagram Direct.

Last but not least, Instagram reintroduced a screenshot alert in December 2018 that notifies users when other users save or forward uploads of their profile and stories as screenshots.

Skype highlights

Chat and video call provider Skype also gave a short interlude into the hype surrounding the popular story format on social media. The feature introduced in 2017 was called Skype Highlights but differed visibly from the story models on Facebook and Instagram.

Unlike other stories, the highlights were not deleted after 24 hours, but only after a week – the uploader could even continue to view the content for up to 2 years if desired.

In addition, Skype did not make its users’ stories visible to the entire Skype network, but only to contacts who actively followed a person’s highlights. Everyone could also share their story or highlight with a group, manually selected people or individual contacts at any time. Those who had not yet followed the highlights of their contacts up to such a share were invited to do so once. This should prevent unwanted spam from an update glut.

As with other story formats, Skype users could also react to the highlights of their contacts – publicly with an emoji, similar to the reaction icons on Facebook, or in a private chat message with a typed reply.

At the end of 2018, however, Skype said goodbye to its story format. Design boss Peter Skillman said on the company blog that feedback from Skype users led to this decision – they didn’t take the highlights function well and found the usability to be confusing and complicated, which is why Skype decided to go back to basics and prioritize simplicity.

Snapchat Stories

Snapchat was the first social media app based on the principle of short-lived photo stories and quickly became popular, especially among a young target group. Within 2 years of its launch, the US company already had 40 million active users, in 2018 the number was 188 million.

With the introduction of the story format on the social media associated with Facebook, Snapchat lost its unique selling point and has since tried to further develop the story app in various updates. This includes new functions such as the ability to share stories on other social media channels or to play in-app games and transfer the Bitmojis created for this to the profiles of PC games.

Twitter Moment

On Twitter, the story format is called Moments and was introduced in 2015 – largely unnoticed by the social media world – before Instagram Stories. There are no exact numbers about the use of this format. The function is identified by a lightning symbol.

While normal tweets on the platform are limited by a character limit, Moments allows users to create longer, coherent content. Users can collect their own and other people’s tweets and choose the order themselves. Each moment can be provided with a cover photo, a description and a headline.

Twitter gives each moment its own URL that differs from that of the tweet quoted in it, which means that each part of a moment’s chronology can itself be retweeted and liked. Moments can be edited, supplemented and changed by the creator at any time.

Viewers and Moment creators can then swipe left or right to any Tweet, comment, or image listed in the compilation. Each element of a Twitter story can be liked and shared individually. But it is also possible to share and like moments as a whole. A bar at the bottom of the screen shows the progress of the story viewing.

YouTube Stories

In 2017, the Google subsidiary YouTube also presented its own story format, which was initially called Reels (German: film roll, bobbin ) but was renamed to Stories, which is common on almost all platforms, within three months of the launch.

However, YouTube’s stories differ from the formats of the other channels in one crucial feature: they are not automatically removed 24 hours after the upload. The uploader can decide for or against the automated deletion. Alternatively, they can specify a custom expiration date or manually delete the Reels clip at any time.

YouTube Stories are video clips, photo sequences or gifs with a maximum length of 30 seconds, which can be individualized with filters, background music, text elements, stickers, drawings, as well as links and tags to other user profiles . A link to a longer video that belongs to the clip or is relevant in terms of content can also be included in the reel content.

Whatsapp status

With the mobile messaging service WhatsApp, the story format is simply called status. It is possible to post short video clips, text or images with a caption there. As with almost all common story formats, the posts are automatically deleted individually 24 hours after uploading if the user does not remove them manually beforehand.

And as with all platforms and services belonging to Facebook, selecting individual story elements is also not possible with WhatsApp Status. Other users must view the story sequence from the beginning if they want to view certain images again.

Direct commenting on stories or individual elements is not possible with WhatsApp but is done via a reply in the form of a private message. Currently, (status: 04/2019) the sharing of Status by third parties is not possible. As well as sharing your status on other platforms.

However, you can only share personal status with a select group of contacts. Users can regulate this via the data protection settings .

Special case Google AMP Stories

Stories are actually a typical social media format. However, the search engine operator Google has now also recognized its advantages and is taking up the idea with Accelerated Mobile Pages in its news . Thanks to this function, publishers can put together a sequence of self-created or selected videos, texts, photos, graphics and individual website contributions.

Users who click on such an AMP story are not redirected to the actual website. The story view covers the screen, and the user interface takes a back seat. This allows stories to load faster than the actual website content. Users can click in the sidebar to advance to the next element of the story, click an X to close the story and return to the original screen at any time.

The commercial use of the story formats

Most of the social stories were initially purely a supplement for private users. Providers also quickly introduced sponsored stories, which enabled companies to advertise with the story format. At least Facebook is planning to expand ads in the story formats of its platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp).

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An instant messenger (IM for short) is software that allows two or more participants to communicate via text messages. The messages are delivered with an existing internet connection with a delay of just a few seconds.

operating principle

In order to be able to use an instant messenger, users must first install client software on their local computer and register for the service. This distinguishes instant messenger from conventional chat, where users login via a web interface. Users can find other users and add them to their contact list via the user name or the stored e-mail address. Clicking on the name opens a communication window. Text messages can be entered into this. The messages are delivered immediately via a push service if the other user is online.

Unlike a web-based chat, communication in an instant messenger is not public. Only participants who have been explicitly invited to the conversation can read along.

Features of instant messengers

Every instant messenger offers the basic function of sending text messages. In addition, modern clients often provide additional functionality, such as:

Transfer of files (e.g. photos, audio streams, videos)

video chats and conferences

telephony

Sending electronic greeting cards

Sending SMS

online games

contact management

Screencasts

Many of these functions can be used free of charge. Depending on the provider, it can also be paid services. There are numerous videos on Skype’s YouTube channel that show what instant messaging services can do today.

Connection to social networks

Instant messengers can be transformed into control centres for various social networks. For example, the ICQ messenger, the social media channels Facebook, Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, Google Talk, Mail.Ru Agent and other services can be connected. In this case, users can also talk to their Facebook friends via Instant Messenger and receive their status updates.

Known instant messengers

Instant messengers can often be used both for the computer and for smartphones or tablets. A selection of well-known instant messaging services:

Whatsapp

Whatsapp is an instant messenger that can be installed on a smartphone across platforms. With the Whatsapp application, users can exchange images, texts, videos and sound files over the Internet. This app is often used as an alternative to SMS and is now considered to replace it. In 2014 Whatsapp was bought by Facebook.

Emergence

WhatsApp Inc. was founded in California in 2009 by two entrepreneurs. Shortly after it was launched, millions of users used the app to send messages over the Internet for free. The company and application name is a pun on the question “What’s up?” and the abbreviation for application.

In the first quarter of 2014, Whatsapp already had almost half a billion users who used the messenger service at least once a month. This makes Whatsapp one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. The innovative technology, the huge user base and the fear of too much competition may have led to WhatsApp being bought by Facebook in February 2014. Mark Zuckerberg’s company paid $19 billion for WhatsApp Inc. In the same month, Whatsapp also started cooperation with the mobile phone provider E-Plus.

The acquisition of Whatsapp by Facebook has raised doubts about privacy among many users of the free app. Many of the users switched to the instant messenger Threema, which was classified as “uncritical” by Stiftung Warentest in 2014. To date, there has always been a discussion about what happens when Facebook merges its data with the data from Whatsapp.

Today it is sometimes assumed that services such as Whatsapp could replace conventional SMS (Small Message Service) in the long term. Even now (as of 2014) more than 17 billion messages are sent daily via Whatsapp. To date, there has been a very simple pricing model that should come into effect after one year of use. After the takeover by Facebook, it remains questionable how long Whatsapp will be able to finance itself without advertising.

functions

Whatsapp works like a classic instant messenger and is based on the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, XMPP for short. The app can be downloaded for all common mobile user interfaces. There is no official desktop version of its own.

The following message types can be sent with the help of the app:

Text: theoretically there is no limit here

Photo files: this data can be sent from a smartphone or tablet via the app interface

Transmission of your own location: Users can send their GPS location to friends via the app

Audio files: Sounds can be exchanged with each other using Whatsapp

Contact data: Users can send their personal data to other users

A special feature of Whatsapp is the option of having your own address book read out on your smartphone. In this way, friends can be directly invited to use Whatsapp together.

Critical voices

WhatsApp has not only been criticized for its data protection regulations since it was taken over by Facebook. Because the service has repeatedly shown itself to be insecure when it comes to data transmission. In addition, data protectionists criticize that the app is allowed to access the phone book of its users and thus stores data without the consent of those who do not use the messaging service. One reaction to the ongoing criticism may be that Whatsapp now wants to work with mobile phone providers and is currently doing this with Base as well.

Use for marketing

At first glance, Whatsapp offers hardly any opportunities for advertisers compared to Instagram or other applications on the social web, especially since the service is currently free of advertising. Nevertheless, there are now and then examples of advertising campaigns that also use the enormous reach of Whatsapp.

Threema

Threema is a messaging service for smartphones that is used to send encrypted text messages, photos and videos.

Threema at a glance

Threema was developed by the Swiss Manuel Kasper and published in 2012. For this, he founded Kasper Systems GmbH. Threema is currently available for Apple devices with the iOS operating system from version 1.8.1 and Android devices from version 1.42. The app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play. It is chargeable. The price is 1.79 euros for iOS and 1.60 euros for Android devices. There are currently no plans to offer the service for other operating systems such as Blackberry or Windows Phone.

Development of user numbers

In terms of user numbers, Threema leads a shadowy existence behind the big favourite WhatsApp. In April 2014, the WhatsApp messaging service had around 500 million users worldwide. Threema’s user numbers are also increasing continuously but to a much lesser extent. In mid-February 2014, Threema still had around 200,000 users.

After it became known that the instant messaging service WhatsApp had been sold to Facebook, many users switched to Threema because of security and data protection concerns. Within a day, the user base doubled to 400,000 people. By April 2014, it had increased sevenfold and then totaled 2.8 million people. [11]

Encryption

Message encryption is one of the key features that set Threema apart from direct competition like WhatsApp. The service is based on the open NaCL library, which is an expert-recognized security standard for communication and encryption. The asymmetric 256-bit encryption corresponds to a 3072-bit RSA encryption. It is a so-called end-to-end encryption, in which the encryption is carried out using a private key that never leaves the personal device. In addition, there is a public key that the recipient needs to decrypt the message.

According to Threema, it is not able to decrypt users’ messages because it does not know the users’ private keys. In addition, the messages are only stored in the main memory on the company’s own Swiss servers until the recipient has read them. After that, they are removed from the stores. If no spyware is active on the user’s smartphone, the operator of Threema assumes that it is impossible for unauthorized third parties to read or manipulate the messages.

Security through data protection

Users have the option of comparing phone numbers and email addresses of contacts from their own address book with the Threema database. In contrast to other solutions on the market, however, the address book is not uploaded to the server, only checksum values, which in turn are sent via an encrypted SSL connection. In this way, it is not possible to spy out the contact details. In addition, the data is not stored on the server but is deleted again immediately after the test. With regard to data protection, Threema was classified as “uncritical” in a short test by Stiftung Warentest on instant messaging services in February 2014.

Snapchat

Snapchat is an instant messenger for smartphones and tablets. The speciality that Snapchat is known for is the sending of photos, which are destroyed after counting down a predetermined number of seconds.

Development of Snapchat

Snapchat was released in 2011. The service was founded in Los Angeles, USA, by Robert Murphy and Evan Spiegel. At the end of 2013, the company was valued at $4 billion. In October 2013 it was announced that Facebook wanted to take over the service for a price of 3 billion US dollars. However, Snapchat turned down the offer. Facebook has since been working on developing a competing app called Slingshot, which media reports say could infringe Snapchat’s patent rights. It was released in June 2014.

Snapchat features

When Snapchat was released, the app could only be used to send photos and videos. Since May 2014 there has also been the option of using Snapchat as an instant messaging service and conversing via video chat. A YouTube video from Snapchat shows how the chat works. The special function of Snapchat is the sending of photos that are automatically deleted after a short period of time. Therefore, the platform is often used for so-called sexting, i.e. for sending erotic photos.

Availability

Snapchat is available for smartphones and tablets running Android or iOS. Both the installation and the use of the app are free of charge.

criticism

Snapchat has repeatedly come under criticism in the past when it became known that the photos are not actually deleted over time, but can no longer be accessed via the app. However, the photo files are stored in the memory of the smartphone or tablet. Here they can be searched for and read out. There is also the option of taking screenshots of the images within the app and exporting them in this way.

Snapchat also attracted negative attention in early January 2014 with the report that hackers had gained access to Snapchat’s databases. The data of 4.6 million registered users was retrieved and published on the internet. On January 9, 2014, the operator released an update for the software that was intended to patch the security hole.

Importance of online marketing

The Snapchat company has around 26 million users in the USA and, according to estimates, there are already several million in Germany. The vast majority is between 13 and 25 years old, with almost three-quarters of the users being female. Snapchat can be used by businesses as an extension of their social media portfolio. To do this, however, users must first be won over as friends for their own channel. This is usually done through advertising via other social media channels, for example by promising the target group great special offers, vouchers or exclusive advance notices. If the company has generated a certain readership on Snapchat, the platform can be used for advertising campaigns.

More instant messengers

In addition to these three instant messengers with a large number of users, there are also other services with far fewer users, for example, the following:

ICQ: free service for PCs and smartphones from the Mail.ru group, available since 1996

Skype: available for PCs since 2003, now also available for mobile devices, free use, also suitable for companies; Integration of MSN Instant Messenger since 2013

Yahoo! Messenger: available for Windows, Linux, Solaris Android and iOS devices, offers text messaging, voice calls, webcam, games and photo sharing, compatible with Windows Live Messenger

AOL Instant Messenger (AIM): proprietary instant messenger originally only available to AOL customers

Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger): Messenger service from Microsoft, which has been offered since 1999; no longer available since integration with Skype in 2013

Jabber: the first client for the XMPP protocol, contact with users of other instant messengers is also possible via Jabber

Google Talk: existed since August 2005 and was an instant messaging system from Google; was retired in May 2013 and replaced by Google+ Hangouts

In addition, there are so-called multi-protocol clients that can combine several profiles from other messengers in one piece of software. Examples include Miranda IM, Trillian, and Pidgin.

Importance of instant messengers

Instant messengers are now being integrated into numerous other services, including social networks such as Facebook. e.g. Facebook. For this reason, pure instant messengers for the computer are being pushed more and more into the background. The surveys as part of the annual JIM study by the Media Education Research Association Southwest clearly show the drastic development. In 2008, more than 70% of the young people surveyed stated that they used instant messaging services daily or several times a week. In 2013, there is a similar emphasis on online communities such as Facebook. Instant messengers, on the other hand, have dropped to a share of 13 percent.

However, the counterparts for mobile devices are gaining in importance. The well-known WhatsApp service alone was able to more than double its user numbers from 200 million in April 2013 to 430 million in January 2014 within nine months.

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Spotify is a music streaming service that emerged from the Swedish startup Spotify AB. With Spotify, you can listen to music on your desktop, tablet and smartphone without downloading it. Rather, as is usual with streaming services, a music file is loaded into the clipboard so that it can be played directly with the application. The current version of Spotify is available as a free service with ads or as a paid version without ads.

General information

The music streaming service was founded in 2006 as Spotify AB by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon as an alternative to illegal music downloading. The location is still Stockholm. The service is now available in many countries. In Germany, the market launch was delayed due to rights management, since Spotify offers music in digital form. That’s why Spotify has to acquire licenses from record labels. Since GEMA manages these rights in Germany, there were lengthy negotiations between the Stockholm company and representatives of GEMA, which have now been successfully concluded.

According to Spotify, artists receive a certain amount per streamed song. However, some artists do not make their music available on the music streaming service because the remuneration is too low. The Stockholm company responded with a transparent listing of the compensation model. The company was also initially criticized by data protection officials since music streaming was initially only possible in connection with a Facebook account. Spotify responded with proprietary software that can be downloaded and is independent of other programs.

Functions

Spotify can be used on different devices. It is available as a desktop solution and can also be installed on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. In addition, Spotify can be used in the web browser without having to use any proprietary software.

With the free version, the user hears regular advertisements, which are not available with the monthly subscription, which costs 9.99 euros. Some mobile phone providers such as Telekom entered into a cooperation with Spotify, after which the service was integrated into various mobile phone contracts.

Spotify users can use various functions to find and listen to their favourite music. Different record labels can be selected, playlists can be programmed or recommendations and discoveries can be used. Radio stations can also be found on offer – and Spotify offers its own radio function in which popular titles are played automatically and user-oriented in a playlist. Those who use Spotify can recommend the streamed titles via Facebook, Twitter or their own blog by clicking on certain buttons. The current title is then shared in the respective network.

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#Social Media

Twitter (origin: to tweet – to Twitter) is a social service on the Internet that allows the user to disseminate information in real-time. The special feature is that only 140 characters can be used. The prerequisite for using Twitter is the creation of a Twitter account. Twitter is well-known among social services and is available free of charge.

Tweets

Twitter contains small pieces of information called tweets. A tweet can contain a maximum of 140 characters. With the ability to include hyperlinks in tweets, Twitter users can post photos, videos, and links to directly in tweets. When a tweet is posted, it’s shared with the account’s followers in the NewsFeed in real time. If the followers like the tweet, it is usually shared by means of a retweet.

The principle

The principle of communication between Twitter users is based on following or subscribing to other Twitter users. If you find a Twitter account that is posting interesting information, you can track what it has posted (tweeted). “The pursued” does not necessarily have to follow back.

The followers are called followers. The number of followers can be classified as a measure of the notoriety or trustworthiness of an account. The more followers an account has, the more trustworthy the source of the information that was tweeted. Conversely, the following accounts are referred to as followings.

Among other things, private messages are offered, which can only be read by the addressee and not by his followers. For privacy reasons, accounts can be kept protected, i.e. not public. Only the followers see the posts that come from a protected account.

@-Sign

In order to strengthen communication between users, the Twitter service enabled dialogue between Twitter users themselves. The @ sign can be used to specifically address an account.

#hashtags

The hashtag setting has a special meaning on Twitter. The topic that affects the information content is emphasized. If a tweet is published on the topic of SEO, the hashtag SEO (#SEO) will be mentioned at the end of the tweet to clarify the topic in question. If a hashtag topic receives special attention within a country or worldwide, it is traded as a trending topic. Trending topics appear on the Twitter home page and in each account’s profile summaries.

Technology

Twitter is based on the Scala programming language and uses a framework known as Bootstrap for the application interface. Bootstrap is an open-source project and is open to the general public for further development. The integration of Twitter into websites and applications is easily possible via the Twitter API.

Twitter Services

In order to make Twitter easier to use, many services are offered on the Internet which, for example, enable multiple Twitter accounts to be merged or automated replies to be provided. The best-known so-called Twitter clients include Twitterrific, HootSuite, TweetDeck and Echofon.

Twitter in the company

Twitter is also increasingly used in companies as a communication tool. Examples have shown that Twitter is an excellent support and information channel between companies and customers since the reactions are real-time and companies can respond very quickly to support requests, for example.

Importance for SEO

The Twitter component plays a major role in the discussion about social signals in search engine optimization since they are real user signals. In addition, it can be used to increase the number of visitors to a website, since Twitter can spread information as an additional channel. Controlling the social signals via Twitter can be carried out using the web-based web analytics tool Fanpage Karma. A direct effect of Twitter use on search engine rankings has not been traced so far.

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#Social Media

Pinterest, a new social network, was founded in Palo Alto, USA in 2010 by the trio Evan Sharp, Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra. The network is characterized above all by image collections. These image arrangements can be pinned to a virtual bulletin board. Other users can “repin” images, which corresponds to “sharing” or “liking” on other social media platforms.

Explanation of terms and ideas

The term Pinterest can be derived from two words, namely from English. to pin and interest. Consequently, all images that are of interest to a user can be pinned to the platform. At the same time, the idea behind it is that people around the world can exchange information about their interests in the form of images. Originally, it was intended that all images stored on Pinterest would remain public. Due to strong criticism from users, Pinterest also allowed the non-public storage of image material.

Pinboard = A subject area within a Pinterest account in which individual photos or videos from YouTube and Vimeo can be stored. A user can freely choose the name of a pinboard.

pin = upload a picture to his wall

a Pin = An image or video uploaded by a user to a pinboard. This can either come from an external source or be pinned to your own from another pinboard.

Linking to other social media platforms

A Pinterest account can easily be linked to other social network accounts. It is also possible for a user to register with their Facebook or Twitter account. Images uploaded to Pinterest can be automatically published on your own Facebook page or as a tweet after being linked to other social media channels.

Anyone who wants to access Pinterest with their smartphone has been able to access a corresponding app for Apple iO or Google’s Android since 2012.

Distribution

In the spring of 2013, Pinterest already had more than 35 million registered users in the USA. In Germany, shortly after its introduction in 2012, there were more than 800,000 users.

Pinterest, SEO and Marketing

Since the discussion about the importance of so-called social signals for search engine optimization within the SEO scene finds neither clear supporters nor clear opponents, the positive effect of Pinterest on the placement in the search results has not yet been proven. However, it can be assumed that a prominent Pinterest account can be advantageous for companies if it generates traffic.

As part of a marketing campaign, Pinterest can also be used for advertising campaigns or prize campaigns, for example. These actions attract attention to the actual web project (an online shop or a company website) and this attention in turn creates the possibility that individual products will be rediscovered or the number of visitors will increase.

Pinterest is particularly interesting as a marketing tool because the account can be set up with relatively little effort and a large impact can be achieved if attractive images are used that other users “repin” on their own pinboards and thus share and spread. Pinterest is already being used by many large companies to strengthen their brands.

Because each pin can be backlinked to a specific landing page, many webmasters are tempted to use Pinterest as an external link source. However, the positive effect on the rankings has not been proven.

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Chatbots are computer programs that can now interact with people in an almost natural way via social media or chat programs. Their functionality is based on artificial intelligence and their own algorithms or uses ready-made question-answer patterns. As digital assistants, chatbots are an integral part of human-machine interaction.

General information on the topic

The idea of computers interacting with humans has been around for many decades. At the end of the 1950s, the Turing test demonstrated a way of distinguishing human communication from computer-controlled communication. In the mid-1960s, Eliza was the world’s first chatbot. Probably based on Eliza Doolittle from George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, Eliza became a computer-controlled psychotherapist.

With the advent of the first chat programs like ICQ in the late 1990s, chatting became more and more popular with the nascent internet. So-called chatbots or chatterbots were also used. They had the task of pointing out the “chatiquette”, rules for chatting, to the user when visiting a chat room. In addition, these chatbots were able to provide answers to some simple questions. These were fixed patterns. Serious communication was not possible in this way.

After the chat programs faded into the background again around 2010 because Facebook and later Whatsapp and other messengers came onto the market, the chat programs managed a kind of comeback as part of marketing measures. With the help of artificial intelligence, new algorithms, big data and other technology, the new chatbots have also become more intelligent. Especially with the help of language assistants such as Siri from Apple or Alexa from Amazon, chatbots have become real digital assistants. The same applies to systems such as Google Home or Microsoft’s Cortana.

How chatbots work

The first chatbots were based on very simple rules. A database was created for the bots’ work, containing questions and the appropriate answers. If a question was asked of the bot, it would break down the question into individual components in order to grasp the meaning and then provide the appropriate answer. Very simple chatbot functions would be, for example, answers to questions about the time or how to convert one currency into another. In a sense, Google does that job with a majority of the answers in the answer box.

On the one hand, modern chatbots access a very large database and, on the other hand, they learn with the requests of the users. These self-learning systems are very similar to artificial intelligence.

criticism

Even if, according to a survey, every fourth user in Germany can imagine communicating with a chatbot, communication robots are not yet accepted by all parts of the population. Many people are sceptical about data protection and privacy when it comes to digital assistants as a further development of chatbots. Google only had to admit a mistake in October 2017, because the newly delivered Google Home Mini listened to all conversations and did not only switch on when a command was given. Similar criticism has been levelled at Amazon’s Alexa.

Chatbots also came under criticism when they were obviously used in the US election campaign to massively influence public opinion. Even if it is more about the variant of the so-called “social bots”, reports about robot journalists or election-campaign chatbots tend to cause negative hits.

Importance of social media marketing

Chatbots offer a wide range of possibilities for companies. For example, bots can be used for customer relationship management . The bots can interact with customers via social networks or their own website and answer questions about products or orders.

Chatbots can also be used to publish automated messages about your own products or the company in social networks. In addition, intelligent bots are suitable for better analyzing communication with customers.

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The term blogger has a double meaning. On the one hand, this can mean the free blog hosting platform blogger.com from Google and, on the other hand, a person who runs their blog.

Blogger (Human)

Bloggers are people who run a weblog for private or business reasons and publish articles called “posts” there at regular intervals. Posts by bloggers are usually characterized by the fact that they reflect subjective points of view. This subjectivity can relate to an individual, to a group, or even to an entire brand or corporate identity. A blogger can also be referred to as a linker if he reaches a large number of other people with his contributions because of his personality or position.

https://namelocals.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Blogger.jpeg

Subjects

When it comes to topics, bloggers are not limited because no topic cannot be blogged about. For this reason, there are fashion bloggers, car bloggers, political bloggers, etc. Some bloggers also join together to form community blogs, where several editors write articles on a common topic.

Private vs. Commercial

The number of bloggers living in Germany cannot be precisely estimated. Some say that more than 100,000 people blog regularly. However, the total number of blogs is declining, as the ARD/ZDF online study 2013 shows. One reason for this trend is certainly that blogs in Germany are less integrated into the social web than in Anglo-Saxon countries or the USA. There, many bloggers can make a living from their blogs.

SEO Blogger

Blogging is particularly popular in the SEO scene because blogs are an important source of information for industry professionals. Well-known SEO blogs are, for example, the blog by Mediadonis or the SEO book. In Anglo-Saxon countries, for example, Moz or Matt Cutts’ blog.

Blogger.com (blog system)

Blogger is a service offering from the product portfolio of the Google group. The Blogger.com site allows users to register with a Google account and run their blog. Blogger.com is characterized by a simple, free blog CMS, for which bloggers neither have HTML knowledge nor need to rent web space.

Story

The blog hosting service Blogger was founded in 1999 by the company Pyra Labs. Blogger has been part of Google since 2003. A year later, features from the Picasa photo editor and the Hello program were integrated into Blogger’s features. Since then, users of the blogger system have been able to integrate photos into their posts even more easily.

In 2004, blogger.com was updated in both design and functionality. Similar to WordPress, it was now possible to upload postings via email.

Since 2006, all blogs created with a Google account have been exclusively on Google Inc. servers. In the same year, other new functions were introduced, such as inserting new designs using drag-drop and RSS feeds.

Advantages and disadvantages of the blog hosting system Blogger

Anyone who starts their blog with Blogger.com has many advantages, which are briefly listed here:

free hosting

easy blog creation

simple, almost intuitive handling with a single Google account

Blogging with multiple users is possible

easy monetization through easy integration of Google AdSense

easy posting via the Google Toolbar

Quickly create and upload content with Microsoft Windows

The disadvantages would be:

often monotonous design

few customization options compared to other blog systems

IP needs to be shared with many other blogs

In principle, the user is free to redirect the content from Blogger to his domain. Blogs created with Blogger can be recognized by their address form: examplename.blogspot.com

Blogger as a blog system and SEO

Setting backlinks en masse via blogs has long been a tried and tested means for SEOs to increase link popularity. Blogger.com was right on time with its offer to create free blogs quickly and easily. However, the SEO scene and the algorithms of the search engines have changed in the meantime and it is not advisable to do massive link-building via Blogger.com.

However, if you also want to use the blog hosting system for SEO purposes, you can consider Blogger.com as an additional portal to transport content that is picked up by others. Thanks to the excellent integration of Blogger’s blog content into the Google search engine index, the content is very easily accessible. This fact can be an advantage when it comes to getting more reach with a .blogspot.com address. However, the same SEO rules apply to indexing as to all web projects.

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Social media refers to communication channels on the Internet that enable users to network with one another. The focus of social media is on the interaction between users. Another feature of social media is that the networks are based on user-generated content, i.e. content that is created and distributed by the users themselves.

Known examples

The best-known representatives of social media channels include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. These networks differ mainly in the form of the content and the target group. For example, while Facebook is aimed at everyone, the target group of LinkedIn and Xing consists of professionals and recruiters.

Wikipedia can also be counted among social media since the focus here is entirely on user-generated content. However, Wikipedia does not offer any sophisticated means of communication. Between users.

https://namelocals.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Social-Media.png

History of Social Media

The origin of social media goes back to the mid-1990s, when the term primarily referred to chats and conversation options. Later platforms always tried to give users the opportunity to exchange ideas. With Web 1.0, the Internet was only used for the purpose of one-way communication, which has changed significantly with Web 2.0. With the introduction of Web 2.0, another important aspect of the Internet has been added. As a result, the importance of the Internet as a mere information medium was expanded and the user was given the opportunity to exchange ideas and thus communicate. Likewise, knowledge was no longer required to find one’s way around the Internet. It peaked in 2003 with the site facebook.com which is increasing to this day and more and more users are becoming part of this community. In the meantime even social Hubs used to show the user the latest news from all of their social media networks.

manifestations of social media

Social media includes the areas of identity, communication, and the sharing of information. It is far-reaching and can appear in various forms such as microblogs, content communities or even social networks. Social media services can range from e-mails to websites, such as the photo service Flickr.de or the music service Last.fm.

To determine and compare the web activities of social media users, there are services like Klout. For example, this service indicates the online reputation of a user in the form of the Klout score. The Fresh Web Explorer software can also be used to track down all online entries. With this, opinions can be determined and negative comments can be reacted to quickly.

Furthermore, the social inbox of the HubSpot software can be used, for example, to measure the ROI of a social media marketing campaign. The web-based web analytics tool Fanpage Karma can also be used to plan and control social media marketing campaigns.

Social Media Services

The possible uses have changed significantly in recent years. From an almost exclusive use on computers, today using the apps is very common. This also makes it possible to share special data such as location. Since a user of a mobile device usually has several apps, the search for a specific one can take time. A Flipboard can be used, for example, to organize all the important social network apps.

This offers the user a wide range of possible uses. He can exchange ideas and carry on conversations without making large financial contributions.

Furthermore, social media can be used for other purposes. Applications for possible jobs can be submitted, but lectures in the form of podcasts can also be listened to.

importance for companies

Businesses are also making more and more use of social media. This is beneficial as social media is often used for advertising purposes. This is possible without great expense, as well as quickly and easily. Sites such as facebook.com are used to draw attention to one’s own website or brand awareness to increase and inspire many users for the products. This must be weighed up as to whether it is suitable for the relevant products. Companies also use social media for marketing purposes and public relations. Websites that sell goods also use social media as an opportunity to get customer reviews through comments and blogs. The main benefit here is that they appear more credible to customers.

The possibility for employees to communicate via the Internet and to align work-related activities is summarized under the term Enterprise 2.0.

field of search engine optimization

The most important aspect in the field of social media is the social signals, such as likes and shares on Facebook or the +1 on Google+. The effect on the user is similar to the backlink. The likes on various social media websites draw the customer’s attention to various products.

It is sometimes assumed that social signals have a direct influence on the ranking of a website in Google. However, no precise statement can be made about the significance of social signals. A study by Search metrics came to the conclusion that there is a correlation between good rankings and social signals, but no causality can be identified.

Opinions about the importance of social signals, therefore, differ widely, but they are often attributed an indirect meaning. Because even if they don’t count as a direct ranking factor, they still have an informative value about the awareness and popularity of the site.

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HubSpot is software that enables inbound marketing to be carried out efficiently. The software includes tools for various areas of online marketing.

HubSpot software overview

HubSpot creates the conditions for a company to be found by prospects. The software makes optimal use of the various sub-disciplines of online marketing to generate leads. At the same time, HubSpot includes the ability to measure, analyze, and incrementally improve marketing efforts.

HubSpot features

The software includes the following functions, among others:

Blogging: Creating blog posts with greater success by integrating SEO and lead-generation tools

Social Inbox: Help prioritize communication via social networks, determine the ROI of social media marketing, and history for each contact associated with the company

SEO Tools: keyword research, competitor monitoring, diagnostic tools, backlink tracking

Lead generation tools: landing pages, call-to-action buttons, forms, lead management

Email Marketing Tools

Customer acquisition tools: sending personalized emails, marketing automation, evaluations, connection to Salesforce Sync

This video provides an overview of HubSpot’s features.

HubSpot benefits

HubSpot brings a variety of benefits to users. It is an all-in-one software package. All modules do not work independently of each other but mesh seamlessly with each other. The manufacturer of the software offers different packages for companies of different sizes so that the financial outlay remains within limits. Each package comes with unlimited technical support.

The HubSpot plans

HubSpot is offered in three versions: Basic, Professional and Enterprise. They cost 160 euros, 640 euros and 1,920 euros per month. The basic version differs significantly from the other two versions in terms of functionality. However, the biggest differences are in the number of inclusive contacts and the additional costs for further contacts and the number of visits per month. Other differences can be found in the number of available subdomains and the limit for sending emails.

Importance for search engine optimization

Search engine optimization is part of the HubSpot software. In contrast to other full SEO suites, this area does not work independently but is interlinked with the other areas of online marketing. Inbound marketing is one of the most important buzzwords in the online marketing industry. In this context, software products such as HubSpot will gain in importance in the future.

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Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates in 1975 and is based in Redmond, USA. Microsoft now has 112 offices worldwide and had sales of $73.72 billion in 2012, while investing $9.8 billion in research. Steve Ballmer has been CEO of Microsoft since January 2000. The company is the world’s leading manufacturer of standard software, services and solutions for people and companies of all industries and sizes. According to the research and consulting institute “Great Place to Work”, the German headquarters of Microsoft in Munich with more than 1000 employees acts as the best IT employer in large companies.

In 2005, Microsoft was the second-best global brand, but it has since fallen to fifth and continues to experience a 2% decline. Although the US group has an almost monopoly on operating systems, it is finding it difficult to compete with competitors such as Google. The company’s success can be attributed to its in-house Windows operating system. It is installed on more than 90 % of the world’s computers and is used by over a billion people.

Business Areas

The “Windows & Windows Live Division” includes the development and marketing of operating systems, online services, software and PC hardware.

The “Server & Tools” area includes Windows Server , Microsoft SQL Server and products such as Visual Studio and Silverlight. Developer tools, training and certifications also fall into this category.

The “Online Services Division” develops online marketing solutions. Examples are Bing, MSN, adCenter and Advertiser Tools.

The “Microsoft Business Division”, MBD for short, develops and markets software and services such as Microsoft Office to increase personal, team and organizational productivity.

Another area is the Entertainment & Device Division, which develops and markets products and services to connect and entertain users. The focus here is on the Xbox 360 entertainment platform. This includes the Xbox console, the compatible Kinect control system, video games, the Xbox Live platform and all Xbox 360 accessories. Furthermore, the EDD includes the Windows Phone and the Mediaroom.

Microsoft’s Bing and SEO

Google is still the undisputed market leader worldwide in the field of search engines. In Germany alone, 88.4% of Internet users use the Google search engine (as of June 2012). For this reason, many search engine optimizers align their strategies exclusively with Google. Even if Microsoft’s search engine Bing is growing in terms of features and extensions and is developing noticeably, Bing only has a 2.5% market share in Germany, with a growth rate of plus 0.2%. Google, on the other hand, has a market share of 90.3% with growth of 0.1% (as of March 2013).

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