'Tis the Season For Weddings, Jobs and Social Media Annoyances

The new "Timeline" is not popular. 

Gasp! Like Humans, Social Media Isn’t Perfect

Does the new Facebook Timeline bug you? Do you skip Words With Friends turns because your app takes forever to load? You’re not alone. Social media is like the freeway—you have to travel on it to get anything done, but you can reserve the right to get frustrated when there’s too much traffic, slowdowns or detours due to new construction.

What’s frustrating you in social media right now? In “Was This Broken, Why Did You Fix It?” news, the new Facebook Timeline is “Liked” by only 8 percent of Facebook users, according to The Daily Mail.

That’s a pretty low number, Zuckerberg. What’s often more concerning is that the timeline has been called a “Stalker’s Paradise,” that allows everyone to know what you’ve eaten, written, photographed and liked for however long you’ve been on Facebook, all wrapped up with a super-large, sometimes-scary “Cover Photo.”

While we’re on the subject of annoying social media, the results from the “Who Gives a Tweet” study from Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Georgia Tech have recently launched. Time magazine reported that some, but not all, of the top Twitter annoyances were:

• Too Many Hashtags: When you have more hashtags than characters, you have too many hashtags. Give it a rest, already.

• Too Many @Mentions: See above about hashtags, but replace with @Mentions

• Talking About Old News or “Pedestrian Tweets”: If you’re only Tweet contributions are what you had for lunch or the last Presidential election, you aren’t using Twitter effectively.

If you’re afraid you’re turning into a Twitter offender, check out “Why Your Business Can’t Afford Not to Tweet” for some quality advice from the Amplification, Inc. experts about how to effectively use Twitter.

April from The D-Tales

The D-Tales: Making Grandma (and You) Happy 

April Dorsey, Founder of The D-Tales event planning and production, has dedicated her career to making weddings memorable and unique. But she says that when it comes to wedding planning, the most difficult obstacle isn’t the budget or even the amount of time to plan. Instead, the biggest obstacle has to do with balancing what the bride, mother, mother-in-law and grandmother all want from the wedding.

“The first advice I give brides is to realize that it’s not your mother’s wedding, and that throwing out the rules can equal a special, personal wedding,” April says. “The second piece of advice is to realize there’s a fine balance between traditions that are important to you and those that are not.”

Once you have these ground rules set, April says the next steps are a matter of give-and-take. Think about what you and your fiancé have to have to achieve the wedding you’ve always dreamed of. The rest of the details can come together and be achieved through compromise should your mother-in-law insist on a particular seating arrangement, having your cousin Mitzi circulate the guest book, etc.

“The key is to find a way to put little touches of your own that still respect traditions you hold most dear,” April says.

Need April’s touch for your upcoming wedding? Visit www.thedtales.com and click on “Contact Us” for more information or e-mail April@TheDTales.com.

Calling All Future Social Media Mavens

Position: Intern with the Social Media Experts at Amplification, Inc.

Description: If you love all things social media, including Twitter, Facebook, blogging and video production, come and join us at Amplification, Inc. to learn and contribute in a fast-paced, ever-growing social media company.

Duties include, but are not limited to:

• Assisting in social media efforts for clients, including updating Facebook and Twitter profiles and helping to develop and implement social media strategies for clients.

• Contributing to growing video production efforts, including help with filming and conceptualizing video ideas.

“We’re really looking for an intern who loves social media and the digital environment—this is the opportunity to learn how something you love can turn into a potential career,” says Marnie Goldberg, Social Medium and Twitter Goddess at Amplification, Inc. “Our intern will be very involved with all of our projects, so prepare to get your hands dirty.”

If you’re ready to add “Amplification, Inc. Intern” to your resume, e-mail Marnie at Marnie@AmplificationInc.com, including your resume and cover letter about why you would be a great fit for the position. We are located in Broward County, Florida (Ft. Lauderdale area) so only local applicants need apply.

YOU Could Break Records

Our friends at Florida Community Support (get some more info on them by clicking here) have a fantastic event coming up. Here’s more information from our guest poster, Matthew Johnson, Florida Community Support Intern:

My name is Matthew Johnson and I am a student at Everest University in Pompano Beach, Fla. I am in my last semester and am doing my internship with Florida Community Support. While interning, I am one of the project managers for the forthcoming world record attempt of the “Largest Simon Says Game." Mark your calendars for August 27, 2012, to help us break the records and celebrate the anniversary of the Guinness World Records first publication in 1955. 


The August 27 event will take place throughout Broward County at Homeowner's Association meeting rooms and local community rooms. If you are interested in participating, you need only bring a plate of food from your culture or that celebrates your heritage that can feed at least five people.


The inspiration for the event is the same drive behind Florida Community Support's mission: The unfortunate reality that on any given day you can walk up to someone and ask them if they know their neighbors, and there is a really good chance that a majority will say no. This is why Florida Community Support is dedicated to “Building Communities One Neighbor at a Time.” We hope this event will bring each community closer together by allowing you to meet your neighbors from down the street or right next door. 


Don't miss out on the fun and your chance to be a part of the record books as we try to break the previous record that was set back on June 14, 2007, in Cedar City, Utah, at the Utah Summer Games Opening Ceremony and involved 12,215 participants. We anticipate the event will be fun for the whole family.

For more information on this event, stay tuned to the Florida Community Support website at FloridaCommunitySupport.org and like them on Facebook by clicking here.

Need help making sense of social media marketing? Turn to Amplification, Inc. Think you may be the beneficiary of a life insurance policy but aren't sure? Visit FindYourPolicy.com and thank us later. 

Your Business Can’t Afford Not to “Tweet"

Six years ago if you asked someone to “follow” you, it was most likely because you were leading them to their table at a restaurant. Thanks to Twitter, “Following” someone is as easy as clicking on their name, and you get 140-character or less updates about them daily…or by the hour…or seemingly by the minute.

“Twitter can be a divisive thing—I know many people who tell me they they just don't get it,” says Marnie Goldberg, Social Medium and Twitter Goddess at Amplification, Inc. “Twitter is designed to be simple and skipping out on the opportunities Twitter can provide your business keeps you from maximizing your business’ potential.” 

Marnie Goldberg

Users generate more than 200 million Tweets a day, according to The Wall Street Journal. What this means to most businesses is if you aren’t capitalizing on Twitter, you are missing out on a powerful opportunity to get your messages across. 
Twitter’s power is that it uses short messages to provide readers an enticing preview of what is to come on a website or a tight and succinct statement. In fact, some financial companies pay as much as $40 million per year on Twitter research that then informs financial decisions.

 “Underestimating the power of social media in 2012 would be a drastic mistake for a business to make,” says Kalia Garrido, co-founder of www.locallyrooted.com, a website dedicated to community conscious shopping. “Using Twitter allows us to get our messages out virally—we have the potential to reach the friends of our friends and their friends. It’s a seemingly unlimited audience just waiting to be tapped.” 

LocallyRooted.com

Social media-based businesses like Amplification,Inc. have capitalized on the seemingly unlimited influence of the Twitter feed.

“We work with our clients to target and constantly calibrate what messages they need relayed,” Goldberg says. “From sales to promotions to specific products to simply wishing customers a good day, we’re able to keep a Twitter feed active so followers start to eagerly anticipate the next announcement.”
A robust messaging tempo also helps attract new followers, which in turn gives your message more traction, reach, and greater influence. 

Decoding Twitter

While Twitter (technically a micro-blogging site) was invented to be a simpler alternative to social media giants such as MySpace and Facebook, it’s unique language and vocabulary can be understandably intimidating. According to Goldberg, you can make Twitter work for your business in a three-step process.

1. Head to Twitter.com and sign up. You’ll be asked to choose a name, such as @ClubCabeza and upload your company’s logo or any relevant photo that helps followers identify your business.

2. Start pushing out your messages. Goldberg recommends having a Twitter strategy as part of a larger content strategy. Deciding what message you want to convey within the 140-character Twitter parameters and when those tweets should deploy can be a bit overwhelming. Amplification, Inc. can assist you with developing your message and deploying your tweets throughout the day.

3. Build your followers to drive traffic. Obtaining a good amount of Twitter followers takes time and work. Once you have identified your target audience, following them isn’t enough. You have to make your account social and speak to your followers so that you avoid becoming “noise,” which means what you’re sharing must be of high quality and credible. Get it right, and Twitter can and will drive traffic to your website.

“People today are busy, but they typically have time to read a 140-character or less message about your business,” Goldberg says. “By capitalizing on this audience who needs quick, usable information and providing links to your site, followers have everything they need to buy and/or support your business.”

[ Winning Friends and Influencing People! ]

A Little Help From Your Friends

Another aspect of what Amplification, Inc. does is build Twitter followers for an organization.

“When it comes to social media, reputation is everything, and Amplification, Inc. has worked to build its reputation,” says Steve Cabeza, of Amplification, Inc. “When we add a client to the Amplification family, that client is linking in to our well-established and time-earned reputation as a provider of quality content and useful information.”

Garrido agrees.

“Our Twitter traffic has improved drastically since we became involved with Amplification, Inc.,” she says. “They basically took our unused Twitter account and built it up to a following of almost 1K users, and it’s growing every day.”

Amplification, Inc.'s extended and growing social network includes many content aggregators that will take the information we send out and re-tweet (re-posting, forwarding, sharing) those tweets, which enlivens an even larger audience. One such content aggregator is Tonya Scholz, a South Florida-based communications consultant and broadcaster on www.kNOw-aging.com (@kNOwAging on Twitter). 

“I want to be a trusted source for information and part of the way I accomplish this is by assimilating people’s information on Twitter,” says Scholz, whose followers include The NewYork Post. “Twitter is all about creating influence. It’s like an introduction that allows you to then build a deeper business relationship offline.”

If you’re not ready to stick your toe in the Twitter waters just yet, Amplification, Inc. can help.

“Marnie and Steve at Amplification, Inc. have truly become valued members of our marketing team—we rely on them to handle our social media so that we can focus on what we do best: running our business,” Garrido says.

For more information on Amplification, Inc., visit www.AmplificationInc.com.This article was written exclusively for The Club by Rachel Nall. Check her out on Twitter by clicking here.