Wither Facebook? The Social Platforms Used Most in 2023

 Facebook is by far the social platform Americans say they use most often, but its popularity is waning and use varies widely among different age groups, according to recent research from Edison Research.

The Infinite Dial 2023 report was based on data from a survey conducted in January 2023 among 1,500 people age 12 and older in the United States. The researchers weighted the data to national population figures.

Some 46% of social media users say Facebook is the platform they use most often, 18% say Instagram, 14% TikTok, 7% Twitter, 6% Snap, and 3% Pinterest. A fraction (6%) cite other social platforms.

Fully 74% of social media users age 55+ say Facebook is the platform they use most often, compared with 55% of those age 35-54 and just 20% of those age 12-34.

Among social media users age 12-34, Facebook declined 14 percentage points between 2022 and 2023 in the share who say it is the platform they use most often.

Among social media users age 35-54, Facebook declined six percentage points between 2022 and 2023 in the share who say it is the platform they use most often.

Among social media users age 55+, Facebook declined three percentage points between 2022 and 2023 in the share who say it is the platform they use most often.

About the research: The Infinite Dial 2023 report was based on data from a survey conducted in January 2023 among 1,500 people age 12 and older in the United States.

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How to search Instagram

Ran Hock

With more than 1 billion users, Instagram now contains extensive information of interest to analysts, reporters, investigators, and other researchers who closely follow current events. (Marketers tracking “brands” have also become very attracted to Instagram.) Instagram contains not just photos and videos, but associated textual comments, which are sometimes lengthy and substantial.

However, Instagram itself has the barest of search capabilities. With Instagram’s search box, you can search by user name and get all images posted by that user (if not marked private). You can also search for places and by hashtags but you will only get images and videos, chosen by Instagram, that “were selected automatically based on things like the people you follow or the posts you like.” When searching for topics, much can be missed.

Improving search on Instagram

There is, though, a solution. If you go to Google and perform a Google “site search,” you are likely to find a good portion of Instagram posts relating to your topic, if the posts contain adequate topic-related text.

Here are two examples

Try them: Click on results; and look at photos, videos, and comments for a feel of the types of content present:

• detroit carjacking site:instagram.com
• venezuela guaido rally OR mitin 2019 site:instagram.com

This is simple, quick, easy, and effective.

How to search Facebook

Ran Hock

Searching social media for people and for what people have posted, "liked," etc., is now a critical task for a broad range of researchers, including journalists, police, private investigators, human resource departments, threat-assessment departments, recruiters, and marketers looking for prospects. A very significant portion of such searching is to follow what is being said about companies and their brands and to identify and follow opinions, trends, and sentiments. This article looks at searching the largest and most active social media site, Facebook.

Basic Facebook search functions

For researchers, most Facebook searches fall into one of two “needs” categories:

1. identifying those people who have a particular characteristic or combination of characteristics, such as name, residence, occupation, etc.; and
2. finding specific, or maximum amounts of, material regarding a specific individual. Facebook has its own search features described below, but alternative approaches discussed later can take you much further.

First, be aware that what will be returned in a Facebook search and the ranking of those results are very different from a Google (or Bing or Yahoo) search. Facebook emphasizes that “search results are based on your Facebook activity. Facebook search results aren’t influenced by activity off Facebook.” In another statement, Facebook adds that ranking is also based on "the activity of the Facebook community."

In Facebook’s search box you can enter names or topics and, to some degree, "natural language" statements such as "friends who live in Annapolis." Beyond cases such as that, natural language searching does not usually work well and certainly not for a query such as people who live in Annapolis and attended Salisbury University. Beyond the names that you retrieve, you are shown records that somewhere mention one or more of your search terms, usually arranged by category, such as People, Links, Photos, etc.

Personalized search suggestions 

When entering your terms in the search box, notice the search suggestions offered as you type. As a recent enhancement, Facebook now includes suggestions for topics, issues, and shared links that are of interest to large numbers of users. For example, after typing brexit, the following suggestions appear: brexit news, brexit latest news, brexit explained, brexit jokes, etc. When you select one of these suggestions, you see not just posts from friends, but also public posts from people with whom you are not "friended."

This may appear obvious, but if you are "investigating" a person and don’t want that individual to know it, search from an account other than your personal account. (You should already be aware that "It’s against the Facebook Community Standards to maintain more than one personal account." It is, however, permissible to set up a separate Facebook "Page." Pages are created for businesses, organizations, public figures, etc.)

Narrowing search results

Facebook offers two main ways to narrow your search results: a menu for narrowing by content type (posts, videos, etc.) and filters for specific characteristics of each specific content type.

• Content Type—Near the top of search results pages, there is a menu for narrowing down your results by Posts, People, Photos, Videos, Marketplace, Pages, Places, Category, Groups, Apps, Events, and Links. For almost all of these, there are content-specific search filters.
• Filter Results—On the left side of results pages are Facebook filter options, divided into six overall options. Under the Posts From option, you can choose Anyone, You, Your Friends, Your Groups and Pages, Public, or Choose a Source. The latter may be the most useful of all the filter choices since this is where you can locate all the posts on a specific topic from a specific individual. Search the topic, then narrow to the individual.

In the Post Type filter section, you can choose from All Posts or Posts You’ve Seen. The Posted in Group section gives options for Any Group, Your Groups, or Choose a Group. For results from a specific group, you can also go directly to the page for that group and use the search box found there. 

In the Tagged Location section, you can specify a location, and in the Date Posted section, you can choose a specific month and year. The tagged location and date options used together can be particularly helpful when investigating crimes, accidents, and other events.

Alternatives to Facebook’s Own Search Features

'Building your own URL’

In 2013, Facebook introduced what it called Graph Search. Graph enabled the user to search for multiple criteria at one time, in a (somewhat) natural language format. Graph Search, in a fairly transparent way, nicely offered both field searching and Boolean operations. It allowed users, for example, to enter in the search box, friends who live in Baltimore and work for McCormick. Unfortunately for serious searchers, in late 2015, Graph disappeared (to some degree out of Facebook concerns for privacy issues). Though the natural language part of the plan wasn’t perfect, Graph did work well in many situations.

The good news is that it was quickly recognized that, although Graph Search was gone, the retrieval coding that Graph used is still there. This coding can be taken advantage of and “invoked” by URLs that searchers can fairly easily construct and enter into the URL box of their browsers. These constructed URLs point your browser to Facebook and carry instructions to identify those records (Facebook pages) that contain specific combinations of criteria and/or content.

In a regular Facebook search you can enter multiple terms, but terms you enter are, for the most part, searched “free-text” through all parts of records. Facebook does not distinguish whether you are looking for Salisbury as the city of residence, a university, or part of a person or company’s name. Searching by URL can solve that problem.

Though readers might understand the URL constructing process from one fairly complex example, for clarity, I will lay out how it works using a few successively more-complex examples. (The first two, simplest, examples are actually for queries that would work reasonably well with a regular Facebook search. It is the more complex URLs that actually bring in field searching and Boolean.)

Note that your device needs to be logged on to some Facebook account in order for these URLs to work.

The examples presented here should give the reader enough background and details to try out this approach and perhaps enough information to fully meet the reader’s needs for ongoing use of the techniques. However, what is included here just scratches the surface in terms of the potential and extent of the overall technique.

At the end, some very helpful resources for further exploration are given. Additionally, if constructing URLs yourself isn’t appealing, you are also shown two third-party interfaces that construct and submit searches for some one- and two-variable queries (for example, name and employer).

Examples of building a Facebook (Graph) URL

Very basic example—Searching for users with the name John Oliver:

facebook.com/search/str/John Oliver/users-named

In this example, facebook.com/search points to Facebook’s search function and str says that a string of characters is to be searched. John Oliver provides the string of characters to be searched. users-named specifies that the name field in user profiles is the field to be searched.

Second example—For a search of people who currently live in Philadelphia, you use:

facebook.com/search/str/philadelphia/pages-named/residents/present

Here, pages-named tells Facebook to look within pages for the just-identified string (Philadelphia).

residents/present says to look in the “lives in” part of profiles. (For former residents, you would use residents/past.)

Example—Combining name and residence in the two searches above:

facebook.com/search/str/John Oliver/users-named/str/philadelphia/pages-named/residents/present/intersect

In this example, intersect has to be added to create the intersection (Boolean “AND”) of the two criteria (strings). For statements where you need to create the “union” of criteria (Boolean “OR”) you would use union instead of intersect.

Example containing a name, place of current residence, and current job:

facebook.com/search/str/smith/users-named/str/detroit/pages-named/residents/present/str/bartender/pages-named/employees/present/intersect

For past employment, you would use employees/past.

Perhaps stating the obvious, instead of constantly re-creating these URLs from scratch, a searcher might create a URL such as the one just shown, then add that page to your bookmark toolbar and thereafter use that bookmarked page as a search template. Sources mentioned later provide all the possible search pieces available.

Investigating detailed data for a specific Facebook user

Even if you have “friended” a person, going to that person’s page will not necessarily show you all the data actually on Facebook. Much additional information about an individual may be found by using a person’s Facebook ID (FBID) in a URL you build. You of course need to know the FBID, which used to be found at the end of the URL for the person’s page but no longer is. You can now find it by going to the person’s page and clicking on the “About” link. Look then at the second number in the URL of that page. (It will have an “A” in front of it. That (without the “A”) is the person’s user number.

For a user with a user number of 1151148113, construct a URL beginning with facebook.com/search/ followed by the subject’s user number, followed by the data item you wish to see, such as “photos-liked”:

facebook.com/search/1151148113/photos-liked

Using this approach, you may retrieve any one of more than 300 possible data items.

Especially in police work, knowing who a subject’s friends are can be tremendously useful. For all the above data items listed, you can try applying any of the above to the subject’s friends’ Facebook pages.

Example: facebook.com/search/1151148113/friends/photos-by

Find a subject’s FBID and try the “friends” data item, then try friends/friends (friends of friends) or friends/photos-of, etc.

As you explore, keep in mind that most Facebook users don’t have on their pages all of the types of data items even appearing in the short list just given.

Bottom line

In-depth searching of Facebook isn’t necessarily easy, but it can be well worth the effort.

Quick Instagram Tips for Promotional Products Businesses

By Sarah Semple

Instagram for Promo: 5 Ways to Build and Connect With Audiences

Building brand awareness can be hard if you aren’t up to date with the latest business tools, including social media. That's why we’re diving into ways to use Instagram—perhaps the most popular social channel—in order to reach your ideal audience. Instagram is not only a great way to connect, but also a helpful tool for promoting your business.

Last month, The Next Web ran an article on how the New York Public Library (NYPL) created a new project called Insta Novels. The project was designed to encourage younger generations to crack open a book by recreating classic novels as Instagram Stories. Social media isn't going anywhere, especially for millennials and Gen Z, so NYPL took something those audiences love and turned into something they'd want to interact with. We think that’s pretty genius:

While the content that NYPL created might not apply directly to the promo industry, it does give us a creative example of how places, like the library, are developing innovative ways to reach a new audience and better connect with existing audiences.

With that in mind, here are a few tips on how you can use Instagram for promo businesses, or even for your clients.

1. Determine your goals

This might be one of the most important parts of using any social media, and it's especially so for Instagram. Think about these next few questions before starting out your page:

• Who is your audience?
• What type of message do you want your followers or potential customer to takeaway?
• How much time do I want to dedicate to building this platform?

We talked to Angela Morris, promotional product consultant at Geiger, mid-south division, whose @thepromoshopper Instagram account is one of the best in the promo business. For Morris, defining goals is the single most crucial step for companies on Instagram.

“If you want a gazillion followers, then you would have a much different approach than if you just want to interact with existing clients," she said. "Go with the flow. Though there is a ton of advice and statistics out there on how you 'should' do things on Instagram, this is ever-changing and it’s important to not lose sight of your own identity for the sake of following what worked for someone else. Remember, it’s subjective—what works for someone else may be different because their objectives, goals and time commitment was also different than yours. #YouDoYou”

2. Keep the Instagram Stories coming

So, how exactly can Stories work in the promo industry? Looking at what NYPL did, companies can utilize Instagram Stories to market products or showcase events. It’s always a good idea to stay up to date with posting images to your profile, so why not take a video and upload it as well? This can work for any business that doesn't want to overcrowd their Instagram feed. Seeing numerous videos in a row (on your feed, that is) can get kind of repetitive. Now, you can save them to your Stories and have followers tap through them. It’s as simple as that.

Another tip is to create a "highlight" that you can save your content to. This is a great option if you’d prefer your Stories stay on your page for longer than the standard 24 hours. Plus, end-users can go back and view it whenever.

Later, an Instagram scheduler app, released a blog post called "The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Stories for Business," and it covers just about every question you might have about using Stories. One section is based on what to post, which is useful for anyone starting out. From the article:

Like with regular posts, if you’re using Instagram Stories for business, it’s good to post a mix of fun, lighthearted content and promotional content. Instagram Stories is a pretty relaxed place in general, and the quality standards are a lot lower than they are for regular posts.

Unlike posts, you don’t have to feel as much pressure to create lasting content. Think of this as a way to allow users to see your creative spark in action and have a little fun.

3. Create compelling posts

Josh Storey, social media writer for SanMar, Seattle, Wash., shared his experience creating content for the supplier's robust Instagram channel. “This is an evergreen piece of advice for all social media," Storey told us. "Inform, reveal, entertain but do not advertise. If a customer wants to see your catalog, they’ll go to your website."

In general, we find that one of the biggest issues with social media is being able to push out interesting content, every single time. It’s not always easy creating posts that are going to appeal to everyone in your audience. But, if there’s something we’ve learned from asking the social media pro, it’s that when you create posts about things you actually care about, your followers can tell.

“I also like to interject personal posts about my other loves, travel and cats, as these two things are what have brought me closer to clients, colleagues and supplier partners above all else," said Morris. "Showing your interests and personality opens a door for commonalities, inspiring ideas and more meaningful connections! If you’re wondering about if it’s possible to mix your personal and professional social media, the answer is yes!"

4. Construct powerful hashtags

Instagram isn’t always just about the posts. In a post for Social Media Today, writer Andrew Hutchinson offered up a few pointers businesses could benefit from. One of them centered on hashtags. While posts and stories allow you to connect with existing followers, it's the hashtags that allow businesses to reach and cultivate new audiences within their industry.

In addition to explaining that you're able to use up to 30 hashtags per post, Hutchinson points out in his article that, as of last December, Instagram users can now follow specific hashtags. This is big news for Instagram. The tough part about building an audience is actually being able to reach them. With this newer feature, people can find your hashtag and stay on top of it whenever you use it. Remember to use words or phrases that people would actually search for. You do have 30 hashtags to play around with, but make the most out of them—and make sure they're relevant and targeted—in order to grow your following.

“Hashtags are important so that you can attract certain people or industries, plus help make it easy for them to find you,” Morris told us. “I love using hashtags creatively and sometimes throw in some funny ones. That’s when I know who is paying attention. I’ve had clients that never interact on social media call me and say something about that funny hashtag. #WhoAreYou #MyCatLikesColeman”

5. Set a schedule

This last step is more of an overview of how you can use Instagram more effectively for your business. Storey gave us some advice on how to stay consistent with your posts. “Set yourself a schedule and post at least four times a week,” he said.

We wrote previously on how to regulate your social media with a scheduling app. While this might not be exactly what Storey means, it can be an option if you’d rather automate the timing of posts.

If four posts a week is too many (or too few), adjust to your own needs and goals. Once you find a posting frequency that works best for you, do your best to stay consistent.

“At first, it might seem like a challenge to come up with content that often, but once it becomes a habit you’ll find your feed filling up with followers,” Storey said.

1. Post captivating images and videos

Instagram is the spot where users go to see visual 
content, but it also provides a prime chance to share 
videos with your followers. Unfortunately, since Instagram is 
all about quick visuals, it can be a challenge to hold people’s 
attention. The time you put into creating captivating content, both image and caption, will ultimately be the difference between a post users see and engage with and one they just scroll past.

Angela Morris, a promotional product sales consultant for 
Geiger based in Nashville, Tenn., previously told us that for her, being sincere in your posts is big, and something your audience will notice. “For me, I like to post about products that I personally like and would use, because no message is worth posting if it’s not based in sincerity and authenticity,” she said. “The old saying ‘a picture says a thousand words’ is true and will be felt by your audience as they scroll on by. #BeReal.”

“Post visually engaging content—content that catches the eye,” said Evan Tarakjian, social media and content creator for Spector & Co., the promotional products supplier based in Montreal. “People scroll through their feeds quickly. Make sure your content stands out. How? Tell a story with your content. Instagram offers you the ability to pair video with still images. Mix it up, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Make sure the look and feel of your content stays consistent. Use similar colors, and try not to mix styles from post to post. When someone lands on your Instagram page, the grid needs to look polished and consistent.”

If you’re interested in posting videos on Instagram, Tarakjian suggested using subtitles, since most people prefer to keep sound off for social media feeds. “Also, be sure you have linked your Instagram account to your Facebook business page to 
access the Instagram Insights,” he added. “This will allow you to determine valuable information about your audience and the best times to post.”

2. Use the Instagram Stories and Highlights functions

Instagram Stories don’t have to be meticulously crafted images or videos—they can be brief updates better for “real-time” interaction with users. They’re especially useful during trade shows or events, or even if you want to directly address your audience. Stories disappear after 24 hours, but you can always add them to your Highlights section if you’d like your 
audience to be able to go back and view them later.

Quick Twitter Tips for Promotional Products Businesses

By Sarah Semple

According to Statista, Twitter has 326 million worldwide users. That’s more than the entire population of the U.S., making Twitter one of the top social media platforms based on active users. While not all 326 million people are going to be relevant to your business, the numbers put into context the kind of reach and impact Twitter can have for businesses. Here’s how Bonnie Harris put it in a 2018 article for Business 2 Community: “Your profile is the face of your business on Twitter. It is the first thing anyone scrutinizes whenever they bump into your handle on the platform.”

Of course, there’s a lot of competition out there for businesses on Twitter, so you need to find ways to stand out. Here are a few.

1. Follow the right people

When you’re planning your Twitter strategy, ask yourself the following questions:

• Who would benefit from my business’s tweets?
• Who would connect with posts my business retweets?
• Who would find my content interesting or helpful?

Then, follow people or businesses that fit those descriptions. Unfortunately, following someone on Twitter doesn’t automatically mean they’ll follow you back, but at least you’ve taken the initiative and put your brand out there, and it gives you further chances to engage with their posts, increasing the likelihood you’ll get on their radar. It will also help you see the kind of content they engage with, giving you ideas on what to share yourself.

Annie Dimock, social media editor for Printing Impressions, Philadelphia, Promo Marketing’s sister publication, touched on why following people and businesses within your industry is so essential to having a successful channel. “Only follow companies relevant to your brand,” she said. “You don’t want an oversaturated timeline with content that isn’t of value to you.”

2. Utilize Twitter chat functions (or jump in on a Twitter chat)

If you’re already using hashtags on Twitter to drive people to your tweets, you’re off to a good start. But hashtags serve another purpose that may not be as widely known: Twitter chats. These are scheduled events where likeminded individuals, well, chat about a certain topic, with a preset hashtag tying the whole thing together and allowing people to follow along.

They’re great for networking online. And the promo industry has one, called #promochat, which happens every Wednesday at 3 p.m. ET. Jay Busselle, marketing director for Equipment Zone, Franklin Lakes, N.J., who has more than 4,000 Twitter followers, happens to be its founder. But there are plenty of others. He noted that, through a website called Twubs, you can find a number of topics and calendars for when each is happening.

“Once you find a chat that interests you, make note of the associated hashtag. Then simply make sure you are online and logged into Twitter at the scheduled time, and search for the hashtag to find the latest tweets,” Busselle said. “Twitter chats provide amazing networking opportunities and give you and your company a tremendous amount of exposure. You can participate by answering some of the questions that the chat moderator has shared. You can also respond to or retweet with comments on how you feel about other people’s answers.”

Busselle had a power tip for using Twitter chats: “Monitor and engage in specific Twitter chats where your clients are or should be engaged. There is a chat for every industry and thousands of business topics.”

3. Keep your content short and to the point

Twitter changed its original 140-character limit to 280, giving users twice the real estate for their tweets. While this does change things for people who want to write posts that are on the longer side, it’s good to keep in mind that Twitter is meant for shorter updates. Evan Tarakjian, social media and content creator for Spector & Co., the promotional products supplier based in Montreal, explained that shorter tweets are more likely to get noticed.

“Create updates that are short and sweet,” he said. “It’s true that tweets that are shorter get retweeted more often. Expand your audience with the use of hashtags. Have a good mix of tweet types. This mix can consist of retweets, images, links, quotes or short videos.”

Facebook Best Practices for Business

10 Effective Business Tools for Entrepreneurs

Alex Ivanovs 

I'm always intrigued to learn about new, accessible tools and applications that can help me to drive more sales, accelerate my business growth, or simply help me with gathering insights and new ways of doing things.

In the current era of digital business management; social media, project management, and acquisition seem to be some of the top areas to focus on, which is going to be the theme for our roundup today.

I think many of the tools on this list have the potential to become invaluable assets for both small businesses, and individuals alike. Jump over to the bottom of the post to see these tools in action as I've gathered up a slideshow to give you a better idea of what to expect.

Remember to leave feedback, and your own favorites that you didn't find in this particular roundup.

Comindware

Comindware Project is one of the most innovative and simple-to-use Project Management and Collaboration tools on the market. The solution helps to plan and manage projects for businesses that work with numerous teams and tight deadlines. Comindware Project maximizes productivity and greatly increases cross-team collaboration.

Everypost

The social media sector is exploding, which is why Everypost is thoroughly focused on bringing you all the necessary tools for making social media publishing a breeze. It's a highly acclaimed publishing application used by content marketing experts, and social marketing professionals alike.

Brand24

Brand24 is an established online brand that deals with seeing and listening to what the social media is saying about your brand, one of the most important and useful assets that you can have. Expect access to features such as actionable customer insights, email alerts, influencer analysis, automated & customized PDF reports, infographics and many more.

Visme

Visme is the visual content platform that every marketer out there has been waiting for, it literally gives new meaning to creating lively visual content out of the data you have. It's perfect for building web and mobile animations, presentations, infographics, individual banner ads, graphics and charts, and even product demos.

MassPlaner

Mass Planner is a social scheduling tool that can be used to schedule all your updates on the top social media sites. Instead of manually posting the same message on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Google+ you can do it now in one simple step, open Mass Planner, add your post and see it published. This software proves to be a huge time saver and it's definitely something every serious entrepreneur should use.

Sendible

Sendible allows businesses to manage their social media more effectively and to better understand their ROI. Their goal is to excel at the delivery and execution of a robust, reliable product and at the same time providing exceptional customer service.

LiveControl

LiveControl requires no experience or code writing for building awesome business websites. What makes it unique is the ability to visually control the design for four different views: desktop, tablet-landscape, tablet-portrait and mobile view; all this while maintaining a clean, simple, drag and drop interface.

Product Hunt

Product Hunt isn't just a source of the latest products, tools and apps that hit the market, it's a global network of thinkers, innovators and entrepreneurs who are more than happy to share their wisdom with other members of the site. Highly recommended to add this resource to your sites that you visit daily. Lots of ideas to be stumbled upon!

Yanado

Task management tools aren't going anywhere, but there is certainly some movement in the field of email management, and how to create your inbox into a all-in-one business dashboard for answering, responding and even creating particular business tasks. Yanado is the best task manager for Gmail users.

Kindling

Idea management is never easy, but that's what the entrepreneur spirit is all about; creative, innovative and bright ideas that can open new doors of opportunity. Kindling is a magnificent dashboard that provides a simple way of sharing, working on, and analyzing ideas for your businesses growth. Everyone can participate!

Teamstory

Teamstory is the social network for startups and entrepreneurs. This inspiring entrepreneurial community lets you share moments, quotes, links and thoughts related to startups. You can easily discover and connect with other awesome entrepreneurs around the world.

Rocketship

Less of a tool, but definitely an invaluable asset - Rocketship is the prime resource for learning about all the startup, entrepreneur and business stuff from the leading inventors and creative minds in the current business world. Learn from successful entrepreneurs each week about strategy, growth, and so much more.

6 Steps to Launching Your Social Sales Campaign on LinkedIn (Infographic)

KIM LACHANCE SHANDROW

ENTREPRENEUR STAFF

Social selling is all the buzz these days, but what is it, who’s doing it and why is it so important right now?

But first, hold the phone. Thankfully it has zero to do with dialing for dollars (old-school cold calling). Put simply, social selling is when salespeople -- and marketers, recruiters and account reps -- use social media platforms to directly interact with sales prospects.

“Social selling has the power to help establish a positive reputation, unearth hard-to-find information, and make important contacts in a scalable way,” LinkedIn vice president of sales Mike Derezin toldEntrepreneur. “In today’s digital and data driven age, online is how perceptions are shaped, so for anyone working in sales today, it’s a real miss to not make it core to their strategy.”

When done right, social selling is also a highly effective lead generation, relationship building and conversion tool. When done wrong, it can alienate prospects and send them packing. Getting the delicate social sales do-si-do just right can be tricky. It’s best to start strong with a solid game plan.   

LinkedIn, the a 347 million-plus member professional social network and creator of a popular fee-based social selling tool called Sales Navigator -- has put together a crash course in how to get started in social sales in the helpful infographic below. The guide walks you through six simple steps to launching a successful social sales campaign, from to setting up your social presence to finding and attracting the right prospects, to measuring and optimizing results.

Check it out below.

The Ultimate List of Content Creation Tools for 2014

Tara Urso Social Media and Content Strategist, insight180

A large part of creating a great blog and engaging social media posts is having great content. If your company is creating useful, relevant content that your audience wants to see, share and interact with, you’ll grow your audience, see more engagement and establish yourself as thought leaders in your field. Not to mention all the SEO benefits. Some of the best ways to create content are through images, videos, screencasts and webinars. If you don’t have design skills, you might have been using MS Paint, Word or PowerPoint to create anything visual. Please, close Paint and take a look at our list of the best tools for content creation for 2014.

Graphic Creation
Canva: Let me tell you a secret. Although I have graphic design skills, I didn’t use a fancy program to create the image above. I used Canva. While I do use photoshop and illustrator to create graphics, sometimes I need a quick yet tasteful image. This handy, web-based, drag-and-drop tool allows you to set dimensions, add various backgrounds, change colors, add icons, banners and more. I love Canva because I don’t own nearly enough usable vector images like banners, arrows and speech bubbles. Canva has you covered. Resize and change the colors, add text, download. It’s really that easy. Watch this video to learn more.

Adobe Products: If you already have or are willing to pay for Adobe products like Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign, you’re probably accustomed to these products already or are on your way to learning them. These programs aren’t exactly easy to master and will take a lot of time. If you’re not planning on being a designer or regularly using these programs, it may not be worth the investment.

Pixlr or Pixelmator: These photoshop alternatives do not have all the features that Photoshop does, but they may be enough to meet your photo editing needs.

Vector Images: If you do use Adobe Products, a great place to find cheap but highly useful vector images is VectorStock. VectorStock has just about any type of icons and images you may need for creating great content.

Create Infographics
With our short attention spans, infographics are becoming a great way to convey data and information. This content creation tactic will get your company more attention than that boring white paper.

infogr.am: Easily edit pre-made templates. Fill in your own data, and you’re done. Free to share your created infographic but $18 per month to download.

Easel.ly: Like Canva but specifically for infographics. A drag and drop editor with many backgrounds, shapes, icons and more. You can watch a review of easel.ly here.

PowerPoint?: Some may cringe at the suggestion but you can really make some cool infographics using PowerPoint! Hubspot offers some infographic PowerPoint templates available to download here.

Find even more infographic creation tools here.

Create Collages
BeFunky Collage Maker: Looking for a way to change up your photo posts? While I could create collages in Photoshop, this collage maker is so quick I can’t help but use it. Just upload your images, pick a layout, adjust the spacing and download!

PicMonkey: Another great place to create collages, as well as edit photos and do quick touch ups, is PicMonkey.

Free Hi-Res Stock Photos
Finding images for your company blog posts can be frustrating. It’s a bad practice, and illegal, to use image that aren’t free use (e.g. creative commons license) or without permission from the owner. Sometimes you can find gems but many times, creative commons images are low-res or simply low quality photos. You could buy stock images but good ones are probably out of your budget. Because we’re always writing blog posts, we’re constantly on the hunt for free, high quality stock images. Check out this list of places to find stock photos that don’t suck. They’re great for throwing some text, banners or other elements on top. Here are just a few hi-res, free stock images available from sources on the list. Pssst. I made this collage with BeFunky Collage Maker! >>

Screencasts
Quicktime: If you have a Mac, you already have a powerful screen recording tool and that is quicktime. Here’s a tutorial on how to do it!

Screenflow: I’ve seen a lot of online marketers say they use ScreenFlow. I don’t use it but here’s a review.

CamStudio: Free, lightweight and easy to use, CamStudio is a great choice if you have a PC.

Find more screen recording software options here.

Video
imovie: If you have a Mac, imovie comes stock and it’s really easy to use. Your videos show up as thumbnails and you can easily cut, drag and drop clips to create your videos.

PC alternative?: If you have a pc, imovie is not available for you. There are some pc video editing alternative out there like Windows Movie Maker, Movavi Video Editor ($79). Find more alternatives here.

PicPlayPost: This cool app allows you to create video collages that play each video separately.

Easy Video Suite: At $394, Easy Video Suite is definitely an investment. This software has some really cool features like requiring a viewer to tweet out your video in order to keep watching. While I haven’t used this product myself, here is an in-depth review so you can decide for yourself.

Instagram and Vine: While these may be thriving social networks, don’t forget that each is a powerful video creation tool.

Wideo: For making videos with animated elements, Wideo is a great tool to use. Like Canva and Easel.ly, Wideo is also a drag and drop editor. Here are some of the types of videos you can create with Wideo. It’s free to create a project with Wideo but it will say “Wideo” in the corner. If you want to download a Wideo, there is a small cost. Compared to paying someone to create an amazing animated video, the price is quite low. Check out their pricing here.

Webinars
GoToWebinar: For live webinars, GoToWebinar is what the pros use. With a $468 per year price tag, you’ll want to have a strategic plan when making that investment.

StealthSeminar: For $70 per month for up to 150 attendees, you can automate your webinars by prerecording them through Stealth Seminar.  As you gain more attendees, you’ll want to upgrade.

Curation
When you want to find content to post that isn’t your own, it may seem hard to know where to start. Here are some sites to give you ideas and inspiration.

Storify: Collect media from twitter, facebook, instagram, arrange as a story, publish and embed. Share it and notify those involved, go viral! That’s the concept behind storify. This is a great tool for newsjacking or for any type of newsworthy discussion happening online.

Research and Newsjacking: To find out what’s trending or worth sharing check Search.Twitter.Com, Topsy, Google Trends, fre.sh.

Have I forgotten something essential? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll add it!