Twitter Dashboard is a new app and marketing tool that Twitter has introduced to help businesses. The purpose is to allow you to better understand, engage, and grow your audience on Twitter –exactly what a marketer is looking for. As a social media marketer, I appreciate Twitter continuing to grow tools that help brands improve performance on the platform. It really is targeted towards the management of Twitter business accounts. So, how does it work?

This month we’re celebrating a few things here.  Here at Sprocket Websites we’re celebrating our 6 year anniversary! We’re also celebrating a great first half of 2016.  To end the first half of 2016, we’d like to take a look back at our most popular articles so far this year.  These are the articles that viewers have read and interacted with the most in the last 6 months.  We love seeing the topics that interest you, so we can give you more of what you’re interested in.  Happy Anniversary!

While the whole point of Twitter is supposed to be real-time communication, sometimes we have to put the smartphone down and get other work done. Scheduling tweets can help you stay top-of-mind with customers when you’re busy elsewhere.

Well, for the first time since 2010 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has updated its FAQ page for endorsement requirements. For those who are unfamiliar, the FTC is the agency that enforces U.S. truth-in-advertising laws. 90% of you still probably don’t know what I’m talking about since it seems like social media marketers aren’t exactly away that there are certain regulations on posting. Whether you know or not though, there is an agency that enforces these laws and they are becoming more specific when it comes to posting and running contest or promotions on social media. Essentially the FTC’s point stays that any material relationships between brand and endorser on social media must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed and they are diving in further by providing a detailed guideline on social media issues that have come to light in the last few years.

With the amount of time and effort we pour into marketing our businesses, you would think that we'd be more interested in keeping and reaching the people that are interested in our services/products vs those that aren't.  However, it seems like a lot of businesses are looking for big numbers.  More followers, more likes, and more sign ups.  Sure, there's power in numbers, but what if you're wasting valuable marketing dollars on people who don't care what you're selling?

Still giving Facebook hashtags a go?  Great! Assuming you're using them correctly... If you're using hashtags on Facebook, you have to remember that it's not the same platform as Twitter.  There are different rules that apply.  The same basic structure is set up though.  You type in a "#" symbol and then whatever single word or phrase without spaces that you want to use (sans symbols).  What else do you need to remember though?

At this point, many businesses have taken the initiative to put themselves out there.  Businesses are reaching their customers like never before through websites, blogs, newsletters, and social media.  With what seems like 30 new social media platforms a minute, it can be difficult to decide which network is worth putting a big chunk of your time into and which might not need as close of an eye on it.