The prolific use of smart phones is distracting people from what they should be doing

Daemon Digital was having a bit of a rant about distracted mobile users inconveniencing the rest of us highly alert and conscientious folk. They’re sick of waiting in line at the checkout while someone is on Facebook and doesn’t notice the cashier is waiting. People online at the traffic lights. People walking and looking at their smartphone and bumping into, poking or getting in the way of others.

While this was a nice little rant that we can all relate to at some point, I personally believe that these mobile smart phones still give us far more benefits than drawbacks. I love the convenience of being able to find an address or phone number or check my email because I didn’t write something down.

But, what I did find interesting was a piece of research they listed that shows 43% of Australians now own a smart phone! That tells me a lot of things that are relevant to my work but the most obvious observation I can make is – that just shows what a cashed-up country we are.

Twitter now offers geo-targeting for advertisers

Well you learn something new every day. I didn’t even know that there was paid advertising on Twitter – turns out its called “twitter promoted products” and Twitter can promote your tweet. But the real news is that Twitter is finally giving advertisers what they’re used to having on most other media portals; geo-relevant targeting and more advanced user analytics.

I’ve pulled out the relevant info from the Digital Ministry article below:

– The new Twitter dashboard – the Follower Dashboard – helps brands get to know their Twitter customers.
– This announcement comes a year after Twitter launched Promoted Products at Ad Age’s Digital 2010 conference, when the company had only 6 advertisers. Today, Twitter has more than 600 advertisers.
– Twitter’s geo-targeting is based on an aggregate of data that users provide through their tweeting behaviour. For example, if a user is listed as a Sydney  location but sends most of his tweets from Brisbane, a Brisbane-based company would be able to target that user on Twitter.
– Now that advertisers can monitor what happens on Twitter as a result of their organic and promoted tweets, brands can learn what followers like and dislike and what brands can and can’t ask them to do.
– Another interesting fact worth knowing is that the average engagement rate for a promoted tweet on Twitter is 3%-5%. So aim high people!

Why you need a social media policy

And lastly some very sage advice from SocialFish to confirm exactly why, in practical terms, every business and organisation needs a social media policy.

It’s not sexy but it’s helpful.

Add a comment if you’ve seen some great information online – share the wealth.