VerticalResponse Product Blog

Wondering What to Post in Your Social Media Efforts? Roost to the Rescue!

One of the most common challenges we hear from small businesses owners when it comes to social media marketing is how to find great content to post. Let's face it, figuring out what to post takes time and work.  

Well one of the terrific things about our new social marketing tool Roost, is that it comes loaded with great content choices you can easily drop into a social campaign.  And since it's critical you use content that's relevant to your business...Roost's content library covers over 50 different industries with fresh content every day.

- Question: How do you find all this great suggested content in Roost?

- Answer: Very easily :)

Next time you're creating a Campaign or a Single Post in Roost you'll find content in two places:

1) The "Suggested Links" Library gives you links to tons of articles and blog posts from across the web, and these are refreshed daily!  

From the "Add Link" are, simply select the article you want to include in your campaign, read it to make sure you know what it's about and then select it to add.

See below for a screenshot:

2) The "Suggested Quotes" Library gives you a terrific bank of quotes across a wide range of topics that make great conversation and engagement starters.  To find it, go to the "Add Quote" module when creating a Single Post or Campaign and it will be one of the options.  From there you can browse the different Quote categories and select one to add to your post(s).  See screenshot below again:

3) Bonus tip - how to add or revise the content sources that show up in the Links library

Roost has custom content for over 50 industries and areas of interest.  To change the content sources you see, all you have to do is hit the "Sources" link in the top right navigation bar and customize to your heart's content!

Did you know that you can even add your own favorite content feeds in here so that they regularly appear in your Suggested Links library?...Just click "Add a Feed" and enter the URL and it will begin appearing in Roost for you.

Give suggested content on Roost by VerticalResponse a try today!  

 

Posted by: Alex Chang

Alex Chang is the VP of Social Platform at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @AlexChangSF.

 

Related Posts:

• The Skinny on Campaign Creator
• Feather Your Social Nest with New Features from Roost by VerticalResponse
• Roost Things We Love - Boost Business with Local Scorecard

The Skinny On Campaign Creator

Since the Roost acquisition more than a month ago, our development team has been hard at work making the Campaign Creator the best it can be. We've introduced some great new features and functionality. So with all these new things going on with the product, I thought it would be the perfect time to do a new overview video.

We have a ton of new users now, though, so I didn't want to leave them out in the cold by limiting this video to just the new features. So our typical "Less Than 5" Social Tip video is a little longer than usual. This allows us to show all of our users how to maximize their social marketing efforts with Campaign Creator. 

Check out the video and the product and let us know what you think.

 

Posted by Derek Overbey

Derek Overbey is the Senior Social Media Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @doverbey.

 

Related Posts:

Big News! VerticalResponse Acquires Roost™ Social Media Marketing Platform

Roost Things We Love - Boost Business with Local Scorecard

Reddit Content in Roost by VerticalResponse Unavailable Until 5 p.m. PST Today

Due to Reddit's blackout protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), the content that we source from the company will be unavailable for most of Wednesday 1/18/12. You can see more information on the company's decision for the blackout by going to their website.

Even though the Reddit links will still be visible in our content library, if you chose a Reddit link or have a Reddit link scheduled to post today, the content will be unavailable and will lead you to the blackout homepage on reddit.com.

We apologize for this inconvenience to your social marketing efforts and are confident that the Reddit content will be available later today. Please reach out to support@verticalresponse.com if you have any additional questions or concerns.

 

Posted by Derek Overbey

Derek Overbey is the Senior Social Media Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter at @doverbey.

Feather Your Social Nest with New Features from Roost by VerticalResponse

Back in December we announced the news that we acquired social marketing leader, Roost. Now, just a few short weeks later, we're excited to share powerful new features to make your social marketing even more engaging.

Here's the scoop on our latest and greatest feature enhancements:

LinkedIn - In addition to being able to create, schedule and publish your campaigns to  Facebook and Twitter, we've added LinkedIn to allow you to further the reach of your messages and expand your network.

 

Top Blog Posts & Breaking News - We've added tons of new, hot content to our Links Library. "Top Blogs" gives you a curated selection of blog posts for your industry and interests providing you engaging content for your posts and campaigns. We've also added breaking news from across the web, so you'll never be at a loss for something compelling to post. Finding and sharing intelligent and engaging content has never been easier.

Quotes Library - We've added a rich Quotes Library to our suggested content section, to provide you a wealth of quotations to use in your campaigns.

Conversations - We've added the ability for you to see and manage all the replies and comments to your posts within the Roost by VerticalResponse interface. No need to go to Facebook or Twitter to reply or comment and get distracted by all the "noise" there. You can do it all from your account. And, you'll get notified of new interactions through a handy little red notification icon (just like in your Facebook account). Learn more in this quickie video.

Here's a screen shot of how the notification will appear.

 And here's how it will look when you click on the details button:

It's quick and easy to manage all the interactions that are happening with your posts.

Stay tuned because we're launching our Roost by VerticalResponse mobile app very soon.

And, if you haven't tried Roost by VerticalResponse, take it for a spin - It's Free!

 

Posted by Kim Stiglitz.

Kim Stiglitz is the Director of Lifecycle Marketing at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @Stiggy1.

Event Marketing Feature Update Including Internet Explorer 9 Support

We just completed a release for our Event Marketing tool with a few enhancements, a fix and full support for Internet Explorer 9 users. These enhancements make our Event Marketing tool even easier and faster for you to create sell-out events in the blink of an eye.

Highlights of the release include:

Enhancements

• We've updated the editor used for designing event pages, invitations and reminders providing a better user experience and improved functionality.
• We've improved the Transaction table which now allows you to click on a name in the  table which brings up a window to email the buyer.
• We've improved the instructions for editing receipts for ticket sales to make it easier to understand.

Fixes

Internet Explorer 9 issues have been fixed, including:

• All backgrounds now display properly in the theme picker under the Design tab.
• Drag-and-drop functionality works as expected when adding lists to invitations and reminders.
• Deleting a widget is fully functional.
• A javascript error no longer appears on the Edit Content tab after creating a new event.

And, when editing new invitations for the first time, instructional text no longer appears within the editor distracting from content creation.

That's it for now, look for more Product news as it happens.

Posted by Jason Whittenberg

Jason Whittenberg is a Product Manager at VerticalResponse and blogs about enhancements and new functionality.

Roost Things We Love - Boost Business with Local Scorecard

As you may have heard VerticalResponse recently acquired a leading social media marketing company called Roost. Their signature product, Campaign Creator, allows you to set up a social marketing campaign in minutes from one easy to use dashboard. In addition to Campaign Creator, Roost also has another great tool called Local Scorecard. Roost's Local Scorecard provides insight on how local the "likers" of your Facebook business page are in relation to your business' actual physical location. 

You'll get a score from 0 to 100 based on the location of your audience in relation to your physical address. With Local Scorecard you will also learn your Facebook local coverage relative to other businesses and gain suggestions tailored to your profile to help develop your audience.

People love to do business locally. It not only supports the local economy, but is usually more cost effective with less travel and shipping expenses involved. The challenge lies in getting the word out about your business to local residents. The awesome thing about Local Scorecard is that even if you're doing a great job with local social marketing, Roost will provide tips on how to do it even better!

My favorite part about Roost's Local Scorecard is the fact that the insight is truly valuable. In the audience development section for example, suggestions are not only relevant, but they are specific to your business and easy to implement. Knowing your numbers and taking a few minutes out of your week to take the suggested action to improve them can really impact your business postively and increase local engagement and patronage.

Roost has also analyzed the data from more than 800 users of the Local Scorecard to show trends that the Wall Street Journal found very interesting.

Stay tuned for more on our Roost favorites. Next we'll cover what we refer to as the 3C's of Roost: Campaign Creator, Circles and Conversations.

Related posts:

• Big News! VerticalResponse Acquires Roost™ Social Media Marketing Platform
• Email & Social Marketing - 2011 - A Year in Review
• 5 Tips for Making Social Media Local

 

Savannah Stewart is the Partner Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse and blogs here about all things related to marketing and B2B communication. Connect with her on Twitter at @savannahstewart.

Give Your Newsletter a Makeover For the New Year

The new year is here and with it, an opportunity to change things up and do things better than before. Time to spice it up, live a little and all that jazz.

When we send out our weekly VR Buzz newsletter we often get asked for a copy of the template we use, so we asked our graphic designer Patrick to create some killer new email newsletter templates to start you off on the right foot for 2012.

Here's a sneak peek of a few:

Happy Newsletter Template

VR Inspired Template

Newsy Template

The new templates include a clean look and feel and also include customizable social network icons, call-to-action buttons, and a table of contents. These templates are fully-editable, so feel free to make them your own. Need some pointers? Check out our recent One Template, Five Different Emails post.

To start creating your newsletter with one of these swanky new templates, just log in and find the template of your choice in your account on under the category, "Newsletters," on page three.

Don't have an account? No worries, we can get you started in less than 30 seconds and you can send your first 100 emails free.

Posted by Kim Stiglitz.

Kim Stiglitz is the Director of Lifecycle Marketing at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @Stiggy1.

New Enhancements to Our Event Marketing

On December 6, we released an update to our Event Marketing product. This release brings
new enhancements and fixed some bugs that occurred at launch. If you're using Event Marketing you'll notice these changes the next time you access your account. And, if you haven't tried Event Marketing yet, now is a great time to take advantage of it.

Highlights of the Dec 6 release include:

Enhancements

• Transactions can now be voided to free up seats for your events. If the transaction included a PayPal transfer you need to process the refund directly through PayPal.
• Transaction reports can be generated with a specific date range and the results are sent via email.
• The Account Profile section now asks for your Facebook URL instead of your Facebook Group ID.
• Search and Sort options were added to the Transactions report.
• Event administrators can now opt-out of receiving all receipts and confirmations.
• The header color was changed on the Donation Details section to make it more distinguishable.

Fixes

• The Invitation HTML was updated with a default font family to display text more consistently across various email applications.
• The "Share on Facebook" link works correctly on the event Thank You page.
• The number of remaining credits for Pay-as-you-Go customers now shows the same number on both the Invitations and Reminders pages.
• New Reminder emails now appear where they should.

Posted by Jason Whittenberg

Jason Whittenberg is a Product Manager at VerticalResponse and blogs about enhancements and new functionality.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Templates: Bring on the Sales!

The turkey is not even stuffed or roasted, let alone digested, yet it's already time to start prepping for the two busiest shopping days of the year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. To help you announce your killer deals/blowout sales to your customers, here are 5 new email templates, designed by our very own Patrick Leahy.

 

1) Black Friday: Forget turkeys, better cater to those early birds!

2) Cyber Monday: Survived the doorbusters? Good, 'cause here's to the keyboard-shoppers!

It's easy to locate one of our new retail-themed email templates in your VR Account. Here's how:

1. Login to your VerticalResponse account. Don't have an account? Sign-up for free.
2. Choose the Email Wizard editor or Canvas editor.
3. Choose the Retail category.
4. Select a template.
5. Add your content and you're ready to send your email.

So what are you waiting for? Send your next VerticalResponse Marketing Email today and stay tuned for our next installment of holiday-themed templates!

Related Posts:

• More Holiday Templates to Unwrap!
• 8 New Happy Holiday Templates
• Pack the House with New Email Templates for Events

 

Posted by My Truong, VerticalResponse guest blogger. Connect with him on Twitter @PtitMy.

More Holiday Templates To Unwrap!

Holidays are the time to give, and at VerticalResponse we truly take that to heart. That's why we are thrilled to offer you our latest batch of seasonal-themed templates, just in time for the upcoming festivities, courtesy of our own in-house designer Patrick Leahy.

 

1) Thanksgiving: Gobble up this template, we promise you won't feel (too) stuffed.

 

2) Hanukkah: Light up your customers' screens, one email at a time.

 

3) Winter: Sleigh bells ring, are you sending / Your emails, with snow glistening?

 

 

 

It's easy to locate one of our new holiday-themed email templates in your VR Account. Here's how:

1. Login to your VerticalResponse account. Don't have an account? Sign-up for free.
2. Choose the Email Wizard editor or Canvas editor.
3. Choose the Seasonal or Holiday category, depending on which template you're looking for.
4. Select a template.
5. Add your content and you're ready to send your email.

So what are you waiting for? Send your next VerticalResponse Marketing Email today and don't forget to check back here, as we'll soon be delivering our final installment of templates for the holiday season!

Related Posts:

• 8 New Happy Holiday Templates
• Pack the House with New Email Templates for Events
• 10 New Templates Let You Have Your Cake and Send It, Too

Posted by My Truong, VerticalResponse guest blogger. Connect with him on Twitter @PtitMy.