Social Media and Marketing Blog
Music Monday: Name That Tune
This week’s playlist theme is a little self-indulgent: our names. We have a collection of songs whose title, artist or lyrics share a name with one of us here at FSC Interactive. Self-indulgent, maybe, but highly entertaining and eclectic – definitely. Happy listening!
Listen Up! A Guide to Brand Reputation Management
Word of mouth has always been one of consumers’ most trusted resources in making purchasing decisions. Many consumers generally mistrust mainstream advertising and are much more likely to buy, try and explore a new product or brand based on a recommendation of someone they trust. Couple this concept with the realization that with social media, blogs and dedicated review [...]
Weekly Round-Up: Online News You Can Use | Week of 5/13/13
Are your social media channels making you feel inadequate? Anxious? According to Mathew, that’s OK. Andy’s solution is to live near a park and Lydia’s got a pretty epic Oreo video to cheer you up! Take a look and enjoy our weekly round-up of online news you can use. Mathew: Social Media has brought about [...]
Music Monday: Naked and Famous, AWOLNATION, John Legend and More
This week’s playlist features some of the songs we’re listening to right now, from Florence and the Machine, Robin Thicke, Rihanna and so many more. Enjoy!
Online Marketing Trends- What We’re Reading This Week
Ashley: By the time a consumer decides to purchase a product or service, they’ve been influenced by a variety of sources, each of which they value at differing levels. It is critical for marketers seeking to tap into these influencers to understand the balance between an influencer’s reach (think Justin Bieber) vs. their influence over purchasing power [...]
Conquer Google Knowledge Graph: What is Schema?
If you haven’t noticed, Google is working very hard to keep you browsing on Google’s family of sites. With Google’s Knowledge Graph, Google’s search results now offer carousels, enlarged Google Image Search results, and immediate summaries from closed database sources like Wikipedia. Searchers are now spending less time clicking through to links in the search results. It’s [...]
Music Monday: Mother’s Day
This week our playlist is in honor of some of our favorite people: our mothers! We have put together some of our favorite songs in honor of Mother’s Day this Sunday. Enjoy!
What We’re Reading | Week of 4/29/13
Each week we scour the online news for trends to share. This week we review JCP scandals, content strategy, a tweet that took down the stock market, power house social media CEOs working together for immigration reform, social media advertising options and a periodic table for Google Analytics. Enjoy! Ashley: It’s no secret JC Penney has had [...]
3 Ways Live Tweeting Has Changed the Game, Plus Some Best Practices to Ease Your Mind
I started live-tweeting 3 years ago before I even knew I was live-tweeting. I joined Twitter to be a journal of my thoughts. Slowly but surely, I followed people who shared the same interests as me, and I knew I could check my Twitter feed for updates on everything that I cared about. Self-centered? Yes. [...]
How to Maximize Pay Per Click Advertising
Figuring out how to maximize pay per click advertising is not easy work. The world of pay per click advertising is a complex place. With so many variables affecting each other, such as cost-per-click, click through rate, quality score, and average ad position, just to name a few, managing these moving parts can seem overwhelming. [...]
Music Monday: Jazz Fest Weekend 2
This week we’re listening the bands we can’t wait to see during the second weekend of New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Happy festin’ and happy listenin’.
Online Marketing Trends | Week of April 22, 2013
Each week we scour the online news for trends to share. This week a tweet takes down the stock market, power house social media CEOs working together for immigration reform, social media advertising options and a period is table for Google Analytics. Enjoy! Mathew: What do Facebook, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Google, Netflix, Yahoo, Zynga, and Groupon have in [...]
Music Monday: Jazz Fest, Weekend 1
This week our free music playlist features bands performing at the first weekend of the 2013 New Orleans Jazz Fest, like Billy Joel, John Mayer & much more!
Back to Basics: A Brief Graphics Primer for the Non-Designer
In the age of infographics and Instagram, more marketing professionals are expected to have basic graphics communications knowledge. Here are some design pointers for non-designers.
What We’re Reading | Week of April 15, 2013
In this week’s What We’re Reading, we have articles on social media demographics, emotional effects from social media, content mapping and more!
Music Monday: All-time Favorite Songs
This week we have put together a collection of our all-time favorite songs. The result is an eclectic and interesting playlist with a wide variety of genres and generations – enjoy!
Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Office
It may not be fully on topic for FSC but we’ve put together a list of Microsoft Office Keyboard shortcuts. Why? Because they’re freaking awesome! Check it out and happy short-cutting!
FSC Online Marketing Certifications: Google Analytics and HootSuite
FSC Interactive adds HootSuite and Google Analytics certifications to its staff achievements. As a leading online marketing agency, FSC Interactive is committed to ongoing education to stay innovative and knowledgeable on cutting edge industry trends.
What We’re Reading | Week of April 8, 2013
This week, we’re reading online marketing articles on new Facebook advertising options, Austin as a Google Fiber city & measuring happiness on social media.
Music Monday: French Quarter Fest
In honor of the New Orleans French Quarter Festival 30th Anniversary, we’ve put together a playlist of our favorite local New Orleans musicians. Enjoy!
Audio Blogging: How To Use Podcasts For Your Brand
Learn the basics on how to best record, distribute and track the success of a podcast to enhance and humanize your brand.
Interactive Marketing News | Week of April 1, 2013
In this week’s What We’re Reading, find articles about a new Pinterest competitor, Luvocracy, the importance of mobile searches and Facebook’s News Feed.
Music Monday: March Madness
In honor of March Madness, we’ve put together a collection of some of our favorite basketball songs. Time to get pumped up! Enjoy!
Avatar Activism: What, Why and Will it Matter?
Has your Facebook News Feed gone red? Mine too. Here’s some personal (and researched) insight into the what and why of what is becoming known as Avatar Activism.
Online Marketing Trends | Week of March 25, 2013
This week FSC Interactive explores Google silent movie subtitles, low cost brain imaging research, how to ask for shares and likes on Facebook, optimizing keyword bids and what Don Draper would Tweet! JoAnna: Last month, Google’s Web Speech API brought voice recognition to Google Chrome browsers in over 30 languages. This past week, Google [...]
Music Monday: Spring Fever
In celebration of the arrival of spring, here is a playlist of songs that remind us of this happy, sunny season in New Orleans.
SMX West 2013: Top Ten Takeaways for SEO
Couldn’t make it out to San Jose for SMX West 2013? Don’t despair — we’ve braved the congested airports, treacherous taxi rides, and questionable conference food to bring you FSC’s top ten takeaways for search marketing strategy from the industry conference. 10. (Not provided) is a reporting problem that isn’t going away The latest browser updates [...]
5 Things You’re Doing Wrong On Twitter
For many companies, the idea of social media spread like wild fire and due to the risk of getting burned, they simply jumped on board the ship a little unprepared. Don’t worry – we are here to help you navigate the rocky waters of Social Media and we are going to kick this party off [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of March 18, 2013
Each week, FSC Interactive brings you the latest news and trends in online marketing. This week we talk food porn, Tipping Point, Twitter on TV and, of course, March Madness! Ashley: When you see a digital ad, do you ever wonder what it takes to get that perfect unbelievable shot? German production studio The Marmalade [...]
Music Monday: Movie Soundtracks
This week’s playlist is a collection of our favorite movie soundtracks. Whether the song was original to the film or an old favorite used in one scene – we have some of it all. Enjoy!
Pinterest Analytics: What Online Marketers Should Know
Pinterest has introduced Analytics to measure what’s trending on your boards and these new metrics can help develop a smart online marketing strategy.
Once Upon A Vine: Brands That Live Happily Ever After
Have you heard about the newest knight in shining social media armor? The Vine app allows you to capture and share short 6 second looping videos.
What We’re Reading | Week of March 11, 2013
The weekly round-up of online marketing trends curated by FSC Interactive: Ashley: As social media marketers we often spend a majority of our time in third party monitoring software rather than directly on Twitter.com to streamline our processes. We have social media marketing down to an efficient science, and are always looking for new tools to help [...]
Music Monday: St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend and we can’t wait. We’re gearing up for the weekend-long celebration with an Irish playlist! Erin go Bragh!
Facebook Changes (Again): What You Need to Know
So, Facebook announced a dramatic redesign of the News Feed. Check out what you need to know and how this will affect you as a person or as a business.
What I Learned at the 2013 PR News Digital Media Summit
Key interactive marketing takeaways from the 2013 PR News Digital Media Summit in San Francisco including visual storytelling and content marketing.
Five Steps To Increase Email Open Rates
You can write pages of incredible email content, jam-packed with enlightening ideas, targeted keywords and trending topics, but if your subscribers don’t open it, what’s the point? You have fewer characters than a single Tweet to stand out in a cluttered inbox, and knowing where to start and how to optimize it is half the [...]
Online Marketing Trends: What We’re Reading | Week of March 4, 2013
Each week we share our top stories on what’s new and exciting in online marketing trends. This week the team at FSC Interactive explores a new network, new Twitter metrics, a Pinterest fashion show and much more. Enjoy! JoAnna: It’s not very often that Google is transparent about how their search algorithm works. This week, Google has [...]
Optimizing Images for Social Media [Presentation]
Last week our Vice President, Tiffany Starnes, was honored to present at the New Orleans PRSA chapter about how to effectively optimize images for social media success. Since we like to share, we’ve got a copy just for you. Enjoy! Optimizing PR Photo Opps on Social Media from FSC Interactive Related PostsHelp Us Help [...]
Music Monday: Jazz Fest 2013
The 2013 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Lineup has been released and, we couldn’t be more excited! In honor of the 7-day festival, we’ve put together a playlist of the artists we can’t wait to see. Enjoy!
Are Google’s New Enhanced Campaigns Truly Enhanced?
The introduction of Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns has left many people in the Search Engine Marketing world wondering how much the new Enhanced Campaign features will really enhance their campaigns. Enhanced Campaigns are optional for now, but starting some time near the middle of this year all Google AdWords CPC campaigns will be changed to [...]
Exploring New Territory: Practical SEO Reporting with Google Analytics
Lewis and Clark Expedition and Practical SEO Reporting So what do Lewis and Clark have to do with SEO reporting? The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-1806 was the first American expedition to cross the western portion of the United States. Cartography is an art of charting the unknown, and the Lewis and Clark team [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of February 25, 2013
We look at two new social outlets for videos, cloud based business cards, our adapting posture and Google glasses for your spring accessories in this week’s online news round-up. Ashley: Video creation just got a lot more social with the release of Switchcam Director! This new web app can automatically synchronize videos from the same event into one [...]
Music Monday: The Lenten Season
In honor of the Lenten Season, we’ve put together a playlist of our favorite seafood songs. You read that right – it’s a bit of a stretch, we realize, but it made for an oddly wonderful collection. Enjoy!
FSC Wins Hospitality Industry Top Honors
We won! It’s not quite an Academy Award, but the Adrian Awards are a pretty big deal in the tourism and hospitality industry. We are excited to have won two Gold awards this year! Check out the details.
Help Us Help You: A Social Media Guide for PR Professionals
Are you a PR professional? Let us help you with our step-by-step guide for PR Professionals on how to have information shared effectively by a Social Media agency.
What We’re Reading | Week of February 18, 2013
From celebrities getting burned or blessed by social media to the psychology of the “Selfie” (admit it, you’ve taken a photo of yourself from your phone), this week’s reading list from FSC Interactive will keep you informed and entertained.
Music Monday: Best of the Breakup Songs
Last week we put together a collection of love songs for valentine’s day. This week, we’ve got the best breakup songs. Whether you like to cry during a breakup or scream at the top of your lungs, we have the best music for you!
What We’re Reading | Week of February 11, 2013
Brooke: Back in July of 2012 Jason Mraz put out a call to all of his Twitter fans and friends to help him come up with a concept for his upcoming music video, The Woman I Love. Over the past couple of months Tweets have poured in and last night he finally released the video with snips of [...]
How Doctors Can Use Social Media as Good Medicine
Top tips for how doctors use social media to expand their patient relationships. Doctors use social media (Facebook, Twitter) to strengthen their practices.
Music Monday: Love Songs
In honor of Valentine’s Day being just a few days away, we’ve put together a collection of our favorite love songs. From classics like It Had to be You and L-O-V-E to newer songs like Crazy in Love and Hey There Delilah, we’ve got a little something for everyone. Enjoy!
What We’re Watching | Super Bowl Edition
It’s a known fact that many folks just watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. Here are FSC Interactive’s top pick for best Super Bowl commercials. Mathew: Amy Poehler, one of my favorite personalities on television, portrayed a genuine clueless electronics shopper in Best Buy’s ad, entitled ASKING AMY. She is portrayed fumbling around a Best Buy [...]
Get Social This Mardi Gras Season
We’ve talked about the Dos and Don’ts of Social Media during Mardi Gras, now here’s some real life scenarios that social media can benefit during Carnival in New Orleans.
Music Monday: It’s Mardi Gras Time in New Orleans
It’s Mardi Gras time in New Orleans! We New Orleanians really know how to have a good time and the best time of all is during Mardi Gras. To get you in the Mardi Gras spirit, we’ve put together a playlist of our very favorite songs. Enjoy!
FSC Does Super Social Media
FSC Interactive is leveraging the power and influence of social media to inform, engage and interact with anyone talking about the Super Bowl or New Orleans this week, including players, coaches, entertainers, visitors and locals with the development of the Social Media Command Center in New Orleans.
What We’re Reading | Week of January 28, 2013
On this week’s FSC reading list are online marketing articles about #Polichat, OpenTable purchasing Foodspotting, Puppy Bowl IX and more!
Music Monday: Are You Ready for Some Football?
Are you ready for some football? We sure are! We’re excited to be a part of the Super Bowl this year and, in honor of the largest sporting event in the country, we’ve put together a playlist of our favorite football and tailgate songs. Enjoy!
Best Practices For Rocking Instagram
Looking for tips to help make your Instagram awesome? Look no further! From photo-taking tips to Instagram etiquette, we’ve got you covered.
Mardi Gras Social Media Etiquette
While we welcome the addition of social media as an added element to help enhance the experience for those in New Orleans and across the world, we also want to warn you against some potential misfires with some social media etiquette for the Mardi Gras season.
What We’re Reading | Week of January 21, 2013
On this week’s FSC reading list, browse online marketing articles about Facebook thumbnail photos, Graph Search, the top brands on Instagram and much more.
Music Monday: Cover Songs
This week we have a collection of our favorite cover songs. From covers of The Beatles to covers of the White Stripes, we’ve got a diverse selection. Happy Monday!
What We’re Reading | Week of January 14, 2013
JoAnna: With the myriad of Google algorithm updates for the new year, one of the most important Google changes for 2013 is the emergence of AuthorRank. With this new metric, Google will reward content creators who regularly generate rich, relevant content on a topic, and whose reputation as a content source is highly regarded within [...]
SEO Demystified: The Goldilocks Model
Social media offers unparalleled access to your customer. They have invited you into their conversations and there is a very fine line between engagement and spam. The same rules apply to SEO. Some questionable SEO practitioners will do just about anything to boost their rankings. Maybe it is hitting you over the head with the exact same keywords, stuffed [...]
Music Monday: #1 Hits
In honor of the first month of the new year, we’ve put together a collection of our favorite #1 hits. From Hall and Oates’ Private Eyes to Adele’s Rolling in the Deep to No Doubt’s Don’t Speak, we’ve got #1 hits from different generations and genres. It’s a pretty stellar (albeit eclectic) playlist, if we do say so ourselves.
What We’re Reading | Week of January 7, 2013
On this week’s FSC Interactive reading list are articles on Beck’s creative crowd sourcing for his new album, reverse New Year’s social media resolutions, a trip offering a social media butler, using negative Yelp reviews to your advantage and more!
New Year, New Opportunity! 2013 Social Media Wishlist
We get it, it’s January and everyone is resolving to be a better version of themselves. At FSC we have a few resolutions of our own and a few requests of our favorite social media channels in 2013.
Music Monday: Widespread Panic, Guster, Sufaris and More!
This week we have everything from Widespread Panic to Ellie Goulding and GROUPLOVE to Sufaris. Get your new year started right and take a listen. Enjoy!
Best of 2012
It’s been quite a year. We are so incredibly grateful for the success and want to share some of the highlight of 2012. Sadie “What Did We Do Without Her” Nius Sadie joined our team early last year as Director of Operations. I’m not sure how FSC functioned before she streamlined our process and got us working [...]
SEO Advice: How To Trick Google
There’s gotta be a trick to getting to the top of Google search results, right? If you can master the game, you can outsmart Google! Or not. Google makes about 500 changes a year to its search algorithm. Some are tiny and other are huge…Panda was huge. Face the facts, you will not trick Google. [...]
FSC New Year’s Resolutions
Ashley: My FSC Resolution for 2013 is to increase the consistency of which I share ideas on our FSC blog. With busy client schedules, it’s hard to carve out the time to practice what we preach and consistently contribute to our own online presence. I know how important it is to put down in writing [...]
Music Monday: The Best of 2012
In honor of the last day of 2012, we’ve put together a collection of our favorite songs from this past year! Enjoy and see you in 2013!
Music Monday: Merry Christmas from FSC
This week we’re celebrating the season! Enjoy our holiday playlist and merry Christmas!!
Making Sense of Instagram
Anyone that knows me probably knows that I am passionate about Instagram. I was not the earliest adopter but I joined Instagram in July 2011 and began using it for one of my clients soon after. Earlier this week, Instagram released a new Terms of Service which implied that Instagram could use your photos in advertising. [...]
Facebook Power Editor: Custom Audiences
A few weeks ago we did an overview of Facebook Power Editor.. This week we’re talking about Custom Audiences! Targeting ads on Facebook just got a whole easier with Custom Audiences, so take a look at our quick guide to learn how to use them!
Music Monday: Happy Holidays From FSC
This week we’ve collected a few of our favorite holiday songs from old favorites to new modern discoveries.
What We’re Reading | Week of December 10, 2012
On this week’s FSC Interactive online reading list, we read articles on the best and worst in technology from 2012 and upcoming marketing trends for 2013.
New Year’s Resolution: SEO As The Core of Copywriting
When you write content for your site, is search engine optimization (SEO) part of your strategy from the onset? Or do you find yourself fitting it into last-minute edits, or optimizing long after-the-fact? Google’s search algorithm favors the freshest content. If you optimize your copy for keywords long after it’s written, you still get a [...]
Music Monday: Blake Shelton, The Kills, Grace Potter and More
This week we’ve got songs from every generation and every genre. From Country to Rock and the 70′s to today. Enjoy!
3 Reasons Brands Can’t Ignore Social Media
It’s shocking that some extremely large brands aren’t using social media. We hate to pick on Trader Joe’s but when we found out that they aren’t leveraging their brand through social media…well, we were just shocked! There are a million reasons to be on social media, and we are happy to discuss each and every one in [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of December 3, 2012
Looking for a little light reading this weekend? Here are a few of our favorite articles from around the web this week. We’ve got articles about social media and customer service, smart phone users and much, much more.
Music Monday: Guilty Pleasures
This week’s playlist is a collection of our favorite guilty pleasures! From Coolio to Carly Rae Jepsen and so many more.
What We’re Reading | Week of November 26, 2012
This week’s FSC Interactive online reading list includes articles on Instagram merging with Google Maps, the new Facebook Gift Store, the future of Google search and more!
Facebook 101: Power Editor for Facebook Ads, Part 1
Facebook’s Power Editor is similar to Google Adwords Editor but is completely different from the current and standard Facebook Ad Manager. Check out our quick over view and some of our Pros and Cons.
Music Monday: Accoustic, Unplugged and A cappella
This week’s playlist features some of our favorites songs unplugged. Enjoy!
What We’re Reading on Thanksgiving Day
JoAnna: Too turkey comatose to maximize Black Friday opportunities? Skip the maniacal masses and capitalize on Cyber Monday deals. Leveraging the power of online search can yield insane savings — use deal aggregator sites and download deal alert apps to plan your purchases, save your receipts, and manage your returns. Don’t forget about independent online sellers [...]
Music Monday: Battle of the Bands
In honor of this classic New Orleans Thanksgiving tradition, we’ve created a special battle of the bands playlist. Enjoy and happy Thanksgiving, y’all!
What We’re Reading | Week of November 12, 2012
Ashley: Just as press and PR for an event are imperative, live social media coverage has become a necessary arm of media plans. However, when it comes to college sports, too much coverage and you’ll find yourself in hot water! The University of Washington has updated a section of their athletic department’s media guidelines to [...]
Shop Local: Small Business Saturday
There are a few things New Orleanians pride themselves on: the New Orleans Saints, great cocktails and their unwavering love and support of this fine city we call home. So it goes without saying that American Express’ Small Business Saturday (November 24, 2012), a day to support your local business owners while getting a $25 credit [...]
Shh It’s a Secret | Pinterest Launches “Secret Boards”
Have you heard? Pinterest recently launched secret boards, but are they a worthwhile function on such a public platform? The team at FSC weighs in and provides our personal and professional opinions as well as some pros and cons.
Music Monday: A New Orleans Tradition
In New Orleans, Monday means laundry day. And, laundry day means red beans and rice. As a New Orleans agency we thought it appropriate to create a Red Beans and Rice themed Music Monday Playlist in honor of the traditional Monday dish! Enjoy!
What We’re Reading| It’s Not About The Election!!! (Entirely)
Amanda: Do you find Instagramming pictures before uploading them to Facebook to be a bit of a pain? Well, Facebook is making things a bit easier for you. Now, when you snap an image for Facebook with the updated iOS app, you can scroll through 13 style filters before uploading images with your mobile device. [...]
Phone Photos Go High-Profile: Instagram’s New Web Profiles
What once was a semi-private, self-indulgent splurge with friends has a new web presence that makes your precious photos a bit more public. Instagram, the mobile photo sharing app and social media darling, announced Monday on its official blog that they’re launching a new web profile for all their users. With the update, your online [...]
Music Monday: On and Off Broadway
This week’s playlist is an ode to one of our favorite genres, though often forgotten in our playlists — the musical. We’ve got songs from some of the best Broadway plays and even some of our favorite movie musicals. We dare you to try not to sing along…
What’s A Who Dat: The Promoted Post Experiment
We decided to test Facebook promoted posts with the “What is a Who Dat” GoNOLA TV video, believing it could have viral-potential. Turns out, promoted posts work. Check out the results of our experiment.
Facebook 101: How to Add Pages to Your News Feed
Have you realized lately that you’re not seeing updates from some of your favorite Facebook pages? Here’s a quick Facebook 101 on how to organize your Facebook interests to help cut through the noise and ensure you stay in touch with your favorite brands and pages!
Zombie Apocalypse, Marketing 101 Infographics and Brand Transparency | What We Are Reading November 1
This week’s FSC Interactive reading list includes a roundup of online marketing articles including how The Knot is helping brides in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, how a Honda dealership is using Facebook ads and more!
Music Monday: It’s the Monster Mash
This week’s Music Monday is probably painfully predictable, but we don’t care! That’s right, we’ve put together some of our favorite Halloween hits for your listening pleasure! From Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to the theme songs from movies like “The Exorcist,” this group of gals knows how to put together a Halloween playlist. So go ahead [...]
Taylor Swift Uses Twitter to Launch New Album
Taylor Swift used Twitter to help launch her latest album Red. Check out what made this launch a social media and music success and why she has so many #TaylorFollowers.
Social Media at the Bank, School and Voting Booth | What We’re Reading October 25th, 2012
Ashley: This week, hundreds of merchant locations in Austin and Salt Lake City are welcoming customers ready to “wave and pay” with their NFC-enabled smartphones. Beta testers are out shopping using, Isis, the mobile wallet available on Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. Personally, I get nervous about using my phone as a credit card, but I think the potential [...]
Music Monday: Songs From the New Millennium
This week we’re paying homage to the 2000′s with our favorite songs from the new millennium. From Pop hits to R&B classics, we’ve got it all. Yep — Usher, Britney Spears, Radiohead, The White Stripes and so, so many more. Go ahead and take a listen…
3 Online Holiday Marketing Trends
Online marketing will dominate the 2012 Holiday Season. Pinterest, mobile and paid search are three growing trends FSC Interactive anticipate will change the way people shop this Christmas.
Who says you can’t learn much in just a few weeks?
Since starting at FSC Interactive, I have learned there is so much more to the world of social media than Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram! I have also learned a new tip/trick every day since I have started at FSC. From helpful tools to manage multiple channels at once, to learning different ways to utilize each [...]
Music Monday: Girl Power
It’s a Manic Monday, but we’re Closer To Fine and You’ve Got a Fast Car. To Zion, with this Invisible Man… it’s a Carnival at the Bottom of the River. We’re feeling the pull of Venus at the FSC office this week. October is not only about Breast Cancer Awareness, but also about celebrating the [...]
MySpace, Instagram and that dreaded (Not Provided) | What We Are Reading
Ashley: I never thought I’d say it, but Myspace is back! After a 14 month complete redesign, Myspace is ready to launch as an entirely new experience designed around the original focus of Myspace: music. They’ve taken cues from the visual layouts of popular social networks Facebook and Pinterest and combined it with the artist-centric [...]
Facebook Promoted Posts: Look at Me!!
Your posts typically only reach about 12% of your Facebook friends. Based on what you like and who you interact with regularly, Facebook filters messages to limit irrelevant Wall posts. Now you can pay to promote your important Facebook posts to make sure more of your friends see them. Narcissistic self-promotion or valuable tool? Here are a few ways to use the new [...]
Music Monday: FSC’s Got Disco Fever
This week, we salute the Disco Era with some of our favorite disco and dirty dancing songs. We have Michael Jackson, Kool and the Gang, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor and everyone else you’d expect…
Kitchen Aid makes a Blunder…and other stories from around the Web
Susan: Last week, Mashable shared an infographic of social media’s biggest screw-ups. After the errant KitchenAid tweet during the presidential debate, we’re pretty sure that infographic is going to be updated. Kudos to how swiftly this was handled by the KitchenAid Brand Manager (and PR team) on both Twitter and Facebook. Amanda: Do you like receiving gifts? [...]
Social Media 101: Higher Education
Social media tools have given universities an opportunity to speak to audiences and reach thousands of people interested in keeping up with news at the school and connecting with others on the social network. The following are a few simple ways to use social media in higher education : 1. Gathering and Sharing Information Perhaps the [...]
Music Monday: FSC Goes Pink
In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, FSC has gone Pink. This week’s playlist is all about female empowerment and what that means to us. From female singers to songs about being strong, this playlist is close to our hearts. Go ahead and take a listen…
Understanding Your Facebook Insights: Reach
Once upon a time, if you wanted analytics on the performance of your Facebook page, you had to pay a third party application. Last year, Facebook launched Insights, which have only improved over time. If you manage a Facebook page for business but have never checked out your Insights, you’ll want to take a look. [...]
What We’re Reading | The NFL, Police and Television Industry on Social Media
Some of the top articles from the online marketing world this week. From the NFL to Top Advertisers, read the articles we think are important.
It Feels Good to Give: Braithwaite Donation Update
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” ~ Lao Tzu We are feeling the love at FSC and we hope those of you who donated are too! Last weekend, FSC packed the bed of the pick up truck with our first load of donations for the Braithwaite Foundation and headed down [...]
Music Monday: We Love the 90′s!
This week’s playlist is a collection of our favorite songs from the 90s. This was one of the hardest playlists to put together considering how awesome (and how wide the variety) the music from the 90s was. From boy bands to grunge rock, we’ve got it all. Take a listen and enjoy the memories!
Traditional Marketing Rules Still Apply
The past few weeks I have been reminded several times that at the core of marketing are essential questions that don’t change. Whether creating a TV campaign, outdoor, or online marketing program, there are certain truths that remain constant. Before you embark on a media campaign (social or otherwise), ask yourself the basics: Who is your audience? Think about all [...]
Move Over Content, Creativity is the Real King
When it comes to online marketing, the age-old saying will always apply: content is king. We’ve said it time and again, and it’s one of the simplest rules to maintaining a presence in your desired market. Without content, you’ve got nothing. It’s great to share ideas from industry leaders or relevant peers, but unless you become [...]
What We’re Reading | Twitter Gets a Makeover
Ashley: Mobile continues to dominate the online marketing world, so it’s no surprise that Facebook now allows you to purchase Facebook Promoted Posts from your mobile phone. As of today, businesses should be able to use the feature in the updated Facebook Pages App. It’s going to be a great addition for business managers who [...]
Music Monday: Rihanna, La Roux, Pink and More
This week’s playlist is one of the few and far-between non-themed playlists we have. We’ve got music from Rihanna, La Roux, Pink and many more artists. Go ahead and take a listen!
Using Social Media on a Shoestring
Last weekend, I spoke at the New Orleans Fringe Festival Pack the House workshop about social media. Prior to the panel I was a part of, I wrote an article for them about how to use social media on a shoestring. For anyone else doing their own social media and for all of the Fringers that weren’t at the Pack the House workshop, I thought it was worth a share. Enjoy
What We’re Reading: Productivity, Brain Processing and Cats on Facebook
Ashley: We all know a friend or two who’s a Don in Mafia Wars or an old coworker who kept Farmville open more than Outlook everyday, but who would have thought 235 million play games on Facebook every month! To put that into perspective, Xbox live, one of the biggest gaming brands, has about 40 [...]
Music Monday: Never Forget 9-11
This week’s playlist is a collection of some of our favorite patriotic songs in honor of September 11. During this time, we keep in our hearts and our thoughts those that lost and gave their lives for America on September 11, 2001 and those that have been fighting for our freedom ever since.
What We’re Reading: Help Your Yelp and Moleskine Gone Tech
Susan: Next to Google, Yelp is probably the next most important site for small businesses. Surprise! Shopping is the biggest category, not restaurants. Mashable shares this and 10 other things you probably did not know about Yelp. Want to increase your nightly restaurant business? Researchers found, “Yelp ratings affect both customer flows and the probability of booking [...]
Lessons Learned from Isaac: How to use Social Media for Crisis Communication
A few key takeaways on how to use Social Media for your business, large or small, during times of crisis based on the lessons we learned during Hurricane Isaac.
Music Monday: Two-For-One!
This week, we have not just one but TWO Music Mondays! As Isaac made his way into New Orleans last week, we failed to post our August 27 Music Monday playlist featuring “back to school” songs and this week we’ve got some of our favorite labor day jams to share with you. So, take a listen to one or both of the playlists and let us know what you think! Enjoy!
Sitemaps and SEO
A great way to boost your SEO and make sure Google is crawling all of your newly optimized pages is to update your sitemap. I’m not talking about your HTML sitemap that displays all your pages for your visitors in a handy list, though. I’m referring to your sitemap.xml file, and if you haven’t been [...]
Interesting Uses for YouTube
At a time when more than 3 billion videos are viewed on YouTube each day, how are brands supposed to stand out among the masses? Check out these successful approaches.
Facebook Privacy: Three Helpful Tips
This week my What We’re Reading article spurred a Facebook Privacy How-To. Here are three things I think you should know about Facebook Privacy.
What We’re Reading: Election Apps and Humanizing Social Media
Ashley: November is creeping up on us and the Presidential Election will be here before you know it. Feeling a little uninformed? Don’t fret! Mashable shares 6 political campaign apps that will help keep you up-to-date on the issues, polls and breaking campaign news so you can stay informed this election season! Susan: Want control over your personal [...]
Music Monday: Weird Al, Jimmy Buffett and Louis Prima
In honor of COOLinary, a month-long event in New Orleans encouraging locals and visitors to eat out at any of the delicious and amazing participating restaurants, our Music Monday playlist features some of our favorite culinary tunes. You read that right, we’ve got some of our favorites songs about food! This may be one of the most surprising playlists and we encourage you to take a listen!
How to Rock Your Instagram
Last time, I gave businesses some tips on how to help their Yelp. Today, I’ll tell you how to rock your Instagram, whether you’re using it for business or for fun. Getting Started First, set up your profile completely. You need an avatar. If you’re a business, it should be either a logo or an [...]
What We Are Reading: Shark Week, Flickr Photos and Facebook IPO
This week we’re reading about how you can interact with Shark Week, what we’ve learned from the Facebook IPO and much, much more.
Music Monday: One Hit Wonders
This week we’ve put together some of our favorite one hit wonders for your listening pleasure. This playlist spans the decades, so be sure to take a listen!
What We’re Reading: Epic hacks, Facebook targeting & Philanthropy
Andy: I’ve been saying it for years, one of the greatest things that social media offers brands is the ability to conduct research and development and gain valuable consumer insight. Thanks to this article from HuffingtonPost, it appears that a number of major brands now agree with me. Brands like Samuel Adams, Wal-Mart and Frito-Lay, [...]
3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Site’s SEO Today
A full overhaul of your SEO can seem like a huge undertaking. All it takes is the first step in the right direction to get you headed down the SEO path. Take a look at these three easy steps everyone can do to start improving their SEO right now. 1. Image tags Updating and optimizing [...]
Music Monday: Like, Totally 80s!
In honor of the eighth month of the year and arguably one of the greatest decades ever, we have created an epic 1980s Music Monday playlist for your listening pleasure.
Don’t Settle for Silver: Performance Enhancement for your Website
Google Content Experiments can help optimize your website for improved results.
What We’re Reading | Election, Olympics and Social Media
On this week’s FSC reading list is a compilation of online articles on NFL fantasy football Google+ Hangouts, Twitter’s new Political Index and the Olympic social strategy.
YouTube 101: What You Need to Know to be Awesome at YouTube
You cannot manage social media with a “set it, and forget it” mindset. Here are a few tips and tricks to making your YouTube channel a winner.
Music Monday: Matisyahu, Beyonce, Rebirth and More
Here we are again, Monday. Lucky for us, we have our music. This week’s playlist is the first non-themed playlist in a while, and we’re back to listening to all kinds of crazy things. We have everything from Matisyahu to Beyonce and Rebirth Brass Band to Jack Johnson.
GoNOLA Wins A 2012 Press Club of New Orleans Award
FSC is honored to be recognized among the best media outlets in New Orleans for a 2012 Press Club of New Orleans award. At the awards dinner on Saturday, July 21, members of the FSC social media team were overjoyed to receive first place in the Independent Blog category for the client GoNOLA.com. GoNOLA is [...]
Dumb Tweets Could Land You In Jail | What We’re Reading | Week of July 23, 2012
Ashley: Hide your Tweets, hide your Posts! A new study says 80% of officials use social media to help solve crimes. Besides using social media as a way to identify persons of interest and spread the word quickly about crimes and suspects, social media is the new-age form of that ’90s TV show “America’s Dumbest [...]
Five Infographics That Show how Mobile Devices are Changing the World
Five infographics that show how mobile phones are changing the world. From developing countries to causing addictions, mobile phones are changing human behavior.
Music Monday: Some of our Favorite Drinking Songs
In honor of Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans this weekend — the largest festival celebrating the art and history of the cocktail — we’ve put together a playlist of some of our favorite drinking songs. So, grab a cocktail and take a listen…
London Olympics 2012: The Social Games
The upcoming Summer Olympic Games in London are shaping up to be the most social international event in history. As athletes from around the world gather to compete, audiences around the world have begun the pre-games coverage, and it’s only going to get more intense from here! From the live social coverage from actual London [...]
How To Pitch a Blogger
Bloggers get pitched all the time. Make sure your request stands out with these few quick and easy steps.
The Funniest Internet Memes we Could Find
If you’ve ever logged onto the internet, chances are you’ve seen a meme. And you probably laughed. Or, if you’re like any of us at FSC, you probably printed it out and taped it up somewhere in your office. Here are some of our favorites. Enjoy!
What We’re Reading | Qwikstory, Foursquare and E-mail Marketing
Ashley: There are tons of different ways companies are leveraging the Olympic Games to help promote their products, all of which have been pretty progressive. Nike has announced they will be raising the bar by generating live promoted Tweets. They’ll be working with Twitter to include live promoted Tweets that include live basketball play updates [...]
Music Monday: 1970′s Songs – Can You Dig it?
This week’s playlist features some of our favorite songs from the 1970s. Marvin Gaye, Lou Reed, Led Zeppelin, Blondie and more.
4 Ways to Measure Social Media Success
There are hundreds of tools out there that claim to have the “best solution for tracking and reporting on all of your social media channels and campaigns.” We at FSC have kissed quite a few frogs, but haven’t quite found our prince. That’s okay though, because we have come up with our own reporting template. When [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of July 9, 2012
Ashley: We’ve covered the role of social media at the 2012 Olympics, but no one has really been discussing the role online media will play in the 2012 Paralympics. That’s about to change. The International Paralympics Committee has put a huge emphasis on driving awareness through online outlets including social media. They’re working with the [...]
Facebook Found a Voice
Facebook seems to change monthly and the latest feature we’ve discovered is the Voice feature on Pages. Check out what the Voice feature is and what it means for those of you that are administrators on Facebook Pages.
Music Monday: Running of the Bulls Edition
This weekend in New Orleans we’ll be celebrating the Running of the Bulls with our own NOLA-style celebration in homage to the famous Pamplona bull run. To get everyone in the office excited for Running of the Bulls, we’ve made this week’s playlist featuring our favorite NOLA Bulls inspired songs.
Writer’s Block Cures for Content Marketing
A blog is a great way to support and enhance your brand. Even if you aren’t a professional writer, you can have a successful blog with these three easy tactics.
What We’re Reading | Socialympics, #ExilePitbull and Twitter Lurkers
This week, the FSC Interactive team read articles on social media surrounding the 2012 Olympics, exiling Pitbul to Alaska via Facebook and fireworks-enhancing photo apps.
Music Monday: America, Heck Yeah!
On this week’s FSC Interactive Music Monday playlist, enjoy patriotic songs from classic Americana artists like Bruce Springsteen, Don McLean, Willie Nelson and more!
What We’re Reading | Week of June 25, 2012
This week’s FSC reading list includes articles on the effectiveness of Facebook mobile, controlling home appliances with Twitter and an exciting new Google+ development!
Music Monday: Sweet, Sweet Summertime
We don’t know about you, but here in New Orleans summer is officially underway. What this means for us here at FSC is hot weather, festivals, Tipitina’s Foundation Free Fridays and a summertime music Monday playlist. That’s right, this week we’ve curated all of our favorite summertime jams including one-hit-wonders like LFO’s “Summer Girls” and [...]
The Times are A-Changin’! Exciting News From FSC
There are many variations of the Greek philosophy that change is the only constant. At FSC, we believe Change = Growth = Progress. So in celebration of that, we have some exciting news!
What We’re Reading | Week of June 18, 2012
Every week the FSC team rounds up top articles from the online marketing world. This week we’re reading about Video Ads, La State Law and more. See what we’re reading and share your top articles with us!
Music Monday: Our Favorite Songs from the 1960s
In honor of the sixth month of the year and of one of the greatest music decades ever, the team at FSC Interactive has put together some of our favorite hits from the 1960s. We have a little of everything from Johnny Cash to Jimi Hendrix and Aretha Franklin to The Beach Boys. Go ahead, take a listen…
Yelp! Don’t Hate, Appreciate!
We often hear, “I hate Yelp.” No social network is worth expending that much mental energy. We’re here to tell you “Don’t hate. Appreciate!” Why should you care about Yelp? If you’re a small business owner or manager, Yelp and other online review sites are important to your customers. The popularity of Yelp is soaring. [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of June 11, 2012
Brooke: Luxury car brands are courting young bloggers in an effort to target a growing audience of would-be car buyers who can’t be reached through traditional marketing. Twitter feeds and blog comments are now predictors of sales forecasts, in fact BMW claimed a $110 million revenue gain for its 1-Series line by wooing customers with [...]
Music Monday: Talking Heads, Usher, Blake Shelton and More
This week, we have music from every genre and every generation including songs from the Talking Heads, Usher, Blake Shelton, The Band, Louis Prima and more!
What We’re Reading | Week of June 4, 2012
Ashley: There have been big discussions of whether students and teachers should be friends on Facebook and the rising stats on children affected by cyber bullying, but there hasn’t been a big stir about the Facebook age requirement of 13 years old – until now. Facebook reps have said they are considering creating a Facebook [...]
What You Need to Know About the New Facebook Admin Roles
Have you heard? Facebook recently changed Admin Roles on Facebook Pages. Now, before you get all hostile on Facebook (a la the image to the left) because this is one more change, take a look at what this means for brand pages everywhere. For starters, this is an awesome change and I applaud Facebook. As [...]
Google+ Local is in and Places is OUT
Last week, Google announced that it would be integrating its business listings, Google Places, into Google+ and phasing out Place pages. This means there’s now an additional tab for Google+ Local and Places are gone entirely. This is both shocking and disconcerting for businesses and those of us who help them boost traffic with online [...]
What We’re Reading | Promoted Posts, Evil SEO, & a Facebook Phone?
Ashley: Facebook’s at it again. The continuously changing social network has rolled out a new feature this week: promoted messages. Taking a cue from Twitter’s promoted Tweets, the new Facebook’s promoted posts are now a promotional option for Facebook brands. Paula: It can be hard to be an advocate for good SEO, when the foreces [...]
DO: Judge A Page by Its Facebook Cover Photo
It’s been roughly two weeks since Facebook last tweaked your Facebook page’s Timeline and you’re feeling pretty good. You have a little extra time to catch up and you’re reading about how important it is to beef up your Facebook cover photo. In case you needed further justification, motivation or inspiration, you’ve come to the [...]
Social Media Expert Ninja Guru Rock Star
Is it actually legitimate to dub someone a Pinterest expert? FSC knows Pinterest. We have written about brands leveraging Pinterest, how to measure Pinterest. We’ve developed Pinterest accounts for our clients and ourselves. Does this make us Pinterest experts? Gurus? Mavens? Judging from the recent e-mails I have received from online marketing “professionals,” I’d like [...]
Music Monday: Some of our Favorite Cover Songs
This week’s Music Monday playlist theme is one song, multiple artists. And it’s a FUN one. We’ve got some of the greatest songs ever done by multiple artists, like “I Will Survive” and “All Along the Watchtower,” to name a few. So go ahead, take a listen and tell us which version you like the [...]
Measuring Success on Pinterest: PinReach.com
My biggest problem with Pinterest when it became the new, shiny (albeit AMAZING) object in the Social Media world, was that there was no way of tracking your growth, engagement, reach and ultimate success. I have to admit that despite the inability to track our success, I still wildly recommended Pinterest to our clients and [...]
What We’re Reading | Top Twitpics, Olympic Foursquare & Google Roll-Out
Ashley: With Facebook’s constantly evolving visual appearance and the new and improved way to share and view photos full screen, it’s easy to forget about Twitter as a visual platform. It was a nice reminder to catch this roundup from Mashable on the top Twitter images from last week. Check ‘em out and start sharing [...]
Music Monday: Al Green, Bon Iver, The Rolling Stones and More
With the Music Monday posts from FSC Interactive, you never really know what you’re going to get. This week we’ve got songs from every genre and every generation. Whether you’re into listening to oldies like Al Green’s Lean on Me and Neil Young’s Harvest Moon or new hits like Part of Me from Katy Perry [...]
Twitter Hops Off the Bench and Joins the Game
We’ve watched the early evolution of social media through the last decade and cheered as it grew from a college “who’s who” to a billion dollar business. In the last year especially, brands and media outlets like film and television, have latched on to social media’s rising star to find a way to leverage the [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of May 14, 2012
It’s all about Google, Facebook and Twitter this week in online news. Google rolls out yet another search feature called Knowledge Graph, Facebook proves again their good intentions with questionable privacy practices and Twitter starts a best of the week e-blast series. Read about all of this and more in this week’s FSC reading list. [...]
Much Ado About Ads
With GM pulling their Facebook ad spending, there has been a lot of chatter about the value of Facebook advertising. In a perfect online marketing world, an ad reaches the exact target at the exact right time and then tracks the exact behavior taken all the way to a conversion. It’s a magical moment. Does [...]
Music Monday: Miike Snow, Nicki Minaj, Pink Martini and Ghostbusters
Every week the team at FSC puts together a playlist of what we’re listening to. This week we’ve got a little of everything including some Miike Snow, Nicki Minaj, Maroon 5 and the Ghostbuster’s Theme song. Yes, you read that right. Go ahead, take a listen.
WWR: Social Media for Events, Emergencies and Grown Men.
Ashley: It has become a requirement to have an official social media presence with every big event your brand hosts. Not only do your attendees expect it, they want it to be interesting, engaging and forward thinking. From Tweets being turned into an actual printed newspaper during an event to choirs singing Tweets aloud, there are [...]
Foursquare Updates Don’t Add Up
Foursquare announced a new history feature following in the footsteps of Facebook. I think it’s great. I love the idea of looking back to what I did last summer and think the feature has potential. Except for one teeny tiny detail… A Foursquare spokesperson said the company does not have immediate plans to carry the [...]
Music Monday: Farewell to an FSC Fixture
At the end of this week, we will bid a fond farewell to a face that has been a fixture at FSC Interactive for the last few years. Noelle, who is originally from Connecticut, will be moving back to NYC next week and in honor of her we’re dedicating this week’s Music Monday playlist to her. Everyone has picked songs that remind them in some way of Noelle. It’s a pretty great mix of music so go ahead, take a listen. (And Noelle — this one’s for you!)
Social Activism: Rock Down To Digital Avenue
Gone are the days of making signs for protest marches and instead, people are using the power of social media to be activists online and the results are palpable.
Music Monday: Jazz Fest Weekend 2
This week we’ve got our fourth and final installment of Jazz Fest Music Monday posts featuring the artists we can’t wait to see this weekend at the New Orleans Fairgrounds. We’ve got a little of everything from every stage. Go ahead, take a listen.
What We’re Reading | Your Twitter Account Has the Right to Remain Silent
Before you send out that Tweet from your iPhone, (or Droid, Andy) think about how it might hold up in a court of law, how you could measure its success and how Google will index it. If that sounds too hard, take a minute to crop your Facebook photo, because the size changed again. Maybe [...]
Jazz Fest Social Media Survival Guide
In New Orleans for Jazz Fest? Welcome to our beautiful city! Whether this if your first time festin’ or you’re a seasoned vet, we’ve got some social media and mobile tips to help you make the most of your festin’ experience.
Music Monday: Jazz Fest Weekend 1
A playlist of artists playing the first weekend of the 2012 New Orleans Jazz Fest, including Bruce Springsteen, Al Green, Tom Petty and more!
So Many Tears, So Many Tweets
Even though Tupac died before the birth of Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, he was able to capture millions of hits within hours of his performance.
What We’re Reading | Disaster Preparedness in Social Media, Instagram’s New Family and How to Kill Innovation Assasins
Innovation is on the mind at FSC this week at least it’s what we’re reading. Open your mind and inform yourself with our weekly reading list covering social media in disaster preparedness, SEO poetry, and of course, innovative leadership. Ashley: In a city where disaster preparedness is on the forefront of people’s minds, it’s important [...]
Music Monday: Jazz Fest Favorites
This week we’re featuring the artists that we most enjoyed seeing at Jazz Fest in years past. This playlist is about as eclectic and expansive as it can get and we highly recommend taking a listen.
Music Monday: Jazz Fest Can’t Come Soon Enough!
As you know, music is a big part of the culture here at FSC Interactive and a big part of our beautiful city, New Orleans. In just over two weeks, the 42nd annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will kick off at the New Orleans Fairgrounds and we cannot wait. To get everyone as excited as we are, this week’s Music Monday playlist features some of our favorite songs from this years performers.
What We’re Reading | Week of April 2, 2012
Andy: Young Brands With Long Histories: Facebook Timeline Allow for Brand Storytelling…Now that Timeline for Pages has been made official, it seems that some of the younger companies out there are taking full advantage. Sure some companies actually have a long lineage but for many companies using Facebook, their history only stretches so far. Many [...]
Music Monday: The Civil Wars, Foo Fighters, Maroon 5 and More
This week, we have a little bit of everything for your listening pleasure, from rock to pop and everything in between. We’ve got songs from Maroon 5, Sade, The Civil Wars and many, many more. Go ahead, take a listen.
What We’re Reading | Siri, Facebook Privacy and Mobile Poetry
This week, our online bookworm tendencies have produced some cool finds, from a Madonna Twitter handle based solely on one album, the effectiveness of Siri for iPhone 4S and how some legislators are trying to put a stop to Facebook privacy violations.
Zen and the art of Instagram
Instagram is a phone app that doesn’t isolate or alienate users from their environment, but instead amplifies the simple joys that surround us.
GoNOLA: The Official “What’s Going on in New Orleans” Blog
The FSC Interactive team partnered with the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corporation to create the highly successful blog GoNOLA.com.
Music Monday: Alex Clare, Kelly Clarkson, Billy Idol and More
This week, as with most of our Music Monday Playlists, we have a little bit of everything. From more recent hits like Alex Clare’s “Too Close” to throw backs like The Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian” — we have it all. You know you want to…go ahead and take a listen.
What We’re Reading | The Hunger Games and How To Blog with a Spine
On this week’s FSC reading list, articles on a Facebook jail sentence, The Hunger Game’s social strategy and YouTube’s exciting new feature.
How To Embed YouTube Videos and Create YouTube Playlists
YouTube allows users to upload, share and watch videos. It’s a hub of user-generated original content that spans from 13-year-olds posting video journals to first releases of professional short films. When leveraged correctly, it can be an incredible resource for your brand and a great boost for your SEO, since Google owns it! If the [...]
Google+: Love it or Loathe it?
The FSC staff weighs in on the value and functionality of Google + and how much staying power and worth it truly holds.
Music Monday: French Kicks, Fun, and More!
This Monday, our eclectic playlist includes songs from French Kicks, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Vampire Weekend and more!
App-sessed With Snapseed
A review of Starbuck’s App of the Week, Snapseed, and the move from music to mobile downloads as daily customer incentives.
What We’re Reading | #SaveRichard and How To Cite a Tweet In Your Next Research Paper
This week’s online literary findings produced a very diverse and rich reading list from the FSC office. Among what we read this week are articles on Facebook finally creating pages for bands aptly titled BandPage, how social media can save lives and how you can cite a Tweet now in an academic paper! Feast your eyes on this week’s What We’re Reading.
Music Monday: An Ode to Online Marketing
This week, our Music Monday playlist is a little bit different; instead of each of us picking songs we’re listening to we’ve picked songs that we think represent the online marketing tools we use. So go ahead, see what songs we picked for our favorite networks and let us know what you think, too!
What We’re Reading | Infographics, Cupcakes and Mobile Marketing
In this week’s FSC reading are articles on the imminent rise of mobile marketing, new creative developments in infographics and the ever progressive nature of Apple products, among others
Creating Quality Facebook Ads: A Quick How-To Guide
If you’ve ever logged into Facebook, you’ve seen a Facebook ad. But, you may not know what you’re looking at or why it’s being shown to you. Check out our guide to good Facebook Advertising.
QR Codes on Cows? C’mon!
QR codes are everywhere, they are even popping up on cows grazing the French countryside. But, are online marketers using them for practical purposes or just jumping on a shiny object bandwagon.
Music Monday: Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M, Bob Dylan and More
Every week is something different when it comes to the FSC Interactive Music Monday playlist and this week is no exception. We’ve got a little of everything for your listening pleasure from songs like Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited to Red Hot Chili Peppers I Could die for You. So, go ahead, take a listen.
3 Creative Uses of Facebook Timeline for Brands
Timeline was introduced to personal profiles not long ago, so hopefully most Facebook users have gotten used to the new format. But, now it’s time for brands to take the leap. Here are three ways brands are currently using Timeline creatively.
Facebook Timeline for Pages is (FINALLY) Here
I wasn’t sure when Timeline for Facebook Pages would happen or even if it would happen. Imagine my surprise yesterday when I opened one of my Facebook Pages and had a big blue box notifying me that as of March 30, 2012 Facebook Pages would get a new look. FINALLY! – I thought — Timeline for Facebook Pages is here!
What We’re Reading | Changes for Google Panda and Facebook Timeline
FSC’s weekly reading list on all things online marketing, this week featuring the return of Panda to Google and Facebook Timeline.
Google’s New Privacy Policies: What You Need to Know.
Google will have the ability to mine the data and know exactly who you are when you surf the web.
Music Monday: MGMT, The Cure, Lucinda Williams and More!
Now that Mardi Gras is over, we’re back to our regularly scheduled programing — that means an eclectic mix of music for your listening pleasure shared every Monday. This week we’re jamming to everything from MGMT to Lucinda Williams.
How The Pope and The Oscars Are Using Twitter
A short and sweet list of what the FSC Interactive team read this week, from the Pope embracing Twitter to the Oscars’ social media strategy for this Sunday.
The Rock of Love that Rocked Our Tweet
Social media, especially Twitter, has the power to spread your message incredibly quickly. Look how we prove it with this Tweet’s 2000% increase in reach.
Music Monday: Oh, it’s Carnival Time!
If you’re not in NOLA, you likely don’t understand what all the Mardi Gras Hubbub is about. We shared this playlist last week but think it’s still worth a listen. So, if you can’t be in New Orleans today celebrating Lundi Gras or tomorrow to enjoy the Fat Tuesday festivities, why not pretend? Go ahead….take a listen.
Farewell CoTweet, Hello Sprout Social!
CoTweet shut down its free service, but FSC Interactive found a reasonable alternative, Sprout Social.The FSC social media team shares a few of their favorite Sprout Social features.
Mardi Gras is Social Media
I think New Orleans had a grasp of social media way before the Internet came around.
Music Monday: Mardi Gras Mambo and More!
Even if you’re never been to Mardi Gras, you’ve likely heard some of the classic songs. During this time of year, this is about all us New Orleanians are listening to. This week, we’re counting down the days ’til Fat Tuesday and to keep us excited we’re jamming away to the Mardi Gras classics as well as some of the more recent Mardi Gras songs. So, catch the Mardi Gras spirit and take a listen.
Roses are Red…And Trending on Google.
If your product or service is something that can potentially be utilized and purchased for seasonal online search rushes, you should think about a defined and targeted campaign to take advantage of the increased search volume.
Why Promoted Tweets Aren’t Always a Good Idea
Thinking of buying a promoted tweet? Great. But, first, take a lesson in keywords to ensure you don’t end up in the wrong stream like #SideChickVdayGift or #EpicFail.
What We’re Reading | You Can Use Social Media to Get a Job, But Don’t Get Addicted!
Articles about the repercussions of Facebook’s IPO, a study that major social networks Facebook and Twitter are more addicting than alcohol and cigarettes and more on this week’s FSC reading list.
Music Monday: M.I.A., Madonna and More
I think it’s safe to say that some of the inspiration for this week’s playlist comes from last night’s Super Bowl Halftime show and the season premier of The Voice. We’ve got songs from Madonna, M.I.A., Maroon 5 and Cee Lo Green, just to name a few. If your Mondays are anything like ours, you’re going to want to take a listen…
Our Favorite 2012 Super Bowl Commercials
Did you watch the 2012 Super Bowl? If not, you missed some seriously hilarious and entertaining ads. Every year there are studs and duds when it comes to the Super Bowl Commercials, see which ads we thought were the best
Sports and Social Media, Puzzles, Link Building, and a Funny Viral Video
This week we are reading about the Super Bowl ads, sports and social media, funny viral video content, link building strategies, puzzles and advertising strategies.
Super Bowl Social Media Command Center: One of the Greatest Ideas EVER
I was in Miami in 2010 when the Saints won the Superbowl and I remember thinking that it would be nice if there was some kind of official Miami Super Bowl Twitter Handle to ask questions like “What restaurants, if any, will be open after the game?” and “Where can I get official Super Bowl souvenirs?” But, alas, my tweets went unanswered. This year, those questions will be answered in a matter of minutes. Indianapolis is the first city to have a dedicated Super Bowl Social Media Command Center charged with answering questions like that.
Music Monday: John Boutte, Anders Osborne, Dr. John and More
The FSC playlists normally pull from various international genres and artists but this week we have a number of songs from local musicians including two John Boutte songs, a little Anders Osborne and some Dr. John. The rest of the playlist is pretty awesome, too, so go ahead and take a listen.
Four Years, Six Lessons and One Grateful Goodbye
It has been a pleasure and an honor to work alongside the ever-growing, and wildly talented team at FSC. I have learned so much from each of them, and enjoyed rediscovering a lot of what I had already learned through fresh eyes and new perspectives. I have had the chance to be part of something wonderful.
Facebook’s Big Announcement and Europe’s Google Backlash
Online articles on Facebook’s big announcement, Europe taking action against Google’s new search policies and another reason to go mobile.
Facebook Timeline: Our Favorite Features
Ready or not, here it comes. Facebook announced yesterday that Timeline will be coming to all users in the next few weeks.
Music Monday: Etta James, The Avett Brothers, Phantogram and More
This week we’re celebrating the life and legend of Etta James with some of her top hits and our favorites! In addition to Ms. James, we’ve got hits from the Avett Brothers, Phantogram and more.
All I Got For Community Manager’s Day Is This Blog Post
How are you celebrating Community Manager’s Appreciation Day? Here at FSC Interactive, we’re, well… not.
What We’re Reading | Why You Need Mobile Access and Don’t Need SOPA & PIPA
Besides the SOPA and PIPA controversy, FSC read about the ever changing ways of Google, a new way to find live music and more this week.
Is Your Paid Search Paying Off or Is Your Web Site Wasting Your Money?
Your extensive paid search campaign has all the right words, but sales are the same; your web site may be to blame.
Music Monday: GroupLove, BB King, Lily Allen and More
Each week, the FSC playlist is an eclectic collection of music that spans genres, styles and decades; but, this week’s playlist seems to be more all-embracing than any others. This week we’re jamming to everything from Indie Rock to to Bluegrass. So go ahead, take a listen.
Pining Over Pinterest
Lately, we at FSC Interactive have been fawning over Pinterest, the digital bulletin board that if used smartly, can be more than just a toy.
The New Girl in Town
FSC Interactive welcomes Sadie Nius to the team as our first ever Operations Manager.
What We’re Reading | Why We love Pinterest, How To Aviod Spam and Making Your Brand More Social
Since the new year began, we’ve continued to see as expected even more innovations, changes and additions to the online community. Judging from what we’re reading this week, Google is instituting some questionable search tactics, Pinterest is steadily on the rise as the next hot social network and less can turn out to be more [...]
Music Monday: Happy Birthday Tiffany and David Bowie!
This week’s free Music Monday playlist from FSC Interactive features special birthday songs honoring the birthdays of David Bowie and our own Tiffany Starnes!
Happy 2012
FSC is busy entering the new year with plenty of client planning, annual strategy and agency growth! Sadie Nius, formerly with the LASPCA, has joined the FSC team as Director of Operations to help our agency be the best we can be in 2012. This is a new position for the agency (now up to [...]
Why Instagram is the Largest Mobile Social Network
Why Instagram surpassed FourSquare as the leading mobile social network and how businesses have creatively and successfully leveraged the photo app.
What We’re Reading | Week of January 2, 2012
Online Search and Offline Sales, SEO Predictions for 2012, Tips on Building a Blog Following, Twitter and Election 2012: An assortment of reading recommendations by the staff of FSC Inter@ctive.
Music Monday: When the Saints Go Marching In!
On this week’s playlist, in honor of the record breaking Saints performance this past Sunday, we’ve included a few of our favorite New Orleans Saints theme songs.
Chuck Norris Has a Zoo full of Google Pandas
Throughout 2011, Google implemented a number of bold updates, referred to collectively as the ‘Panda Updates,’ to its Page Rank algorithm that have caused much debate among marketers, designers, and developers. Some websites have seen numbers soar, some have seen concerning drops, but all have had to take a good look at their SEO strategy.
Social Media and Shopping: Why Facebook and Twitter are Important for Your Brand
Ever wonder if what you’re doing on Facebook and Twitter is actually impacting your consumers? Here’s a great infographic from Mr.Youth that shows just how social media makes the sale
What We’re Reading | Week of December 19, 2011
FSC put together a holiday package of online reading material including year-end lists, the rise of Instagram, last minute Christmas gifts to send via email and more.
Music Monday: BB King, Band of Horses, Glee and More
Now that the holiday season is (almost) over, we’re back to our weekly Music Monday playlists. This week we’ve got everything from BB King and Eric Clapton to Band of Horses and Muse. There is a little something for everyone so go ahead and take a listen. 12/26/11 #MusicMonday by FSC Interactive on Grooveshark 1. [...]
Music Monday: Have a Very Merry Christmas
Christmas will be here in just a few days and we’re still loving the holiday spirit! This week we’re sharing that spirit with you with our fourth and final Christmas Music Monday Playlist.
What We’re Reading | Week of December 12, 2011
End of the year reflections, social media altruism, the power that spelling and grammar holds and a Christmas story for the digital age.
The Slick New Features of WordPress 3.3
WordPress 3.3 has a lot of noticeable differences when you log in to the backend dashboard. It is a lot smoother, with flyout menus that increase your speed when creating new content.
Music Monday: It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas
As Christmas and New Year’s approaches, we keep blasting the holiday music in the office. Listen to our free playlist to get in the spirit, too.
Three Cool Features We Love in the NEW Google Analytics
The new version of Google Analytics contains three features we’re wild about that can further track search queries & traffic to your website.
FSC Interactive Wins National Tourism Award
FSC Interactive won an Adrian Award for its social media campaign to promote the New Orleans festival season through NOTMC.
What We’re Reading | Week of December 5, 2011
This week’s round of articles FSC has curated for your reading pleasure is full of great content about social media trends and developments, paid search’s rising popularity, inspiring marketing individuals, and that gray area of new media censorship. Feed those inquisitive minds with FSC’s weekly reading list. Ashley: After hearing Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, [...]
Music Monday: More Holiday Cheer from FSC
Continuing the holiday theme, this week’s playlist has classics from Dean Martin and Bing Crosby to new songs from She & Him, Better Than Ezra and more.
What We’re Reading | Week of November 28, 2011
This week’s FSC reading list has articles on more Google inventions, how Facebook may be publicly traded and Twitter once again challenging the 1st Amendment.
Facebook 101: A User Guide to Insights
Have you seen the new Facebook Insights? Here’s a sneak peek at our favorite new features and an in-depth guide on how to use them!
Music Monday: Is it Too Early for Christmas Carols?
This week, we’ve got a playlist with some of our favorite holiday tunes including traditional songs by Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and others. Plus we have remakes of classics by Britney Spears, Michael Buble and more. If this doesn’t get you in the holiday mood, we don’t know what will. 1. The Magnetic Fields – [...]
Cyber Monday 2011
Cyber Monday, a day when online stores offer the same sort of bargains that brick-and-mortar stores offer on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Here is an analysis of a Google search for Cyber Monday 2011.
What is Bounce Rate?
When you go to a website to look at one page without surfing further into the site and then leave, that is considered a bounce. Here are some ways of decreasing bounce rate and better understanding it.
What We’re Reading- Thanksgiving Treats | Week of November 21
Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy some pre-turkey reads to make you look smart around the family table tomorrow.  Pull at the heart strings with ways social media is helping families stay connected, from soldiers using Skype to Target employees taking back Thanksgiving.
Music Monday: Rihanna, Beastie Boys, Glee and More
It’s Music Monday and as usual, we have an awesome playlist for you! This week, we’ve got some club beats from Rihanna, some old school throwbacks from the Beastie Boys and an Adele mashup from Glee.
Step by Step Guide to Google+ Business Page Setup
Google+ for businesses is hot right now, and we have a few pointers for those of you who want to get busy setting up your business profile.
Understanding Viral: It’s Not That Easy
One thing I can’t stand to hear as an online marketing professional is “we’re going to make a viral video” or “we just launched a “viral marketing campaign” or really any combination of complete and utter pretension and arrogance with the words viral, marketing and video. You can’t simply make a viral video. You don’t [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of November 14, 2011
The best of what FSC Interactive has read lately focusing on SEO, branding and the most recent technology developments.
Music Monday: Bloc Party, The Black Keys, Bob Marley and More
This week we’ve got some reggae jams from Bob Marley and indie rock music from Bloc Party, so go ahead and take a listen to FSC’s weekly Music Monday playlist.
Social Networking in Person?
Google Meetups are helping to herd groups of people with shared interests, making it easier for them to plan meetings and form offline clubs in local communities around the world.
Assess, Prepare, Unify, Align
As businesses consider social media strategies, they should consider the channel – is it right for you, do you have the time and resources it takes to commit to the communication?
What We’re Reading | Week of November 7
Keywords, Friends,Tweets and Conversions: An assortment of reading recommendations by the staff of FSC Inter@ctive.
Music Monday: The Police, Pixies, Metric and More!
This week on FSC’s Music Monday playlist we’ve got everything from The Police to Fiona Apple and the Presidents of the USA to Metric. Go ahead, take a listen!
YouTube on your Time
The biggest complaint I get about YouTube is the time it takes to film and edit content. And that’s only after you have decided what you want to film, who’s going to be involved, where it’s going to be shot…let’s face it, we can’t all be Spielbergs. But, don’t fret. In the time it takes [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of October 31
Articles on the fight to keep the printed word alive, a stance that “creating” SEO content is contradictory, infographics and more from FSC’s reading list.
FSC Guide to Cookies
There are different types web of cookies that you should know about since, after all, they are on your computer.
Music Monday: Monster Mash, Thriller and More Halloween Hits
In honor of Halloween, we’ve put together a super spooky playlist for your Music Monday. We’ve got your traditional Halloween songs like Ghostbusters and Thriller along with some new ones.
Five Keys to Promoting Your Event Online
Planning a killer event and need to get the word out? Sometimes, promoting your event through social media and online channels can be a daunting task. Here are five easy ways to use Social Media to promote your event online!
Steps to Prep Your Website for Mobile Domination
The stats don’t lie: increased number of Internet searches are performed on mobile devices, more and more people are using their cells to find what they want locally – it’s time to design a mobile website that works for your potential customers.
What We’re Reading | Week of October 24
This week’s collection of articles compiled by the FSC team consists of some useful resources for building a presence on Twitter, how Google is restructuring through Adwords and how traditional newsrooms are continually adapting and embracing social media. Educate and entertain yourself with FSC’s weekly reading list.
Music Monday: Blue Oyster Cult, The Band, Tina Turner and More
Every week the FSC team creates a Music Monday playlist for your listening pleasure. This week, we’ve got The Band, Blue Oyster Cult, Tina Turner and more!
Best WordPress Practices for a Successful Blog
Most blogs are composed on either WordPress or Tumblr these days. WordPress and Tumblr are totally different animals and whether you lean towards one of the publishing platforms or the other is a different topic for a different day. Today, we’re focusing on WordPress which happens to be what we use to deliver our blog, [...]
Top 5 Free Tools To Aid Your Social Media Campaign
Whether you’re working at a high powered marketing agency or a startup with a non-existent marketing budget, you can appreciate the idea of free marketing tools. Amidst all the high-priced software and cutting edge technology lies a handful of free online marketing tools that will give your social media campaign a jump start. I’ve picked [...]
5 Fast Fixes To Take Your Web Site Visitors Where YOU Want Them to Go
You’ve spent loads of time and money driving people to your web site, but they just aren’t acting on arrival – it may be time to make it a little more obvious, accessible, and enticing.
What We’re Reading | Week of October 17th, 2011
Every week we bring you all the latest news and what is hot in social media, SEO, and online marketing.
Music Monday: The Temptations, Pearl Jam, Cake and More!
We all work to the beat of a different drummer. Literally. Check out this week’s free music Monday playlist featuring The Temptations, Pearl Jam, Cake and more!
Three Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand Online
In the world of Social Media, it’s more than acceptable to eavesdrop on the conversations that may be relative to you. We call it monitoring. Here are three free tools to help you monitor your online brand
What We’re Reading | Week of October 10th
As usual, our top picks for reads this week are interesting, diverse and cover a wide gamut of topics. This week’s reads brought us everything from how to better use Instagram to the Dalai Lama using Google+ Hangouts to Labor Talks in Detroit and everything in between. If it happened in Social Media or Online [...]
Music Monday: Burke Ingraffia, Tab Benoit and Friends, David Bowie and More
Every week the FSC team puts together a FREE music Monday playlist. This Monday, we’re listening to hits of the 1970′s with Freda Payne, local favorites like Tab Benoit and Friends, modern day rock bands like MGMT and everything in between!
President’s Corner: Visiting Google
Last week I was lucky enough to visit Google. One word Wow! It is an amazing company with great benefits for their team members (Googlers), and full of enthusiastic employees and ingenious ideas floating around campus. This great opportunity was a part of the ETourism Summit in San Francisco where I was speaking on social media and paid [...]
Tribute to Steve Jobs
We have been so lucky to live in an era of such innovation in so many fields. There are so many that have touched and changed our lives in ways that we have only just begun to understand. We are a more connected world, a more collaborative planet, all because of the passion and vision [...]
Social Media Matters in Higher Education
How colleges should and do use social media to connect with their students and why you should embrace it.
What We’re Reading | Week of October 3rd, 2011
The biggest story this week is about the loss of the brilliant Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, but in addition to that FSC found many articles once again on how social media is changing the world.
How To Communicate With Your Web Developer
Hopefully you are not having any issues with your website and you have a great relationship with your developer. But if not, know you are not alone.
Music Monday: Bruno Mars, Lyle Lovett, Arcade Fire and More
It’s Monday again. And for us that means it’s time for our Music Monday Playlist. In case you haven’t noticed it yet, the FSC team is quite diverse when it comes to taste in music. We have a little bit of everything from all different decades. This week our playlist features everything from the Grateful [...]
Top Blogging Tips From The Editor’s Desk
You might know how to pimp your blog for SEO which is all good and well, but do you know how to make the words in between worth reading? Check out these tips for blogging that an editor, and your readers (whether they know it or not), are looking for.
Cheap Tweets: Going Out of Business Sale!
If I told you you could get 100 Tweets for $10 would you think it was too good to be true? If not, then you deserve the bargain basement borrower’s remorse that comes at the cost of your brand.
What We’re Reading | Week of September 26th
FSC Interactive’s reads this week this week have produced quite a diverse collection of articles on the good, the bad and the down right scary influence of social media.
Local Listings Will Soon Mean Even More To Small Businesses
Check out the 4 Google tools you can use currently and how they will benefit you now and before these pending changes coming with the launch of Google’s City Portal sites hit your hometown.
Music Monday: Maroon 5, MGMT, R.E.M. and More
Ah, Monday. For some, getting back into the swing of “real” life can be hard and, when that happens for us, we plug into our music. In honor of the recent R.E.M. breakup, we’ve got quite a few of their songs in this Music Monday Playlist. We also have some Modest Mouse, Dave Matthews, MGMT [...]
Breaking Up = Business Beware: Do You Own Your Web Site, Domain and Data?
Breakups are hard for everyone, but when you decide that it’s time to move on from your webmaster, web site hosts or SEO firm, things can get a little uncertain, and it can quickly become a lesson in what you don’t know CAN hurt you.
Don’t Panic: Facebook Changes are NOT Sign of Apocalypse
Facebook changed. Again. As it often does. And, has again caused mass hysteria. (Ironically, streaming through Facebook.) Fact: all media changes. The advent of DVR sent waves of panic about the death of the 30 second TV spot. XM Radio signaled the end of radio advertising. And remember when outdoor boards were just boards outside, [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of September 19
This week, the judicial system, emergency preparedness and world peace are all being affected by social media. At least, those are what the articles are saying that we’ve read at FSC. In other news, Mark Zuckerburg shares the love, celebrities endorse themselves (go figure) and promotion ethics are questioned. Have we got your attention? [...]
Music Monday: G. Love, Blues Traveler, The Rolling Stones & More
Mondays can be hard — you’ve just come off the weekend (and, if you’re in New Orleans, you’ve celebrated a Saints victory!) and it’s back to the real world for another week. But, we make the days more fun with our weekly Music Monday playlist. This week we’ve got some Rolling Stones, The Eurythmics, two [...]
Gaggle of Google Tools: Dig In!
Here at FSC we love Google. As a matter of fact, Adele Tiblier is a certified Google AdWords trainer the only one in Louisiana. And at the end of this month I have the great opportunity to go to Google headquarters. I’m expecting a bit of the Land of Oz what’s behind the curtain?! In [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of September 12th, 2011
Sept 12, 2001-FSC Interactive hand selects all the best news each week to bring you what we are reading.
Is Your Website Mobile?
The small screen has requirements very different than your desktop monitor has. The text needs to appear bigger on a mobile device, and there needs to be appropriate spacing between links so that big clumsy index fingers won’t make mistakes. And not every technology that works on a regular website will necessarily work on your phone.
Music Monday: Trombone Shorty, The Cure, Muse and More
This week, we’re listening to everything from local legends like Trombone Shorty and Rotary Downs to old school English rock like The Cure. We love putting together our free Music Monday playlist with you, so go ahead and take a listen. Can you match the song to the FSC employee? 1. Cobras Starship – You [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of September 5th, 2011
Online marketing news and trends happen fast, so FSC Interactive hand selects all the best news each week to bring you what we are reading.
Stupid Facebook Question
How do I add Facebook admins? It may seem like a stupid question, but here are two important things to know about adding administrators to your company Facebook page.
Do You REALLY Need An App?
Before you decide to spend thousands of dollars on developing an app because everyone is doing it, let us tell you why you might not need one.
Facebook Changes Again — Keeping up With the Updates
Facebook changes all the time, keep up with the latest updates with FSC Interactive.
The Goal: Leave Google in the Dust
Google’s search engine is great, don’t get me wrong. Whenever I need to learn the lyrics to an old jazz standard or need to find a dry cleaner while on vacation, I have most of human history and knowledge right at my fingertips on Google.com. And people find your business on Google too. When I [...]
Music Monday: Labor Day Jams
By now you know the drill, we create the playlist you get to groove to some awesome jams all week. We thought it was more than appropriate to kick off this week’s playlist with Labor Day from the Black Eyed Peas. You’ll also hear some Elvis Costello, Bob Marley, two songs from Sia and Pretty [...]
Social Media: 5 Things I’ve Learned Since FSC
Five lessons you can learn about engagement within online communities from a social media agency.
SEO Basics: How To Be a Better Blogger
I used to think that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was really intimidating. Meta-this and Meta-that. But, in reality a lot of SEO boils down to common sense. After attending the SEOmoz conference in March, I realized that SEO is a must for PR professionals and anyone who creates online content. Next time you write a [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of August 29th
Every week, FSC Interactive scours the RSS feeds to keep you updated on the news, trends and fun trivia in the online marketing world.
Living on the Edge Rank
Ever wonder how Facebook decides what counts as “Top Content”? Learn about Edge Rank.
Music Monday: The Beach Boys, Clapton, MGMT & More
If you’re not already a devout follower of the FSC Music Monday playlists, this week is sure to convert you. We’ve got music from the legendary Eric Clapton to the epic Beach Boys, MGMT and Regina Spektor — something for everyone. Go ahead, take a listen. 1. White Town – Your Woman (Andy) 2. Asher [...]
Leveraging Google+ for Search, Sales and Success
No profile for businesses on Google+ doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to leverage the powerful search and social impact of this new, shiny tool – here are some ideas on what do to now.
What We’re Reading | Week of August 22nd
Quick synopsis of search and social industry articles that were the highlight of the FSC team’s RSS feeds, inboxes, or industry pubs for August 22, 2011.
‘Tube Tuesday: FSC Gals Ready for Saints Season
In case you missed this awesome Saints/Packers commercial, we thought we’d share it with you. Here at FSC, we’re die-hard New Orleans Saints fans and we can’t wait for the NFL opener in Green Bay. So, here’s our favorite Video of the week. Tell us what you’re favorite video was on Facebook or on Twitter [...]
Music Monday: Macy Gray, Death Cab and More
We decided last week that it wasn’t fair to keep our weekly playlist to ourselves until Thursday, so we’ve decided to share them with you on Mondays. Here’s what we’re listening to this week. A little Macy Gray, some Death Cab for Cutie, The Black Keys and even an old school Cameo song in there. [...]
Twenty Top Twitter Tips
Even Twitter enthusiasts like us appreciate new tips and tactics, so when we came across this post on the blog, Social Media Traces, we felt the need to share. I mean you learn something new everyday, right? Let today be Twitter! Twenty Top Twitter Tips by socialmediacomm Forget search.twitter.com, monitor multiple searches at once with [...]
College in the Cloud? Online Trends in Higher Education
How will the growing online education options affect the typical college experience? A recent study presented some very interesting facts about The State of Digital Education.
Talking Twitter: Popular New Orleans Hashtags
Like everything else in New Orleans, we have a set of unique popular hashtags that you might see and that we recommend leveraging.
I <3 Data: Google’s Latest Experiment
A few weeks ago (long before all this talk of Google’s Motorola purchase took center stage) the search giant launched yet another fun fact finding tool for data geeks (like yours truly) with it’s What Do You Love project. This nifty little page takes a simple search and provides a clean feed showcasing how accessible [...]
Inside FSC: What We’re Listening To | Week of August 15, 2011
This has become one of our most popular weekly posts, so it is apparent that other people like working with music in the background, too. This week our playlist is sure to please just about everyone with music from various jam bands, alternative artists, rock stars, oldies and even a theme song. We ask every [...]
What FSC Interactive is Reading | Week of August 15, 2011
Brooke: Social Contacts Help Men, Not Women, in Job Market – A study from NC State suggests that while men reap the social benefits of work experience, women do not. In fact, men with this kind of experience were 12 percent more likely to find a new job through informal recruitment than they were through [...]
Mazel or Misfire: Should Students and Teachers be Friends on Facebook?
With the rise of social networks comes the blurred definition of the word “friend.” Just a few years ago, you would never have considered your high school chemistry teacher your “friend” but in today’s technology riddled world that line has been muddied. I will admit, I am Facebook friends with a few of the teachers [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of August 8
August 22, 2011. Every week we let you know what we are reading so that you can find out what is going on in the world of social media, SEO, PPC, and online marketing.
Social Media Love Songs: Odes to Google+, Facebook and Twitter
You know you’ve made it when people start poking fun of you with parodies on YouTube lamenting their love of your product, service, or site. So whether you’re a Facebook fanatic, Twitterholic or have visions of Google+ circles, like halos hanging over your friends’s heads, appearing in real life – you still haven’t hit the [...]
Talking Twitter: Twitter Terms and Definitions
So here’s the deal: I love Twitter. You may or may not know that already. Anyway, I didn’t always feel this way. Twitter is a confusing beast that, without a little guidance and attention, can be so overwhelming that you may feel like giving up. Let’s be serious, Twitter is an entirely different language — [...]
Inside FSC: What We’re Listening To | Week of August 8, 2011
Back by popular demand, we’ve made you a weekly playlist. We love working with music in the background. And, by background, we mean we all love working with our headphones and listening to different music. Here’s a taste of what we’re listening to this week. Can you guess whose songs are whose? Can’t guess? Click [...]
5 Tell-Tale Signs That Paid Search Just Isn’t for Your Business
Paid search is a wonderful thing, and we at FSC execute many successful campaigns for many clients. But not every client is a fit for paid search. It might be due to the competition, cost of the targeted keywords, profit margin, website functionality or these five factors that if can’t be done, lead to bad [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of August 1
Aug 4, 2011. Every week we let you know what we are reading so that you can find out what is going on in the world of social media, SEO, PPC, and online marketing.
Open Letter to Penelope Trunk
For this week’s newsletter I was going to write a post on the things we need from clients in order to help them in paid search. It is a partnership and without cooperation from clients, sometimes we can’t be as effective as we could be. But that will wait until next week because of this [...]
Humorous Microsoft Video Highlights the Creepy Side of Gmail
Even the biggest Google fans get a little creeped out by the accuracy of the ads presented to each individual in Gmail – then again, some of them are spot on!
Talking Twitter: Common Abbreviations and Acronyms
Do you ever get on Twitter and find yourself thinking ‘what the heck does that mean?!’? Well, even though I am a devout Twitter user, I find myself asking that question all the time. Occasionally, I’ll ask around, privately, of course, because I don’t want people to know that I don’t know what OMGLMAOWABFF stands [...]
Inside FSC: What We’re Listening To
At FSC, we all take our music pretty seriously and, as evidenced by our weekly playlist, we all have different tastes in music. Yet, while listening to the playlist throughout, every song seems to work together, much like FSC. Here’s what we’re listening to this week: Can you guess what song belongs to which FSC [...]
What We’re Reading | Week of July 25
Ashley: Marketing Transparency: Domino’s Pizza’s Pie In The Sky Domino’s Pizza has been an industry leader in transparent marketing since their 2009 launch of Pizza Turnaround where they acknowledged their negative reviews and set out to publicly address their fallen reputation by changing their recipes, standards and most importantly, by listening to their customers. The [...]
Outsource or In-house Paid Search: Which is the Right Fit for Your Business?
In the constantly changing universe that is interactive marketing, pay-per-click advertising has enjoyed remarkable longevity. PPC campaigns continue to play a vital role in driving internet traffic to businesses. Just this week, a Google study revealed that PPC ads have very little click overlap with organic search engine ranking. So, even businesses that rank in [...]
How Hotels Can Use Review Sites
People are talking about you online, are you listening? If you’re in the hospitality industry, monitoring and engaging on review sites is not only important but necessary to make sure you are keeping track of the wants and needs of your customers. To sum up, it’s time you join the online revolution and start listening [...]
What is a Google Quality Score and why should I care?
Google AdWords calculates a Quality Score for each keywords you are bidding on in your account, and this score determines how often you show, how much you pay per click and your position in the rankings of other ads. It is one of the most important items to review and optimize for in your whole paid search campaign.
What We’re Reading | Week of July 21
What FSC Interactive is reading about this week: Netflix v Amazon Prime, Facebook Ads Rates, Facebook Failures, Maximizing SERPs, Digital Litter and How Google Effects Our Memory.
Mobilize Your Search Marketing Campaign
It seems like every week a new report or study reveals new insights about the rapid adoption of smartphones and mobile internet use. Considering that 50 percent of all new phones purchased in the U.S. are smartphones, it’s clear that mobile search will not be slowing down anytime soon. Targeting mobile users should be an [...]
Google+: The New Gal in Town
It’s all everyone in the online marketing world is talking about – Director of Social media, Tiffany Starnes uses her power of analogy to try an explain the Google+ New Girl phenomenon.
What We’re Reading | July 14, 2011
Whether it’s the debate over a possible overload of analytics, giving brand ambassadors something to do, or our continuing education in SEO, the FSC crew filters the good stuff from each of our inboxes, RSS feeds, or Google+ streams to share what we are learning about this week. Adele: The Responsibilities of SEO Have Been [...]
Auto Follow Fail
I am a big fan of Twitter Lists and I trust that the people I admire and respect will lead me to Follow there people I like and respect. I often Follow people listed on Social Media lists to learn from my peers. One thing I am not a big fan of is Auto Follow, [...]
The Four “C’s” of Social Media
Social Media is a daunting word for many people; it is such an obscure term with an infinite amount of possibility, potential and definition. I mean, what does it mean and where do you go when someone says, “we should do Social Media!”? The truth is that Social Media, in all of it’s vagueness, is [...]
5 Tools for Measuring Twitter
It should come as no surprise that Twitter has become one of the most efficient ways to share content, build relationships and generate traffic to your website. And when you’re using Twitter, it’s important to be able to measure your success. The following 5 tools help you better understand how successful your Twitter campaign really [...]
What We’re Reading: JT’s New ‘Net Space, Lessons from Twitter, Top Tech Chics, and Kissing Your Webmaster | July 8, 2011
There is always something new to read or learn about online…and with so much content to comb through, finding a unique article that speaks to each of us is never hard to find. See what we’ve been reading and our $0.02 on the topics of social media, women in tech, the many reasons why we [...]
Can Social Media Hurt You?
Using social media to connect with old friends is the new norm. But what about those you don’t want to rekindle, or even worse that create potential hurt in your life?
What We’re Reading: Find a Job on Twitter, Obama Town Hall and Google Goes Social | June 30, 2011
Brooke: Sales, Service, Marketing? In the Social Era, They’re All The Same As we know very well at FSC, engaging with customers has become an entirely different proposition from what it once was! These days one Tweet can signal a sales lead, require technical support, or reinforce branding in a company. This article begs the [...]
Director of Social Media featured on WWL Digital Gumbo
In case you missed it (and, let’s be real, how many of you were up this morning at 6:20 am?) our own Director of Social Media, Tiffany Starnes, was on WWL-TV’s Digital Gumbo segment this morning discussing the use of Social Media in Hurricane Evacuations and emergency situations. She discusses the use of Twitter, Facebook [...]
Infographic Obsession: Where to Drink in New Orleans
This is an oldie but a goodie, for sure! We first saw this “Where to Drink in New Orleans” flowchart, which was originally created by Ian Hoch a few months ago, and it has been one of our favorite infographics since! As a mixed groups of girls — some of us are native New Orleanians, [...]
How to Create a Twitter List
Have you heard? The little blue bird has a handy tool that is often overlooked but extremely helpful Twitter Lists! And we’re not talking groceries. What is a Twitter List Twitter Lists, which were launched in late 2009, are a simple but powerful tool, a customized Rolodex of like-minded tweeples for you to follow. Twitter [...]
FSC Celebrity Doppelgangers
At FSC, we’re a group of spunky, smart and, though we might hate to admit it, easily entertained gals. Just about everyday we pass around some silly video (cue, I am your grandma) or crazy photo that gets us giggling for a solid five minutes. These mini-distractions serve as a much needed break in the [...]
Social Media Cinderella Story
Occasionally, social media, combined with timing, talent and passion create an epic fairy tale moment. That’s how Amber Osbourne went from eating yams out of a can to representing the brand on Twitter, a move that propelled her to Twitter celebrity status. Yes, I said Twitter celebrity. You are probably thinking you know the type…holier-than-thou, [...]
Five Ways to Save Your Paid Placement Campaign
If you’re running your own paid placement campaign, chances are you’ve had some kind of negative experience; you ran through your money too quickly, nothing seemed to work, you didn’t get any qualified clicks, yada, yada, yada… Either way, your campaign is running wild and you need to get it back under control. Here are [...]
What FSC is Reading: Your Boss Is On Facebook, Who’s Your (Google) Plus One and A New Twist on Gumbo
June 23, 2011. Every week we let you know what we are reading so that you can find out what is going on in the world of social media, SEO, PPC, and online marketing.
5 Ways to Use Social Networks this Hurricane Season
Twitter and Facebook are great resources to stay informed and in touch in the event of a hurricane this season.
Let’s Talk About Sex…And Facebook
Giving the recent sexting epidemic and Weiner spectacle, we thought we’d repost this and get your opinion. Are social networks ruining intimacy and relationships in America? Originally posted 3/13/2011: Sex and Facebook, two of America’s favorite obsessions. But what is our obsession with Facebook doing to our sex lives and personal relationships? Is our obsession [...]
What We’re Reading: Mashable Mostly with a dash of James Joyce
June 16, 2011 – Every week we let you know what we are reading so that you can find out what is going on in the world of social media, SEO, PPC, and online marketing.
Social Media Study Hall: Facebook for Small Businesses
FSC Interactive provides Facebook training for small groups of small business professionals.
Are You Using Your Facebook Tabs?
When growing your Facebook community, one of the main goals is to generate interactions with your fans. The use of Discussion Boards and Notes are two Facebook applications that can help reach that goal. Facebook Notes Facebook’s “Notes” is unarguably one of the strongest applications the social networking site offers. All companies on Facebook can [...]
What FSC is Reading- June 9, 2011
June 8, 2011 – Every week we let you know what we are reading so that you can find out what is going on in the world of social media, SEO, PPC, and online marketing.
SEO & PR are like Peanut Butter & Jelly
SEO and PR are complimentary efforts that any online marketer should be taking advantage of these days. In today’s search and click world, top Google placement is the equivalent of being above the fold in any major newspaper.
What We’re Reading June 2, 2011
Tiffany: I Would Never Hire a Social Media Expert and Neither Should You A while back, Peter Shankman posted that anyone with the audacity to call themselves a social media “expert” should likely be killed in a fire. Now, I wouldn’t go that far, but Shankman has some good points. At the very least it [...]
5 Google Analytics Tips to Measure Success
FSC Interactive explains 5 ways to use Google Analytics to measure your website’s success.
Infographics Obsession: Social Media's Loaded Questions
Inquiring minds want to know…and they are turning to Twitter for answers. Our infographic obsession today breaks down the who, what, when, where and how of asking questions on Twitter. Click below to see the entire image.
How NOLA Brewing Used Twitter to Get A New York Times Interview
Often times the power of Social Media is questioned and, when faced with case studies or success stories, critics attribute credit to various reasons like: company size, traditional marketing elements that supported the online efforts or, even dumb luck. NOLA Brewing recently announced the launch of the NOLA Brewing canning line. Despite being one of [...]
Mazel or Misfire: Peter Thiel’s "20 under 20"
Yesterday morning, during my regular browse of the Fast Company website, I saw this article title “Peter Thiel Gives Whiz Kids $100K to Quit College, Start Businesses.” The article was associated with a cute picture of kids selling lemonade. I immediately thought that Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, was [...]
What FSC is Reading- May 26, 2011
May 26, 2011. Every week we let you know what we are reading so that you can find out what is going on in the world of social media, SEO, PPC, and online marketing.
@Twitter Find Me the Best #TravelDeals
It’s almost June and a summer vacay is on the brain for many. I love traveling and personally try to stay abreast of all the industry trends as I work so closely with the hospitality and tourism industry. Being that I am an FSC gal, I’m regularly perusing the internet for all things ground breaking [...]
Facebook Feature Update: Ad Campaign Charts and Analytics
This just in! Facebook has recently added an audience breakdown chart and a response graph to the insights and analytics they offer with every advertising campaign. According to the chart, Facebook is now mapping out your target audience vs. reach audience vs. social reach; as well as charting the response, clicks and connections with a [...]
Infographic Obssession: Sitting Down is Killing You
I am not normally one to freak out over a (likely skewed) statistic about health. I think I’m in pretty good shape — I eat right, exercise, do all the things I am supposed to — but when I came across this infographic on Daily Infographics (yes, it’s an awesome website) I may or may [...]
Infographic Obsession: Over-Valued Social Media Companies
Today’s Daily Infographic Obsession is from GPlus and begs the questions, Is There a Tech Bubble? Based on the amount of money some of these Social Media sites are making, the answer might be yes. According to the findings in this infographic. all you need nowadays is a good social media idea and that can [...]
What We Are Reading
Andy: Knee Bone’s Connected to the Smartphone Times, they are a-changing. Every day I feel as though I read about some kind of technological advancement that will either help save or be the cause of the destruction of Man Kind. Often times, when I read these articles, I skim them briefly and then throw them [...]
Mazel or Misfire: Citizen Journalism
As the Mississippi River rises, many are closely monitoring social media for updates and breaking news. Citizen journalism has brought us to the front lines of historic events like the Iran election and Japanese Tsunami, providing valuable perspectives. But, when everyone is armed with the tools to make news, how do we vet the truth [...]
5 Easy Ways to Use Facebook as a Page
If you use social media, then you know that Facebook is constantly changing. A few months ago, they made it possible to use Facebook as a page and we want to make sure you are taking full advantage of this update. Below, are a few helpful tips to make your Facebook page as successful as [...]
Social Media Study Hall: Twitter Training
The world of communications and marketing is changing every day, and the shift from traditional into online is no longer deniable. Understanding this shift and the value of an online presence is a necessary component to developing a successful and holistic marketing strategy and plan. Here at FSC Interactive, we realize that this is often [...]
Infographic Obsession: Who Uses Social Networking More, Men Or Women?
I found this infographic on Scribbal as I was stumbling around the inter-webs looking for statistics on Social Network users. According to this infographic from Kissmetrics, women dominate the social networking world and use Facebook, Twitter and Myspace more often than men. On a personal level, this doesn’t surprise me at all. After all, aren’t [...]
What We’re Reading: Like Building, Google Music, Earthquakes and First Kisses
Leslie: Link-Building and Like-Building If you’re interested in SEO and how people find your website, don’t just think in terms of traditional SEO link building. Your mix of SEO efforts should now be split evenly between link building and social optimization (links from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) Nowadays you need to have all the pieces [...]
Dear Google Chrome
I was surfing the web, well Facebook, and I saw that a friend posted your Dear Sophie video to her profile with a comment saying, “DAMN Google I’m impressed. Way to add the human element to global domination.” I immediately clicked on the video not at all expecting anything, certainly not expecting to feel something [...]
Mazel or Misfire: NFL Players on Twitter
As the lock-out looms, the NFL is a hot topic in social media and many players aren’t holding back their opinions. In fact, from politics to pop culture, athletes are heating up the Twitterverse with their opinions and commentary. Do you think that these athletes should be held to a higher standard?
Infographic Obsession: Balance Your Media Diet
This week, our favorite infographic is from Wired Magazine, granted it’s about two years old but when we found this bad boy in Pamorama’s 35 Great Social Media Infographics, we had to share it with you. This is a breakdown of the recommend media “diet” including gaming, television, social networking and microblogging. Although we probably [...]
Mazel or Misfire: Osama Bin Laden’s Death and Social Media
Whether or not Twitter broke the news is questionable, but the news spread like wildfire across the internet and social media outlets, as outlined in a great Fast Company article. FSC Interactive’s Noelle, Andy and Tiffany weigh in on what caught their attention
What We’re Reading: Trends, Ten Plagues and Twitter Saving Lives
Andy: Top Ten Twitter Trends in April I thought, for sure, that Bieber Fever had gone gently into that good night. But, boy, was I wrong. In the last month, Justin Bieber was second only to the Royal Wedding in Twitter Trends. What is the deal with this kid? Don’t get me wrong, I myself [...]
FSC Weekly Infographic: How Social Media is Shaping College Admissions
FSC Interactive Weekly Infographic: How Social Media is Shaping College Admissions
What We're Reading: Facebook, Royal Wedding, Social Networks and 404 Errors.
Andy: Facebook Hires Infographic Gurus Nicholas Felton And Ryan Case In the last week, I feel as though I have had ten different conversations about the importance of creative when designing a product, campaign or brand strategy. Regardless of the product you’re peddling, if it doesn’t look good, it won’t go far. My thoughts about [...]
Gaga for Google
If I had to choose between Lady Gaga and Google…well, let’s jut say I can’t live without either of them. So, a Google interview with Lady Gaga…double dose of awesome! Check out the great introduction that visualizes Lady Gaga’s fame and reach using various Google search tools.
Infographic Obsession: More than Pretty Pie Charts
People online are CRAZY for infographics (myself included). But these artful renditions aren’t all that new. Remember the old days where you picked up a newspaper, smudging your hands with black ink as you flipped through it, and either the title or visual caught your eye? Well, these keenly crafted, purposely placed visuals were used [...]
Social Media Mazel or Misfire: Twitter Auto Direct Messages
If you Follow enough people on Twitter, you are probably familiar with the Auto Direct Message (DM). This is an automated function for a Twitter message sent to you immediately upon following a profile that can be created as a setting.This week we each weigh in on whether this is a Mazel (Kudos!) or a [...]
Link Bacon: Link Baiting with Flavor
In recent months, I’ve seen a lot of crossover between Public Relations, Social Media and SEO. So, I dove straight in and learned that a lot of SEO is Common Sense. Use words that your customers are searching for to create valuable content. Make your links like Bacon.
What We're Reading: Online Marketing Tidbits
Chaos Theory, Social Media, and Saving the World
Most people are at least marginally familiar with the basic tenets of Chaos Theory. A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon causes a tornado in Texas. That basic idea has woven itself into popular culture, from Jurassic Park to a truly terrible Ashton Kutcher movie. So we’re familiar with this idea in a wide-angle [...]
Sushi for Sendai: Dining Out for Japan
On March 11, 2011 the world stopped to listen, watch, and read about the devastating earthquakes that hit northern Japan. If the damage from the quakes weren’t horrifying enough, a tsunami followed, washing away the little bit of hope the locals had left. I was especially affected by the images that flooded MSNBC, and couldn’t [...]
Gushing Over Google
So as part of what feels like a carnival ride of a week, between Google certification tests, a trip for some super secret training program (that we have to keep on the DL for now – details coming soon), and of course the return to my never boring day-to-day life as an FSC girl, I [...]
5 Free Tools for Social Media Metrics
If you really want to know what’s working and what isn’t in your social media marketing, it’s time to start measuring and analyzing. It’s pretty easy, I promise. And there are some pretty cool free social media metrics tools that will help.
Google’s Newest New Orleans AdWords Certified Partner Announced
FSC Interactive announces its foothold in the online marketplace as the only Google AdWords Certified Partner in New Orleans with an in-house certified AdWords Expert.
Social Media Mazel of Misfire: Protected Twitter Accounts Part 2
Yesterday, the FSC Social Media Team debated the pros and cons of a protected twitter account and filmed it all for your viewing pleasure. Not surprisingly, the topic created quite a stir on twitter and other networks so we felt as though we needed to film a follow up in response to some of the [...]
Festival Poll
It’s Festival Season in New Orleans! Get your folding chairs, sunscreen, big floppy hat, and comfortable shoes ready. But there’s a lot to choose from. Which festival is your favorite?
Social Media Mazel or Misfire: Protected Twitter Accounts
Each week, the FSC Social Media Team takes a look at a social media practice or campaign. This week, the FSC team focused on something they use both personally and professionally, Twitter.
Social Media Study Hall: FSC to Offer Training Courses
Designed to help small businesses in the greater New Orleans area navigate online channels, the FSC Social Media training series will focus on one social media platform at a time and go through best practices for using that platform.
Social Media Donations Poll
Our hearts go out to the people of Japan as they try to recover from the devastation of the recent earthquake and tsunami, and our wallets have opened up as well. How do you donate online?
NOEW 2011
The FSC Interactive team is proud to take part in the 2011 New Orleans Entrepreneur Week put on by our friends at the Idea Village.
Social Media vs. Relationships: We Shouldn’t Even Have to Choose
I am sure that some people have used social media as an excuse to detach themselves from the real, offline world but chances are they weren’t very social to begin with. I, myself have used it as an enhancement to my offline world. Social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, the list goes on, is an app for my life. I am able to create stronger more impressionable connections with my friends, accompanied with words and pictures.
Two New Facebook Changes
Facebook has done it again! Yep, there’s another round of updates to the ever-changing social network. The changes are nothing major, but enough to get me confused early in the morning (that may or may not be a hard feat).
Social Media in Times of Crisis
Social media is changing the way we communicate and this shift in correspondence is not more apparent than in times of crisis and need. Over the course of the last year and a half we’ve seen the change in media coverage of natural disasters, revolutions and times of crisis shift from traditional media to citizen [...]
Social Media Mazel or Misfire: Chrysler F-Bomb
You may have heard about the recent Chrysler social media snafu; from Mashable to AdFreak to Jalopnik, everyone’s been covering the situation. Crossing the lines between traditional and new media, the Chrysler F-Bomb tweet has got everyone talking about the state of social media marketing.
Meet Us at Mardi Gras
We love New Orleans, we love to party, we love to get together with our friends and families, and we love drinking in the streets while dancing and in costume. So the Krewe of FSC Interactive is pretty much made for Mardi Gras. Here are a few of the things we love about the biggest free party in the best city in the world.
Google’s War on Content Farms and Twitter’s One Night Stands: An FSC Friday Roundup
In an effort to keep dishing us the relevant search results we deserve, Google is putting the smack down on content farms that appear to be “low-quality sites.†Although it is unclear as to which sites will be reprimanded as content farms.
Social Media Mazel or Misfire: Heineken
Earlier this week our Social Media team got together and, taking a cue from our favorite Bravo TV host Andy Cohen, we decided to evaluate different Social Media campaigns across the world wide web and award them with a Mazel (Kudos!) or a Misfire (Better luck next time). Social Media isn’t new anymore and, let’s [...]
Talk of the iPad 2 Heats Up
Apple is set to announce the long awaited iPad 2 in exactly one week, according to a press release reported by CNN.com. But what will the new iPad be like?
#BieberFever Friday (And, Everyday) at FSC Interactive
We’d be lying if we said members of the FSC Team haven’t been hit hard with Bieber Fever and last Friday we created a #BieberFever Photo Album on Facebook featuring members of our team with the latest Rolling Stone Magazine featuring the Justin Bieber himself on the cover. We saw an opportunity to join the #BieberFever conversation and have fun at the same time. And, while the #BieberFever Friday photo album started as an FSC antic — it won us an online photo contest.
Facebook Poll
Every time Facebook makes changes of any sort, there is usually a strong online campaign to force Facebook to reverse those changes. Well, Mark Zuckerberg and company are at it again with a brand new page layout. So what do you think? Take our survey and let us know.
Facebook’s Facelift: Part Two
In last week’s Facebook Facelift blog post we talked about the new layout of Pages and the increased communication privileges Pages now enjoy. After digging around deeper into the new Facebook Pages settings, we discovered three things that Facebook now offers Page Admins that they’ve never offered before.
Facebook Goes Deep on New Smartphones
We may not see a phone 100 percent dedicated to Facebook anytime in the near future, but the ubiquitous social networking site will deepen its presence on mobile devices throughout 2011. Two HTC phones, the Salsa and ChaCha, feature Facebook buttons on their main displays. So what does this mean to the on-the-go status updater?
Conan O’Brien, Egypt, and Getting Into College: An FSC Friday Roundup
Conan O’Brien has spent the last year reinventing himself after the NBC Tonight Show debacle threatened to end his career. The 47 year old comedian was able to engineer a highly successful comeback mainly by embracing social media.
Facebook Pages Gets a Facelift
Facebook got yet another round of work done recently. In case you aren’t on the the ‘book as often as we are, or on the off chance that you live under a rock and you haven’t heard, Facebook recently changed the layout and look of official pages.
Social Media Poll
How will you be using Social Media this Mardi Gras? Take this poll to let us know!
Talking Taboos on Twitter
Religion and politics have become very public conversation topics in the last few years with the growing use of social media. But is it OK to Tweet about God or politics?
How to Keep Your Clients and Blog Readers Coming Back for More: An FSC Friday Roundup
Blogging is a tricky thing. If you do the same thing every day, your audience will get bored and go away. If you constantly change things up, you won’t be able to build a strong audience because your site will lack a consistent foundation.
Bot Watch: Penis Enlargement Desperately Seeking Backlinks
We get a big kick out of reading the spam bot posts in the comments on our blog posts. These desperate attempts at backlinks are typically disguised as pithy remarks. And other times, not so much.
Black Hat/White Hat: Is SEO Immoral?
Search Engine Optimization is the way of the future. If you have a website, especially a business website, it only makes logical sense to make that website as streamlined and searchable as possible. But SEO is, on a fundamental level, data manipulation.
FSC Wins Adrian Award for GoNOLA
FSC Interactive is honored that GoNOLA was recognized for digital marketing excellence at the Adrian Awards, the most prestigious travel marketing competition. Impressed? So are we!
The Revolution will not be Televised, but it will be on Twitter
Social media isn’t just changing the way revolutions are organized in Egypt, Syria, and Iran, it’s changing the way we, as outsiders, interact with and for the revolutionaries.
The Pope, the Oatmeal, and Twitter: An FSC Friday Roundup
There’s been an amazing amount of action in the Social Media world this week, which we always love to see. From the Pope getting in on the action to Twitter teams “racing†for a new Mercedes, there’s a little something for everyone.
Twitter’s Ad Sales Surge
Twitter’s ad revenues are expected to reach the $150 million mark in 2011, with an additional $100 million expected in 2012. But are the ads worth it?
MTV, Modems, Music and More: An FSC Friday Roundup
Here are some interesting articles that sparked our interest this week, from Pandora’s humans to MTV’s Social Media Awards and kids who can’t swim.
Google Me: One agency's epic search story
The story of FSC as told by Google search queries for employees. A testament to our obsession with Twitter, Facebook and social networks in general. Also a testament to the value social media content plays in SEO. All that content we put out on our social networks is putting those networks at the top of the Google search results.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt to be replaced by Larry Page
Today, after announcing their fourth-quarter earnings, Google announced that CEO Eric Schmidt will be replaced in April by previous CEO Larry Page. Schmidt, who has served as the CEO for Google since 2001, will stay on as the executive chairman of Google but will no longer need to provide “day-to-day adult supervision,” as he said [...]
The Social Network Scores
We’re all big fans of Facebook and all things Social Media at FSC Interactive, in case you haven’t noticed. That’s why we were really excited when The Social Network came up big last night at the Golden Globes. While the high-profile movie landed on dozens of “best of” lists as 2010 came to a close, [...]
Claim Your Place
If you have a business, one of your first online priorities should be claiming your place page on Google, Yelp, and Facebook. This will allow your potential customers to easily find your physical location on a map, making a real-world visit much more likely.
Twitter’s Long-Term Vision
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has clarified the startup’s vision for the future to become an information network, something that Twitter users have already embraced.
Myspace Downsizes
With a 50 percent reduction in its workforce, Myspace is feeling the dominance of Facebook, but the social media site still logs more visits than Twitter.
FSC Fix It: Time Zones
Resident tech genius Adele Tiblier came to the rescue when a blog post ran nine hours early. Here’s a short description of how she fixed the problem.
2010: The Year Facebook Took Over Part 2
The FSC Interactive team looks back at 2010 as the year Facebook took over the internet as Mark Zuckerberg was named Time Magazine’s person of the year.
2010: The Year Facebook Took Over Part 1
The FSC Interactive team looks back at 2010 as the year Facebook took over the internet as Mark Zuckerberg was named Time Magazine’s person of the year.
Digital Expert Adele Tiblier on WWL
FSC Interactive digital expert Adele Tiblier appeared on WWLTV in New Orleans to talk about Skype with WWL anchor Eric Paulson.
New Hire Steve Maloney: It’s a Boy!
FSC Interactive is proud to announce our newest team member Steve Maloney. Bravely going where no man has dared go before, Steve is the first non-female member of what has often been referred to in the past as the “FSC sorority”. Despite finding a welcome card adorned with all different types of shoes on his [...]
Sins, Cyber Sales and Stuff You Didn’t Know about Gmail: FSC’s Top Picks for the Week
The 9 Social Media Marketing Sins The problem with Social Media Marketing is that everyone thinks they can do it. People think “I’m on Facebook so I can do Social Media Marketing” or “it’s just Twitter, how hard can that be?” WRONG. I’m not saying that Social Media Marketing is rocket science but, with any [...]
Let’s Talk Girl Talk
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last ten years and haven’t heard, Girl Talk (aka Gregg Michael Gillis) is just one of the latest music sensations in America specializing in pop mashups and digital samplings. The DJ has gained fame, or perhaps notoriety, over the last few years mixing and mashing [...]
Movember, Mobile, Mozilla, and More on Google Places: Must Reads from FSC
So many email newsletters, blogs and industry sites to read, so little time. But when the FSC crew finds good stuff to share, you have to believe that our social side kicks into overdrive. Whether you are following FSC’s Twitter stream for instant updates, or maybe you check out the full list of what we’re [...]
Today's Twitter Tool- Power Point Feedback
It’s hard to keep on top of all the fun tools and toys that Twitter offers, which is why OneForty.com is one of our favorite sites. It aggregates Twitter tools and organizes them into easily navigated categories.
HubSpot thinks Social Media is BS…Do you?
Obviously, the online marketing team here at FSC think Social Media is pretty important. But, we also acknowledge that is is simply a tool- one tool in the online marketing toolbox. While I wouldn’t go so far as to call it BS, I think Hubspot makes some great points in this presentation.
Get Your Badge On. It’s Hip to be Foursquare.
We recently received a call asking “What’s FORD Square and why should I care?” With so many social networking shiny objects popping up, it is easy to get overwhelmed and question the value of the next great thing. Location-based check in applications are all the rage and even social media giant Facebook has hopped on [...]
Google: Search Results in an Instant (or faster)
Did we really need faster search results? Was it too much to just go the full millisecond after hitting ‘search’ to find what we were looking for? Did someone ask for this? Is Google doing this for us? This ‘instant’ business really got me thinking. Were we clamoring for a search engine that could read [...]
Facebook (is going) Places
Have you heard? Facebook is set to roll out their very own location-based check-in service. You read that right. Facebook is creating their very own version of Foursquare or Gowalla or whatever other location-based service the kids are using these days. Mashable, my personal favorite source for all things social, published today a field guide [...]
The 782 Things I’ve Learned at FSC
I have been interning at FSC for three months now and to say I have learned a lot is truly an understatement. Forget about filing papers, making copies, or running for coffee, (mundane tasks many interns are forced to do) from day one the gals at FSC have treated me as an equal assigning me [...]
"Mad"dening – Mad Men Groundbreakers Inspire Women in a Web 2.0 World
“This is what the client wants” Freddy Rumsen “We have an image to uphold as an agency, and the work we’ve been doing is very different from this.” Peggy Olsen Although none of the gals around our office look like Peggy Olsen (probably more like Betty or Joan), working with women who are breaking ground [...]
Alyssa Milano Spices up Charity…in a towel
In case you’ve been under a rock, Old Spice recently did a great YouTube effort fielding questions from the world wide web to be answered in quick quirky quips almost instantly by hunky spokesman Isaiah Mustafa. It is currently #1 on You Tube and worth a watch. (Warning: Time suck is unavoidable.) Alyssa Milano, in [...]
Facebook For Small Businesses
Recently, I went to a presentation about Facebook (entitled Facebook for Small Businesses). As many of you know, I love Facebook, especially Pages. I love Facebook Pages so much that I will talk to anyone at any time about anything that has to do with Facebook Pages and small businesses. So, you can imagine my [...]
Google Caffeine – The Intersection of Speed, Social, and SEO
Just in case you hadn’t noticed the world’s leading search engine, Google (with 72% of the world’s searches) recently made some changes to how it serves up search results. Although these alterations have been in the works for quite some time, and those in the search marketing biz got a sneak peak back in August [...]
Facebook Trumps Twitter
Don’t Panic. But, Twitter is not really that big. To be fair, according to a recent study on Twitter usage , over half of all tweets (60 percent) come from third party applications. That means that most people using Twitter never visit the website, which is what the Hitwise survey measured. It’s probably safe to [...]
These are a Few of My Favorite (Facebook) Apps
So, you’ve heard about this Facebook thing, right? Well, we love Facebook (most of the time) but sometimes even we don’t realize just how big it’s gotten. Did you know that Facebook gets more than 45% of the visits to social networking sites from the US Market Share, according to Small Business Labs and, Facebook [...]
Working to Make a Difference
FSC Interactive is proud to say that the Gulf Aid Relief Concert was a tremendous success, raising over $300,000! Proceeds from the concert, which took place May 16th in New Orleans, raised funds to help stop the oil from destroying our wetlands and provide financial aid to affected fishermen and their families as the vessel [...]
Ready to Rebuild – FSC Swaps HTML for Hammers (Just for One Day)
St. Bernard’s Women’s Rebuild Week is May 24-29 and the ladies of FSC Interactive are proud to be part of the 250 women leaders taking part in the rebuilding of New Orleans homes that were damaged by Katrina. The event which draws volunteers from across the country, provides women leaders an opportunity to help and [...]
Facebook, I love you. I love you not.
At any given moment on any given day you can hear someone at FSC shouting from the rooftops about Facebook. Some days it’s to praise the accessibility and ease with which small business can effectively reach niche audiences and engage with customers. Other days, well, let’s just say it’s not quite so positive. Take for [...]
Twitter Tracking Troubles
We have been engaging in social media strategies for various clients over the past year – it is the newest line of service FSC offers, but also the fastest growing. The question that arises over and over again is one that should have a simple and quantifiable answer (after all we are online and everything [...]
I'm not a Social Media Expert
Not too long ago I was searching the inter webs for who knows what (that happens to me often) and I stumbled upon an article about the 9 Types of Social Media Experts. I first opened the link expecting to see one of those videos featuring the cliche “social media experts” that we all know [...]
The Great LinkedIn update debate
LinkedIn has an option to automatically pull status updates from Twitter and several of the FSC team members use the @FSCnola account to populate our updates. We all contribute to the account and use it to share industry news and information. Our intention was to share all of our opinions across our networks which consist [...]
Weeding out Unqualified CPC Terms
If you utilize cost per click (CPC) as one of your marketing tactics, you or the person managing your media spend best be very adept at choosing and adding negative (Google) or excluded (Yahoo) keywords to your campaigns. Negative and excluded keywords are as important as every other basic element of a campaign they weed [...]
The NFL Needs some Social Media Coaching
The NFL is learning a hard but necessary lesson about social media with the #WhoDat controversy. A brand can no longer control content. Once something is published, it is fair game to be spread far and wide across the Interwebs. But, guess what? That’s good for your brand! It’s what ad agencies and marketers dream [...]
Sawubona Marketing – Do you see me?
Yesterday the FSC Interactive team had the pleasure of attending the AMA monthly luncheon with none other than Chris Broganas the speaker. For those of you not familiar with Chris Brogan, he is to social media, what Elvis is to Rock n Roll the King. He is also co-author with Julien Smith of a great book, Trust Agents [...]
A Tale of Two Twitter Tools
In order to manage a Twitter account it is absolutely necessary to have a desktop application to filter and organize the constant stream of content. I have always been a TweetDeck enthusiast. I dabbled with Seesmic briefly, but always opted for the clean user friendly interface of TweetDeck. In addition to updating multiple accounts at once, you [...]
Put That in Your Pipe and Sort it…and Filter it…and Translate it…and…
Do you spend a lot of time searching different websites for similar information? Check. Do you search different websites for information daily? Check. Do you spend more time that you should browsing sites for information? Check. Would you like to develop a more efficient way to aggregate all of your information in one place? Um, [...]
Fa La La La Local
Tis the season to begin thinking about Holiday marketing. Recent studies show that shoppers are turning to social media for product reviews, research and recommendations. Social media outlets are free and a great way for small businesses to have a personable relationship with buyers. Here are a few ways to localize your marketing efforts to maximize [...]
Hey, Mister. Can I get a link? 3 Blogging basics
Online publishing platforms like WordPress and Blogger make it easy for anyone to create a blog. Even Facebook’s Notes application allows for easy updates with rich media formatting. But, lately I’ve noticed some rookie mistakes that distract from an otherwise thoughtful post. Writing for the web is different from writing for print and offers vast opportunities to [...]
Wiki Wiki What??!
In Google search results, Wikipedia is everywhere. Pretty much anything you type into Google will almost always result in a first page Wiki listing of some kind. With that said, a Wikipedia entry for your company or organization is valuable for many things. One is credibility it gives searchers the impression that your organization is bigger [...]
Who’s Reading This, Anyway?
Today, during the inaugural FSC Interactive Tech Tuesday Learn & Lunch, we were talking about how businesses use Facebook (and we all know I am a loyal Facebook user and fan). We were throwing around information about ways to optimize yourFacebook Page (or group or profile) and then we wandered into Traffic. Site Traffic, that [...]
Get Shorty- URL Shorteners
You are likely familiar with tools that shorten a website link to save characters in Tweets. But how well are you tracking those links? The beauty of online marketing is that everything can be measured and analyzed. For example you can track popular links to determine what messages are resonating with your audience and adjust [...]
Facebook Part Two: Group vs. Page
Now that we all know the difference between Pages and Profiles, maybe we should talk Groups. There may be some people out there trying to create a Facebook account strictly for a business and therefore can’t even consider a profile. But, what if you don’t want a page? That is where Facebook Groups come in. [...]
Ever Heard of Google Wonder Wheel?
The Google Wonder Wheel is a wheel (of wonder) that will show you (the searcher) related search terms or keywords for you to use in the search query bar that give you more options to gain more relevant information. These will be related terms that other Google searchers have used to gain results on other [...]
Facebook Part One: Profile vs. Page
The other day I started thinking about the difference between pages and profiles on Facebook and I realized that I take for granted my familiarity with Facebook and sometimes I am too quick to recommend this over that. We go back and forth on this subject all the time Which is better? For who is [...]
E-Mail- So easy it’s dangerous
Yesterday at the New Orleans AMA meeting, speaker Micheal Ferranti of Endai Worldwide, reminded us that e-mail is a one of the most useful marketing tools because people live and die by their Inbox. It is one of the simplest tools with the lowest barrier to entry. After all, almost everyone has an e-mail account. But, while [...]
Feelin’ Good
Yesterday we met with one of our favorite New Orleans social entrepreneurs, Kyle Berner of Feelgoodz. Upon his travels through Thailand, he found a great pair of environmentally sustainable and incredibly comfortable flip flops. Arriving back in the states , he was touched by his experiences in Phitsanulok and decided to not only import the flops, but [...]
DIY Listening tools
Somewhere there is a potential customer talking about you or your industry. Therefore, listening is a key component in online marketing. We use a tool that helps aggregate conversations across various online platforms and allows us to use negative keywords and narrow our criteria. It helps to determine positive or negative sentiment and gives insight [...]
