Tag: social media marketing

Many people have given up or limited their use of Facebook and Twitter for forty days.

Now that Lent has begun, many Facebook and Twitter users have revealed that they are reducing, limiting, or even eliminating their use of the services, which could cause the effectiveness of social media marketing to temporarily dip.

Until Easter, the ads on these networks may not be seen and used by those making their individual sacrifice.

Lent is a period of personal sacrifice that occurs over a period of forty days that starts on Ash Wednesday (this year, it was February 13). This year, social media marketing experts have discovered that many of those who observe this time are choosing to give up their participation in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other platforms, until the forty days is complete.

This social media marketing trend has illustrated the growing importance of this technology in our daily lives.

According to the St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church webmaster, Lisa Hendey, “In the past, it might have been giving up the extras, like chocolate or TV, but Facebook has become such a big part of people’s daily lives they’re contemplating giving it up, praying about it and discussing it.” That church has the largest Roman Catholic congregation in Fresno, California.

The Redeemer Lutheran Church associate pastor, Dan Hues, said that “Facebook is huge”, and that “It’s blown up to be almost ubiquitous. It’s almost compulsive; that’s why it makes sense to give it up for Lent.” He stated that he feels that its popularity represents the ideal opportunity for the sacrifice of an activity of self indulgence.

Social media marketing analysts have been closely examining the patterns of use and traffic over the forty days of lent in order to be able to observe whether there is a perceptible dip in the use and effectiveness, or whether the impact is truly negligible. Due to the popularity of the use of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other platforms, it is being predicted that this will become an increasingly common sacrifice over the period of Lent this year and in coming years.

Twitter takes aims at mobile commerce with the help of American Express

Twitter is one of the world’s most used social networks. The network boasts of a highly active user base, which has afforded the company significant success in the world of business. Twitter has reportedly been looking for new ways to generate revenue. Such reports seem to have been true as the social network has entered into a partnership with American Express. The partnership will be focused on introducing e-commerce and mobile commerce elements into Twitter.

Mobile user base adds momentum to Twitter’s initiative in e-commerce

Twitter has been showing a strong interest in e-commerce in recent months. The massive number of users that access Twitter through their mobile devices has also piqued the company’s interest in mobile commerce. The company sees major potential in this field and has turned to American Express to help it tap into the burgeoning mobile commerce market that has been successful for other companies.

Users will be able to purchase products by posting to Twitter

Per the partnership, American Express customers will be able to associate their credit card numbers with their Twitter accounts. This will allow consumers to make purchases by simply posting to Twitter. This initiative will be introduced over the next few days, with Twitter users able to purchase products from American Express itself, as well as Amazon and products from Donna Karan. Because Twitter’s primary demographic is mobile consumers, the move is expected to help establish the social network’s presence in the mobile commerce space.

Success of new initiative has yet to be seen

This is not the first time American Express has introduced a mobile commerce element to a social network. Last year, the financial services company partnered with Foursquare for a similar initiative. Twitter expects to see significant benefits from its adoption of mobile commerce and suggests that there will be major marketing opportunities for businesses using the social network due to the new partnership. Whether consumers will respond well to the mobile commerce services that Twitter is adopted has yet to be seen.