About the Job

The Social Media Manager (SMM) manages social media presence and content strategy for our clients. The key responsibilities of this role are to engage with audiences, listen to market needs, elaborate on new content ideas, find influencers and help take our clients to the next level. The perfect candidate will be extremely passionate about the ever changing world of social media, technically savvy and thrives in high paced environments. The SMM is responsible for daily content posts, engagement with our audiences and analytics across social channels as well as lead acquisition via paid social ads.

Job Responsibilities:

• Maintain all brand accounts and strategy across all social media platforms (primarily Facebook and Google+)
• Directly interact and engage with fans and followers.
• Continually bring fresh and innovative ideas relating to social marketing
• Develop and manage promotions and contests via social channels.
• Monitor and report on audience behavior and trends.
• Identify and execute co-created content strategy
• Collaborate with team on influencer strategy
• Co-develop & execute influencer strategy
• Identify and escalate common hot-button issues, complaints or praise from a specified audience.
• Develop social media content calendar & strategy
• Provide feedback, observations and insight from the audiences to help improve our client’s online business

Desired Skills and Experience

• Minimum 3+ years working experience in digital/social media and online acquisition.
• Strong to expert professional knowledge of social media platforms to include Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and Reddit.
• Expert knowledge in paid social ads, using power editor and custom audiences.
• Experience in using social posting platforms and scheduling messages in accordance to marketing initiatives.
• Sense of different community behaviors and points of interests across those platforms.
• Experience using social media to acquire leads, amplify content and accompany business goals.
• Manage and develop company’s current social media engagement analysis.
• Provide analysis and recommendations on campaign and marketing initiatives.
• Monitor and evaluate social media results on a regular basis in coordination with goals and benchmarks.
• Keep pace with social media, internet marketing industry trends and social analysis trends.
• Ability to travel back in time (Just kidding, making sure you are paying attention that’s all)
• Passion for social media and internet marketing industries.
• Outstanding ability to think strategically and identify and resolve problems.
• Attention to detail and the ability to effectively multi-task in a deadline driven atmosphere.
• Ability to clearly and effectively articulate thoughts and points.
• High levels of integrity, autonomy, and self-motivation.
• Excellent analytical, organizational, project management and time management skills.
• Demonstrated managing projects independently from collecting requirements to delivering final output.
• Proficiency in Google Docs,  MS Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Experience working with popular social media monitoring tools (posting platforms and analysis platforms).
• Knowledge of graphic design (Photoshop), HTML/CSS, WordPress, and website administrations a great plus.
• BS/BA degree preferred, MBA a great plus.
• Ability to be flexible, working well in both in-office as well as telecommute environments

If you think you have the skills and enthusiasm we need, please contact us by email and be sure to include CV, links to your portfolio and live projects you’ve worked on that demonstrate a good working knowledge, Please also include income expectations and any other personal links and projects you would like to share with us.  As an added bonus, include your favorite joke (seriously, we do like to have fun as well as work hard).  We are striving to create a fast paced, fun company culture and look forward to growing our team with other like-minded individuals

The post Social Media Manager (AKA Social Ninja) appeared first on LocalGiant.

Google Places recently enabled its users to easily access all content related to their location: ratings and reviews of those particular places.

When users visit their Google Places profile, they will see a link where they can find all their ratings and reviews. The feed is private by default, but users are free to share it if they want.

Google Places also made it possible for users to write reviews and put ratings on Google the places they’ve stumbled upon, whether in real life or on the web. To do this, users should follow these simple steps:

1. Copy the URL of the location you want to rate or review.

2. On the Google Places search box, paste the URL you copied. Google will display location cards that match the feed.

3. You can click on the stars at the bottom of the box to rate place.

4. After rating, a link will appear that says “Write A Review.” Click on the link if you want to write some tips and insights about the place.

Indeed, users can now easily access and/or share their two cents’ on their favorite (or least favorite) locations in just a few clicks, be it around their neighborhood or overseas. As rating apps become more widespread, it becomes imperative that a business perform well. Every misstep can be read by thousands of potential customers and each satisfied customer could send those same thousands to your door.

The post Google Places: Reviews And Ratings Are A Few Clicks Away appeared first on LocalGiant.

This year, Google is all about celebrating Earth Day in new and interesting ways. Not only do they have a new interactive homepage doodle, but Google offices worldwide are hosting special Earth Day events. This includes an environmental fair for loyal Google users at the Mountain View, California headquarters, where participants can enjoy earth-friendly contests, speakers, and a cookout using parabolic solar cookers.

Working to make the world greener isn’t just for Earth Day. The Google offices have been carbon neutral since 2007, and launched a new website this week with questions that have lead to many of their environmental initiatives. For instance, how can a data center reduce its energy usage by half? How can the energy supply itself by made more eco-friendly? And how can renewable energy by made more economically feasible?

In 2007, fueled by many of these questions, Google initiated the largest corporate solar installation in the United States when they built panels on their Mountain View campus. Google was also inspired to initiate other eco-friendly measures, including donating to Google user’s favorite charities based on how they self-power their commutes – regardless of the crazy or creative method.

Google’s innovative green streak hasn’t stopped there. The company’s total clean energy investment has surpassed $350 million, including a second power purchase agreement, or PPA. Other new investments include the largest wind farm and solar project in the world, and a solar photovoltaic plant in Germany, their first in Europe. These investments won’t directly supply Google operations with energy, but the company believes they are solid business decisions, destined to inspire the development and usage of effective clean energies.

Earth Day is a perfect time to ask what we, as a society, can do to get closer to real sustainability. Hopefully, individuals and corporations across the globe will put forth a solid effort to reach sustainability, as well.

The post A Unique Earth Day Celebration appeared first on LocalGiant.

Once seen as the angel of death for the online business of the New York Times, the recently launched paywall has officially seen revenue from over 100,000 paying subscribers. At first glance, this is fairly promising.

What remains to be seen; however, are the effects of time. First of all, this was a promotional period. Numbers indicating how many readers renewed after its end have yet to be seen or processed. Second, the Times has a global audience of millions and it’s quite easy to assume that many of these initial 100,000 are among its most loyal; those that simply can’t imagine starting their mornings without it.

The proof of the program’s success or failure will come in future quarters as data surrounding recurring subscriptions and penetration into new markets and new subscribers becomes available. Still, the initial data is hard to argue. Revenues from digital media climbed $5.5 million to $95.9 million; a full seventeen percent of the company’s overall revenue for Q1 of 2011. Ad revenue shot up $3.6 million from its previous $80 million.

The battle over paid versus free online news content is far from over and media companies are constantly searching for new ways to monetize their sites. It has to be an incredible shock to an industry who, for so long, counted on your quarters being dropped into their machines on the street corner and checks being written to neighborhood paper boy. For the time being; however, it would seem that the Times is onto something.

The ultimate test will be in retained advertisers. Although it is a global powerhouse, The New York Times is still a regional newspaper with regional and small business advertisers. These businesses will want to ensure that their ads are being seen by the largest number of people possible and part of that is deciding whether they want to be seen by all New Yorkers or just those that subscribe, in one way or another, to the Times.

The post What Paywall? New York Times Clears 100,000 Online Subscribers appeared first on LocalGiant.

I'll be your waiter?

If one company has its way, however, a tablet computer may very well replace your favorite waiter. Enter E la carte. Envisioned as the link between your table and the kitchen, as well as the host’s stand, the device will let you handle almost every aspect of your meal without speaking to a member of the restaurant’s staff.

Here’s how it works: You sit at your table and, instead of opening menus, your options are displayed on a touchscreen. You simply make your selections, tap on your order, and wait. Eventually a human (at least until someone designs a food-delivery robot) arrives with your meal. After you’re finished you pay via the tablet, get up, and leave.

The system could be also be used to keep track of your prior orders and personalize the experience specifically to you. Frequent users of restaurant rewards programs could check their status and available points from the table. And, the potential to let the kids play a game or two while the adults enjoyed a quiet meal is too wonderful a prospect to overlook.

Restaurant owners will find it impossible to not take a look at this system, presumably while their wait staff watches from afar, hoping beyond hope that it crashes during the demonstration. According to E la carte, restaurants could see a 10% increase in the value of every order after the system is implemented. A staff of five could easily be reduced to two or even one during non-peak operating hours.

Those working in fine dining establishments have little to fear as it is doubtful that their patrons value efficiency over the overall dining experience. But, those in small family owned restaurants, as well as the major chains and neighborhood standards, might want to take notice. Their days of saying, “Hi. I’ll be taking care of you this evening,” may very well be coming to an end.

The post Please Touch Your Order: The Tablet That Might Cost Your Waiter Their Job appeared first on LocalGiant.

Remember when dreaming of exotic and far off lands was the stuff of imagination? If you wanted a glimpse into the world beyond your own walls you had to look in a glossy travel magazine or, if you were lucky, you knew someone who had recently traveled. It was usually a toss-up as to whether you were more excited than they were about their photos coming back.

Present day, Google Earth’s “Photos” layer already lets you see photo albums from people all over the world. Simply choose a place, zoom in, find the photo icons, and realize five hours later how much time you’ve spent on a virtual walkabout. This new feature makes viewing multiple photos from the same location even easier.

As always, the “Photos” layer must be checked. Once you’re in the vicinity of the area you’re visiting, you’ll notice that the icons representing user-submitted photos are now both large and small. Simply click on one of the larger icons to bring up a cluster of photos and use the left and right arrow keys to view them. The days of clicking individual photos are officially a memory.

Getting a feel for a new area has never been easier. Exploring a potential vacation site, new home, or just enjoying the photos that other people have posted from around the world is now a single key press away. And, I’d imagine, the number of hours people spend viewing other people’s travel albums just saw a significant bump.

Local business owners need to jump on this immediately. You now have the ability to create a cluster of photos around your business, upload them for free, and get a larger icon on the viewer’s screen. You can instantly become a destination rather than a listing. And, at a time when every advertising penny matters, an increase in the size of your photo icon on Google Earth can do nothing but help you.

The post Google Earth Introduces Photo Viewing with a Single Key appeared first on LocalGiant.

Google Earth and Google Maps are two ways for users from all over the world to access accurate data and view the world as it is right now. They are fast, functional and user friendly to ensure everyone, young and old has the opportunity to learn and enjoy from the simple touch of a button. In order to provide the best service possible for their 100 million+ users worldwide, Google has developed an incredibly powerful infrastructure that can process petabytes of data to deliver information instantly.

With such a powerful process in hand, Google has drawn the attention of many governments and even businesses who would like to access this infrastructure to better manage their geospatial data. Here is where Google Earth Builder comes in. Not only will users be able to process geospatial data in a streamlined manner from Google’s own cloud technology but also build their own personal maps, view and securely share these maps with anyone, anywhere and even save on time, management and server cost.

This is just the beginning; the ultimate goal is to slowly provide more of the geo infrastructure to everyone in order to perform tasks simply and easily in the cloud through Google Earth Builder. With the expected launch in Q3, millions are anticipating this newly opened door to streamline business processes and shape a new world of business both online and offline.

The post New Addition to the Google Earth and Google Maps Enterprise appeared first on LocalGiant.

The telecommunications giant AT&T has announced a new software development kit in an attempt to expand the use of local advertisements within the mobile world. With over 170 million local searchers each month within their own network and the way they connect advertisers to big networks like Bing and WHERE, it’s no wonder they now have plans to create a greater and more targeted reach to consumers.

As mentioned in Forbes, the mobile SDK will be offered to developers in order to help them integrate ads from all AT&T advertisers into their apps for better and more specialized advertising. This creates a great alternative to Google’s AdMob and gives developers a a greater chance for profit since most companies are willing to invest more money on locally targeted ads which tend to have better sales turnaround.

According to an interview of CEO and President of AT&T Interactive David Krantz, the company is currently going through Beta testing and is said to have “exciting initial results”. With approximately a million advertisers and thousands of sales representatives in the AT&T networks, their Yellow Pages group provides free data from their API to third party software developers.

This new mobile advertising SDK certainly has the potential to reshape how mobile advertising is conducted and with it’s first quarter revenues down 172 million from last year’s figures, it’s very exciting to see how it will affect not only their overall revenue but also how it will affect the millions of people worldwide who rely on mobile advertising today.

The post AT&T Announces a Mobile Advertising SDK appeared first on LocalGiant.

eBay has purchased the Boston-based local discovery service WHERE for what sources say could be as much as $135 million. The acquisition of WHERE provides a site that could potentially rival the ever popular Yelp.com and an array of other beneficial sectors from the WHERE mobile application to their mobile ad network that reportedly has over 100,000 advertisers to date.

With steps to integrate WHERE into Paypal, there will be endless possibilities for targeting local business and services. Not only will this new system simplify local advertising but also offer faster searches, easier payment methods and special local deals for prime customers.
Earlier in 2010, eBay also acquired Milo, a company that keeps track of a store’s real-time product inventory so that customers can check if an item is in stock. Working with big names like Best Buy and Target, this service simplifies a customer’s shopping experience and provides them with quick and easy access to the information they need.

If the right people are involved with WHERE’s future, and with Milo already under their belt, there is great potential for a powerful integrated local network that can rival most companies online and in the increasingly popular mobile applications field.

Thousands of businesses will be able to send customers local specials and information directly to their mail or mobile device where they can easily visit the sites and immediately pay for goods and services via their personal Paypal accounts. What could possibly be easier for a business and consumer today?

With a strong multi-channel commerce ability, more and more local businesses, retailers and big brand names will join to specifically target the customers they want and easily offer target promotions to millions of people each day.

The post eBay Acquires WHERE for Over $100 Million appeared first on LocalGiant.

Recap of a recent PayPal blog post:

Brick and mortar stores and those online are definitely overlapping with enterprises like WHERE. A customer gets a lot of choices standing in a retail store accessing information with internet capability and QR codes on their mobile phone, and at the same time the local business wins too.

In order for PayPal customers to use the service for local transactions, it sees the need to make itself available in the WHERE mobile application. Analyst Day’s John Donahue points out that eBay is evolving into a leader in the retail arena by becoming more accommodating in every way possible to the customer. It is so important to focus on local and mobile. Added onto acquiring Milo in 2010, this will enhance the overall worth to all potential customers. Consumers can shop with any method from any location, and at the same time any type of retail outlet, big or small, benefits since we are an asset, not a competitor, with the businesses themselves.

It looks like PayPal has found its way into the local market by making itself available with in-store shopping. However, I foresee somewhat mild achievements unless the actual flow of it works flawlessly. It will be intriguing though to witness the combo of mobile generated payments along with offers and inquiries that accompany this method of doing business.

As a recap, here are actual statistics for WHERE:

Revenue for 2010 = $17 M, and the 2011 projection hits $40 M.

CityGrid, Zvents and AT&T top the list as the main sources for WHERE advertisers. Direct advertiser connections are not common.

If this concept of overlapping local shopping with online transaction completion does achieve its intended target, both the business and the customer will enjoy the benefits of a very streamlined point of sale.

The post eBay’s Goal With Its New Baby Where appeared first on LocalGiant.