Social media can sometimes be a popularity contest. Everyone is screaming for attention and there is strength in numbers. The influence of a social media profile can be measured by its number of followers. A huge number of followers implies credibility and certain social media “Influencers” even make money from their popularity via product endorsements. There has been a race to build followers and some people have found a shortcut, but at what cost?

You've probably heard of Snapchat -- that all of the "young kids" are using it. If you haven't heard of it, in simple terms it's a photo and video sharing service where the pictures and videos disappear within seconds of being viewed. You can also message friends with a text message type of format, although the platform is much more photo and video focused. What you may not know is that some consider Snapchat to be an important up and coming marketing platform. 

The word “hipster” has developed an interesting stigma. Let’s be real here, those flannel wearing, craft IPA and coffee loving, bearded, vintage Canon owners have awesome Instagram feeds.   

It’s okay to admit it; we’ve all been there before -- we find ourselves stalking someone’s Instagram feed and feeling slightly upset and jealous of how perfectly simple it is. Yeah, story of my life. 

We’ve all seen them at one point or another: freakishly symmetrical birds-eye-view coffee cups with perfect espresso crema or beautifully crafted latte art, under saturated succulents, and many, many peonies.

We've all heard that timeless cliché statement “time is money”. If you’ve ever tried to manage the social media for your own small business, you begin to understand that this statement actually holds pretty true.

Updated February 24, 2016

Everyone has experienced a time on Facebook when hitting the "Like" button didn't feel quite right. When your friend posts that "Fido lived a good life and he's now in a better place" you don't want to "Like" the post because then if feels like you're "Liking" that Fido has passed. However, you don't want to just comment "Sorry for your loss" like every other person. What's a Facebook user to do?

Announcing Facebook "Reactions," available to users everywhere who want to empathize. Check out how the new "Like" button works in this article excerpt from TechCrunch.

Having a social presence isn’t just important for businesses to have in this modern world, it’s necessary. 

At first, managing social media accounts may seem like a hassle and time consuming. However, if done right, it can help build relationships with your customers and drive website traffic.

Twitter is an everyday part of our lives now and an important part of any social media marketing strategy – especially as a source to help get more website traffic for your company. So when a platform like Twitter announces it’s planning on making a big change, there’s buzz about it all over the internet.

There’s no doubt you’ve heard of Twitter, but you may have never used it and are wondering what all the buzz is about in the first place.

If you run a non-profit that relies on donations, getting those donations has recently gotten easier. In November, Facebook announced new tools to help non-profits raise money online. The improvements come primarily in the form of a dedicated place called Fundraisers to collect donations from your non-profit Facebook page, and an improved “Donate” button that doesn’t require users to leave Facebook and allows them to give right from the news feed.

Facebook has updated its targeting capabilities for advertisers that allow for much more specific targeting than before. If you're running paid ads on Facebook as part of your social media marketing efforts to get traffic to your site, this is great news. Details are below, but a quick note – you have to be using Facebook’s Power Editor presently to access these capabilities.

We all do it. We check our Facebook on a regular basis and we are always looking for technology to make our lives easier. So it isn’t surprising that Facebook is making it easier for businesses to sell products online. This week’s business news from Half a Bubble Out is to give an update on social media marketing and to help you decide if your business is up to snuff.