In an article that introduces Yabber's broad social media integration we touch on social media 'Blasts'. Typically used by franchises, aggregators, or businesses with a large number of social media accounts, the blasts will send the same message to multiple social accounts with altered text by way of placeholders. This article introduces the feature in brief.

A 'Blast' will send up to four images, one animated GIF, or one video, to any number of Facebook or Twitter accounts. Basic placeholders in messages includes a company name, company web address, company 'short' name, and company phone number. If a URL is included in the message then that message will be truncated for each message sent (and the message will be formatted as a 'Link Message'. If a shor.tt URL is provided in the provided textbox then that message will be used globally for all accounts.

Creating Social Lists

It should be noted first and foremost that our Aggregator Advantage clients will use a purpose-built system that is similar to the one we're describing, but it's a little more functional in terms of available placeholders and the assignment of statistics (there may also be some additional systems made available to Propel clients). For the sake of a basic understanding of how the system is used you should consider them to be the same.

Before a Blast may be sent you should first create a list of social accounts. The Advantage product differs a little here because all child accounts are automatically filtered into appropriate lists.

  Pictured: Creating Twitter Lists (Facebook Lists are created in the same way). You simply select your account from the left panel and assign it to the right panel. Any number of lists may be created. Lists are used Yabber-wide - they're not just used for Blasts.

Sending Social Blasts

Once the list is created it may assigned to a Blast.

  Pictured: Creation is straightforward. You select a distribution list, the time interval between each send, optionally randomise the accounts, create a message with appropriate placeholders, and upload any media (if required). Click 'Schedule' and the messages will send. You may optionally schedule the send for a specific time.

The creation of a Facebook send is exactly the same as the Twitter feature we've pictured above (with the exception of the 280-character limit imposed on Twitter messages). It's usually best to let each account inherit its own truncated URL so statistics may be measured at the account level.

As with all social messages they're available in your Social Log (status, send time, and other details). A full statistical analysis is available for each message and the entire batch.

A small point: once media is uploaded it becomes available in both the Facebook and Twitter panel so you're able to create both message one after the other.

Conclusion

The improvements in social media engagement we've seen by way of franchises utilising this feature is exceptional. If a group has 30 brokers and they create just one Blast every day, this translates to 210 messages a week. Triple your efforts and you'll see 630 a week - you get the point. Add clever use of business-level Instagratify usage, white-label video, and social media libraries, and your group starts to see tremendous exposure. Add RBA campaigns, article submissions, the newsletter program, and necessary email campaigns into the mix and you'll see guaranteed organic growth driven by nothing other than the Exposure Effect.

We advocate a clever content strategy that includes more than just social... and more than generic catch-all content. We help businesses develop a means to engage their audience when they're most likely listening - this obviously includes franchises and aggregator groups where the benefits are returned in a predictable and timely manner.