25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- Mommy Bloggers and the Four Percent
- The 2012 Sharing Olympics
- The NY Times and Video
- How to Improve Product & Services in the Age of Online Communities
- Twitter Verifies Vice President Paul Ryan (@PaulRyanVP)
- Executive Social Media Leadership
- Shoud I Outsource My Social Media? [VIDEO]
- Why Can’t We Hire A College Intern to Do Our Social Media Marketing?
- 8 Unique Social Media Tips For Writers, Bloggers, Poets & Beyond
- Paul Ryan: Surprising Initial Reactions
- Bagging The Bloggers; Expedia’s Social Strategy Pays Big Dividends
- 5 Questions On Whether To Hire A Social Media Consultant Or Do It Yourself
- Twitter Tips For Business
- Social Media Evaluation: How Popular Are You Really?
- Underperforming Facebook Tests New Ads You Might See Soon
- Foursquare App Gets A Face Lift
- Black Hat SEO for B2B Appointment Setting – So Easy But So Painful
- 4 Tips for Promoting Your Facebook Application
- Cleaner Timelines for Facebook and Google+
- Andy Warhol on Social Media
- What the Klout Just Happened?
- Do You Have to Participate on Facebook for Your Business?
- Live ‘n Kickin: Social Media Makes Claims on Traditional Media Territory
- 31 Blogging Tips
- Staggering Social Media Statistics From The Olympics (Infographic)
| Mommy Bloggers and the Four Percent Posted: 15 Aug 2012 03:00 PM PDT For centuries the painted image of women being able to "do it all" has been a philosophy handed down from each generation of women to the next. Females have juggled being a career woman, a mother, a baker, a lover and a plethora of other attractive qualities that are supposedly "required." In recent years the phrase "Mommy Blogger" has been in heavy use across headlines, conferences, websites and beyond. Even recruitment sites are regularly on the lookout for contributing writers, usually specifically intended for producing this kind of "Mommy Blogger" material. With blogging winning the popularity contest online and social media platforms following suit, it's no surprise that women have made a name for themselves in an area they know all too well – raising children. These online hubs present an outlet to share, vent and to gain advice and knowledge, and together they have now grown into a huge community, comprising of almost four million mommy blogs just in North America alone. This week one of the largest women conferences in the world, BlogHer, took place in New York City. Their mantra, "Life Well Said", suggests it creates a wealth of opportunities for the 40 million plus women that regularly blog. The conference was naturally filled with women of all ages, eager to learn, network and let loose. While the majority of attendees were mom bloggers, the buzz was very clear that these woman, moms or not, were there to get informed. A big struggle for many women that are dipping their toes into the blogging pool is picking up the tech-savvy skill set needed to hit the ground running in order to maintain a presence that could lead to profit. Making the choice to leave your desk behind to peruse personal blogging passions is a difficult one. The women who have been successful were generally early adopters of online platforms like WordPress, Blog.com and Blogger. Additionally, being well versed in HTML and SEO skills, sites like Skill Crush amplify the power of learning new tech skills and encourage woman to be confident in tackling the online world.
Martha Stewart spoke at the conference too, speaking on a personal level to the packed room of women waiting with baited breath to be enlightened by Ms Stewart. Between talks of when she purchased her first IBM Computer in 1982 and how to decorate cookies she stated that four percent of CEOs in America are women. An interesting statement to reveal to a room filled with many who had given up a career path to CEO status to be a mother and perhaps even a blogger. The phrase "we can do it!" has been around long before women started blogging; perhaps this expression has taken on a new structure. The percentage of women CEOs may be small, but that certainly doesn't mean they aren't out there creating new roles and rules for themselves – all while strapping on a Baby Bjorn and empowering one another to do better. |
| Posted: 15 Aug 2012 02:35 PM PDT Post-Olympic hangover has surely begun to kick in, as millions of Olympic followers have returned to their everyday lives without the heart-pumping, jaw dropping daily Olympic events to look forward to. Although life never seems as lustrous after the Olympics, 2012 may prove to be the most difficult year to get through this post Olympic break up. Why should this year be any different then the last? Not only were we capable of viewing a seemingly endless amount of coverage on networks like NBC and BCC, which together aired over 7,500 plus hours of coverage, but we also have had our social graphs flooded with Olympic sized news and data concerning the London Olympics. Every site seemed to pay homage to the Olympics, as Google displayed Olympic themed graphics on their homepage, Twitter feeds buzzed with commentary on the games and Via.Me dedicated an entire profile to memorable Olympic images. It would seem that the Olympics have become more popular this year than years in the past, but the reality is that the games haven't become more popular they just demonstrate the power of social sharing across the Open Web. During the 17-day period, over 306 billion items were shared across the Open Web, with Facebook and Twitter following behind at 102 billion and 5 billion shares. With a limitless number of ways to share, it seems impossible to think that there was an Olympic moment that wasn't captured and then sent to every friend and family member. Particularly, Mckayla Maroney may be wishing that she smiled a little more as thousands of Memes flooded the web with "Mckayala is not impressed" as the slogan. NBC may be wishing that they focused more on real time news coverage as #NBCFail was created by angry users who were dismayed by the delay time between real time and the news coverage. Social sharing has developed so rapidly over the last several years, and the 2012 Olympics ultimately showcase this change. Followers of events like the Olympics no longer want to just wait and watch the events on their televisions; they want to feel as if they are sitting in the stands watching the events themselves. They want to be able to discuss and interact with other followers, sharing news, commentary and jokes about the events. This level of social interactivity showcases the possibilities of real time sharing. To illustrate the power of the social interactivity that happened around the 2012 Olympics, check out this infographic by RadiumOne:
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| Posted: 15 Aug 2012 02:35 PM PDT
The future face of The New York Times The New York Times Company today announced that they were hiring Mark Thompson, former Director General of The BBC to be the new President and CEO of The Times Company. The Times’ choice of Thompson says a lot about where The Times is going and more to the point, where the whole world of former print publications is going. It is going, in the words of Arthur Sulzberger, Chairman of the Times Company and publisher of the paper, to video “We have people who understand print very well, the best in the business. We have people who understand advertising very well, the best in the business. But our future is on to video, to social, to mobile. It doesn’t mirror what we’ve done. it broadens what we are going to do.” Well, this is a pretty good indictor not only of where The Times is headed, but also where the whole world of print and journalism is headed: Video. And no wonder. We live in a world inundated with screens. The average American will spend an astonishing 8.5 hours a day staring at screens – between computers, pads, phones and TV. That’s more time spent staring at screens than spent sleeping. Screenwatching is now our number one activity. We are the Olympic Gold Champions of screen watching. And those screens demand video. Lots of it. Few people in the world have the depth of Mark Thompson’s experience in the combination of digital and video. My friend, Pat Younge, Chief Creative Officer at The BBC wrote to me on news of Thompson’s new job and asked where the NY Times was going to get so much high quality video at a reasonable cost. The answer, of course, is in the palm of your hand. YOUR hand. It’s right there, in your iPhone, which can shoot broadcast quality video, edit it, and send it to every social media there is at the literal touch of a button. So welcome, Mark Thompson, to The New York Times, and welcome, The New York Times, to the new and very exciting world of inexpensive, high quality video done by anyone and everyone with an idea to express or a story to tell. |
| How to Improve Product & Services in the Age of Online Communities Posted: 15 Aug 2012 02:30 PM PDT Take an unofficial poll in your organization to see which department your employees think your online customer community benefits the most. Will it be marketing? Will customer support come out the winner?
Many business people only associate online communities with sales, customer care, and internal collaboration. However, your existing product strategy and processes for collecting and analyzing market data to create new products and enhance existing offerings is the foundation on which all other departments exist. It drives how your products and services are brought to market, sold, and delivered. It determines how your customers are supported, your partner strategy, and your profitability. Secrets to Using Your Online Community to Super-Charge Your Product StrategyFor decades, product managers have engaged their communities to uncover market problems to solve, validate ideas, and test prototypes. Private online communities have made product strategists' ability to collect and evaluate data from customers, prospects, and non-customers more efficient than ever by making feedback more accessible, keeping customers around the world engaged, and enabling secure collaboration around sensitive ideas. I recently discussed about how companies use online communities to improve products and services with product management veteran, Steve Johnson, on the ProCommunity web series. Here are 6 secrets that came out of our conversation. Secret #1: The Method Are Still the SameExecutives will be pleased to know that they don't have to learn a new way of developing product strategies when utilizing online communities of customers, prospects, and partners. The elements of creating great products and services remain the same. Qualitative (e.g. discussion forums) and quantitative (e.g. surveys) research are still the foundation for developing any product strategy. The difference is that online communities empower organizations to conduct these activities in less time, with a smaller budget, and more often. Secret #2: Online Communities Makes Product Management EasierThere was a time when national or global companies had to carve out sizable budgets to fly customers in for quarterly customer advisory board meetings. Today, online customer communities allow product managers to use secure online groups and easy-to-use collaboration tools (along with proactive community management) to have conversations about market problems and get feedback on ideas through the product development process. Secret #3: Discussions Are KeyOnline communities only help innovate products and services if companies listen to their community. Similar to offline product management techniques, the most important component of listening and probing online is discussions. This includes customer forums and comment threads associated with files, videos, product ideas, and blog posts. These online conversations form the basis for understanding market problems, the competitive landscape, why you win deals, and why you lose. Secret #4 Companies Need to Find Ways to Manage Data BetterWith the introduction of ways to listen to users 24×7, keep customers engaged, and get a consistent stream of data from your market, comes an onslaught of unstructured data. Organizations must be ready to consume and process this information. Every organization will treat this challenge a little differently. The bottom line is that product managers need to be prepared to handle this valuable information in a way that is most usable in their planning and development processes. Secret #5: Get the Market Data To The Right People At The Right TimeYour online customer community is giving you more data from your market. It is also allowing you to have discussions and validate product concepts more efficiently. Now what? An important step, often overlooked by businesses, is setting up processes to get the information that you are collecting and analyzing to the right people in the organization at the right point in the process. This usually means finding ways to effectively and consistently answer questions from your product development team throughout the development process about what the market wants and needs. Secret #6: It is Ok to Get Started with Small StepsLike most social business initiatives, starting small allows companies to grow buy-in, minimize risk, and work out the kinks in the process. A great way to get started using your online community to improve product management is to validate existing product ideas. Take your top features planned for the next version of your product or service and have a targeted customer group or advisory board vote in your online community on their top picks and explain their votes in the comments. You can also start small by validating the problems that you are hearing through your offline product management efforts. Start a product discussion in your user community by asking to hear some stories about a specific set of problems. From that discussion, you can briefly describe a solution and ask how it would help. Use informal language like, "Tell me a story about this feature and how you would use it" to yield invaluable data for your product planning process. Don't forget to share what you learn with your sales, marketing, and executive teams. Online Community TakeawayPartnering with customers to improve existing products and create new solutions to problems that your target market is facing is the unheralded power-play in social business. Use the tips mentioned above and the product innovation tools outlined previously to create an online customer community that gives your product management team the discussions, tools, and relationships they need to develop market-driven product strategies.
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| Twitter Verifies Vice President Paul Ryan (@PaulRyanVP) Posted: 15 Aug 2012 01:10 PM PDT Verification, according to Twitter's website, is used "to establish authenticity of identities on Twitter. The verified badge helps users discover high-quality sources of information and trust that a legitimate source is authoring the account's tweets." You can see this in action by searching for singer Nicki Manaj and noticing that only one name has the blue badge.
@NickiManaj is verified and the others are not her. Verification is used to establish authenticity and legitimacy. Those are Twitter's words. Paul Ryan was tapped by Republican National Committee presidential candidate Mitt Romney as his vice president. Paul Ryan is not the VP today. And yet, @PaulRyanVP is a verified account. I'm honored to join @mittromney on America's Comeback Team. mi.tt/Romney-Ryan #RomneyRyan2012 — Paul Ryan (@PaulRyanVP) August 11, 2012 Isn't @JoeBiden the Vice President of the United States? Why is @PaulRyanVP verified? Is he now authentically and legitimately the VP according to Twitter's own rules? What do you think? |
| Executive Social Media Leadership Posted: 15 Aug 2012 12:20 PM PDT
The article really shows the power of brands and executives coming together on social media! I really can relate to this article too. Executives who actively engage on Twitter really help create strong advocates because they help people connect to a person at the company and they feel a deeper connection to the brand they represent. In the case of Best Buy, this type of relationship can have a an adverse affect when these same top executives leave the company. I think both the company and the executives lose in the end. Not a pretty picture. I think the next step for Best Buy is to bring in a strong leader who is also active on social media sites. The two really go hand-in-hand. There are a number of rising stars out there and these people are all about connecting with clients and creating advocates for the company as this article states. My takeaways from this article are the following: As an executive, I can help my company become a stronger brand on social media platforms. Numbers should not be the focus. Advocates should be the focus. I want people who will read and share my thoughts with others. Executives should also represent the company with blog posts. Fresh content posted on a regular basis is very valuable to the company and should be a part of this process in case the top executive leader ever leaves the company for another company. This way the company also has some insurance in the game. Executives who are active in social media bring a whole new type of connection which can take companies to a higher level with respect to brand recognition. Executives who are active on social media sites also help bring their personal brands and help them become more transparent and professional because a lot is at stake for themselves and the companies they represent. This article is a good example of what may be a changing dynamic with respect to executive leadership. Executives may want to continue to develop their social media skills and see if they can help raise brand awareness for their companies and themselves. photo credit: European Parliament via photo pin cc |
| Shoud I Outsource My Social Media? [VIDEO] Posted: 15 Aug 2012 12:05 PM PDT
Mike Huber answers: "Shoud I Outsource My Social Media?" If you've got a question about link building, content, social media, SEO or other Internet marketing topics, just post it on the Vertical Measures Facebook page, or tweet it to us with the hashtag #VMQA. TranscriptionMany businesses are considering using social media to build their brand awareness and authority for their websites. They're also looking at their internal resources in trying to decide if they can mount a full-on campaign. So, we're often asked question, "Should I outsource my social media?" Well, in order to answer this question the first thing you want to do is look at your products and services and try to determine which are the most appropriate social media channels. Once you do that, then you want to try to consider what content and frequency will I need to be able to the effective? With that content, is it just going to be writing? Is it going to be video? Are you going to create images? Do you need coding for contests? So, do I have the internal resources to create and maintain the campaign? Many companies feel reluctant to turn over their social media marketing to The first scenario is that you do the social media marketing yourselves. One of the advantages of that is that you incorporate this expertise into your company's own DNA. So you really own it as a proprietary method within your company. The downside to that is you may not have the expertise that an outside agency has. So, you might be a little bit slower to start and you also might fumble through some of the communication and the messaging that you give to your consumers. The second scenario to consider is a limited approach, where you do some of the social media marketing and then you outsource some of that to the agency. In order to do this, one of the things that you want to make sure that you do is clearly define the roles of your company and the role of the agency. With this limited interaction you might also consider to just have the agency create the strategy for you where you actually do the implementation. Then finally using an agency as unlimited resource, you might just want to have them create the content. A lot of agencies can create compelling content, which gives you the opportunity to publish on a frequent basis. Then the third scenario is to outsource it entirely. What you do in that scenario is you actually let the agency who are the experts and social media take care that, where you are the expert at your company's business and your core competencies. So, they do what they're good at and you end up doing what you're good at. The caveat here is to make sure that you hire a reputable agency and that you look after all of the things that they're doing for you. Really what you want to do is inspect what you expect from them that you actually create the tactical steps for your social media campaign. A lot of companies make the mistake of creating a strategy, but they don't take that next step and break that strategy into tactical steps. Those tactical steps actually help define the resources, the frequency, and the kind of content that they're going to publish in their social media channels. |
| Why Can’t We Hire A College Intern to Do Our Social Media Marketing? Posted: 15 Aug 2012 11:05 AM PDT 3 Reasons You Must Own Your Social Media Strategy
This seat of your pants approach to social media marketing is based on the following three perceived benefits.
3 Reasons a college student can't handle your social media marketingHere are three reasons, fundamental to your long-term business objectives, why a college intern can't handle your firm's social media marketing strategy.
The bottom line is you need to have experienced employees who can respond to whatever the social media ecosystem throws at them. They must know your brand, marketing and your organization to best leverage your social media presence. Is there anything else you'd add to this list and why? |
| 8 Unique Social Media Tips For Writers, Bloggers, Poets & Beyond Posted: 15 Aug 2012 10:55 AM PDT
Being an author, I understand how difficult it can be to share your work with the right people. I mean, bloggers are essentially authors, as they write lengthy prose on a consistent basis. And they, too, struggle to share their works. So this article is really for anyone who is just looking for some unique ideas to share their writing, whatever type of writing that may be. Here are 8 unique ways to start getting engaged:1. Find specialized forums. Find forums that fit your genre. Whether you write poetry, sci-fi, YA, a sports blog or anything else that is very niche oriented, search on Google for the specialized forum that goes with it. Get in there and start talking about the subject. Don’t promote your work right off the bat, in fact, I’d hold off on doing that at all unless there’s a section devoted to self-promotion (such as showing off your writing). Just get as involved in the community as possible and in time, you’ll gain relationships and people will be flocking to your writing in no time. It really works! 2. Find specialized websites. One of the greatest thing about being an author, is the fact that are DOZENS of specialized websites where you can post up your writing to receive feedback and so that you can read and give feedback of other people’s writing. 3. Find specialized Facebook groups. Get onto Facebook and search for writing groups, or blogging groups or poetry groups or whatever type of writing group you’d like to be apart of. Make it as specialized or as general as you’d like. There are dozens to be apart of, though, so get going in connecting with new people! 4. Find other blogs related to your niche. This is really important because when you start connecting with other bloggers within your niche, you start creating a new community of people who are willing to comment on your stuff as much as you comment on theirs. It’s a give and take system and the more you give without expecting anything in return, the more you’ll gain over time. Find 10 blogs within your niche that you can comment on regularly. 5. Create videos. I know, you’re supposed to be spending your time writing or connecting with people to read your writing, but video marketing is so very powerful and a lot of writers use it in a few different ways; they use it to review other people’s writings, they use it to document their own writing experience, they use it to vent about their daily writings or struggles, they use it to give tips to other writers, they use it to create a trailer for their stories and so on. Your video could be anywhere between 1-10 minutes in length and by doing this, you’re reaching out to an audience that you may never have reached before. 6. Get involved in NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is a competition that is held each November where people try to accomplish the task of writing 50,000 words in one month. If you’re a writer, you know that this challenge is extremely difficult. The community surrounding NaNoWriMo is ever growing and the people there are extremely supportive. You make life-long friends through participating in NaNoWriMo. Whether you’re a blogger, poet or flash fiction writer, challenge yourself by joining the competition and getting involved with a community that could expand your horizons! 7. Get involved in Twitter Chats. Twitter chats are an amazing way to get connected with other like-minded individuals. You can find Twitter Chats by searching Google or referring to the massive Twitter Chat list. 8. Use Pinterest. If your writing is accompanied by a picture (which is usually a good idea, as pictures gain spark interest a lot quicker than just a page full of text), then use Pinterest to share your photos, and in turn, share your writing. Be sure to re-pin other people’s photos as well to keep that give and take concept going. Remember the video marketing idea above? You can post your videos to Pinterest! Make sure you’re sharing original photos and videos, as those gain a lot more attention and traction then stock photos & videos. I know this all sounds like a lot of work, and it is! But in order to accomplish your writing while getting out there and finding an audience to read it, you should create a tight schedule where you designate time to write and you designate time to engage. I recently downloaded a great app called 30/30 where you can schedule 30 minute tasks at a time so that you can get things done. By scheduling each task in 30 minute intervals, you’re forcing yourself to be productive while the clock is ticking. Stastically, people work a lot better when they know they’re on a deadline, which is essentially what the app does. In conclusionNo more excuses! Get out there and start engaging! :) |
| Paul Ryan: Surprising Initial Reactions Posted: 15 Aug 2012 10:33 AM PDT This post is part of an ongoing series of social media analyses of social sentiment and social media engagement regarding the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election. After months of speculation, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney tapped Wisconsin House Representative and Chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan to be the party's Vice Presidential nominee. By analyzing Twitter sentiment using Crimson Hexagon's ForSight platform, we find that the majority of the sentiment expressing both positive and negative opinions regarding the choice of Paul Ryan focus on the economy and Ryan's fiscal plans. In The Atlantic, pundits and politicos express that both Republicans and Democrats are "happy" that Romney chose Ryan for the ticket, as they find his fiscal policies a benefit and a detriment respectively. By looking to nearly 500,000 opinions expressed on Twitter over the first three days after the Romney campaign announced Ryan as his Vice Presidential candidate, peaking at 3,749 tweets per minute, we uncovered that people engaging via social media do, indeed, see Ryan as a "good" choice in opposite ways.
Of those who support Romney's choice of Ryan, at a total of 17% of opinions analyzed, 2% talked about the benefits Ryan brings to the Romney camp, in both his energizing of the Republican base and formidability in debate with Vice President Biden. Yet, surprisingly, 1%, or about 2500 posts, of those who "support" and speak positively about the choice of Paul Ryan cite the benefit to Obama's campaign efforts as their reason for reacting positively to the announcement. Some social media users who express "negative" sentiment actually do so because they have different, perhaps even greater, aspirations for Representative Ryan. A small yet coherent minority of those who tweeted about the announcement, at about 800 posts of the entire volume, stated that Ryan's talents and visions regarding economic policy will be wasted in the largely ceremonial and secondary role of Vice President, as opposed to his current position on the House Budget Committee.
However, the common theme driving both forms of sentiment toward Paul Ryan focus on the economy and his budget plan. That the economy is the main drive behind these opinions highlights two things: 1) the economy and Medicare are now the center focus of the election and 2) Romney's choice of vice president carries its share of risk. As the face of the Tea Party, Paul Ryan could be seen as too conservative or too radical. In our analysis, we found that 56% of the conversation focused on sharing the news through mentions of the candidate (26%) or by publicizing the announcement (6%), yet others engaged through humor (24%). Echoing the tradition of political satirists from Mark Twain to Jon Stewart, we find that humor is a significant mode through which people engage and interact about politics and this highly-anticipated announcement via social media.
As the conversation and debate ramp up, we will continue to monitor this opinion space for shifts and trends, along with the emergence of new themes of discussion. Tweet us @crimsonhexagon or comment below with your suggestions. |
| Bagging The Bloggers; Expedia’s Social Strategy Pays Big Dividends Posted: 15 Aug 2012 09:35 AM PDT Expedia is using bloggers to engage as wide an audience as possible and its strategy is yielding benefits. EyeforTravel reports "Blogging is not just a fad. It is becoming another arm of a company's strategy and so it is important that brands use metrics to measure it," says Spencer Spellman, who pens the Traveling Philosopher blog and now works in partnership with Expedia, the world's biggest online travel agent. As somebody who is in the business of blogging to inspire travel, travel brands should perhaps take heed – Expedia has and it seems to be paying off. Spellman is one of around 30 bloggers that Expedia has worked with over the course of this year. "People who travel read travel blogs so this is such a rich community to mine and work with," says Expedia USA's director of public relations, Sarah Keeling. "Our work with bloggers so far has been a tremendous success – incredibly rewarding for us and for them." So while travel firm G-adventures may have been a pioneer in this space with its 'wanderers in residence' blog Keeling is a bit "shocked" by how few travel brands are using blogs to promote their products. Although Keeling admits that Expedia still has a lot to learn, this year it has actively used bloggers in its summer sale which involved some 12,000 hotels. One promotion -Kids in the City – focused on 12 US cities using 12 bloggers. The bloggers were "Mom's who know their city really well," explains Keeling. "Mom's get recommendations for everything from paediatricians to playgroups so we thought we'd apply this to travel as well." Everybody in Expedia's US database who had ever travelled with children was targeted. Another campaign involved a Facebook app for a fun quiz which allowed customers to uncover what type of beachgoer they are. The customer was then paired to like-minded bloggers - adventurous, fun-loving, bargain hunting and so on- on the main site who could offer their recommendations which – yes you guessed right – happen to be Expedia summer deals too. Expedia has a huge inventory and can offer travellers so much choice. But what it also knows is that travellers will come to the site four or five times before actually booking. Blogs that really engage and inspire can play a really important role at this stage, says Keeling. Choosing the right partner So with thousands of travel writers out there, how does a brand like Expedia choose who to work with? Before working with a blogger Expedia wants an affirmative answer to the following three questions:
As with anything though, the travel brand must understand what they are trying to achieve and then measure the success of the blog too. "We have a business need and we need somebody who can cast a broad net and engage with people who may then go on to buy our products," says Keeling. For Expedia measuring success involves understanding the perception the blog has created and how many page impressions it has achieved. "So we look, for example, at how many people engage with a particular hashtag – such as #ExpediaKids – we've created on Twitter and what they are saying about a campaign," she explains. "And we also track transactions – so on the day that a city is being promoted how does it fare with bookins?" For the record the #ExpediaKids on Twitter generated over 4 million impressions in the first 18 days of the campaign. While Expedia is still learning, the OTA has these top tips for brands considering using bloggers:
And here are some tips straight from the blogger's mouth
One thing is certain – content production is no longer the exclusive domain of magazines and books. So while thedigital age may have made it tougher for magazines to make money from advertising, it has also paved the way for travel companies that make revenue from selling products and services to tap into content production. Unlike magazines which have lead times of months this has immediate reach. A blogger like Spellman can visit a destination, write about it and publish it all in one day – and if it's good that could mean thousands of eyeballs. It doesn't take much to work out what is in it for Expedia. Expedia is one of 90 leading brands scheduled to present at EyeforTravel’s TDS North America Summit in Las Vegas on September 13-14. For more information seewww.eyefortravel.com/tdsusa or email marco@eyefortravel.com |
| 5 Questions On Whether To Hire A Social Media Consultant Or Do It Yourself Posted: 15 Aug 2012 09:30 AM PDT One might think that since I work at an agency that I'd have a predisposition to recommend outsourcing your social media needs. I can assure you that is not my opinion. I've always been a straight shooter on my blog regardless of whether my opinions or recommendations directly benefit me. This post is no different. Not every company or organization needs to outsource their social media efforts. This post is intended to help give some insight on where I believe that line is drawn based on my years of experience being on the service side. So without further ado, here are the 5 questions to ask yourself that will help you determine whether hiring a consultant or firm is the right move. 1. Do I have a strong sense of what social media success means for my business? While this may seem like a simple question to answer, most companies and organizations do not have a strong answer. Facebook likes and Twitter followers are not a measure of social media success. While it's great to increase your overall social reach, the real question you have to ask yourself is, "What are you going to do with that reach?". How does your business measure success overall? How can social media plug in to those metrics? Is it driving more traffic to a web property? An increase of sales? Maybe you just want to build brand and turn your social reach into a regularly engaged audience. Whatever the case is, you need to have a rock solid understanding of what true success is to your organization before you even think about dipping your toe in. 2. Do I have the necessary tools & resources in place to ensure we can be successful? This is another area where folks miss out. There's a wealth of online resources that can make managing your social media efforts a little less daunting. From engagement to measurement, the fact is if your business or organization is of any size, simply using Facebook or Twitter's website interfaces will leave you frustrated and with little time left over for anything else. For managing your engagement and publishing check out the likes of Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. For measurement you can't go wrong with starting with something like Simply Measured, Sprout Social or Raven Tools. However the fact is, you need to be well versed with these tools in order to get the most out of them and position your organization with the means to manage your own social media efforts. 3. Does my company/org have the manpower to fuel our social media efforts? So you have your goals determined and a good tool set in place. Now the question is, do you have real people in place to manage social media everyday? All the nifty goals, tools and fancy looking channels will do you nothing if you don't have real people engaging and responding every day. If you're a small business owner, you better carve out a good 1-2 hours total per day towards your social media efforts, and if you're a bigger brand and serious about it, either a full time hire or someone in your marketing department positioned to spend a good deal of their day contributing. The fact is your social channels need to be vibrant, evolving places where you are continuously posting original content, sharing relevant links, and engaging with others on a regular basis. And for product/service based orgs, you can count on them becoming a source of leads and customer support. If you are serious about social, you need real people doing the work. 4. Does company leadership fully embrace using social media to the fullest extent? If you're a small business the buck probably stops with you, so ask yourself if you're really on board with fully embracing social media. If you're a larger company, you better make sure the powers that be do as well. Because if the answer is nothing but a definitive yes, then nothing will kill social media success more then just treating it as a broadcast channel filtered by your legal department. I've seen it happen numerous times and it's not even worth the effort. While it's certainly expected to have some standards in place, your social media channels cannot be treated like press releases and broadcast media. Conversations need to be allowed to evolve, openness and transparency is expected. The bottom line is, if your company kicks ass, that is what will primarily resonate online as well. If you suck, well that will too and you bigger problems to solve. 5. Does my company have realistic expectations about what social media can do for our business? A lot of times companies have unrealistic expectations of what social media can do for their business. It's not a silver bullet, and it's not going to necessarily bear any fruit in the short term. What it is going to do is give your business another avenue to connect with customers, provide new lead channels, and provide a platform for your business/organization to influence in a variety of new ways at a fraction of what traditional marketing has provided. But it comes with the need for patience and a tolerance for all things social. The fact is, even the best companies in the world have their detractors. You can't please everyone all the time, but you can try and while it won't work every time, the fact that you do so openly and transparently, will pay huge dividends over time. So the question you're probably asking yourself now is, based on the above answers…What do I do? The bottom line is if you don't have the right answers to the above questions, chances are you stand to benefit from a consultant or agency to help. You could hire and bring the work internally, but 9 times out of 10, you'll stand to benefit by starting with a smaller investment and getting access to the necessary expertise more quickly and efficiently. There are a variety of options available to you that fit just about any budgets so don't feel if you are a small mom and pop shop that you're left out of the cold. I'll be following up this blog post next week with a post on how to find and choose the right consultants/agencies as it can sometimes be a daunting task. |
| Posted: 15 Aug 2012 08:20 AM PDT Like Facebook, Twitter has seen meteoric rise in the past five years and with more than 140 million active users, Twitter is considered one of the top social networks in the world. While you may use Twitter for fun, using it for business can actually be a very strategic part of your online marketing efforts. There are differences between a personal Twitter and a business Twitter account – but the basics still remain the same. You can still share out compelling content in 140-character tweets. But there are some differences too. For instance, Twitter offers businesses with several tools to enhance a Twitter business profile page so it is branded with the ability to load in logos, unique background, images and videos. In addition, Twitter provides some nifty services to get your business Twitter profile viewed by the right tweeters. Hundreds of millions of users may sound impressive – but if you own a local business, you may just want to target tweeters in your area. Here are some tips for leveraging your business Twitter account to gain more followers and enhance your business branding online: It's Not Personal, It's Business: If you've been using your Twitter account to tweet your friends about the latest antics of your dog, or a funny political cartoon – then you should definitely sign up for a separate "business" Twitter account for your company. Go to https://twitter.com/TwitterBusiness/ for some tips on how to make the most out of a business Twitter profile. You can also download the free eBook, Twitter Guide for Small Business. Once you sign up for your business profile page, Twitter recommends that before you begin tweeting about your business is to follow other tweeters that are in the same (or similar) business. This will give you a better idea of how to space out tweets, what users find interesting, etc. You might also devise an editorial calendar of sorts and plan your tweets ahead so that you are tweeting often – at least twice a week. Choose Your Tweets Carefully At Reputation Rhino, we tweet actively throughout the day, programming some "evergreen" Tweets and engaging users with relevant, timely content on trending topics and other areas of online interest. As far as knowing what to tweet, we suggest tweeting out content related to your business (like a product launch or sale) as well as providing helpful and relevant information for your followers. Don't be too promotional in other words… vary your content so that your followers stay engaged. An optimized and active Twitter account can rank among the top results for your business and Twitter should be an important element of your company's online reputation management strategy. Enhanced Twitter Profile Because a Twitter business page is designed to promote the most strategic aspects of your business, you may want to use Twitter's Enhanced Profile tools. This service allows you to add a logo, image and tag lines as well as input other visual branding. You can also promote a Tweet to the top of your profile page's timeline to highlight your most engaging and important content. |
| Social Media Evaluation: How Popular Are You Really? Posted: 15 Aug 2012 08:10 AM PDT
The most important part of this social media evaluation will be the traffic figures. It's no good having 10,000 Likes on Facebook if that converts to 5 visits a week. That's an extreme example, but if you do your own social media evaluation you might find a disparity between your Facebook fans and the traffic generated. When you evaluate these things, the natural assumption is that you're doing something wrong. You're not engaging enough, or you're engaging too much. Maybe the content you're posting is drawing the wrong kinds of fans, or you have the right fan demographic but your content isn't appealing enough. Or maybe it's something much simpler. There are Nearly 100 million Fake Facebook Accounts Over the last month or so, there have been a number of reports that Facebook has a high level of fake accounts. The most recent figures from Facebook themselves suggest that 8.7% of all accounts are fake. That suggests there are 83 million accounts on Facebook that aren't genuine. Which may explain anomalies in social media evaluation and traffic. Of course fake accounts don't automatically mean fake Likes. But a recent investigation by the BBC suggests that there are accounts that are generating false Likes. For the investigation, they set up a Facebook account for a company with no products. This company, Virtual Bagel Ltd, gathered over 3,000 Likes. Putting aside the irony of using a fake account to find fake accounts; these figures clearly mean there are some inflated Likes figures going around. And if it's happening on Facebook, it's probably happening on Twitter too. Anyone who's had a twitter account for more than 10 minutes will be aware of the potential for bots or spammers following new accounts, but it's something that's quickly forgotten as your followers rack up. Social media evaluation looks great when you're generating huge figures and it's easy to forget to check how many of those are bots or fake accounts. False Accounts Distort Figures and Reputation The problem of fake accounts on Twitter has even provided the idea for a new social media evaluation tool. Status People have created a Fake Follower Check that breaks down your followers into 3 categories; Fake, Inactive and Good. Try it yourself and see if your social media evaluation figures are built on real accounts. These fake accounts create a number of problems for social media evaluation. If you don't know how many accounts are real, you can't get an accurate measure on your popularity. It also makes planning more difficult because you may be basing decisions on activity that's been influenced by fake accounts. There's also a credibility problem, if a prospective client looks at your list of fans and spots a big group of fake accounts. At best it looks like your popularity is inflated, at worst it looks like you've inflated it. Regular social media evaluation is vital for any online marketing strategy. You need to know where you're successful and where you can improve. It's becoming clear that you also need to find out how genuine your fan base is, and see how popular you really are. |
| Underperforming Facebook Tests New Ads You Might See Soon Posted: 15 Aug 2012 08:05 AM PDT
The company has made some minor changes since then, but nothing that has been able to influence its meager stock price. Currently, it sits at $20.38 after opening at a $38 offering price in the latter half of May. But Facebook recently announced some changes that look to be steering them towards a more profitable future. What Is Facebook Currently Doing?As it stands, the only way you receive posts or information from a company is if you "like" their page. "Liking" a company or business page is the way Facebook and its users manage their commercial-to-consumer relationships. The system makes targeted advertising easy for those companies, as they know ahead of time that their fans are people who want to know about their products, deals, or special offers. It's basically a win-win for both parties. But it's very hard for companies paying for ads to measure the results in concrete numbers. Facebook's New Ad PlanThe current setup just isn't good enough—especially for Wall Street investors. They want to see more, much more, out of Facebook, especially as growth rates have been declining for the company. They have wanted to see more since the IPO. Because, as Shayndi Raice writes on the Wall Street Journal, Facebook has been having trouble "proving that ads on the site can help marketers move products off the shelf," hence their move to start testing a new way of advertising. So what is Facebook doing to address this? According to Mashable, Facebook announced late yesterday "that it will begin testing promoted posts that can reach people who haven't 'liked' a company's Facebook page." Basically, users will see an ad—which will be labeled "sponsored"— and have the option to "like" it. Facebook spokeswoman Annie Ta states, "These ads may appear on both desktop and mobile," and that the company believes "this will make it easier for businesses to reach more people." Will it Work?This move, if it makes it out of the testing phase, will likely make it easier for businesses to reach more people. It looks to be more traditional of an advertising method than what Facebook does now. Plus, it seems that this method will be a lot easier for the company—and the advertisers—to track in terms of how effective the advertisement is. Facebook does have to be careful, as this move could draw some ire from users. Then again, every move Facebook makes draws ire from its users, including me. I'm still angry about being forced to switch my profile to Timeline! Anyway, back on topic. I work in the content marketing field. I know that while the bottom line is moving products off the shelf, there's more to having a presence on social media like Facebook than simply that. Social media provides a business of any size to the chance to interact with their customers in ways that they never have. It's an ideal situation to build a brand, loyal customers, and much more. Coca-Cola marketing chief Joe Tripodi gets it. He told the WSJ, "If we can get 40-million plus fans, or even some subset of them talking positively about the things we're doing, ultimately that's a good thing for us." I really can't make a prediction on how these new ads will pan out for Faceook if they get out of the testing phase. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on its impact though. In fact, we all will if ads and posts start showing up on our Facebook feeds! Do you use Facebook to promote your business? |
| Foursquare App Gets A Face Lift Posted: 15 Aug 2012 07:51 AM PDT
Chances are even if you don't use Foursquare, you at least know about it. Who hasn't seen the occasional status update from friends "checking in" to whatever location they were at? While this "check-in" feature is a huge part of what made Foursquare what it is, a recent makeover will see new features take the center stage as check-in reconciles itself to becoming a mere sideshow attraction. The New Look of Foursquare After reviewing the way typical Foursquare users utilized the app — and discovering far more users were using it to find businesses rather than check-in at them — Foursquare founders decided an upgrade was in order. With the new Foursquare app, you will have heightened capabilities to search for, say, a Pool Mosaics company, than you did before the upgrade. Expect to see new additions such as "Lists" and "Explore" overpowering the badge-winning check-in feature. These new features essentially take what independent users were doing before the upgrade and make it more accessible. Instead of having to go around Y to get to C, you'll now be able to just jump straight into what you really want to do … without all the hoops. The new Explore feature will allow you to run a search for whatever you're interested in. If it's a good Italian restaurant, then you'll get a map of every Italian eatery in the area. What sets Foursquare apart from generic guidance apps, however, is you can select individual restaurants to see how many of your friends have visited the place and read whatever reviews they left. This can help you make your decision because you trust the opinion of whoever left the review. This Lists feature is another exciting addition to Foursquare. With it you'll receive recommendations about places you might be interested in visiting when you just have time to kill. While you may or may not see reviews from trusted friends, you will have access to tips and reviews from other people who have visited the establishment. Moreover, the perk of receiving a discount just for checking in with your Foursquare app remains with many businesses. Social Networking with Foursquare Moving even further into the realm of social networking, the new Foursquare offers a Friends feature. This addition gives you the ability to see places your friends have visited, review what they thought of the experience, and share your Lists with one another. You'll also notice the ability to "like" certain items as you do on Facebook and experience pictures in a similar manner to what you're used to on Instagram. Perhaps the best part, however, is the new Foursquare has been designed to work faster than ever before. So if you're already a Foursquare enthusiast, then you're going to love the new functionality of the app. If you've never used Foursquare before, now is the time to get started. |
| Black Hat SEO for B2B Appointment Setting – So Easy But So Painful Posted: 15 Aug 2012 04:50 AM PDT B2B Lead generation and appointment setting has a lot of methods and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of them. These marketing strategies have been used time and time again by many businesses, companies, enterprises, and even large scale corporations. Financial success can be gained upon the usage of these marketing strategies. One just needs to know the right method in implementing these marketing plans. In terms of SEO, many people (businesspeople and consumers alike) use methods in order to optimize their chosen keywords so that Google and other search engines will deem their website as deserving to rank at the top spots in search results. Now SEO is somewhat like earning money; there are legal and illegal methods to doing it. In real life, we work and even manage businesses in order to earn our weight in gold. There is, however, an easy way to do it which is stealing. Sure we can get away with it at one time but there will be dire consequences in the long run. Similar to this concept, SEO has what we call white hat and black hat methods. In other words, white hat SEO are the methods that are legal whereas the latter are the illegal ones. Simply put, white hat methods lets businesspeople and marketers alike to make their chosen keywords rank by doing what is friendly to SERP bots and spiders. Ranking can take a long time to achieve but it will all be good in the end. Black hat SEO on the other hand lets business websites shoot to the top spot of search engine results. However, search engines, especially Google, will sanction such websites upon detection of such methods. Penalties can range from lowering page rank, lowering the rank of chosen keywords to immense degrees, or even blocking the website from ever being crawled by their spiders and bots ever again. Not good for any aspiring business website who wants to rank in search engines for a very long time. If businesses did black hat methods for lead generation and appointment setting, they can expect a good flow of business leads. However, this flow of targeted sales leads will only be for a few days to a few weeks at the longest. Website owners should fear the sanction of Google being able to take down their rankings if they did such methods. In short, no search engine rankings mean no leads; no business leads mean no appointment setting that will be done. No sales appointments that are set, no profit; no profit equals no business. Business people should only pay attention to doing only and solely white hat SEO methods. Proper link building and content marketing methods should only be done. No instant traffic generators or keyword spamming should be done else repercussions will be reaped. The good thing about doing marketing for b2b purposes is that methods can be mixed. Ergo, white hat SEO tactics can be mixed with other b2b marketing methods like cold calling or direct mail. |
| 4 Tips for Promoting Your Facebook Application Posted: 15 Aug 2012 04:45 AM PDT Creating a Facebook application does not guarantee improved engagement. Nor does it guarantee a spike in new Page Likes. A Facebook application simply betters the chances of these things happening—but only when an effective launch plan is implemented with the release of the application. If you've just built a custom Facebook application for your business and are seeing stagnant traffic, it's most likely because the application wasn't promoted well. With that said, here are four recommendations for improving an application's traffic. 1. Make a Facebook announcement: Immediately after a Facebook application has been published to a Page, let users know through a Facebook status-update post. The primary aim is to intrigue and direct Facebook users to the application. To do this, include a strong Call to Action in the post.
2. Keep reminding users: On average only 16 percent of posted content is seen by fans. Because of this it's important to make multiple Facebook announcements throughout the duration of a week (or the timeframe of the running app) to ensure that the greatest number of users see the announcement. Posting one time only is not enough to drive sustained traffic to an application.
3. Promote the app in the company newsletter: Promoting a recently published Facebook application in the company newsletter is one way to increase app traffic from email readers. Depending also on the day the company newsletter is sent out, that same day could double as the launch date for a Facebook application.
4. Invest in paid advertising: Facebook advertising is relatively inexpensive. And despite criticism, Facebook advertisements are effective—especially when used correctly. To drive traffic through a Facebook ad, link back to the URL of the Facebook application. This makes it so that when a user clicks on a sidebar ad, they're then directed straight to the app. Designing and publishing a Facebook application is just the first step in trying to increase Page Likes and engagement with fans. The next and most important step is putting in the effort to promote the app. |
| Cleaner Timelines for Facebook and Google+ Posted: 15 Aug 2012 04:25 AM PDT In both Facebook and Google+, a lot of rubbish gets served our wayOnce you are connected to enough people, while you may know them, and connected, based on your shared interest in Linux or lean startups, in Facebook you get fed 5-10 pictures of kittens in teacups per day from them, and in G+, they think you would have no source for Olympics news if not for them. One man's idea of so adorable that everyone will think so rarely is mine. You must have your pet peave varieties of posts, I would bet. Do you have a friend who buys 12 iphone apps per month, reviews them, posts and tags you – and is oblivious to the fact that youd phone is an Android? Block them, mute a post, move to "only important" (Facebook)… what to do? Both Facebook and G+ have problems that neither is taking aim at – for timeline sanitizationIn Facebook, you can "hide all from," "unsubscribe," "mute this post," or unfriend/unsubscribe – when you find a "friend" is overfeeding you, and its rubbish they are laying on thick. In Google+, you can mute a post, uncircle someone, and little else. Because there is no topic tag timeline constraint system in Facebook, the best a third-party Facebook application developer could do is use facila recognition to help us eliminate of timeline-clogger: the onslaught of baby photos. Enter, unbaby.me:
That's right, now you can replace those unwanted babies (photos! I mean baby photos – of coursethat's what I mean) photos with something you might actually appreciate in your Facebook timeline. The official recognition of topic tags in a social network's databases make a huge differenceIn Google+, thanks to the ability to constrain our timeline (what's shared at us, from those we've circled) by a topic tag, cleaning up our timeline is far more efficient. In the Chrome Store, find the free G+ Hashtagsextension, which lets you mute tags and gradually refine your timeline. I was sold as soon as I saw I could nix #caturday once and for all:
What does topic-tagging, tag-search and the ability to filter a social network timeline by a tag mean for you? Do you have a favorite tool for topic tag optimization? |
| Posted: 15 Aug 2012 04:00 AM PDT
I've often wondered what would happen if a great creative mind of the past came into our present world to see how we create and communicate today. Here's my imagined conversation with Andy Warhol, whose creativity extended to almost every medium of his time. Here is his introduction to Facebook, after being asleep for nearly 25 years … Me: Welcome to the future Mr. Warhol. That thing in front of you is an iPad and with that you can instantly connect with people from all over the world through Facebook. Andy: The device is sleek and beautiful. But this Facebook looks stupid. How do you read this? Everything is small and crammed together. Why would you limit your personal expression to these little boxes? Me: It does have a terrible interface but I guess it makes up for it in your ability to connect instantly with ideas and people from all over the world. Andy: It looks to me like it is mostly cats, jokes, and inane self-help sayings. Me: Well … true. People like to have fun with this. It's a good creative outlet. Andy. I see little creativity here. People keep sharing the same jokes and photos over and over again. I would use this tool to bring people together to discuss new ideas — to find the odd things that make you think. Sort of a creative salon like we had in New York. Me: Well, the odd things probably don't make it to your news feed. Only the most popular ideas appear. Andy: And who is determining what is popular? Me: Facebook. They edit your newsfeed and only show the items with the most likes and comments.
Me: Not always. Sometimes a new idea catches fire and goes viral. In fact, it's an amazing opportunity for new artists to become known internationally. Like … umm … Justin Bieber. Andy: Not exactly a creative revolution, is it? And how does Facebook stay in business? Me: They collect all of your personal information and create targeted ads for their advertisers. Andy: And do they give you a share of the money? Me: No, in return you get to use their service for free. Andy: So they own your very art, your writing, your photography, and anything you post … and sell this information for their own economic gain? Me: Yes, that's it. Andy: That will never work. People would never let them do that. (distracted) Now what's this thing? Me: An iPhone. Most people are using this, or something like it, to connect on Facebook. Andy: This small screen makes the thing even worse, doesn't it? How can one expect to create something in a space this small? Do people really use this thing? Me: Oh yes. Some people spend several hours a day typing into their mobile device and viewing content. Andy: Fascinating. (lighting a cigarette) It seems inhuman. They do this of their own free will … or is this some kind of … punishment? Me: Oh this is by their choice. In fact, it's common to be using this device even when you are physically with your friends. Today, this is by far the most popular way to see art, photos, and videos. Andy: Seriously? On this screen that is smaller than your hand? This is how people see the world? So these digital artists now have to create their greatest works … to be viewed on this little device? Me: Well, yes. For a lot of creative work today … that's true. Andy: So let me get this straight. The world's most popular way to communicate is though a company that is collecting all of your most private information and profiting from it. You are being forced to create your content in unreadable little boxes. The company censors what you see and suppresses everything except the most popular ideas. People are tethered to communication devices that track your movements and your beautiiful art and motion pictures are relegated to a space that fits in the palm of your hand. This is a nightmare. I'm almost afraid to ask this question. Did all of this come about because of a war that happened while I was asleep? Did the Communists win? Mark Schaefer is a marketing consultant, author and college educator who blogs at {grow}. You can also follow him on Twitter: @markwschaefer. |
| Posted: 15 Aug 2012 03:50 AM PDT Klout. My friend my enemy and subject of some of my earliest posts. In October last year I wrote a blog called Treating the Klout. In it I discussed the big change they had just made to their algorithm that had given rise to many complaints from the community. Some had dropped massively in score, others jumped up. Well, they've done it again. Yesterday saw then roll out their latest calculation. Now they include many more data points to decide if you are influential or not. In my case they have now decided that I'm not really all that influential compared to my peers after all. In other cases they have given people very large upwards jumps indeed. Hell they even downgraded Justin Beiber. Now, to me this seems a bit troublesome. As Klout is used more and more to measure and define influence (even making it on to people's CV's), surely it needs to be a predictable score. If over night your perceived influence can dramatically change (twice in 12 months), Klout is proving it isn't. This may sound like sour grapes, it isn't. I am sure I will catch up, for me I enjoy the challenge. But, it is me trying to express how dangerous Klout is becoming. Here is an imaginary story, one I doubt is all that for from the truth or the future. Joe has a klout of 40. His company has started to include klout in certain decisions about who they will use to represent them in the social media world. He gets turned down for the promotion because Jim has a score of 50. Klout makes a change. Suddenly, Joe has a Klout of 56 and Jim has a score of only 53. Over night the landscape of digital influence has shifted with no explanation of how the scores have been altered. Should Jim now lose his promotion because some techy at Klout has decided he is no longer as influential as his peers? For this kind of measure to be of any use it has to be stable. Klout seems to be going out of its way to prove it isn't. At least now they tell you what they are measuring. Bring on the gamers!! |
| Do You Have to Participate on Facebook for Your Business? Posted: 15 Aug 2012 03:40 AM PDT
My response? She could participate on social media without being on Facebook. Let's face it (pun intended) — Facebook is NOT for everyone. First, though, let's clarify what we are talking about: There is a personal profile on Facebook for which people "friend" you (or subscribe to your updates). Then there is a Facebook Page for a business, book, brand or cause for which people "like" your Page. This is a very important concept to consider. And while the algorithms of who sees what are of course secret, there is some interesting data I can share with you. On our Miller Mosaic Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/millermosaicllc at the moment we have 1,019 "likes." This gives us enough "likes" to pay for promoted posts. What does this mean? Let's look at statistics: This update posted on August 9th — "KDP Select: MRS. LIEUTENANT Gets Second Chance" http://ow.ly/cRsCI — has this message from Facebook at the bottom of the update: "76 people saw this post" This update posted on August 10th — "Change Can Be Good Especially for Online Marketing" http://ow.ly/cSLsD — has this message: "3,403 people saw this post" For the second post we paid $5 to promote the post for up to three days from the time of the post. In other words, if you are not paying to promote a post on your Facebook Page, only a small percentage of the people who have "liked" your Page will see the post in their news feed. Disclaimer: Other posts that we paid to promote have not been seen by as large a number of people as the post seen by 3,403 people. But the promoted posts have definitely been seen by more people than would otherwise have seen the posts. What is more, you are not even allowed to pay for promotions until your Page has a certain number of "likes." (I believe this number is still holding at 400.) Now let's return to the prospective client: It can take a long time to build up to 400 "likes" on a Facebook Page, especially if you do this without any paid Facebook ads. The prospective client does not want to invest a great deal of time in social media. Clearly, then, based on the above explanation of how many people may see a Page post, Facebook is not for her at this time. On the other hand, given her business and personality, there is a social media site that she could effectively start utilizing now for social media marketing purposes. This is why one size does NOT fit all for social media marketing — and why you can be active on social media and NOT be on Facebook. |
| Live ‘n Kickin: Social Media Makes Claims on Traditional Media Territory Posted: 14 Aug 2012 06:55 PM PDT A subtle but powerful shift is underway as brands and platforms that have thrived, in part, through social media are now trading up into traditional media territory on the strengths of the eyeballs and engagement they have captured. To illustrate I want to share three examples. 1. GOOGLE HANG-OUTS ON AIR: Google wants this new live studio format to revolutionize the music industry by optimizing the sound quality for live performances rather than just voice. While this is early days, what will this do for artists? How will it impact the concert tour model? How will affect the business model of concert and tour companies like Live Nation? What new crop of artists and legions of fans will it connect and unleash independent of the traditional music industry? Here is a quick look at how it works and then, just imagine what this will do to the traditional music industry already reeling from illegal downloads, piracy and artist's (most recently, like Beck) who are constantly exploring independent business models? Meanwhile, enjoy Suite 709′s new track using the platform. 2. HUFFINGTON POST LIVE: Yesterday Huffington Post Live did just that – went Live for the first time. It did so, in their own words, to build on the depth of conversations across on and around its platform in the comments sections and across social media. It was this deep engagement that gave them the confidence to threaten traditional media territory and also to allow user interest to drive the content rather than prescriptive programming. Such engagement is the type of feedback loop that traditional news outlets are so desperately trying to earn and struggling to maintain.
3. INSTAGRAM SHOPPING: The popularity of Instragram – the mobile only app that lets you apply filters to photos and share them – has captured the attention of brands as well who are now tapping into that popularity and sharability to sell product at a fraction of the cost of traditional media. In short, it's social shopping in an instant with a peer recommendation built in. So it's little wonder you see big brand adoption rates and community growing so quickly in the latest Interbrand research below.
All three efforts are nothing shot of a land grab in the gap between "the way things have always been done" and how they are now. The window of time in which companies (whose media plans and profit centers turn on traditional media alone) can change and adapt to new social technology and consumer behavior is closing. And left too long, they will find themselves on the wrong side of history. Do you agree social media is changing the way your industry does business? If so, what is the greatest threat? |
| Posted: 14 Aug 2012 06:30 PM PDT Throughout July I posted blogging tips on Twitter. If you've missed any of these then below is the full list.
The more observant amongst you will notice I'm one short as July has 31 days in and I've only got 30 blogging tips. That's because I didn't start this project until the 2nd July so here is a final one just for my blog readers.
Your turn |
| Staggering Social Media Statistics From The Olympics (Infographic) Posted: 14 Aug 2012 05:41 PM PDT When I signed up to social media over four years ago you could almost count the number of tweets with a pen and a piece of paper. Facebook had not even cracked 50 million users. Now it is approaching one billion users globally which is one every seven people on the planet using the Facebook social media network and that equates to nearly one in two internet users. Today you almost need a supercomputer that can measure and monitor this deluge and torrent of big data that is exhibiting social at scale. Torrent of DataAt a conference in 2010 Eric Schmidt the then CEO of Google stated "Every two days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003" This information includes content such as emails, tweets, Facebook updates, Photos, YouTube video uploads and text messages. Two years later we have a continuing fire hose of content creation that is shared online with the 2012 Olympics producing a staggering 306 billion items on the open Web in just 17 days. That is every person on the planet creating 44 pieces of information in just over 2 weeks. So what are the social media statistics, facts and figures from the 2012 Olympics? Statistics for Social Media SharingAs the social web grows and permeates every facet of the online world these numbers will continue to skyrocket.
It was also calculated that 27% of Americans watched the Olympics at work which is an estimated loss of $1.4 billion in productivity. The reality is that the Olympics is now over and it is "back to work".
Infographic by RadiumOne Image from BigStockPhoto.com |
You may be surprised that the dark horse in the race is the group whose use of your private online community can have the biggest impact on your organization's revenue and future – product management.
Want More ProCommunity?
Check out this article, 
Does Hire-a-College-Intern to handle social media sound familiar? This approach tosocial media marketing can be alluring especially if you still haven't ventured onto Facebook and one of your firm's senior executives will owe you a favor for hiring his Facebook-savvy spawn as your social media intern.
At the heart of it all, I’m a writer. I’ve loved to write since I was a little girl and do have the aspiration to publish many books in the near future.
As users across all social networks take a breath after two weeks of Olympic social engagement, now is as good a time as any for some social media evaluation. When you evaluate the success or failure of your social media activity, there are a number of basic measures to apply. How many fans do you have on Facebook? How many Twitter followers? How much traffic is your site getting from 
Facebook has been hit with some less-than exciting news lately. Their stock is still not performing well. When the company makes news, I always seem to go back to Andrew's 
Andy: So an unpopular viewpoint is suppressed? New ideas stay buried?
A prospective social media marketing client told me she did not want to be on Facebook even though she felt she was being left behind professionally by not participating on social media.
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