id33b1: 25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

marți, 9 octombrie 2012

25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community

25 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community


You Are Not The Number Of Likes Your Facebook Page Has!

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 03:30 PM PDT

"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet" -Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Similarly, your brand is not the number of likes or followers it has.

FB_Dislike

The social media landscape in India is constantly evolving with more brands understanding the importance of creating quality campaigns compared to having a social media presence just because everyone else is doing it.

However, the industry is still at a nascent stage where most marketing executives of companies aren't aware of the true opportunities social media offers and the many dos and don'ts of the various platforms available. It is the responsibility of the agency a brand hires to educate them about social media and set realistic expectations about their brand's online presence.­­

This is where the industry is mostly going wrong, as Facebook Likes are being sold like a commodity at a cost of Rs. 8 per like or Twitter followers being promised and targets being met by using the much loved #TeamFollowback.

Why should an agency charge a fixed amount for a page like?

This makes the process corrupt, as the agency will mostly play on the fact that the client doesn't understand Facebook ads intricately and will get the cheapest cost per like so that it can draw a better margin. It will do this by targeting demographics which are easier to acquire and may not be relevant to the brand's target group(TG) at all.

Here's a scenario – I am brand X and I am into healthcare. My TG is working professionals living in metro cities who fall in the age group of 30-50. I have rich experience about traditional advertising channels and am keen on starting initiatives on social media, but do not understand it completely. I am approached by an agency which promises me 20,000 likes and 1000 followers every month. I think these numbers are fantastic, and I don't see beyond them because I'm not aware of anything else. I hire the agency based on these promises.

Imagine my plight when my TG lies in the age group of 30+ and my Facebook page has 20,000 odd likes out of which 74% of the fan base falls in the age group of 13 – 17? Or my Twitter profile which has 5,000 odd followers all of whom are bots and spam.

It gets worse because there are actual agencies which have departments of people dedicated to creating fake profiles and liking brand pages. This is a real life scenario a lot of brands are facing today, and are unfortunately not even aware of it!

Here's what agencies should ideally do:

1. Don't take the easy way out and have a long term approach. Generate revenue not by getting likes on a page, but through the execution of quality campaigns. At the end of the day, the right TG will be more responsive to the right kind of content a brand puts on its page. This will help you sustain your relationship with your client and benefit you in the long run. An example over here will be the Facebook page of Dogspot.in, an e-commerce portal for dog and pet products. They've done various campaigns where they shared photos of people's dogs for an entire month, celebrated individual dog lovers and ran a contest where they asked people to send in photos of their dogs surfing the Dogspot website.

It is because of these sustained efforts that they have their exact TG on their page and dog owners continue sharing photos of their dogs with them. This has also made them have a 'Talking About This' figure of more than 50% of their total fan base since the last 6 months.

2. Coming to Twitter, it is a platform which allows brands to have real time conversations with its TG. Don't just sync it to a brand's Facebook page and have 2-3 generic tweets a day. Set targets by promising unique interactions and engaging contests to a brand. Create a unique personality for a brand on Twitter and don't just promise irrelevant followers. Twitter has a very mature audience compared to Facebook, and you need to have a different strategy for it.

UpperCrust Magazine is a great example of this. They engage with food bloggers, restaurateurs, chefs, food photographers and everyone else relevant to their TG on a daily basis and have a very active Twitter presence. They generate quality interaction where tweeters start conversations with them about food recommendations, reviews and places to visit.

91Mobiles.com, India's leading mobile comparison portal is also very active on Twitter. It engages with mobile enthusiasts, mobile bloggers and tweeters looking to buy a phone. It gives objective feedback on phone choices and engages with tweeters about the latest developments in the mobile world. They are an influencer and get regularly tweeted to for phone recommendations or healthy discussions about the mobile world.

At the same time, brands should also realize that mere chasing of numbers is not enough. What is the point of having a million likes on your Facebook page, if these likes are not adding any real value to your business?

It's time to best utilize what social media is for – giving brands an opportunity they never had before, to engage and interact with their TG in real time, detailed and factual analytics compared to other traditional mediums, create brand loyalists and building a tangible community of people important to a brand.

Using an Infographic for Independent School Marketing

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 03:10 PM PDT

Sage-Hill-School-Infographic

As Sage Hill's Director of Communications and Marketing, I am always interested in new ways to market the school to prospective families. In particular, because Sage Hill School is located in a community that is known for a strong public school system, it is important for us to highlight the differentiators that make Sage Hill School the finest college preparatory option in our area.

As a fan of social media, I became aware of the increasing popularity of infographics to convey information in a quick, attractive and easily understandable manner. This format met my needs for a fresh approach to demonstrate the achievements and differentiators of Sage Hill School to prospective families, as well as reinforcing the value of the school for our currently enrolled families. I conducted an extensive search on the internet but I could not find any other high schools (independent or public) that had created such a document. I was excited for Sage Hill School to be one of the first high schools (possibly the first) to utilize the infographic format for marketing in the 2012-2013 admission season!
The response to the infographic from current and prospective families has been impressive. Sage Hill School has always been an innovator in its educational program; this year we are pleased to educate families about Sage Hill School through the use of an innovative communication tool.I worked with a local advertising agency, O'leary and Partners, to design an infographic to show Sage Hill School's mission, differentiators, college placement record, and a brief school history. The infographic uses our school color palate and is similar to the look and feel of our other, more traditional, print pieces. We have a folded print version of the infographic to hand out at local high school admission fairs and at our Admission Open House and Parent Coffees. An electronic version is reproduced on the school website (www.sagehillschool.org) and was posted on our school Facebook page (www.facebook.com/sagehillschool). Sage Hill School's Head of School, Gordon McNeill and the Director of Admission, Elaine Mijalis-Kahn, were so pleased with the print version of the infographic that they asked for a reproduction of the infographic on large retractable banners (7'x3') to use at admission events, Back to School night, and around campus.

Social Media: Putting The Consumer First

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 02:59 PM PDT

Social media has been widely accepted as an effective method in a company’s overall multichannel marketing strategy and the next step is finding creative ways to implement it with traditional methods. The focus in conversation for marketers has now shifted away from "why should we use social media" to  "how can we best use social media."

Similarly, more and more companies are embracing the fact that on these social platforms, the consumer is in control, and that's okay. In fact, putting the consumer in control gives many companies the advantage of having passionate brand ambassadors discuss and promote their products for free.

The conversations that occur around businesses now have progressed and need to be focused on the authentic versus non-authentic connections. Another way to think about this kind of marketing is as engagement as opposed to intrusion, building brands around people and taking advantage of the environments that are social by design.

Companies and brands must approach social media marketing strategies from the point of view of the consumer. How will this audience use this brand to describe themselves, and tell the story about themselves and their point of view? social media marketing

In order to do this effectively, companies must start planning a campaign by identifying the end experience they want the user to have – which should not simply be to buy the product. What are the connections the user is going to have with the product, and what emotion will make that user tell their friends and family about it in a positive way?

This is a helpful way for companies to determine which campaigns may or may not be successful. Will this effort create a meaningful story for the audience to generate? Will people want to talk about it and share it? If so, the next steps are to work backwards and determine how to develop a plan that will lead the user to that experience.

Of course certain truths remain regardless of the experience – if the campaign isn't simple enough, people won't engage with it. Especially at a time when there are so many options for users to choose from. However, it is important for companies to acknowledge that they no longerneed to put the customer at the center of their strategy; the customer is already there.

Download our free 3 Step Social Media eBook.

Local SEO Tips for the Restaurant Industry

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 02:55 PM PDT

Restaurants are the top local search category, making search engine optimization (SEO) critical in order to stand out among your competitors. Although some consumers turn to specialty websites such as Yelp or UrbanSpoon for dining decisions, the majority still use search engines first. Ironically enough, the search engines also use data from these specialty websites to influence local rankings.

According to Forrester, consumers predominantly click on the top four search results and then move on. This means your restaurant needs to rank at the top in order to truly see a difference in increasing traffic and sales.

The key to improving your restaurant's visibility is local SEO, which is focused mainly on your website, local directories and Google+ local pages. Tagging and linking is important along with the business citation. User content and reviews also play a role in contributing to overall ranking as well.

In order to improve your Google local ranking, conduct a basic search with keywords surrounding your type of restaurant and locations. For example: "Indian food, Seattle." Then identify the top-ranking competitors and take a look at their local business profiles, following the links to more information on where they are listed. Here is a step-by-step guide in adding your business to these linking opportunities to rank higher on Google.

Each of your locations needs its own page on your website. The goal is to appear in searches with "geo" terms included; as a result, these pages should include your restaurant's contact information and geographic keywords.

Finally, don't forget mobile. 95% of smartphone users conduct restaurant searches, making it crucial to ensure your site is mobile-friendly.

In fact, a mobile-friendly site can be said to directly affect restaurant sales: 90% of these users "convert within the day," meaning they go out to eat after searching. Even more impressive is that 64% were found to covert either "immediately" or "within one hour."

Local SEO should be a part of a larger overall SEO strategy and needs a unique approach. Contact ZOG Digital today for an audit.

Bigg Boss Season 6 Goes Social

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 02:45 PM PDT

A look at Bigg Boss season 6 employing social media to involve the online community of Bigg Boss fans.

This year has seen a significant increase in the digital marketing budgets. Be it the big screen or the small screen, nearly all of them involve social media into their marketing mix. Prior to a movie release, we see the trailer and music release videos trending on Twitter irrespective of whether it's going to achieve box office success or not. Facebook is a good indulgence to get your fan community talk about you. Satyamev Jayate created a record of sorts to be the most social media friendly show of these times. As per this story on Gigaom, more than 1.2 billion people had connected with the social documentary program across its website, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and mobile devices, from just about 13 episodes.

And now, this year's most anticipated reality show, Bigg Boss 6 debuts on Colors TV, with a social media presence on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. True to its tagline 'Alag Che' (its different), apart from the motley group of contestants, and a talking parrot in the house, one can see a rational use of social media unlike its previous seasons. I saw an ad on YouTube with an embedded video and a link to the Facebook page of Colors TV. Quite a number of things are happening on traditional mediums too, and these are being integrated into the digital space.

The Colors TV Facebook page has been long creating the buzz on its wall as well as an interesting app. Fans can create their own Bigg Boss house by selecting 13 of their friends from Most Attractive, Most Fashionable to Most Funny, Most Athletic and Most Knowledgeable. The app finally creates a collage of your 13 friends into an image, which you can then tag and share.

Apna BiggBoss Ghar FBApp

I clicked the 'Start' button on the Facebook app and this is what was displayed "Bigg Boss chahte hain ki aap iss page ko like kare". That was quite an impressive way for a start! I was beginning to get the feel of the reality show. Post liking the page, you are shown 13 empty spaces with the respective titles. The app has a provision for selecting from your friends list or you can also do a search. In addition, there is the Facebook Share and Twitter button to help spread the word.

Content on the wall does create the 'watch this space for more' feel. I loved the spoiler alerts and the small video footage being shared; this really gets you to switch on the idiot box in the evening just to watch 'what happened later'. A really ingenious move in terms of content strategy for a reality show quite famed for its regular dogfights!

Bigg Boss 6 on Twitter

The reality show is being trended through the hashtag #BB6 or #BiggBoss by the channel Twitter handle @ColorsTV. The Twitter page is full of buzz and interesting conversations. I am quite impressed with the Twitter show as it seems to be fully utilising the 140-characters provided. Prior to the show going on air, the Twitter page has been seen creating waves in terms of sharing tidbits about the show, the host and the contestants. Followers were asked what would they do if they were Bigg Boss for a day.

ColorsTV_Twitter

The one thing that deserves a mention here is the intent to engage with followers. The Twitter handle talks, listens, and helps you with your concerns.

After the initial hype, the page is now sharing videos of each of the contestants and some exclusive clippings from the next episode. In other words, the Twitter page is doing everything to keep the followers glued onto the account. The show is sure creating the required conversations and engagement with its Twitter strategy and is similar to the plan on Facebook.

Bigg Boss 6 on YouTube

Other than the YouTube ad and a few promotional videos on the brand channel of Colors TV, nothing much is happening on YouTube. A dedicated page has been created on the channel website that serves as a warehouse of videos, sneak peeks, more about the contestants, chat, voting, etc. All the content is churned out here, the links of which are shared through Facebook and Twitter for fan consumption.

Ending Thoughts

Bigg Boss 6 has focussed around its dedicated page on the channel website. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are being used to generate the necessary involvement in the fans. The specially designed Facebook app is simple yet it helps gain more 'likes' and shares from the community and its extended network. Still, I would have preferred the app had been more interactive and 'gamified' with a graphic replication of the Bigg Boss season 6 house.

The overall strategy is in keeping with the channel's tagline 'Jasbaat Ke Rang' in order to promote 'Cohesive viewing' through programmes that have universal appeal. Only thing I cannot figure – why the Facebook page is not open!

With more than 6 lakh fans at the beginning of the show, it remains to be seen what happens at the end of 98 days. 'BB6 Alag Che' might ring in new learnings in the social space. What are our thoughts?

Johnnie Walker India Gives You A Chance To Meet A McLaren Mercedes Driver

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 02:35 PM PDT

Johnnie Walker India is giving F1 enthusiasts a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet McLaren Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button, at the second Formula One Indian Grand Prix along with a host of other grand prizes.

While the race for the 2012 Formula One title is hotting up the clamour amongst the brands to grab attention vis-a-vis the Indian Grand Prix to be held between October 26 and 28, 2012 is also reaching its climax.

Johnnie Walker, a Scotch whisky brand owned by Diageo, is very active when it comes to Formula One. It is associated with the McLaren Mercedes team since 2005 to promote its message of responsible drinking. Presently, this campaign is being run by the name 'Join the Pact' along with other promotional campaigns like 'Step Inside the Circuit' which gives a sneak peek into the world of a McLaren Mercedes driver.

To engage with the fans around the Indian Grand Prix, Johnnie Walker India is running a contest named 'Johnnie Walker Lifestyle Circuit' the details of which are as follows:

Johnnie Walker Lifestyle Circuit Facebook Campaign

First and foremost, the contest is only open to people who are at least 25 years old. In fact, people under the age of 25 cannot even access the page, forget participating in the contest. There is no fan gate which means you need not like the page to participate. All you need to do is go to the Facebook page and click on the 'Johnnie Walker Lifestyle Circuit' tab. Once there you are greeted with a page giving you the details about the contest and the prizes in short. Click on 'Start'. This takes you to the app which contains the contest page.

Johnnie_Walker_India_Facebook

It is a simple contest wherein you are required to answer 5 multiple-choice questions correctly. All questions are related to Mclaren Mercedes and its drivers. To make things easy, every question has an accompanying video giving you the hint. Upon answering all 5 questions correctly it takes you to the page where you are required to sign up if you are not a registered Johnnie Walker user. Once you submit your personal details you successfully complete the registration and participation process.

Prizes On Offer

This is the most special part of the contest. The prizes that Johnnie Walker India is giving away are grand to say the least and require a special mention. The prizes are actually divided into two categories – 1) Main Prizes & 2) Additional Prizes. Both are well defined in the Terms and Conditions given below the contest page.

The main prizes include: (i) 5 winners get an opportunity to be clicked with one of the McLaren drivers, Lewis Hamilton or Jenson Button + one pass for the race along with an all expenses paid trip to New Delhi for the 3 days of the race, (ii) 8 winners get a couple pass for the race along with an all expenses paid trip for the 3 days of the race, and (iii) 30 winners get couple passes for the exclusive Johnnie Walker party called the 'Jet Black' which is held on the race weekend.

50 'Additional Prizes' winners get branded Johnnie Walker merchandise. The winners are chosen randomly from all the entries!

Does the contest live up to the brand image?

The answer to that question is an 'almost' yes! It does live up to Johnnie Walker's brand image of sophistication and class up to a certain extent. For starters, the contest pages are designed in such a way that they complement the brand. The whole app has got a suave feel to it and does not have any glitches of any sort.

Also, the accompanying videos to the questions are short and thus download pretty quickly. The fact that the contest allows non-fans to participate directly shows that they are not after garnering likes along with the contest which is generally the case. To top it all, the prizes on offer are unmatched and make the contest very special, especially for hardcore F1 fans.

However, the contest could have been allowed to be a bit more difficult. The videos which ideally should contain the 'hints' have the answers instead. Also, even if you fail to answer all the 5 questions correctly, you are given a chance to try again and it goes on until you get all of them right!

To complete submission you are required to become a registered Johnnie Walker user, if you are not, thereby ending up giving Johnnie Walker India all of your personal details. The only plus point here is you have the choice whether to allow them to send you promotional messages or not.

Lastly, when you are giving away such extravagant prizes, it makes good sense to provide information regarding selection of the winners at some stage of the submission process rather than mentioning about it somewhere in the Terms and Conditions.

Despite these not-so-significant shortcomings, the contest and the app are pretty good. Do give it a shot and let me know if you like it or not.

A Brief History of Project Management

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 02:20 PM PDT

At Mavenlink, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at the past 2500 years or so and see how project management came to be what it is today.

Despite new method developments and technology changes over time, project management has kept its core goal intact to deliver successful projects in a clear and effective way.

Here’s how we got here:

Optimizing Twitter Engagement – Part 1: Content

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 02:05 PM PDT

Optimizing Twitter Engagement is a series of articles that uses the Track Social analytics platform to analyze what produces engagement between brands and consumers on Twitter. In this article we look at how the type of Tweet – Image or Text – and the text content of the Tweet, affect Retweet levels.

For those who prefer Facebook as a social platform, see our Optimizing Facebook Engagement white paper here.

For more details of the methodology of this study please see here.

For Twitter Engagement, Photos outperform Text by 91%.

Twitter has put a lot of effort into promoting the use of images through its platform in recent times, so perhaps it comes as no surprise that Photo Tweets do so much better than regular Tweets. It is maybe more interesting that Photo Tweets only compose 2.3% of all Tweets in this study.

It should be noted that certain corporate use cases on Twitter, such as customer service, don't lend themselves to the use of images, and indeed that the platform itself was founded on the use of text. However, it still seems that there is significant opportunity for brands to increase their engagement levels through use of images.

Aside from the type of Tweet, obviously the content of the Tweet itself should be important to how it is responded to.

Every brand, product and target audience is different, so perfecting the type of content is a unique process for each brand. However Track Social has studied the message content of posts of 100 of the most engaged large brands on Twitter, looking for patterns that might be broadly applicable.

Asking for a Retweet produces a 555% lift over the average Tweet.

We observed a similar phenomenon on Facebook with asking for a Like. However, on Twitter there are less creative options available, as things like asking questions or captioning activities are not seen to produce results.

Hash tags, which are words prefixed with a '#', produce a 35% lift. It is not clear whether this is as a result of their increased searchability, or a boost given by using the 'local vernacular'.

Interestingly, Tweets that openly referenced offers or coupons actually performed somewhat worse than average.

As always, we need to reinforce that these are aggregate results. We observe a lot of variation between brands, and it is critically important to consider each specific situation and analyze each brand on its own merits.

Here are some general rules of thumb to help create your perfect messaging mix:

  1. View Twitter content as an integrated program, incorporating variety
  2. Images work well in Tweets in general, almost doubling retweet rates
  3. If you want an action, such as a retweet, asking for it directly is often the best way to get it
  4. Hash tags are a good thing on Twitter

Track Social offers enterprise clients an advanced program of Social Content Optimization. For more information, and to apply for a free assessment of your brand's social performance, go here.

We will have a Twitter Engagement white paper coming up soon. To get notice when it is released, sign up here.

To get our Optimizing Facebook Engagement white paper, go here.

For the methodology of this study, go here.

Pinterest Tips for the Home Improvement Industry

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 01:55 PM PDT

It's no accident that two of the top 10 brand pages on Pinterest are HGTV and Better Homes and Gardens. The fastest growing site in history, Pinterest is known for being highly design and DIY-oriented, making it the perfect promotional platform for those within the home improvement industry.

Pinterest enables users to collect and organize tips and plans for specific areas and projects as well as general I'll-get-there-someday ideas. For the home improvement sector, there's no better way to highlight products and services, while still offering helpful knowledge and benefits to the consumer.

Pinterest is expected to account for 40% of all social media driven purchases this year, and that is largely because consumers trust the recommendations of others over advertisements. The site allows those in the home improvement industry to give advice on products, brands and services, as well as recommend retail stores, while still allowing consumers to connect with others who have first-hand experience.

The fact that Pinterest typically attracts more women than men is not an issue in this industry, as women currently make up about 44 percent of the DIY market. Plus, pins can be shared on other social networks such as Facebook, and having a brand page on Pinterest can aid in SEO efforts.

The site also presents a good opportunity for user engagement. Before-and-after challenges and contests revolving around specific board categories and pins will drum up overall awareness and brand visibility. The goal is to drive traffic to sites for online purchases and, for those users who will do research online but make purchases in-store, to inspire retail and brand recognition that lead to increased sales.

Pinterest optimization is one piece in the larger social media optimization (SMO) puzzle. Other social sites should certainly be utilized, and the greatest digital marketing impact will result when you incorporate SEO and Paid Media efforts as well.

Contact ZOG Digital today for an SMO audit.

6 Holiday-Themed Ideas For Using Facebook Offers

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 01:50 PM PDT

Does your business have a Facebook strategy ready for this upcoming holiday season? You should! The holidays are the perfect time to try out some of Facebook's newest features, including Facebook Offers.

To get you started today, here are six awesome holiday-themed Facebook Offers ideas that your business can implement in the coming months.

1. The Non-Traditional Giveaway

Traditional Facebook giveaways are require that users fill out a submission form to be eligible for the giveaway prize. With a non-traditional giveaway using the Facebook Offers feature, businesses can host a "frictionless" giveaway. Meaning, there is no responsibility on the users, they just have to click "claim" to receive the prize. So for example, if you operate an outdoor ice skating rink, schedule a Facebook Offer for a free entry and rental during the first week of the season.

2. The Limited-Time-Only Discount

When you create a Facebook Offer, Facebook allows you to set an expiration date. Be sure to emphasize to users that your discount is available only for a limited time, as this will create urgency. For instance, if you own a bakery, create an in-store only Facebook Offer that has the same publish and expiration date. This will encourage people to come to your store that day to redeem their Offers.

3. The Perfect Product Launch

Facebook Offers can maximize your product launch by getting fans excited. While only a few lucky ones will win, nearly everyone who sees the Offer will checkout the prize. That means you'll get a ton of click-throughs to, say, your new fall cards or winter clothing line.

4. The Timely Coupon

The holiday season is full of sales. To make yours sale stand out, use Facebook Offers to promote it. Giving the first 100 people to claim the prize an extra 20 percent off the sale prices will make your fans – and their friends – take notice. The extra savings to the winners won't cost you too much, while the extra attention to your sale will increase purchases.

5. The Most Memorable Customer Appreciation Gift

The holidays are a time for giving to those who matter most. For businesses, it's the perfect time to give back to your customers and loyal fans. When creating your Facebook Offer, include a note in the Offer's description that thanks users for their year-long support and business. Then, be sure to make the Offer easily redeemable.

6. The Charitable Effort

If your business has a particular charity you support, create a product or discount on a service that will give back to your charity each time a purchase has been made through your Facebook Offer. So for example, if you're a t-shirt company, create a Facebook Offer that gives users a 50 percent discount on a particular shirt. For however much money that was made through your Facebook Offer, give a percentage back to your charity of choice.

Do you plan on using Facebook Offers this holiday season? If so, share your ideas and thoughts with us by tweeting @shortstacklab!

Download ShortStack's new eBook for free!

Staggering Facts, Figures and Statistics about Facebook – Infographic

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 01:40 PM PDT

While I was sleeping a few days ago a shepherd in Uzbekistan logged onto the the internet, created a Facebook account and then took a photo of his favourite sheep to become the 1 billionth person on the planet to join Facebook.Staggering Facebook Facts, Figures and Statistics Infographic

It most probably happened on his iPhone that had been bought online because someone told him on Twitter about a special discount deal at an online store.

We live in a world that we barely recognise from only 10 years ago that now includes mobile science fiction defying devices called smart phones and strange terms and activities such as tweets, likes and pinning.

We think nothing of starting up Skype (with over 650 million registered users) and having a video call with a friend or colleague in Iceland while sipping on a chardonnay. It is a global mind meld with multi-media telepathy.

Just last Thursday Facebook officially announced that they had passed this significant milestone. The number is sizeable and the moment is worth noting but it is the other facts and figures that accompany this fact that put into perspective how much social networks have woven themselves into the fabric of our lives. These include photos downloaded, the total number of friend connections and songs downloaded.

The Other Statistics

While Flickr, Instagram, Pinterest and other photo sharing sites are significant the Facebook ecosystem makes them look like an afterthought along with the other accompanying facts.

  • 219 billion photos have been uploaded onto Facebook (including that sheep photo)
  • Since the Facebook "like" was introduced in 2009 (yes, it was only 3 years ago and now it is ubiquitous) we have hit that button 1.13 trillion times
  • There have been 140.3 billion friend connections (no mention of how much "unfriending has ocurred)
  • 17 billion location-tagged posts, including check-ins
  • 62.6 billion songs have been played 22 billion times which is 210,000 years of music
  • Average age of a Facebook user is 22 years
  • Facebook now has 600 million mobile users

In 2008 (which is only 4 years ago) Facebook only had 100 million users. It isn't time to relax though as there are still over 6 billion more people to sign up.

Facebook passes 1 billion users -infographic 1 billion

Source for Infographic: Mashable

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You can download and read it now.

Top 10 Ways To Fail Miserably With Your Blogging Efforts

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 01:30 PM PDT

how to avoid blogging failure

It’s a fact that blogging as an Inbound Marketing tactic takes time commitment and dedication in order to attract new business leads and improve your site’s rank in organic search. So, why not make the most of your blogging efforts by avoiding the most common pitfalls that lead to failure.

Here’s a look at the top 10 ways blogs usually fail and what you can do to avoid making these mistakes — or how you can STOP making these mistakes.

1. Poorly Written Content

The most important aspect for any blog is to lead with truly exceptional content. Poorly written or overly generic content will get you no where fast. Strive to offer content that’s helpful, inspiring and engaging, and you’ll attract the attention of readers and search engines looking for valuable content.

2. Non-Keyword Rich Blog Headlines

Even if you write an amazing blog article it can often be overlooked with a poor, non-keyword rich blog headline. It often works best to write blog headlines in the form of a search phrase that a prospect of yours may use when conducting a search, which should include a specific keyword phrase. Attention grabbing headlines, like the one for this post that got your attention, work well also if you plan to promote your blog content via social media (see point #8 below).

3. Lack of Visual Interest

We’re all becoming accustomed to a more visual experience on the web. So, avoiding the use of a strong visual can often cause your blog articles to be overlooked if you simply rely on text. This also is important when distributing and promoting your blog content via social media (again, see point #8 below).

4. Typos & Poor Grammar

We’re all busy, but don’t use your lack of time as an excuse for missing silly typos and poor grammar. Be sure to always use your blog platform’s spell check tool and either do a final read or have someone else from your team review.

5. Lack of Structure

You yourself most likely won’t read something that is lacking in structure and flow, so don’t write that way. Always start with an outline of the main points you want the reader to take away, and frame it with a concise yet descriptive introduction and relevant conclusion that leaves the reader wanting for more.

6. Missing Call-to-Action

If the primary goal of your blogging efforts is to attract and convert new business leads, give readers a relevant call-to-action (CTA) to react to. Without one you’re missing an opportunity to engage them on the spot. Utilize both a CTA in the form of a graphic or link text in the conclusion of your post and also feature static CTAs in the side rail of your blog.

7. Missing Social Sharing Abilities

If you haven’t accepted yet, it’s time. Social media is here and it’s here to stay! Avoiding the use of integrated social sharing abilities within your blog articles not only limits the reach of your content but limits the SEO power it can build, to benefit your website’s performance in search. Make your blog content social today!

8. No Promotion

Some blogs with thousands of engaged subscribers can still do well without promotion by the author/blog owner, but you most likely don’t have that luxury. The moment you publish a new blog you should be distributing it via social media on both your company’s social media profiles and your personal profiles. If you’re part of a larger team, encourage others to promote via social media as well. Consistency with this approach will increase the reach and number of views each blog receives.

9. Infrequent Posts

Many blogs die quickly when the frequency of ongoing fresh content goes south. Posting one new article a month doesn’t cut it, yet alone anything less than that. If you can’t commit to at least one new post per week either leverage some outside support or hire a writer. With the evolution of the “New SEO” (aka Inbound Marketing), hiring a writer may be the smartest move you can make.

10. Lack of Direction

Even if you follow every point outlined above, lack of direction or purpose with your blogging can also lead to failure. This is why the creation of a content strategy and editorial calendar can be an extremely valuable asset to long-term blogging success. These are things that need to evolve overtime of course but they serve as your guide to make the most of your time that you invest.

Conclusion

If you find that you’ve been making a lot of these common mistakes, don’t fret! Apply what you’ve learned here to change course with your blogging and force yourself to forget old habits. It may take some time to retrain yourself but once you start to see the results you’ll be hooked. Happy blogging!

blog_content_tipsheet_wideish

3 Reasons Your Facebook Page Seems to Suck Right Now

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 01:25 PM PDT

Bending over backwards for FacebookLast week on The Friday Hangout (video) we talked a bit about how many Facebook page managers are reporting dramatically decreasing reach in Facebook Insights and a drop in fans as well. Now I have not a shred of evidence to back this up but I've been wracking my brain to figure out why even pages with outstanding engagement levels are seeing these drops.

Here are the reasons I've come up with for the dropped fans and dropping reach on Facebook. Got your own take on it? I'd love to hear them in the comments.

1. Killing off fake accounts
Facebook recently got publicly spanked for the large numbers of fake accounts on the site. On thing we have noticed in client accounts who run contests is the large numbers of new fans who join seem to be creating accounts just to enter contests. When you look closely at these new fans you see they only post about contests and some have strikingly similar accounts. After the contests they often un-fan the page. Facebook (and Twitter too for that matter) is cleaning up these duplicate/fake accounts as well as dormant accounts and that is responsible in part for the drop in fans.

2. Artificial scarcity for $$
Facebook's promoted posts are a great way to get certain posts in front of the people who opted in to see your posts by liking your page and their friends too. In fact promoted posts seem to have gone so well for Facebook that now the cost of promoting posts is increasing. It's my belief Facebook is "encouraging" pages to promote posts in order to get them to seen by more people. Don't even get me started on the personal promoted posts issue as reported by Mashable, it's just not OK at all (rumble rumble) but for pages the freemium model makes some semblance of sense. Creating an artificial scarcity by changing the metrics on their much touted and reviled "Edge Rank" algorithms could certainly explain the drop in reach. Are they just trying to justify all the investment dollars they just got?

3. Just bad data
Recent posts from others including Postrocket's analysis of the issue seem to lean toward Facebook's insights being incredibly messed up. I also liked their take that reach is dropping because mobile usage is up. As you probably noticed on your smart phone, you see a lot less Facebook posts on your mobile than you do on your desktop. There just isn't as much real estate and scrolling and then reading is no fun, so we tend to scan the newest posts and move on. There fore less posts are viewed by the mobile user and reach drops.

Using The Updated LinkedIn For Healthcare Recruitment

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 01:20 PM PDT

As of August 2012, LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, had more than 175 million members in over 200 countries around the world. It's not as big as Facebook or Twitter, but LinkedIn is extremely powerful when it comes to B2B networking – including healthcare recruitment. linkedin-in-recruiting

By having a hospital profile on LinkedIn, you can professionally showcase your business in front of many potential employees. Like other recruitment websites, you can post jobs directly on the LinkedIn site. LinkedIn users can get emails regularly on jobs – and those can include ones from your hospital.

LinkedIn also allows employees to make recommendations for potential candidates who are likely also on LinkedIn. This can open up an opportunity for referral bonuses or at least employee recognition.

Recently, LinkedIn rolled out new design and functionality of its company pages. These new benefits can also enhance recruitment for both employers and potential employees. For individuals or potential employees, the new design lets users find information more easily on their LinkedIn streamline. Company posts that may interest potential employees will show up in their feeds based on their individual profiles. For example, a person who has neonatal nursing experience in their profile may see job posts in their newsfeed from children's hospitals between status updates from others they are connected with.

For a hospital, with the new LinkedIn update it is now easier to add images to company pages and share information like status updates and job opportunities. These new pages also provide what LinkedIn calls a more prominent navigation experience that makes it easier to feature certain aspects of their company to visitors. This helps when a potential employee is deciding if your hospital is the right career fit for him or her.

Social networks like LinkedIn can be extremely powerful for a hospital, including for recruiting. But like anything else, a business page must be properly optimized and maintained because a bad first impression can turn into a PR nightmare.

Why Pay For Traffic When You Can Engage Longer with Current Visitors?

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 12:40 PM PDT

In the world of web publishing, a fairly common story is played out every month and almost exactly on schedule.  That story goes like this: The web publisher engages with great brands and agencies to buy real estate (ads) in, on and around their content. Readers come…but not in the volumes initially predicted. The web publisher now must course correct to satisfy the obligations to its advertiser and resorts to buying more traffic in a moment of desperation. Spending money to 'save' money so to speak.

It's a broken process and publishers should not have to rinse and repeat this cycle every month.

One of the most commonly overlooked solutions to solving this traffic problem is to leverage the endemic traffic a publisher has already on their site. Thousands of dollars are spent each month and whole teams are dedicated to harvesting readers through SEO and SEM strategies. Publishers land traffic to the site through these efforts, but then what?

To maximize their investment in SEO and SEM efforts, publishers should take a critical look at how visitors navigate their site and strategically direct the flow of traffic by enticing readers to dive deeper into the content and stay longer on the site.  By actively managing text links, publishers have a tremendous untapped opportunity to shape the flow of traffic – improving the reader's experience and a publisher's ability to drive visitors to high-value areas of their site. In doing so, a publisher can trigger display ads and other monetization streams implemented on the site. It's simple, in-text links consistently provide demonstrably better click through rates (CTR) than other related-content mechanisms. Why? It is 'above the fold' and is a familiar and trusted way to greet and inspire readers to engage — the web was built on hyperlinking content together.

The business arm of a web publishing company should insist upon having an editorial linking strategy that connects engaging keywords to other relevant, high value content, such as slide shows and other rich media that demand higher CPMs. The strategy should include placing an optimal number of links in an article (to prevent 'link spam'), providing enough shots on goal for the reader to engage. Most importantly, the links should feel and behave like a link inserted by the editor or author of the article versus a machine or otherwise 'spammy' link, which are most often not trusted by readers. At scale, these 'organic' links yield very effective CTR (.3-.5% per linked keyword per page) and provide a wave of hyper-directed traffic to high-value pages and properties that would otherwise never have been discovered by the visitor.

So take advantage of the readers already on board. Utilize strong keyword linking to improve engagement and strategically direct readers to where they need to be on your site, or on your partner sites. Stop the buying traffic cycle and break out of that same monthly script.

How to Prove the ROI of Customer Service in Social Media: Part 2

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 12:30 PM PDT

This is the second part of 'How to Prove the ROI of Customer Service in Social Media'. You can read part one here.

Direct sales (Revenue)

Now we have estimated the cost savings of customer service in social media, we're going to look at the possible revenue streams.

Direct sales is the first opportunity that you have. Depending on the topic of the comment, there may be a small or larger sized sales opportunity. If the question is related to how to make a purchase, well then this is an obvious opportunity. If it's related to a bad experience, well then you've got the opportunity to turn that around to something good.

All replies posted by you are an opportunity to include a link back to your site. Whether this is your customer service contact form, product page, information pages and so on it can, with a tracking tool in place, be attributed to direct sales.

I used bit.ly in combination with Google Analytics campaign links. That way we could measure direct sales from messages we posted. In Brandwatch, we had configured search terms for identifying sales opportunities that the customer service team could forward to our sales reps.

Reduced amount of lost sales (Revenue)

This one is important. Here I'll try to measure the impact of top ranking negative posts in a search. If you can assess and resolve these there should, logically, be a reduced amount of lost sales, as fewer people will see the negative posts. Do you buy in to my reasoning? Hey, the point is to get your budget approved, but maybe these are not the most important things you'll be reporting on each week.

Measuring this will be difficult but let's wing an example; look at the domain where the mention is posted. Can you attribute any sales to this domain? Can you attribute sales to the actual mention on this domain (use your web analytic software and try to dig as deep as possible into referral sources). Is there a change in sales before and after the mention has been assessed? Can you calculate an average increased sales factor here?

Average Increased Sales = ((Referral traffic sales after – Referral traffic sales before)/Referral traffic sales before))*100

SEO back links (Cost saving)

Each link you post, unless it's attributed with "no follow", can help you build your page rank.

Increased page rank will make your website potentially rank higher in search. We now know that links on Twitter are a signal to Google and you can see which forums don't put 'nofollow' on the post links. Here you could attribute a value to what each back link is worth to you. Each link to your site will be considered as a vote for your site by search engines. More and better votes for your sites means higher rankings in the search engine results, more traffic and more revenue.

These links can come in the form of signatures, mentions, tweets, etc. Each of these links has a value, and unless you have an SEO specialist in your company who would estimate a cost saving for you, you could roughly estimate these at 1% of your global CPA (Cost per Acquisition).

Adding up your total costs for customer service in Social media

Supercharging your contact centre with social media comes with a few costs. Normally these would be:

  • Cost of customer service agent/community manager(s)
  • Cost of XY hours of data analyst(s)
  • Cost of social media monitoring tool

Adding up the above (along with any other costs that you consider necessary for your social media customer service programme) will give you your total costs that you need for calculating the social media customer service ROI.

Your C-level executives may also have opportunity costs in the back of their mind i.e. now we're doing social media customer service, when we could have been doing something else. This may be something to consider as well when building your case.

Calculating your social media customer service ROI

Estimating the gains and costs, hopefully your number ends up being larger than zero. Of course, this model is far from bullet proof and should be seen as a guidance and as a way of building your case for getting the buy-in and go ahead for your project. Even though you can see no deflected calls or any direct sales, the mention you solve may have been the one that else would have fuelled a viral outrage that would have caused a social media disaster.

Facebook Hits One Billion: WSJ Sentiment Tracker by NetBase

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 11:35 AM PDT

I didn't join Facebook until 2008, prompted by my colleague, who was based in Italy at the time, welcoming newborn twins and posting photos. Despite being more of a middle adopter than an early one, Facebook has quickly become my primary form of mass communication with my family and friends – and with four young children, there is always something to tell our loved ones about. This past week, I was so excited to see the announcement that Facebook had just added its billionth user and the subsequent analysis featured in the Wall Street Journal Sentiment Tracker. Now, more than ever, it's critical to follow along on all things Facebook – whether it's your personal page and your latest family photos, or it's your brand page and the very real and unfiltered voices of your consumers. As we are finding more and more over here at NetBase, Digital Community Intelligence is paramount for running a business C2B. But, I digress. I checked out the NetBase-powered analysis from WSJ and was pretty surprised at how the conversations broke down. 66% of Facebook and Twitter users think that this landmark of hitting a billion users really marks the death of digital privacy, while 16% are celebrating the big moment, another 16% think it's creepy, and 2% are joking about it. Check out the jokes below!

That's 1 out of every 7 humans. The other 6 are productive people that have meaningful friendships. For now.

In other news, 1 billion people are my aunt.

So, that's a billion cats dressed as pirates.

And all of them are people you didn't like in high school.

Are you a part of the billion Facebook-ers? Let me know!

The New Era of SEO Brings New Strategies and Key Steps

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 11:05 AM PDT

Over the past few months, I’ve been absorbing all kinds of new information on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I’ve talked to professionals, read e-books and blogs like SEOMoz, and I'm in the midst of a great hard copy book that I’ll review in a future blog.  Over this time exploring the topic from many different angles- external link building, on-page tactics, and building content with optimization in mind- I've come to the conclusion that, just like building a successful business, there’s no easy way around SEO and there’s no miracle code that you just set and forget.  You really need all the components to optimize your site.

Here are some steps in the right direction:

Conduct Initial Research

Website Code / Code Audit
Is your website SEO friendly?  You will likely need to employ an SEO professional with programming knowledge to review the code, architecture, and content of your current website. After studying your current web presence, that professional can recommend both technical and content changes that will increase the innate SEO-friendliness of your site.

Keyword Research and Testing
In a nutshell, you need to explore to following:

  • Who your target audience is
  • What’s important to your audience
  • How often words are searched
  • Who your competition is (for targeted keywords, not necessarily business-wise)

In order to develop a set of keywords that your target might be using, step into your ideal clients' shoes to determine what subjects/terms might interest them, what’s important to them, and what their pain points are. Search for those keywords yourself to see who your competition is. Remember that in SEO competition consists of sites competing for the same keywords as you and may not necessarily be your business-competitors.    Note, sometimes the broadest terms are not necessarily the best.  It's better to have 10 qualified visitors to your site than 50 who will quickly bounce off.   Once you have a list of strategic keywords, use online keyword tools to find the best ones that will ultimately guide the creation of relevant content.  Keyword tools will help you determine:  volume of search per term; and how competitive the term is to rank for.

Content Audit
Review the existing content on your site against targeted keywords to ensure that basic on-page elements (Title Tag, URL, navigation links, image alt tags, and sub headings) are in line with your target keywords.

Take Action

Website Code Changes
After an audit, have a professional make the recommended code changes to ensure SEO-friendliness.

Employ a Local SEO Campaign (for firms conducting most business in targeted geographic areas) 
This is especially important for firms that have a client/prospect base in specific geographic areas.  Use Google Local and other local directories to establish a strong presence in local search.  The advantages of local SEO include less competition and quicker results.

Develop a Strategy for Content Creation
Once you’ve done your research to find out what key words resonate with your target audience, build content themes centered around these keyword themes.

Develop High Quality Links Back to Your Site
Research opportunities to syndicate content. Follow blogs and online publications in your industry or your target clients’ industries.  Reach out to social media influencers and engage with them. Comment and contribute to articles. Pitch your own articles and blog posts.  The higher level goal is to become positioned as a resource for these sources.  The secondary effect is a link back to your site.

Measure!

Set up a Google Analytics account and analyze traffic over periods of time in conjunction with your efforts. Also, take note of site conversion points (likes/shares, requests for information, etc) as well as points where visitors may leave the site.

With all the talk of search engine algorithm changes (almost ironically) it’s important to remember optimization is becoming less and less about just code, and there’s no longer a quick fix that works well. You need to actually connect with terms that real people search for, develop quality content on a consistent basis, and reach out to quality influencers in order to get your content in the right hands.  Social search is also becoming great influencer of search rankings, and I will touch on that more in a future post. My hope is the strategies above will serve as a foundational “tool kit” for getting with the new SEO program.  

3 Social Media Engagement Strategies That Could Lose You Customers

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 10:50 AM PDT

likePeople aren't stupid. That's an ideal phrase to build a social media engagement strategy on. There are many ways to get people to engage, comment and Like your brand on Facebook or reply to a tweet. However, the replies and Likes themselves aren't the ultimate target of social media marketing.

The target is sales and if you want people to buy your product, you need to respect them. Unfortunately, a lot of brands use social media tactics that show their users minimal respect. Driving social media engagement can be really beneficial to your company, but these methods are more likely to scare customers away.

Not Replying to Questions

One of the first rules of social media engagement is to be active. If you want people to interact with your brand on Facebook or twitter, you need to post regularly. If you are very active on your social channels, you can't afford to neglect any duty. One of those is customer service. Whether you like it or not people will see your social presence as a place to air a grievance or ask a customer service question. If you can't, or don't want to, answer the question on social media you should direct the customer to the right channel.

If you continue to post content on your page while a customer query remains unanswered, it looks like you don't care. It won't matter if you're actively ignoring the question or not, without a visible response it looks like you think it's irrelevant. You're actively seeking social media engagement; you need to respond to every comment and every customer.

Begging for Likes

As a general rule of thumb, people hate to be told what to do. And they really don't like to feel pressured. If every post on your Facebook page contains the phrase "'Like' us if…" you're both telling people what to do and applying pressure. Remember the word Like wasn't invented by Mark Zuckerberg; you should want people to literally like your content. Just posting comments on Facebook to ask people to like your page will have the opposite effect.

You need to give customers a reason to Like your page. You need to post content that they find interesting, amusing or useful. If you're posting blatant requests for Likes with no value for them, why would a customer Like your page?

Reflected Glory

A common trend that emerged during the Olympics this year was the 'reflected glory' Like requests. Theses posts are slightly more advanced versions of those mentioned above, but even more likely to turn customers off. They usually involve posting a picture of a local athlete and asking users to Like to show their support for that athlete. The natural question a user might ask is, 'what does that have to do with you?'

The reason you try to drive social media engagement is to broaden brand awareness and drive sales. Getting someone to Like your photo of Andy Murray or Katie Taylor does neither of those things. Worse than that, in some users eyes the comment might as well read 'we don't care what you think of our product, Like this picture of something you do like to make us look good'.

The important thing here is to respect your users. If you want to drive social media engagement, give users something to engage with. You need to make sure that the content you share is relevant to your users and to you. People are very happy to align themselves with brands on Facebook. They often click Like without giving it a huge amount of thought. But if all of your Likes are instinctive clicks, where's the value to your business?

These tactics are more likely to get those instinctive Likes, while more considered content will get engagement from users who might actually follow up with a purchase. If your content provides no value for your users, it probably offers no value for you either.

Download 10 Reasons to Monitor Social Media and get that competitive edge.

How to Create Stories with Storify

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 10:50 AM PDT

Once upon a time, you spent a lot of time thinking about what to tweet out into the universe in 140 characters. These brilliantly written wisps of humor and intellect mixed artfully with the perfect amount of sarcasm are tossed into the wind like autumn leaves with the average shelf life of tweet being about three hours. (stats from my friends at Bit.ly) That's a very brief window of time for someone to see what you have shared. What can you do to save a fantastic conversation or share an event that you have tweeted?

This is where Storify comes in, Storify is a website that let's you create your own detailed version of social events using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other sites. Curating elements such as posts, pictures and tweets, you build a story that you can edit and tweak to your hearts content. These elements are shareable within the Storify that you create and can be easily shared throughout social media platforms.

Let's talk about how to create stories with Storify!

1. Go to Storify and set up your account. Please make sure you set up your profile with a photo, nice bio and links to your social media profiles. No skipping the profile!

2. Of course you need something to create a Storify for like an event, conversation or just a few tweets that you loved. One of my favorite Storify stories that I made was from a conversation on Twitter about personal branding. This was a few tweets that turned into a great, spontaneous conversation which frankly for me is one of the great things about Twitter. I love that all parties were making intelligent, respectful comments although they disagreed on the topic. (One wonky thing about Storify, I have an account linked to my Facebook and one to my Twitter account but they can't combine the two accounts and I don't want to lose one of the group of stories so that's a bummer. Anyhow…) I urge you to check out this Storify as a great way to capture a conversation.

3. Your Storify can help you meet new people and help others expand their social media toolkit. I had the pleasure of meeting Aliza Licht, the fantastic PR pro behind @DKNY in New York City at an event. While I was interviewing her about how she uses Twitter, for which she has won multiple awards and single-handedly whisked the fashion industry into social media, Aliza was telling me how she likes to live tweet during Gossip Girl and that Kelly Rutherford, one of the stars of the show, lived tweeted with her. And I thought this is a perfect way to use Storify! So I asked Aliza if she knew about it and she didn't. I explained what it was and how she could use it. She went back to the office and started playing with it. Then went to speak at #Fashion20, talked about it on her panel and people started tweeting! Jeff Elder of Storify made a Storify about it. When @DKNY tweets, people listen. And retweet!

I am still waiting for some candy or commission from Storify. I like Good 'n Plenty and Twizzlers. And cash, of course.

4. Curate a great event, like #FBSS12, and share it with your followers. I am attending a conference and live tweeting it after the live sessions are over, I am making a Storify of them. Here is a post I wrote on the first four sessions which are packed with Facebook tips and tricks. Mari loves Storify too and as a presenter, it was a great way for her to go back and see what people shared live on Twitter while she was presenting. Mari is the Queen of Facebook but she loves Twitter too. She provided value to me and I like to think that I provided some in return and to the community by creating a summary that is easy to read and fun.

Super cool >> Make a Slideshare from your Storify

Want to create something special for your blog or a presentation? Create a Slideshare from your Storify. Tiara tip to Shareaholicfor this great idea. You just embed the Storify on the HTML side of your blog post in WordPress. So easy and smart!

Storify's vision: "We want to share our vision for Storify and why we believe it's important. We've had a great start so far, and together we will disrupt how we inform the world."

Some tips to make a great Storify:

  • Be selective in which tweets you add and an put them in sequential order. Don't just dump them all in, that's a mess.
  • Add a photo to the cover so it looks pretty.
  • Take advantage of the full range of media available, while I have focused mostly on Twitter you have the option of adding Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and much more.
  • Curate content that you find by saving the tweets and posts with links for later usage.
  • Embed the Storify on your blog or write a post and insert a link.
  • Share on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ or email it.
  • When you publish your story, notify the people that you included in your piece which help build your community and is great networking.

Some extra hot diggity things you can do with Storify:

Subscribe to my Storify and follow the fun!

Another website that I love for powering up my Twitter is Twylah. Twylah creates an awesome personal website of your tweets, sorts by topics and allows you to send Power Tweets packed with SEO goodness and longevity. Who has a Twylah Page? Taylor Swift, PeeWee Herman, and me! And you after you sign up. Check out my custom Twylah page and sign up to get your own if you are serious about Twitter or if you just like cool stuff or both.

Here is a little how-to for Twylah called Take Twitter by the Tail with Twylah.

Have I piqued your interested to try Storify? How are you going to use it? Can't wait to see what you create using Storify, but not the #FBSS12 event ~ I called it.

Featured image courtesy of Thomas Hawk via Creative Commons.

B2B Social Business Bill of Rights. Don’t Get it Wrong!

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 10:37 AM PDT

b2b social business peopleWhich is more important in B2B social media, social or media? For way too many B2B marketers, the answer is media. In the B2B marketing community, content marketing has eclipsed blogging, engagement is measured in click-throughs, and gamification is sexier than conversation. Too many B2B professionals see social media as just another marketing communication channel. It is not!

This is the third post in a series designed to help B2B professionals create better social business strategies by thinking in terms of B2B social networking over B2B social media. This post builds on the concepts introduced in the previous installment on professional social networking using B2B social media to explore the opportunities for social business at the company and industry levels. You won't find tips and tricks for LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook here, because the foundations of social business transcend the tools. I promise that later posts in the series will get to the tips and tricks, but social business is first and foremost about people, not technology.

social business people

Unlike a B2C brand, revenue at a B2B business is driven by the firm's underlying professional network, because the social business network of B2B professionals includes their customers. By definition, every B2B business is selling to other businesses, as opposed to a consumer. As such, the professional ties between company and customer are very strong. They go far beyond brand image and brand loyalty to include serious business goals, significant professional relationships and personal career success. Moreover, the professional ties between B2B customers can also be very strong, creating an ecosystem that extends beyond the company to include the entire industry. While having a strong industry network is also important for B2C professionals, that network generally excludes their customers for all but the highest end luxury or durable goods, such as yachts and real estate. Not so in B2B. Successful B2B professionals are connected, and those connections include their customers.

The B2B Social Business Network

A B2B business has only one social business network, company and customer, offline and online. This singular fact should always remain top of mind when crafting a B2B social business strategy. While B2C marketers must struggle for brand engagement and must avoid unnatural intrusion by their brands into the personal social networks of consumers, B2B marketers, sales reps, service agents, executives and potentially all employees in a B2B social business are an integral part of their customers' industry network and should seek to expand and strengthen that network through B2B social media.

Imagine for a minute that everyone in your industry is on LinkedIn, and everyone is linked to everyone else they know in the industry (this is what LinkedIn imagines ;) ). Now imagine a map of that network with all your company's employees at the center and your company's customers on the next circle out, then your company's prospects and partners, and finally your industry's consultants, analysts, press, competitors, associations and so forth to create the complete social network of your industry's ecosystem. That is your company's B2B social business network.

b2b social business network

The B2B social business network extends out from the company to include every professional in the industry ecosystem. Most importantly, a B2B company's social business network includes its customers, because unlike consumers, B2B professionals are there to do business.

Unfortunately, your company's social business network is not all on LinkedIn, but it could be. It could be on Twitter. It could be commenting on your forum and your blog. When you clearly imagine your company's social business network and beyond that to your entire industry's social business network, the full potential of B2B social media to drive B2B social networking unfolds before you. B2B social media is a tool that automates and accelerates B2B social networking, it is not simply a marketing platform. There is a reason why LinkedIn is profitable largely through paid subscriptions, while Facebook struggles to monetize through ads. Unlike consumers, businesses are willing to pay for the value of B2B social networking. Advertising is just gravy for LinkedIn.

B2B Social Business Bill of Rights| We the People

Social media connects and energizes the B2B social business network, but it is still only a tool. It is not the network. The B2B social business network is composed of real people with real relationships that drive business throughout an industry. In the first post in this series, I proposed that the fundamental purpose of B2B social media is to increase the frequency, velocity, and quality of business referrals, a referral being broadly defined as a trusted relationship and the sharing of some useful information that facilitates a business opportunity. The second post went on to claim that reciprocity is the cornerstone of good professional networking. Just being helpful builds trust and transforms weak ties into strong ties. So let's put aside the content strategy, engagement, gamification, and other buzzwords for a moment and talk about the right way to use B2B social media: as a technology enabler of B2B networking. Here is the B2B social business bill of rights. Don't get it wrong!

B2B Social Business Right #1 | Expand the Company Network

The first goal of any B2B social business program should be to get every target prospect, customer, and influencer connected to the relevant sales, service, marketing, executive, and other employees within your company. In short, expand the company network, online and offline. If your industry is not very active in B2B social media, then your social business programs should encourage it. Start a LinkedIn Group and invite others to join. Write a blog and encourage comments. Help your offline social business network link up online. Getting your offline social business network online, linked, liked, followed, and subscribed is the foundation of success for all your B2B social media programs.

B2B Social Business Right #2 | Build Community by Being Helpful

Being helpful builds community within your social business network, because it is reciprocity that enables information to flow and strengthens bonds within your social business network. You may produce killer content for every buyer persona at every stage of the buying process, but when prospects are not ready to buy right now, it is reciprocity that keeps them from opting out of your nurturing queue. You must offer helpful information to keep them coming back for more.

social business network reciprocity

Helpful can mean many things to many people within your social business network: opportunity, education, support, entertainment, unique, simple, and so forth. What is helpful to your customers is different from what is helpful to your prospects, your partners and your industry influencers. Whatever helpful means in your industry, it is essential to energizing your social business network, driving referrals, and enabling viral word-of-mouth, because at the center of every viral social media program is a helpful gem of information.

B2B Social Business Right #3 | Accelerate Information Sharing

If you've done a good job of building community within your social business network and you're offering lots of helpful information, then the next link in the B2B social media chain is to facilitate and accelerate the sharing of that helpful information throughout your social business network. Getting your content shared online is the B2B social media equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing. Word-of-mouth marketing is not only the most effective marketing communication channel; it is also the cheapest.

social business network content

Consistent sharing calls-to-action should be available for all your content. Beyond this, sharing helpful information from other sources builds reciprocity and sets an example for other members of your social business network. For example, content curation may already be a part of your B2B social media strategy, but do you see it as a way to fill in content gaps or a way to build relationships with the authors who create it and a way to encourage them to share your content in return. Lastly, sharing helpful information isn't just about content. It's about communication between real people. It's about opportunity. Your B2B social media strategy should go beyond simple content sharing to driving business referrals throughout your social business network.

B2B Social Business Right #4 | Drive Business Referrals

The be-all, end-all accomplishment of B2B marketing is a customer referral. When your customers consistently tell their colleagues that they should buy from you, it's time for vacation, because you've earned it, and demand for your products will continue without you. Your B2B social media strategy should definitely encourage customer referrals. However, why not take it one step further and promote referrals throughout your social business network? That's all fine and good Joel, you say, but my company is in the business of making money. How are we going to make money by altruistically driving referrals?

social business customers

Within that circle of your social business network that represents your firm, everyone is aligned behind the same business goals (hopefully). Once you cross the line into areas of your social business network occupied by your customers, prospects, partners and the like, your goals are no longer aligned. The practice of driving referrals through your social business network forces you to align your goals with their goals. Do your case studies help your customers as much as they help you? Do your partnerships with industry experts promote their services as strongly as your own? Do you create opportunities within your social business network, or do you just sell to it? In B2B social media, what goes around online comes around online, and offline. If you want customers, partners and industry influencers supporting your business, then you have to give something in return. Driving referrals builds reciprocity, and reciprocity turns weak ties into strong ones.

B2B Social Business Right #5 | Convert Weak Ties to Strong Ties

B2B marketers would call this right the "influencer marketing" right or "customer reference" right. I frequently use these terms myself. The problem is that these selfish words obscure the means to their own end. They're all about us. Do we really want to market to the influencer, so the influencer can influence our prospects? Or, do we want to expand our social business network by providing useful information, referrals and business opportunities to our industry influencers in order to build a relationship founded on reciprocity? Every good salesperson knows that asking a customer for a referral is the last thing you do, not the first, because it is the trust and early deposits in the reciprocity bank that make it possible.

social business network brand

Some products and services are so emotionally charged that they engender advocates just by doing what they do. These are usually consumer products, because we as consumers sometimes define ourselves by the products we buy and use. They say something about who we are. B2B customers define themselves by their company and industry relationships. B2B brand loyalties are a function of the B2B social business network as much as the product. B2B social media can help turn prospects into customers and turn customers into champions, but not by running an ad on Facebook. B2B social media turns weak ties into strong ties and customers into advocates by energizing the B2B social business network.

In the articles to come, I'll provide well grounded social business tactics for specific B2B marketing programs based on the B2B Social Business Bill of Rights presented here, including the following.

  • Social Media for B2B Lead Generation
  • Social Networking for B2B Public Relations
  • Social Networking for B2B Sales Enablement
  • B2B Influencer Marketing with Social Media

Taking the social networking-centric view, these posts will explore specific ways to improve your B2B social business strategies and tactics. Please stay tuned!

Facebook Testing New “Want” Feature

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 10:25 AM PDT

Facebook was formerly seen as the next massively profitable company due to its hundreds of millions of users. Then it had its IPO back in May of this year, and things stopped looking so great. It didn't take long for Facebook's stock value to drop almost by 50% as Wall Street expressed concerns about how the company would increase profits. Pundits placed blame on different aspects of the company, and many pointed their fingers to founder and owner Mark Zuckerberg.

Every blog writer or journalist involved in covering this story expressed doubts about how Facebook could get out of this rut. It simply wasn't doing the things it needed to do to monetize its service in a way that pleased investors. But maybe Facebook was working hard, though, because in last few weeks we have seen some great developments: Facebook Gifts and Promoted Posts.

The two developments are very promising for boosting Facebook on Wall Street. And it hasn't stopped there. News from late yesterday tells us that Facebook has a new feature it's beginning to test: a "Want" button.

Facebook Testing "Want" Button for Retailers

I have to admit – I think Facebook is performing well under pressure. Everything I've seen so far looks like a solid strategy for the social media giant, and it seems the new developments won't hurt user experience. I was just as impressed to read about the new move, as Tim Bradshaw with the Financial Times writes, "Facebook is testing a new "Want" button for online retailers, similar to the … "Like" button, which consumers can use to add product images to an online wishlist."

An online wishlist is a great way for Facebook to begin transitioning into a more lucrative space on the web for retailers. If retailers are going to have tracking and analytics available for users, this "Want" feature is going to be very useful. As Alexei Oreskovic with MSNBC writes, this new "Want" scheme lays the groundwork "for what some believe could be an eventual push into e-commerce." I can definitely see this happening to Facebook. The broader name for the move is Facebook Collections.

Facebook Leaving the Social Media Sphere?

Moving to e-commerce might seem like Facebook would be getting away from its roots as a social media platform. Maybe it is, but Facebook needs to improve its profits for Wall Street. Hopefully, it can manage the move to e-commerce while still staying true to the experience users have today. If it doesn't, it's not going to work well. Facebook will have to design this with the user in mind and find unique ways to get them to participate, which it is already doing that with its Gifts program. These potential revenue sources are designed as a part of the social networking purpose of Facebook.

Collections is Social

The fact that people will be able to buy each other gifts – and also showcase objects they want from retailers – is likely going to spur some purchases. At the risk of being labeled sexist, I can see these new features being utilized by women much more than men, just are they are with Pinterest. I can't see myself ever buying something over Facebook, but I know many people who just might. Collections keeps the commercial activity of "wanting" in a social sphere by making the product viewable by friends. People can share what they want, talk about it, and eventually purchase it from Facebook or the retailer.

No Money, Yet

Facebook isn't collecting anything from these transactions yet; it's still in the testing phase. If positive results are seen, though, expect the "Want" and "Collect" features to become available to all Facebook users, and then expect Facebook to start taking a cut. Or, at the very least, if Facebook can prove these new features attract paying customers, retailers and businesses will have more reasons to advertise and participate on Facebook versus other platforms. Time will tell how this turns out, but either way, it's going to be interesting!

Do you think a "Want" feature is a good move for Facebook? Why or why not?

Consumers Use Social Media to Tell Brands: “We Want to Help” (Part 1)

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 10:15 AM PDT

Part 1 of a guest post by Steven Van Belleghem, author of The Conversation Company & The Conversation Manager.

A few days ago, InSites Consulting, SSI and No Problem! launched their "Social Media around the World 2012" study. One of the main conclusions of this year's edition is the consumer's eagerness to help companies on a structural level. Consumers would like nothing more than to help businesses improve the quality of their existing products and services. They see it as a win-win situation. This article highlights the most striking conclusions from this large-scale study.

Social media landscape is stabilising

The big social network sites are getting bigger and the small ones are getting smaller. This is one of the conclusions of our report. The big four all continue to expand: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Clearly consumers are no longer waiting for the "next big thing". The average consumer maintains a presence on no more than 2 social networks (usually Facebook + Twitter or LinkedIn). Just 8% of consumers use 5 or more sites. Consumers are satisfied with the current offer: they have integrated their social media use in their daily lives and have no intention of making changes any time soon. The new routine is set and that makes it doubly hard for new social networks to reach a large audience.

However, there is one notable exception. Consumers are willing to fit in unique applications. Instagram and Pinterest are the two rising stars that meet this requirement. Use of the two sites is still very limited (3%-4%) but a good portion of consumers intend to start using them in the future. Also, their current users are extremely enthusiastic. We expect more users to discover Instagram and Pinterest in the near future.

Consumers limit the number of brands but have clear expectations

More than half of consumers are connected to at least one brand on social media. The average consumer follows some 10 to 15 brands. Most brands are monitored passively. Consumers only interact with a handful of brands. This means brands have just a small window of opportunity to make the shortlist.

Consumer communication with brands is unambiguous; they know exactly what they want. They like to keep informed of new products and news in general. In addition, they are interested in promotions and free goodies. Consumers want to be actively involved in the management of the companies they are following. They are primarily interested in improving existing products and services. Ultimately they are also trying to do themselves a favour: as loyal customers, good products and services are in their own best interest.

80% of consumers want to help but only 16% of companies let them

The study conducted by InSites Consulting, SSI and No Problem! shows that the overwhelming majority of consumers are prepared to collaborate with companies they are interested in. 80% wouldn't mind receiving an invitation. However, other studies by InSites Consulting have found that only 16% of companies have any experience with consumer collaboration.

Consumers still prefer to give companies feedback via e-mail. The website comes second and social media are back in third place. As stated above, consumers have a preference for improving existing products and services. Still, quite a few consumers are interested in brainstorming about other things such as new products or a new advertising campaign. Some even dream of having a say in the company's overall strategy.

65% are prepared to join a company's community in order to collaborate with that company. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is the preferred channel for this purpose but the second place of market research communities is less self-evident. The conclusion that consumers prefer to involve a market research agency is remarkable in and of itself.

To better understand the results, we looked into consumer motivation to help companies. The main reason is simple: consumers hope companies will put their feedback to good use. Consumers with this motivation join a research community because they think companies are likely to act upon the advice of such a community.

For the full InSites Consulting report click here, and here are Steven's website and slideshare links.

The 1° Social Marketing Shift

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 10:10 AM PDT

I'm not talking about global warming or the Polar Shift. I'm talking making shifts alongside this globally social market evolving all around us. Often times small shifts in your marketing efforts combined can evolve into a 180° of success.

Results don't happen over night. More importantly, there is not one silver bullet that will make you a superstar. This is where your shift planning comes into play. Often times we look at what we need to accomplish on our roadmap with an insurmountable number of options within paid, earned and owned media. Wrap it all up in some creative and execution! Simple, right?

Our clients are often trying to see a million dollar shift, and at their size, it takes a single shift or "turning the right dials" until you get an integrated marketing mix that works for them. And we have other clients that want to build a shift in brand awareness. Either way, a shift needs to happen. What do you really need (dig deep on this one), sales or awareness! Getting this one wrong could put your entire ship off course! The only potential for success in any size business and on any budget level is to allow for little shifts along the way that help you to determine whether your on the right track.

Let's explore 6 ways to approach marketing shifts that could make a massive difference:

1. Think big at first – nothing can happen without thinking about what's possible. "Don't sweat the small stuff" and think big because you have to have a might big list to start with in order to break down everything you want to accomplish.

2. Plan your variables – I hate to say it, but you have to know what could possibly go in an unfavorable direction in order to plan for it. I'm not saying be negative, just think it all through and plan around each milestone so you know what challenges you think might happen and how you'll respond.

3. Think in visual- there's a reason we live in a visual economy, people respond to visuals and the main way to get buy-in is to show it, don't just tell. If you can find a visual way to represent the vision, you'll be able to get everyone on board with the outcome, how you get there won't be as much of a challenge.

4. There is no linear- we live in a world where there is an unpredictable process and you have to be open and flexible to everything along the way. So don't forget that sometimes there is a better outcome to the areas you're open to.

5. Failure means shifting and trying again- a shift that makes a difference comes more from failure than it does success. When you're able to see the shifts out of each challenge you face, they'll all add up to success!

6. Success shifts mean celebrate- don't forget to high five your team along the way. I'm no pro at this one and often forget that sometimes those little successful milestones are the ones that make the process that much more fun!

Key takeaway: Authenticity drives the energy necessary to create forward momentum. We call it "1° Shifts" for your marketing in a connected world of social activity – the small but critical course corrections that, over time, set you on a trajectory toward transformative success can make a 180° difference.

Upcoming PureMatter Webinar- Oct. 9th
Defending and Enhancing your Brand on Social Media
Featuring: Todd Wilms, Sr. Director of Social Media Marketing, SAP
Click here to RSVP

The Influence of Social Media in the Alcohol Industry

Posted: 09 Oct 2012 09:55 AM PDT

Americans consume an average of 22 gallons of beer each year.

And that's just on average – meaning there are plenty of people who drink much more than that, making the beer industry impressive all on its own. In combination with wine and distilled spirits, the entire alcohol industry is comprised of 3,500 companies and totals an annual revenue of $120 billion.

This presents an enormous opportunity for marketers – especially in the digital sphere as social networks continue to evolve and expand. The various forms of social media provide new ways to connect with alcohol consumers.

Facebook can be optimized in organic social media content and paid social. Features such as Enhanced Page Post Targeting allow you to choose specific demographics that will best receive your message – visibility is key. Brand page likes and the recent addition of paid offers both work to increase popularity.

Facebook can be valuable in understanding your consumers concerns, interests and needs. For example, a recent survey of regular wine consumers in the US found 73% were Facebook users. Those in the wine industry can utilize this information by producing content that is relevant, such as wine country reviews or tips for picking a good bottle, and therefore present the image of a thought-leader and establish credibility.

Twitter is a good site in which to communicate with consumers, as you can search hashtags and participate in all conversations surrounding your industry. Feedback on products is immediate as well. The recent rollout of targeted Promoted Tweets further allows you to reach your target audience more effectively.

Image and video-based sites such as Pinterest and YouTube present alternative marketing possibilities. On Pinterest, you can create different brand boards in which you can pin anything from recipes incorporating your product to clothing featuring your brand and quotes about the industry. YouTube can be utilized both as a video advertising platform and as a creative outlet in which to establish a brand channel.

The influence these networks have on the purchase path is growing. 15% of social network users have purchased alcohol as a result of social media, whether that is because of a brand promotion, an advertisement, or a mention from a friend. When it comes to brand selection within the industry, social media is second only to smartphone Apps in digital influence.

Although age can certainly be a factor when it comes to target marketing in the alcohol industry, on average, the median age of users on all social sites is 37. For those under 21, solutions are in place – sites such as Facebook and Twitter include age gating features to determine advertising appropriatenes. Read more on this here.

The alcohol industry is only just beginning to make its impact in the digital world. Social networks present immense opportunity for marketers that still have yet to be truly maximized.

Contact ZOG Digital today for an SMO audit.

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