Case Study of Social Media at Work

One of the thoughts I currently hear about Social Media is that “people don’t really care what I have to say.” That thought cripples people from engaging social networks, and being social in the way they live.

Not so for now famous Stephanie Gordon (@Stefmara). Yesterday she boarded her plane a not-so-standard event planner, and walked off the plane, quickly becoming known around the world because of the pictures she posted to Twitter of the Space Shuttle Endeavor’s last launch…caught right from her iPhone on from her seat on the plane (check out the rest of the pictures and video she posted). When she boarded she had about 1,000 followers. This morning she has over 4,300 followers.

What can we learn from @Stedmara?

While not all of us will take pictures of a historic event, there are several things we can learn from this Stephanie.

Being social is a way of life.

While the pilot said there was a chance to see the shuttle, Stephanie didn’t think she’d get the opportunity, and definitely wasn’t intending to get famous from it. Rather, when she did see it, she decided to document it and share it with her network. This wasn’t in an attempt for notoriety, but just wanting to share something with those she was connected to. This is the social way of life. Communicating what you see, communicating what you feel is important or interesting, and just being willing to engage.
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Search Meets Social

We’ve seen developments of internet search becoming more social over the course of the last year. We’ve seen YouTube become the second most widely used Search Engine. We’ve seen Google start adding real-time status updates to their index. We’ve even seen the announcement of Google’s “+1″ that aims to work similar to a Facebook like. However, today we see a completely new dimension to social impacting search.

Today Bing rolled out a new change to their search results. Bing is now leveraging social interaction (specifically with Facebook) in their search results. Much like the Google +1, this tells you if people you know, and even those you don’t, have liked a particular page. Check out the announcement video from Bing.

What does this mean for small businesses

Plainly said, social is something you must pay attention to, and more than making sure you have a Facebook page or a Twitter profile. Rather, if you’re going to compete in the current realm of Internet visibility, you must start thinking socially in how you approach your marketing. (more…)

Facebook Is Here to Stay…Are You?

One of the many facets of Internet Marketing is what’s called “display ads”. These ads are a combination of image, text and link. There are more opportunities for display ad marketing than you can shake a stick at, including buying ad space on well performing blogs. Facebook is one such place, and is increasing in popularity and power.

Last week comScore, a market research firm focused on analyzing the digital world, released its findings for the first Quarter of 2011 with regard to where display ads are showing. While it should come as no surprise for those who’ve kept current on Internet trends, Facebook ranked highest, claiming nearly one-third of all display advertising across the Internet (compared to Yahoo at 10.1%, Microsoft at 4.8%, and Google at 2.5%). It’s clear to see Facebook is ever increasing in its impact on the digital Marketing World.

Facebook Is Number 1?

Part of why this is so significant is coupling this information with what came out at the end of 2010. According to Hitwise, another digital research firm, Facebook was more popular than Google for all of 2010, accounting for 8.93% of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010.

Now Facebook is adding to its accolades the most popular destination for display marketing. Like shopping malls of the 20th century, Facebook has been focused on making changes to continue being THE destination spot online. This is evident with some of the privacy scares we’ve seen circulating around the Net.

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It’s Up…nope…It’s Down!

That’s been Facebook’s story today. Since about 4pm Eastern, from what I can tell, Facebook has been experiencing issues going up and down. What has this looked like?

Well, I run two different browsers with two different accounts. At the same time, I got an error on one, yet was able to access my account from a different one.

What does this mean? A lot of teenagers are going to be annoyed by not being able to play CafeWorld, FarmVille, and Farkle. It also means that Facebook is missing out on a ton of revenue. Facebook’s primary renvue generating machine is the advertising that takes place one the site. With the site down, ads aren’t running.

But this isn’t bad news just for Facebook. It means all those advertisers that look to facebook are also missing out on potential sales. That’s bad news all the way around.

Does this mean we shouldn’t advertise on Facebook? Not at all. I have found that Facebook can be very effective for the right kind of business. However, even for those businesses, it means not putting all your eggs in one basket. Make sure you’re looking for other places to advertise, and use multiple sources for business.

How has Facebook being down effected your business today?

Energize your new campaign…without breaking the bank!

I am engaged in a marketing campaign for a client that has some serious viral potential.  The two methods we’ve decided to tackle on the front end of this campaign are through Facebook and Twitter.  Now I’ve read a lot of feedback that says you shouldn’t pay for marketing in social networking, but I have to disagree.  Here’s why:

Facebook

You don’t have to pay to have a Facebook account, and you don’t have to pay to add events, groups, fan pages and other such things.  However, these are all great…if you can get people to see them.  This is where Facebook PPC comes into play.  Unlike Google and MSN, you can very specifically target your audience with Facebook.  For instance, my current client wanted to target 40-60 year old adults in 45 of the 50 states in the US, who have a college degree and speak English.  How can Facebook be that specific in its targeting effort?  Because people give that information when setting up their profile (it’s not just so people know a little about you). (more…)

Social Networking…Optimized

I have focused a lot on leveraging Social Networking and Social Media for pushing your business forward.  As I have, a lot of focus has been on the need for doing it, which is also getting a lot of attention.  But what I’ve only seen recently is the need to do it well, and to optimize your interactions in Social Networking.

The first thing to keep in mind is that things posted to a social networking site is still being posted to a webpage.  With that being said, it’s not the “build it and they will come” model.  Unfortunately a lot of people approach it that way.  Yes, you’ll get some people to come if you just build it.  However, they aren’t necessarily the people you want to have.  Rather, just like your website, you want to the right people to come to you.  How do you make that happen? (more…)

Facebook Song

A friend sent this to me, thought it would brighten up a Friday.