Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category

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Social Media Blog: Businesses, are you ready for mobile ecommerce?

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Move over computer, you are becoming extinct; well at least slowly moving into oblivion as far as social networking sites go. Comscore, a company which reports web metrics found that 1 of 3 smartphone users accessed social networking sites through their mobile browsers. Facebook saw a 112% increase in mobile users and Twitter saw a 347% increase.

Comscore senior VP of mobile thinks that "Social media is a natural sweet spot for mobile since mobile devices are at the center of how people communicate with their circle of friends, whether by phone, text, email, or, increasingly, accessing social networking sites via a mobile browser."

The mobile social media access numbers reported by Comscore are staggering when you think about it. Over 25 MI Facebook users and approximately 5 million Twitter users logged in using mobile browsers.
 
Here's some food for thought for all business owners out there:

You know that mobile users aren't just logging into Facebook and Twitter through their mobile browsers. They're doing other browsing too; from buying quick ticket items to ordering food.

Are you ready with a "MOBILE" compatible website for these mobile users?

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Posted in facebook, Mobile Phones, Mobile Shopping, Social Media Marketing, twitter | 1 Comment »

Social Media Blog: Asian Companies Shy Away from Twitter & Facebook

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

79 percent of Fortune Global 100 companies are at least on one of the following four social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or a Corporate Blog.This according to Burson-Marsteller, a company that conducts studies on social media usage.

However, the same study found that Asian companies are shying away from Facebook and Twitter, focusing more on using local platforms that are used in their country or region. Those social networks include Mixi in Japan, CyWorld in South Korea and Baidu Spaces and Renren in China. These Asian companies appear to limiting their usage of Facebook and Twitter only to communicate with consumers in international markets. They prefer the local social networks for reaching their most targeted audience.
 
According to Burson-Marsteller, Asian companies are more concerned about time, money, and measurement of their social media involvement thus making their use of social networks much more conservative.

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Posted in facebook, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Want to Connect with Fortune 100 Companies? Find them on Twitter!

Friday, February 26th, 2010

The Global Social Media Check-up is yet another social media usage study released by Burson-Marsteller. The study shows that:

  • Globally, 65% of Fortune 100 companies have active accounts on Twitter
  • 54% have a Facebook fan page
  • 50% have a YouTube channel
  • 33% have a corporate blog. 

Overall though, only 20% of Fortune 100 companies, globally, are using all four platforms. Only 20%!!! What are they thinking? If they can do one or two, they can certainly do all four.

But the good news again is that Twitter is the platform of choice for 65% of them. So get yourself on Twitter and make sure you are focusing on balancing quality AND quantity of your Twitter participation. What I mean is be sure to have "Quality" content while you continue to build the "Quantity" or number of followers who will read your tweets.

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Posted in Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Facebook Vs Google, the battle lines are drawn.

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Well, if you have a Facebook account, you know how much time you spend on Facebook and you also know how much time others are spending, right? Now we have statistics that show that Facebook is the 2nd most popular site from a total number of visitors perspective.

Compete Inc, (a company which publishes research data on these kinds of interesting web & other stuff) published results that showed that Facebook's 134 million unique visitors in January bypassed Yahoo's 132 million unique but was just short of the 147 million unique visitors on Google.

Another statistic reported by Compete was that users spent 11.6% of their web time on Facebook which is more than double the time they spent individually on Yahoo or Google.

I think that Facebook's popularity is largely due to the connectivity it offers which no other site currently offers. Even Google Buzz just doesn't have the same "connectivity" and interactivity which I feel Facebook offers.
 
Will Facebook bypass Google in traffic sometime soon? Well, given the January 2010 numbers reported by Compete Inc (shown above), I think that that could happen sooner rather than later. It's not just the sheer volume of users interested in networking with family and friends that will make Facebook the number one site. I think it's also because Facebook offers personal and business interactions; what with the fan page and group participation opportunities that no other site offers. LinkedIn and Google's Buzz have a few features that may grow over time but I feel that they have a while to go before they catch up with Facebook. 
 

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Posted in facebook, Google, Social Media Marketing | 1 Comment »

Social Media Blog: Google’s New Social Media Team

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Fed up with its lack of success and progress in the Social Media space, Google recently hired social media evangelists such as Chris Messina, Will Norris, and former Plaxo executive Joseph Smarr to lead a new "Social Web Team".

Is Google unsuccessful in the Social landscape because the giant itself doesn't have it's own social media strategy?

Google's social web products like Orkut, Google Friend Connect, OpenSocial, Google Profiles, and even Google Wave haven't had much acceptance on the social front. None of these products have resonated with the public or the developers that architect the social-networking technologies. Coupled with the shutting down of acquisitions DodgeBall and Jaiku due to budget cuts, Google suffered another social-media blow when its attempt to acquire Yelp failed.

Google's biggest and probably only success in social networking is YouTube. However, the core of it as well as its initial base of mainstream popularity preceded the Google buyout.

Other than that, what exactly has Google contributed to social networking?
 
So what will the big dogs Messina, Norris and Smarr do for Google? Hopefully a focus, new product ideas, and a way to take on Facebook???
 

Posted in Google, Social Media Marketing | 3 Comments »

Social Media Blog: Engadget Turns off Comments

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

What's blogging without comments? A blog means two-way dialog; one person posts, several comment, right?
 
Well, Engadget, a technology blog has stopped allowing comments on their blog because they felt that the tone of the comments had "really gotten out of hand."

Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky said in an announcement that "We know you like to have your fun, voice your opinions, and argue over your favorite gear, but over the past few days the tone in comments has really gotten out of hand,…."
 
Topolsky went on to say that what is supposed to a fun environment for their users and editors had become mean, ugly, and in some situations, threatening which was "just not acceptable".
 
And it ended with something to the effect of "everyone cool down" and that Engadget will allow comments on their blog again when they feel that things have settled down some.
 
Websites which allow unfiltered comments from users is a very common problem faced by many sites including most of the newspaper and television blog sites.
 
This "unfiltered" commentary is a growing concern for most of us who like to play in the online networks. Should all comments be monitored? Should websites which serve as an informational source be setting up a whole "comment management" team?

More to come……….
 

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Posted in Blogging, Social Media Marketing | No Comments »

Social Media Marketing Blog: Buzz.com from AT&T

Saturday, January 30th, 2010

Here we go again…..another new platform for us to play on: www.buzz.com by AT&T. Buzz.com allows people to find out the best local businesses using recommendations from friends and family.

David Krantz, president and chief executive of AT&T Interactive, says that "through Yellow Pages, AT&T already had a wealth of information about local businesses and a large local advertising business.But the company realized it could attract more visitors and more advertisers if it could make its local business searches "deeper and more relevant."

So on buzz.com, a user looking for a carpet cleaner or xyz product company in Orlando could poll friends and family on the site to find the best option.  Buzz.com will also be able to suggest experts on that topic based on user "favorites" and comments. 

Boy is the data from buzz.com going to be completely skewed or what? I mean, this will not be "neutral" data; it'll be emotional based on personal preferences and uses. And "expert" recommendations? Come on, everyone's an expert these days!

Buzz.com is currently in "alpha" testing phase with about 500 AT&T employees testing buzz.com. Buzz.com will go public in a few months and then we'll be playing on that platform too, for you.

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Posted in Social Media Marketing | 2 Comments »

Social Media Blog: Alterian Study Found Businesses Looking to Invest More in Social Media Marketing in 2010

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Alterian company's 7th annual survey in which 1,068 marketing professionals around the world were surveyed, found that two-thirds are planning a social media marketing investment within the next 12 months.

Over 67% of those surveyed identified Social Media as either "critical to success" or "increasingly important" and about  40% said they would spend about 1/5th of their traditional direct marketing budget for social media activities.

This makes a lot of sense right?

Social media provides direct, instant, global access to hundreds of thousands of people. So it makes me wonder when I hear people tell me that they are still relying on the yellow pages for their leads or when people give me "we're a local company" as their reason for not engaging in social networks.

Come on folks. Lets get real here.. Social media marketing is not just important to the viability and long-term success of your company, it is becoming IMPERATIVE.

Stay in front of your customers and prospects and remain in business or else……(you fill in the blanks).

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Posted in facebook, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Listen to the Pope! Pope2you.net

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Damn! Errr, I mean Wow!!!

I normally won't touch religious or political stories to blog about but man this I gotta share.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his message for the 44th World Day of Communications told his priests to become more web and social network savvy. He said "The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts…." The theme of the upcoming May 16th event is "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word".

Doesn't that sound totally like a business conference that you may have attended?

His Holiness goes on to say ""Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word."

Man! Not only that, the Vatican recently launched the "Pope2you" portal, offering a Facebook app, iPhone app, YouTube channel, and Papal videos.

So your boss not quite on the Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogging bandwagon? Ask him or her to read what THE POPE has to say. I'm sure he'll / she'll come around quickly.

Listen to the Pope, not just for world peace messages but also for increasing your reach and spreading your message using social networks!

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Posted in facebook, Social Media Marketing, twitter | No Comments »

Social Media Blog: Are you Twittered Out?

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

So has Twitter reached its peak? I don't think so.

I agree that Twitter can be intrusive and I also know that some posts can be quite annoying. However, in my opinion too many people tweet without really engaging people. That's where they are missing the boat in terms of leveraging real-time networking opportunities in Twitter.

Twitter and Facebook have different usage criteria. I know that if I were to post a message on my Facebook status 10 times an hour, I'd be out of friends quickly. So in the video when it was mentioned that "Facebook is better" again, I felt that the perspective shared was not really business-focused.

For businesses, really Twitter is about creating "curiosity" through tweets and an interesting bio which can lead to a discussion, an investigation, a contact, and eventually a business transaction.

Remember the equation: Quality + Quantity

Quality means posting tweets that are insightful and engage readers where possible. 70% of these tweets should be focused on sharing business information and expertise in your field. 30% of the tweets can be exchanging personal messages, commenting on topics that may not necessarily be exactly in your field of expertise, and in general, just networking online to build a network of well-wishers.

Quantity means building "influence" through the followers that you build. These followers are the folks who will engage with you off and on to create extended visibility for you and your brand.

So what Twitter does better than Facebook is providing that "volume" influence which on Facebook is a bit more time-consuming and a bit limiting unless you are a brand like Starbucks or Pepsi / Coke.

So tweet away with heartfelt dedication cause tweeting ain't dead yet!

Posted in Social Media Marketing, twitter | 1 Comment »

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