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Friday 9 December 2011

Twitter is dead. Long live, Twitter!

Twitter is dead. Long live, Twitter!

The Internet’s most popular microblogging service got a major upgrade today, rolling out a brand-new look and a bunch of new features. The update is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging change Twitter’s ever done, revamping its website, its apps for both iOS and Android, and even its recently acquired social-media integrator, TweetDeck. Here’s a closer look at what Twitter’s done and why.

What’s Different
When you visit the new Twitter, you can quickly see the site’s been reorganized in some key ways. Everything fits into one of four labels:

Home: This is your old news feed, only better. Whereas before media in tweets like photos and videos was viewable on the side, now you can see them right in the tweet (you still need to click). You’ll also be able to see information about @replies and retweets for a particular tweet by selecting “Open,” a new option. Twitter says your feed will now appear “consistently” across platforms. which apparently was a problem before.
Connect: This is where all your @replies and mentions will be. Not a lot new here, but Twitter says you can type in someone’s handle will let you learn more about the person and connect instantly.

Discover: Twitter appears to have supercharged its search functions and put the results here. More than just a place to look for trending topics and hashtags, Discover will identify stories and trends based on your connections, location and language.
Me: Here’s your Twitter profile, made bigger, neater and with more activity recorded. Your information now appears on the left instead of right.

Twitter’s mobile apps have been given the same four-column treatment, with streamlined interfaces and a new design. In a subtle change, the old pen icon for drafting a new tweet has been replaced with a quill.

On the back end, Twitter’s updated its API to allow embedded tweets (more on those in a bit) and some better interactions with various other apps and platforms, like WordPress (disclosure: WordPress is Mashable‘s content management system).
Why Twitter’s Doing It
Twitter says it wants to make its interface more inviting to new users, while giving existing users better functionality. But there’s no doubt that a large part of the change has to do with accommodating ways to drum up revenue. Twitter has recently been experimenting with ways to point users toward its advertising services, though it’s done so clumsily at times (case in point: the ill-fated “dickbar” on the iPhone, named after Twitter CEO Dick Costolo). The redesign brings with it opportunities to steer users toward sponsors, specifically through the new branded pages (see below).

What’s Gone
We’ll have more information on this after we’ve had a chance to give all the new Twitter apps and the site a thorough hands-on, but on iPhone it appears users can no longer copy and paste from a tweet. Users no longer can translate tweets in other languages. Options to mail, repost, or save links to Instapaper appear to have been removed. And the redesign makes it less convenient to switch accounts.


An important difference on the Web interface: Profile names are now emphasized whereas the user’s “handle” was front and center before.

(Thanks to Mashable readers for pointing out many of these changes.)
Embedded Tweets
If you have a website, you can now embed individual tweets on a page. It’s sort of like Storify, but just one tweet at a time. From the embed, you can retweet, reply or favorite the tweet, and you can follow the user as well — all without leaving the page. Links and other dynamic content remain active.


You can see the option to embed a tweet on any tweet’s “permalink” page, accessible via the new Open button. Importantly, tweets that are on private accounts won’t give you the option. Twitter told Mashable. For more on embedded tweets, check out our hands on.

Twitter also improved its buttons that appear on many websites. Now a Tweet button can include a specific hashtag or @mention, an easier way for sites to get their readers tweeting to specific people and about specific things.
Brand Pages
Just like Facebook and Google+, Twitter now has brand pages for companies. Although many, if not most, companies already had their own Twitter accounts, brand pages allow for more functionality and interactions with followers.


A report in Advertising Age says brands will be able to customize the page with large logos and extended taglines. They’ll also be able to promote tweets in the timeline on their own pages, letting them highlight their best content. Brand pages don’t cost anything, and they’re available to companies large and small.
User Reaction
According to a poll of Mashable readers, many users (almost 41% of respondents) love the new changes, saying that the site is “easier to use,” “fantastic” and “pretty kewl.” Some have risen concerns about the features missing in iOS and the necessity of the change, however.


On Twitter itself, the overall response appears to be positive, with many users reacting with enthusiasm. Most of the negative reactions have to do with mobile, with a few also complaining about the usefulness of “Discover.”

In contrast to some of its earlier moves this year, Twitter appears to have handled its platform-wide revamp deftly, and the majority of is users are pleased. If it can work out some issues on the mobile side, it may have scored a home run. But the real question will be if the new Twitter can actually serve the company in the area that matters most to all companies: making money.

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Why we do what we do, and how we can do it better with Tony Robbins

Have you ever wondered why perhaps your online business isn't where you want it to be?
Despite what you have tried, you may feel that something has been holding you back, but what?

In this video, Tony Robbins speaking at the famous TED conference, who has had a huge influence on the success of our business, shares with you some of the reasons why.



The great news is that you can see Tony in LONDON for the first time in years in May of next year.
He has a 2 for the price of 1 offer which is incredible which EXPIRES this Friday so take our advice and sign up and we will see you there at the fire walk !!!

Find out all about it here ...http://www.amiando.com/e/ffizno

Click HERE to make 2012 your best year ever!

Monday 31 October 2011

Are We Missing the Big Picture of ROI in B2B Social Media?

Most B2B companies either think that social media is not worth investing in or they just can’t see the ROI of social media. The answer you will get most of the time is, "My clients are businesses and they are not on social media."

Are we missing something here? Did we forget something?

Some social media experts have said that the ROI of Social Media is that your business will be here in 5 years… Ok I can see why they say that but are we missing the big picture?

Are companies paying attention to social media? Do they read status updates on Twitter and Facebook? Are companies interacting with their potential clients on social media?

Let’s read that last questions again, are the actual companies on social media? Isn't it the case that behind companies there are actually real people?

Companies are managed and run by real people, real people are social, they enjoy conversations and value authentic relationships, and more than 70% of this people are on social media.

Few months ago I went to a live interview with a well-known successful business owner, investor and entrepreneur Lord Alan Sugar and when he was asked to describe a normal day in his life he said, “I wake up in the morning, I have my coffee then I sit at my computer and read what is happening in the world using Twitter.” This is what many business owners and decision makers are doing these days .

What is the ROI of social media?

A single successful interaction with a single person who influences a multi-million dollar deal can often justify social media investments.

How much longer will businesses miss the big picture?

Here are 7 steps to start implementing social media in your business
Know your audience; are they local or worldwide? Which industry? What are their needs? Are they using social media? If they are, what social networks are they on?Are the employees on Social Media?
Choose the right social media channel; not all social media channels are right for your business. This will depend on you knowing your audience and the type of industry they are in.
Create a social media marketing plan; treat it as part of your traditional marketing plan, this might become the most effective part of your plan over the next years.
Create community; it's not about followers, it's about brand advocates. It's not about followers; it's about active followers, it's about people waiting for the information you share and following your lead.
Choose the right content; create leadership content to keep high-level decision makers engaged
Measure the results on all social media strategies you implement to invest more in the ones that bring the best results
Reward your followers. You will get more coverage in the press and attention to stand out from the crowd.

It's no longer about whether to do or not do Social Media; it's about how well we do it.

Monday 10 October 2011

How to Move Your Facebook Tabs to Secure Hosting Required by Facebook

Heads up, page admins! As of October 1st, Facebook announced that any iFrame page tabs not hosted on a secure server under HTTPS will not be displayed to users browsing under HTTPS. This article will tell you what you need to do.

According to Facebook’s Cat Lee, ”The content will not be accessible for users with secure browsing turned on. There will be a page that states something close to: This app does not support secure browsing.”

To help page admins locate a budget-friendly and secure hosting solution for their page tabs, I did some digging and located some great hosting companies offering low-cost secure hosting solutions.

There are certainly others, and I have provided some guidelines for making the right hosting choice. I have also laid out some of the basics of hosting and security certificates.
Facebook and Secure Browsing (HTTPS)

In February, Facebook introduced the “Secure Browsing (HTTPS)” option. Since then, when browsing under HTTPS, any page tab content not hosted securely displays a popup with a warning that the page is not secure. Users have to click on the popup before viewing the tab content.

Page tab creators had the option of providing a “Secure Page URL” to display to HTTPS users. As of October 1, a secure URL is mandatory, and page tabs not hosted securely will no longer be displayed to users browsing under HTTPS.

What Is Secure Browsing (HTTPS) and How Do I Get It?

When a web page is hosted on a server enabled with the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocol via a security certificate, content sent between a user’s browser and the server hosting the secure web page is encrypted, and no one can intercept confidential information such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers or any other information you type into your browser.

All web hosting companies offer security certificates in most of their hosting plans, either a shared SLL certificate, where all sites on a single shared server are sharing a certificate, or a private SSL certificate, available to websites with a unique IP (web address). For Facebook page admins, the shared SSL is a low-cost and workable choice.
Shared SSL Versus Private SSL

If all you need is an affordable option for hosting your page tab’s “index” page (the iFramed page you host yourself), you can consider plans that offer shared SSL on a shared server, which is the cheapest option. Although not a good choice for an e-commerce site, shared SSL is fine for meeting Facebook’s requirement for a securely hosted page. Beware file size restrictions on shared SSL!

In researching this article, I did notice that BlueHost and HostMonster (both owned by the same parent entity) put a file size restriction of 100KB for each embedded file on your page (images, audio, video, etc.) which would be far too restrictive for most iFrame page tabs. But I didn’t see this shared SSL restriction anywhere else.
Some Popular Web Hosts That Offer Low-cost Secure Hosting

The following hosting companies all offer low-cost hosting, and most include a shared SSL option. I did some informal polling on the HyperArts fan page and the following companies stood out.

Note: “Bandwidth” is the total amount of data transferred from the server each month and this number increases as your website is accessed more often; “disk space” is the total amount of storage space that is provided for the files associated with your site, including log files and MySQL databases (but not email).

DreamHost has been around for years and is generally well-regarded. However, DreamHost doesn’t offer shared SSL, and their phone support, which costs extra, is minimal.
Minimum for secure hosting: $14.15/mo. (hosting: $8.95/mo. + private SSL: $1.25/mo. + unique IP: $3.95/mo.)
Bandwidth and disk space: unlimited
Support: 24/7/365 email support (response within 24 hours), premium support (3 phone callbacks/mo. + unlimited live chat) add $9.95/mo.
Hosting Plan Comparison

BlueHost offers a full array of budget hosting options. Although they offer shared SSL, there is a file size limit on each page of 100KB per included file, and BlueHost warns that “any embedded data (images, audio clips, etc.) larger than 100KB will be truncated.” So this limitation may not work for you.
Minimum for secure hosting: $5.95/mo. (with shared SSL)
Minimum for private SSL: $12.20/mo. (hosting: $5.95 + private SSL: $3.75/mo. + unique IP: $2.50/mo.)
Bandwidth and disk space: unlimited
Phone support: 24/7/365
Hosting Plan Comparison

HostGator is a popular budget hosting company in Texas that’s been around since 2002. They offer several very low-cost hosting plans, including the “Hatchling” plan beginning at $3.96/mo. and the “Baby” plan for $6.36/mo.
Minimum for secure hosting: $3.96/mo. (with shared SSL)
Business Plan (includes unique IP + private SSL): $10.36/mo.
Bandwidth and disk space: unlimited
Phone support: 24/7/365
Hosting Plan Comparison

Lunarpages, although it seems more geared to business-level hosting, does offer a “basic” low-cost hosting package, but no shared SSL.
Minimum for secure hosting: $18.15/mo. (hosting: $4.95/mo. + private SSL: $8.25/mo. + unique IP: $4.95/mo.)
Bandwidth and disk space: unlimited
Phone support: Mon-Fri 7am-7pm PST; Sat-Sun 7am-3:30pm PST
Email support: 24/7/365
Hosting Plan Comparison

InMotion Hosting is another popular hosting company that offers the full range of hosting services, including budget packages.
Minimum for secure hosting: $5.95/mo. (with shared SSL)
Bandwidth and disk space: unlimited
Phone support: 24/7/365
Hosting Plan Comparison

Although GoDaddy states that its primary business is domain registration, they have also become a popular hosting company, offering the full range of hosting options. Although I tend to like hosting companies whose primary business is hosting, GoDaddy seems to have a pretty good reputation. However, they do not offer a shared SSL plan.
Minimum for secure hosting: $14.99/mo. (unique IP + private SSL)
Bandwidth: unlimited
Disk space: 150GB
Phone support: 24/7/365
Plan Comparison

HostMonster, located in Utah, has been around since 1996. It appears that HostMonster and BlueHost are owned by same entity, although their prices and offerings differ. Like BlueHost, HostMonster offers shared SSL but has the 100KB file size limitation, which may be a non-starter for those considering this company. They offer just one hosting plan, with optional upgrades and add-ons.
Minimum for secure hosting: $5.95/mo. (with shared SSL)
Minimum for private SSL: $12.20/mo. (unique IP: + $2.50/mo. + private SSL: $3.75/mo.)
Bandwidth and disk space: unlimited
Hosting Features
What to Consider When Selecting a Hosting Company

When choosing a hosting company, the devil’s in the details. Here are some things you should consider:
How many domains can be hosted under the account? This can range from one to unlimited
Does the hosting include free domain registration? Many hosting companies are also registrars and offer a free domain registration when you sign up
Does the hosting company offer 24/7/365 phone support? Most, if not all, will offer 24/7/365 email support, but I’m much more comfortable if I can get someone on the phone when my site goes down
What are the restrictions on bandwidth and disk space? These days, many plans offer unlimited bandwidth and disk space, or at least very large limits
How do different plans compare? For each host, go to their plan comparison page and study it carefully
Web host review sites: There are many from which to choose. Web Hosting Geeks is a good one, but there are many others

Thursday 22 September 2011

10 things you need to know about Facebook's latest update

Facebook has this week revealed two major changes to the social network’s design in a bid to give its 30 million UK users more “real-time” information.

Now when you log in, you will find a new ticker in the top right of the screen providing “live” details of what your friends are doing.

This can include items such as comments left on other people’s statuses, pictures and video your pals may have added and any new friends they’ve accepted.

Facebook bosses hope these changes will encourage users to respond more quickly to what is happening on the site.

As well as the Ticker, a new-style News Feed has also been introduced. It now ranks updates by what Facebook believes are your ‘Top Stories’, rather than putting them in chronological order.

The more you interact with the automatically chosen Top Stories, telling Facebook which are important and which aren’t, the more the technology will learn what you want at the head of your News Feed.


On Facebook’s blog, its bosses promised: "Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper. You won’t have to worry about missing important stuff any more. All your news will be in a single stream with the most interesting stories featured at the top. If you haven’t visited Facebook for a while, the first things you’ll see are top photos and statuses posted while you’ve been away."

These updates are slowly being rolled out over the next few days so if you don’t see it on your account yet, have patience.

And to help you make the most of this latest Facebook redesign, we’ve come up with some handy tips below. We also want to know what you think about it too. Do you like what Facebook has done or should they have just left things as they were? Leave us a comment.

1) You cannot remove the Ticker but you can make it smaller Just click over the double line at the bottom of it until a double arrow appears and then move it up and down.

2) Hovering over an item in the Ticker will bring up a larger window on the left of it showing any comments, photos, video, maps or other images associated with that post.

3) If you’ve not logged in to Facebook for a while, the News Feed will display the best posts from your friends for the period of time you’ve been away. It automatically places posts higher in the list according to a number of factors including the type of update – for example a birth, marriage or engagement – or those with lots of comments and Likes.

4) A small blue triangle in the top left of a News Feed post signifies it as a Top Story. Clicking it unmarks its Top Story status and tells Facebook not to put others posts like that one at the head of your feed. The more you do this, the more Facebook learns what type of updates you consider most important. You can also choose to make something a Top Story by hovering over the top left and clicking the blanked-out triangle to make it appear fully.

5) Hovering over the top right hand side of a News Feed post brings up a downward pointing arrow. Select this to display a menu of options. This allows you to choose what updates you wish to see from any particular friend or page you’re subscribed to and allows you to remove their posts totally from your News Feed.


6) Facebook now displays photos and videos much larger in your News Feed. Clicking one creates a bigger pop-up of the image. This can then be tagged, commented on or Liked. To close it, just click outside of the pop-up box.

7) If you don’t want details of how you are using Apps to show up in the Ticker, go to Application Settings and click Only Me under the Customise menu. This means no one else will receive updates on your app use but you will need to do this for each app you interact with.

8) Top News and Most Recent are now combined as two separate elements in one News Feed. You simply scroll down to see the recent ones rather than clicking a button to make these appear in their own feed.

9) If you’ve hidden posts, friends or other updates from your News Feed, you can call them back again by editing it. Click the pencil icon next to the words ‘News Feed’ in your left hand menu and then select Edit.

10) To customise your News Feed even more, you can use the Lists option. It is on the left hand menu. Add people to different Lists that already exist such as Close Friends or Family or create your own ones by selecting “More”. Then by clicking the List name, you’ll generate updates in your News Feed only from the people in that list.

What do you think of the cahnges? Comment below to let us know!

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Why companies watch your every Facebook, YouTube, Twitter move

Once upon a time companies could afford to be rude. Unhappy customers would grumble to a few friends, withdraw their custom, but there was little else they could do.

Today, they still tell their friends, but they do it online, using social media websites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Take the Canadian folk singer, Dave Carroll. After nine months of complaining he had had enough.

United Airlines baggage handlers had damaged his $3,500 guitar, but the airline refused to pay compensation and its customer service agents were less than courteous.

So he made a music video about the experience and on 6 July 2009 posted it on YouTube. Within three days it had been watched half a million times; by mid-August it had reached five million.

United had a massive public relations crisis at its hands, not least as thousands of other unhappy customers now came forward to vent their frustration.

These days one witty Tweet, one clever blog post, one devastating video - forwarded to hundreds of friends at the click of a mouse - can snowball and kill a product or damage a company's share price.

It's a dramatic shift in consumer power. But what if companies could harness this power and turn it to their advantage?

Not everybody gets it. Not long ago the communications team of a multinational retailer was taken by surprise when journalists called to ask about huge technical problems in half their UK stores.

The team did not monitor Twitter and hadn't heard about the crisis; the journalists did and had.

The boundaries between news and social media are getting more and more fuzzy," says Jorn Lyseggen, chief executive of Meltwater Group, an online media monitoring company.

"Social media is like a toddler, but nobody yet knows what promise that toddler holds," he says.

But a rapidly growing number of companies - from young firms like Meltwater, Attensity, Radian6 and Alterian - to business software giants like the SAS Institute - is offering help.

Meltwater social media dashboard

What's the social media story?

At Alterian, for example, the social media database currently holds about nine billion postings, with 50 million more added every day.

At the most basic, these tools measure the volume of social media chatter. Researchers at Hewlett Packard showed that they can accurately predict a Hollywood movie's box office takings by counting how often it is mentioned on Twitter before it opens.

It gets trickier when companies try to measure "sentiment", whether the deluge of social media comment is positive or negative.

When bad is good

Rory Cellan-Jones: Why Starbucks wants to have millions of Facebook 'friends'.

It's a crude science, with accuracy levels as low as 60%, as analysis falls victim to slang and subculture. "This movie kills" can mean something different in Bradford to Boston.

Some social media tools don't allow users to customise their "sentiment dictionaries"; other firms like SAS throw plenty of business analytics and teams of linguists at the problem, which in turn makes their tool more of a fit for companies with deep pockets.

But even the best software would probably judge the tweet "This board is really bad" as a negative comment, although it might be the ultimate praise among skateboarders.

One European clothing company, popular with inner city youth in the United States, admits privately that its social media team is baffled by its customers' ever changing slang, and even the online Urban Dictionary provides little help.

Social media is quickly becoming a customer relationship management system, as companies have "for the first time access to people's minds in real-time," says Jorn Lyseggen. The tools on offer provide companies with dashboards that show trends, hot topics, the reach of brands, customer mood and how competitors are doing.

Most companies are still cagey about showing off their dashboards. After all, this is their reputation laid bare ... although what they see is hardly a secret: anybody (with enough money) can subscribe to a social media analytics service and do the very same research.

High impact

Social media may be all the buzz, but in reality "only a few firms get it [and use it], it's of peripheral interest for most", says Tom Austin at technology consultancy Gartner. Few realise that using social media has become much more than customer service and reputation management.

Steven Georgiadis from SAS explains how social media monitoring works

For the comms team at German company Hotel.info, marketing without Twitter or Facebook is already unthinkable.

The hotel reservation company, with websites in 17 languages, started dabbling with social media a year ago, to see whether its customers were happy - and to monitor how it compared to rival reservation services.

Throughout the day a team of five checks the Meltwater dashboard. "I can't imagine us not using social media anymore," says marketing manager Deniz Guen.

Not only does it help to keep customers happy, social media campaigns, she says, have a much "higher and immediate" impact than traditional marketing.

When hotel.info advertised a picture competition through both its email newsletter and Twitter, both generated about the same number of submissions.

Probably unremarkable, except the newsletter goes to 2.2 million subscribers, while its various Twitter accounts have just 12,000 followers.

When Ford introduced the compact Fiesta car in the US market, it offered 100 people the chance to drive the car, on condition that they review the cars using social media.

On YouTube, the Fiesta videos were viewed more than 6.5 million times, and - more importantly - towards the end of the campaign more than 50,000 people had expressed an interest in buying one.

Early warning system
fake BP twitter feed BPGlobalPR

Spot the difference: the fake BPGlobalPR account has 188,366 followers...

With few exceptions, for example computer maker Dell, social media do not work as a direct selling tool. But, carefully used, it allows companies to build passion for their products and services.

Most importantly, it can act as an early warning system when something goes wrong.

But many social media tools are poorly integrated into the corporate workflow, says Steven Georgiadis, head of customer intelligence at SAS.

If your system tells you that your customers are unhappy about a product or service, it can be mission critical that the tool immediately alerts the team in charge of it.

It also makes business sense. Good use of social media can reduce complaints and costly calls to a service centre, says Ian Campbell, chief executive of Nucleus Research.

official BP twitter feed

... while the official BP account has a mere 18,481 followers.

But there are dangers. Financial Times columnist Lucy Kellaway warns that the obsession with social networking can make management lose focus.

If a company needed a random tweet to alert them to a problem, surely something was wrong in the first place.

And if a company asks the social media database the wrong questions, then it will get the wrong view, and draw the wrong conclusions, warns Malcolm Lightbody, programme manager at SAS.

Clumsy companies

To survive the world of social media, companies have to throw away their old marketing playbook.

If they don't get it right, at best they look as awkward as Dads joining their daughters on the school disco dancefloor.

At worst they will experience a meltdown like oil giant BP during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, when the firm first ignored social media, and then saw its official Twitter account @BP_America mercilessly lampooned by the fake @BPGlobalPR.

social media dashboard from SAS

What's the buzz? Social media tools show whether a company is in the firing line

Even in normal times social media marketing has its quirks. Offering big prizes in competitions may work for newspapers but flops on Twitter, report social media marketers; but when the prize is Twitter-sized, the impact can be huge.

One important rule, says Tom Austin, a social media expert at consulting firm Gartner, is try to sound genuine, "don't push... and don't pretend you are hip".

Just as readers can quickly tell whether a chief executive's blog is really written by the boss or the PR team, Twitter and Facebook don't lend themselves to hammering home the corporate message.

"Once companies have worked out that they should do something with social media, they usually don't know how to do it," says David Eldridge, chief executive of Alterian.

Gartner's Tom Austin warns: "If you want to influence the people who influence your customers, that's a very powerful game, but it's also very dangerous if you get it wrong."

Meltwater's Jorn Lyseggen calls it "super-scary" and says he "would caution companies who want to enter social media before they are ready".

It works best, believes Mr Austin, when companies "add value" to the Twitter conversation, for example by giving fans sneak previews, or providing advice and feedback.

However just 6% of companies feel ready to engage in such one-on-one conversations with their customers, according to a survey by Alterian.

The holy grail of social media metrics

As companies are getting to grips with social media, the very business model of customer relationships looks set to change.

What if the shopping website you visit presents you with special deals on cameras because it knows that you talk a lot about them online.

Creepy, some will say. Better service, reply the corporate social media visionaries.

But first they have to find the holy grail of social media monitoring: identifying who is truly influential amidst the cacophony of voices.

Don't be fooled by numbers; it's not about how many friends or followers somebody has, but whether they make an impact.

Reputational economics

Web ventures like Klout and Peerindex, with tools that are more rough than ready, are already turning this into a business.

They claim to be able to measure the influence Twitter users have on specific subjects.

Soon social media software could alert a hotel receptionist that the scruffy guy checking in deserves extra courtesy because he is likely to mention it to 10,000 "friends".

When Virgin America recently launched new routes from California to Toronto, it used Klout to identify a small group of social media "influencers" and gave them free flights. This generated thousands of tweets, triggered press coverage and delivered more immediate impact than traditional advertising.

Josh Klein, a technology consultant and author of Hacking Work, calls it "reputational economics", where both customers and companies spend their social capital to get the best deal.

"Consumers are spending their attention on social media," he says, but firms don't know how to repay them properly. "There's no manual for that yet."

There probably never will be.

Social media are dynamic, and today's Twitter may be tomorrow's forgotten website. "Don't assume that what works today will work tomorrow," says Tom Austin at Gartner. "Your model has to be continually adapted."

Monday 15 August 2011

Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility

Combination will Supercharge Android, Enhance Competition, and Offer Wonderful User Experiences

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. & LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. - Aug. 15, 2011 - Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

The acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a dedicated Android partner, will enable Google to supercharge the Android ecosystem and will enhance competition in mobile computing. Motorola Mobility will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. Google will run Motorola Mobility as a separate business.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

Sanjay Jha, CEO of Motorola Mobility, said, “This transaction offers significant value for Motorola Mobility’s stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers, and partners around the world. We have shared a productive partnership with Google to advance the Android platform, and now through this combination we will be able to do even more to innovate and deliver outstanding mobility solutions across our mobile devices and home businesses.”

Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile at Google, said, “We expect that this combination will enable us to break new ground for the Android ecosystem. However, our vision for Android is unchanged and Google remains firmly committed to Android as an open platform and a vibrant open source community. We will continue to work with all of our valued Android partners to develop and distribute innovative Android-powered devices.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals in the US, the European Union and other jurisdictions, and the approval of Motorola Mobility’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2011 or early 2012.

Friday 5 August 2011

LinkedIn sees 120% rise in sales

Business networking site LinkedIn has reported a 120% rise in revenues between April and June in its first results as a publicly-traded company.

Revenues hit $121m (£74m). Net profit rose to $4.5m from $4.3m a year ago.

In May, LinkedIn became the first major social networking site to go public, looking to cash in on investor appetite for social media firms.

But many analysts say that after the dotcom boom of a decade ago, we have now entered a social media tech bubble.

LinkedIn priced its shares at $45 in May, but the share price more than doubled on its first day of trading.

A $100 share price values the company at about $10bn, although the price has fallen to about $95 a share since then.

The LinkedIn website allows users to create professional profiles online and share them with others.

Investment planned

Ken Sena, analyst at Evercore Partners, said that the company's numbers for the April to June period had to be good to support the "lofty valuation".

Its membership base increased 61% on the same quarter last year to 115.8 million.

Chief executive Jeff Weiner said in a conference call that the site was adding about two members every second, and that it had more than 120 million members as of Thursday.

LinkedIn's profit was a much better result than expected, with most analysts forecasting a loss in the quarter.

The company itself has warned that it will not be profitable in 2011 as a whole, as it seeks to expand by investing aggressively.

Sunday 10 July 2011

Too Busy For Social Media Marketing Could Be Fatal



I have a friend who runs a nationwide “traditional” business, and business has been down, like it has been for most people. I suggested that he add some social network marketing initiatives, and his answer was he is “too busy.” He is not alone, according to a recent study, which concludes that only 47% of companies use social media today for marketing, despite the fact that 78% of executives polled feel it’s critical for success.

What’s the problem? It seems to me that there is abundant proof in the marketplace of the financial returns to both large and small businesses, the low cost of entry, and the ubiquity of social networks. Dell announced years ago that it had earned $3 million in revenue from using Twitter, and other businesses report daily on increases in web traffic up to 800%.

I suspect that a good part of the problem is that startup and small business owners still don’t know where or how to start. They don’t know if they should move to social networks for lead generation, branding, customer loyalty, or for direct marketing and e-commerce. My advice is to pick one, start slow, and spread out as you learn. Here are some specifics:

Create a business profile on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. A business profile starts with a business account using your company logo as your picture (avatar), rather than your photo or a picture of your cat. If you are in consulting, you are the business, so use a professional headshot. Don’t mix your personal and business profiles or messages.
Develop a marketing strategy specific to this media. Don’t use the same message on Twitter you developed for email blasts and postcard blitzes. Social media demands two-way communication, rather than outbound only. Read everything you can about viral marketing. It’s not free, so budget appropriately, but not excessively.
Start social networking with peers. Pick a base, such as LinkedIn or Facebook, to be your community, and work the territory, much like you may have learned to work a room of peers at a tradeshow or convention, or local business organization. Find out what other people are doing, and what works for them. People love to share what they know.
Experiment with social media tools. The basic tools are the platforms like Twitter and Facebook. But don’t stop there. There is TweetDeck to help you use Twitter, and YouTube for video sharing. A most valuable tool is WordPress or TypePad for blogging. You need these to add the human element to your business or service.
Proactively learn from the experts. Maybe it’s time to sign up for a few free Webinars, or even invest in an expert consultant in this area. Successful people don’t wait for their kids to teach them about new technologies, or wait to be the last one on the block to try new things. It’s all available for “free” on the Internet, but your time is a valuable resource.
Define relevant metrics and measure. That means first take some baseline measurements of, for example, lead arrival rate today, and costs associated with your current media marketing. If you don’t have this baseline, you will never know if you are making progress. Then continue to measure and learn what works, at what cost.
If used correctly, I guarantee you that social media marketing can improve your business with new leads, by bringing traffic to your website, creating a buzz around your product or brand, creating inbound links to increase your search engine ranking, and improving loyalty and trust with your customers. How could you be too busy to work on these things?

Of course, if you found this blog though your own initiative, I have to give you credit for being ahead of the pack. So print it off and deliver it to a friend who is not so high-tech. My challenge to you, then, is to kick it up a notch! When is the last time you produced a video for your business, or a podcast, or sponsored a contest with free gifts? Or are you too busy?

Saturday 9 July 2011

Day 1 of our Live workshop today in London

Right now sitting at the back of our workshop in London, Paul explaining our strategies on Twitter and everyone seems really interested and interacting with us.
We have a full room and everyone came here early, its great to see people so motivated!
Later on I will be sharing our strategies on Facebook, it is great to be able to have these Live workshops and be able to have 1 to 1 with all the people here, that is way we keep our workshops to very low numbers, so we can get to interact with everyone and make sure they come out of the workshop been able to just keep running their business online.
Here a look of how our workshops are....

Friday 8 July 2011

Facebook integrates Skype video calls



Kicking off what he promised would be the start of “launching season 2011” as well as the start of a new era of social networking, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced an integration deal between Facebook and Skype during an event at company headquarters in Palo Alto. The service will allow Skype users to see Facebook updates within the Skype application, and Facebook users will be able to video chat with each other.

Skype jumped the gun and pushed its Facebook integration page live before Zuckerberg had actually gotten around to announcing the deal at the press conference, and Facebook’s own blog followed suit.

See more of our latest Facebook coverage
or add an alert for future coverage of Facebook.

Social networking has evolved into an era in which the question of whether or not this concept would grow into a real movement has been answered, Zuckerberg said. He confirmed that Facebook now has 750 million users, but downplayed the number as less important now that Facebook has become nearly ubiquitous in much of the world: “You don’t measure the value of the Internet by how many people are using, it, you measure by the quality of the apps and how people are using it.”

The new video chat service is just part of a redesigned chat service that lets Facebook users only see the friends they exchange the most messages with in their chat window, as opposed to just anyone from their friends list who is online at a given time. Facebook also launched a multi-user chat service that lets you set up a chat conversation with three or more people as part of the new chat service.



But it’s the video chat that will get the most attention, given Google’s recent launch of Google+ and its Hangouts feature. Skype is the engine for this service, and it’s pretty simple: just click on the name of one of your Facebook friends and click a video icon to request a video chat. Group video chat isn’t available yet, and it’s also not available on mobile, but the video service is rolling out to Facebook users over the course of the day.

It’s an interesting gambit for Skype, given that Facebook has more users than Skype and the service would allow people to bypass Skype’s desktop application completely. Skype CEO Tony Bates pitched his company’s participation as a gateway to the Web for Skype, a company which is pretty much a standard voice-and-video-calling service on the desktop computer and has rolled out several popular mobile applications.

But users of Skype’s application will also be able to do a lot of the things they do within Facebook right from that application, such as read status updates, post new status updates and chat with friends. And Business Insider reported that the two companies are working on a way for Facebook users to call phone numbers, perhaps using Facebook’s budding payments system, Facebook Credits. That’s something Google (NSDQ: GOOG) also allows from within Gmail Chat, although Google’s service is free inside the U.S.

Of course, it’s also worth noting that Skype is folding into Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), a large investor in Facebook with close ties to the social networking service. Zuckerberg said that Facebook and Skype were working on the integration project anyway when the Microsoft-Skype deal started to take shape and pushed ahead once they both realized that Microsoft—perhaps Facebook’s biggest friend in the tech industry—wouldn’t stand in the way of anything.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

10 Things to Consider As You Move to Google+



Something interesting is happening with Google+. We’re all freaking out because we can’t import our Facebook and Twitter friends.

Here we’ve spent years (in most cases) building communities on something we don’t own and guess what? Our friends and fans aren’t moving to the newest platform with us. Or they are but we don’t know it because not only do we not have their email addresses, we don’t have their Gmail addresses.

This is why it’s so important to build community on a platform that you own. Sure, you need all the social tools and the content curation and the fun apps that make your stuff look cool, but they all should drive people back to something you own.

In this case: A database.

Following are 10 things to consider as you add the newest social network to your toolbox.
1.Who are your customers, prospects, and referral network? You have to know this. And you should be building a database of everyone’s email addresses. You can do this through blog subscriptions, newsletters, and registered content. Yes, you need to have Twitter and Facebook and (now) Google+. But you have to be driving those people back to something you own, where you can collect their data. We don’t know yet what or if Google will be providing businesses, in terms of data on its customers, so best to collect it yourself now
2.It’s hard work and you must be willing to do it. And this doesn’t mean just on the social platforms. It means with content and building community and engaging your audiences and stroking their egos by commenting on and sharing their content.
3.Your content had better be good. If it’s not all good, publish only that which is. If that means you only publish a blog once a week or a white paper once a quarter, so be it. If you’re charging for content, price it accordingly, but make sure it’s better than anything else in the industry. Find different ways to share your content. Things such as an Instagram feed of photos from work, a Tumblr blog of those photos, a podcast series of two minute segments that help your audiences, or videos that show how your product works in the real world.
4.Video. I mention video above, but there had better be tons. And it all needs to be on YouTube and then embedded on your blog and your website. We do this in the sidebar of Spin Sucks and on the home page of Arment Dietrich. It’s easily shared in about, oh, three seconds. Don’t worry about making it professional or snazzy (sorry, Tony Gnau!). Buy yourself an HD camera (I have a Flip, though they’re going to be extinct soon, and it cost me $150) and start shooting stuff. Even your phone will do.
5.Access. As a consumer, how exciting is it when the CEO answers your email or allows you to voice your concerns? Steve Jobs (though not very good at it) does this and it blows people away. Granted, we’re not all Steve Jobs, but people want access. Maybe it’s once a week or once a month. Add the element of surprise and do something simple like answer the customer service line or return emails. It will go a lot further than any PR, advertising, or marketing campaign.
6.Virality. I’m not saying you can plan to make something viral, but you never know what is going to go so you have to do a lot. What will spread (cough, a blog post about nothing, cough) is what you least expect so don’t be afraid to put something out there that isn’t perfect. People like to know that we’re all human.
7.It’s not about the numbers. It’s about making the web work for you 24/7. It’s about monetizing new products and services via the social platforms. It doesn’t matter if you have 100 followers, or 100,000. If only 50 of those 100 or 100,000 buy, those are the 50 you need to engage. And let’s be real. Wouldn’t you rather have 50 percent of your followers to buy than less than one percent?
8.The A-list sucks. You’re not a star. None of us are. Read Geoff Livingston’s guest post about this on Danny Brown’s blog. Think about it. Absorb it. And then do business just like you’ve always done…by treating your customers, prospects, and advocates like human beings whose opinions matter to you.
9.Add in some personal. No one likes to talk to the person at a cocktail reception that can only talk about work. The same goes online. I built a Tumblr blog of the recipes I create. People love this. It’s automatically shared on Twitter and I get as many, if not more, comments on that stuff as I do all the business content I post. And I tweet maybe once a day; every other day most times.
10.Grow from the bottom up. Just like in real life, we all have to start somewhere and that means the bottom, in most cases. You want to look like you’re all about your community; your customers, your prospects, your advocates, your influencers, your stakeholders, and your employees. If you look like you’re in it only for the money or you’re only using the social tools to push your message, no one will care and no one certainly will give you any access to them, including an email address.
And, above all else, make sure one of your goals is to build your database. Don’t abuse it. Don’t spam people. Have it in cases such as moving your community to a new platform. Or for an emergency such as Twitter or Facebook dying.

Thursday 30 June 2011

Google+ invites

Google+, the search giant’s answer to Facebook, is currently in a “limited field test.” However, it looks like Google has opened the floodgates to the masses.

The Google+ project is the company’s social initiative that brings friend streams, group video chat and group texting to Google’s millions of users.

For the last few days, Google+ invites have not been available to the public, but apparently Google is prepared to test the service with a larger group. Google+ users will find a button that allows them to invite their friends on the Google+ Stream page. Invites are also available if a Google+ user shares content with a non-user via email.

Google+ invites are in high demand. I sent just one tweet and posted one update on Facebook, and I have received over 100 requests for invites. Request for Google+ invites are flooding Twitter.

Are you on Google +? Have you gotten a Google+ invite yet? Let us know what you think of Google’s social service in the comments.

Update: Google has closed off invites after just a few hours. Demand was “insanely high,” according to Google SVP of Social Vic Gundotra.

Wednesday 29 June 2011

My Space SOLD for $35 Million Only...

The day that the web has been buzzing about has finally come: It seems that MySpace has been sold to an advertising network called Specific Media for a mere $35 million.

News Corp. declared it was ready to sell MySpace in an earnings call in February. The media company was reportedly hoping to get $100 million out of the sale.

News Corp bought the site for $580 million from its original owners, but MySpace’s traffic has plummeted in recent years.

All Things Digital reports that the deal will close Wednesday but has not yet been signed. News Corp. will reportedly hold a 5% to 10% stake in the company.

Other reports this week indicated that close to 50% of the site’s staff could be cut after the sale goes through, and it’s likely that any further iterations will focus on music.

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Obama Set To Actually Use Social Media Himself for 2012 Run

If there is one thing that the recent Twitter scandal surrounding NY Rep. Anthony Weiner did it slowed the use of social media by politicians. If there was ever a silver lining in an otherwise pathetic situation this may have been it. PC World reports



The “Weinergate” scandal caused a significant drop in tweeting politicians. According to VentureBeat, after the scandal “the number of tweets by Republican members of Congress dropped by 27 percent, while those of Democrats dropped by 29 percent.”

Of course, the US is gearing up for yet another fun filled presidential election process that promises to be full of promises which in turn usually means its full of something else too but that’s beside the point. President Obama established his ‘mastery’ of the social media arts in the last campaign and possibly won the election with the base of voters he motivated through online channels.

Expect more of the same this time. In light of recent political Twittertastrophes though the campaign is reigning in the control as noted on the president’s website

Starting today, you’ll notice something new about President Obama’s Facebook page and his Twitter account, @BarackObama.

Obama for America staff will now be managing both accounts, posting daily updates from the campaign trail, from Washington, and everywhere in between. You’ll be hearing from President Obama regularly, too; on Twitter, tweets from the President will be signed “-BO.”

Why make the change?

As the President said when he launched this campaign a few months ago, he’s focused on doing the job we elected him to do — so he’s counting on all of us to lead this organization from the grassroots up, helping to shape it as it grows.

That’s nice.

Of course, my first question is “Who had control of this before last Friday?” We all knew that the tweets previously were not done by the President but this announcement seems kind of odd considering there are currently 8.75 million Twitter followers for the president’s account. I suspect many think they are hearing from the president himself (a testament to the intelligence of many Twitter users). The NY Times clears that up a bit

During the 2008 campaign, Democratic National Committee staffers wrote all the tweets to the @BarackObama account, according to a White House spokesman.

Why hasn’t Obama tweeted before? There’s a Washington culture of letting the underlings handle mass communications. While many Hollywood celebrities passionately type their own status updates, it’s more common among politicians to let employees manage their social media accounts.

As for Facebook? That’s really donation central. Here’s the landing page for the Facebook presence and it’s all about the benjamins.



So as we gear up for an election season here in the states that is sure to be heated, what will likely be one of the most active participant sports will be the watch to see who sticks their social media foot in their mouth the furthest. You know it’s going to happen. Heck, all it took was one weiner to press a wrong button and the wheels were ejected off that wagon.

Will a bigger fish go down in history as social media’s poster child for what not to do? Stay tuned. I bet we’ll have a weiner winner sooner than later!

5 New Social Media Management Platforms

A new class of social media management platforms for small businesses makes social media marketing — such as posting to Facebook and Twitter — much easier.

In this article, I review five of these platforms: Postling, Breeze Social, Roost, Sendible and Social Guides. My review will address the following points:

1.User-friendliness;
2.Social networks included;
3.Availability of analytics;
4.Unique features;
5.Perceived shortcomings;
6.Price.

Postling: Comprehensive, Affordable



Postling emphasizes posting content across wide network.


Postling allows users to publish content to almost every popular social media platform — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumblr, Flickr and a number of others — as well as to rating and review sites like Yelp and CitySearch. Postling users can schedule posts to any or these networks in advance, a feature that is common in almost all social media management tools.

The dashboard itself is well designed, intuitive and easy to use. All posting capabilities — blogs, status updates, video or image uploads — are located in the left-hand sidebar, as is a menu of the sections contained in the dashboard, such as analytics and published posts.

One unique feature is that comments left by readers on blog or social network accounts are placed on the home page of the dashboard, enabling users to respond from within Postling itself. That is truly a time-saver as it prevents the need to visit each social network individually.



Postling includes comment stream on dashboard home page.


Another of Postling's features is the ability to publish a single-page website containing the user's Twitter feeds, blog posts, Facebook updates, and biographical and contact information. Think of it as a social media profile or "hub." Unfortunately, there appears to be no way to customize the page by adding graphics or changing color schemes, so its usefulness as a marketing tool may be limited.

Postling supports multiple users so that more than one person within a company can contribute content. Permissions can be set on each user to provide editorial control over the publishing process. Also, social media accounts can be organized into separate identities, which Postling refers to as "brands." For example, a user can maintain his or her personal social media accounts under one brand and business accounts under another.

Users are sent a daily email containing a digest of activity on the social networks from the previous 24-hour period. The platform also provides monitoring capabilities, allowing users to track keywords like the business name or competitors' names. Users are notified via email whenever any mention of those keywords is discovered.

One shortcoming is in the ability to see new Facebook Fans and Twitter followers. Postling places value on quality over quantity in that it lists new followers individually on the dashboard's home page based on their degree of influence as determined by Klout, a popular Twitter influence measurement application. However, Postling provides no place to see a list all new followers at once, which would be a nice feature to have. Also, even though Postling has an analytics dashboard, the information is very basic. A more comprehensive, detailed set of analytics would be a welcome enhancement.

Postling's price is within range of small businesses. There are three levels:

•Starter is free but only supports a single account, one brand and one user.
•Plus is $9.00 per month and supports up to three accounts, three brands and three users.
•Premium is $49 per month and designed for those who manage multiple accounts. It supports up to five accounts, five brands and an unlimited number of users.
In my opinion, the Plus account would provide everything a small business owner would need.

In short, Postling is a comprehensive social media management platform that is reasonably priced and easy to use.

Breeze Social: Makes Posting Easy



Breeze Social focuses on saving time.


More than anything, Breeze Social is focused on saving the user time. To that end, the site offers three options: "Write a Post," "Manage in 10 Minutes," or "Stay Awhile."

Write a Post

This option is for those who have content ready and are ready to publish. The posting interface allows users to add images, schedule posts, and choose the social networks to which content should be distributed.

Manage in 10 Minutes

Those who are pressed for time or need help in deciding what to post can use this option. Content suggestions based on company profile, industry, location and competitors appear in rotating order above the posting interface. Alternatively, users can choose from a row of buttons that, when clicked, return relevant content suggestions based on activity within their Twitter and Facebook accounts.



Breeze Social content suggestion buttons.


The content suggestion feature is a key selling point for the platform. According to Breeze Social product marketing manager Teddy Quinn, "We wanted to take all the worry out of not knowing what to talk about on the social web and our constant stream of relevant information does just that for every Breeze Social user regardless of business size or niche."

Stay Awhile

This option also contains content suggestions. Additionally, it lists posts from the past seven days along with analytical data about them. This information is provided so that users can conduct research before posting to gain a better understanding of which posts worked well and which didn't — hence, the term "Stay Awhile."

Breeze Social lets users interface with a more limited number of social networks — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Tumbler at present — than Postling.

The platform lacks detailed analytics, but does provide what it refers to as a Breeze Social Score, which is a "measurement of the total number of people who see your messages, the number of people who are actively engaged with you, your recent activity level, and the level of response it's generated."

Like Postling, Breeze Social offers users the ability to post to multiple accounts. There is also no way to see new Fans and followers.

Breeze Social's goal, according to the company, is to make posting a "breeze." Due to its lack of features, however, I find it less useful as to tool to manage a full social media engagement program. But the platform is free, which is good.

Roost: Helpful for Campaign Creation



Roost has its origins in real estate.


Roost came out of the real estate industry as a search engine that listed properties available for sale. However, in recent months the company has abandoned that business model and recreated itself as a social media management technology provider.

The platform is oriented around creating social media "campaigns," which are series of posts scheduled over a defined time. Like Breeze Social, Roost provides a content library to aid the user in generating ideas for posts.

Roost's interface steps users through a campaign-creation process that starts with the destinations to which content will be posted. The platform supports Facebook and Twitter. Following that, users decide the length of the campaign, from 1 to 30 days. Roost then provides several categories of content suggestions, including ideas for links, status updates, quotes, questions and photos.

A unique feature is something Roost refers to as "My Circle," which is a network of friends on Facebook, who the Roost user then invites as "My Circle" members. When users post messages to Facebook or Twitter, My Circle members are notified and encouraged to share the post with their respective networks.

Roost is still tied to the real estate industry, but any small business can use it. Essentially, it is a posting interface to save the user time and relieve the burden of social media management overload.

As to price, Roost bills itself as "Free Now, Free Forever," although there is a premium version intended for use strictly by Realtors.

Sendible: Combines Social Media, Email and SMS



Sendible combines social media with email marketing, CRM and SMS.


Sendible is, by far, the most comprehensive of all the social media management platforms included in this list. It combines social media with email marketing and SMS (text messaging) technology.

The list of Sendible's features is long and includes:

•Social dashboard designed to manage posting to blogs, Facebook and Twitter;
•Autoresponders;
•Email marketing;
•SMS/text messaging;
•Contact lists and groups;
•Brand reputation monitoring;
•Multiple users and multiple accounts;
•Analytics (including the incorporation of Google Analytics);
•iPhone app.
The platform provides support for an extensive list of social networks and includes: social bookmarking sites such as Delicious; photo sharing from Flickr and Facebook; and location-based social networks like Foursquare.

Sendible pulls in posts and comments from sites like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr so that users can respond from one place. Each post is analyzed and messages that need urgent attention are highlighted.

The platform provides a detailed set of analytics and even facilitates the use of Google Analytics. It tracks clicks, referrers, shares, comments and more. For merchants who want to track the return-on-investment of social media, this integration is very helpful.

In addition, users can check what's being said about their brands on blogs, news sites, social networks, and in comments. Sendible's sentiment analysis highlights the mentions should receive a response.

Lists of contacts can be uploaded and organized into groups, which makes Sendible a social customer-relationship platform that can be used in concert with its email marketing and SMS functions.

Due to its robust nature, the interface takes some getting used to. Each primary function appears in a horizontal row of tabs across the top of the dashboard, with contextually relevant menu items located in the left-hand column.

For such a comprehensive tool, the pricing is surprisingly affordable, starting at just $9 per month for one account. The most popular options run about $20 per month.

Social Guides: Focuses on Social Commerce



Social Guides focuses on social commerce.


A newcomer to the social media management scene is Social Guides, which is designed to combine social media and social commerce applications into one platform.

According to the website, Social Guides enables users to:

•Discover their social reach and find top Fans;
•Schedule updates to Twitter and Facebook;
•Set up a "Welcome Tab" on Facebook;
•Run an exclusive social deal.
Social Guides separates its platform into three different products: "Social Dashboard," "Social Deals" and "Social Listings."

Social Dashboard
The dashboard controls all engagement activities, including scheduling and posting status updates, creating a custom Facebook Welcome tab using the fangating option, and running social deals.

The interface reminds me of Postling in that everything is organized into a clearly visible menu of options. Also like Postling, it has a list of all the comments from Twitter and Facebook that reference the user. There is also left-hand sidebar that contains a list of top Fans, a lightweight analytics widget, and an overview of the user's engagement activity.

Social Guides has one feature that is lacking in many of the other platforms: the ability to find new Twitter followers. It identifies these potential followers using four criteria:

•Non-followers. People the user have followed, but who have not followed in return;
•Find Followers. Find new followers based on keyword searches;
•New Fans. A list of followers who have referenced the user in tweets;
•New Followers. A list of recent new followers.

Social Deals
What separates Social Guides from the other platforms in this list is its use of social commerce. Merchants can offer deals in one of two forms: special discounts and exclusive offers to Fans and followers. The interface used to create the deals is simple and requires only three steps. First, the merchant chooses the offer. Second, the merchant defines the offer's details. Third, the merchant schedules the dates and times when the offer will run.

Social Listing
Again, like Postling, Social Guides has its own form of a publicly-visible social media "hub" that users can promote if they choose.

Social Guides is free; it is powered by WordPress.

ConclusionEach of these platforms comes with its own set of special features and benefits. Postling is comprehensive and very affordable. Breeze Social and Roost focus on saving the user time by providing relevant content suggestions. Sendible is the most comprehensive platform of all and integrates social marketing with email, SMS and CRM. And Social Guides distinguishes itself by focusing on social commerce

IBM Aims to Bring Social Media Into Compliance





IBM (NYSE: IBM) is promising to deliver a solution that will enable companies to include information from social media platforms in their regulatory compliance reports.

Compliance capability is "fundamental to reducing a barrier that many companies have encountered as they look more closely at using social media for business process integration," Alistair Rennie, IBM's general manager of collaboration solutions, said in a teleconference on Monday.

IBM is expected to formally announce the new solution -- called "Actiance Vantage for IBM Connections" on Tuesday, the opening day of the Enterprise 2.0 conference taking place this week in Boston, but the solution won't be available for purchase until the third quarter of the year.


A Social Media Cloud
In addition to unveiling its regulatory compliance offering, IBM also plans to use the Enterprise 2.0 stage to announce plans for opening a data center that will offer cloud-based social media solutions to companies in the Asia Pacific Region. The center, to be based in Japan, is scheduled to start turning on social media platforms for Asia Pacific customers by September.

The seeds for the regulatory compliance solution were planted as far back as January 2010, when the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority -- a watchdog agency for U.S.-based securities firms -- issued guidance on the importance of monitoring and tracking information passed through corporate social media sites for purposes of regulatory compliance, Rennie said.

Social media content is like all other content created by companies, meaning it's subject to the same rules, laws and customs, he pointed out, citing a February 2011 report from Gartner (NYSE: IT).

"By the end of 2013, half of all companies will have been asked to produce material from social media websites for e-discovery," the Gartner report states. "So, enterprises need an overall governance strategy for all applications and information, and this strategy should include content created on social media."

A Blended Solution
Against that backdrop, IBM is partnering with Actiance, a supplier of e-security and compliance applications, to develop its social media compliance offering. The solution will blend Actiance's e-compliance capabilities into IBM's Connections platform, which offers a range of tools for building and managing social media channels such as blogs, wikis, forums and virtual communities.

Once it is available, the solution will be a major advancement for companies in regulated industries that have struggled with how to maintain a certain level of security and integrity around important data that might be floating through corporate social media channels.

"We continue to see social media growing as a tool for business transformation," Rennie said. "It's difficult to find a customer that doesn't want to take advantage of the potential of a social business environment, but -- as is the case with every major technology change -- we continue to run into questions about managing security and risk."

Real-Time Data Tracking
Actiance Vantage for IBM Connections will address those issues, Rennie explained, by giving companies tools to monitor, track and analyze data generated in social media posts and conversation threads.

"This all takes place in real-time," he noted. "I can't overemphasize the need to track this information in real-time. The pace at which information moves in a social environment is unlike that of most traditional collaboration environments."

The new IBM solution will give users a dashboard through which they can monitor social media traffic and pick out bits of information that need to be saved for purposes of regulatory compliance, Rennie said.

"With the Connections technology, every piece of communication is auditable," he explained. "We also are using advanced analytics that will allow for recommending that users view content they might not have found on their own."

For the past two years, IDC has listed IBM as the leading producer of revenue from social media software, and Rennie believes these new offerings should help it maintain that position

Social Media Analysis in Six Steps





Whether you're a seasoned social media user or a beginner, you can benefit from this three-part series focusing on social media planning, broken down into the following parts:

1.Social media analysis
2.Social media strategy
3.Social media plan
Asocial media analysis should define an organization's online goals and target market as well as the existing resources it has to apply to social media efforts.

A social media strategy should include how an organization can improve social media optimization for its existing website as well as recommendations of other social media tools and how an organization can leverage them.

For each tool recommended in the social media strategy, the social media plan should include an overall strategy for applying the tool specifically to an organization's needs and tactics for managing and optimizing the tool. The resulting plan should reflect the needs and resources outlined in the social media analysis and strategy.

6 steps for completing a social media analysis
1 Perform a SWOT analysis in addition to the items below.
The Canadian site SEO Wizardry has a nice example of social media SWOT analysis.

2 Define the organization's target market.

• Here is a good article by Success Designs on how to do define your target market (they have some other good resources here, too).
• And another by Blog Case about marketing to your target audience

3 Define the organization's online goals.

What, specifically, does the organization want to accomplish with social media?:

• Get the word out about their brand.
• Offer a platform for getting a specific message out.
• Target new customers.
• Sell more products.

4 Assess the resources available to the organization.

• Outline the resources the organization has on hand to facilitate social media efforts.
• Estimate how many hours a day the organization can afford to expend on social media efforts based on this outline.

5 Analyze the organization's existing website:

• Is the organization's existing Website social media optimized?
• Does it offer ways for visitors to interact, share or collaborate?

6 Analyze the organization's existing social media efforts.

• If the organization already has some social media accounts in place, are they optimized?
• Does it seem they are offering content relevant to their target market and goals?

more to come soon....;)

Social Media Return On Investment? A different perspective





Do "likes" and retweets add up to sales? Who knows? And who really cares? We're in the I Love Lucy era of social-media marketing, a golden age of unaccountability.

THIS YEAR, AUDI RAN the first-ever Super Bowl commercial to feature a Twitter hashtag. Did you miss that watershed moment? Don't feel too bad: The hashtag -- #ProgressIs, a take on the carmaker's line "Luxury has progressed" -- flashed on the screen for just a second, near the end of a surreal and entertaining ad that featured millionaires trying to escape from a minimum-security prison, and a cameo by, who else, sax man and Lite-FM staple Kenny G.

In addition to pushing the hashtag on TV, Audi purchased a Promoted Trend ad from Twitter, and it hired Klout, a startup firm that combs through Twitter and Facebook in search of the most "influential" people online. Klout helped Audi find more than 1,100 people to reach out to about the campaign -- 200 of them received an Audi travel mug and flashlight. Klout's Audiphiles tweeted more than 12,000 times about the hashtag, creating a viral chain of Audi-related chatter online. The company then chose the best tweets containing #ProgressIs; the winner, @jetsetbrunette, won a trip to California to test-drive some Audis, and she also got to choose a charity to which Audi donated $25,000.

But what did Audi get out of all these influencers' tweets? Did the Twitter campaign prompt anyone to consider buying an A8, say, or to go into a dealership to test-drive one? Did seeing the #ProgressIs tweets at least inspire an outpouring of positive brand feelings toward Audi?

The company doesn't know. "Today the equation to measure that doesn't exist," says Doug Clark, Audi of America's general manager for social media and customer engagement. Audi has a full-time team monitoring its presence on social-media sites, it's constantly posting new content, and it has even held special events for the most devoted members of the online Audisphere. The best Clark can do to suggest that all this work has paid off is offer a study by Visibli, a social-marketing analytics company, which recently found that Audi has the most "engaged" fans of any entity on Facebook. Audi's more than 3 million obsessives apparently outshine even Justin Bieber's minions in their willingness to click the like button.

Clark concedes that, so far, he doesn't have any numbers to prove that all this engagement has resulted in, you know, selling more cars. Amazingly, the company isn't too interested in finding out, either. For Audi, Facebook and Twitter "are places where we know tech-minded consumers are active, where they're seeking to engage with the brand," Clark says. "But can I say that a fan is more likely to buy an Audi? No."

Audi, like almost every major brand in the world, is jumping onto Twitter and Facebook in a big way. EMarketer estimates that 80% of companies will participate in social-media marketing this year, nearly double the number of just three years ago. All of them are feverishly working to get consumers to "engage" -- to "like," to tweet, to comment, to share. And they're spending a tidy sum to do so. According to BIA/Kelsey, a media consulting firm, companies spent about $2.1 billion on social-media advertising in 2010; the number is projected to grow to nearly $8 billion in 2015.

The gold rush has inspired a wave of tech startups, like Klout, that are looking to help firms navigate the tricky social-ad scene. These companies promise to monitor and measure the impact of Facebook and Twitter campaigns, and to find the best ways to boost those efforts. Despite this technology, though, social-media marketing often feels like a throwback to the golden age of TV: At least so far, marketers can't predict or measure the impact of their campaigns with anything near the precision they're used to elsewhere online.

What's more interesting is that brands truly don't seem bothered by this. Being on the leading front of marketing while not having to account for their efforts liberates them. "We're trying different ways to help us better understand the 'value' of a Facebook like," says Brad Shaw, Home Depot's VP for corporate communications and external affairs, echoing several other social-media marketers. "But at this point, revenue is not the intent." Applied to social media, William Goldman's famous line about Hollywood would go something like this: Nobody knows anything, and they don't care. You're forgiven for wondering: #ProgressIs? #Really?

RANK AND FILE




LATE IN 2007, JOE FERNANDEZ, a young tech-obsessed guy, had to get his jaw wired shut for three months while recovering from surgery. The only way he could communicate with his friends and family, he says, was through Twitter and Facebook. But he found his medically imposed silence to be a revelation, rather than an ordeal. "I could tell people my opinion on anything instantly, and the people who trusted me were acting on what I said," Fernandez says. "It hit me that for the first time, word of mouth was becoming scalable and -- even more important -- the data about all of these interactions were available."

Fernandez quickly began working on a way to tie all these data into a comprehensive picture of each of our online lives. What he came up with was Klout's signature product, the Klout Score, an integer from 1 to 100 that summarizes every person's influence online. The score is determined by a number of factors -- including how influential your followers are and how many people retweet or respond to things you say online. It has become, in some circles, an important measure of influence. People are reputedly putting Klout Scores on their résumés, and a few brands, such as Las Vegas's Palms Hotel, are using Klout to identify potential online VIPs for preferential treatment. Justin Bieber, of course, is the king of Klout: He has a perfect 100. Everyone else is second fiddle. Barack Obama gets an 87, the Dalai Lama gets an 86, and Jay-Z struggles with a mere 67. (For the record, I earn a 64 -- good enough for "thought leader" status and probably the only time I'll be this close to Jay-Z in any public ranking.)

Klout has now amassed enough data to measure the influence of 75 million people online, and it can slice and dice these numbers. For instance, Fernandez says Klout can identify the most influential people who talk about sneakers in Seattle, or the most-listened-to tweeters on skin-care products in San Francisco. When companies come to Klout looking to target those influencers, the company can track how their messages echo across the social-media landscape. How many extra tweets did Nike get by focusing on those Seattleites?

But what Fernandez can't track is what happens when people read all those comments or tweets: Does the marketing change anyone's feelings about Nike? "I think we'll get there eventually," he says, musing that over time, brands will give Klout -- and other social-data-analysis companies -- sales information to correlate with online chatter. Still, the problem won't be easy to solve. For one thing, social-media marketing, unlike search ads, catches most customers when they're far away from making a purchase decision. This makes it menacingly difficult for firms to determine what ultimately led to a purchase. Was it something you saw on Twitter or Facebook three weeks ago, or was it the drive-time radio spot you heard this morning?

Wildfire CEO Victoria Ransom is bringing corporate Facebook fan pages to life via contests and sweepstakes. | Photograph by Robyn Twomey



That gets to the second reason that social-media marketing hasn't yet proved itself: So far, advertisers aren't asking for any proof, and that limits the ability of firms like Klout to figure out if what they're doing really works. "My life becomes a million times easier if I can show that if you spend $1 with us, you get $1.10 out," Fernandez says. But for many big brands, the amount of money being dedicated to marketing on Facebook and Twitter is small compared with the rest of their advertising expenses. "For a lot of our clients, what they're spending with us is coming out of their 'experimental' marketing budgets," he says. In other words, they don't feel much pressure to account for their efforts. "No brand is challenging us on this. We challenge ourselves way harder than any brand does."

One current alternative is to embrace less sexy, but more Internet-friendly, direct-response advertising models. "Sweepstakes, contests, and coupons have always been popular, long before the Internet was around," says Victoria Ransom, CEO of Wildfire Interactive, another Silicon Valley advertising startup. Like Klout, the three-year-old firm was founded by accident. Ransom and Alain Chuard came upon the idea while running their previous company, a global adventure-travel firm. They wanted to expand their firm's Facebook presence, "but we realized pretty quickly that we were going to have to give people a reason to become fans of our page," Ransom says. The company had run sweepstakes on its site before, but it found that translating those to Facebook wasn't very easy. "We figured we weren't the only ones facing that challenge," she says. The company created a way for all kinds of businesses to create their own promotional applications on Facebook. "Within a few weeks, we'd received calls from both Kayak and Zappos," Ransom says. "We went, 'Oh, maybe this will be bigger than we thought it would be!' "

Wildfire's twist is making sweepstakes and contests social. They're built as Facebook apps, and they're promoted widely on Twitter. Ransom says that Wildfire can often track the success of its campaigns by integrating with its customers' transaction databases. For instance, the firm recently ran a promotion for Jamba Juice that allowed people to collect a "lucky" coupon from Jamba's Facebook page. You'd only find out the value of the coupon if you took it to a Jamba Juice store, and some of the coupons would pay out cash prizes of up to $10,000. The campaign drove tens of thousands of people to Jamba Juice locations; every time someone used one of Wildfire's coupons to make a purchase, the smoothie chain could credit that customer to the promotion.

Still, Wildfire's campaigns suffer from a problem that's common with social-media marketing: Because they're so new, and because they often depend on catching uncertain viral cascades, their performance is difficult to predict. "If we put a dollar in the Google machine, we know exactly what's going to come out," says David Sobie, VP of business development at HauteLook, a Nordstrom subsidiary that runs a members-only, daily-discount fashion site. Sobie has run many campaigns with Wildfire, and he says, "We're often surprised -- things that we didn't think were going to take off have been incredibly successful. And others, where all the metrics suggested that something should have been successful, have turned out not to be."

Klout CEO Joe Fernandez, right, is creating an “influence graph” for social media and then adding brands to the mix. | Photograph by Robyn Twomey



NOT LONG AGO, I was offered a tour of the customer-service department of the future. It's a bright, gleaming space; costs almost nothing to operate; and boasts the friendliest, most knowledgeable representatives in all of American commerce. Where is this call center? And who runs it?

It's online. And it's run by you. Lithium, a 10-year-old company based in Emeryville, California, builds and hosts online discussion forums for companies to let their customers help themselves, and it's one example where social media already seems to be helping companies pay the bills. For companies like Comcast, which have high-profile rapid-response complaint centers, Lithium's technology has revolutionized customer-service operations, usually an expensive part of the business. CEO Lyle Fong estimates that Lithium's work revamping AT&T's online community resulted in AT&T saving 16% on telephone customer support in January 2011 compared with 2010.

We're a long way from Bieberville, but this being social media, no one wants to talk just about minimizing call volume. At Home Depot, Lithium powers a vibrant discussion site where customers discuss home-improvement projects and the products and instructions to use them. "We can look at how your users interact with each other on your site," Fong says, "and we can tell you, 'Hey, here are your community members who are going to be your most passionate fans, and if you treat them right, they're really going to give back.' " At Sephora, another Lithium client, the discussion site has become a place where some of the company's most feverish fans -- women who spend 10 times more than the typical customer -- log many hours offering advice to everyone who comes along.

Sephora hasn't calculated all the additional sales that this system has generated, nor the labor it might be saving now that its best customers, rather than employees, are answering people's beauty dilemmas. Bridget Dolan, Sephora's VP of interactive media, says that at some point, the company may decide to do just that. Right now, though, "we aren't saying, 'Does every dollar we spend turn into revenue?' " she admits. "No one here is hounding me for the ROI."