Subscribe:

Saturday 30 April 2011

The KISS Method for Determining Social Media ROI

Attend any corporate meeting on social media initiatives and it’s likely that you’ll hear a question or two along the lines of “how is this selling us more product” or “what’s the ROI on these activities”? Unfortunately, many social media strategists get caught up in the numbers that relate specifically to social media and they forget about the numbers that are meaningful to their business.

Obviously, each business or organization will have different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that determine the success of social media activities, but many organizations can benefit from using some, or all, of what I call the K.I.S.S. method. No, it’s not “keep it simple, stupid”, with respect to social media, KISS stands for the following:

K is for Knowledge management – For the last 10 years, the nebulous term “knowledge management” has been used to try to identify ways to capture the knowledge stored in employees heads and turn it into meaningful information that organizations can use. The dangers of ignoring knowledge management is that employees who leave your organization take their “tribal knowledge” with them, resulting in loss of access to the information and increased training costs for the persons’ replacement. The loss of this knowledge can ultimately impact your customer satisfaction if the tribal knowledge was never captured in any organizational knowledge base.

To avoid the loss of employee knowledge, you can leverage social media by creating an internal platform where your subject matter experts can share their knowledge, thus preserving it for organizational use. Wikis, idea networks, blogs, and social Intranets are a great tools that can be used to encourage employees to share what they know.

Keep in mind that you may need to provide employees with incentive to participate. Explore whether it would be beneficial to offer monthly incentives to those employees that contribute the most valuable content using internal social media tools. A $50 restaurant gift card that saves you thousands in training costs and keeps customers happy is usually a good investment.


I is for Intelligence
– Think of social media as a direct pipeline into information about your products/services, your customers, and your competitors. If your customers don’t like your products or services, they will share their displeasure via reviews, tweets, and posts. The same holds true for your competitors products/services. Additionally, if you listen closely, your customer and potential customers will tell you what they want from you with respect to new products/services. Take that one step further and engage with the community that makes up your customer and prospects, and you can identify new ideas that might not have been developed by your R&D department.

S stands for Sales – Social media can be a great way to connect with your existing customers and empower them to become your brand advocates. Customers are great if they continue to use your product, but they’re even better when they share their experiences with others and encourage their friends and family to try your product. This isn’t a new concept, it’s been around forever and have been successful (remember Faberge shampoo’s “and they told 2 friends and so on…” campaign?)

Social media also offers a significantly cheaper medium for advertising then traditional print, TV, and radio advertising. Look for ways to get your ads in front of highly-targeted consumers using social advertising on channels like Facebook and YouTube.

Don’t forget that social media can also give your sales professionals an easy way to identify new prospects who are looking for a product or service that your provide. LinkedIn Answers and Twitter are great ways to find new potential customers.

S stands for Support – One of the most often overlooked value propositions for social media is that of customer support. Anyone who has ever worked in a call center knows that the most expensive way to provide service to a customer (other than coming onsite to their location) is to have a call center technician help them on the phone. That’s why call centers track important metrics like First Contact Resolution (FCR), Time on Call (ToC), Cost per Call (CpC), and – of course – Customer Satisfaction (CSat).

By capturing your organizational knowledge (via the “K” of Knowledge Management), you can enhance your internal call center knowledge base, allowing your call center technicians to locate and provide answers more quickly, which could decrease Time on Call and increase First Call Resolution. Decrease in TOC and increase in FCR often results in an increase of CSat.

As you can see, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to start thinking of ways that engaging your employees and customers through social media can improve your operations, open up opportunities, and positively impact your customer satisfaction.

Have ways that you have implemented the KISS method or have additional ideas for positively showing a ROI for social activities in your organization? I’d love to hear about them in a comment or a Tweet.

Friday 29 April 2011

Top 10 Social Media Myths

It's 2011, you've got the social media covered for your company, right? Between Twitter, Facebook and Videos and...what’s that? You're confused and concerned that it's all so complicated and possibly not really useful to your business after all? Have no fear. We will break down the common myths and misconceptions about using social media for business.


Myth 1 – Social media is for kids, not business.


Social media is a broad term, but it covers most of the ways people share information over the internet. If you want people to talk about your company or product, you have to make it easy for them to do it online.

The various social media outlets, including YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, forums and blogging, all make it possible for a business owner to answer tech questions, perform market research, promote sales or new products, support dealers and distributors and even become a daily part of their customer’s lives.

The result is incredible ROI – for very little cost beyond time/labor, you can communicate directly with consumers, without a filter, and increase both the bottom line and long-term brand awareness. Each aspect of social media has interesting features and all have their own benefits and pitfalls, which leads us to our second misconception.

Myth 2 – A business needs to be equally active in all forms of social media or it isn’t worth doing anything.

The great thing about the various social media outlets is that they can be coordinated into a single cohesive campaign – or you can treat each as a separate media channel. A new video can be shared on Facebook or a blog post promoted on Twitter, but that doesn’t mean that you must do everything at once. If you only have time for one forum, or you just want to tweet once a month about clearance items, then start there. It’s still an additional audience, and it’s still one more place for search engines to find your company or product. That’s the secret of social media marketing - they key isn't communicating immediately with the people who follow your channel (although that's very satisfying) it's caching all that content you create for people to read and absorb in the coming days, weeks and months as search engines index what you wrote and bring it up as a search result for people seeking answers and content.


Myth 3 – Participating in forums means posting constantly, many times each day. Who has time for that?


We could do a whole article devoted to the use of forums, but basically, sponsoring a few popular forums in your market gives you the ability to search and post answers to questions, as well as share blog posts or videos about your company. Posting frequency depends on your resources and interest, but the most important people who see your post are not the forum members; they are people stumbling into the forum thread via search engine.

Think about it; when you search for something new (say, you just got a new mobile phone and are curious about features) many of the results that come up will be forum posts where someone asked a similar question. You’ll scroll through the answers, and if there’s a satisfactory one, you’ll leave with the information you needed. Therefore, it is not the frequency of your company’s forum posts, but rather the completeness and quality, which will endear you to members and searchers alike.

Myth 4 – My company offers high-end products to an exclusive audience. Won’t all this tweeting, blogging and Facebooking take away from our mystique?

Here’s the thing about all use of social media, both for personal and business use: nobody is forcing you to post photos of messy workshops or proprietary schematics. You control the content and the message. Social media may be friendly, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used in a classy manner, just as a cocktail party is different from a frat party.

If you want to maintain a high-end feel, keep your posts formal. Make sure grammar and punctuation are accurate. Post high-resolution photographs from your catalogs, or link to well-respected publications featuring your products.
Being accessible doesn’t make you common, and more importantly, if you aren’t on the web, your fans will make unofficial profiles to represent you and then you’ll have no control of your company image.

Myth 5 – We have a blog on our website. Why would we start a Facebook page to compete with our own site?

No matter how exciting your company website is, it probably isn’t the homepage for hundreds of thousands of people across the world. When you have a Facebook fan page devoted to your company, there’s a good chance that your post will be in their newsfeed at least once a week or more and you can use it to push traffic to your blog.

Now you might be saying, “Once a week? But I post more than that, people must see my posts every day!” and that brings us to a very common mistake regarding Facebook.

Myth 6 – If you post every day on Facebook, you’ll be annoying and people won’t like your company.

We’ve heard from many companies that are afraid of over-posting and becoming like “Farmville” or “Mafia Wars” (By the way, you can block those apps while still maintaining a relationship with the person who plays them, just hover the cursor on the right side of the post, hit the “x” when it appears and click “hide …Farm Wars…”. You’re welcome.)

At this point, most regular Facebook users have more friends and interests than will fit on their screen in a single visit, and Facebook sets the newsfeed to a default called “Top News” which is actually a sort of “favorites,” meaning it’s the people or companies most clicked by that user. If you aren’t in the Top news, the Facebook user won’t see your post that day unless he or she switches over to “Most Recent” and even then, your posts will move down the viewer’s wall during the day as new posts are made by their other contacts.

This is good, because it means you can post every day without alienating your fans, (although we don’t recommend more than once a day unless you are offering live updates from an event or contest). The quick turn over of posts also means you can repeat posts, or post similar information. It will be new to much of your audience!

While daily posts aren’t annoying, daily Facebook messages are. Since Facebook messages go straight to people’s email, sending sales notices or product updates as a message is basically spamming. That’s a quick way to get your page or profile blocked.

Myth 7 - We have to post about our products every day.

So now you’ve been won over to the idea of updating blogs, forums and Facebook pages often, but with what? Daily repetition of the product line is bound to get boring, both for the reader and the company making the posts. So what do you post about?

Use your social media outlets to post detail shots, behind the scenes tours, history, employee bios, helpful tech, entertaining events, relevant trivia, and vintage videos, or to ask questions for your market research. Find out what products your fans would like to see, or encourage them to ask tech questions or post their own stories and photos.

People love to feel like they have inside information, so if you post a quick bio of your lead technician or video of an R&D session, it gives your fans a real feeling of connecting with your company. As mentioned earlier, only post what you are comfortable sharing.

Maybe that’s just macro shots of fasteners or details of the fine stitching on a product. If it is something that isn’t available anywhere else, your audience will view it as worthwhile content.

It’s important to post product links occasionally, but if you make machine tooling, your posts needn’t be solely sales links to chamfer bits. You can post links to videos about new machinable plastics, or articles detailing the proper maintenance of lathes. As long as the links you post don’t mention your competitors, your readers will associate the helpful or interesting information with your company.

Myth 8 - Flickr is just for people sharing wedding photos.

Going back to the main reason for using social media (increased web presence), Flickr is one of the easiest ways to use social media. Simply upload the same images you use for web catalogs and label them with product info, keywords and weblinks and you have one more place which will show up for customers when they make searches. As an added bonus, bloggers searching for images to illustrate their own stories may grab yours from Flickr. Make sure they have watermarks!

Myth 9 – We don’t make enough videos to have a YouTube Channel.

YouTube allows you to make playlists and add videos posted by other users to your channel. If you notice your company or product in customer’s videos, add them to your channel and you’ll have one more place where customers can see you and reach your company on the web.

Along with adding customer videos to your playlists, make sure you tag your own videos as you upload them. Tags are the words at the bottom of photos, blog posts and videos and they are a useful way to help search functions find your posts and videos. On YouTube, tags are especially important as they greatly affect the frequency and position of your video in search results.

The best results come from including a detailed description of the video, and including tags that you see on videos with a similar theme. Don't be afraid of tags like "awesome.” A lot of people spend their free time searching general terms like "awesome video.”

Myth 10 – Once it is set up, we can just leave our profiles and fan pages alone except for when we post links.

Nothing is sadder than a Facebook fan page full of spam or a Twitter mailbox with 600 unanswered direct messages. A social media site is very much like a real party. A good host interacts with all the guests, cleans up messes and sends rowdy guests outside.

The reason social media has the word “social” in it is because it is based off interaction. It is important to make sure that whoever is monitoring your company’s online activities will be able to answer tech questions, reply to friend requests, link to dealers and diffuse tense situations or customer squabbles.

Don’t start up a giant social media campaign and attend it half-heartedly. It’s better to participate in only one outlet and do it well, than to set up profiles everywhere and leave them neglected like digital ghost towns.

There are many great tools available to help make managing your social media easier and more effective, and if you don’t have the time or personnel to run a full social media campaign, there are several good marketing and PR firms with social media experts who are happy to discuss and maintain your company’s social media presence.

Hopefully this has inspired you to log on and get to know your customers and fans. Social media is like a free ad in a magazine, or a booth in a worldwide trade show. It takes a little effort, coordination and manpower to get things rolling and keep it staffed and active, but it’s good for your company.

Monday 25 April 2011

How to Monetize Social Media

Companies are not only getting the word out about their brands using social media such as Facebook and Twitter but are also making money.


Many business executives have not found sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Myspace, and Linkedin useful in making money. Building genuine online relationships that are also good for the bottom line is not so easy. There is a lot of trial and error. But while monetizing social media is difficult it is not impossible. There are companies that are getting the word out about their brands using social media and are turning a profit.

Take The New York Jets. The NFL team launched their Ultimate Fan social game in September 2010, which was the first revenue generating Facebook app to be backed by a pro sports team. The application lets football fans do online what they would normally do at home and in stadiums—root for their favorite teams and players, predict game scores, and hold a virtual tailgate party with other fans from across the globe. Ultimate Fan has since lured four major sponsors integrating their brands: MetLife, Motorola, SNY and HotelPlanner.com. This year, 10 percent of Jets sponsorships include a social media component; the team is planning to bump it up to 50 percent by next year, according to a spokesperson.

The Jets also communicate regularly on Twitter. They even advertised a Twitter-based contest to win tickets to their 2011 AFC playoff championship game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Jets are able to engage with their fans and make them feel like they are part of the team. They are leveraging social medial to capitalize on their fans' passion for the team and their willingness to share that fervor.

Like many companies, your social media efforts have started small and grew organically. To capitalize on those efforts to generate sales and revenues you need to have a team of people dedicated to your social media presence. You also will need a deep understanding of your audience, a creative vision, and a way to measure results in order to execute a successful strategy, says industry experts.

Here are some ways your social media can be monetized.

How to Monetize Social Media: Build Brand Awareness

The first step is to use traditional media or word-of-mouth advertising to drive awareness and traffic to your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin or Myspace pages, says Jamie Turner, author of How to Make Money with Social Media. Unless you already have a recognizable brand like Nike or Apple, your brand needs to develop social media magnetism before you can look to make any money. You also need to create circular momentum across many platforms when designing your social media campaign, says Turner. By providing multiple channels for users to talk with you, you let customers choose the channel that they are most comfortable with, he adds; and by doing that you increase the likelihood that they'll connect with your brand in any number of ways.


How to Monetize Social Media: Engage Your Audience

Social media is about having a dialogue. When you have a dialogue with a customer or prospect, the communication is much more fulfilling and much more profitable, says Turner. The PETCO brand has developed a strong presence in social media. The pet store chain has a YouTube channel, its Facebook page generates a lot of discussions among pet owners, and there's lots of activity on its PETCO Scoop blog, which has received hundreds of 'likes' and comments. PETCO's customers are true pet lovers and treat their pets as part of the family. The company tries to keep conversation going by aiming Facebook and Twitter posts so that there's an explicit question to answer, or at least a specific piece of information to which people can react. Industry experts stress that you have to know your community and know how to take part within that community and through that create great content or conversation that will raise awareness and increase sales.

How to Monetize Social Media: Offer Special Promotions

Dell Computers exemplifies a company that is selling products using social media. Its Twitter page, @DellOutlet, offers discounts exclusively to followers. Dell might tweet 15 percent off any Dell Outlet laptop or desktop with a special coupon code entered at checkout so they'll know which tweet you are seeing. @DellOutlet also points you to a specific web page. There is some interaction in terms of chats with tweeters. @DellOutlet has garnered more than 1.6 million followers and generated more than $2 million in incremental revenues for Dell. Traditionally, Dell would have spent a lot of money running print ads. Today, they can write a 140-character promotion to reach customers.

PETCO is yet another example. The company provided a promo code to their customers for $40 in free shipping. The person who shared their code with the most people won a $500 PETCO gift card. About 40 percent of the sales that resulted from this promotional push came from new consumers. The desire to save a few bucks drove loyal PETCO customers to connect with the larger pet owner community and spread the word about the store via social media.

How Ben & Jerry’s Uses Social Media to Launch a New Flavor

Imagine Ben & Jerry’s famed cow mascot Woody, storming into your office moo-ing and dancing with you while dishing out scoops of their new ice-cream flavor, Clusterfluff (yes, I know the name is quite interesting). The next thing you know, the entire office is Clusterfluffed.



As part of Clusterfluff’s launch in Singapore, the folks from RIOT brought the Cowmobile to Singapore for the first time ever. The Cowmobile will then go to specific locations based on “mooo” requests from fans on Facebook.

Over a period of 5 days (4 – 8 April), all fans needed to do was to Like Ben & Jerry’s Facebook page and “mooo” their request via a specially created application for the Cowmobile to request for a stopover at their office, school or home.

More “moos”, more chance.




In just 5 days, 784 requests were made and the amount of Facebook Likes increased by more than 28% (1,412). Twitter followers increased by over 15% (155) with 186 mentions and re-tweets. The Cowmobile went to 31 different locations and gave out a total of 5,960 free scoops of Clusterfluff.

Riding on that momentum, Ben & Jerry’s 12 of April Free Cone Day resulted in an additional 592 Likes on Facebook and 270 mentions and re-tweets on Twitter. The massive amount of re-tweets propelled the Free Cone Day message to appear as a Top Tweet on Twitter’s homepage.



The Free Cone Day came with a good cause as members of the public were encouraged to donate their dime for the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS). A total of over $14,000 was collected that day.

Based on RIOT’s statistics, for the campaign month of April vs March, Ben & Jerry experienced an
•Increase of 912% in new Facebook likes
•Over 446,000 impressions (+552%)
•+1490% in post feedback
•+486 Twitter followers

Friday 22 April 2011

Report: Social media marketing goes mainstream


Social media has gone mainstream and “nearly every business on the planet is exploring social media marketing initiatives.” So says Michael A. Stelzner

This study surveyed over 3300 marketers with the goal of understanding how marketers are using social media to grow and promote their businesses.

A summary of the report’s primary findings:
• Marketers place high value on social media: A significant 90% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.
• Measurement and integration are top areas marketers want to master: Onethird of all social media marketers want to know how to monitor and measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media and integrate their social media activities.
• Social media marketing takes a lot of time: The majority of marketers (58%) are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and more than a third (34%) invest 11 or more hours weekly.
• Video marketing on the rise: A significant 77% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2011.
• Marketers seek to learn more about Facebook and blogging: 70% of marketers want to learn more about Facebook and 69% want to learn more about blogging.
• The top benefits of social media marketing: The number-one advantage of social media marketing (by a long shot) is generating more business exposure, as indicated by 88% of marketers. Increased traffic (72%) and improved search rankings (62%) were also major advantages.
• The top social media tools: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs were the top four social media tools used by marketers, in that order. Facebook has eclipsed Twitter to take the top spot since our 2010 study.
• Social media outsourcing underutilized: Only 28% of businesses are outsourcing some portion of their social media marketing.

Wednesday 20 April 2011

How to use Twitter chat to increase sales

Have you participated in a Twitter Chat? If not, you’re missing out. Twitter chats have a number of benefits, including:

  • Learning–Chats are usually focused on a specific topic. They are places where people share their knowledge.
  • Sharing your knowledge–If you like helping others to learn and grow, chats can be very rewarding.
  • Meeting new people–I’ve found some great people to follow through Twitter chats.
  • Gaining visibility and sharing your content–When your stream fills with topic-specific tweets containing a hashtag, it tends to be noticed. Chats also give you a chance to share your own and other relevant content.
  • Gaining followers–Just as I’ve found people to follow, others have followed me when we’ve met in a chat or they’ve seen my tweets from the chat.

If you’re new to chats, here’s some information about how to find and participate in them, with a few tips for getting the most out of them.

What is a Twitter Chat?

Twitter chats are discussions that happen in Twitter, via hashtags. People meet online in Twitter at a specific time and use a specific hashtag, such as #solopor or #blogchat. Usually, chats are an hour long and have a facilitator, who may provide questions that people discuss in the chat.

How do I find a Twitter Chat?

One great resource is this spreadsheet that shows Twitter Chats by subject and gives you the day, time, and hashtag, among other information.

How do I participate?

There are a few ways to do it. You can use Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or another client, or even the Twitter UI. In a client, create a stream/column using Search to search on the hashtag. For example, if you’re participating in #blogchat, create a column based on a Search for #blogchat. If you don’t already have one, create a column for @ replies to you, as well. In Twitter, you can open Twitter in multiple windows/tabs. Do a hashtag search in one window, and use the other to view your mentions.

Once the chat starts, you watch for the facilitator to tweet the topic or questions. Then, respond by tweeting your answer and ending with the chat’s hashtag, such as #blogchat. Including the hashtag makes sure the tweet shows up in everyone’s chat search.

Another alternative is to participate through a service such as TweetChat.com or the new ChatTagged.com. You login with your Twitter handle, and then enter the chat’s hashtag in the search box. TweetChat or ChatTagged displays the chat, automatically updating as new tweets come in. They allow you to tweet and reply to tweets in the chat. Best of all, they automatically postpend the hashtag, so you don’t have to type it.

If you use TweetChat, you’ll still want open a Twitter window with Mentions displaying, so you can more easily see replies just to me. ChatTagged does this for you, displaying a separate window with mentions.

That’s ok. This isn’t like a real world conversation, or even an IM session. You won’t read every tweet in the chat. Read what you can or what catches your eye, and respond as you can. People often go off on little side threads, discussing an answer in greater detail by replying all, while using the hashtag. Keep an eye on your mentions so you can see when someone is replying to something you’ve said.

Some Tips

  • Be prepared to share links. I often open bit.ly, which I use as my URL shortener for my best posts. You may also want to open SnapBird so that you can search for a tweet you made or create a trunk.ly list of your tweets for reference. I often want to reference either something I’ve written, someone else’s blog post, or some study or research I’ve tweeted about. I open these sources so I can find content quickly.
  • Retweet other people’s good tweets. If someone says something in a chat that you think is spot on or really good, retweet it. It’s a way of recognizing people’s good comments, as well as indicating agreement.
  • Invite others. Make a point of inviting other people you know who might find the chat interesting. And consider making a general tweet out to your followers recommending the chat.
  • Participate even when the chat is over. The chat hashtag is available for relevant tweets even after the chat is over. Sometimes, a new study or blog post comes out after the chat, that is relevant to it. Tweet the link to the hashtag. If you had a side conversation with people about the topic, @ them as well.
  • Consider summarizing the chat. Chats can be good blog fodder. You may want to summarize the consensus or tips you got via the chat, giving due credit and quoting tweets, as appropriate. Many hosts archive the chat, making it easier to reference tweets. Otherwise, you can always search the hashtag.
  • Oh, and don’t forget the thank the host and participants!

Monday 18 April 2011

Google +1 Potential Future


From a strategic standpoint, there is enormous potential for Google +1 for several reasons:


First, +1 is a lead generation vehicle

Google’s +1 feature is embedded as a button next to each Google search result. These +1 icons are used to signal to people who are signed into their Google accounts that their connections (email contacts, chat friends) have approved of links provided via search. They also provide searchers with a mechanism to endorse links, provided again that they have created and are signed into their Google accounts. But that’s the catch: You can’t +1 a search result without having an account with Google. Effectively, then, +1 serves to convert otherwise anonymous (well, relatively anonymous, anyway) web searchers into account holders to whom Google can market its products and services.

Second, +1 will provide a new data source to protect Google’s flagship search asset

Numerous critics, such as Berkeley professor Vivek Wadwha, have become increasingly critical of the quality of Google’s search results. Meanwhile, content farms such as Demand Media have earned billions of dollars in revenues via the production of low quality articles that rank well by exploiting Google’s search algorithm. Consequently, a common viewpoint of many web users is that Google has been cashing in on spam at the expense of its search engine users.

Google has made strides in addressing this challenge by altering its search algorithm to punish content farms. However, despite Google’s claim that +1s will not initially impact search results, +1 feedback will undoubtedly reach a tipping point whereupon crowd sourced data can be used to improve search quality. Simply put, Google can reverse the perceived declined in search quality by serving up results that your respected contacts have previously vetted. Once +1 clicks have achieved a relevant total volume, you can expect to see increasingly-personalized search results.

Third, +1 clicks will help Google serve more relevant advertisements

In 2010, Google’s search advertising revenues surged over 20% to $25.4 billion. Imagine how much that growth rate can accelerate if search users would just tell Google which ads they’d like to receive? Well, +1 enables this, both implicitly and explicitly.

At launch, +1 buttons are active for both search results and advertisements. While only a small percentage of people are likely to +1 advertisements (explicit ad feedback), this model is not without precedent and relative success. On the implicit end, Google can target individual interests and fine-tune the ads that are served to a specific individual by using data from his/her +1 history. This approach mimics Facebook’s ad model, and it represents a mechanism for improving Google’s AdSense platform (and — Bingo — increasing advertising revenues).

Fourth, +1 will expand to other digital assets, increasing its utility

Criticism of Google +1 as a mechanism for just ranking search results is shortsighted. The +1 system will almost certainly expand beyond search and into Google’s other digital assets. It’s likely that we’ll all be able to +1 videos and curated channel content from YouTube, songs from Google’s soon-to-be released music streaming service, apps from Google Apps or the Android Market, businesses and other places via Hotpot, and so on. And soon we’ll all see +1 buttons embedded across websites alongside icons from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

The expansion of +1 across Google entities and the greater web will serve to not only increase its utility for web surfers, but also to help Google draw more complete profiles of the consumers who are being targeted for advertisements. You might even say that +1 is the next logical step toward a full-blown social network from Google — but I’ll leave that hypothesis for another blog post.

Summary: +1 is a strategic move that reinforces Google’s core

Google may be investing in self-driving cars and planning YouTube channels to compete with traditional television networks, but one thing is clear: Search is Google’s Castle, Everything Else is a Moat. For Google, success is not defined as an end result where +1 buttons become as pervasive as Facebook’s social plugins. Instead, +1 will augment Google’s core competency: providing the best search results available and placing ads that complement the search experience. For the reasons outlined above, +1 will enable that mission. Deriding the “version 1.0″ of +1 is a shortsighted view that fails to take into account Google’s long-term goals.

The Google "Like Button" Google +1


Google’s announcement that it’s adding a "+1 button" to incorporate sentiment into its search results raised a lot of questions not addressed in the company’s official announcement.
Google rep Jim Prosser was interviewed about "Google +1"

Why is Google doing this?
Aside from the fact that it represents another way to compete with Facebook, Google’s official line is that it will make search results more germane. Says Prosser: “People consult their friends and other contacts on decisions. It’s very easy and lightweight way to make search results more relevant.”

Will the number of +1s affect search rankings?
Prosser says no, but adds that it’s something Google is “very interested” in incorporating in some form at some point.

Who are these contacts we’re seeing next to the +1s?
They are from Google Contacts, which come from various Google products, most notably Gmail, Buzz and Reader.

Will we see Facebook friends giving +1s at some point?
Not likely. Prosser draws a distinction between the “open web” and Facebook’s closed system. Google is up for incorporating open social media apps, but not Facebook. And Facebook isn’t likely to be interested in bolstering +1, a competitor to its “Like” button.

What about Twitter?
That’s a different story. Google already incorporates Twitter data into their searches, though Prosser says there are no immediate plans for integrating Twitter results with +1.

What about using data from other social networks?
Prosser says Google is interested in using more data from Flickr and Quora, which Google considers “open web” apps. Initially, though, you won’t see your Flickr or Quora friends’ +1 recommendations.

When will we start seeing the +1s?
Not for a few months. Those who are interested in experimenting with +1 right away can go to Google.com/experimental. Otherwise, Prosser says only a “very small percentage” of searches and sites will have the +1 button within the next few weeks.

Will +1 be incorporated into banner ads?
Not right away, though Google is interested in that possibility.

5 Tools to Be More Efficient on Twitter


As much as I love Twitter it can sometimes really turn out to take up more of my time than it should. Here is a list of 5 amazing tools I am using which can help you to bring down your time spent, yet without trading in on the impact you are making:

1# Manageflitter – Get rid of some Twitter Noise

In order to get started on Twitter we have to follow people. There is nothing new about it here. Yet once you followed a large amount of people it can be quite hard to see clearly on your timeline again. This is where Manageflitter comes in.

It lets you easily unfollow all those Twitter users which make no sense for you to follow: The inactive ones, the ones that don’t follow you back or the loud mouths cluttering your stream.

The best bit:

Manageflitter’s UI is pretty awesome I like to believe. No signup process is in the way. Connect your Twitter, unfollow some and off you are on your way breathing a little easier.

Manageflitter

2# Buffer – Stop annoying your followers

Now, that you can breathe a little easier on Twitter the least thing you and I want to do is to clutter other people’s timelines.

This is where Buffer is super handy. It is a nifty App that allows you to add lots of tweets to your Buffer, which will be sent out for your well spaced out during the day. This means there is no hassle of scheduling individual tweets and you never overwhelm your followers with too much information at once.

The best bit:

You can add tweets to your Buffer from any page with one of the browser extensions (Chrome, Safari or Firefox), which makes it even simpler to put tweets in your Buffer.

3# Twoolr – Full analytics for your Twitter account

Although there exist lots of different Twitter Analytics tools out there Twoolr is definitely my favourite one. It gets a thumbs up for both UI and features

With Twoolr you can easily see usage trends emerging around your Twitter account as well as get an overview of your growth stats and handy word clouds for terms you use most within your Tweets.

Best bit:

Twoolr allows you to have customized community reports being sent straight to your inbox, which is a definite winner for anyone not wanting to go back to yet another account.

4# Tweriod – When are your followers online?

Tweriod is listed here as it is a minimal webapp that does one thing for you and it does it very well. It gives you two beautiful graphs showing you when your best times to tweet are.

The app takes all your past tweets as well as those sent by your followers and analyses them. It works out at which times of the day you can reach the most of your followers being active. You can then receive graphs showing this for both best days of the week and times during the day.

Best bit:

The best part about Tweriod is certainly the algorithm it is using. There exist plenty of other tools out there telling you “the best time to tweet”, yet Tweriod really goes one step further by analyzing your followers tweets too.

Tweriod

5# Twilert – Never lose track of your brand on Twitter

To explain Twilert in just one sentence: It is Google Alerts only set up for everything going on on Twitter.

In a very intuitive manner the App allows you to set up search terms you want to monitor and you will receive a daily report straight to your inbox at a set time each day. It has a slick interface and does what it says – solidly and reliably.

Best bit:

The best part is definitely Twilert’s advanced search option. You can set the language or specify which people talk about you. Or even determine which attitudes used should be monitored, such as “negative” positive” or “ask a question”.

twilert

Using these 5 tools helps me a great deal to bring up my efficiency, without trading in on the impact I am having. How about you? Do you think they could help you out too? Let me know below

Friday 15 April 2011

How Small Businesses Can Leverage Social Media to Attract Loyal Customers



A recent survey by American Express OPEN found that 82% of small businesses in the United States are relying on word of mouth to acquire loyal customers and 44% of those surveyed currently use social media to help attract loyal customers. These findings leave little room to doubt that social media has come of age. The question for small businesses is no longer if or when to get active, but how to best leverage time and resources to get the most of their efforts.

Step One: Establish Goals and Create a Plan
Don’t get fooled, even the most shining and seemingly natural examples of social media execution are meticulously designed. Unless the brand happens to already be well known, nothing will happen by accident or chance. Sit down and establish goals as early on as possible. Have an open discussion with everyone involved to find out what you’re trying to accomplish. Is social media a means of customer service? Do you want to drive traffic to a website? Is PR important? Define what success looks like. Once there is a clear picture of the end goal, the team can move on to creating an action plan. The plan may include setting up new social networking accounts, re-establishing stale channels, and defining responsibilities amongst employees.

Step Two: Get Active and Start Experimenting
It’s a big mistake to assume that social media is a “build it and they will come” type of endeavor. Yes consumers want to have a relationship with the places (both on and offline) that they do business with, but even the most loyal of customers need some guidance. It’s a shame when business owners get excited about social media and enthusiastically create branded Facebook , YouTube, and Twitter channels, only to fail in taking the extra step need to promote all the work that has been done.

Some ideas to get the ball rolling:
•Optimize a website to encourage social sharing amongst visitors
•Integrate social media into an email marketing campaign
•Take advantage of in-store display advertising
•Place social icons EVERYWHERE (online and offline )
•Consider investing in Facebook and YouTube ads

Step Three: Drive Loyalty
Once a foundation for success has been built, it’s time to get creative and get in the trenches of the social web. This is where most of the heavy lifting is done.

Let’s focus on a couple of specific areas:

Outreach

Every brand, regardless of size or industry, has a community around it. In simple terms, these are the potential customers who fit a businesses targeted demographic. It’s imperative to find out where these people congregate online and what type of discussions they’re having. The ultimate goal is to become a part of the community and build up brand advocates.

Here are some good starting places:
•Google Blog Search and Technorati
•Icrerocket and Socialmention
•Online forums
•Search.twitter and YouTube
•Reddit, StumbleUpon, and Digg

When reaching out it’s crucial to remember that social media isn’t at all like traditional advertising. The goal isn’t to pound potential customers with an advertising message or a sales pitch. It happens all too often and it simply doesn’t work. Conversations that aren’t authentic are easy to pick out and can instantly hurt a brand’s reputation. It’s surprising to see that many businesses, both large and small, end up failing in this department. Stay helpful, stay sincere, and think twice about doing anything that might be considered spam.

Promotions

Customers are motivated by incentives. Give customers a reason to connect online and they will. Facebook deals, Foursquare specials, Tweet incentives, and online coupons fall into this category. One example would be setting up a contest where customers take part by taking photos (somehow related to the business) and then posting them on the businesses Facebook page.

Customer Service

A surefire way to turn short term customers into lifelong customers is to deliver outstanding customer service. Use social media to take advantage by monitoring conversations and jumping in when an opportunity to help or say thank you arises.

Step Four: Track Progress and Adopt Best Practices
Without tracking activity it’s difficult/near impossible to know if the business is moving towards the goals that it originally established. This can be as simple as keeping a record of metrics such as fans, followers, subscribers, traffic, direct sales, etc… to determine if progress is being made. After a period of several months it becomes easier to determine what works best and the business can begin to adopt best practices. It’s an ongoing process, but by following a predetermined plan over a span of time it becomes progressively easier to win over and keep loyal customers.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Twitter Money Testimonial



Would you like to know what strategies did he used?
Go to ==>> Click Here
You can find our course discounted just at the top right corner of this Blog

Monday 4 April 2011

When to Retweet for best results


TweetWhen , we had to check it out. If you ever wondered when your tweets had the biggest impact, this site attempts to show you just that.

Sample report courtesy TweetWhen

You simply enter your Twitter username (if you are a protected Twitter stream you will not be able to use the service) and an optional email address. I checked to see why they ask for the email address optionally and no clue is given. I presume for a mailing list.

It will then grab your last 1000 tweets to analyze. Smartly it also says to register for an upcoming webinar while you wait. Great marketing move. As for myself I was told that Monday’s at 10am is my best time. There is a link to tweet that out, of course.

Saturday 2 April 2011

Measuring Social Media Effectiveness & Engagement



Using social media effectively, specifically for business, is not merely a popularity game – at least not anymore. At first, that was how we (business owners, marketers, communicators, etc.) measured the effectiveness of our efforts on sites like Twitter, Facebook and the like.

These days are gone – or they should be. No more “spray and pray”. No more throwing information, media like photos and video out on the Web and *hoping* someone looks at it, like your target audience.
Testing and measuring are all part of evaluating the effectiveness of a program. This goes for marketing, communications or public relations, advertising, etc. So why would we not do it with social media? If we aren’t tracking engagement or online interactions, sharing, retweeting, etc. how can we really know what’s going on with our brands online, our consumers online, etc.? We can’t.

If you aren’t tracking or monitoring your online engagement yet, start now.

Having trouble convincing your boss this is a valid path to take in communicating on behalf of the company? Track your efforts for 30 days and present it to them. Numbers, data and trends don’t lie. You can do this.

There are a myriad of tools available to help track what’s happening on your/your business’ social network. Some of them can be quite pricey and are generally set up for larger organizations. Don’t be discouraged though! You can do this on your own, without the cost.

We don’t just want to measure how many fans or followers we have, but what we are doing with them. It doesn’t matter if your company Facebook page has 2,000 “likes” or “fans”, if none of them are commenting, liking, posting or sharing with you. They could have hidden the page from their stream or just tuned out. By measuring you’ll know!

All you need is Excel and some of the backend data readily available as admins on your various social media accounts. Set up the spreadsheet with the far left column as the account platforms. Starting from top to bottom you’ll list them all – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Vimeo, LinkedIn, etc. You can even include the company blog if you have access to that.

Then, across the top row you’ll plug in your measurement categories. These should include some or all of these, or at least a close variation:
- Audience (This is fans, followers, subscribers, readers, etc. depending on the platform)
- Activity (This is what YOU’VE done – posts, comments, uploads, etc. during the given measurement timeframe)
- Engagement (Here’s where we start getting some real information – user comments, likes, linkbacks, shares, conversations or DMs on Twitter, mentions, RTs, etc.)
- Web Traffic (Available from your site tracking system – think Google Analytics – How many visitors to your Website came from each platform?)
- Lead Generation (What the bosses care about. Connect with your sales team or incoming call coordinator to start tracking where customers come from. DON’T accept “internet” – ask them to be more specific as to which page, if possible.)

Armed with information, you can now make decisions as to which platforms works best for your company, what areas might need improvement or where they may be an opportunity.

Start tracking, testing and measuring today. Your effectiveness is guaranteed to improve.