Posts Tagged ‘Google’
39 More (of the) Best Social Media Guides, Tips and Insights of 2011
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012The notion of using social media for business has gone from cutting edge to commonplace in an amazingly short time. And for those laggard firms still resisting social media, recent changes by Google now make it all but imperative.
Of course, there’s no single cookie-cutter approach to social media marketing that works for every enterprise. And many companies that jumped in early experienced failures and disappointments, pulled back, and then re-approached social media from a more strategic angle.
While certain aspects of social media have stabilized (e.g., Facebook is the largest social network and is unlikely to fall to any “Facebook killer” application anytime soon; Google is going to keep trying to build its own social network until it manages to create one that attracts more users than lawsuits), many practices are still evolving. What’s the most effective way to grow a company’s social influence? How widely within an organization should social media tasks be distributed? How can an brand establish trust online? What are the best practices for sharing content on each major social network? What common mistakes and pitfalls should be avoided? Is it really possible to measure social media ROI—and if so, how?
Find the answers to these questions and more here in more than three dozen of the best social media guides, insights, rants and reports of the past year.
Social Media Marketing Tips and Tactics
Social Media, What Matters Most for Marketers by iMedia Connection
Noting that the “trend in digital information sharing (on social networks) is still a huge challenge for many companies,” Rick van Boekel advises marketers to develop a strategy, stay involved (or stay away), and integrate efforts among other guidance for marketing success in social media.
Practical Reasons Why Businesses Need Social Media by Social Media Today
Austen Mayor articulates both qualitative and quantitative justifications for social media investments. Among the hard numbers he lists: according to a social media industry study, 72% of companies active in social media report higher website traffic, 62% say it has improved search engine rankings, and 48% say it has increased sales.
Why Aren’t You Promoting Your Social Profiles? 10 Ways to Make it Happen by The Social Media Chef
Chris Tompkins supplies 10 methods to help “promote your social media profiles OUTSIDE of logging in to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter,” such as adding your social media profiles to company email signatures, business cards, advertising and all marketing collateral.
Stop shoving social media down my throat by {grow}
Mark Schaefer explains why be believes it is NOT a good idea to force “social media down the throats of employees at every level of the company,” contrary to advice given elsewhere. People bring different skills to the job. As Mark concludes, “Being adept at social media is NOT EASY for everybody. And we should be able to live with that human diversity.”
50 Social Media Marketing Tips and Tactics by Jeff Bullas
Jeff Bullas lists “50 synergistic social media marketing tips and tactics to market your content and ideas and help them to spread to a global audience,” divided into six platform categories: blogging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Slideshare.
Forrester: 5 Stages Of Social Media Growth by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Gavin O’Malley reviews research from Forrester on the five stages of social media maturity that corporations typically pass through, starting with the dormant stage (“one in five companies still don’t use any social media. These companies tend to be highly conservative, heavily regulated, or just not interested, according to Forrester”) then progressing through “distributed chaos” and additional steps before reaching the optimization stage.
A quick guide to 5 social media platforms by iMedia Connection
Linda Ireland offers helpful tips to marketers on going beyond the basics to take advantage of the unique strengths of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and LinkedIn (e.g., “If you’re a B2B company, LinkedIn is a great way to identify, connect with, and build stronger relationships with potential customers by interacting with them through LinkedIn Groups and providing responses to the questions they post on LinkedIn Answers”).
Social Trust Factor: 10 Tips to Establish Credibility by The Marketing Nut
Frequent best-of honoree Pam Moore explains the importance of the trust factor in encouraging brand engagement and offers 10 tips for increasing your social trust factor, such as developing a consistent online brand persona, hanging out with the “right” people in your business social networks, and taking the time to cultivate relationships.
Social Media Marketing – 10 Inspiring Infographics by Jeff Bullas
Jeff Bullas shares some interesting social media statistics (e.g., Tumblr is now attracting over 90 million unique visitors every month; StumbleUpon drives over 50% of all social network traffic) as well as helpful how-to’s (e.g., How to Twitter and LinkedIn Boot Camp) in this intriguing collection of infographics.
How to be a rock star on 8 social media platforms by iMedia Connection
***** 5 STARS
Kent Lewis packs an incredible amount of useful information into this concise post, which outlines tactics for marketing success, illustrated with real-world examples, for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, SlideShare, Quora and Foursquare.
Don’t Let Legal Keep You Out of Social by Social Media Marketing Magazine
Glen Gilmore reviews some high-profile examples of social media legal cases, which, he writes, “have largely been related to cases of egregious misconduct.” He then explains the basic legal and regulatory risks associated with social media, and presents a plan to minimize such risks in business social media use.
Busting Social Media Myths and Avoiding Common Mistakes
Five Social Media Myths You Need to Know by frogloop
Commenting on Facebook’s dominance and huge market reach that, “while it maybe true that your organization needs a better Facebook strategy, it’s also important that you dig a little deeper into social media stats,” Allyson Kapin debunks five social media myths. Though her focus is on fundraising and social media use by non-profit organizations, much of the material here applies more broadly.
For those executives who still block or limit access for their employees to social media sites and mobile devices, Adam Hartung reminds readers that personal computers were once looked at as productivity destroyers (PCs were viewed as toys that lacked the robustness of mainframe applications by some CIOs back in the 80s) and warns that “best practices” (e.g., “We need to control employee access to information” and “We need to keep employees focused on their job, without distractions”) are a dangerous myth.
Four Common Social Media Mishaps by iMedia Connection
Erik Deckers advises against, among other social media faux paus, socialcasting, relying on a single network, or, interestingly, “Putting a B2B company on Facebook or a B2C company on LinkedIn…People go to Facebook to chat with family and friends, not to buy industrial adhesives. People go to LinkedIn to connect with people who can help them do their jobs better, not share their love of your white chocolate macadamia nut brownies.”
Ten Myths About Social Networking For Business by Forbes
Neal Rodriguez provides “a comprehensive guide to social networking misconceptions—each accompanied by a tangible action plan that you can take right now,” such as “Myth 4: You have to spend hours a day on Twitter” (he recommends using Tweetchats—not a bad idea, but not right for everyone).
B2B Social Media Guides
Top social media platforms for businesses by iMedia Connection
Kent Lewis outlines the benefits of social media for B2B businesses, the challenges such vendors face in social media, the essential elements of a B2B social media program, and the best platforms to utilize (blogging, LinkedIn and Twitter are obvious; Facebook and Quora somewhat more questionable).
Turn B2B Buying Into a Social Experience by iMedia Connection
Tony Zambito outlines the changes social media has brought to the B2B buying process and identifies four areas where buyer expectations have changed that B2B marketers need to be aware of and address. Another outstanding post from Tony is The New Social Buyer Ecosystem, which delves into the concept of social Buyer Circles and their implications for marketers in engaging social buyers in the B2B realm.
YouTube Tips and Tactics
YouTube etiquette for 2011 by iMedia Connection
Daisy Whitney provides excellent tips for making the most of YouTube, such as paying special attention to the crucial first 15 seconds of every video you produce; entering your keywords in rank order; and uploading a custom thumbnail image for each video rather than relying on the YouTube default selection.
6 Best Practices For Small Business YouTube Marketing by OPEN Forum
Todd Wasserman shares advice from entrepreneurs who’ve been successful with YouTube marketing on best practices for the platform, including buying ads, finding your niche, using technology such as Hot Spots to test the effectiveness of your videos, and tracking ROI.
YouTube It; You Rank for It – Improve Your YouTube Rankings by iMedia Connection
Chris Adams of gShift Labs explains how to optimize video rankings in YouTube, the factors that affect ranking (beyond the obvious) and the importance of analyzing and acting upon YouTube metrics regularly.
Search and Social
When search meets social by Econsultancy
Due to the growing importance of social signals in search results, Nick Jones writes that “2011 marks the year when social media has shifted from being nice to essential…Social elements play a huge part in the traffic generated, but also…citations and “votes” in the form of Tweets and Likes go a long way to indicating to search engines that this content has value and deserves to rank for relevant keywords.”
How Social Media Affects Content Relevance in Search by Mashable
Shane Snow explains why and how Google and Bing are incorporating social signals into the search algorithms, how these changes may help newer businesses, and which previously helpful SEO tactics are now much less important. The key to success in this new world is creating highly sharable content and building a network of influencers who will share it.
Social Media Monitoring and ROI Measurement
10 Measures of Social Media ROI for Your Brand by SocialTimes
Neil Glassman presents his “ten measures of social media marketing ROI,” though ROI purists may quibble with some of his entries, e.g., raising the quality and quantity of job applicants by creating a “social culture.” But it’s an intriguing list nonetheless.
Forget Social Media ROI by ClickZ
The brilliant Heidi Cohen contends that only a third of companies are attempting to track social media ROI; outlines three reasons why such calculations are difficult (e.g., “Social media interaction tends to happen outside of the purchase process, either before or after”); and presents as alternatives five social media metrics she believes really do matter.
Social Media ROI for Me-Too-ers versus Innovators by SocialSteve’s Blog
***** 5 STARS
Steve Goldner uses a graphical social media activity scale to explain the differences in tactics and related ROI measurements between “Me-Too’ers” (focused on basic activities like setting up social profiles and adding sharing buttons to their websites) and “Innovators” (integrated social media efforts, formalized social media relationships).
Things We Should Ask The ROI Question About Before Social Media by UnMarketing
Scott Stratten makes a concise yet blistering argument against obsessing over social media ROI, noting that social media is held “to a higher level of judgment than most things in business,” then questioning the ROI of things like meetings, logo-emblazoned coffee mugs and employee commute time.
5 Ways to Measure Social Media by ClickZ
Frequent best-of contributor Ron Jones recommends measuring a number of different metrics within categories like Awareness/Exposure (the most basic level), Influence, and Engagement (e.g., number of shares, mentions, comments and retweets).
The ROI of Social Media ROI by iMedia Connection
Scot Wheeler presents a helpful diagram for evaluating social media while also noting that “ROI is not always the best way to evaluate the value of social media engagement to an organization…Often, when management asks for the ROI on social media, what they are really asking for is the value of social media engagement to the business.” He then describes the usefulness of awareness, buzz, reach and sentiment as measures of social media value. Also worth checking out is Scot’s follow-up to this post, The Four Principles of Social ROI Measurement, in which he contends that “the accumulation of ‘likes’ or ‘followers’ and the generation of engagement are not ends in themselves. These are tactics which are meant to prime a growing and engaged users for eventual transactions, but which are no more directly measurable in terms of revenues generated than is PR, print, TV or radio advertising.”
Explaining “social media ROI” AGAIN. And again. And… again. by The Brand Builder Blog
Olivier Blanchard serves up an entertaining and informative rant about the continued inability or refusal of many social media professionals to explain the ROI of social media, writing “As annoying and curious as it was, back in 2009, when so many so-called ‘experts’ and ‘gurus’ couldn’t figure out how to explain, much less determine the ROI of anything relating to social media, it is inexcusable today.” He explains the basics of social media ROI measurement, though conceding in the end that “Not all social media activity needs to drive ROI.”
14 Top Tracking Tools For Your Social Media Stats by Abnormal Marketing
Fiona McEachran takes a look at 14 social media monitoring tools, ranging in price from free to “don’t ask,” including Trackur, Webfluenz and BackType.
Social Media Facts, Stats and Research
INFOGRAPHIC: How Much Does Social Media Really Cost? by Scribbal
***** 5 STARS
Mariel Loveland presents an outstanding infographic detailing the internal and external costs of social media marketing along with the expected savings or return in various business areas, drawing on both statistical and anecdotal data.
The Business Impact of Social Media [Infographic] by ReadWriteWeb
Klint Finley reports on research regarding social media use in Forture 500 companies covering priorities, success measures, rationale, and brief profiles of successful social media use in big companies (Coca Cola, jetBlue, Dell, Red Bull and others).
Facebook, Twitter Shares Outpace Other Social Buttons by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Laurie Sullivan highlights research from BrightEdge showing that “Web site pages displaying the Twitter share button get seven times the social media mentions compared with those that do not…(yet) nearly half of the largest 10,000 sites on the Web still don’t display any kind of social sharing links or buttons.”
10 Intriguing Insights on the State of Social Media and Blogging by Jeff Bullas
Jeff Bullas (again) summarizes 10 key insights from Nielsen research on social media, among them: Facebook dominates the “time spent online” metric—Facebook users collectively spend three times as many minutes with Facebook as they do with Yahoo, and four times as many as with Google. Nearly a quarter of total online time is spent with social networks and blogs. And women outnumber men on eight of the top 10 social networks—but guys are in the majority on LinkedIn.
Social Media Bigger And More Influential Than Ever, Reveals Q3 Nielsen Report [INFOGRAPHIC] by All Twitter
Shea Bennett shares more takeaways from Neilsen research, such as that “40% of social media users access content from their mobile handsets,” with users over the age of 55 driving much of this growth. Social networks and blogs are visited by more than three-quarters of Internet users. And Tumblr is among the fastest-growing networks, tripling its user base in 2011.
Social Media Report: Q3 2011 by Nielsen Research
Want to draw your own conclusions from the research cited by Jeff and Shea above? Here’s the source.
9 Social Media Infographics You Must See by DreamGrow
Mart Prööm presents a fascinating collection of infographics, with stats and findings ranging from the percentage of U.S. adults who use social media every day (65%) and the top buyers of social media monitoring tools (43% are social media managers, 19% are agency professionals) to the leading social networks for small business (78% are on Twitter, 75% on Facebook) and a simple process for creating a social media strategy.
48 Ways to Measure Social Media Success
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Ultimately, as Olivier Blanchard has pointed out repeatedly, social media marketing has to demonstrate an ROI (though he acknowledges the questions have to be made more specific). In the b2b world, the “R” is generally leads (website call-to-action conversions) with some monetary value applied to them.
But it’s crucial to the social media ROI debate to recognize that “R” is an end-of-the-process measure. There are numerous in-process measures that may be impossible to tie directly to ROI, but are nonetheless critical in producing that final “R” value.
Consider automobile manufacturing as an analogy. There are an abundance of measures, from machining tolerances on shafts to the temperature in the paint room, which are vital to track during the manufacturing process. The C-level folks may not know or particularly care what these numbers are, but if those values are off, they will affect quality, which impacts rework and warranty claims, which impact manufacturing and repair costs, which impact the ROI of each vehicle.
Similarly, in social media marketing, there are numerous intermediate “process” measures that don’t fit into an ROI equation, but which are vital in optimizing social media efforts in order to minimize “I” and maximize “R.” These metrics don’t represent the goals of social media marketing in and of themselves, but are critical measures to help optimize processes to achieve the ultimate objectives.
Here are 46 intermediate metrics (and two final measures) to help marketers evaluate the success of their social media programs and optimize their associated processes. Most of these are easy and free to track.
Nine Blog Metrics
- • Overall traffic
- • Traffic quality (e.g. bounce rate, average time spent per visit)
- • Most popular posts (indicates topics with highest interest)
- • Search traffic
- • Social media/network-referred traffic
- • Other key sources of traffic (e.g., company website, newsletters, syndication sites)
- • Number of RSS subscribers (regular readers)
- • Number of email subscribers
- • Top visiting organizations (measure of targeting effectiveness)
Six Twitter Metrics
- • Total number of relevant followers (exclude the inevitable spammers and oddballs who seem to be attracted to any active Twitter account)
- • Interaction (@ mentions)
- • Retweets (reflects both level of engagement and quality of shared content)
- • Most tweeted links (i.e., which content is most popular with followers)
- • Influence (e.g., Klout and Kred scores)
- • Brand and mention tracking (e.g., from HootSuite or other social media monitoring tool)
Six LinkedIn Metrics
- • Number of company followers
- • Recommendations on products or services
- • Page views (of LinkedIn company overview)
- • Unique visitors
- • Click-throughs (on product links)
- • Followers by industry, function and company
Five Facebook Metrics
- • Number of Facebook page “Likes”
- • Friends of fans (indicates an organization’s total potential reach on Facebook)
- • Number of people talking about you (the number of unique people who have created content about the company page on Facebook in the past week)
- • Weekly total reach (the number of people who have seen one of the firm’s messages on Facebook in past week)
- • Most popular posts
Ten YouTube Metrics
- • Number of subscribers to the company channel
- • Total number of video views
- • Change in views and subscribers over last 30 days
- • Engagement measures:
- » Likes / dislikes
- » Comments
- » Shares
- » Favorites added or removed
- • Top videos, last 30 days
- • Playback locations (e.g., regular YouTube page, company channel, mobile device, etc.)
- • Top traffic sources
Two Google+ Metrics
- • Number of people / organizations in company circles
- • Number of people / organizations that have company in their circles
- • Note: Google has indicated that it plans to introduce more advanced analytics for Google+ soon
Ten Company Website and Cross-Social-Network Metrics
- • Total social media-generated visits to the company website
- • Lift in direct visits (an imprecise but correlated measure)
- • Lift in branded search visits (another imprecise but correlated measure)
- • Major social network visits by source
- • Traffic quality by source
- • Most-viewed pages by social media visitors
- • Top visiting organizations (all social media sources)
- • Top visiting organizations (by major social network)
- • Lead conversions (all social media sources)
- • Lead conversions (by major social network)
If you’ve utilized the first 46 metrics to continually monitor and adjust your social media activities, the final two—the real return on investment for b2b marketers—should validate and quantify the value of all your hard work.
36 (of the) Best Facebook Guides, Stats and Rants of 2010
Monday, January 10th, 2011It’s hard to overstate the impact of Facebook. Having long ago passed MySpace as the most popular social network, Facebook recently replaced Google as the most-visited website in the U.S. It started 2010 with roughly 350 million users and is now on its way to 600 million. Founder Mark Zuckerberg was TIME magazine’s person of the year, was interviewed on 60 Minutes simultaneously with new features being rolled out on the platform, and had a movie made about him and Facebook’s beginnings.
And though a website used primarily by young people to post embarrassing pictures of themselves and by older people to share cute pictures of their progeny would seem an odd venue for selling after-shave or enterprise software, both b2c and b2b marketers have embraced the platform in droves simply due to its incredible scale and reach. So how does a marketer capitalize on this unruly and ever-changing platform to drive business results? How can you stand out from the crowd, grow your fan base, get “likers” to come back to your page, engage your audience, target your prospects, conduct research, and basically prove to the CFO that all of this work isn’t just a colossal waste of time?
Find out here in three dozen of the best Facebook marketing guides of last year—along with some interesting stats and even counterpoints from a few naysayers and holdouts.
Facebook Marketing Tips and Guides
The 12 Best Ways To Customize Your Facebook Pages by TechCrunch
Orli Yakuel reviews a dozen free and fee-based tools for making Facebook page tabs, including Miproapps, TabSite and of course the “pioneer” in this space, Static FBML.
3 reasons your brand doesn’t have more Facebook fans by iMedia Connection
According to Scott Meldrum, “Brands should market their Facebook page in every available channel they can, including their website, landing pages, email communications, and ad creative” among other recommendations for increasing their following and level of engagement on Facebook.
Using Facebook as a Strategic Marketing Channel by Green Buzz Agency
Pointing out that putting up a Facebook page and hoping fans will find you is not a strategy, Erika Jolly Brookes provides a detailed set of tips, considerations and questions to ask yourself when crafting a true Facebook marketing strategy, from developing a creative brief through putting together a “conversational calendar.”
5 Ways for B2B Companies to Engage on Facebook by Social Media B2B
Conceding that Facebook is often viewed as the “red-headed stepchild” of b2b social media marketing and that the world’s largest social network has done a lot of things wrong in from a B2B marketing standpoint, Karlie Justus reminds us that nevertheless, “Facebook has more than 500 million reasons for B2B companies to create and foster an interactive, informative community for employees, partners, customers, retailers and distributors.” She then offers five recommendations for B2B Facebook use including offering a mix of original content and industry news, and asking questions. I’m still not sure that Facebook has more than one effective use for B2B marketing, but Karlie makes an interesting case.
How to target Facebook wall posts to specific fans by Socialbrite
John Haydon provides detailed instructions on how to send Facebook wall posts to specific groups of fans based on location and language. For example, although a significant proportion of the population of Quebec is bilingual, many of those people have a language preference. If you know that and have an upcoming event in that region, you could send separate wall posts in French and English to your Quebec fans based on the language they prefer.
A Blog App for Your Fan Page by Trailblaze Social Media with Josh
Joshua Lyons explains how the Networkedblogs app makes it easy to automatically feed your blog posts through a Facebook fan page tab, and easy for your fans to follow your blog.
How to Design a Kick-Ass Facebook Fanpage by 1stwebdesigner
As more brands jump on the Facebook bandwagon, it’s getting more challenging to stand out from the pack. Piotr Krzyzek recommends using a portrait-size profile picture, creating an opt-in landing page, adding contact information and links everywhere possible, and of course fan interaction and quality content.
Branding & Engagement, pt. 2: My New Favorite Facebook Page by Inkling Media
Ken Mueller uses the example of Dave’s Ace Hardware in Wisconsin to demonstrate how to optimize business engagement on Facebook: be personal, use photos and video, provide great customer service among other things.
Fans are fickle: How to inspire loyalty after the “like” by iMedia Connection
People are busy. They may like your Facebook page, but most won’t come back very often without a reason. Scott Meldrum (again) suggests rewarding loyal fans and customers, targeting your wall posts (see John Haydon’s post above), and responding promptly to questions and comments among other methods to encourage repeat visits.
Facebook SEO by Blind Five Year Old
***** 5 Stars
A.J. Kohn presents a remarkably comprehensive yet understandable guide to taking advantage of the search capabilities within Facebook. As A.J. explains, “This isn’t about optimizing your ‘fan’ page to appear in Google search results, but instead is about optimizing your own site and pages to appear in Facebook search results.”
How To Build Your Facebook Landing Page (If You’re Not A Programmer) by SocialMouths
After explaining why a custom Facebook landing page is important and what can be done with one, Francisco Rosales provides a detailed, richly illustrated 10-step guide for creating a landing page that’s as unique as your business—even if your business isn’t writing code.
7 Simple Tips for Using Facebook to Promote Your Business by Digital Labz
Basic but nevertheless helpful tips for successfully marketing on Facebook, such as adding a Facebook widget to your blog, highlighting your personality, updating your page regularly, and participating on other pages as well.
5 Staggeringly Simple Ways to Create Custom Facebook Landing Tabs by Convince and Convert
“With the exception of baking the ‘like’ button into your website, the best way to generate new fans on Facebook is to create a custom landing tab,” according to Jay Baer, and in this helpful post he reviews five options / apps for creating a custom landing tab on Facebook.
22 Inspiring Examples of Facebook Page Designs by DreamGrow Social Media
Priit Kallas highlights almost two dozen examples of dazzling Facebook design to get your creative juices flowing, like Kit Kat, Victoria’s Secret and Sony, all of which direct new visitors to somewhere other than the brand’s wall page.
26 Tips for Enhancing Your Facebook Page by Social Media Examiner
***** 5 Stars
Need inspiration for new ideas to keep your Facebook page up to date with fresh content? Debbie Hemley offers “26 practical ways to use good content for your Facebook pages, everything from A to Z,” literally–starting with Alltop and business updates and running all the way through YouTube and Zen. Highly creative AND useful!
Facebook Advertising Tricks for B2B Marketers by Buzz Marketing for Technology
Paul Dunay provides three brilliant tips for b2b marketers to optimize their use of Facebook advertising, such as “Put the 20 top companies you want to target into the Workplaces field. Facebook unlike Google works off of the ‘or’ operand not the ‘and’ operand so you can use this to your advantage by placing as many of the companies you want to target into the Workplaces field and thereby target the employees of all of those firms.”
What Happens After the Facebook Like? 20 Tips To Engage Your Audience After the Like by Pam Moore
What happens after someone “likes” your page—will they ever come back? Really? Pam Moore offers 20 tips for making the “like” just the beginning of a Facebook relationship, including developing an editorial calendar for updates (with a mix of different types of content), focusing on value to your audience, and making it fun.
7 Simple Facebook Page Tricks by AboutUs
Kristina Weis supplies helpful instructions for how to do things like target your posts to specific audiences, create a custom URL for your Facebook page and get into your fans’ “top news.”
Top 75 Apps for Enhancing Your Facebook Page by Social Media Examiner
Facebook marketing rock star Mari Smith reviews the top 75 Facebook apps that enable you to “customize your landing tabs, add your blog, add videos and photos, add chat, add polls, contests, geolocation, scheduling, email, ecommerce” and much more.
Facebook Changes and New Features
Facebook Rolls Out New Like Buttons For Publishers by All Facebook
Caitlin Fitzsimmons provides a quick rundown of the features of Facebook’s revised “like” button for publishers and differences from the original version.
8 Recent Updates for Facebook Business Pages by Masterful Marketing
Since Facebook changes it interface the way Lady Gaga changes dresses, Debra Murphy attempts to sort things out here, detailing eight changes made in the latter half of 2010 including the ability to remove the creator admin for business pages(critical in the case of employee turnover), ability to view insights per post, and the end of boxes.
Facebook Overhauls Profile Page by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Speaking of changes, Mark Walsh here details the end-of-year changes Facebook made to the profile page, and the implications for users.
Facebook Groups – a Complete Guide by Jesper Åström
Jesper Astrom explains what the new Facebook Groups is, how to create a Facebook Group, what you can do with it, and the benefits and risks of using Facebook Groups.
Facebook Features, pt. 2: A New Way to Invite Fans to Your Business Page by Inkling Media
Ken Mueller (again) writes about a new tool from Facebook to invite fans to “like” business page: “In addition to using the ‘Suggest to Friends’ and ‘Share’ functions…it is now possible to invite people via email. This is especially helpful if you have any sort of business email database. Facebook now allows you to upload email addresses from a variety of platforms in order to send an email to your contacts to invite them to ‘like’ your page,” and shows how to use this new capability.
Facebook Is Becoming Your Company’s New BFF by MediaPost Search Insider
Derek Gordon reports on Mark Zuckerberg’s 60 Minutes interview and simultaneous release of Facebook’s new profile functionality. He outlines the new functionality and speculates on the motivation behind some of the new features.
Facebook Top 10 Lists
Top 10 Facebook Fixes by lifehacker
Noting that you don’t have to use Facebook exactly the same way everyone else does, Spencer E Holtaway offers “ten tweaks to make Facebook better,” such as accessing it from a different client, backing up your account, getting your privacy settings right, and preventing friends from revealing your location.
10 Top Facebook Pages and Why They’re Successful by Social Media Examiner
Amy Porterfield suggests ways to make your company’s Facebook page more popular, interactive and effective by borrowing ideas from highly successful pages from brands like Red Bull, LiveScribe, Oreo and the Travel Channel.
10 Tips & Tricks For Your Business’s Facebook Fan Page by Hongkiat.com
***** 5 Stars
Ever come across a really cool brand page on Facebook and wonder how they created it? Michael Vreeken provides step-by-step instructions on how to use Static FBML to create a custom landing page, embed videos, create a “fans only” content area, insert Flash content or image rollovers, track your fan page visits with Google Analytics and more.
10 Facebook Tabs to Add by ReadWriteWeb
Richard MacManus explains how to create 10 common types of Facebook tabs, including Flickr, Slideshare, Questions and YouTube tabs.
Facebook Statistics
Facebook Added 5 Million U.S. Users In August by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Mark Walsh reports interesting stats on Facebook’s continued growth in the U.S. and elsewhere. For example, Facebook’s membership (as of August) reached 44% of the U.S. population, 13.2 million users in India (still only 1% of the population there)—a 179% increase in the past year—and 3.2% of the rapidly growing Brazilian social network market.
5 Fascinating Facebook Infographics by Rhino SEO Blog
A handful of cool infographics loaded with Facebook facts, stats and trivia such as the fact that Facebook is now available in over 70 languages, hosts over 1.6 million active pages (700,000 of which are for local businesses) which collectively have 5.3 billion fans, has 3.5 billion pieces of content shared on it each week, requires more than 10,000 servers to run, and has more than half a million applications written for it. Collectively, users waste, er, spend, 8.3 billion hours on Facebook each month.
Facebook Commentary and Observations
I Really Don’t Like Everything I “Like” on Facebook by Inkling Media
Ken Mueller notes several situations where you have no choice but to “like” a page or company on Facebook even if you really feel no affinity toward it, such as when conducting research or even to express displeasure with a company’s product or service on their fan page.
Breathtaking Facebook Fan Pages by DesignsMag
Need some inspiration for creating or revamping your Facebook presence? Check out 40 stunning examples of pages for movies, artists, food & beverage brands, fashion and more.
Facebook Skeptics
The Death of Facebook by Geoff Livingston
Asking “Who in their right mind would predict the death of Facebook given its ever increasing dominance?,” Geoff Livingston proceeds to do just that, arguing that it’s only a matter of time before Facebook’s increasing cluttered interface, confusing privacy settings and other issues allow an as-yet-unknown new competitor to eat the leading social network’s lunch. Not sure I buy this, but I do agree with Geoff’s larger point that it’s best not “to become too entrenched on a mega social network like Facebook (or Twitter)” but rather maintain the nimbleness to “move with our community” to new networks as social media tools continue to evolve.
The Facebook Reckoning by Anil Dash
Anil Dash takes Facebook to task for its privacy policies; not weaknesses but conscious choices made by privileged Ivy League founder Mark Zuckerberg, specifically “impos(ing) an extreme set of values on its users without adequately communicating the consequences of those choices.” Anil holds out hope though that Facebook can become more truly inclusive “by engaging more with its users in an honest way about its radical stance on public sharing.” But as Facebook’s popularity continues to expand globally, it’s not clear that Facebook’s ambiguous and confusing privacy policies matter much to users, or to Zuckerberg. And some of the comments following this post are possibly even more thoughtful enlightening than the post itself.
Is Facebook Forever? by iMedia Connection
Andrew Edwards muses about the fates of brands like AOL and MSN, and delves into several reasons why he believes Facebook will follow their path into obscurity, including the fact that it’s a closed system, the observation that the vast majority of the chatter there is inane, and the insight that despite the fact every company on earth thinks it needs a Facebook page, the platform is in the end a poor fit for business (“Most users of Facebook want to look at stuff like baby pictures and make fun of each other”).
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Best SEO Link Building Guides, Tips and Tools of 2010 (So Far)
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010Optimizing a website by incorporating keywords into page titles, headlines, text, page URLs, image alt tags and internal links will help improve the position of a site in the search engines—but it’s only half the battle. As one of the posts linked below notes, “In Search Engine Optimization, things that are happening OFF of your site can be just as important (if not more so) than things happening ON your website.” Search engines look at on-site factors to determine relevance, but at external links to gauge authority.
So how do you get more links, without resorting to spammy or questionable tactics? Find out here in some of the best blog posts and articles about SEO link building of 2010 so far.
Nine Tools for Your Link-Building Toolkit by ClickZ
Julie Batten offers nine key elements to include in a link-building toolkit–such as lists of targeted keywords and directories–to make link-building efforts more efficient and productive.
5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Page Rank via LinkedIn by VibeLog
In this brief but useful post, Jessica Nielsen explains five ways, such as crafting a relevant “professional headline,” to use LinkedIn to improve your company site’s Pagerank.
Raiding Your Competitor’s Backlinks by Internet Marketing for Business Owners
How to quickly find and replicate backlinks to competitor’s site to improve your site’s search engine ranking.
71 Technical Factors For Backlink Analysis (From 30 Link Building Experts) – Part 2 by Search Engine Land
For those who have waaaay too much time to spend on link building, Garrett French walks through the URL, on-page and sitewide factors to use in backlink profile analysis. Includes helpful commentary from a range of SEO experts like Eric Enge and Aaron Wall.
The 30-minute-a-day link building plan by iMedia Connection
Another piece from Garret French, this one outlining his recommended link building plan, starting with linkable asset identification: “common linkable assets include webinars, job listing pages, PDFs, blogs, forums, subject matter experts, deals, news, a community participant, contests, podcasts, and free tools.”
Top 100+ Link Building Resources by Vertical Measures Blog
An extensive list of blogs, tools, forums and other resources to assist with link building knowledge and tactics.
Simple tips for improving your website’s links by iMedia Connection
Ramsay Crooks presents guidelines for building quality links as well as low-value link building tactics to avoid.
Another Big Roundup of Link Tools by Search Engine Land
The always brilliant Debra Mastaler presents a helpful list of backlink analysis tools plus mini-reviews of several “non-standard, outside of the box link tools like Smarter Search.
Ultimate Guide to Link Building by Agent SEO
Jacob Stoops provides an excellent tutorial, beginning with explaining the process and importance of link building then stepping through different tactics and key sites of different types (directories, social bookmarking, article submission, etc.).
Build Links Backwards by Search Engine Journal
Rather than begging for links or hoping your content will appeal to a publisher, Jennifer Van Iderstyne suggests throwing the process into reverse — contacting great sites (blogs, educators, news sites, associations) and asking what type of content they would be interested in linking to.
SEO & Social Media Track: Show Me The Links: Real Life Link Building by Bruce Clay
In this guest post, Dana Lookadoo engagingly live-blogs a session from SMX Seattle featuring tips from several link building experts including Roger Montii (use target searching, don’t rely solely on competitor backlinks), Arnie Kuenn (targeted email requests, content development and promotion), Chris Bennett (infographics), Debra Mastaler (content syndication, guest blogging) and more.
The Art (or Science) of Building Links by Search Engine Watch
In her first post for SEW, Nichola Stott compares link building to expanding one’s professional network: factors like reputation, connections and relevance all matter in both realms.
Google’s Recommendations for Organic Linkbuilding by 10 Golden Rules Internet Marketing Strategy Blog
In this short post, Marc Purtell shares Google’s recommendations for organic link building, which basically come down to: produce quality content.
Case Study: I Listened to Google and I Failed by Graywolf’s SEO Blog
This case study puts Google’s linking advice (see post above) to the test. Is great content really all you need?
Book Review: Maverick Marketing
Monday, May 17th, 2010In Maverick Marketing: Trailride into the Wild West of New Marketing
Hayes, Managing Partner and Principal at the New England Consulting Group, draws on his experience working with midsize to large clients across healthcare, consumer packaged goods, retail, energy and other sectors to illustrate both the theory and real-world examples of trailblazing marketing campaigns and practices. Along the way, he explains why maverick marketing is becoming essential, citing research from Yankelovich that 60% of adults say they feel overwhelmed by commercial messages, are interested in skipping or blocking ads, and feel the volume of marketing is “out of control.” In this landscape, maverick marketing practices are required to reach consumers in a manner that will be welcomed rather than viewed as just another advertising intrusion.
Traditional television advertising, for example, comes under the whip. A study by the Association of National Advertisers revealed that three-fourths of large marketers believe their television advertising is less effective now than it was just a few years ago. Another study from McKinsey concluded that traditional TV advertising has lost a third of its effectiveness over the last 20 years. Hayes concludes that “media, and particularly television, is taking on the role of General George Custer of the Little Big Horn, glorified as a past hero…but under attack.” He notes that going beyond reaching to actually engaging consumers is a much more complex and difficult task than traditional advertising, an observation that applies equally well to b2c and b2b marketers.
Hayes notes that as the six-gun was the great equalizer of the Old West, putting small farmers and townsfolk on equal footing with the biggest, baddest cowboys, so the Internet today significantly equalizes the marketing power of small firms with large global brands. Hayes writes that “Many marketing experts…concur that a brand should not even contemplate national advertising without a $20 million war chest for television and $10 million in print. This creates an effective barrier to entry to many marketers and startups. In contrast, with the Net, tiny niches and slivers of segments can be reached in an affordable manner for smaller ‘mavericks.’” The New England Consulting Group even coined a name for this phenomenon: “Netralization,” the equalization of marketing power between big and small firms enabled by the Web. And as with the six-shooter, the results can even be fatal; online music services like iTunes killed giant music retailer Tower Records, and NetFlix has wounded–perhaps mortally, time will tell–video rental chains like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.
In the author’s analysis, a maverick marketing program “must include at least three of seven key components: marketing innovation, consumer engagement, buzz or public relations, new media usage, a viral aspect, promotion, or opt-in marketing. Tying this back to his Old West theme, Hayes notes that pioneers learned there were two ways to hunt: you could aggressively march through the forest hoping to flush your game (traditional marketing), or you could, like the Indians, study the feeding habits of your prey, set out bait, and then wait for the target to come to you (maverick marketing).
Even if Hayes didn’t share so many valuable marketing insights here, the book may be worth buying just for its trivia value. For example, after noting the ubiquity of brand names Motorola and Gatorade on the sidelines of every NFL game, the author points out that “Motorola does not even make headsets, and Gatorade is not necessarily in those green buckets.” And there’s much more:
- Viagra was originally developed as a heart medicine, but when its most notable, er, side effect, became apparent, its marketing was reoriented. Erecticle dysfunction was not a medically acknowledged disorder at that point, but it become one due to Pfizer’s marketing efforts.
- Research has shown that the average lifetime value of a customer acquired through search is roughly 70% higher than for customers acquired through other channels.
- Although most consumer marketing is geared toward younger age cohorts, retirees control two-thirds of all the wealth in the U.S.
- Coca Cola failed as a cough syrup before becoming the world’s most popular soft drink. Post-Its were the result of research into extra-strength adhesive tape, and Kevlar was originally developed as a material for panty hose.
Intentionally or not, Hayes hilariously points out the hypocrisy and outright stupidity of many in the “green” movement with reference to Ben & Jerry’s and, most entertainingly, Whole Foods: “Whole Foods smartly (?) takes the offense (with regard to not stocking live lobsters in its stores) and wraps itself in a flag of `ethical sourcing.’ It utilized a study from a European Animal Authority, think PETA, which indicates that lobsters may have feelings and can learn. This is despite the great weight of evidence from biologists and oceanographers, from numerous prestigious marine science universities, who point out that lobsters have no brains and only an insect-crude nervous system…In expressing its `animal compassion,’ (by selling only frozen lobsters, which are often sourced from large, migratory lobster breeders rather than small lobster operations), Whole Foods’ action very well have the unintended impact of harming the entire species. In fact in Maine, it is illegal to sell these ‘breeders,’ which are most likely to be sold, frozen, by Whole Foods.”
Hayes maintains his Old West theme throughout the book, frequently illustrating his points by throwing in references to wagon trains, life on the prairie, square dances, saloons, Boot Hill, the town marshal, horseshoes, lariats, sarsaparilla, cookouts, the general store, smoke signals, the open plains, etc. In the hands of a lesser writer, this style could quickly become irritating, but Hayes is deft enough to weave these references through his narrative in a manner than illuminates and entertains but never annoys. Each chapter helpfully concludes with a list of “trail markers,” the key points and takeaways from the chapter.
The book has a few faults. The sections on social networking are dated. He states at one point that “no ‘promotional consideration given’ notification is required on the Net,” which is no longer true. As a byproduct of being continually updated and produced using print-on-demand technology rather than traditional publishing, the book contains numerous typos. Only 22% of consumers read blogs (the actual figure exceeds 70%). Most bizarre is the claim that Google receives 25.7 million unique views per week; the true figure is close to 1 billion per day.
Still, such minor errors aside, Maverick Marketing
