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Analyzing Facebook Data [Video]

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 21:47:35 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.OPENforum.com

Facebook is a powerful way to grow your business, but what’s working for your company and what’s not? Here are five tools to analyze your Facebook data courtesy of socialdon.com.

Organization Is The Key For Visualized Success On Facebook

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 21:32:47 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.allfacebook.com

It has been well established by several social media experts that photos are usually the best way to gain engagement on Facebook. But how do you keep track of what photos to use? Matthew Gonnering, CEO of Widen Enterprises, spoke with AllFacebook recently about the need for brands to properly manage the images they post to their pages.

Widen has been in the image-management business for 60 years, and the company has recently turned its attention to helping brands succeed through pictures on social media. Gonnering feels that companies should put more stock into having some type of system for managing images, so they can be quickly and easily identified and posted.

Gonnering talked with AllFacebook about why image organization deserves brands’ attention:

When you don’t have control of the images, you can’t make them easily available to the people who need them: your marketing channels, your sales reps, your dealers, your distributors, your vendors, your agencies. They’re sitting on some internal network folder, or the hard drive of the creative department or an art director, so they don’t have a good way to control it. When you don’t have a good way to control it, your brand is misused. You want to promote the product, they want to get out and sell it because that’s part of their livelihood, and you’re not giving them the easy way to do it, so they’re going to try to figure it out themselves.

Brands put money and effort into purchasing photos or having a photographer capture just the right shot, but often photos are just stored on hard drives somewhere. Gonnering told AllFacebook that companies should look into image-management systems or cloud technology so pictures can be easily pulled from anywhere. Widen has an efficient program — Digital Asset Management — that allows companies to easily search for high-quality, legally usable images and track their performance.

Reinventing local search for everyone!

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 22:42:28 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.blog.foursquare.com

Every day, people use Foursquare Explore over a million times for personalized recommendations, whether they’re looking for a romantic dinner spot or a fun family outing. Today, we’re making it available to everyone, everywhere – Foursquare.com now provides the best recommendations for what to do, even for people who haven’t checked in or signed up.

When we first launched Foursquare Explore, we knew we could make great, personalized recommendations for the 25,000,000 members of our community. If a person had checked in at ten places, we could recommend ten more that we knew they’d be happy with.

Since then, we’ve been tweaking and improving the formula that supplies those recommendations, analyzing and re-analyzing our nearly 3 billion check-ins and 30 million tips to find the keys to the best recommendations. In fact, we even started running an experiment: without any check-ins, can we still provide the best local recommendations? Thanks to those 3 billion check-ins and 30 million tips (and a bit more magic behind the scenes), we’ve gotten really really good at it.

Try it out now for yourself. Head over to Foursquare.com and search for ‘pizza’ or a ‘sushi.’ No need to create an account; just go there and type in what you’re looking for.

Foursquare doesn’t just hand you a one-size-fits-all list of suggestions. Even if you’ve never checked in, Explore still can make great recommendations based on a number of signals, like what’s popular in the neighborhood, new places, places that are trending at the moment, where experts go, and what’s popular on that day of the week. If you search for a bar, we don’t just tell you about great bars, but rather the best places you should go tonight.

You’ll also notice that it’s flexible – search for a type of place (‘sushi’), a particular item (‘veggie burger’), or a specific place (‘Starbucks’). Because Explore searches through those tens of millions of tips, we can find exactly what you’re looking for. We’re in the process of adding even more information to our listings – like when a place is open and how much things typically cost there – but in the meantime, try searching for things like ‘cheap’ or ‘late night.’

All of this gets even more powerful if you download Foursquare on your phone. We can then customize Explore based on what you like, where your friends have been, and show you money-saving specials. And, of course, it’ll be even easier to search Foursquare on the go.

Planning a night out this week? Let us know how the all-new Foursquare.com works for you.

5 Bizarre Business Decisions Social Media Could Have Prevented

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 22:25:00 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.dreamgrow.com

These days it’s difficult to imagine the business world without its obligatory Facebook and Twitter pages; almost every company has them as they help one-to-one customer support and other business decisions. Decades ago, however, industry moguls weren’t in the same position. Connecting with the public was difficult and often not even attempted; as a consequence some businesses suffered greatly due to a lack of communication. Here we take a look at half a dozen examples of such bad decisions, and what could have happened had social media been around.

The Coca Cola Re-Brand

In April of 1985 one of the biggest brands in the world made an almost catastrophic blunder. The decision was made to tamper with the famous recipe following the continued success of rival Pepsi’s marketing plan “The Pepsi Challenge”, which showing alarming signs the public preferred the taste to Coca Cola. Paranoid Chief Executive Roberto Goizueta launched New Coke in an attempt to win over old and new customers alike. This didn’t go to plan.

After three months of boycotting, hostility and general vitriol from customers, the company’s head executives re-released the original version as Coke Classic. To their bemusement this went on to outsell every other drink on the market!

The Solution: It seems, at the time, customers may have preferred the taste of Pepsi, but their loyalty lay with Coca Cola. A simple Twitter campaign could have solved this! “Remember why you love @CocaCola!” would send the customers hurtling to the shops. Or the soft-drinks giant could simply ask its millions of followers if they would like a new taste range.

Atari’s E.T. Disaster

In 1982 Steven Spielberg’s film E.T proved a huge success; inevitably, spin-offs began in numerous industries. The burgeoning video games industry wanted in on this, so market leader Atari created an adaptation for their Atari 2600.

The game was rushed through production in five weeks. Meantime, anticipating vast Christmas sales, Atari ordered over four million cartridges to be produced. On its release the game performed well on a commercial level, but was critically maligned, and once customers realised just how awful the game was they sent their copies back in disgust.

With millions of E.T. cartridges finding their way back home to Atari’s headquarters, the dismayed company took the extreme measure of burying them all in the Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill! The failure of E.T. is attributed to their eventual downfall in the videogame market.

The Solution: A number of simple activities could have saved this disaster, but when the worst came to the worst Atari could have avoided the need to use a landfill. Tweets, and a vigorous Facebook campaign, would have informed customers to dispose of the cartridges sustainably to save public face.

Donkey Kong VS King Kong

In 1982 the growing success of video game company Nintendo attracted the attention of movie giant Universal City Studios. They contended the Japanese firm’s popular arcade game, Donkey Kong, was a breach of their copyright for King Kong.

A brief court battle later and Nintendo won after their lawyer, John Kirby, highlighted the rights to King Kong were in the public domain. MCM had not helped their cause by proving the point themselves when releasing a King Kong film decades earlier. Nintendo received a hefty sum from Universal Studios, the latter being criticised for their attitude towards litigation. The incident was also voted one of the “dumbest” moments in video game history.

The Solution: A round of e-mails, Tweets, Google searching and foresight could have avoided this humiliation for MCM. The moral of the story here is to always research. Thoroughly. Something easier to do than ever thanks to the internet age!

Why Landing Pages Are an Essential Marketing Tool

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:25:52 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.openforum.com

A landing page is simply the term used to describe an online marketing tactic focused on getting people to “land” on a Web page that asks them to take one specific action. Today, landing pages have become a required element in the marketing toolbox for every imaginable business, including local brick-and-mortar types.

To maximize your advertising and promotional efforts, you must direct your ad or e-mail recipients to specific page, which details exactly what they’re going to get and how to get it, as opposed to your site’s homepage. There are many great articles on how to create better landing pages, but I want to focus on why you need to create and use landing pages as a core online marketing tool.

Improve your site’s ranking. One of the best ways to get your site to rank higher is to have lots of local content. Creating landing pages that feature very localized, down to the neighborhood perhaps, content is a great way to start building up the local content and links necessary to have your website’s pages move up in the search index.

Deepen your social connections. Sending your LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook connections to landing pages that are personalized to each network is a great way to deepen the connection. By running Twitter and Facebook feeds on these pages, and acknowledging the connections that come from those networks, you will find a much higher degree of engagement in those networks.

Give visitors what they want. By creating landing pages that address the specific market segments, product segments or key content segments for your business you can begin to better funnel people to the specific types of content they desire. Using a tool like Survey Funnel in conjunction with your landing pages enables visitors to tell you what they are looking for and then be directed to specific content based on their choices.

Capture more leads. When done right, landing pages can be your lead capture workhorse. If you have a great e-book or free workshop to promote, you may want to create sign-up forms for most of your Web pages, but your sign-ups will soar when you create a landing page that details, sells and demonstrates the benefits of signing up for that workshop. A landing page with video, audio, images, descriptions and a very intuitive call to action is a must for lead-capture campaigns.

Small Businesses Reluctant To Pay For Advertising, Promotion Via Facebook

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 00:15:03 -0600

Facebook was the platform of choice for small businesses looking to use free offerings from social networks to promote their goods and services, but when it came to paying for promotion via social media, the result was quite the opposite, according to an email survey of 3,434 MerchantCircle member merchants, conducted by Reply.

When asked which free social media platforms they used to promote their businesses, respondents overwhelmingly tapped Facebook, at 68.7 percent, topping Google Plus (49.2 percent), Twitter (32.8 percent), other (19.1 percent), and none (18.6 percent).

However,74.3 percent of respondents said they did not use any paid products from social networks to promote their businesses, with only 6.6 percent using Facebook’s offerings, compared with 12.6 percent for Google Plus, 10.8 percent for other, and 1.3 percent for Twitter.

In a survey by MerchantCircle last December, 96 percent of the more than 2,500 small business owners who responded were aware of Facebook’s targeted display ad offering, but only 23 percent used it…. Read the complete and original post www.allfacebook.com

Small Businesses Need Mobile-Ready Sites for the Holidays

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:58:00 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.mashable.com

With increasing numbers of consumers using mobile devices to make their holiday purchases, smartphones and tablet computers may be elbowing aside elves as Santa’s helpers this year, experts predict. But small businesses remain woefully unprepared to attract and engage these holiday shoppers, several new studies show. They’ve yet to climb aboard the mobile bandwagon.

Last year, consumers spent more than $20.7 billion shopping using mobile devices, according to a report from Javelin Strategy and Research. That figure is sure to swell this year, experts said.

But the vast majority of small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) still do not have mobile-optimized sites to take advantage of this on-the-fly spending spree, a study by SMB DigitalScape shows.

That lack of preparedness can drive customers away. Another study commissioned by Google found that three-quarters of visitors to a mobile-friendly site will return, but 79% of people who find a site difficult to use on their mobile devices will give up and look for another site.

“Every industry study we’re seeing points to a very robust use of smartphones and tablets for holiday shopping this year,” said Ben Seslija, CEO of bMobilized, a New York startup that develops mobile site creation tools. “Most small and medium-sized business owners, especially retailers, are simply unaware that sophisticated turn-key solutions now exist in the marketplace. These new do-it-yourself services eliminate the high cost and technological complexity that have historically prevented SMBs from building mobile sites that look and work great on any device, OS or browser.”

The 10 Easiest Ways to Blow Your Marketing Budget

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 02:03:46 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.openforum.com

Many small-business owners face a counter-intuitive problem; having too much money available can lead to dumb decisions. During economic booms, many companies waste funds on thoughtless marketing campaigns, extravagant parties, Aeron chairs and gigantic Weber grills.

As the economy rebounds, make sure that your business doesn’t fall prey to one of these 10 biggest marketing-budget busters.

1. Spending too much on the first company logo. It’s called a startup for a reason. No one knows if it will succeed. Spend a small amount of money on a logo that will get the company through the first few years that still represents its brand promise. The alternative: Be patient. Logos evolve over time. Learn from Starbucks and its steadily changing logo.

2. Issuing a press release with a wire service. This can get expensive and has minimum search engine optimization impact. The alternative: Use the more directed approach of sending releases to personal press connections—not only is it cheaper, it also has a better chance of getting noticed.

3. Buying one single, large advertising insertion. Many small businesses save up to make one big splash with a display or banner ad. Unfortunately, it takes more than one impression to make a brand memorable. The alternative: Do display or banner advertising where the company can afford to do multiple insertions over many issues or a lengthy period of time. All advertising needs to be testable and trackable so the company knows what to repeat and what to drop.

4. Promotional pens and shirts. It may feel fun to have the company’s name on these items, but most will get get thrown away by the recipient. The alternative: Put the company’s name on a higher ticket item that the customer will use longer term. For example, leather-bound calendars or smartphone cases work well…

8 Essential Do’s And Don’t's Of E-Mail Marketing

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 22:38:30 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.dreamgrow.com

Social media marketing and connected user sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest might be getting all the major media attention, but concurrent with that attention is the accompanied growth of email marketing. Studies show that 80% of all internet users, on a personal and business level, check their emails daily, and continue to open email offers and share them on social networks.

Email marketing is more important than ever, so let’s take a look at 8 critical things to do, and to avoid, when managing your email marketing program.

Do NOT spam.

This is probably Rule #1 on a lot of lists, but it’s absolutely wrong to send out email messages to a random list in the hopes that it will help your brand or increase business. Spam email has a better chance of hurting your branding efforts and your business. Don’t do it.

Use brief, well written emails.

Lead with strong, bold declarations and follow with links. Be brief and give your readers more information and a quick call to action. Let your reader determine how much time they want to devote learning more about your message.

Personalize your messages.

Various email marketing software products like one from Jango Mail email marketing can help you personalize your messages by name, zip code, preferences and more. You can target buy approaches like “Dear future bride.” In a word, personalized approaches can increase your success level.

Don’t aggravate your readers.

Don’t make the mistake of alienating customers with redundant and unnecessary communication every day. A simple thank you and an occasional special offer will do a lot more than repeated email bombing in the interest of “communication.”

Use social media as a way to increase your reach.

Do not be afraid to contact people through your social media, but use it judiciously. Email marketing and social media combined works very effectively, if used within boundaries…

The Ultimate List of Social CEOs on Twitter

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 22:29:35 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.strategicobjectives.com

Never before have Shakespeare’s words, “All the world’s a stage…” been more appropriate! Thanks to the social universe you can now connect the dots with everyone and everything in a matter of seconds.

It’s little wonder then, that Strategic Objectives’ blog post Should CEO’s Tweet? Risks and Rewards attracted mega social pick-up around the world last week. The piece detailed some of the up- and downsides of corporate leaders tweeting and lamented that Social CEOs are rare and hard-to-find. In fact recent research shows that fully 70 per cent of the world’s CEOs have NO presence on any online platform, much less Twitter!

The fact remains, however, there are a goodly number of CEOs around the world on Twitter; and there’s really no better way to tap into their 24/7, non-stop collective stream of social consciousness than a Twitter List.

That’s why our mighty @SO_pr team set out to create the Ultimate List of Social CEOs on Twitter – a new and definitive list, at least for today, of CEOs who tweet. Please stay tuned next week, same time, same place, for our @SO_pr 10 Commandments for the Social CEO.

The Ultimate List of Social CEOs on Twitter

You can find and follow our Ultimate List of Social CEOs on Twitter here. Please keep reading for some analysis; to review the entire list, all in one place; and to find out who helped us create it.

Why Follow the Leaders? A Social CEO Stream of Consciousness

It’s clear from following this Twitter list that some CEOs tweet way more than others. Our CEO stream of consciousness spans the globe, and includes the famous, such as @rupertmurdoch, @richardbranson and Mark Cuban @mcuban; and the infamous, such as reality TV star @jefholm, CEO of People Water, who made a name for himself earlier this year as Emily, The Bachelorette’s fiancé – a fact that is not mentioned in his bio!

It also features CEOs who are not only the face of their product or service, but whose service is, in fact, their Twitter account – such as @mashable’s Pete Cashmore, #1 on our list; @timoreilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media, #4; and #52 @markraganCEO of Ragan’s PR Daily.

The Ultimate List of Social CEOs on Twitter is as diverse as the people on it. As a whole it presents a unique view from the top of the corporate ladder. You will see that CEOs’ individual Twitter styles are very different – some converse and engage, others broadcast one-way. Some offer personal info like “I’m meeting (fill in name of celebrity) for breakfast,” others give stock tips, or promote their latest book or product. The individuals on this list present a rare, unedited glimpse into the business world, something impossible before Twitter made its indelible mark on the social landscape.

On With the Show!

Without further ado, here’s the list, ordered by follower count. At the very end of this stream you’ll find our Social CEO Stream of Consciousness – a constantly updating stream of CEO tweets. Enjoy!

1. Pete Cashmore ‏@mashable (3,017,506 followers)

CEO of Mashable

The largest independent website dedicated to news & resources for the connected generation. Tweets from @mashable staff. Send questions/comments to @mashablehq.

2. Richard Branson ‏@richardbranson (2,516,528 followers)

CEO of Virgin Group

Tie-loathing adventurer and thrill seeker, who believes in turning ideas into reality. Otherwise known as Dr Yes at @virgin!

3. Jack Dorsey @jack (2,134,047 followers)

CEO of Square

Executive Chairman of Twitter, CEO of Square, a founder of both….

Twitter Dominates Live TV Because Social TV Is Failing

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:17:33 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.techcrunch.com

Every time I turn on the TV, I see Twitter. Hashtags and Twitter handles are on TV shows. There are dedicated pages to world events like the Olympic Games. Even entertainment news reporting has been transformed because the general population can get in touch with what’s happening in the lives of celebrities instantaneously. (Russell Crowe is in fact safe thanks to the New York Coast Guard that was nearby).

But why is Twitter everywhere on TV?

First, it is as simple as it gets. There is a box. You type in it, and people can see what you typed on their phone or on the web instantly. Secondly, it has become ingrained in people’s everyday habits. Twitter takes advantage of the “micro-moments” that exist in our lives. You’re waiting in line, so you open Twitter. You’re sitting in the car at a stoplight and — yes, unfortunately — you open Twitter. You have moments of downtime while in front of the TV when commercials come on, so you open Twitter.

These reasons are also fundamentally why mass media and consumers have adopted Twitter as a platform for sharing and consuming in front of the TV. Any commercial or downtime is a cue and the perfect pocket of time to open that Twitter and share or see what else is happening.

So here is the undeniable fact: Twitter currently dominates live TV because it enables these “come-in come-out” experiences that are light, delightful and informative. But ultimately, Twitter is also dominating because of the mistakes we are making in the social TV industry.

The problem today with second screen apps is the assumptions around existing second screen behavior. It’s true that people are also on their laptops, smartphones or tablets while watching TV. But people are checking email, on Facebook, and doing other things. The other major problem is that second screen apps fail to answer the ultimate question: Why should a user open up YOUR app versus the other billion apps out there around TV?

What We Are Doing Wrong

We make it about the people in business, not a business for people.

As an industry, we’re trying to capitalize on a business proposition, not a consumer proposition. Yes, people have another screen up while they are watching TV. But the moment we stop trying to leverage the second screen real estate, that is the moment we are heading in the right direction.

We need to stop telling and start asking. Right now, second screen apps are saying, “Here are other ways you can use your smartphone while you watch TV!” But is anybody really asking, “What do people really want to do when they watch TV?” I can guarantee that from my experience, I’ve found that regular users don’t care about this whole two-screen, synchronous, social TV phenomenon.

We are keeping everything and the kitchen sink.

The companies that have a “checkbox” philosophy will lose. Here’s how most of the thought processes go:

“Users want four things on the second screen. They want to discover new shows. They want to buy products on TV. They want to chat with friends. They want more content. Wait, and they also want to share all this on Twitter. So that’s five things…

Does Your Social Media Policy Pass Muster?

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:41:28 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.openforum.com

As social media continues to evolve, it’s important for us to keep up with the changes. Back in 2009, Mashable published one of the first articles about what to include in a social media policy. It is still relevant today, but social media has changed.

This year, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued three reports regarding social media in the workplace. The last one was specifically focused on employee use of social media.

What the Reports Say

Jon Hyman, a lawyer and author of the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, provides a brief overview of these three NLRB reports. Hyman explains the big takeaway for employers in the employee usage report. “It is very difficult for a business to craft a social media policy with any substance behind it that will pass muster with the NLRB’s Office of General Counsel. The NLRB’s position on social media policies remains an absolute mess. Employers need to be able to adopt bright-line rules to guide their employees towards proper conduct. Yet, this report puts employers in the dangerous position of being fearful of drawing even the simplest of lines. The result is that businesses will be fearful of adopting any rules, creating online anarchy among their employees.”

Sample Social Media Policies

Organizations can’t let policy changes stop them from moving forward. Instead they need to remain compliant, educate employees and build the brand all at the same time. Eliot Johnson, senior manager of global social media at KPMG, a global network of independent firms providing advisory, audit and tax services, shared the company’s philosophy regarding employee use of social media. “At KPMG, social media is as much about the individual as it is about the brand. Empowering 145,000 partners and employees to use social media across our global network demonstrates our vision of enabling the business through our people. It is important that we recognize the business value of social media in order to connect with clients, employees, and the media. If we are successful, we expect to see a shift in the digital behavior of our people and more broadly a shift in our corporate culture.”

KPMG recently created a video social media policy. Johnson shared the strategy behind the video…

The 3 E’s of Social Media – Traffic Boosting Secrets Revealed

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 16:42:36 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.dreamgrow.com

The 1-2-3’s of E-E-E

Educate - Ideally your audience should come away with a lesson they feel is so valuable and useful they cannot help but share their newly obtained knowledge with friends and family alike. If you’ve been following along with my other articles about social networking, then you already know that adding a convenient way to share your articles is vital.

There’s nothing more frustrating than reading a page that is filled with great information only to discover there’s no easy way to share on Facebook or reTweet the information. If I’m impatient enough to just move on, I’m not the only one.

Engage – Try to leave your topic open for discussion by asking a specific question as a call to action to generate comments from your followers. Some of my best content comes from questions asked by readers, because it gives me a better perspective on what my audience wants to know and allows me to respond directly to their needs.
Entertain – Entertaining your audience is as easy as being yourself, and remembering to keep your stories real, and personal. You can tell when someone is being fake, or just going for the affiliate conversion, isn’t it safe to assume your audience can tell when your being less-than-stellar? Let them see you, flaws and all, especially if those flaws can be turned into an entertaining story complete with a valuable lesson.

Applying This to Your Own Business

At the end of the day you want your corner of the internet to develop its own unique community of contributors and followers alike. Don’t expect it to happen overnight, like anything worth doing it requires proper planning, nurturing, and management. Aesthetics are also important, if your theme is outdated, generic, or too busy with banners, this all translates as the signs of a novice entrepreneur. To present yourself as a professional you need a theme the pros use, like the Thesis theme,for example, which is the theme of choice when it comes to attractive, streamlined presentation. Don’t just take my word for it, I’ve given just one positive Thesis theme review out of many, and it’s always a good idea to do your homework.

Dropbox It Like It’s Hot!

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 21:07:02 -0600

Read the complete and original post at www.allfacbook.com

Cloud storage service Dropbox announced an integration with Facebook that allows users to share files within groups on the social network.

Once users link their Dropbox and Facebook accounts, they can share documents, photos, and videos on groups’ walls, and, like other group posts, their content can be liked, shared, or commented on. If the content is edited at a later point, the group will receive a notification about the updated content.

Facebook initially rolled out file sharing for groups in May.

Sister blog Inside Facebook pointed out that documents within groups can be made public or available only to members, depending on the group’s original privacy setting, but public groups cannot make individual files members-only unless they reset the entire group to closed or private.

And TechCrunch added that Dropbox Vice President of Engineering Aditya Agarwal served as a director of engineering at Facebook until December 2010.

Dropbox Engineer Chris Varenhorst offered more details on his company’s integration with Facebook in a blog post:

Today we’re psyched to announce that you can share stuff from Dropbox right inside Facebook groups! Now you can share notes with your study group, add the latest game schedule to your basketball team’s group, or post a birthday video to your family’s group at lightning speed from wherever you are…

Readers: Will this be a useful feature for Facebook users who belong to groups on the social network?

How small businesses can locate and lure new customers through Foursquare

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 22:37:17 -0600

Q: How can small business owners use Foursquare to locate and lure new customers?

Foursquare can be a valuable tool for small business owners, especially if you’re willing to trade deals for check-ins.

Anthony Krumeich, CEO and co-founder of Bloodhound in San Francisco, California:

“Foursquare is great because everyone loves being able to check in and find out where their friends are. Check-ins and geolocation have become part of many apps including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, to name a few. The easiest way to use Foursquare is to simply tell customers and visitors to check in to your location. Getting everyone in your company to check in is a good starting point. Offering a deal or incentive for check-ins is great too. Receiving a 5 percent discount per order, getting a free pen, or some other reward for checking in can really drive social traffic that brings attention to your company.

If applicable, building integration with Foursquare into your product makes checking in as easy as possible for your users. Combining ease of use with some sort of incentive for checking in are the two best ways to leverage Foursquare to find and lure new customers. By greasing the wheels on these potential sticking points, you make checking in something that one wants to do instead of something one has to do.”

Joseph Ricard, founder of Plum Investors in Miami, Florida:

“I have used Foursquare a lot, but I feel I am not the norm. Foursquare is kind of the social marketing tool that most people are not using as much. I actually use it personally because you can sync it with your American Express, and you get a lot of discounts for checking in on your Amex.

I see a lot of value in Foursquare, and more use if you promote your location and include a check-in promotion feature. If you can incentivize your customer to check in, then you will see a better return of it. Most people I see are using Yelp, because it has a quick easy way to see reviews, tips, etc. If you plan on using Foursquare, don’t just ask people to check in. Go to the foursquare for business section and connect with your customers, but also create some promotions (https://foursquare.com/business/merchants).

Having promotions like ‘free drinks at check in’ will have people check in all the time to save money. That will bombard all of their friends with the check-ins and cause them to come check-in to save money. I have seen promotions like this that go out to social media outlets and build a lot of attraction.

I actually see a lot of value in using them all together: Foursquare, Instagram, Facebook Places and Twitter… Read the complete and original post at www.washingtonpost.com

10 Social Media Risks MOST Companies Are Too Afraid to Take

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:00:53 -0600

There was a time when just being in social media was a risk for companies. I’m glad we’re (mostly) done with those days, but now we’re into a new era … the era of experimentation.

Oooh, I like this era! This is when people really start getting creative. And the more risks brands take, the more we learn what works and (unfortunately) what totally backfires.

What you’ll find in this post are the social media ideas that many brands wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole; except, of course, for some special few who said, “Meh, screw it.” And boy do we love those people! Take a look at some risky social media moves that flout convention, and the brands that are pulling it off, anyway.

10 Risky Social Media Moves Real Brands Aren’t Afraid to Make

1) Loosening Up Enough to Make a Joke in B2B Marketing

Businesspeople don’t smile. They carry briefcases and march around with a withering stare of the utmost seriousness. Except the people at IMPACT Branding. Take a look at their latest Facebook timeline cover photo (which they update pretty frequently, check back often):

Read the complete and original post at www.blog.hubspot.com

5 Reasons Why Facebook Rules the Social Media World

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:26:20 -0600

1. Facebook is the Biggest

Facebook has the most users of any social network at over 900 million (August 2012) and should hit 1 billion by the end of 2012. This is unprecedented and makes it a very powerful global network. Growth will continue, but will likely moderate over time.

Being the biggest means also means that most of your friends are already on Facebook so moving to another social network means you will have to leave them behind.

2. Time Spent on Facebook

In the US, people spend 6:33 hours per month on Facebook. Tumblr comes in second at 1:38 and Pinterest at 1:17 hours per month, but only has a little over 11% of Facebook’s worldwide user count. Much of that time spent on Facebook is not just passively consuming content, but also sharing and re-sharing it too. You can share words, link, images, and videos that you find online or upload. You can share others posts on your profile, pages, and groups. A single piece of content can be re-shared many times by each user.

3. Everything Feeds Into Facebook

Most everything else you use in social media can feed into your Facebook account. Instagram photos, Pinterest pins, and Foursquare check-ins, just to name a few. You can also configure Twitter to also post to your Facebook timeline every time you tweet for an extra exposure kick.

4. People Get Emotional About Facebook

Folks have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. They use it all day, every day it seems. And they get cranked up if they roll out a new feature or change. But they always seem to get over it and come back stronger than ever. The high level of emotion that Facebook instills in its users keeps them engaged…

The Future of Facebook

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:27:30 -0600

The complete and original post can be found at www.openforum.com

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. We love spying on long-lost loves, communicating with high school friends and viewing/sharing photos of life milestones. But most of us cringe at political rants, toddler potty training updates and personal play-by-plays (“Just ate a turkey sandwich…delish!”).

In fact, Cliff Lampe, assistant professor of information at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, says those who abandon Facebook are doing so as the result of a single, uncomfortable event like a difficult interaction with an ex. A smaller segment of the population is discontinuing membership as a result of privacy concerns.

Although this pattern is currently more of a trickle than an exodus, will this along with a devalued post-IPO Facebook and the threat of new technology and customized social networks be enough to undo the social media monolith?

Dissecting the Facebook Addiction

According to Internet World Stats, nearly 14 percent of the world’s population uses Facebook—955 million people worldwide, 552 million daily—putting the site on a par with many major world religions. With numbers this high, the site is creating its own gravitational pull, culling more users by the millions, according to Andrew Lipsman, vice president and industry analyst for comScore.

Whether gravitational pull or simple procrastination enhancer, Facebook’s allure—and even addictiveness—is undeniable. It is an ingrained habit of online daily usage for millions…

7 Ways to Be a Successful Social Marketer

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 00:33:00 -0600

Social marketing is an advertising art that is widely utilized but less widely successful, forcing marketers who are looking for real, measurable results to hone their tactics. Review our list of seven ways to be a successful social marketer to help give you a leg up on the competition!

1. Build strong, targeted social media accounts.

Your social media accounts are only as useful as the friends and followers connected to them, making the first step of building those accounts absolutely crucial. Instead of simply working to obtain as many connections as possible, work instead to connect with like-minded people who are more likely to have an interest in what you have to offer.

2. Determine your goals and build your campaign around them.

Once you’ve got social media accounts worth leveraging for marketing purposes, take the time to determine your goals and create a marketing plan that helps you to achieve them. Build a thorough plan to cover you in every situation you plan to tackle, helping you to explore and understand the nuances of each platform and each follower and ending with the crafting of seffective ads and websites that will genuinely spark interest among them.

Read the complete and original post at www.dreamgrow.com

5 Ways Your Business Should Use Twitter Hashtags

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 19:54:56 -0600

This post originally appeared on American Express Open Forum

Assuming you have a Twitter account dedicated to your small business, you should also be investing in hashtags as part of your social media strategy.

But let’s back up a bit, in case you’re unsure what a hashtag is. Designated by a number sign (#), the hashtag is paired with a word or phrase to perform a variety of functions. Twitter users attach hashtags to tweets as search mechanisms, categorizing tools and marketing tactics.

In your small business’ case, you may choose to attach a hashtag, such as #smallbiz, or even your brand’s name itself, as #nike might do. This improves the chance that other Twitter users will find your tweet in targeted Twitter searches. But hashtags also streamline your own processes. For instance, you may ask users to include a unique hashtag in their own tweets as part of your newest Twitter marketing campaign. Throughout your campaign, the hashtag files tweets for easy search and organization within Twitter.com.

Now that you’re familiar with the basic hashtag concept, let’s apply principles specific to small businesses. Follow these five tips to improve your brand’s hashtag strategy.

1. Seek business-specific conversations. If you use Twitter for nothing else, use it to learn from others. Head to hashtags like #SMB or #smallbiz for advice, resources and current news of the small business variety (also follow along during Twitter chats). Although broad hashtags like these can generate an overwhelming number of tweets every day, tune in every so often for a quick update. A couple of scrolls down the feed could inspire your next blog post, marketing tactic or bestseller.

If you seek a more specific conversation, narrow hashtags down by topic. The #marketing hashtag contains a ton of small business-related content, as does #sales. Or take a peek in the #startups or #entrepreneurs hashtag for inspirational profiles in the space. Finally, if you’re looking for tips on meeting like-minded businesspeople, try the #networking hashtag.

2. Keep it simple and consistent. When crafting hashtags for your own tweets, it’s important to keep a couple rules of thumb in mind…