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Weekend Favs April Twenty-Four

cgseo — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:40:38 +0000

Weekend Favs April Twenty-Four This content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Image credit: k1llYRid0ls Good stuff I found this week: Keynote for iPad : Best practices for creating a presentation on a Mac for use on an iPad. Keynote pros will quickly learn that there are a few things you need to do a bit differently when designing a presentation for the iPad. Facebook Open Graph : The Definitive Guide For Publishers, Users and Competitors. So, what does it all mean – anybody’s guess for now. Facebook Connect WordPress Plugin – Adds the new Open Graph Social Plugins (New!), like, activity and recommendations Related Posts: Weekend Favs April Seventeen Weekend Favs April Ten Weekend Favs April Three Weekend Favs March Thirteen Weekend Favs November Twenty-nine Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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Weekend Favs April Twenty-Four

Social Networks are Touchpoints for Customer Acquisition and Retention

cgseo — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:50:43 +0000

Touchpoints serve as the point of contact between a buyer and a seller. As the race to socialize commerce escalates, these touchpoints represent the nodes that define the human network , connecting people across the social Web and uniting them around common interests, themes, and movements. While the technology to connect buyers and sellers on the social Web is universal, the architecture for true engagement is antiquated. Customers are flocking to the social web to not only connect with friends, family, and peers, but also the brands that attract their attention. However, there is a tremendous disconnect between the volume of potential customers and the brands who truly understand how to find and more importantly, how to establish mutually beneficial connections with them. The roadblocks that contribute to the absence of traffic on the bridges built between consumers and brands are trivial once brands understand the dynamics of social engineering and the allure of content in order to stimulate transactions. Everything starts with an acute awareness of where existing and potential customers are discovering and sharing information today combined with a genuine appreciation for what moves them. The moment we have the insight necessary where to construct our presences, we can then engage with influencers, peers, and consumers based on a transparent foundation of contributing value, direction and resolution to each interaction. According to research conducted by ForeSee, the opportunity for online retailers is profound. In the 2010 Social Media Report , ForeSee observed that 60% of online shoppers already use social media sites and networks regularly. And, 56% of those online shoppers friend or follow retailers, but they can only do so, if the retailer is actively engaging within those networks. The study found that only one-fourth of the top 100 e-tailers (e-retailers) has yet to create a Facebook page. ForeSee found that of all the social networks frequented by online shoppers, Facebook consistently earned the top spot. 56% of online shoppers frequented Facebook, followed by YouTube at 22%. MySpace, believe it or not, ranked third with 15% and actually edged out Twitter by 4%. However, pay attention to the real opportunity. While existing users are important, over 30% reported that they do not use social sites…at least not yet. If only 25% of the top 100 online retailers maintains a Facebook page and with Facebook ranking as the most active network among online shoppers, the following data should be more than enough to change 2010 marketing plans posthaste. Over 60% of consumers follow one-to-five brands online with another 21% following six-to-ten. 10% actually reported following 11-20 brands and 8% stated that they follow over 20 of their favorite products and services. What motivates them? Affinity and allegiance are of course among reasons for following brands, but as documented late last year, consumers are also motivated by receiving invitations for events, special offers or promotions. For those skeptics who have yet to allocate funds and resources to engaging customers and prospects in social networks, perhaps this information will erode suspicion. Your customers ultimately will engage with their favorite brands where and when possible, but eventually, your absence will eventually contribute to the insignificance of the brand as competitors will ultimately step in and capture the attention and loyalty of the very people you need to reach. This research is testament to the rapid evolution of customer acquisition, retention, as well as defining the new landscape for advocacy. Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter , LinkedIn , Tumblr , Google Buzz , Facebook — Please consider reading my brand new book , Enga ge ! — Get Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and The Conversation Prism : — Image Credit: Shutterstock

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Social Networks are Touchpoints for Customer Acquisition and Retention

Weekend Favs March Twenty Seven

cgseo — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:32:11 +0000

Share Weekend Favs March Twenty Seven This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I have a weekend routine where I share a handful of favorite things I tripped upon online this week. I usually post about three and don’t go into much detail, but suggest you check them out. The image featured in the post is a favorite creative commons image on Flickr. Image credit: Good stuff I found this week: Firefox Personas – A new way to add branding and personality to the Firefox browser. You can pick one or create your own. Prezi – A very cool and totally new way to create and present ideas online. Your entire presentation goes on one large canvas so you can flip around, add ideas and relationships on the fly, and zoom in on detailed parts of any idea. Clickdensity – Heat map and web site usibility toolkit Related Posts: Weekend Favs February Twenty Weekend Favs February Twenty Seven Weekend Favs March Thirteen Weekend Favs March Six Weekend Favs March Twenty Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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Weekend Favs March Twenty Seven

Weekend Favs March Twenty

cgseo — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:48:05 +0000

Share Weekend Favs March Twenty This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I have a weekend routine where I share a handful of favorite things I tripped upon online this week. I usually post about three and don’t go into much detail, but suggest you check them out. Wordle Image of yesterday’s blog post on PR – Click to enlarge Cool stuff I found this week: Slide Rocket – Online presentation tool that allows you to create, manage, share and measure interaction. Lots of social media features built in as well. Wordle – Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can simply paste a blog post URL into Wordle and produce the cloud. Prova.fm – Crowdsourced advertising design. This service allows you to create design competitions for your next print, radio or video ad. Related Posts: Weekend Favs March Six Weekend Favs March Thirteen Weekend Favs February Twenty Weekend Favs February Twenty Seven Weekend Favs June Twenty-one Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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Weekend Favs March Twenty

US Census Fail – MediaPost Publications

cgseo — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:39:13 +0000

US Census Fail MediaPost Publications It has fewer than 3000 Twitter followers and 14900 friends on Facebook . Are you kidding me? A grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary has ... and more

Weekend Favs March Thirteen

cgseo — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:14:52 +0000

Share Weekend Favs March Thirteen This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I have a weekend routine where I share a handful of favorite things I tripped upon online this week. I usually about three and don’t go into much detail but suggest you check them out. The image featured in the post is a favorite creative commons image on Flickr. Image credit: bender 990 Good stuff I found this week: Traffic Travis – Free SEO and PPC software. Very powerful tool for analyzing your pages and those of your competitors. Trackur – Social media monitoring service. I’ve mentioned this tool before because I think it’s a great one. This past week they created a free account so I felt the need to mention that development. SocialNet Gate – Service that signs you up for multiple social media profiles and offers paid tools to help promote and spread content. It’s a bit pricey but one way to outsource some of this activity Related Posts: Weekend Favs March Six Weekend Favs February Twenty Weekend Favs February Twenty Seven Weekend Favs June Twenty-one Weekend Favs January Thirty Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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Weekend Favs March Thirteen

There’s an I in Twitter and a ME in Social Media

cgseo — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:07:55 +0000

As we’ve learned time and time again, there is no “I” in team. Instead of focusing exclusively on “what’s in it for me,” we’re encouraged to contribute to the greater collective of groups in order to accomplish wonderful things – those usually unattainable by any one person. Of course, this headline is a play on those words, but it also opens the door to an interesting conversation – one that explores a global network of connections weaved from both relations and relationships and bound through action and reaction. I recently asked aloud who’s the me in social media as a way of escalating the discussion around the importance of what we do and say online and also what we don’t do or say and how these seemingly innocuous deeds contribute to the establishment of our Web identity. Indeed, we cast digital shadows … However, with all we know about social media, we are ambivalent to its possibilities and its perils. Instead, we are seduced by the capacity to channel our inner-celebrity and as such, we’re intoxicated by the responses and relationships we earn by willfully sharing in public what was once deemed and coveted as private. The allure of becoming Internet Famous is not necessarily the aspiration of those who engage in social networks, but it is something that manifests either intentionally or unintentionally, almost becoming our certification for tweeting, commenting, posting, and sharing. Perhaps one of the most fascinating observations that I’ve documented and something that continues to receive a significant focus of my attention, is the idea that through social media, we are creating a global society of digital extroverts, rich with individuals who are gaining confidence online and ultimately offline, by saying and sharing the very things that they might not have otherwise voiced in real life. It’s almost a form of healthy self expression, combined with validation and a touch of self-actualization… I Tweet, therefore I am… I pay attention to the work of Dan Zarrella, a friend of mine who is also a social scientist of sorts. Most recently, I analyzed and shared his work in which he dissected the behavior and defining characteristics of retweets . His most recent study examines how social behavior affects relationships on Twitter and certain activities contribute to the state of those who follow us. Even though an “I” is absent from team, a “me” readily apparent. I believe that as social media evolves and matures, we need to focus less on the “me” in social media and more on the “we” in the social Web. Now we have the data to prove it… Zarrella drew a parallel connection between social language and followers. Using inclusive words such as “you” and “we” usually ties to a greater number of followers. Ultimately, it’s how we value and in turn, continually invest in relationships that define who we are in the long term. The net result is that accounts with a greater number of followers tended to use social language more frequently than those who focus on the “I” in Twitter. Concurrently, Zarrella also surveyed the relationship between narcissism and connections. Those who tend to talk about themselves also possess a propensity to repel legions of prospective followers. Emotions also play a role in how individuals form and cultivate relationships. Zarrella documented that people who share updates that are rooted in negative sentiment, such as sadness, aggression, derogatory commentary, etc., will find it difficult to increase their audience and their connections. Sometimes we need to realize that inner monologue is a gift worth embracing… We each possess an inherent and unique ability to make decisions governed by a moral compass. These decisions are now challenged by real-time architectures that entice us to say what we think, before we think it through. What we publish online says more about us than we know or we may realize. In an era where common sense may prove uncommon, an updated form of social psychology is necessary to learn and consequently teach netizens how to create their own destiny, centered by a relevant and meaningful social compass . In a recent discussion with Dr. Drew Pinksey , he advocated a deep understanding of the importance of relationships in the real world in order to foster and cultivate meaningful connections online. As much of this is so new, we are literally learning as we go. We share what moves us with an audience of people we know, those we wish to know, and those who desire to know us. Part of acting of course, is reacting, and it’s through those reactions that we learn the rules of engagement as well as the content and activities that engender reactions. In many ways, the “me” in social media contributes to a stage of participation that at first blush, resembles an ecosystem of vanity, or something that I refer to as the egosystem. But it is this egosystem that has empowered each one of us to construct something truly significant . The true latency of social media lies in our ability to continually connect meaning and relevance over time. After all, we are all in this together. The ability to publish information nowadays is not our true opportunity to gain prominence. Recognition and reciprocity are among the strongest forms of currency in the social Web and as such, we are measured by our actions and our words. Never forget to pay it forward , it’s how you got here and it defines where you’re going. Connect with Brian Solis on Twitter , LinkedIn , Tumblr , Google Buzz , Facebook — Please consider reading my brand new book , Enga ge ! — Get Putting the Public Back in Public Relations and The Conversation Prism : — Image Credit: Shutterstock

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There’s an I in Twitter and a ME in Social Media

Weekend Favs March Six

cgseo — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:15:28 +0000

Weekend Favs March Six This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I have a weekend routine where I share a handful of favorite things I tripped upon online this week. I usually about three and don’t go into much detail but suggest you check them out. The image featured in the post is a favorite creative commons image on Flickr. Image credit: Nordgren Good stuff I found this week: Backup Buddy – a WordPress Plugin that automates the back-up, restoration, and migration of a WordPress blog. This is a paid plug-in but I’ve not found much out there that offers the migration ease that this plugin seems to offer if you need to move to a new host. Harness the Power of Referrals – Inc magazine article showcasing Make A Referral Week 2010 – a week long effort to raise 1000 referrals for 1000 businesses from March 8th to the 12th. Master List – a wiki format list of social media monitoring solutions Related Posts: Weekend Favs February Twenty Weekend Favs February Twenty Seven Weekend Favs January Nine Weekend Favs November Twenty-nine Weekend Favs September Six Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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Weekend Favs February Twenty Seven

cgseo — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:22:09 +0000

Share Weekend Favs February Twenty Seven This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I have a weekend routine where I share a handful of favorite things I tripped upon online this week. I usually about three and don’t go into much detail but suggest you check them out. The image featured in the post is a favorite creative commons image on Flickr. Image credit: aufumy TweetGrid – a number of interesting ways to set up views of things you want to follow on Twitter, but take a look at what they call Twitter Parties, interesting concept for hosting live chat sessions on Twitter. Comapping – online mind mapping software to manage and share information. Good business interface that works well for brainstorming and project management. Litmus – Testing software that allow you to see how your web pages and emails will render in numerous email clients and browsers. Could be a good investment to test new designs. Related Posts: Weekend Favs February Twenty Weekend Favs January Nine Weekend Favs October Four Weekend Favs January Twenty Three Weekend Favs June Twenty-one Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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5 Steps to Successful Facebook Advertising

cgseo — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:07:47 +0000

Share 5 Steps to Successful Facebook Advertising This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Currently Facebook boasts somewhere in excess of 400 million users and growing. You’ve probably heard this line by now, but If it were a country it would be the third largest in the world behind China and India only. There’s a pretty good bet that some members of your ideal target customer reside in and visit Facebook land, but the trick is to find them. Facebook’s advertising platform is a vehicle worth exploring. The tool allows you to place small display type ads in the right sidebar of Facebook pages and profiles. At this point it’s not as effective in pure response as well targeted Google AdWords campaigns, but it’s not really the same kind of vehicle and you won’t find AdWords in Facebook, at least for now. Like many things Facebook, setting up and running successful campaigns isn’t as straightforward as it could be. Below is a description of five steps to consider as you explore Facebook advertising. (Bookmark the Facebook Ad Help Center and return to get answers to the Facebook Ads process) Target One of the best things about Facebook advertising is the ability select who sees your ad using a number of variables, including keywords. You can target by geography, age, gender, education, relationship status, workplace and keywords. (I know someone who wanted to send a birthday message to his wife and targeted so narrowly that she was the only who would see the ad.) Demographics are pretty straightforward, the real trick is expanding your keywords to the point where you have a large enough audience to get the job done. Facebook used to have a tool that let you search for the hottest topics being discussed but they shelved it as they build a more robust analytics package. Check out all of your targeting options here Attract and Engage The first thing you must do is decide whether you want people to be directed to your own web page or something on Facebook like a Page, Application, Group or Event. If you are already the administrator of your Facebook Page, Group, Event, or Application, you can select it from the drop down option. The thing that’s nice about using ads to promote your pages and events is that Facebook puts a “Become a fan” or “RSVP to this event” button right in the ad. People don’t even have to visit your page to take action. There are some pros to sending them to a link on your web site (better tracking options) but by sending them to assets on Facebook you have the ability to multiply their actions through the natural social wall activity that occurs when someone RSVPs to an event. (All their followers automatically see that action.) Some users find Facebook ads a good tool to promote events or get new fans to the pages. From an engagement standpoint think in terms of using the ads to promote content and value and not so much to sell something. The most successful use of ads on social networks is to create deeper engagement so you have the ability to sell once trust is built. Think about putting white papers on your Fan Pages and promoting that content or creating a free event, like a webinar, and advertising that event. In both of these cases you’ll have the opportunity to sell a bit once you’ve proven you know your stuff. (One quirk of note – when you promote an event created with the Facebook event app the title of the ad will automatically default to the title of the event, so name your event wisely ) You don’t get much space in these ads so use it wisely. Your headline (25 characters) should grab attention immediately with a benefit. You’ll get another 135 characters to describe and entice in the body of the ad. You also have the option to upload an image. Take this option. It may be the most important aspect of your ad so choose wisely. Facebook users are very image driven (it’s the largest photo sharing site in the world) and the visual graphic you choose will make or break an ad. This is an element you must plan on testing (see below) Budget Facebook advertising works a bit like AdWords in that you bid for keywords and compete to get your ads shown. How effective you are at this depends upon the competitiveness of your keywords. You can choose between a cost per click (CPC) model where you pay only for clicks or a cost per thousand (CPM) model where you pay per 1000 ad views. Most research I’ve read suggests that the CPC model is slightly more effective in terms of ROI. (Here’s a nice Glossary of Facebook Ads terminology in case this is starting sound buzz wordy.) To start your campaign you must determine a bid per click and daily budget. You can set both of these numbers very low, but don’t expect much. Initially you are just testing so you’ll want to set your click bid somewhere around the Facebook suggested amount and a daily budget you can live with, something like $50 or more to start. You can always adjust these. Learn about the Facebook Ads Manager here . Test No matter where or what you should always test your advertising. Online applications like this make it pretty darn simple. You can and should create multiple ad versions. Once you create an ad you will have the ability to create similar ads and run those as well. You’ll be able to easily view which ad is performing the best based on clicks. Facebook does need to approve your ads so make sure you are familiar with their guidelines . The simplest thing to test is your image. I’ve seen ads go from no response to mega response with a better picture. Mind you I had no idea it was a better picture or I would have used it in the first place, but testing told me so. Here are some suggestions from Facebook on improving your ads . Analyze Once you create and launch your campaigns you need to start tracking and tweaking. Facebook has a tool that gives you some information on actions taken inside the Facebook platform. So, if you are running an ad for an event or Facebook page you can use the Facebook Insights tool to monitor interaction. Facebook Insights is a nice reporting tool as it can give you information about the actual, not targeted demographics and interests of the people clicking on your ads and keywords that drew that interest. This will help you narrow or broaden your targeting. Page admins can access Insights by logging in and viewing the box titled Insights in the left sidebar. This is only visible to Page admins. If you click on See All you will get full reporting. More information on Insights here and from the very useful blog Inside Facebook . Facebook does allow you to run ads that point people links outside of Facebook and in order to track these ads you simply and monitor them using your own analytics tool such as Google Analytics . If you are using Google Analytics simply use the URL builder tool in Analytics to create a link to your page that contains tracking parameters and place that in your Facebook Ad as the destination link. Related Posts: Using Facebook Ads for Content Awareness 5 Tips For Getting More from Facebook Facebook Pages Get More Business Friendly 3 Ways for Businesses to Take Full Advantage of Facebook Facebook Adds Twitterlike Tagging Feature Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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5 Steps to Successful Facebook Advertising