When A CEO Should Fire The Marketing Manager

I heard a really scary story the other day. One year ago a company placed an order for a Yellow Pages print advertisement for a fee of $90,000 for the year after being persuaded by the account manager to place the order for the ad. The marketing managers comment to Yellow Pages was that he would keep count of the number of leads that it would produce and 12 months later the results are in and the grand total was “two leads”.


That equates to $45,000 cost per lead!!

Now I don’t know about you but that acquisition cost per lead is a touch expensive and I would love to know what the effectiveness of $90,000 spent on the following would yield in leads and sales.

•Search engine optimization program that would ensure key words and phrases that are used for finding a company appear on page one of Google. (Nearly 90% of all clicks through to a website are a result of a website being on the first page of a search engine results page)

•Google adwords campaign that places paid banner ads driving traffic to a companies website or special offer landing page derived from keyword searches on Google that appear in the right and top areas of a Google search result page.

•Facebook targeted banner ads that are demographically and highly targeted and funnel traffic to the website for capturing leads and enquiries

•A full time content creation position who creates and promotes the company’s thought leadership with blogs and online videos that educates and promotes the companies brand 24/7.

I also wonder – “does he still have a job?”00
This story displays the challengers marketers face to educate and inspire leaders and CEO’s of organisations to take them from the wilderness of analog traditional marketing to the promised land of an increasingly digital savvy audience and the leverage of the social web.



So here are some of my ramblings and resources that you may find useful on educating and evangelizing to baby boomer CEO’s and senior management who struggle with the generational shift to a digital world.



1.5 Creative Ways CEO’s Use Twitter - This article looks at some of the ways CEO’s use Twitter including “Following the Alpha Geeks”

2.Social Media and The CEO – Video Interview With Greg Savage CEO of Aquent – Greg kindly spared his time to chat with me about his companies experience with social media marketing and thought leadership on a personal and corporate level. (by the way through a corporate restructure he now heads up Fire Brand Talent globally)

3.7 Ways To Get The CEO Crazy For Social Media Marketing – Some observations and suggestions form some of my readers

4.10 Simple Questions To Assess Your CEO’s Marketing IQ – A list of questions that assess the digital literacy and readiness of an organisation

5.12 Key Findings On Social Media’s Impact on Business and Decision Making By CEO’s and Managers – Including “Younger respondents are more likely to read a company blog and to query the Twitter channel vs. older demographics”

6.How CEO’s and Executives Socialize Their Brands – A look at the role of CEO’s and how they are changing some organisations including Zappos and E.L.F.

7.40 Reasons Why The CEO Still Uses The Yellow Pages And Not Social Media – A fun post with some serious insights

8.New Harvard Study: 30 Key Findings on How The CEO Engages With Social Media – Including evidnece showing that professional decision-making is becoming more social, traditional influence cycles are being disrupted by Social Media as decision makers utilize social networks to inform and validate decisions.

9.14 Ways A CEO Can Benefit From Social Media: A True Story- An insight into a global brand management firm STC Associates by the CEO, Sophie Ann Terrisse

10.6 Questions To Ask The CEO When He Says Social Media Won’t Work For His Company – Questions to ask the the CEO to provide context and relevance to the chasm between personal use of the digital world and how it is not often applied to a corporation.

11.9 Ways To Convince The CEO To Use Social Media and Enter The 21st Century – Some simple tactics to employ to educate and exhibit to the CEO the fast emerging digital universe.

12.28 Reasons Why The CEO Is Afraid Of Social Media – A fun post listing the basic fears that senior management and CEO’s have with new and emerging technologies

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2011/01/12/when-a-ceo-should-fire-the-marketing-manager/




So what is your CEO experience?

Redes sociales para impacientes: hablemos del ROI

La semana pasada hablábamos sobre las dificultades para implantar el uso de social media en las empresas españolas. El debate sobre si utilizarlos, cómo y por qué sigue abierto, y creemos que es interesante analizarlo desde el punto de vista de las empresas tradicionales. Según los expertos estadounidenses, 2010 será el año del ROI en social media, si bien éste es un mercado mucho más maduro que el español. Además, si la inversión en redes sociales de las empresas carece de objetivos y baremos de medición definidos, los ejecutivos españoles serán reacios a su implantación al no ver un beneficio inmediato claro. ¿Es la Web social algo más que publicidad a corto plazo, o se trata de algo más? Y si es algo más, ¿cómo calculamos su rentabilidad?

¿Qué es el ROI en social media? Objetivos y métricas

En la medición de la rentabilidad de los social media se han utilizado hasta la fecha varios baremos adaptados de modelos tradicionales. Entre ellos:

• Retorno de la interacción: la duración del tiempo invertido en conversaciones o interacción con objetos sociales (presencia online de marcas) y, a su vez, los resultados obtenidos de éstas que sean dignos de medición.
• Retorno de la participación: la métrica asociada a la medición y valoración del tiempo invertido en participación en social media a través de conversaciones o creación de objetos sociales.  
• Retorno de la implicación: similar a la participación; los especialistas en marketing han analizado los puntos de contacto para documentar estados de interacción y las métricas y el retorno potencial que éstos llevan asociados. 
• Retorno de la atención: en un trasfondo de economía de atención, hemos valorado el modo de captar atención, mantenerla y cuantificar la respuesta. 
• Retorno de la confianza: una variante de la medición de la fidelidad del cliente y la posibilidad de referencia; un barómetro de confianza establece la confianza del cliente obtenida mediante los social media y la posibilidad de que éste se convierta en defensor de la empresa y el posible impacto de esto en el negocio a futuro.

Sin embargo, con la integración gradual de los social media en la mecánica de empresa, aparecen estrategias más sofisticadas de medición. Para muchos no basta con contar suscriptores, seguidores, fans, volúmenes de conversación, etc., sino que es necesario un conocimiento intrínseco del efecto de las redes sociales en nuestra actividad empresarial. En 2010, las actividades en social media todavía se consideran “proyectos piloto”. Con el fin de atraer atención sobre una marca, se desvían presupuestos de otras actividades hacia iniciativas experimentales. Si vamos a extraer recursos de otras áreas para invertirlos en social media, es necesario definir una estrategia clara, incluyendo:

 

 Ventas

 Registros

 Referencias

 Enlaces (la moneda de cambio de la Web social)

 Votos

 Reducción en costes y procesos

 Descenso en problemas para los clientes

 Generación de oportunidades

 Conversión

 Ciclos de venta reducidos

 Actividad de entrada

 

¿Son los social media un vehículo de publicidad a corto plazo?

Sabemos por un estudio de la red publicitaria Addoor, que casi la mitad de los usuarios de Twitter españoles sigue a alguna marca. Según el estudio, el 35% de los internautas considera que la presencia de las marcas en Twitter mejora su imagen porque favorece la cercanía y el 25% opina que da la sensación de que la empresa está a la última. También sabemos que empresarios de renombre como Florentino Pérez y Amancio Ortega están presentes en los social media. Sin embargo, parece que el funcionamiento de esta tecnología en la promoción de la empresa no termina de quedar claro.

 

Mientras que en EE.UU., las estadísticas apuntan a una recuperación de las cifras de inversión en publicidad, en España 2009 se cerraba con una caída del 17% en este mismo sector. ¿Utilizan las redes sociales como medio de promoción aquellos que no pueden permitirse una campaña de publicidad? Creemos que no debería ser así. La participación en redes sociales contribuye a crear una presencia y una imagen de marca van más allá de a la publicidad tradicional y sus expectativas a corto plazo. Sería un error limitarnos a considerar los social media como mera “publicidad gratuita”.

 

Uno de los valores que aporta una presencia en social media es la interacción con los clientes. Si se crea una relación interactiva con el consumidor, la marca se ganará la fidelidad y confianza de éste por prestarle atención y darle una respuesta. En este sentido, una iniciativa que ha tenido éxito ha sido la aplicación Bloguzz, creada por la empresa de Barcelona Buzz Marketing Networks. Ésta permite a los usuarios acceder de forma gratuita a productos y servicios exclusivos a cambio de compartir su experiencia y opiniones. Un paso más allá de la interacción marca/cliente es la monetización directa a través de los social media. Un indicador es el caso de Dell, que ya ha llamado la atención en todo el mundo por su éxito a la hora de utilizar Twitter como herramienta de ventas. Un ejemplo de empresa española que da un uso similar a Twitter es Viajes Marsans.

 

Paciencia y un buen plan

En conclusión, lo más importante a la hora de introducir los social media en la actividad empresarial es definir los objetivos que podemos cumplir en relación con la estrategia de la empresa. Esto es lo que definiría el “Retorno” dentro del ROI. La “Inversión” en este caso, sería en tiempo y en recursos dedicados a actividades de social media (ya que la mayoría de las herramientas sociales en sí son gratuitas). Una vez que demos con la fórmula de qué acciones debemos poner en práctica y qué resultados queremos obtener con ellas a largo plazo, estaremos en condiciones de expandir y mejorar las actividades de nuestra empresa.

 

Este artículo está basada en un estudio de Brian Solis, a quien pudimos ver en LeWeb 2009. Solis es el fundador de la agencia de nuevos medios FutureWorks, y autor del libro Engage.

 http://www.readwriteweb.es/analisis/roi-rentabilidad-redes-sociales-social-medi/

50 Ways To Optimize Your Blog

Written by jeffbullas on June 2, 2010 - 35 Comments

I wrote an article earlier this year on “30 Tips To Make Your Companies Blog Rock” and I had quite a few comments by readers and some added more tips on other keys to making a blog successful.

So I have taken their suggestions, added them to the list and provided some more that I have discovered recently.

Blogging is a journey and as technology develops there will be more ways to optimize your blog. You will also find other keys to keep the blog pumping and energised as you mix with other bloggers both online and offline and hear their stories and hints. So here are the original 30 plus 20 more ideas to increase your blogs readership and traffic.

1. Industry News – whats happening this week, this month

2. Industry Trends – where is the industry going, what are the emerging hot segments

3. Customers Pain Points – Write posts that provide solutions for your customers problems

4. Customers successes – Write up a case study about a clients successful project, they will often let you publish their name

5. What not to do – highlighting where something hasn’t worked (the names shall remain anonymous of course)

6. Create a video blog post by interviewing a successful client – this can a powerful providing authentic evidence of authority and credibility for both you and the client

7. Write articles for the different types of customers that are relevant for each of your vertical markets

8. Brainstorm blog post topics with colleagues and management and create a list for future reference and planning

9. Subscribe to the top industry blogs in your market, both company blogs and personal blogs for ideas

10. Look through your latest news releases for ideas

11. Sign up other staff to write on topics in your industry or market that they are passionate about

12. Develop a series of how to blog posts

13. Turn the “how to” blog posts into short videos

14. When you have a great idea, go straight to your “add new” button and write the headline and save it as a draft or write it down before you forget it.

15. Include a great iconic image at the start of the blog that catches the eye

16. Case Studies are always popular to write about and not just your own

17. Place Powerpoint presentations on your blog by posting and then embedding links from Slideshare

18. Run polls and surveys on your blog

19. Create great headlines that catch people attention and makes them want to read the rest of the article

20. Add credbility banners such as how many subscribers, number of hits, blog grade and any awards

21. Provide “share this” buttons to Facebook and Twitter as a minimum

22. Implement “subscribe” buttons via RSS and Email

23. Write in bite size chunks and use bullet points so readers can quickly and easy consumption

24. Break up large blocks of text with iconic and interesting images

25. Take screen shots to place in your post using Software like Snagit to highlight points .. a picture is worth a 1000 words

26. Be yourself even if it is a company blog.. be authentic.

27. Optimize your blog for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

28. Promote and distribute your posts on to other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

29. Make the blog easy to find on your company’s web page with a large bannner or button

30. Finally, have fun, mix up the types of posts and add some humour occasionally

Gini Dietrich from Spinsucks.com contributed to the list with the following eleven additional tips

31. Ask your readers what they want you to write about

32. Let your readers pimp their own blogs in your comments section

33. Ask questions

34. Create contests (which goes along with your poll/survey idea)

35. Install the SEO All In One pack on your WordPress blog

36. Use StumbleUpon and AllTop to increase your readership

37. Create content for Associated Content by republishing your blog posts there (it helps with readership and news outlets will republish your content on their sites)

38.Comment on other blogs and news articles to show your thinking/expertise, but also link people back to your blog

39. Make sure, when you use Twitter to promote your blog post, that you’re tweeting about it more than once a day

40. Subscribe to SmartBrief newsletters, RSS feeds, and Google alerts in order to find ideas for new content (that’s how I found this blog!)

41. Post and link your content on the Delicious social bookmarking site. (This will again help spread your content by placing it on a highly trafficked site)

Courtney Wiley of iNgage Networks also made this suggestion

42. Try your hat at a guest blogger or two, this could add credibility to your site , especially if the person is influential in his or her space.

Dave Heinrich from WebTechUniverse.com also contributed with this tip which is vital and I do this with every image in my posts

43.In the meta tags for your photos, make sure the labels/words are what you want them to be – search engines can’t “read” photos, only the labels/meta tags.

Also here are another seven that I have discovered since writing the original thirty.

44. When people write a comment actually take the time to email them directly and thank them for the comment and if they ask a question, then answer it. You will find that this will create a WOW factor and spread the word about the blog. If you took 10-15 minutes a day to respond to 5 comments via email you would make great impact on over 1,500 people during a year who would each spread the word to potentially 1000′s more. This could be the making of a tribe!

45. Comment appropriately on the top blogs ranked by Google on the major key word or phrase you are trying to optimize for SEO. This will create a a link back to your site and linking is key to increasing your own rankings with search engines

46. Write a blog post listing some important bloggers in your industry (such as the top 5) and point out how they make their blogs successful and you might find they return the love!

47 Interlink to other posts in your blog when writing a post especially those that are relevant and have been successful (this again is great for SEO)

48. Outsource content development for sections of your blog that are appropriate such as ‘resource’ sections.

49. Update an original post that provides more value to your readers (this post is an example)

50. Take readers comments and include and promote them in your blog (like we have just done)

What makes your blog kick butt ? Look forward to hearing your suggestions and maybe we can get to 100 great ideas over the coming months.

Cambio Estructural y Redes Sociales 2.0

Alfonso Cornejo Álvarez

http://mx.hsmglobal.com/notas/58326-cambio-estructural-y-redes-sociales-20

La revista TIME te nombró a ti el hombre del año en 2006 (You). Compañías están dejando de invertir grandes fortunas en mensajes publicitarios y ahora están haciendo uso de creativos videos de aficionados, realizados con cámaras caseras y una Laptop con acceso a Internet. Por Alfonso Cornejo Álvarez

Siguiendo con la tendencia que inició hace algunos años, seguimos viendo aparecer nuevas empresas que descubren oportunidades de servicios no atendidos, con soluciones simples, pero apoyadas por la poderosa y cada día más fortalecida plataforma de internet.

Jóvenes recién egresados que encuentran las puertas cerradas en empresas gobernadas por los paradigmas del siglo pasado y que sin otra opción comienzan a convertirse en los emprendedores de la empresa del Siglo XXI.

Después de todo no debe extrañarnos la transformación global que estamos observando; vivimos hora el despegue en su parte exponencial de la “quinta ola”, obedeciendo al modelo de los “Ciclos de Kondratiev”, que nos menciona que a partir de la revolución Industrial, hemos pasado por cuatro diferentes olas de desarrollo económico. Estamos dejando atrás la ola de la fabricación en masa, la organización burocrática y el petróleo.

La ola actual es la de la tecnología: redes sociales, internet, empresas basadas en tecnología, hardware y software. Estamos ahora en el siglo del conocimiento, que día a día se está acumulando y organizando, y puede ser accesado gratis gracias a la internet. Esta segunda ola de empresas de internet ha generado una verdadera revolución de las comunicaciones sin precedentes. Por primera vez en la historia de la humanidad, desaparecen casi literalmente obstáculos como la distancia y el tiempo, al poder virtualizar las comunicaciones, el trabajo y la coordinación de grupos.

Esta nueva época permite la colaboración y sincronización tanto de equipos de trabajo, como de grupos de intereses comunes. De ahora en adelante estar conectados en red todo el tiempo será la norma. Estas prestaciones que nos ofrece la nueva era permite también conocer información a tiempo real de lo que pasa en el entorno; qué hace la gente, qué lee, qué compra. La información está a la mano y ya no requiere costosos estudios de mercado para interpretarla, ahora podemos comprender el mundo en tiempo real, gracias a sitios que organizan la información para usuarios y visitantes.

Cada quien puede aportar, cada quien puede tener sus cinco minutos de fama, y con suerte hasta generar una idea ganadora de un millón de dólares. Aquí radica la verdadera ventaja de la ola que actualmente vivimos, como lo mencionaba la revista TIME: ahora tú tienes la capacidad de convertir tu talento en valor. Tu área de trabajo será relativamente sencilla pero poderosa. Una computadora con acceso a internet, con gran cantidad de software de código abierto para darle forma a ideas, generar proyectos, ofrecer servicios a distancia o poner una tienda virtual.

Sin duda estamos siendo parte del despertar de la nueva organización con forma de red: ágil, esbelta y con capacidad de auto organizarse según el tipo de tareas requeridas, sin embargo, como toda era de transformación, aún con toda esta gran cantidad de nuevos servicios tecnológicos, estamos viendo sólo el principio. Tardaremos tiempo en distinguir con claridad los patrones que darán forma definitiva a este Siglo XXI, pero por lo pronto, dejemos atrás lo que ya no funciona y abramos la puerta a la creatividad, innovación y el descubrimiento de nuestro lugar en el futuro.

Marketing on line

Claves del Nuevo Marketing - EAE

View more presentations from Clavesnuevomarketing.

Para empezar en Social Media!

Social Media 3 Tips - Catalyst90

View more presentations from Tom Reidy.

29 Reasons Why You Should be Blogging and Not Watching Television

http://jeffbullas.com/2010/02/07/29-reasons-why-you-should-be-blogging-and-not-watching-television/

I sat down tonight for a while to watch some TV and as I channel surfed I caught myself thinking, “what is the use of this?” Yes, there were some funny ads that flitted across the screen in neat 30 second intervals, there was some entertaining comedy and informative content. As my TV viewing has diminished in recent years and my blogging has increased I have begun to realize the personal and business benefit to me and my company by blogging with a purpose. (Surgeon Generals Warning: Blogging without being passionate about your topic can be bad for your health)

So here are some reasons to blog.

1.You learn a lot more researching and writing than passively vegetating in front of the TV

2.You get feedback from your customers without asking for it

3.Positions your company and brand as thought leader and authority in your industry

4.Acquire more customers through indirect means by adding real value that is noticed

5.Builds a body of work that lasts

6.Your Websites SEO is continually improved and optimized

7.Keeps your brand ahead of your competitors

8.You engage with your customers

9.Builds your company’s brand

10.Grow your personal brand

11, Gather than passivity builds momentum

12.Creates New Ideas

13.Builds Networks on all sorts of levels

14.Facilitates sharing between customers

15. Creates Comunity

16. Provides an outet and feeds your passion

17.You make more money

18.Provides content for ebooks, online video podcasts and webinars

19.Feeds your passion

20.It clarifies and codifies your thinking by putting pen to paper..I mean in the 21st century “fingers to the d”

21.Prepares you for a book

22.Builds your resume

23.Provides authenticity- before PR sanitizes a news release

24.Lets you speak in your voice

25.Builds relationships with industry leaders

26.Helps you make a difference in the world

27.To just plain help people

28.Keep ahead of the trends in your industry

29. To have fun.

Most Marketers Use Social Media, But are New to It

A majority of marketers are using social media in their marketing efforts, but most have only been using it for a few months or less, according to a new survey from SocialMediaExaminer.com.

Nine in 10 Marketers Use Social Media Findings of the “2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report” indicate that nine in 10 marketers (91%) are currently using social media as part of their marketing efforts. Small businesses were slightly more likely to be using social media.

Experience Growing, But Still Low A significant combined 65% of marketers have either just started using social media (22%) or only been using it for a few months (43%). Another 31% have been using social media for a few years, up from 23% in 2009. Tellingly, only 3% of marketers have no experience with social media but plan to use it, while 0% of marketers have no experience with social media and no plans to use it. More B2B companies have been using social media longer (79.5% reported months or more) than their B2C counterparts (68.7% indicated months or longer).

Most Marketers Use Social Media at Least Six Hours Weekly A combined 56% of marketers use social media for six hours or more a week, and 30% use it for 11 hours or more on a weekly basis. It’s interesting to note that a combined 12.5% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on social media. The largest group used social media one to 5 hours per week (about 38%). Forty-three percent of people in this group are spending four to five hours per week on social media activities. Three quarters (76%) of marketers are spending at least four hours each week on their social media marketing efforts. More Experience Equals More Usage There is a direct relationship between how long marketers have been using social media and their weekly time commitment.

For people just beginning with social media, the median weekly time commitment was one hour per week. However, for marketers who have been doing this for a few months or longer, the median jumps to 10 hours per week.

Almost Half of Global Marketers Use SocNets Close to half of global marketers currently use social media in their marketing efforts, according to a recent study from marketing technology provider Unica. Reflecting the rapid explosion in the popularity of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter among consumers, a combined 80% of marketers currently use social media or plan to in the future. Forty-seven percent of marketers currently use social media. Another 23% plan to use it in the next 12 months, and 10% plan to use it in more than 12 months. Only 11% have no plans to use social media, and 9% are not sure.

In addition, comparing US and Canadian marketers with their European counterparts, the study reveals that a much higher percentage of marketers in North America (58%) currently use social media than marketers in Europe (34%).

About the Survey: SocialMediaExaminer.com surveyed 1,898 respondents, of which 98% were business owners or employees, 1% were students and 1% unemployed, via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and email during a five-day period in January 2010.

How To Be Relevant

It's important for a brand to understand their new role as a Publisher. It's important for a brand to understand that nothing happens unless they are interesting. It's also important for a brand to understand that none of that matters unless they are relevant.

A lot of people confuse "being relevant" with simply following a "trend" or "fad." You can quibble over the semantics of that last sentence, but think about American Idol and what Simon Cowell constantly attempts to reinforce to the young, aspiring singers in the early days of the competition (and no, I too can't believe that I'm using an American Idol reference here). Cowell constantly lets these artists know when they are (and when they're not) being relevant in terms of their age, their song selection and the general zeitgeist of the world. It's a great question for a brand to constantly question and prod...

Are we, truly, relevant to our consumers and the industry we serve?

When you think about some of the best Creative Directors in advertising, you can see one common thread amongst their varying looks, style and approaches. For the most part, the creative folks who are at the top of their game are either culturally relevant or are directly tied in to the many various components of our society that inspire them to be relevant. Relevancy is such a complex concept for most brands because they do tend to confuse what it means to be relevant versus getting caught up in trends and fads.

Being relevant is (and can be) many different things to many different people and industries.

We are at a unique moment in time when Social Media enables and empowers everyone to publish their thoughts to the world. What makes it even more unique is that a lot of the focus (for many people and brands) is in using these channels to help them reach a bigger and broader audience. Prior to all of this, we had traditional media and a very fixed/finite amount of companies publishing content for the masses. Now, we have this conundrum where we have to become better human editors to sift through the masses of content (for more on this, please read: Mass Media Or Mass Content - What's Worse?). Who comes out on top? Which type of content wins?

It's not those that are publishers, and it's not those that are interesting. The ones that come out on top are the ones that are relevant.

How does one become relevant? Ahhh... that is the secret sauce (the mystery... the little black box). It's some parts imagination, some parts curiosity, some parts hubris, some parts creativity, some parts execution, and some parts insights. Those that are able to find some magical (and personal) concoction of those parts are, typically, those who do become relevant. Awesome timing doesn't hurt either.

Think about Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, etc... Who do you follow? Who can't you live without? It's always those who are relevant

Build Your Brand a Social Content Ladder in 5 Steps

April 6th, 2010
Written By: Jay Baer

Sure, social media takes a lot of time, but probably not as much time as you think.

Too many companies and organizations are reinventing the content wheel for every social outpost they maintain. A better approach is to create a content ecosystem that allows you to repurpose and cascade your best information.

Instead of a series of self-contained initiatives, build yourself a content ladder.

Here are 5 steps to get there:

1. Understand Taxonomy

If you want a new pair of glasses, the Yellow Pages is a frustrating neighborhood. Look under “G” for “glasses.” Not found. Look under “E” for “eye glasses.” Nope. Only when you look under “O” for “optometrists” do you find what you need. It’s an example of an industry with poor understanding of taxonomy – the words and phrases used to describe products and services.

Taxonomy is incredibly important in social media because it’s the most direct link between the worlds of social and search marketing. Remember, your most important customer is Google, and your content ladder needs to maximize your chances for search success.

When creating and promoting social content, include specific, relevant keywords and search phrases wherever possible. (This is especially important now that Google and Bing are incorporating social content into real-time search results).

Find keywords and search phrases to include in these four places:

Google Analytics (or whatever Web site analytics program you’re using)

Look at your keywords report to find phrases that are driving traffic to your site. I recommend using a mixture of your Top 25 phrases and some that are highly relevant to your business, but perhaps aren’t sending as much traffic as you’d like at present.

Social Mention (or a paid social media listening package like Radian6, if you have one)

Go to www.socialmention.com and search for your company or product name (in quotes), and set the pull-down to “all.” You’ll then see a search results page that shows a comprehensive list of places you’ve been mentioned on the social Web.

On the left hand side, you’ll see a keywords chart that lists common terms associated with your name in social media. Consider adding some of these to your list if they differ from your analytics results.

Twitter Lists

How your company or product are referred to in consumer-created Twitter lists can yield important taxonomy insights.

Go to your Twitter account, and click on “listed” next to your followers count, and see how the lists that include your Twitter account are named. Consider including some of these phrases to your master keyword list.

Incorporate your phrases into your social content wherever possible, but only when relevant. Nobody appreciates keyword spam on the social Web.

2. Seek Content Inspiration

Creating successful social media content isn’t just status updates. Take your top keywords (including your company name, product name, etc.) and search for them on Google, Bing, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and SocialMention.

What shows up in these search results? How much photo and video content appears? Content from your competitors? From fans? You’ll be amazed at how many content-creation ideas this simple exercise can generate.

3. Understand Your Frequency Schema

The key to a content ladder is organizing your rungs. Your scenario may of course vary, but for illustration purposes let’s assume you have a Twitter account, Facebook fan page, blog, and email newsletter.

To create an efficient ladder, you must understand the comparative publishing schedules that you typically employ for each of these outposts. Ordered from most frequent publication to least, let’s assume that your program looks like this:

• Twitter (5x/day)
• Facebook (2x/day)
• Blog (3x/week)
• Email (1x/week)

Create your own integrated frequency schedule to better understand how your outposts interrelate.

4. Test & Track
Create a piece of content (remember to include your key phrases), and post it to the first rung in the ladder (Twitter, in this case) Use a tracking system (I prefer bit.ly) to determine how popular that specific piece of content was with your audience.

Remember however, that many factors influence popularity at the individual content piece level. Don’t make assumptions – test them. Vary time of day, day of week, phrasing, link placement, and other options, and thoroughly document your results.

Social media scientist Dan Zarrella has some excellent research on social content best practices.

5. Tweak and Repurpose
The content pieces that are most successful on the first rung of your ladder should be appropriately tweaked and redeployed on the second rung of your ladder (Facebook).

Test and track content success on Facebook using bit.ly (or number of likes and comments), and add the most effective content pieces to the next rung on the ladder (blog). Note that as you move down the ladder, your repurposing will be more complex – a blog post requires substantially more content than a Facebook update in most cases.

If a piece of content is successful on your blog (measured by visits as determined by Google Analytics, perhaps), add it to the next rung – your email newsletter.

By understanding how your various social outposts can work together at the content level, you can develop meaningful efficiencies. Also, because a sprinkling of the content included in the lower rungs of your ladder has already proven successful on higher rungs, the relevancy and popularity of your content should increase for most fans/readers/subscribers.

Of course, this content ladder approach assumes that you do not have the exact same audience for each of your social outlets, and I believe that to be an entirely realistic assumption. You may have some overlap (especially with Facebook and Twitter), but consumption of status updates and consumption of blog posts and email newsletters are meaningfully different activities, and attract different groups of fans.

What do you think? Worth a try?

Para visitar y entender el principio basico de las redes sociales

http://dotsub.com/view/3d2a8e25-fca0-465d-83e0-3c2ceca3e6a9  

Disfrútenlo!!!

Gracias al estudio realizado por pingdom podemos observar un numero importante de redes sociales con la correspondiente franja de edad de sus usuarios.


Entre los datos obtenidos resaltan las conclusiones acerca de las redes mas utilizadas y el porcentaje de edades.

Distribución según Edad y Red Social

En este exhaustivo análisis puedes apreciar como se distribuyen las edades para cada una de las 19 redes sociales que incluyó el estudio: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, Slashdot, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, FriendFeed, Last.fm, Friendster, LiveJournal, Hi5, Tagged, Ning, Xanga, Classmates.com, Bebo.

Observamos por un lado los parámetros de la izquierda donde aparecen las principales redes sociales en la actualidad, y en lo valores de la derecha puedes contemplar las franjas de edad presentes en cada red.

Destacamos: Promedio de Edad por Sitio

•Los menores de 17 años utilizan principalmente Bebo, Myspace, Tuenti (aunque no reflejado en el cuadro) y en menor porcentaje Facebook

•Los usuarios más activos son los que tienen entre 25 a 54 años, que estan presentes en todas las redes sociales.

•Facebook es la red mas utilizada por todas las franjas de edad, su promedio es de 38 años. El 61% de sus usuarios tienen mas de 35 años.

•Twitter es la segunda red mas utilizada, donde se reducen los usuarios menores de 18 años, y los mas activos son los que tienen entre 35 y 44 años. El 64% de sus usuarios tiene como en Facebook mas de 35 años.

•Linkedin aumenta su numero de perfil joven, de menos de 25 años (quizás debido al numero de desempleos por la situación de crisis y la necesidad de la incorporación de universitarios al mercado laboral) pero la red sigue estando dominada por sus usuarios entre 35 a 55 años. Edad promedio de Linkedin 44 años.

CONCLUSIÓN

Con tanta información que circula por la red, estos análisis nos aportan datos sobre targets y nichos de mercado, presentes en las redes sociales, que son muy útiles para seguir conquistando la batalla ante los incrédulos en el Social Media como Herramienta de Comunicación, Interacción con el usuario, y por supuesto como venta de nuestros servicios.

Las empresas deberían de integrar en su Plan de Marketing, la Estrategia online, dándole la misma importancia que al Marketing ofline, si quieren unirse a las nuevas formas de coexistir, avanzar y ser competitivos, deben formar parte del universo de las redes sociales, porque sus clientes están ahí, y ahí deben estar si quieren ser visibles y optar a formar parte de la vida de ese usuario (por tanto que el usuario consuma finalmente su producto o usuario).

Publicado por Luz Martin

The Top Five Reasons Brands Fear Social Media

The Top Five Reasons Brands Fear Social Media


By Ayelet Noff

February 9, 2010

I’ve been in the social media space now for quite a few years and I meet with at least 5 companies each week who have understood the importance of utilizing social media for their businesses but are still afraid of entering their brands into the new media age.

What are they worried about? Here are the top five concerns that I’ve heard from executives and my response to them:

1) They’re afraid they’ll lose control of their brand and open themselves up to negative feedback.

en you open a business and start marketing your services and exposing your brand to others, people will start talking about your brand. And this is what you wanted right? This is why you exposed them to your brand in the first place. People are going to be talking about your brand no matter what.

The question is:Do you want to be a part of the dialogue or do you want to just play ostrich and ignore what people are saying? If a person is dissatisfied with your services, do you prefer he opens up this discussion in a “I hate ” group opened up by another hater or do you prefer that he come to your page and post the complaint there allowing you to respond appropriately and even perhaps win him back as a client?

Social media didn’t create the dissatisfied customer – it only allowed him a platform to express his frustration. If you don’t give him the stage to speak, he will do it elsewhere and believe me, it will cause a great deal more damage to your brand if you’re not there to respond and open to criticism.

When we speak of social media, we speak of conversational marketing – listening before selling, opening a dialogue with the user and not just throwing a blinking banner in his face. Brands need to make that switch in their heads and understand that social media is SOCIAL. Many conversations will be positive and you will have these nice messages recorded for everyone to see publicly – your bosses, your investors, your customers and potential customers:

Some conversations may be negative but these conversations should be seen as welcomed opportunities to regain customers. If you utilize social media effectively and are alert to what people are saying about you online, then you can also respond in a timely and intelligent manner. When you’re dazed and confused and too afraid to see what people may be saying about you, that’s when the conversation can get out of control and your branding and positioning can go out the window. Companies who understand social media know that by using social media they are increasing the number of positive responses to their brand and making sure to control and decrease the negative responses by showing people that they actually care about what they have to say.

2) They don’t understand it

Companies fear social media because they don’t understand what to do with it, what to talk about, who to turn to. They often time try to do it in-house without the appropriate guidance, fail miserably and then say that social media doesn’t work. Don’t hire your friend’s son who is very active on Facebook to do your marketing strategy for you. Just like you wouldn’t fix your car in-house or do your PR in-house, neither should you start doing social media on your own without having a social media guru at your side. And when I say guru, I mean someone who has had a good track record in creating successful social media campaigns for other companies in the past. Once you have such a guide at your side and you begin to understand what social media is all about, then you will not be afraid of it anymore and you will start to recognize the infinite number of amazing opportunities that social media will open your brand to.

3) The effectiveness of social media is hard to measure

Since social media is still in it’s diapers, it took a little while for tools tracking the ROI on social media campaigns to emerge, however today we have a suite of different tools that allow companies to track even the most minute details in the effectiveness of their social media campaigns.

Tools like Google Analytics which allow us to track the traffic coming into our site as well as where it’s coming from has existed for years. Google alerts which allow us to see the blog posts and other sites linking back to our site have also existed for a long time. And we are now seeing an influx of services that not only allow you to easily monitor what people are saying about your brand but also see who are the top influencers, opinion leaders in your industry and more. There are numerous services that allow you to see the top influencers on twitter such as: Twitter grader and twitter analytics services such as Twitalyzer . Facebook also provides its own insights to page admins and enables admins to view information regarding the demographics of their fans and also how many interactions, comments, wall posts, etc. were found on the page. The more we learn about social media, the more tools we get to measure it.

al media campaigns also allow us to target specific campaigns to specific niches like no other media today.

4) They’re afraid that employees will be on Facebook and twitter chatting all day.

Facebook today has around 350 million users. If Facebook was a nation, it would be the world’s third most populous after China and India. Your employees are there anyway. Why not utilize the fact that they are there to help your cause? When you need to spread the word on Facebook, why not enable your employees to help you or when you finally open that fan page on Facebook, why not allow your employees to become fans and encourage them to take part in your social media activities. Dell for example, who is well known for their great twitter strategy (a strategy which has earned them $6.5 million to date), has around 200 employees working its twitter account, responding to people.

In addition, not allowing your employees to have access to the vast amount of information that can be found on social networks as well as not enabling them to use these networks as research tools nor to network with people in the industry also puts your company at a great disadvantage to your competitors who do allow their employees (and even encourage them) to use social media tools.

5) Social media is costly.
This last fear is not only something that companies should not fear but it is also not true. If you consider the millions of people that you can reach using social media as opposed to the cost of buying an ad on TV or buying a banner, you’ll see that social media is one of the most cost efficient ways of reaching your target audience today.

To anyone who still thinks social media is a fad, WAKE UP. It’s not. Social media is here and it’s here to stay. If you took a look at the latest report that came out of Davos regarding social networks, you’ll see that Facebook is now the second most popular site on the internet after Google and that according to Nielsen since February 2009 people have been spending more time on social-networking sites than on e-mail, and the lead is getting bigger. The question for your brand is no longer whether to be there or not to be there. The question is WHEN will you be there and the longer you keep your head in the ground, the more you’ll lose touch with what’s happening out there in the real world.

Great Ostrich pic credit: http://blog.karmona.com/

Aprender mas sobre Social Media

Aún hoy conozco Gerentes de Hoteles, Gerentes de Ventas, personas del Medio Turístico Mexicano, INCLUSO involucradas en Marketing, que Cuando les hablo de este Proyecto de Redes Sociales me preguntan: Pero, Que es eso? Y  siempre empiezo a "evangelizar" sobre las Redes Sociales Porque creo que es un futuro que ya nos alcanzó y muchos aun no quieren darse cuenta, no se dan cuenta o francamente se resisten a ello. Ahh "Tener un Facebook"! -dicen- Trato de Explicar que es mas que eso .

Explico que es una estrategia pegada con la marca y la comunicación de la empresa, que tiene que ver con la reputación en  línea de su empresa, que tiene que ver con un diálogo con el consumidor, Algunas personas se interesan genuinamente otros me miran y sacuden la cabeza .... "Soy una piedra para eso dicen" ....  los menos me dicen:  "Y crees que podamos generar muchas ventas de inmediato?"....

Para los INTERESADOS en saber mas dejo este Magnifico SlideShare cuya autora ha sabido con gracia y humor, iluminarnos de un modo único y asombroso.

http://www.slideshare.net/mzkagan/what-the-fk-is-social-media-one-year-later