Thursday, November 19, 2009

Is Social Media Worth Your Time?

Everyone - from politicians, businesses, musicians, celebrities

and many other groups of people - uses social media such as

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social networking outlets

to spread their message, build their businesses and connect with

others.



Do they know something we don't?



Networking, whether online or offline, is a great use of time

when done properly. As with anywhere you spend your time,

knowing why you are doing it, how you will measure success and

having a plan is the best approach.



With that said, I jumped in with both feet last year with the

guidance of a social media expert, and I have found clients,

joint venture partners, speaking engagements and other great

connections through various social media outlets. I am a member

of more social media outlets than I can count, but I currently

focus on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. While I am not an

expert in social media, here are five reasons to take some time

to learn the benefits of social media.



1. There Is No Cost



There is no direct cost unless you opt for an upgrade, if one is

offered. I haven't paid for an upgrade and have steadily

increased my list to include over 1000 followers between just

three social media outlets, and without much effort.



2. Build Your Business by Connecting With Peers



Are you interested in finding joint ventures, affiliates, guest

experts or other peers you can bounce ideas off of? In the last

few weeks alone, I have located one large joint venture partner

and have had several other partnership opportunities cross my

desk. Business owners just like you are using social media to

connect with others who are interested in using your articles,

hosting you as a guest expert on teleseminars, webinars and live

events, and even creating projects together!



3. Build Your Business by Following Reporters You Are Targeting



Would an article written by a certain reporter make your year?

Follow them on Twitter or Facebook and see what is of interest

to them and what they are writing about. You never know what

golden nugget you'll find by following them online that may

open the door at the right time. Follow them and invite them to

follow you as well! Or with LinkedIn you can find out how many

degrees you are from them. You may surprise yourself by being

only one or two degrees away from your target!



4. Showcase Your Expertise, Build Your Platform and Attract New

Clients



Social media is an interesting animal. While many people use it

to increase their businesses, you must be mindful about outright

promotions. Generally speaking, heavy marketing of your products

and services on these sites is a big no-no. Here's how I do it.

I'll post something like this: "Just got off the phone with

social networking guru Nancy Marmolejo. Now I'm off to finish

writing my sales page for the Business Breakthrough Series."

People who are intrigued will check you out and may end up

deciding to follow you and ... bingo! They have just entered

your world!



5. Reach Large Audiences



The world is your oyster in social media. There are only a few

businesses that are truly limited by geographic boundaries,

especially if you are in the information marketing business.

Being active on social networking sites eliminates geographic

boundaries and allows you to reach a vast number of people from

all over the world. If you have products and services that can

be purchased by anyone in the world, being active in social

media is an absolute must for you. I recently held a teleseminar

with people from over 10 countries in attendance, all from the

comfort of my home office! And my sweat pants!



So, is social media worth the time? It depends. Social media is

absolutely the wave of the future, and you will need to know

something about it at some point. However, whether you work it

into your plan for 2009 depends on your goals. If you have a

goal of increasing your reach to prospects either locally or

internationally, you can do that quite effectively through

social media. However, if you can cannot and will not commit to

learning how to "tweet" on Twitter or communicate on Facebook

or use your connections on LinkedIn, it will not be worth your

time.



My advice to clients when they are just starting out is to

select one social media outlet, whether it's Facebook, LinkedIn

or Twitter, and master it before jumping into every outlet

possible. You obviously need to schedule time for connecting, so

select the social networking outlets that will benefit you the

most.



Now that I am experiencing the financial results of my online

efforts, I understand why this is such a great use of my time

and I'm hooked!

================================================================

Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, offers a

free report called "101 Ways to Attract Ideal Clients, Build

Your List and Raise Your Profile," which can be downloaded

immediately at http://www.RichLifeMarketing.com .

How to Get Huge Traffic from Social Bookmarking Sites

Sites like propeller.com, digg.com, stumbleupon.com and other social bookmarking sites can give you a huge traffic. How about having 30,000 or more visitors everyday when your website is on the front page. Here are some useful tips on how to get huge traffic from these social bookmarking sites:

* Catchy Headlines – There are many articles got ignored on social bookmarking site because of their headlines. Your title should always be catchy because people first see the title of your article. If the headline or title is not that catchy, expect a small traffic from that article.

*Short but Meaningful Description – Write a short but meaningful description about your article. The description should be intriguing to catch more attention but don't use false facts just to get the interest. If you want to have long description paragraph to describe your story, always remember that people usually don't read above 100 characters. Plus, other social bookmarking site have character limit in description, so you need to think a short but meaningful description about your article.

*Outstanding First Paragraph – It is important that you have great first paragraph with your article on social bookmarking sites. If you already have successful headlines and description to have the User's interest, don't forget to create great first paragraph for them to visit your site or else they'll not going to visit it because of your awful first paragraph.

*Content is Everything – If your article is a junk, social bookmarking is useless. Your site can also get banned on social bookmarking sites if you continue to post junk articles.

*Right Time to Submit – Most of social bookmarking sites only have 24 hours for your article to stay there in front page. So it is not advisable that you post when Users are still sleeping. Weekdays is also a right time to post in terms of traffic because you can have more competitors on weekends.

*Right Category – Some sites might not have the right category for you. If you find that there no right category for you, you can submit to Miscellaneous, General etc. where all uncategorized matter goes.

*Build a Good Profile – If you have an old profile user in social bookmarking sites that posted hundreds of interesting stuff, there is a chance that you'll receive a notice on what you submit. Many social bookmarking prohibited to add links to the interesting articles because it like self-promotion. The worst part of it, you could get banned to their site.

*Cooperate with other Users – There are many articles that made it to the front page of the social bookmarking site because they have networks of friends. If you have at least 15 votes from your group of friends chances are other user might also vote for you. On Digg.com, if have 50 votes your story is on the top of their page.

*Submit in English – Majority of the users are English speaking. So, social bookmarking sites only accept English language. Using different language is not recommended. If you really need to submit your story in different language, make sure that you include English translation.

*Don't submit Old Stories – If you really need to submit old news, make sure that you have updated story related to that.

*Check your Facts and Spelling – You could have negative votes if other user found that you haven't got the right facts about your story. There are some social bookmarking sites that that don't permit to edit your post after you posted it. If you misspell your keyword, title or even your URL, it will stay forever when you posted it. So before posting your story, check your facts and spelling first.

*Have Related Articles – One of the technique to keep your visitor longer on your site is to have related or similar article so that they'll read more articles on your site.

*No no to Automated submitters – Submitting stories on different social bookmarking sites takes a lot of time and you could think that automated submitters is the answer. It is not advisable to use this because it has malware that steal passwords and you could get banned on social bookmarking sites if you use this.

*Responds to Comments – Always respond to the comments on your article. It is possible that you could make more friends and have a top-profile if your story has many comments.

*Prepare your server for a Huge Traffic – If your articles gets the interest of many user to visit your site, thats a great news because of huge traffic you have but if you have a so-so server you need to changer your server that can handle huge amount of traffic.

*Snowball Effect – The good thing about snowball effect is that if people find your article interesting they could start talking about your story. They could start blogging your topic and you could have lots of backlinks from them.

The famous comedian

Isn't it amazing that George Carlin - comedian of the 70's and 80's - could write something so very eloquent...and so very appropriate.
A Message by George Carlin:
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Social Media to Promote Your Brand

If you think Twitter, Facebook, and other online social media communities are only for teens, you're missing out on valuable and free marketing platforms for your brand (book, business or product).



Further, if you're not on social media, you're risking losing your own potential clients/customers to those smart business people who are utilizing social media.



Which social media platforms you focus on depends a great deal on what your brand is. Here are seven excellent reasons why you must use social media no matter what you are promoting:



Reason 1: It's the Most Cost-Effective Online Advertising.



The current most popular social media platforms being used for business are free: Twitter.com, Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com. (LinkedIn does have an upgrade that costs, but it's not necessary to get this upgrade.) And this is "relationship" marketing to targeted markets. "Free" is definitely more cost-effective than spending money on online advertising techniques such as Pay Per Click or banner ads.



Reason 2: You Can Have Global Reach With Social Media.



The world is now a global marketplace. Why not reach this global market? Many of the most popular social media platforms have this global reach, and you can see this clearly illustrated on Twitter. At any time of day or night you can see real-time "tweets" from people in Japan, England, the U.S., India and many other countries.



For example, if you have a book that might appeal to anyone in the world who reads in English, why limit yourself to just promoting in the U.S.? Thanks to Amazon people outside the U.S. can buy your book even if it is only available in U.S. stores.



Reason 3: You Can Attract Targeted Groups of People as Potential Clients/Customers for Your Brand.



Social media enables you to join groups of people with the same interests and goals. On LinkedIn and Facebook you can join groups as varied as Children's Book Writers to eMarketing. If you choose groups to join based on your brand, you'll be putting yourself in front of the exact groups of people you want to reach as potential clients/customers. This can pay off in increased sales for you.



Reason 4: You Can Form Your Own Community by Using the Community Aspect of Social Media.



Once you are active on social media platforms and have people who are your followers (Twitter), your friends (Facebook) and/or your connections (LinkedIn), you can start your own groups of highly targeted interests. You can create a niche market in your brand, book or business and share your knowledge with others who join your community.



These people can become your loyal followers, friends and connections - and they can help spread your marketing message to their followers, friends and connections.



Reason 5: You Can Use Social Media to Establish Your Expertise.



People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. By sharing your knowledge for free online with the people in the social media groups you belong to, you can establish yourself as an expert. This can pay off in increasing potential clients/customers' trust in you.



And you can also receive invitations for blog "interviews" or BlogTalkRadio show interviews or podcasts. And these interviews lead to more free exposure for your brand and more free promotion for your expertise.



Reason 6: You Can Use Social Media to Find Cross-Promotional Partners.



Amazingly in the world of social media, people who would be considered competitors in the off-line world are teaming up to provide products and services to their combined clients/customers.



And these clients/customers are very responsive to these cross-promotions (often called joint ventures) – especially when introduced to a second expert by a first expert they already know, like and trust.



You and your cross-promotion partner can each get access to the other person's "list" (the names of interested clients/customers collected at a website) and thus you've greatly expanded your potential client/customer pool.



Reason 7: With a Few Keystrokes You Can Announce New Updates of Your Activities.



Your updates on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn take seconds - and you've announced to your followers, friends and connections what you're doing or what you're offering or what you're speaking on. And there are even online applications that allow you to update your status across several of your social media accounts at one time. So it is as easy as 1-2-3 to keep in front of your potential clients/customers.



In conclusion, once you become active yourself on social media platforms, you'll find many more reasons to promote your brand, book or business on social media in order to attract targeted potential clients/customers. And you'll look back at your pre-social media days and wonder how you ever did marketing without using online social media.



Source: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2009/sep/30prt.html

100 Ways To Measure Social Media

If there's anyone out there left who says you can't measure social media, here are a hundred answers.

At most of the events I've been to lately, measurement continues to be a hot topic. The first question that comes up is, "What can I measure?" That's where this cheat sheet can come in handy: a list of 100 thought-starters.

Some entries here can be interpreted several ways. Depending on how you define them, some of these metrics may seem redundant, while others may seem so broad that they can be broken out further. Many of these can be combined with each other to create new metrics that can then be tracked over time. It's a start, though, so dive in and consider which ones may apply to programs you're working on.

1. Volume of consumer-created buzz for a brand based on number of posts

2. Amount of buzz based on number of impressions

3. Shift in buzz over time

4. Buzz by time of day / daypart

5. Seasonality of buzz

6. Competitive buzz

7. Buzz by category / topic

8. Buzz by social channel (forums, social networks, blogs, Twitter, etc)

9. Buzz by stage in purchase funnel (e.g., researching vs. completing transaction vs. post-purchase)

10. Asset popularity (e.g., if several videos are available to embed, which is used more)

11. Mainstream media mentions

12. Fans

13. Followers

14. Friends

15. Growth rate of fans, followers, and friends

16. Rate of virality / pass-along

17. Change in virality rates over time

18. Second-degree reach (connections to fans, followers, and friends exposed - by people or impressions)

19. Embeds / Installs

20. Downloads

21. Uploads

22. User-initiated views (e.g., for videos)

23. Ratio of embeds or favoriting to views

24. Likes / favorites

25. Comments

26. Ratings

27. Social bookmarks

28. Subscriptions (RSS, podcasts, video series)

29. Pageviews (for blogs, microsites, etc)

30. Effective CPM based on spend per impressions received

31. Change in search engine rankings for the site linked to through social media

32. Change in search engine share of voice for all social sites promoting the brand

33. Increase in searches due to social activity

34. Percentage of buzz containing links

35. Links ranked by influence of publishers

36. Percentage of buzz containing multimedia (images, video, audio)

37. Share of voice on social sites when running earned and paid media in same environment

38. Influence of consumers reached

39. Influence of publishers reached (e.g., blogs)

40. Influence of brands participating in social channels

41. Demographics of target audience engaged with social channels

42. Demographics of audience reached through social media

43. Social media habits/interests of target audience

44. Geography of participating consumers

45. Sentiment by volume of posts

46. Sentiment by volume of impressions

47. Shift in sentiment before, during, and after social marketing programs

48. Languages spoken by participating consumers

49. Time spent with distributed content

50. Time spent on site through social media referrals

51. Method of content discovery (search, pass-along, discovery engines, etc)

52. Clicks

53. Percentage of traffic generated from earned media

54. View-throughs

55. Number of interactions

56. Interaction/engagement rate

57. Frequency of social interactions per consumer

58. Percentage of videos viewed

59. Polls taken / votes received

60. Brand association

61. Purchase consideration

62. Number of user-generated submissions received

63. Exposures of virtual gifts

64. Number of virtual gifts given

65. Relative popularity of content

66. Tags added

67. Attributes of tags (e.g., how well they match the brand's perception of itself)

68. Registrations from third-party social logins (e.g., Facebook Connect, Twitter OAuth)

69. Registrations by channel (e.g., Web, desktop application, mobile application, SMS, etc)

70. Contest entries

71. Number of chat room participants

72. Wiki contributors

73. Impact of offline marketing/events on social marketing programs or buzz

74. User-generated content created that can be used by the marketer in other channels

75. Customers assisted

76. Savings per customer assisted through direct social media interactions compared to other channels (e.g., call centers, in-store)

77. Savings generated by enabling customers to connect with each other

78. Impact on first contact resolution (FCR) (hat tip to Forrester Research for that one)

79. Customer satisfaction

80. Volume of customer feedback generated

81. Research & development time saved based on feedback from social media

82. Suggestions implemented from social feedback

83. Costs saved from not spending on traditional research

84. Impact on online sales

85. Impact on offline sales

86. Discount redemption rate

87. Impact on other offline behavior (e.g., TV tune-in)

88. Leads generated

89. Products sampled

90. Visits to store locator pages

91. Conversion change due to user ratings, reviews

92. Rate of customer/visitor retention

93. Impact on customer lifetime value

94. Customer acquisition / retention costs through social media

95. Change in market share

96. Earned media's impact on results from paid media

97. Responses to socially posted events

98. Attendance generated at in-person events

99. Employees reached (for internal programs)

100. Job applications received

There you go. I welcome other entries in the comments. It's also just the start of the answer to the broader question: "How do I measure it?" Ultimately, you need to start with figuring out your business objectives and then apply these metrics accordingly.