Facebook started out as a way for people to connect with others.  School buddies, former co-workers, families and friends.

Create a profile, friend others and search for people you lost contact with over the years.

Next, we had Facebook for business.  For many companies, this has been a struggle to maximize benefits of Facebook.  Contests, coupons are popular along with utilizing Facebook for customer service purposes.  Two way communication is the goal.

Now we have the new timeline format.  Where Facebook used to default to the Wall, it now defaults to a Profile page that has little to do with connecting.    You actually have to scroll down to see the posts.

Looks like a dating, Classmates and Facebook page all rolled up into one.

Interesting under Facebook’s Business help page it shows Pages, Ads, Sponsored Stories and Platform.

Platform is described as: “Transform your website into a social experience with plug-ins and custom apps.”

The key word here is website.  Most companies already have a website and are looking for something else from Facebook.

In looking at the Facebook page of several large businesses, the top is a large photo with the company logo. A short paragraph about the company is placed to the right under the logo.  To the left are photo links to photos, Likes, Welcome, featured product etc. Then and only then do you see “Highlights” by scrolling down.

This is where your fresh content and connections are placed.  The company can post something on the left and recent posts by others are shown on the right.  Three posts are shown with a click to see more.

Below that are most recent posts following the timeline by month.

Am I remembering correctly that there used to be more connecting and less selling?

Our second case study is a local alumni association.

Brief History

The national alumni association for our case study university has puts its focus on social media for the local chapters to engage the local alums.

Gone are the days of a website page created and maintained by the university and updated by the local chapter president.  Now it is all Facebook.

For this university, there are approximately 800+ alums in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  49 have liked the Facebook page.

This local university alumni club has issues with engagement such as attending events, volunteering and interest has declined over the recent years to a unsatisfactory level.  The reduction in the number of printed mail outs, emails and a website page mostly likely contributed to this decline.

The national website directs alums to the individual chapter Facebook page (if available).  The Facebook page is well maintained for events, but lacks in postings beyond events.  Engagement is poor.

Here a chart comparing our case study (Ours) and similar universities.  These are similar in that they are not geographically close to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, are private universities of the same mission/faith and similar in size.

One the differing factors are how long the Facebook page has existed.  The earliest appeared in 2009.

University B is far and away the most successful in utilizing Facebook.  I would not stand up and cheer for University B.  With an annual enrollment of 7000 students, 16,500 total Likes is not all that encouraging.

The expression “Don’t quit your day job” applies.  “Don’t quit your website” should be the new motto.

Do you consider this acceptable?

Twitter:  @social_dynamics

Facebook: socialmediadynamics

Watching two non-profit sites add Likes and the level of engagement is an interesting and frustrating endeavor.  One is a local alumni chapter and the other is a neighborhood association.

Being involved with both of them since their inception provides a long-term view and perspective.

Neighborhood Association

The neighborhood association Facebook page has been active since December 2010 making this page 15 months old.  There are approximately 600 homes in this association.  Even using a low factor of 1.5 persons per household that equates to 900 potential Facebook Likes.  After 15 months, only 159 Likes.  The high was 163.

The neighborhood association had  full-scale promotion to introduce Facebook to the residents.  A neighborhood printed newsletter was delivered at every door.  An email blast was sent to all residents signed up for neighborhood email notices.  The website had a prominent write up and continues to have a link.

The age of the residents in this neighborhood is quite varied.  Young married, families with school age children, empty-nesters and seniors.  The neighborhood is affluent.

The engagement has also significantly dropped off after the first 6 months.  When really cute pictures of kids or pets are posted, the engagement and postings spike.

Comparing this activity to the website for this association, the website had 386 unique visitors in December 2010.  In February 2012, the unique visitor count was 441.

While not directly comparable, both the website and the Facebook page are public.

The home page was viewed 670 times (duplication included) in February 2012 and the neighborhood history section 58 times.

The original goal of the Facebook page was to provide a means for neighbors to reach out to other neighbors, post to the wall such things as garage sales, lost pets as well as pictures of events and neighborhood happenings.  The admins have been fabulous in their postings. The residents who Liked the Facebook page are not using the site to its full potential.

Sounds like an article for the next newsletter.  If there is an article, I will keep you posted on the change in Likes and engagement.

See our next article for results to date regarding the local alumni Facebook page.

Twitter: @social_dynamics

Facebook: socialmediadynamics

Recently I have participated in online surveys from two different sources.  My intent was to see if social media questions are being incorporated into these surveys.

To my surprise, not so much.  In other words if social media is included in the survey questions, it is one or two questions such as “Do you have a Facebook account?”  “Do you use Twitter?”   Since I do and answer yes, I would expect to receive additional questions; however, no additional questions follow.

Many of these surveys are regarding purchases and preferences.  You would think that social media would be included.

Methods

To my disappointment, these online questionnaires are lacking in standard research methodologies.  I know because I worked at a large, well-respected media and marketing research firm (quantitative and qualitative studies) for 16 years that conducted surveys and provided research to media outlets, advertising agencies and advertisers.

Most of the questionnaires do not allow for a non-answer such as not applicable.  For example, I answered yes to 10 different candy brands and received additional questions which included 12 brands.  One of the questions was for all brands was “When you bite into an Almond Joy (which I had not selected) the experience feels like [check the appropriate box].  The questionnaire was designed to force me to provide an answer on an experience I had not had.  Bad survey design.

This appears to be a common problem with these surveys.  Another issue is not testing that the surveys actually work.  Recently a survey I participated in went into endless loop on watching commercials.

Some of the surveys are so redundant and boring I have to believe that some people will push ahead with quick answers to get through the survey.

Value

I also question the value of the results.  In most cases, you are awarded points for completing the survey.  In some, you are entered into sweepstakes.  You take enough of these surveys and you know what the survey is looking for in age and answers to the pre-screening questions. When working for points or a chance at a sweepstakes prize, what are the odds that after 10 times of not being selected, some folks will answer differently just to get past the pre-screening questions?  There is a rejection factor.

Ethics

With one of these survey firms, the pre-screening questions are enough for a short survey result.  The demographic questions are asked such as age, gender, state of residence, race, income, education along with a few questions about products or services.  You are then magically not qualified however spent 15 minutes answering survey questions.  What do they do with those results? Typically, these are for 100 points or 300 points which can eventually be turned into cash. It does make me wonder about the ethics of the survey firm in asking so many pre-screening questions.

Surveys are supposed to be random.  The overage by demographic is weighted upwards or downwards depending on population.  These surveys are not random and are actually quite restrictive in the screening process. Surveys should be random to remove the potential of the rejection factor.

Decisions are being made using these types of quick surveys.  When utilizing this type of survey to provide some direction and/or as part of a larger research or marketing study, they have value if the deficiencies are understood. Making decisions solely or heavily based upon these type of survey results maybe is not such a great idea.

@social_dynamics

Recently we have seen advertisers using their Facebook address instead of their website URL. We believe this is a bad idea for a variety of reasons:

1.  Most companies are not selling products on Facebook.

2.  A recent article by Bloomberg stated “Gamestop to J.C. Penney Shut Facebook Stores: Retail
(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-17/f-commerce-trips-as-gap-to-penney-shut-facebook-stores-retail.html)

3.  Investing time and money (labor) with an entity such as Facebook when you have NO control is risky at best.

4.  If you lost your Facebook or Twitter page tomorrow how would you recover?

5.  How do you restore Facebook or Twitter content?  You really can’t because it is time sensitive.  Read this post at Backupify.  http://blog.backupify.com/2011/01/12/why-cant-i-restore-my-twitter-and-facebook-data/

6.  Your Facebook and Twitter sites have transformed into providing customer service communication. Which is a good thing for your company possibly, however not something you may want to promote to new customers.

Keep your branding and marketing emphasis where it belongs – within your domain.  Your website domain.

In watching the Super Bowl ads this year, I noticed a lack of Facebook and Twitter ties-in and mentions.  It wasn’t my imagination.

This is good trend.  Not including ANY online reference is surprising however.  It is an understanding of the product maturity cycle?  See our post Product Maturity – Social Media Entering the Next Phase?

@social_dynamics

Remember the days when not everybody had a website.  Yes, we acknowledge there is a small minority of companies that still do not have a website.

Today it appears there is an expectation for all companies to be involved with social media, especially Facebook.

There are all kinds of studies about social media success regarding engagement, persuasion, referrals, etc.  Maybe or maybe not.  It does appear the most successful campaigns have some promotional element such as a coupon, contest or giveaway or a place to play games.  A good promotional element will generally work in almost all type of campaigns.

Another expected result from social media was helping companies in the search rankings.  It is getting better but it truly depends on how information is available in news stories, press releases, Wikipedia pages and sister companies websites.

We randomly chose Lowe’s, Sears, CBS, Audi and Levis.

Facebook showed up in a Google search for Lowe’s and Levis on the first page of results.  Twitter ranked higher than Facebook for Sears and CBS but neither were on the first page of results.  Twitter was on the first page of results for Audi.

Using Bing, Twitter appeared on the second page of results for Levis and Facebook on the fourth page.  Facebook and Twitter did not make the first 4 pages of results for Audi.

Interestingly, Facebook is the #2 result with Bing for CBS.  The result looks like this:

This maybe an Ah Ha moment.  The true Facebook listing for CBS shows on page 3 of Bing.  In checking after NCIS Los Angeles aired, the result was not longer listed in checking back a week later, an alert for Survivor appears being delay  is still present 18 hours later and after the show has aired.

Twitter and YouTube show results for Lowe’s on page 2 and 4 of results respectively.  Facebook does not make into the first five pages of results.

Facebook for Sears showed on page three.

What does this tell us?  If these five large companies are not getting higher results with Facebook and Twitter in the search engines, how will your company?

The key difference between a website and social media is the amount of updating, fresh content and monitoring it takes with social media.

Since the goal with social media is engagement, your company must be engaging first and always.

Look for our upcoming blogs regarding the level and depth of social media activity that is right for your company.

Check us out on Facebook to look for a new product announcement as well.  Another key reason folks return to a Facebook page they have liked, is to find out about new products.

@social_dynamics

Much has been written and will probably continue to be written about calculating your Return On Investment (ROI) on your social media campaign.

Why attempt to calculate?  Simple question.

Because you spend money on social media?  You spend money on entertainment of clients, training on employees, company picnics, holiday parties, employee awards and the like.  These are mostly social in nature. Do you attempt to calculate ROI on these investments?

Let’s use a company picnic or holiday party as an example.  Do you figure in the expense of the company picnic including hours spent by employees planning the event, foods, rentals, etc. and the hours lost by employees attending the event?  How much money did your company make or how much money did your company save with the expenditures allocated to this activity?

What is your ROI on your website?  What is the ROI on a printed brochure?  For that matter what is the ROI on your broadcast media campaign?

Some things can be calculated, some can be attributed and some cannot be calculated easily or at all.

To be clear, we are not suggesting that social media campaigns not be evaluated.  Social media campaigns should be even scrutinized.  Let’s just not get too caught up in the ROI calculation.

You can’t  calculate the ROI on employee feelings toward your company.  You can attribute lower turnover, positive attitudes, attracting better talent to the way your treat your employees.  Or maybe you just pay better?

You can have trackback links in Facebook and Twitter.  You can offer coupons, create contests and give away prizes to generate interest and pile up the Likes and Followers.

Social media is about creating “feelings” towards your company and increasing brand loyalty.  Why would anyone expect to be able to definitively calculate the ROI of Likes on Facebook?  Isn’t Like a feeling?

We have a better idea…more to come.

@social_dynamics

Social media has completely changed how traditional marketers must approach their customers. Today’s marketer balances inbound marketing with outbound marketing.  The challenge is to embrace the interactivity of social media and incorporate it across their channels, understanding that social media has completely changed how consumers react to advertiser messages. Consumers are vocal. They are resistant to constant one-way sales pitches. They expect more service, more information and reward good content with positive response. They also don’t hesitate to share their displeasure in very public venues.

Marketers embracing social media will reap additional benefits in lower ROI. The cost to run social media and blogs is insignificant in light of all outbound channels.

The neat infographic from the folks at Voltier Digital visually expresses the dichotomy of “Old Marketing” vs “New Marketing.”

Thanks to VOLTIER DIGITAL!

@social_dynamics

“If you make it easy for someone to steal from you, chances are someone will.” Frank Abagnale, advisor to the FBI whose story became famous in Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can.”

Abagnale on growing your children’s credit

Speaking recently at the PCI Community meeting in Scottsdale, Abagnale explained why he chooses credit over debit cards: “I have a credit card because I have 0 liability. If you use a debit card, you expose your money. If may take 2-3 months to get it back. With a credit card, you get a new one in 24 hours.” He continued with great advice for parents: “You do nothing for your credit with debit. No points. No rewards.” He got supplemental cards for his children so the kids’ credit score would be established and grow while he paid the bills. Then he let his kids know he’d be monitoring their expenditures for good choices. By the time one of his sons went to buy a home, he had 7 years of good credit. Establishing credit while at school earns credit. Debit cards can’t do that.

Abagnale on fraud and pitiful punishment

Consulting with the FBI, Abagnale continues to advise on white collar crimes while teaching at the FBI Academy and helping on some investigations. “We just arrested 17 police officers in Baltimore. It’s amazing that you can steal a card and get 5 years, but you steal $10 million and you get a slap on the hand and community service.”

39 billion checks/year are processed in the US. 75% of payments between companies are checks. “ People wonder why we still use checks when there is so much fraud. Abagnale says, “When will we be paperless? When the toilet is paperless. No time soon.”

Abagnale’s concerns about Facebook

“Ten million children on Facebook are under ten years old,” said Abagnale. “I was recently testing Pathmark, a new iPhone app that can be used to take pictures of strangers in public, then run through Facebook to make a match. It’s just a couple of more steps to steal an identity.”

Don’t let your children put up their pictures, date of birth or birthplace on Facebook. Watch what your kids post. Teach them to make good choices. When they apply for jobs or college, they may be denied entrance for a thoughtless post made on social media.

Protect your credit. Abagnale offers several tips at his site: http://www.abagnale.com/pdf/27169_final.pdf and recommends getting a security micro cut shredder to make confetti out of records and credit cards you want to destroy. For the same cost as a regular shredder, this kind will make it nearly impossible to recreate documents.

More advice: choose a good credit reporting service by asking two questions:

1)      Do you monitor all 3 services 24/7 and

2)      Will you notify me in realtime?

Abagnale offers booklets on protecting yourself and your business at his site: www.abagnale.com. He says he checks email sent to frank@abagnale.com

Learn how to spot a phony credit card or bill at his site: http://www.fraudtips.net/abagnaletips.htm.

@social_dynamic

If you haven’t tried QR codes yet, what are you waiting for? Creation and tracking is free. This is accountability of your media at its finest. You’ll be able to watch the growth of smart phone interaction with your sites, landing pages, social media, print, television and much, much more.

Why are QR Codes important? 11 out of 50 Fortune companies are leveraging QR Codes in their marketing strategies. The instant gratification of coupons, discounts, product information and so much more is clearly pleasing to consumers.

Are you using QR codes in your marketing yet? The interest is growing. QR Code scanning increased by 4549%.

See the full Infographic by Sujay Haheshwari of Queaar at:

http://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/the-rise-of-qr-codes-infographic-051087

How are they being used? Currently the biggest use in the US is by women capturing coupons. Smart phone users are also looking for special promotions, and more product information. Learn more about QR code usage and growth from Heidi Cohen’s blog post of stats: http://heidicohen.com/qr-code-data/.

Want to get better feedback on the performance of your advertising? Use QR codes and track with Google Analytics and/or Bit.ly link shortening. We offer a variety of QR resources in our previous post: QR Codes Kick up Interaction by 15-25%. The QR code to the right is for that blog post (read: another great use to promote your writings in social media, for instance).

Do you have a trade show coming up? Put a QR code with a link to your site in all your print materials and ads. You can even put a QR code on your business cards. To really track every element of your campaign, build different QR codes with different links and create a spreadsheet so you can evaluate results.

Say you had several print ads. Create a code like http://yourdomain.com/PrintAd1_Nov11 for the first ad. Shorten that link at Bit.ly. Then just change the code for each element of your campaign. I customize the shortened links to something like: j.mp/SMDQR2. I have to use 6 characters after j.mp (a Bit.ly option for a shorter link), so I choose 3 identifiable company letters and supplement with a descriptive alpha-numeric finish. (You may want to consider your own shortener: http://j.mp/nK41vp, but that’s a topic for another day.)

Bit.ly will create a QR code for you in your account and you can return to track the traffic to your QR code. You can see the result of my test (below) of the QR code (above right) created for this blog post from our Bit.ly account.

Here’s what it looks like when Bit.ly creates the QR code.

Here is a nicely set-up spreadsheet that you can use as a template for keeping track of your QR codes by media. Then add your click results to evaluate performance by medium and creative.

Find the spreadsheet and more help here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtFk-wwlhvpockZwRkRxMWRqdnI5QngyVXotSzhDRlE&hl=en#gid=0

You can also track your QR codes with your Google Analytics. Here’s a blog post that describes how: http://blog.redclayinteractive.com/how-to-track-qr-codes-in-google-analytics/ with the Google Analytics URL building link here: http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=.

There is no excuse not to begin to track your online clicks from offline activities any more. It’s available and free. Smart phones make it easier than ever to get a grip on the performance of your marketing, advertising and press efforts. As you go create new print and magazine ads, press releases, sales sheets, outdoor billboards and bus-boards and other signs, interact in social media and tv, even business cards, implement QR codes and track the reaction. As you create new blog posts and landing pages, create new QR codes to promote offline.

@social_dynamics

Social media is no longer the next new thing.  It is no longer the new thing.  In fact, Facebook is 7 years old. Twitter is now 5+ years old and LinkedIn has turned 8.

Since social media is broadly used and extends beyond traditional marketing and media experienced individuals, product maturity/life cycle theory may not be as well known.

The concept of product maturity or product life cycle analysis has been with marketing types for decades.  Plotting the product or service on a bell curve to determine where the product is regarding continuing growth.

Telecom is probably the most recent and closest in category (i.e. technology) for us to make a comparison.  The expectation by the financial markets that the telecom industry continue its tremendous growth was the start of the telecom industry collapse.  Without the next new thing, people kept their same old phones.  It wasn’t until the iPhone debuted that investors became interested in the telecom industry when a whole new source of revenue was out there for the taking.

So far only LinkedIn has IPO’d.  The stock was 94.25 on May 19 and is currently around 102.00.  Facebook appears to have set the date for May 2012. Twitter has not set a date or quarter.  Twitter is still working on monetizing its value.

We have already read about Facebook’s difficulty in cracking China and pressure from Google+.

So what does this mean for business?  We are past the early-jump-ins and quickly moving to the all-right-alreadies for continued growth.  The early-jump-ins are the folks who used social media the most in the early days, but also quickly become bored.  The second group of joiners can become the most loyal with the all-right-alreadies and last-ins using sporadically. Joiners are generally not initiators.

Business culture is similar to an individual regarding response and involvement with new products and services.  Some business have not embraced social media as of yet and others are into social media marketing in a big way.

If social media is entering the next phase, what does this mean for you and your business?

You need to cultivate your followers and fans now.  You need to work on engagement more than gaining new followers and fans.  You should expect a slowdown of new followers and fans in the coming quarters.  Provide value to your existing followers and fans through listening and be responsive.

There is a wealth of information on product life cycle and product maturity. If you are not familiar with the concept, spend some time educating yourself on these tried and true formulas for growth and eventual slow down of new products and services.

@social_dynamics

Social Media and Use by Local Businesses

Advice to Small Business on Social Media – Part 1

Advice to Small Business on Social Media – Part 2

Small businesses can take advantage of the exciting interaction that social media can offer while overcoming the concern of time constraints, misconceptions and the sense of overwhelm that causes inertia. Tackle social media in 3 stages with 6 great strategies.

Why Social Media Works for Local Businesses – Referral Marketing – Part 2 of 6

How local businesses can work social media to take word-of-mouth advertising to a whole new level by exploring reviews and continued customer interaction.

Recruiters use social media to find new candidates while job-seekers work the room to network and find new positions

Recruitment – Finding the Passive Candidate

Using social media for your next search will increase your odds of finding that great candidate. And, most importantly, it doesn’t take much money or any at all! If your company has a presence on LinkedIn, it’s easy to add the position in the “what are you working on” section.

Why Social Media Works for Recruiters – Part 5 of 6

Recruiters use social media to get clients and candidates. Here are some things to consider and make sure you set up in your social media planning.

Non-profits can effectively increase donations by working social media

What’s a Non-Profit To Do?

Every non-profit can stretch marketing dollars with social media.

Why Social Media Works for Non-Profits Part 4 of 6

Non-profits take on social media to address an audience where their cost to get a donation is just the time to interact. Here are a variety of choices and considerations for the non-profit getting into social networking.

Realtors and house-hunters take to social media

Real Estate and Social Networking – Part I

For realtors so much of their business is referrals. That is social networking. Interact with buyers and sellers in social media.

Real Estate and Social Media Marketing – Part II

What is the difference between networking and marketing? The difference is in the interaction.

House Hunting Reaches New Level iPhone Real Estate Listings

You are out and about in the neighborhood you are interested in moving AND you have the iPhone app from Realtor.com.

Communities use social media to tap into audience to increase awareness

Why Social Media Works for Communities – Using Facebook – Part 6 of 6

How to address concerns of social media by communities in order to gain the tremendous benefits of sharing and awareness.

We hope you enjoyed our tour down memory lane of past posts. Now we look forward to the next series. We never know what will inspire us. Change is coming at us so amazingly fast and it’s impossible for the best of pros to keep up in all facets equally well. We hope you’ll reach out and suggest what you’d like to learn more about. We’ll continue to share what we learn and give our best guidance.

@social_dynamics

Core to what we look for in meaningful blog posts are the instructional ones that teach us how to accomplish something specific. We’ll search ourselves for solutions and often don’t see what we are looking for. As we solve the puzzles, we figure we can’t be the only ones with these problems. Herewith, many tips, tricks and solutions we have discovered and would like to share:

CreativeCommons.org

CreativeCommons offers you a way to have a copyright on your material that allows others to virally share you work with others with permissions of your choice.

Favicon – That cool itty bitty icon in the address bar

Learn how to create a favicon for your site. A favicon (short for favorites icon) is a 16 x16 pixel square that is created as a png file and then converted to an .ico file.

Only 5% of My Connections are using SlideShare

SlideShare has great potential as a LinkedIn application to provide your presentations to your contacts and the public. Make a powerful impression with your Powerpoint.

Customer Retention of Your Email Newsletters

If you send email as a marketer, this format still remains one of the most compelling methods of sending your message to your loyal audience. Make sure you offer an Update Profile/Unsubscribe that has the flexibility to change an email address!

Build Your Privacy Policy

Implementing a Privacy Policy is an important part of protecting consumer personal data. Protect your company’s data, business and reputation. Inform consumers what data is collected, how it is used and how consumers can correct information.

7 Criteria E-Commerce Merchants Need to Meet

7 criteria every ecommerce merchant needs to provide their consumers at their website to show their payment processor that they are responsible businesses.

When You Send Email Are You Observing the CAN SPAM Act?

81% of emailers need to become aware of the CAN-SPAM Act and comply to avoid penalties. Steps to take include correct “From” and “Subject” lines, identification of advertiser, and opt-out functionality.

Workaround for Label-Making in Microsoft Word with Excel Database

Here’s a workaround to get Titles into your Address block when merging Microsoft Word with an Excel database to make labels. Help was no help. Often you have to figure it out on your own. Hope this helps you and that you’ll share your workarounds with us.

Get Blog Subscribers by Email – the Easy Way

If you are doing your blog in WordPress, here’s an easy way to offer your blog posts to your readers in a very easy way and one that they might prefer: email.

Canonical Tags – What are they and should you use them?

By adding the canonical tag, pages are treated the same and the popularity of the page is not diluted by the search engines.

Beyond the Big 4 – Flickr Digg Delicious

After you’ve developed your routine on the Big 4 social media programs of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs, moving beyond to Flickr, Digg and Delicious offers important benefits to expand your audience.

Make Sure to Back Up your Facebook and Other Social Media Efforts

One-third of data is lost to user error, let alone hacker attempts. What would you do if you lost your Facebook photos, videos, friends list, notes, events, links and statuses? Choose a secure backup system.

3 Phases of Social Media – Build, Promote and Nurture

Social media provides tremendous opportunity to expand a business corporate presence and patience and persistence will pay off.

Social Media Policies – Make it Goal for 2011 and Create a Budget

Social media is ever evolving while policies become quite static. What are your plans for a Social Media Policy in 2011?

The #1 Email Marketing Mistake and How to Fix It – Easily

A large majority of email systems don’t have a way to change an email address. They only allow consumers to Unsubscribe. What winds up happening is that we do just that.

How To Do A Sticky-Post (in WordPress)

How to fix a first blog post at the top of your WordPress blog. Called a “sticky” post, here are some instructions.

Not all Web Browsers are Created Equal

I learned to check each of the browsers after uploading the site and making any changes. What looks perfect in Firefox may not even be on the screen in IE.

Audio Files into Facebook – Yes You Can

Facebook does not accept audio files, most likely because it is looking for video file extensions such as wmv (windows media video) and not mp3 files.

Most companies build loyal customers one at a time and over time.  Someone following you or liking you is not a loyal customer. You first have to attract folks to your social media sites and giveaways can certainly do that.  Are they truly potential customers and will they become loyal customers?

Loyal customers are repeat customers and folks that tout your company to others.  A valued Facebook fan should be similar.  They may find you through a promotion, like you on Facebook and try your product.  Are they recommending you and sharing their experience with others on Facebook?

Do some of your remember signing a log to receive special promotion flyers from a local boutique via postal mail?  Mail flyers and then online registration was simply the way of keeping your customers informed of newly arrived shipments and store sales.

Look at The Home Depot’s Facebook site.  http://www.facebook.com/homedepot The Home Depot has less than 400,000 fans, which does not seem to be that many – yet.

Their Facebook site has a landing page, so go to the Wall.  The engagement with this company and their fans is amazing.  Sharing photos, success stories, offering tips and asking questions elicits numerous postings, comments and Liking the posts.  One of the questions is “If you were marooned on a desert island and could only take 3 tools with you, what would you choose and why?” 309 comments.  What fun.

The Home Depot offers Facebook specials and a Buy Now button or a link to a specific URL address during a seasonal campaign.  This is the newest method of having customers sign up for postal mail flyers and online registration for emails.  Not a one time promotion, but ongoing insider offerings.

The Home Depot is building a loyal fan base using a mixture of fun, informative tips, insider specials, local community activities and non-profit efforts.

None of this is new marketing-wise, just a new platform.

LinkedIn is today’s powerful networking center for professionals who can find prospects inside groups, and give and get recommendations while sharing presentations, Twitter and blog feeds.

Building out your LinkedIn profile

If you are looking for a job, job recruiters are using LinkedIn in a big way. Try to use a keyword for the job title you seek in your Current position description. Expand on your Basic Information and build out your Profile.

Building out your Company LinkedIn profile

Build a Company Profile to become a Service Provider in LinkedIn. Ask colleagues and clients to recommend you. Build your reputation by participating in Groups and answering questions.

LinkedIn – Working the Room

LinkedIn has many of the traditional benefits of attending a conference and few unique advantages all to itself. When you attend a conference and you meet someone, you share who you are, what you do, what company you are with and why you are attending the conference. This is your LinkedIn profile. With LinkedIn it is so much easier to send an invitation to get and stay connected.

Have you had your LinkedIn Intervention?

LinkedIn is a place for you to be you, at your best and engaging.

Job Searching through LinkedIn

When recruiters who work either for an individual company or an executive search firm are looking for candidates, one of the first places they will look is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Expert Status

As a LinkedIn expert, be found by prospects, add value to your reputation and visibility to your company. Millions of LinkedIn professionals see your expertise. With a little time, the rewards of enrichment in networking and business opportunities are well worthwhile.

Can Anyone Answer LinkedIn Questions?

You just might be surprised at who you are able to help and who you can meet and isn’t that what LinkedIn is all about? Have you answered any questions on LinkedIn?

Facebook – the social network too big to ignore that has attracted business who have made successes out of Fan Pages

How we keep in touch – Facebook

Like just about every other person I have a Facebook page. I needed to have a Facebook page because I have a business page, but I was never planning on doing anything with my personal page. Then my family found me….

Guest Blog – Advertising on Facebook – Insider tips

The lack of competition for advertising space on Facebook makes Facebook today as ripe for opportunity as Google was 6 or 7 years ago.

Managing Your Facebook Expectations

The other night I had dinner with some friends and social media came up in conversation – specifically Facebook.

Facebook For Business – Ask These 5 Questions

Not so many connections? Maybe you are not doing enough. Facebook is not the same as “Build it and They Will Come.”

Lessons Learned Neighborhood Facebook Site – Connecting

Our neighbors are looking for a way to connect with each other. The neighborhood board has done an excellent job of communicating with the residents, but mostly in a talking at manner.

Lessons Learned Neighborhood Facebook Site – Defining Issues

Not everyone is familiar with Facebook and those that were, did not have much experience beyond personal profiles.

Lessons Learned Neighborhood Facebook Site – Privacy

How neighborhood associations respect the privacy of neighborhood residents balanced against connecting through comments and photos of neighborhood events on a Facebook site.

Lessons Learned Neighborhood Facebook Site – Promoting and Activity

Our Facebook growth will be like many others, one neighbor at a time through one-on-one connections.

Twitter is the social media of the moment

Why Tweetup? What’s In It for Your Business?

A Tweetup is a great way to get like-minded people together for social interaction that may or may not get to a physical location to participate.

Your Twitter Policy: Who Will You Follow?

Make good choices about who you follow back. Build a Twitter and social media policy to guide staff on topics and types of followers to choose and avoid.

Twitter is About Engagement. Enrichment. Expansion of Horizons. What’s Your Following Policy?

You can definitely continue to get more out of Twitter by following more people. Several tools help you manage your Twitter experience so you aren’t overwhelmed.

Hitting the Follow 2000 Twitter Wall

The Twitter rule to not follow more than 10% of those who follow you once you reach 2000 can be a nuisance to maintain. It can certainly be a big surprise when you don’t expect it. Plan ahead to keep your ratios in line for less inconvenience.

Learn How To Set Up and Run a Twitter Account for your Business

Shannon Evan’s The Definitive Guide to Twitter is the perfect how-to, delivering a step-by-step approach for businesses to build and administer Twitter.

Using Twitter for your Job Search

Add Twitter to your job search activities to increase your network, review job listings and expand your knowledge about your desired career.

Corporate Execs who Tweet Can Add Great Value to Their Brand

Executives need to think carefully about what they want to reveal and share on Twitter. Their voice can boost brand image, giving it rich character.

@social_dynamics

Social Media Success Stories

Let’s face it. We all want to learn from the successes of others, hoping that knowledge might spark us to take actions that could increase our own success. Here are several posts discussing how some have found success in social media.

OMG – What? return on no investment!?

Yes, it’s possible to get terrific response with your first attempt at interaction in social media. It’s exciting when it happens, driving home the potential. In general, most may not find success with such speed. It makes the case that a little effort goes a long way.

Intuit’s social media campaign drives conversion on par with its transaction sites

Intuit’s Social Media Success Story: Respond to your target’s pain points, be helpful, track your messages in a focused manner and you too might see social media success.

Twitter Saves the Day

While we focus on helping businesses in social media, we can’t help but take note of personal success stories. Twitter user gets help from her followers after bike accident. The power of Twitter makes a personal impact.

Social Media Success Stories

14 success stories that result in an increase in brand awareness, improved customer focus and service and growth in sales.

Core building blocks to every social media campaign for business are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and a blog. Presence for businesses on the 3 top-ranked sites is important to attract new audience, critical to tend to customer service and brand reputation management. Business needs to interact where their customers are talking. Here’s our take on each of these where great attention and planning should pay off in oh, so many ways, increasing customers, average order size, and loyalty.

Blogging gives your company the opportunity to share your vision and one, if not several, of the voices from the executive suite to technology, human resources, customer service and sales. The crown jewel of your social media platform should be a focus on your site’s blog for education, taking advantage to demonstrate leadership in your field, immediacy to discuss engaging trending topics, to respond and interact with prospects, customers, vendors and the public and to reflect the planning and strategy to achieve goals through better blogging.

One New Idea Per Blog

When I attend a seminar, my expectations are to leave with a minimum of one new idea that I can incorporate into my business. When you write a blog, do you think about that One New Idea that your readers will benefit from reading your blog?

What Makes a Great Blog Post: Top 5 Favorite Criteria

You must capture your audience’s attention quickly, capture their imagination and hopefully capture the action, reaction and interaction you seek. Learn 5 top criteria to consider when writing blogs.

Blog Vs. Newsletter

Take advantage of multiple ways to reach your audience the way they want to interact. Determine your audience for each and your appropriate content will follow. Reward with unique treatment for loyalty. Then choose tone, voice and delivery.

Auto-Blogging Through Content-Generator Tools

Pros and cons of Auto-Blogging: fresh content, but the right voice?

@social_dynamics

QR codes are quickly helping marketers interact with their prospects and customers through online and offline media. Consider all the many ways to reach out.

Commercials on Shaw Media in Canada with QR codes, those peculiar square designs that are popping up everywhere, are showing a 15-25% increase in brand interaction, according to Point of Sale. Interaction can mean downloading a coupon, donating to charity, or entering a contest, as well as purchasing. Home Depot, Lowe’s, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Schnuck Markets are some of the early TV advertisers deploying codes.

You may have wondered about these curious little images. Two-thirds of smart phone users have seen one, according to eMarketer. Places range from magazines, newspapers, direct mail, catalogs, brochures, store windows, trucks, convention banners, business cards and even on clothing and TV commercials. The QR code graphic can be scanned by smart phones that have downloaded the appropriate app. Scanning the image with the app sends the user to a URL that can be a website, Fan Page, video, specific blog post, sign-up page or a myriad of ever-increasing creative landings.

You can build one for free at many sites like www.qurify.com, but critical to remember is that the URL you scan will be optimized for the mobile experience. Abandonment can run up to 90% because sites aren’t optimized for the smart phone screen. Don’t make this mistake.

One-third of smart phone users have used a QR code. Of those, 53% got a coupon, 52% got more information and 23% have made a purchase, according to eMarketer.

Some great ways to use QR codes include:

• Realtor Open Houses (download list of locations to phone) and yard signs
• Installation instructions
• Directions to business
• Getting a quote
• Personal LinkedIn profile on bsns card
• Free downloads like MP3 or eBooks
• Related products and services
• Full catalogs
• Customer questionnaires
• Reviews
• Paperless event program
• Travel industry (hotels)
• Product packaging (wineries using them)

More ideas…

QR codes at Best Buy lead to product reviews. Museums can provide more information on historical objects and paintings. Libraries can provide help.

By the end of 2011, all airline carriers will be required to provide QR coded boarding passes. Author Jeff Korhan suggests saving a copy to the phone, not to depend on cell connections. I’d add to that to keep your battery charged.

Tracking Results

Bit.ly shortening allows you the opportunity not only to make your QR codes, but to also track them. Those analytics will give you insight into traffic and allow lots of different tests.

QR Code Resource

• Realtors: Clixbrix.com
• Sharing: Likify
• Social QR Code
• Qrcode.goodsurvey.com

QR Code Generators

• Tagem.com
• Youscan.me
• Kaywa
• Datamatrix
• Kerem Eerkan

QR App Readers

• AT&T Code Scanner
• ScanLife
• i-nigma (iPhone)
• Barcode Scanner (Android)
• Red Laser
• Qrafter
• Microsoft Tag

Analytics

• BeQRious
• Mobio
• Bit.ly
• MyQR.co
• AVMore
• Goo.gl
• QR Mirror
• Tappinn
• QReate & Track
• Qwiqr.com
• ScanLife
• i-nigma 3G Vision
• QRMe
• Paperlinks
• SPARQcode

Delivr’s platform offers stats by hour, day, location

Get the t-shirt.

Seriously, you can get t-shirts with your QR code on them.

Follow the Twitter Hash Code: #QRCode

Think about all you can do with 7,089 characters to share: texts, hyperlinks, telephone numbers, SMS messages, and to generate an email, contact entry (vCard) or calendar event (vCalendar).

Encourage your visitors to play a video, download an app, check in at Foursquare, update a Twitter status, like you on Facebook (likify.com) or get a map with directions.

Get creative: QR codes can be temporary tattoos and cake frosting. Libraries can set up scavenger hunts.

Get stats on QR codes:

ScanLife 2011 Report

Mobio’s Naked Facts Report

@social_dynamics

Large and small companies can benefit from large and small efforts to provide best-in-class customer service. The rewards, both small and large, with consistent effort can be accumulative and measurable over time.

Think what it costs you to acquire a new customer. Now think about what it costs when one of your customers tells about their good experience with you. You have got to like the cost of a new customer that comes from word of mouth. Free.

It makes some sense to put some time and maybe a little investment into making sure that most, if not all, of your customers have the best of all experiences. From the smallest, creative gestures, to an overall mission to your own testing and surveys of your customer experience by your own staff, a stem-to-stern review should be worth every moment spent in rewards and loyalty.

Even the smallest of gestures can resonate with consumers. We had dinner at Mykonos, a Greek restaurant in Tarpon Springs, Florida. The food and services were very good. What knocked my socks off was the crowning touch. We didn’t order dessert, but the waitress just brought out a plate with some thinly sliced apple, drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon. No charge. A delightful presentation. Did that small gesture increase her tip? You bet it did. It brought a smile to our faces and made the experience unforgettable. The benefit goes beyond a tip. I’ve become a loyal fan and evangelist for their restaurant and I have told and will tell others about how they went the extra mile.

With most companies these days, you often get lost in endless loops of voicemail and never reach a real person. I had occasion to try to reach someone at Gevalia.  Not only did I reach real people, but they followed up with me to make sure that I got all the help I needed. In this day and age, I was blown away by their customer service staff and deeply appreciative. I will always have warm fuzzies for Gevalia and their staff. I am very impressed with a company that puts these measures in place. To me, these efforts are worthy of sky-high loyalty.

This past Mother’s Day I had a wonderful experience with ProFlowers because both my mother and mother-in-law were impressed with their flower deliveries, presentation, and duration of the arrangement. I feel that ProFlowers made us look good with some not-very-easily impressed ladies. That goes a long way with me. Completely unprompted, they each expressed their pleasure and comments. Who do you think I’m going to order all my flowers from? Not the company that gave me a terrible experience on a previous Mother’s Day when their call center was overwhelmed and their email response was nil. It continued through the Mother’s Day weekend. The frustration level was such that it’s not likely I would order from them again. However, it’s very likely that I could be wooed back with follow-up attention and special offers. How little the cost would be to reach out to a previous customer with a small amount of personalized TLC? I’d wager that a little attention could increase retention and re-acquisition rates for less than the cost of new customers.

Take a look at your own processes. Go through the experience of a customer yourself. Talk to your customers. Build a team to go through the customer touch-points and reevaluate these experiences on a regular basis. Survey your customers periodically and build a process to respond to issues. You are bound to reap rewards for your time and trouble.

@social_dynamics

Jeffrey Hayzlett, charming cowboy-cum-marketing raconteur and author of The Mirror Test shares social media marketing dos and don’ts. We both agree companies need to jump in. The water is fine.

We do both agree that companies need to develop a policy for their employees and outside agents that outlines the boundaries of messages. Like any good press agent, social media mavens need to toe the company line on new product releases and reputation management.

Great execs who tweet can give brand personality and a conscience according to Bruce Philip in Twitter Tips for Executives. They aren’t the pitch person for the company. They share their wisdom and vision while revealing a more personal, even humorous perspective of the view from the top. They communicate well like the pros that they are. The best exec tweeters engage in the process often enough to build a following, establishing and maintaining relationships.

Followers will appreciate executives who truly “get it” and participate, not preach. As Philip’s says, you absolutely don’t want this to happen – that “We just feel like they have walked in a room to make an announcement and then left.”

Check out ExecTweets or @JeffreyHayzlett to follow a stream of well-known executives on Twitter. “Lurking” to see what they talk about should give you ideas on what you may or may not want to share.

@social_dynamics

Yes, nearly 28% of college students plan to seek employment using LinkedIn. However, have you thought of how you might use Twitter in your search?

Use the Twitter search function with keywords to match your search. Terms like “jobs in Seattle,” “software engineer jobs,” or “jobs at AT&T” may all kick off your search.

Search by company, field, job type and region. Then follow Twitterers in your results who look like they can help by looking at the content of their tweets, their associated URL, who they follow and who follows them.

Build a list of several like we did at http://twitter.com/#/list/Social_Dynamics/job-search. All the ones we mention in this post are in our list and you can follow ours if you like.  Or build your own and you’ll be able to revisit this stream of conversations whenever you like. Take a look at @MonsterCareers and @CareerBuilder for more good ones to follow.

Take a look at @indeed, @simplyhired or @jobshouts to cruise through broader-based general career tweets.

Looking over @microjobs which tweets out requests by recruiters to job seekers, and @TweetMyJobs, which talks about what recruiters are doing, reveals what recruiters and companies who are hiring are doing. Hashtags like #Tweetmyjob reveal streams of job conversations.

Check out Twellow, WeFollow and JustTweetIt to find others in your desired career to meet and engage in conversation.

Read what is on the minds of top executives with @exectweets.

Have you used Twitter to look for jobs? What hashtag(s) or Twitter accounts(s) were of help?

Let us know and we’ll share a follow up post.

@social_dynamics