Well more stats coming your way. What does this all mean? Go checkout
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=3212295
I will make a prediction now. Bye Bye MySpace, and I am being to see a trend for Twitter which is not rosy. It is looking more and more like Twitter is a fad and will fade. Why, well the age demographics keep going lower and lower and what is the one thing we know about teenagers? The one thing is we know they are fickle. Today it is Twitter tomorrow it is enhanced features for SMSing technologies. Let’s face it – Twitter is just a viewable list of text messages without pictures or sound. “Pictures” are we not a image driven consumer race? Are we so shallow we only really want to read 140 spaces made up of less than half words that only drive us to other places to get our complete fill of images, sounds and full bodied words built around a well constructed sentence?
Maybe I am wrong.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Getting the Word OUT!!!
Now that you have your account or accounts ready to go, you are probably wondering how in the world do I let the world know I have something to offer them! Well, this answer is easy for today. Next time we will dive into some more sophisticated ways such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing. For now let us stay with what you can do today, right now. This involves using tools you already know and love. O.k. well maybe just maybe you don't love them, but have been forced to utilize them because of our ever evolving society’s marriage with technology. Maybe you long for the days of the Pony Express or snail mail. Or maybe you long for the good ole days of sending Morris code or better yet smoke signals. If you prefer anyone of these I have just mentioned - you might just be a red nec..... O.k. I'm sorry I put you through that. But hey this is my blog! So get over it. Just kidding, but seriously dude chill!
O boy where were we before I took us on a little bitty tangent? Oh yea, getting the word out about what is on your mind about your business.
How about Word of mouth - easy, effective and could be absolutely FREE! Spreading the word about your social media identity is much like spreading the word about any business. The message has to be relevant and ring loud and clear to the recipient before they will store it, use it and then tell someone else. Viral marketing I believe is what it is called. You might also be able to squeeze the idea out that this is a bit of a guerilla or grass roots marketing tactic/strategy. At any rate, this is a viable way to get your word out.
How about networking? Yes yes I know this is a bit like word of mouth, but with a twist. When you go to events you usually meet people right, give them your 30 second elevator “self advertisement“ and then lay the big enchilada on them. It’s called a "BUSINESS CARD". Wow this is a small "take with them" billboard. Just think, you have now just promoted yourself, your endeavor, and now they will have a billboard to follow your link to your Social Media business site. Wow what a novel idea. Yes thank you thank you thank you very much. Yes I know. Today’s business cards should at least have your name, phone number, e-mail, website, and at least one of your social media sites listed on it.
O.k. ready for another “hold onto your seats now cause your mind is about to be blown”! shhhh be very quite cause I don't want this to get out.............o.k. what about.....well maybe I really should not say anything..............o.k. o.k.............using your other social media Sites to help promote your NEW and IMPROVED social media site. I know genius right? Man I love it when I do this! Doesn’t this sound very very familiar to you.....think back to the word "linking". Have you got it? Great! Man, you had me worried there for a bit. That is right; linking all of your appropriate social media sites together is a form of advertising. You already have followers, so get them in the “know” and they can help spread the wonderful word about you as well.
Wow we are almost done for today, all we have is one more idea to go. It is the oldest form of communicating (at least when it comes to the Internet). It is called "e-Mail". Yes, I realize some of you gen x'ers and millenniums may not really understand this term. Think of it as SMS, MMS, IM, tweeting, etc using properly constructed sentences and full letter words.
Using e-Mail is still a great way to communicate with the world. You can now reach out to those whom you can’t see face-to-face, are not on facebook, MySpace etc., don’t have texting on their cell phone, maybe they don’t even have a cell phone, don’t use IM (or even know what it is) or use any other more advanced way to communicate. E-Mail is so universal now that even a monkey has an e-Mail account set-up. To take full advantage of this form of communications make sure to include your social media widgets (RSS, Facebook, BLOG, Linkedin etc.) when e-Mailing your carefully crafted marketing message.
The above ideas are relatively easy and very cost effective if not FREE (depending on your resource allocations). These forms are well established in the fabric for everyday life now and many of those you reach out to will not be over whelmed by the technology. On top of this, you will be delivering to them relevant content, free of charge and on a timely basis. You are putting the control into their hands to customize their enter action with you. I would suggest you don’t just use one tool, but fill your bag with as many ways as possible since not everyone is going to be watching the same show on the same channel.
O boy where were we before I took us on a little bitty tangent? Oh yea, getting the word out about what is on your mind about your business.
How about Word of mouth - easy, effective and could be absolutely FREE! Spreading the word about your social media identity is much like spreading the word about any business. The message has to be relevant and ring loud and clear to the recipient before they will store it, use it and then tell someone else. Viral marketing I believe is what it is called. You might also be able to squeeze the idea out that this is a bit of a guerilla or grass roots marketing tactic/strategy. At any rate, this is a viable way to get your word out.
How about networking? Yes yes I know this is a bit like word of mouth, but with a twist. When you go to events you usually meet people right, give them your 30 second elevator “self advertisement“ and then lay the big enchilada on them. It’s called a "BUSINESS CARD". Wow this is a small "take with them" billboard. Just think, you have now just promoted yourself, your endeavor, and now they will have a billboard to follow your link to your Social Media business site. Wow what a novel idea. Yes thank you thank you thank you very much. Yes I know. Today’s business cards should at least have your name, phone number, e-mail, website, and at least one of your social media sites listed on it.
O.k. ready for another “hold onto your seats now cause your mind is about to be blown”! shhhh be very quite cause I don't want this to get out.............o.k. what about.....well maybe I really should not say anything..............o.k. o.k.............using your other social media Sites to help promote your NEW and IMPROVED social media site. I know genius right? Man I love it when I do this! Doesn’t this sound very very familiar to you.....think back to the word "linking". Have you got it? Great! Man, you had me worried there for a bit. That is right; linking all of your appropriate social media sites together is a form of advertising. You already have followers, so get them in the “know” and they can help spread the wonderful word about you as well.
Wow we are almost done for today, all we have is one more idea to go. It is the oldest form of communicating (at least when it comes to the Internet). It is called "e-Mail". Yes, I realize some of you gen x'ers and millenniums may not really understand this term. Think of it as SMS, MMS, IM, tweeting, etc using properly constructed sentences and full letter words.
Using e-Mail is still a great way to communicate with the world. You can now reach out to those whom you can’t see face-to-face, are not on facebook, MySpace etc., don’t have texting on their cell phone, maybe they don’t even have a cell phone, don’t use IM (or even know what it is) or use any other more advanced way to communicate. E-Mail is so universal now that even a monkey has an e-Mail account set-up. To take full advantage of this form of communications make sure to include your social media widgets (RSS, Facebook, BLOG, Linkedin etc.) when e-Mailing your carefully crafted marketing message.
The above ideas are relatively easy and very cost effective if not FREE (depending on your resource allocations). These forms are well established in the fabric for everyday life now and many of those you reach out to will not be over whelmed by the technology. On top of this, you will be delivering to them relevant content, free of charge and on a timely basis. You are putting the control into their hands to customize their enter action with you. I would suggest you don’t just use one tool, but fill your bag with as many ways as possible since not everyone is going to be watching the same show on the same channel.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Do what I say, not as I do..............
Well well well, seems I have made a snafu (calculated or not). Can you guess what this snafu is? I will give you a hint - consistency. Anybody? Brueler Brueler has anyone seen.............O.k you need another hint? How about – time? I think we are getting closer ........ding ding ding I think we have a winner!!!!! All Right! For all of your efforts you win a big screen TV for your next dream. O.k. o.k. the answer is providing a consistent and timely posting. It has been a bit over two weeks since my last posting and I bet you forgot all about me - well almost. Point is, Social Media Marketing is just like every other form of advertising. If you are not in front of your audience they will forget you or not trust you with their time. Especially when they can click just around the corner and find someone else doing the same thing you are.
This brings up a good question – “do you have to have the same consistent campaign message over extended periods of time and does it really matter”? Well, it is a complicated question. I am going to extend a “yes” and a “no” answer. I know it is a bit confusing, but there really is a “yes” answer and a “no” answer. “Yes” you need to provide a consistent “Brand” message over time and on a consistent timely basis. “No” you do not need to provide the same campaign type of message all of the time. Think of “Nike”, they provide a brand image of athletic footwear that will help you perform better. Their campaign messaging changes depending on the sport they focus on in advertisements.
Check out “Assessing the long-term impact of a consistent advertising campaign on consumer memory.” http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/advertising/174156-1.html. This article is a bit long, but it does provide some pretty good insight into “consistent advertising”. If you do not read the article, at least remember this from the article:
Consumer recall and recognition will be better for a brand whose schema has been established with a continuous advertising campaign compared with a new brand using a similar message strategy.
This is very important for all of us trying to brand our product. It is not good to steal someone else’s idea and try to make it our own. Yes, there may be some elements, but be very careful. Just take a look at the Duracell Bunny vs. the Energizer Bunny. Think about this for a bit. Is it the Duracell or Energizer bunny???? Think hard. It is actually both. The point is Eveready (owner of Energizer) captured the concept from Duracell (legally of course), but confusion grew with the public and Duracell actually believes about 40% of those who see the advertisements think of Duracell rather than Energizer.
Without consistency you will
• Slowly lose customer trust and credibility
• Confuse your customers by appearing undecided (make up your mind!)
• Come across as not having been in business very long
Consistency is very very very important!
Let me know if you agree or not.
This brings up a good question – “do you have to have the same consistent campaign message over extended periods of time and does it really matter”? Well, it is a complicated question. I am going to extend a “yes” and a “no” answer. I know it is a bit confusing, but there really is a “yes” answer and a “no” answer. “Yes” you need to provide a consistent “Brand” message over time and on a consistent timely basis. “No” you do not need to provide the same campaign type of message all of the time. Think of “Nike”, they provide a brand image of athletic footwear that will help you perform better. Their campaign messaging changes depending on the sport they focus on in advertisements.
Check out “Assessing the long-term impact of a consistent advertising campaign on consumer memory.” http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/advertising/174156-1.html. This article is a bit long, but it does provide some pretty good insight into “consistent advertising”. If you do not read the article, at least remember this from the article:
Consumer recall and recognition will be better for a brand whose schema has been established with a continuous advertising campaign compared with a new brand using a similar message strategy.
This is very important for all of us trying to brand our product. It is not good to steal someone else’s idea and try to make it our own. Yes, there may be some elements, but be very careful. Just take a look at the Duracell Bunny vs. the Energizer Bunny. Think about this for a bit. Is it the Duracell or Energizer bunny???? Think hard. It is actually both. The point is Eveready (owner of Energizer) captured the concept from Duracell (legally of course), but confusion grew with the public and Duracell actually believes about 40% of those who see the advertisements think of Duracell rather than Energizer.
Without consistency you will
• Slowly lose customer trust and credibility
• Confuse your customers by appearing undecided (make up your mind!)
• Come across as not having been in business very long
Consistency is very very very important!
Let me know if you agree or not.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Relevant Content and Linking
Are you ready to spread the “word”? Wonderful!
So you have at least one social media network account set-up and you have determined your resource allocation. The big question is – “is this the right SM site(s) or do you need more? Will they reach your target audience(s)?
For B2B, Linkedin is the premier SM site right now. For B2C, it could be Facebook, MySpace, hi5 etc. To help you pin down where you should focus your efforts take a look through the following links. I am providing a few, as the data is a bit different in each. Overall they will provide you with a good sampling of statistics to help you determine where your audience may be.
http://socialmediastatistics.wikidot.com/age http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/all_social_networking_statistics/index.html
http://socialmediaatwork.com/category/statistics/
Suggestion holds you should sign up for Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. These three sites will provide you the opportunity to reach your intended audiences and they are some of the best known SM sites out there today. After setting up these accounts, create a “group” and have all internal leaders join the group. You will then need to post thought provoking topics which will entice the group members to respond.
Now all you need to do is link all of your SM sites together. Try to include all of your SM site icons on your main website and include them in your e-Mail as well. This by fare is the bare minimum.
Next start a Blog of your own with relevant and engaging content and include your other SM site icons here as well. Use your e-Mail to let your current customers know about your Blog and invite your industry specific contacts as well. Give your audience the opportunity to interact with your postings. Allow them to respond and if no one does, then you should respond in kind. Note: to keep your Blog relevant, you need to keep your audience engaged. This means providing relevant, timely and regular content updates. If you Blog once every week or so, this will not keep your audience coming back for more. People love to be information junkies and the only way to give them their fix, is to provide them their content on a “very” regular basis.
Remember if you link your SM sites up, you can easily write your blog and have your Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin pages pick up your most recent posting. Thus by linking your SM sites you can streamline your efforts to reach many locations very quickly. This saves you time and may reach some of your followers who are not on linkedin or Twitter.
So go forth and Blog “relevant content” to your heart is content. Let the world know who you are and give them something “FREE”. Remember everyone loves “FREE”! By providing something “FREE” you can still gather a lot of statistical information about your follower’s behavior. So they get something and you get something – it’s called a win-win situation.
Next time we will take up the subject of advertising your SM sites.
So you have at least one social media network account set-up and you have determined your resource allocation. The big question is – “is this the right SM site(s) or do you need more? Will they reach your target audience(s)?
For B2B, Linkedin is the premier SM site right now. For B2C, it could be Facebook, MySpace, hi5 etc. To help you pin down where you should focus your efforts take a look through the following links. I am providing a few, as the data is a bit different in each. Overall they will provide you with a good sampling of statistics to help you determine where your audience may be.
http://socialmediastatistics.wikidot.com/age http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/all_social_networking_statistics/index.html
http://socialmediaatwork.com/category/statistics/
Suggestion holds you should sign up for Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. These three sites will provide you the opportunity to reach your intended audiences and they are some of the best known SM sites out there today. After setting up these accounts, create a “group” and have all internal leaders join the group. You will then need to post thought provoking topics which will entice the group members to respond.
Now all you need to do is link all of your SM sites together. Try to include all of your SM site icons on your main website and include them in your e-Mail as well. This by fare is the bare minimum.
Next start a Blog of your own with relevant and engaging content and include your other SM site icons here as well. Use your e-Mail to let your current customers know about your Blog and invite your industry specific contacts as well. Give your audience the opportunity to interact with your postings. Allow them to respond and if no one does, then you should respond in kind. Note: to keep your Blog relevant, you need to keep your audience engaged. This means providing relevant, timely and regular content updates. If you Blog once every week or so, this will not keep your audience coming back for more. People love to be information junkies and the only way to give them their fix, is to provide them their content on a “very” regular basis.
Remember if you link your SM sites up, you can easily write your blog and have your Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin pages pick up your most recent posting. Thus by linking your SM sites you can streamline your efforts to reach many locations very quickly. This saves you time and may reach some of your followers who are not on linkedin or Twitter.
So go forth and Blog “relevant content” to your heart is content. Let the world know who you are and give them something “FREE”. Remember everyone loves “FREE”! By providing something “FREE” you can still gather a lot of statistical information about your follower’s behavior. So they get something and you get something – it’s called a win-win situation.
Next time we will take up the subject of advertising your SM sites.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Darn it I have done it again! I have found something something worth letting you know about and instead of writing my own piece, I have pasted it below. Enjoy!
10 Social Media Travel Tools
8:44 AM Friday March 6, 2009
by Alexandra Samuel
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/03/10_social_media_travel_tools.html
Travel budgets are under serious pressure right now. Trips that were once approved via rubber stamp now must pass through the Politburo Standing Committee to get a green light.
Thankfully, a host of social media tools can help you get the most out of every business trip you take and more clearly show ROI. They've certainly helped me get the most out of every hour I'm on the road. I run my own shop so getting approval isn't an issue for me, but using these tools to fill my travel time wisely means that I can travel less, spend more time with my family, and reduce the total carbon footprint of my flying. Best of all, packing a lot into each trip means that I return home with fresh knowledge, relationships and inspiration.
Here are 10 ways social media can help you travel less but do more:
1. Have network, will travel. Nurture a national or international network of contacts in the cities you visit on a recurring basis. Commit 15 minutes a day to instant business trips: Use Twitter to respond to an update from a former co-worker. Find an old colleague on Facebook and drop a short note to connect. Build and maintain your long-distance relationships and they'll be ready when you need them.
2. Do your homework. Set up your computer with an RSS reader that works offline (thanks to Google Gears, that now includes Google Reader). Fill up your reader with content from the sites of companies you'll be meeting on the road. Set your reader to offline mode, and use your flight time to catch up on background research.
3. Meet and greet. Check for topical events in the city you're visiting, before you commit to travel dates. Eventful and upcoming.org list conferences and professional gatherings in many cities.
4. Fill your dance card. Use LinkedIn, a professional networking site, to expand your network when you're in a new city. Use advanced search to set the location you're traveling to, and browse search results for current or prospective contacts. You can also search your destination city for fellow alumni and introduce yourself; many people are delighted to hear from alums of their alma mater.
5. Connect with fellow travelers. Don't limit your networking to people who live near your destination. Use TripIt or Dopplr to track your travel details and share them with friends and colleagues. When you're traveling to the same city as a fellow contact, these services will alert you to your chance to connect.
6. Grab that bulkhead. Use Seat Guru, which offers a map of airplane interiors on a huge range of models and carriers, to find the best seat on your flight. When you choose your seat using online check-in, aim for one with extra legroom (so you arrive well-rested) or an electrical outlet (so you can work in flight).
7. Pack your minutes. Use Google Maps to plot out your prospective meetings so that you can visualize all your meeting locations, and then schedule your appointments to minimize travel time and maximize meeting time. Either print out directions to carry with you, or use a GPS system to plot your routes on the fly; you'll find you can schedule more appointments when you don't need to allow extra time for getting lost.
8. Stay in touch. Use PhoneTag or another voicemail-to-email transcription service. When you're on the road, it can be hard to find a quiet place to listen to messages. With PhoneTag you can get notifications and messages via e-mail (great for iPhone or Blackberry users) or via SMS (for everybody else). If you're trying to juggle scheduling on the fly or worried about missing a call with someone you're supposed to meet with, transcription will make your travel much, much easier.
9. Capture the card. Use shoeboxed to scan and digitize the business cards you collect on the road. Or do it yourself with Evernote: use your iPhone to snap a picture of each card you collect, and Evernote will use character recognition to make it full-text searchable (and accessible from the web or your desktop).
10. Restock your network. When you meet new colleagues on the road, ask them how they prefer to connect and stay in touch: connect on LinkedIn? Follow each other on Twitter? Become friends on Facebook? Follow up by adding them to your networks when you return, and be sure to drop them a note to thank them for meeting.
You're now back at home with a network that's stronger than when you left. Use your social network presence to strengthen those new connections and make the most of your leads, and you can enjoy a break before it's time to hit the road again.
Any tools or tips I've forgotten that you find especially useful?
10 Social Media Travel Tools
8:44 AM Friday March 6, 2009
by Alexandra Samuel
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/03/10_social_media_travel_tools.html
Travel budgets are under serious pressure right now. Trips that were once approved via rubber stamp now must pass through the Politburo Standing Committee to get a green light.
Thankfully, a host of social media tools can help you get the most out of every business trip you take and more clearly show ROI. They've certainly helped me get the most out of every hour I'm on the road. I run my own shop so getting approval isn't an issue for me, but using these tools to fill my travel time wisely means that I can travel less, spend more time with my family, and reduce the total carbon footprint of my flying. Best of all, packing a lot into each trip means that I return home with fresh knowledge, relationships and inspiration.
Here are 10 ways social media can help you travel less but do more:
1. Have network, will travel. Nurture a national or international network of contacts in the cities you visit on a recurring basis. Commit 15 minutes a day to instant business trips: Use Twitter to respond to an update from a former co-worker. Find an old colleague on Facebook and drop a short note to connect. Build and maintain your long-distance relationships and they'll be ready when you need them.
2. Do your homework. Set up your computer with an RSS reader that works offline (thanks to Google Gears, that now includes Google Reader). Fill up your reader with content from the sites of companies you'll be meeting on the road. Set your reader to offline mode, and use your flight time to catch up on background research.
3. Meet and greet. Check for topical events in the city you're visiting, before you commit to travel dates. Eventful and upcoming.org list conferences and professional gatherings in many cities.
4. Fill your dance card. Use LinkedIn, a professional networking site, to expand your network when you're in a new city. Use advanced search to set the location you're traveling to, and browse search results for current or prospective contacts. You can also search your destination city for fellow alumni and introduce yourself; many people are delighted to hear from alums of their alma mater.
5. Connect with fellow travelers. Don't limit your networking to people who live near your destination. Use TripIt or Dopplr to track your travel details and share them with friends and colleagues. When you're traveling to the same city as a fellow contact, these services will alert you to your chance to connect.
6. Grab that bulkhead. Use Seat Guru, which offers a map of airplane interiors on a huge range of models and carriers, to find the best seat on your flight. When you choose your seat using online check-in, aim for one with extra legroom (so you arrive well-rested) or an electrical outlet (so you can work in flight).
7. Pack your minutes. Use Google Maps to plot out your prospective meetings so that you can visualize all your meeting locations, and then schedule your appointments to minimize travel time and maximize meeting time. Either print out directions to carry with you, or use a GPS system to plot your routes on the fly; you'll find you can schedule more appointments when you don't need to allow extra time for getting lost.
8. Stay in touch. Use PhoneTag or another voicemail-to-email transcription service. When you're on the road, it can be hard to find a quiet place to listen to messages. With PhoneTag you can get notifications and messages via e-mail (great for iPhone or Blackberry users) or via SMS (for everybody else). If you're trying to juggle scheduling on the fly or worried about missing a call with someone you're supposed to meet with, transcription will make your travel much, much easier.
9. Capture the card. Use shoeboxed to scan and digitize the business cards you collect on the road. Or do it yourself with Evernote: use your iPhone to snap a picture of each card you collect, and Evernote will use character recognition to make it full-text searchable (and accessible from the web or your desktop).
10. Restock your network. When you meet new colleagues on the road, ask them how they prefer to connect and stay in touch: connect on LinkedIn? Follow each other on Twitter? Become friends on Facebook? Follow up by adding them to your networks when you return, and be sure to drop them a note to thank them for meeting.
You're now back at home with a network that's stronger than when you left. Use your social network presence to strengthen those new connections and make the most of your leads, and you can enjoy a break before it's time to hit the road again.
Any tools or tips I've forgotten that you find especially useful?
Now that you have your one or more accounts set-up, it is time to talk about managing your resources in order to provide on time consistent valuable content.
While it is cheaper to utilize SM technology to reach out to others, there are many factors which need to be taken into account. Maintaining a public facing SM site could eat up a lot of resources. This is why you will need to pay close attention to your end goal and be as specific as possible in what you want to communicate. Doing this will help you streamline your efforts and make sure you are utilizing your resources effectively. Remember, SM utilization is no different than advertising. You need people to see your message and they need to see it several times before they will follow. Just because you build it – does not mean they will automatically follow. You have to be committed (not to a hospital) to a consistent approach. You will not build a consistent following if your posting is sporadic (once every 4 ,5,6 days). Once you have a mass following they will want to hear from you as much as possible. Give your customers what they want! Below are a few things to think about when allocating your resources.
The resource areas you will need to take into consideration.
1. Setting-up and managing the IT side of things: Who will do this, how many SM sites will be required to set-up? What about technical difficulties – who will contact support. Who will find out how to build a B2B or B2C customer facing page (uploading pictures etc)? These are all very important steps to consider as this will be the back bone of your SM service.
2. Once you have your IT taken care of, how often do you plan to post? Who will do the research necessary to provide relevant information? How up to date do you want or need your SM site/s to be?
3. Now that you have a posting frequency plan. Who will create the content to be posted? What “official company” guidelines do you have to make sure relevant content is provided? If you don’t have any guidelines, maybe you should think about creating some. The last thing you need to is to plagiarize and be caught. Talk about a credibility killer. Trust is very hard to earn, but very very very easy to loss!
4. Customer inquires/feedback: How will they be handled? Will you respond to them daily, every other day or when? If someone asks a question or makes a strong comment, they “really”do want to have a response. You should respond as quick as possible since their feedback will, or at least should be viewable to the public. The public is watching to see what you do. By not answering timely or providing a quality response, you could lose their trust as well.
5. You do not need to assign one person to each responsibility. You could create a collaborative team effort. This would cut down on the time needed at an individual level, thus allowing for a smaller time commitment from each participating team member. This would also provide a more effective way to manage and provide fantastic relevant content on a timely and consistent basis.
Hopefully you have enjoyed today’s lesson and your brain has received many quality questions to ponder. So sit down right now, put pen to paper and layout your content strategy plan.
Next time we will talk about creating content programs. Stay tuned to your RSS feed for Marketing/Social Media Tools.
While it is cheaper to utilize SM technology to reach out to others, there are many factors which need to be taken into account. Maintaining a public facing SM site could eat up a lot of resources. This is why you will need to pay close attention to your end goal and be as specific as possible in what you want to communicate. Doing this will help you streamline your efforts and make sure you are utilizing your resources effectively. Remember, SM utilization is no different than advertising. You need people to see your message and they need to see it several times before they will follow. Just because you build it – does not mean they will automatically follow. You have to be committed (not to a hospital) to a consistent approach. You will not build a consistent following if your posting is sporadic (once every 4 ,5,6 days). Once you have a mass following they will want to hear from you as much as possible. Give your customers what they want! Below are a few things to think about when allocating your resources.
The resource areas you will need to take into consideration.
1. Setting-up and managing the IT side of things: Who will do this, how many SM sites will be required to set-up? What about technical difficulties – who will contact support. Who will find out how to build a B2B or B2C customer facing page (uploading pictures etc)? These are all very important steps to consider as this will be the back bone of your SM service.
2. Once you have your IT taken care of, how often do you plan to post? Who will do the research necessary to provide relevant information? How up to date do you want or need your SM site/s to be?
3. Now that you have a posting frequency plan. Who will create the content to be posted? What “official company” guidelines do you have to make sure relevant content is provided? If you don’t have any guidelines, maybe you should think about creating some. The last thing you need to is to plagiarize and be caught. Talk about a credibility killer. Trust is very hard to earn, but very very very easy to loss!
4. Customer inquires/feedback: How will they be handled? Will you respond to them daily, every other day or when? If someone asks a question or makes a strong comment, they “really”do want to have a response. You should respond as quick as possible since their feedback will, or at least should be viewable to the public. The public is watching to see what you do. By not answering timely or providing a quality response, you could lose their trust as well.
5. You do not need to assign one person to each responsibility. You could create a collaborative team effort. This would cut down on the time needed at an individual level, thus allowing for a smaller time commitment from each participating team member. This would also provide a more effective way to manage and provide fantastic relevant content on a timely and consistent basis.
Hopefully you have enjoyed today’s lesson and your brain has received many quality questions to ponder. So sit down right now, put pen to paper and layout your content strategy plan.
Next time we will talk about creating content programs. Stay tuned to your RSS feed for Marketing/Social Media Tools.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
7 business models for linked data
This is 100% plagiarized and I give 100% of the creative content on “7 business models for linked data” to Chief Marketing Technologist by Scott Brinker at http://www.chiefmartec.com/. Sit back and enjoy the brain swell.
7 business models for linked data
Now that major companies are implementing linked data, and more marketing thought leaders are championing data as an outward-facing competitive advantage, the question I'm hearing more frequently is:
How do you turn data into revenue?
Creating, publishing, and maintaining data takes work. What are the economic incentives for companies to put in the effort?
Here's my take on 7 business models for data web initiatives:
I've organized these by how revenue is generated, from direct money-for-data to indirect branding programs.
Within each of these revenue models, there's also a secondary dimension of how the data is delivered, whether in raw form for others to leverage in their own applications or embedded into a pre-packaged application provided directly to end-users.
1. Subscription model. Some data will be valuable enough that you can charge people a subscription to access it. This model has been around for a while, but it will gain new life as linked data standards make it easier for people to consume and mash-up data in novel applications.
2. Advertising model. Advertising: the second oldest profession. Data-driven applications will have plenty of opportunity for contextual ads and sponsorships. One interesting twist will be advertisers who pay to include information in raw data feeds, data-layer ads if you will.
3. Authority model. If anyone can publish data on the web, how will you know what data is good? That problem will be an opportunity for third-party "authorities" to validate data — or do official reviews and certifications that are published as data — and charge for participation. Compliance services are related to this.
4. Affiliate model. Affiliate marketing programs generate over $6 billion/year in commissions and are a major source of transactions and leads for merchants such as Amazon.com. Embedding affiliate links in data, so that they are activated when surfaced into end-user applications, are a natural extension of this existing model.
5. Value-Add model. Useful data can be bundled with other services to make the overall solution more valuable. For example, think of the benchmarking data now included with Google Analytics. Access to data can also be offered earlier in the sales funnel, as a lead generation incentive.
6. Traffic model. As with Google Rich Snippets, data can be used to boost the visibility and ranking of sites in major and vertical search engines. This is data-enhanced search engine optimization (SEO++) to increase traffic. Nickname: the "data for nothing and links for free" model (apologies to Mark Knopfler).
7. Branding model. As Josh Jones-Dilworth said, "Data shapes conversations and markets." Data branding can use data — and the vocabularies that define and structure data — to position and promote a company's worldview and differentiation strategy.
Of course, there will be hybrid models that combine several of these approaches.
Particularly in the early days, most organizations will benefit from experimenting with linked data for traffic, branding, and a little value add. Their own value will be learning as much as anything. As the data web matures, and they become more experienced, they may embrace more direct revenue models.
But don't underestimate the importance of data branding. When it comes to establishing industry standard vocabularies and ontologies, there is a definite first-mover advantage.
For the entrepreneurs in this space, however, everything is fair game.
Can you think of other models? Are you willing to share?
7 business models for linked data
Now that major companies are implementing linked data, and more marketing thought leaders are championing data as an outward-facing competitive advantage, the question I'm hearing more frequently is:
How do you turn data into revenue?
Creating, publishing, and maintaining data takes work. What are the economic incentives for companies to put in the effort?
Here's my take on 7 business models for data web initiatives:
I've organized these by how revenue is generated, from direct money-for-data to indirect branding programs.
Within each of these revenue models, there's also a secondary dimension of how the data is delivered, whether in raw form for others to leverage in their own applications or embedded into a pre-packaged application provided directly to end-users.
1. Subscription model. Some data will be valuable enough that you can charge people a subscription to access it. This model has been around for a while, but it will gain new life as linked data standards make it easier for people to consume and mash-up data in novel applications.
2. Advertising model. Advertising: the second oldest profession. Data-driven applications will have plenty of opportunity for contextual ads and sponsorships. One interesting twist will be advertisers who pay to include information in raw data feeds, data-layer ads if you will.
3. Authority model. If anyone can publish data on the web, how will you know what data is good? That problem will be an opportunity for third-party "authorities" to validate data — or do official reviews and certifications that are published as data — and charge for participation. Compliance services are related to this.
4. Affiliate model. Affiliate marketing programs generate over $6 billion/year in commissions and are a major source of transactions and leads for merchants such as Amazon.com. Embedding affiliate links in data, so that they are activated when surfaced into end-user applications, are a natural extension of this existing model.
5. Value-Add model. Useful data can be bundled with other services to make the overall solution more valuable. For example, think of the benchmarking data now included with Google Analytics. Access to data can also be offered earlier in the sales funnel, as a lead generation incentive.
6. Traffic model. As with Google Rich Snippets, data can be used to boost the visibility and ranking of sites in major and vertical search engines. This is data-enhanced search engine optimization (SEO++) to increase traffic. Nickname: the "data for nothing and links for free" model (apologies to Mark Knopfler).
7. Branding model. As Josh Jones-Dilworth said, "Data shapes conversations and markets." Data branding can use data — and the vocabularies that define and structure data — to position and promote a company's worldview and differentiation strategy.
Of course, there will be hybrid models that combine several of these approaches.
Particularly in the early days, most organizations will benefit from experimenting with linked data for traffic, branding, and a little value add. Their own value will be learning as much as anything. As the data web matures, and they become more experienced, they may embrace more direct revenue models.
But don't underestimate the importance of data branding. When it comes to establishing industry standard vocabularies and ontologies, there is a definite first-mover advantage.
For the entrepreneurs in this space, however, everything is fair game.
Can you think of other models? Are you willing to share?
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